National_Geographic_USA_-_December_2022

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 55



CAMP
A DV E N T U R E ,

DENMARK

TREE
THERAPY

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

O R S O LYA H A A R B E RG

Visitors ascend the
spiraling 150-foot-
high boardwalk in
the yellowing autumn
at Denmark’s Camp
Adventure to gain a
new perspective on
the forest southwest
of Copenhagen—
and, perhaps, on life
itself. “Forest bathing,”
among the woods’
most powerful and
least tangible bene-
fits, has been shown
to reduce stress,
improving mental and
physical well-being.



HUNZA,
PA K I S TA N

GLACIER
MATING
RITUAL

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

MATTHIEU PALEY

Ali Haider, 19, Najib
Khan, 20, and Atif Amin,
24, pose in pumpkin
masks trimmed
with goat hair during
the reenactment of
a glacier-mating cere-
mony on the Shispare
Glacier in Pakistan’s
Hunza Valley in
December 2021. The
ceremony, which locals
say last took place in
Hunza in the 1970s,
involves the collection
of ice from a “male”
and a “female” glacier,
which is deposited in
a hole in a shadowy
area of the mountains
in the hope that it gives
rise to a new ice flow
to irrigate the valley
below. The men, all
from Hunza, chose to
re-create a moment
from the full cere-
mony on the (female)
Shispare Glacier to pre-
serve the tradition for
future generations.

LLADOC, KOSOVO (LEFT), PRISTINA, KOSOVO (RIGHT)

YOUNG A Lada is enclosed Serbian forces on
KOSOVO MOVES in a glass box at a January 31, 1997.
memorial to early A decade of hostilities
FORWARD heroes of the Kosovo resulted in 78 days of
Liberation Army (KLA) NATO bombings
in Lladoc, Kosovo. of then Yugoslavia
The car was carrying in 1999. The Republic
KLA members Zahir of Kosovo declared
Pajaziti, Edmond its independence
Hoxha, and Hakif in 2008 and is now
Zejnullahu when it recognized by nearly
was ambushed by a hundred countries.

•P H O T O G R A P H S B Y J U S T Y N A M I E L N I K I E W I C Z

A musician prepares "It was both touching and inspiring to see the country,
for the inaugural
performance of the still in a deep mourning, processing its war traumas,
Kosovo Opera in Pris- while at the same time moving forward, swiftly
tina’s Palace of Youth becoming a modern European nation.
and Sports. Albanian-
majority Kosovo has —JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ
nearly 1.8 million peo-
ple and one of Europe’s
youngest populations;
more than half of its
citizens are under 30.

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 61



ZURICH,
SWITZERLAND

MAKING
FUEL FROM
THIN AIR

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

DAV I D E
MONTELEONE

A small refinery on
the roof of a laboratory
at ETH Zurich pulls car-
bon dioxide and water
directly from the air
and feeds them into
a reactor that concen-
trates solar radiation.
This generates extreme
heat, splitting the mol-
ecules and creating a
mixture that ultimately
can be processed into
kerosene or methanol.
Researchers hope this
system will eventually
produce market-ready,
carbon-neutral jet fuel.
One Swiss airline has
already announced
plans to use the fuel.



BLUE A SpaceX Falcon 9 says that the increased
CYPRESS LAKE, rocket, launched from frequency of launches
Cape Canaveral in the without fanfare “sug-
FLORIDA early hours of June 19, gests that we have
streaks above a stand crossed over into a
MAGICAL of bald cypress trees. new era where cosmic
MISSION IN This was the second missions are simply
THE SKY time in less than a year business as usual.”
that a SpaceX rocket
appeared in photog- •
rapher Mac Stone’s
frame while he was PHOTOGRAPH BY
shooting at night in a
remote swamp. Stone MAC STONE

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 65



MASAI MARA Photographed at with female allies.
N AT I O N A L night with an infra- These African pred-
R E S E RV E , red camera, a spotted ators, the largest
KEN YA hyena that scientists members of the hyena
nicknamed Palazzo family, weigh up to
IN HYENA submissively grins 190 pounds, and
CLANS, and lays her ears back females are on aver-
FEMALES as Moulin Rouge, the age 10 percent heavier
RULE clan’s dominant female than males. Clans,
at the time, towers some topping a hun-
over her. Palazzo’s dred animals, form
cub peers out from complex societies.
between them. Unlike
most social mammals, •
females rule among
spotted hyenas, main- PHOTOGRAPH BY
taining their hierarchy
through relationships JEN GUYTON

