News

Take a walk in Berlin a century ago

A film of early-20th century life in the German capital so vivid it will feel like you’ve visited

Where the non-Christian Americans are

Christians abound but that does not make the US a Christian country

Japanese doll village

The Japanese village alive with dolls

An imaginative response to the end of rural life in Japan


Narendra Modi mask at a BJP rally

Why Narendra Modi is a bad choice for India

India is too internally diverse to privilege any single group within society, but Modi will try

An Hermes shoe in lights, photo by Sean Rocha

At the Hermès party in New York

I capture how Hermès sees the world but last night New York was invited into the world of Hermès

On the Mario Testino exhibit in Buenos Aires

In Mario Testino’s work everyone always looks like they’re having fun


Were the Turks behind the sarin gas attacks in Syria?

Obama publicly blamed Assad but Seymour Hersh contends Erdoğan was trying to force an attack

Susanita in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, 1914

A too-grown-up girl bearing a Diane Arbus expression a century ago on an Argentine beach

Dennis Hlynsky starlings video

Flying things as you have never seen them before

Tracing the patterns of birds and bugs results in something very cool and almost abstract


#Rwanda20yrs

An archive documenting the Rwandan genocide 20 years on, along with much else

Boat expedition possibly on Lake Titicaca, Peru, c1940s

On a lake in Peru, all the elements came together in a near perfect composition

A couple of unbelievably bad ideas

Exhilarating to watch, but profoundly ill advised


How I got to Libya one month after the embargo was lifted

Ten years ago the US lifted its embargo on Libya. I landed a month later. It was complicated

Sisi builds his regime

Joshua Stacher explains the violence and repression in Egypt

My favorite museum in Cairo damaged by a car bomb

Terror attack on Egyptian police HQ badly damages the Museum of Islamic Art, an overlooked marvel


98.1% of Egyptians vote for the Sisi constitution

By comparison, Mubarak only claimed 88.6% of Egyptians voted for him in his last election in 2005

Two constitutions, one triumph

Tunisia got it right with their new constitution while Egypt reverted to old authoritarian habits

Every flight in 24 hours

This video reveals flights, yes, but also population densities, wealth, and history


Hilton Als on Amiri Baraka and James Baldwin

Hilton Als met Amiri Baraka only once: at the James Baldwin tribute I directed at Lincoln Center

Dead, but right, in Beirut

Hezbollah can’t kill everyone in Lebanon who believes it should give up its weapons

Tattoo artist Duncan X

This wild video gives new meaning to the phrase ‘body of work.’


Interview with History by Oriana Fallaci, 1976

Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci lost the plot at the end but she was a wonder in her prime

Lou Reed, RIP: the luckiest man in rock

He was irascible to the end despite having a legendary career that far surpassed his talents

Why hatred is easier than reason

Passion — even when wrong — stirs more than reason, which is why prejudice is so powerful