Rock Pigeon. Photo: Liron Gertsman/Audubon Photography Awards
Category: Professional
Species: Rock Pigeon
Location: White Rock, British Columbia, Canada
Species: Atlantic Puffin
Location: Westman Islands, Iceland
Species: Chinstrap Penguin
Location: Cierva Cove, Antarctica
This issue also comes with a free UK & Ireland guide — featuring 52 short breaks around Britain and Ireland, whether it’s cycling in the Peak District or exploring Edinburgh’s finest wine bars.
Bolivia: An off-road take on the classic journey from the Atacama Desert to the Uyuni Salt Flat.
Florida: The show must go on in the Sunshine State, be it the Everglades or tropical Keys.
Sardinia: Hiking trails, colourful townsand resilient communities from coast to mountains.
Camino de Santiago: Retrace ancient pilgrim paths.
Jaipur: Art is all around you in Rajasthan’s largest city.
Perth: The capital of Western Australia beckons with revitalised public spaces.
South Moravia: Germanic villages, ancient forests and wine cellars in the Czech Republic’s south east.
Belém: Long overlooked as a culinary destination, this Brazilian city puts the spotlight on Amazonian ingredients.
Bali: Where to stay on this popular Indonesian island.
Why do we explore? It’s just what humans do. But how we define it is changing.
BY NINA STROCHLIC
There is only one museum along the old Oregon Trail that tells the story of America’s westward expansion through the eyes of those being expanded into. In a corner of Oregon bordered by Washington and Idaho, this wood-paneled warren of galleries and interactive exhibits celebrates the heritage of Native people and mourns what was destroyed when the pioneers arrived. Walking down a long ramp, visitors enter the brick facade of a replica “Indian training school,” where Native children were forcibly converted and assimilated. A life-size photo of the students stares back from over a century ago; their matching uniforms make them look like tiny soldiers.
In a two-year expedition, a National Geographic photographer is documenting the mighty river and the greater ecosystem from the Andes to the Atlantic.
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS PESCHAK
Two jaguars leap into the river, lunging at pacas. These oversize rodents, with blotched and striped coats, are agile swimmers. Piranhas, attracted by the commotion, hover nearby.
I’m photographing this riveting scene, but I’m not underwater as I usually am when I’m on assignment. Instead of diving to see this aquatic life, I’ve climbed to a rocky ledge far above a rainforest. The jaguars, pacas, and piranhas are not flesh and blood; they are prehistoric artworks painted with hematite, a blood-red iron oxide, in exquisite detail. I am in awe, as if seeing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the first time.
I explored some of the island’s most famous landmarks, including the Old Man of Storr, Talisker Bay and Neist Point lighthouse, while venturing further to find more hidden gems like Loch Coruisk.
This video is a diary of my time on the island, aimed at being part travel documentary, part photo inspiration for those of you wanting to visit the island for yourself.
Featuring:
Situated near the southern margin of the Red River Delta, the Trang An Landscape Complex is a spectacular landscape of limestone karst peaks permeated with valleys, many of them partly submerged and surrounded by steep, almost vertical cliffs.
Exploration of caves at different altitudes has revealed archaeological traces of human activity over a continuous period of more than 30,000 years. They illustrate the occupation of these mountains by seasonal hunter-gatherers and how they adapted to major climatic and environmental changes, especially the repeated inundation of the landscape by the sea after the last ice age.
The story of human occupation continues through the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to the historical era. Hoa Lu, the ancient capital of Viet Nam, was strategically established here in the 10th and 11th centuries AD. The property also contains temples, pagodas, paddy-fields and small villages.
Filmed and edited by Edward Lloyd
North Wales is a region within Wales, a country in the U.K. Snowdonia National Park is a vast, rugged area with waterfalls and trails, including routes up Mount Snowdon. Medieval Conwy Castle has 8 huge towers, plus battlements with sea views. It’s near the resort town of Llandudno, with North Shore Beach. Other castles include 19th-century Penrhyn Castle, with Gothic stairways, and waterside Caernarfon Castle.
Off the coast of Italy, the Mediterranean’s most active volcano system is extremely volatile—yet our photographer found that marine life clings on all the same.
Early cultures used meteorites to craft weapons and jewelry long before anyone knew how to extract iron from ore.
The photographer Ala Kheir joins us from Khartoum to tell us about the conflict in Sudan and how it is affecting him and other artists. We talk to Alyce Mahon, the co-curator of Sade: Freedom or Evil, a new exhibition at the Centre Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) in Barcelona about the 18th-century writer and libertine the Marquis de Sade and his artistic and literary influence, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries.
And this episode’s Work of the Week is Gwen John’s La Chambre sur la Cour (1907-08), a painting of John herself in a Parisian interior. The picture is one of the highlights of an exhibition dedicated to John at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, UK.Ala Kheir on Instagram @ala.kheir.Sade: Freedom or Evil, Centre Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, until 15 October.
Alyce Mahon, The Marquis de Sade and the Avant-Garde, Princeton University Press, $47/£40.Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 13 May-8 October. Alicia Foster, Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, Thames and Hudson, $39.95/£30. Out now in UK, published in the US on 18 July.
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