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 67

TOOL KIT

FIT FOR AN 2 1
ELEPHANT 5

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

MARK THIESSEN

H OW D O YO U P ROT E C T a delicate camera while
photographing a powerful yet sometimes skittish
animal? That was the dilemma faced by Jasper
Doest last year when he was in Gabon to cover the
effects of climate change on forest elephants. (One
of the resulting images appears in this issue on
page 54.) He needed a way to capture the forag-
ing pachyderms without frightening them away
from their food source. For help, Doest turned to
National Geographic photo engineer Tom O’Brien,
who designs and builds solutions for all kinds of
field assignment hurdles. In this case, that meant
developing an extraordinarily strong camera trap
that wouldn’t disturb the elephants or the area’s
protected trees, and making multiples of every-
thing as backup.

1. Camera-trap 5. Ball heads
housings
They held the strobe to
To withstand the pokes a mounting device.
and prods of elephants,
the world’s largest land 6. Trail cameras
animal, O’Brien made steel
rainproof containers that These off-the-shelf items
weighed 35 pounds when helped monitor the cus-
“fully loaded,” he says. tom camera traps, but they
were “getting smashed and
2. Ratchet straps tusked,” O’Brien says.

Instead of screws that 7. Passive infrared
might harm the trees, motion sensors
straps secured the traps.
After detecting infrared
3. Wireless strobes energy emitted from an
animal’s body, they fired
Infrared flashes illuminated the camera shutter.
the elephants without
scaring them away. 8. Batteries

4. Beam-break Sixty lithium ones powered
motion sensors the traps and strobes.

This two-part tool sent 9. Mounts
infrared light across a trail.
When an animal broke the O’Brien welded heavy-duty
beam, that triggered the supports for the traps. In
camera to take a photo. total, the gear he designed
for Doest tipped the scales
at roughly 1,100 pounds.

•6 8 P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R

3

6 7 4
9 8

COMPOSITE OF TWO IMAGES

•7 0 P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R

CAUCA,
COLOMBIA

A
COMMUNITY

GRIEVES

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

FLORENCE GOUPIL

The family of the
Indigenous Misak
leader Nazaria
Calambás Tunubalá
mourns at her funeral
in Cauca. In October
2021 the former mayor,
then 34 years old,
was gunned down
while defending a
water source. A 2016
peace deal between
Colombia and the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia
(FARC) was meant
to end bloodshed
and open up oppor-
tunities in former
conflict zones. Instead,
more than 1,300
Colombians—many of
them Indigenous and
Afro-Colombian land
defenders and environ-
mentalists—have been
killed resisting mining,
logging, and drug
trafficking in former
FARC territories.

PRZEMYŚL, POLAND

UKRAINIAN After Russia invaded Kuchebko, 72, left the
REFUGEES SHARE Ukraine on February 24, air-raid sirens behind
THEIR STORIES photographer Anasta- but worries for her son,
sia Taylor-Lind traveled who’s in Kyiv. She prays
to Przemyśl, a Polish to God to “save not
town near the Ukrainian only my son but the
border. Outside a whole Ukraine.” Most
school gym serving as refugees are women
a shelter, she set up a and children, since the
makeshift studio to Ukrainian government
photograph displaced required 18-to-60-
Ukrainians. Ludmyla year-old men to stay.

•P H O T O G R A P H S B Y A N A S TA S I A TAY L O R- L I N D

Oksana Hapbarova "When I took this portrait, the mother looked at me and
(at left), 18, says that
she and her mother joked, ‘Do you want me to look like a refugee right now?’
(also named Oksana, It was a powerful reminder of the harmful stereotypes we
39), waited out Russian photographers perpetuate when people lose their homes.
attacks in a Kyiv bomb
shelter. “For six days —ANASTASIA TAYLOR-LIND
in the shelter, I couldn’t
sleep, because I was
scared I would never
wake up,” says the
younger Hapbarova.

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 73

•7 4 P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R

CARACAS, Blue-and-yellow home,” says biologist macaws numbered
VENEZUELA macaws perch on María González- around 400. González
a rooftop in Caracas, Azuaje, a professor at believes they’ve
BRIGHT waiting to be fed Simón Bolívar Univer- increased since the
SPOTS by locals. Native to sity. “Some escaped; pandemic: “They came
IN CITY the tropical forests others were released.” back to recover the
SKIES and savannas of South Four species populate empty spaces.”
America, these macaws the city of three
have proliferated in million, though blue- •
Venezuela’s capital and-yellow macaws
city over the past few dominate the others. PHOTOGRAPH BY
decades because of Before raucous anti-
the pet trade. “Entire government protests ALEJANDRO
generations grew up in 2017 and 2019 drove CEGARRA
with a parrot, para- birds to the outskirts,
keet, or a macaw at blue-and-yellow

AMBOSELI
NATIONAL PARK,

K E N YA

IS AGE JUST
A NUMBER?

