Bulldozers built giant sand berms Friday to protect beachfront homes in one of California's coastal cities hit hard this week by extraordinary waves generated by powerful swells from Pacific storms.

The Italian city of Venice announced new limits Saturday on the size of tourist groups, the latest move to reduce the pressure of mass tourism on the famed canal city.

Sydney and Auckland were among the world's first major cities to ring in 2024, with revelers cheering spectacular fireworks displays that lit up the skies over Sydney Harbor and New Zealand's tallest structure, Sky Tower.

​Following a traumatic brain injury, Lisa Murray delved deep into the inner workings of her mind, camera in hand, in an attempt to piece back together her story. The outcome is a touching, imaginative visual exploration of healing.

Through an intimate portrait of sisters Jae and Jenni, Andriana Nativio recalls her own girlhood bond with nature, while commenting on the forces that seek to disrupt it.

An eclectic year-end list of favorite photobooks of 2023 — personal recommendations from photographers, photography experts, friends and colleagues around the world.

Photographer Alexey Vasyliev offers an intimate look into the life and changing culture of the Evens, an indigenous tribe in his hometown of Yakutsk — one of the coldest places on Earth.

Here are 15 of LensCulture’s most popular highlights from 2023 — a mix of new discoveries, photobook reviews, interviews, essays, exhibitions and visual stories.

Part functional walkway and part dramatic sculpture, an outdoor staircase by Alex Chinneck unfurls into individual metallic ribbons as it climbs a brick building in Brighton. The latest work by the British artist, titled “A Spring in Your Step,” is made of galvanized steel and features a base with slatted rungs that gradually unwind into a trio of strips splaying outward over Circus Square. Chinneck is known for his surreal architectural interventions—these include melting facades, a condemned building that unzips, and twisting red post boxes—that upend ubiquitous designs in favor of bizarre counterparts. More

 Illustrator Phoebe Wahl and animator Andrea Love teamed up to gift us with a delightful stop-motion short full of cozy felted sweaters, wooly swirls of steam puffing from teacups, and (too much) snow just in time for the holidays. The whimsical animation is the music video for “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,” a duet between Ingrid Michaelson and Zooey Deschanel, that tells the sweet story of Bunny, Rabbit, and their needle-felted friends as they prepare for the holidays. More

In the second edition of “Arrivals,” Wesley Verhoeve introduces us to Tariq Tarey’s latest project; a beautiful portrait series of the Fulani community of his home state of Ohio.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. will lift travel restrictions to eight southern African countries on New Year's Eve, the White House announced Friday. The restrictions, imposed last month, were meant to blunt the spread of the COVID-19 omicron variant. The Nov. 29 ban barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who had recently ...

MIAMI — A COVID-19 outbreak took place on a South Florida-based cruise ship for the third time this week, as the number of coronavirus cases in Florida hit its second-highest level since the start of the pandemic. An undisclosed number of passengers and crew aboard the Carnival Freedom cruise caught ...

Ghanaian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe has a proclivity for contrast. In his striking portraits of Black people, he gravitates toward shades of gray to render the skin tone of single figures or small groups, who sport patterned garments, hats of textured fabrics, and generally vibrant fashions that are in direct opposition to their physical features. The bright, bold color palette is the artist’s preferred method for translating emotional states, inner lives, and idiosyncrasies, one he emulates with the richly textured impasto backdrops surrounding his subjects. More

In the sleek decanters designed by artist Charlie Matz, wine and other spirits trickle through a crab’s claws, a shark’s open jaws, and the belly of a branzino. The playful aeration vessels are handmade with borosilicate glass and position marine life at the necks of the carafe, ensuring that the creatures flush with reds and pinks with every pour. Matz, who works at the Chicago-based Ignite Glass, has a few of the decanters available in the studio’s shop, and you can follow his functional creations and new releases on Instagram. More

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch prosecutors on Wednesday demanded life sentences for four suspects in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, saying they caused “deep and irreversible suffering” to relatives of the 298 people killed. Prosecutors said the four recklessly used a Russian missile ...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany announced new restrictions Tuesday that will begin after Christmas to slow the spread of the new omicron variant, rules that will fall short of a full lockdown but will include contact restrictions even for vaccinated people. “I can understand anyone who doesn’t want to hear about ...

Back in 2009, Dutch wildlife photographer Roeselien Raimond snapped a portrait of a fox that always seemed to be squinting her eyes in contemplation. That first image sparked a fascination with the creatures and their idiosyncratic expressions, an interest that’s culminated in a decades-long project and now montage documenting the fantastically diverse animals. “Foxes’ characters may differ as much as human characters,” she writes. “Shy and arrogant, from wallflower to cocky, chronically happy or notoriously sad. More

Atelier Hatena’s bread bugs are the only critters we’d gladly snuggle up with at night. The whimsical, fiber-rich characters are part of the Hiroshima-based artist’s growing troupe of felt creatures: there are four-legged rolls, tiny insects sprouting mushrooms, and pastries with eyes poking from their crusts. Atelier Hatena’s shop is currently stocked with the adorable critters, although they sell out quickly, so keep an eye on Twitter for updates. More

This spectral offering transports us into a landscape populated by anonymous figures and restless animals, navigating their way through the dead of the night.

Ibbini Studio (previously) creates intricate paper sculptures meticulously crafted to appear as though they have been made in nature. Artist Julia Ibbini and computer scientist Stephane Noyer, who are behind the Abu Dhabi-based studio, spent the last year working on a collection of geometric cylindrical pieces swirling with vine-like forms, mirrored geometric designs that resemble the repeating patterns in honeycomb, and sculptures that look like delicate shells. The duo began collaborating in 2017 and now creates pieces by hand and machine, using a painstaking process that combines analog and digital techniques. More

 NASA marked an impressive milestone when its Parker Solar Probe was the first ever to touch the sun and return earlier this year, and footage from its historic mission offers a stunning glimpse at the massive star’s upper atmosphere. The black-and-white timelapse shows a view from the probe as it hurls through a flurry of glowing bands and sparks that dart across the frame with celestial bodies panning in the background. More

German artist Wilfried Grootens (previously) suspends vibrant, textured paintings evocative of minuscule organisms, bacteria, and other microscopic creatures within sleek sculptures made of glass. He renders lines and geometric shapes on dozens of thin panes that, when pressed together into a larger composite, produce the appearance of three-dimensional forms encased within the transparent material. The resulting works are striking illusions that morph into different, otherworldly creatures depending on the viewers’ perspective, sometimes vanishing entirely depending on the angle. More

From liquid resin and thin strips of wire, Tokyo-based designer Sakae (previously) crafts delicate hairpieces known as kanzashi. The ornamental forms are often worn for special occasions and are realistic in shape and texture, with lustrous petals and wings in translucent shades that catch surrounding light. You can see more of Sakae’s hydrangeas, irises, and daffodils on Flickr and her site, and she auctions her pieces for buyers in Japan. More

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli ministers on Monday agreed to ban travel to the United States, Canada and eight other countries amid the rapid, global spread of the omicron variant. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office announced the decision following a Cabinet vote. The rare move to red-list the U.S. comes amid ...