ASK THE
BABOONS

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

NICHOLE SOBECKI

Researchers gently
take samples and
measurements of a
tranquilized baboon
named Olduvai in the
Amboseli ecosystem
of southern Kenya
before releasing him
unharmed back into
the wild. Since 1971,
scientists have mon-
itored Amboseli’s
baboons to understand
how they age and how
social behaviors affect
their survival—findings
that could help us
understand our own
biology. Recent studies
show that the biological
ages of baboons—
as measured by their
DNA’s chemical wear
and tear—differ from
their calendar ages.
The baboons most
prone to living fast and
dying young: males
that had clawed their
way to the top of the
social hierarchy.



• 78

On low coastal land in
the province of Central
Java, Indonesia, villag-
ers from Timbulsloko
prepare to add mud
to their cemetery to
raise it above the high
tide line. Before add-
ing mud, they mark the
locations of the graves
with bamboo sticks.

•T H R O U G H the L E N S

AJI
STYAWAN

ONE STORY HAS DOMINATED
THIS PHOTOGRAPHER’S CAREER:

FLOODING ON THE
ISLAND WHERE HE LIVES.

• 80

I G R E W U P in Central Java. My in Demak Regency on the northern entered homes for six to nine
first job was working as a travel coast of Central Java, in hamlets hours a day. But in the last two
guide for visitors, then for stu- and villages not far from my home. years, it seems flooding has been
dent interns from Europe. That’s unpredictable and has happened
when I started using a camera, Some 17,000 named islands in other months. The ocean has
and then I knew I wanted to be make up Indonesia. On my home engulfed thousands of acres.
a photojournalist. island of Java, coastal areas are Once it was farmland; gradually, it
threatened by deforestation, changed into fish ponds and man-
I began to freelance, but I sinking land from groundwater grove forests; now it’s submerged
wanted more training. In 2015 extraction, and rising seas caused by rising seas.
I got to go to Bali for the Foundry by climate change. A few years
Photojournalism Workshop, ago, the worst flooding in Demak When I went to take photos,
where professional photogra- Regency used to be from March the villagers told me, “So many
phers teach students like me at until August, when tidewaters media are coming here, and there
low cost. And that’s the start.

In the workshop class taught by
[National Geographic contribut-
ing photographer] Maggie Steber,
it’s like I was a baby, or blind, or
starting from zero. But I tried to
learn and to hear every single
word that Maggie said. At the end,
there was a festival and awards
for the best students in each class.
Maggie called my name: “Aji!” I
never expected something like
that: “What?” And then I was cry-
ing on the stage.

A few months after that, a
press photo agency asked me to
be a freelancer. Then one client
gave me an assignment, and then
others. And in 2017 I started photo-
graphing the sea rise and flooding

AHMAD SAMSUDIN

•T H R O U G H the L E N S

"The ocean has Timbulsloko village made it hard
for the living to visit the graves
engulfed thousands of of their ancestors or bury their
acres. Once it was dead. Over the years, I have visited
there many times. In September
farmland; gradually, it 2021, I photographed the raising
changed into fish of the cemetery, which was often
underwater. Villagers removed the
ponds and mangrove gravestones and, using earthmov-
forests; now ing machinery from the govern-
ment, added five feet of soil. They
it’s submerged by put each marker back in place and
rising seas. added a new fence.

—AJI STYAWAN This could save the cemetery
for two more years, some villagers
is no change.” After that, I’ve tried told me. But eight months later, it
to make this project more serious. already was washing away.
Sometimes I go without my cam-
era, just to talk to people. They S O M E T I M E S P E O P L E say,
are so angry, after many years of “OK, this is climate
nothing being done to help them. change,” and maybe their
home is far away, so they
I N THE PAST, people here were
farmers. Then they became think it’s not a problem.
fishermen. The flooding has
changed their culture, their In Central Java, my home is
livelihoods. As I take pictures,
they tell me how it was. “In this about nine miles from the coast-
area, everything is green, Aji,”
one villager says. “Everywhere line. And now the water’s intru-
it’s coconut trees.” They still
remember in their hearts. sion from the coastline is about

A man working on a road with a four and a half miles. It’s halfway
hoe told me, “You know, Aji, when
I was young, this hoe was meant to my home.
for farming.” But now he tries to
use it to fix the road because of the These villagers are my neigh-
rising sea level. And it can’t fix the
real problem, because the water bors. I feel they are my sisters and
keeps undoing whatever he does.
my brothers; we are the same—
The young men now, the chil-
dren, they are moving to the city, same life, same faith, same story.
leaving this story behind. And
some of the elders have had a So people have to understand: If
chance to leave, but they don’t
want it. They say, “I will adapt this is happening anywhere, it’s a
to these conditions, whatever
it takes. If I have to be buried, I big, big problem to everyone.
will be buried here, on the land
of my ancestors.” When I’m in my home, I always

Aji Styawan stands in The flooding of the cemetery of remember the people I have met
tidal floodwater to
while documenting this crisis of
photograph resident
Kusmiyatun on her rising seas. I’ll be taking a shower
terrace. Her home
faces the main road and think what the villagers have
of Sriwulan Village
in Demak Regency, to do to get water—this year, their
on the north coast
of Central Java, freshwater is going salty. I’ll think,
where sinking land,
coastal erosion, and When they’re asleep, there’s water;
rising seas result in
extreme flooding. when they eat, they’re in water.

And even if their cemetery has

been raised up, when they die,

they will be buried below sea level,

and the holes that they dig will

have seawater inside.

But life must go on. And my job

is telling their stories. •

—As told to Patricia Edmonds



MUMBAI,
INDIA

SURGING
AHEAD

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

ARKO DATTO

Pedestrians, motor-
cycles, and taxis crowd
a street in the financial
center of Mumbai,
a metropolis that’s
home to about 21
million people. Two-
and three-wheelers
are the most popu-
lar private vehicles in
India, and the country
has pledged that 80
percent of them will be
electric by 2030. This
shift is an important
part of the country’s
efforts to reduce its
greenhouse gas emis-
sions by embracing
renewable energy
sources such as solar,
wind, and hydrogen.
But progress on that
front is challenged
by India’s explosive
growth: Its energy-
hungry middle class
is doubling as the
country is poised
to overtake China
as the world’s most
populous nation.

PORTAL , A Townsend’s big- result, moths are less
ARIZONA eared bat (Corynorhi- likely to take evasive
nus townsendii) may action as the bat draws
A MOTH’S look conspicuous lit near, as seen in this
NIGHTMARE up by a strobe light. four-photo series. After
But make no mistake: closely approaching a
It’s a stealth preda- moth (1), C. townsen-
tor. The echolocating dii reaches to grab the
calls of C. townsendii prey with its wing (2)
are 20 to 45 decibels before transferring it
quieter than those of into its tail pouch (3).
other aerial-hunting Meal secured, the bat
bat species, accord- curls its tail to chow
ing to work by Aaron mid-flight (4). The
Corcoran, a University entire sequence hap-
of Colorado, Colorado pens in about half
Springs researcher and a second.
National Geographic
Explorer who studies •
the evolutionary arms
race between bats and PHOTOGRAPHS BY
their moth prey. As a
MARK THIESSEN

•8 4 P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R

1
2

3

4

WA R D D E K E N In northern Austra- in September when year, Indigenous work
INDIGENOUS lia’s Arnhem Land, water has dried up and crews set small fires in
PROTECTED AREA, Rosemary Nabulwad, the reptiles retreat nearby grasses to help
AUSTRALIA Arijay Nabarlambarl, into the mud to keep keep future wildfires
Margaret Nabulwad, cool. The five hunters, from raging out of con-
STEWARDS Janice Nalorlman, and all family members, trol. For these rangers,
OF THEIR Lorna Nabulwad probe are rangers for the six hours of hunting on
marshy grasslands Warddeken Indige- their day off yielded
LAND with long-handled nous Protected Area. only two turtles.
crowbars to hunt tur- Dedicated in 2009, the
tles, a popular local nearly 5,400-square- •
delicacy. Turtle hunts mile reserve is managed
happen during the and protected by its PHOTOGRAPH BY
hot, dry kurrung sea- traditional Aboriginal
son, which begins owners. Earlier in the MATTHEW ABBOTT

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 87



DALLAS,
TEXAS

KING
OF THE
TROPHIES

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

DAVID CHANCELLOR

A taxidermied African
lion is transported
on a dolly during the
Dallas Safari Club’s con-
vention. U.S. hunters
used to account for the
majority of South Afri-
ca’s multimillion-dollar
lion-breeding industry,
which supplies the
adult animals for trophy
hunts, cubs for tourist
interactions, and their
bones for traditional
Chinese and South-
east Asian medicines.
Many of the estimated
10,000 captive lions in
South Africa are kept
in dirty, overcrowded
spaces and fed poor
diets. In 2021 the gov-
ernment announced
its intention to end the
industry, saying it does
not contribute to help-
ing the species, which
has lost 90 percent
of its historic African
range in the past 120
years. Since then, few
steps have been taken
toward this goal.



KOBUK RIVER Captured by drone, contiguous United Climate change, indus-
VA L L E Y, caribou from the States. The Western trial development,
ALASKA Western Arctic herd Arctic herd now and increased hunt-
gallop across a valley numbers fewer than ing efficiency may
HERDS IN near the small town 200,000, its lowest all affect the survival
RETREAT of Ambler during point in decades—a of these ungulates.
their spring migration. concern for Indige-
Caribou populations nous Alaskans such as •
throughout much the Inupiat, who rely
of North America are on caribou as a staple PHOTOGRAPH BY
declining mysteriously; food source and con-
they have already dis- sider it an integral KATIE ORLINSKY
appeared from the part of their culture.

WA S H I N G T O N ,
D.C.

STILL
POINT FOR
A NATION

•

PHOTOGRAPH BY

SASHA
A R U T Y U N OVA

A long camera
exposure blurs the
crowd of tourists inside
the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington, D.C.
Carved from 38,000
tons of marble, lime-
stone, and granite,
and visited by millions
of people each year,
the edifice honoring
the 16th U.S. president
holds a massive statue
of Abraham Lincoln by
sculptor Daniel Chester
French. The monu-
ment, which celebrated
its centennial this year,
has been the backdrop
for civil rights pro-
tests, a prayer vigil for
COVID-19 victims, and
countless family snap-
shots. “In using a long
exposure, I was trying
to capture a feeling
of the sea of visitors
to the memorial each
year, while positioning
the Lincoln statue as
this steady constant,”
says photographer
Sasha Arutyunova.

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 93

• 94

WAYNE LAWRENCE

‘I THINK I’M SOMEHOW CHANGED BY EVERYTHING
AND EVERYONE I PHOTOGRAPH.’

SUMMER 2022 FOUND TWO portraits in a variety of settings and have been roaming the streets
situations. Here, he discusses his and finding people to photo-
National Geographic contributors work with Roberts. graph. How hard is it for you to
in Durban, South Africa: Brook- TA R A R O B E RT S : Hey, Wayne. approach strangers and ask to
lyn, New York- and Detroit-based WAY N E L AW R E N C E : Hey, Tara. shoot their portraits?
photojournalist Wayne Lawrence It used to be very challenging for
and Atlanta-based National We’ve been traveling around me to approach complete strang-
Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts. Durban, and you, my friend, ers, but so much of my success
For nearly a month, Lawrence shot

QINISO DLADLA

•T H R O U G H the L E N S

“The warmth I felt in
Durban was so refresh-
ing,” Lawrence says.
Opposite page, street
vendor Ongeziwe
Mtate and Lawrence
look at frames he’d taken
of her. Below, Unathi
Madalane (at left) and
Tshiamo Maretela enjoy
the beach.

• 96

Portraits of some of and Zwano Mthembu;
the people Lawrence Nokubonga Mdluli
encountered in Durban, with her mother,
clockwise from this Nobuhle Dlamini;
page: Melusi Gcumisa; and Snothile Nkosi (at
Pontsho Name; couple left) with her friend
Hlerh Khumalo (at left) Anelisa Ludonga.

•T H R O U G H the L E N S

• 98

or failure depends on approach. I "Capturing someone’s the faces, mannerisms, the swag-
learned this early on. I’m naturally true essence is ger all felt familiar to me.
introverted, but my confidence the most difficult
has definitely blossomed over thing about portrait Tell me something interest-
time. Roaming is an exhilarat- photography … My ing that happened off camera
ing process—it is what feeds all during your roaming. I know
of my work. approach is to you always have stories!
always gauge a One day in Overport, a predom-
What do you say to these person’s energy and inantly Indian neighborhood,
people? try to match it. an elderly Indian woman walked
Usually I’ll greet someone and pay up to me and in a very courte-
them a compliment. Then I’ll intro- —WAYNE LAWRENCE ous way asked me to photograph
duce myself and explain exactly her. Then an African woman who
what I’m doing, and it’s either a yes It was in edit when I realized that she didn’t like passed by, and
or a no. I’ve learned to never take allowing them that space to just she started cursing at her, calling
the rejections personally. be made for the best pictures. her Blackie. Then she turned to
me as if everything was OK. I was
How do you even begin try- What about South Africa and more than a little disturbed. The
ing to capture the essence of a its people inspires you? way apartheid segregated com-
stranger in a photograph? South Africa, Mandela, and the munities of color is still present
Great question. Capturing some- struggle for liberation have always and devastating.
one’s true essence is the most held a mystical place in my psy-
difficult thing about portrait pho- che. Plus, since the dismantling Were you changed in any way
tography, and I fail most times. of apartheid is relatively recent, as a result of this project?
Before I start making pictures, I felt that it would be interesting I think I’m somehow changed
I’m usually studying a person’s to travel here and engage with by everything and everyone I
body language, paying attention communities that are not so far photograph. It all adds to life’s
to gestures, expressions, etc., so I removed from that trauma. So tapestry, no?
know what can work in a given sit- far I’ve been inspired by how alive
uation. My approach is to always people’s eyes are, and I love how I hear you! Where do you want
gauge a person’s energy and try to important having a sense of style to go with this project? What’s
match it. It’s important to be fluid, is to everyday people! your big vision?
though, and I’ll know everything I’ll definitely be returning to
is jelling when there is no need to You feel a personal connection Durban. I like the idea of merg-
give much direction. to the country, then? ing beach portraits with portraits
Absolutely. I do feel a personal of people in more urban areas.
Which image from this bunch connection to the country and I’d love to turn this work into a
most moved you? the continent. Coming from the book and a citywide public exhi-
There are a few, but one that other side of the world, I am an bition in Durban. Then a travel-
really touched me is the image outsider; still, I believe that we ing exhibition. I’ve also spoken
I made of a couple in their early are of one and the same family, to officials here about selecting a
20s, smiling and sitting close and I approach everyone respect- few photographers who are pas-
together outside a Durban fully. The warmth I felt in Durban sionate about Indigenous story-
shopping center [see page 97, at was so refreshing, even though telling, workshopping with them
top right]. They were definitely I struggled to retain most of the and having their work exhibited
excited about being photo- Zulu language, and that tongue as well.
graphed. What I like most about click especially! But somehow,
their portrait is that I didn’t ini- Excellent, man. I love this work
tially put too much of myself into and wish you much success.
it and just allowed their joy to
bubble to the surface. Later in the Thank you. •
session I can see now that I was
giving way too much direction. This interview was edited for
length and clarity.

•T H R O U G H the L E N S

Indian Ocean waves
lap the Durban beach
in the background,
as Sinethemba Cele
(at left) and her hus-
band, Nathi Cele, flank
their son, Anathi, and
daughter, Ibanathi.



MERADALIR After lying dormant Reykjavik, the spec-
VA L L E Y, for 800 years, Iceland’s tacle drew thousands
ICELAND Reykjanes Peninsula of curious onlookers.
erupted twice in less When eruptions are
A FIERY than 17 months, most new, says photogra-
LANDSCAPE recently on August 3, pher Chris Burkard,
AWAKENS belching scarlet “you never really know
streams of molten rock what they are going to
into the uninhabited do. It’s a bit unnerving.”
Meradalir Valley and
initiating what some •
scientists suspect may
be decades of fresh PHOTOGRAPH BY
volcanic activity. Just
an hour’s drive from CHRIS BURKARD



T E L AV I V–YA F O, A rat tries to rescue groups, and choose response is best pre-
ISRAEL a trapped comrade at not to assist rats from dicted by the value we
Tel Aviv University. unfamiliar groups. In place on the well-being
THE Research indicates that contrast, adolescent of others, rather than
POWER OF when adult rats come rats typically help the on sharing their pain,”
COMMUNITY to the aid of others, the trapped rat no mat- says neuroscientist
reward center of the ter what. For rats, at Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal.
helper’s brain activates, least, the empathy bias
just as in humans. for members of one’s •
But the rodents show own group emerges
empathy only toward in adulthood. “What PHOTOGRAPH BY
rats in distress that we found is that bio-
are from familiar social logically, the helping PAOLO VERZONE

•P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R 103

•1 0 4 PICTURES OF THE YEAR