Photo Essay

Beautiful Me!

Chinese wedding photography is a parade of excess and ambition, an elaborate and expensive rite of passage, and often more prized than the ceremony itself.

BY CORNELIU CAZACU, CHRISTINA LARSON | NOVEMBER 2, 2010

The Independence Brigade

Southern Sudan prepares for statehood…or war.

PHOTOS BY PETE MULLER, CAPTIONS BY MAGGIE FICK | OCTOBER 29, 2010

Mr. Ahmadinejad Goes to Lebanon

Iran's controversial president makes a big show in Beirut.

OCTOBER 14, 2010

The Grayest Generation

Forget about a youth boom -- the planet's population is getting older, fast. From the West Bank to Woodstock, a look at a world going gray.

BY SUZANNE MERKELSON, ANDREW SWIFT | OCTOBER 12, 2010

The Turtle Bay Runway

The lights may have gone out at this year's U.N. General Assembly, but it's the glittering fashions -- even more than the orations -- that keep on shining.

BY COLUM LYNCH | OCTOBER 5, 2010

Women in Control

While it's true that more than 75 percent of parliaments worldwide are more than three-quarters male, in recent years some high-powered female heads of state have bucked the trend. If Dilma Rousseff is elected as Brazil's first female president, she'll be joining a small, but elite, cohort.

BY SUZANNE MERKELSON, ANDREW SWIFT | OCTOBER 1, 2010

From Rabble-Rousing to Rubble

In Jaffna, Sri Lanka, the Tamil community is slowly rising again.

CAPTIONS AND PHOTOS BY ROSS TUTTLE | SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

The Devil Wears Taupe

Not all the world's dictators are clotheshorses, but as these leaders show, sometimes politics, power, and polyester combine to make fashion magic.

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

9/11 Inc.

How a national tragedy became a business.

BY SUZANNE MERKELSON | SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Labor Day in Hell

The world's most repressive workplace environments -- where trade unions are suppressed, workers' rights are ignored, and forced labor is not unknown.

CAPTIONS BY ARCH PUDDINGTON | SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

Inheriting Iraq

Images from the war Obama didn't want.

BY JARED MONDSCHEIN | AUGUST 30, 2010

China's New Tomorrowland

Once a misty, forgotten backwater, the western Chinese city of Chongqing is growing faster than mapmakers and even government officials can track.

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW NIEDERHAUSER/INSTITUTE | AUGUST 16, 2010

Metropolis Now

Stunning images of the world’s top global cities.

BY BRIAN FUNG, JARED MONDSCHEIN | AUGUST 16, 2010

India's Hidden War

Inside the resource conflict you haven't heard about.

SEPT. / OCT. 2010

Lords of the Ring

Spain's much-celebrated and much-debated sport of bullfighting may finally be headed for change.

BY JENNIFER T. PARKER | JULY 28, 2010

Blood on the Tracks

Photos from the dangerous journey to El Norte.

PHOTOS BY FELIPE JÁCOME | JULY 23, 2010

Another Side of Shanghai

Making space for glitzy Shanghai Expo sites and modern office buildings means clearing vestiges of the old city -- and the old Shanghainese who live there.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUE ANNE TAY | JULY 14, 2010

The Shadows of Srebrenica

Fifteen years on, haunting images of the massacre that shamed Europe.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDY SPYRA | JULY 9, 2010

What Hunger Looks Like

War photographer Marcus Bleasdale visits Djibouti – where poverty, not conflict, divides the country – and documents eerily familiar scenes of deprivation and malnutrition.

Photography by MARCUS BLEASDALE | JULY 6, 2010

The Least Free Places on Earth: 2010

A look at 20 places with nothing to celebrate this weekend. The following images are from the bottom 20 countries and territories from Freedom House's Freedom in the World report, with text prepared by the staff of Freedom House.

JULY 2, 2010

Postcards from Hell

Images from the world's most failed states.

CAPTIONS BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Who's Your Daddy?

World leaders and their fathers.

BY CLARE SESTANOVICH, SYLVIE STEIN | JUNE 18, 2010

Afghanistan Through Teenagers' Eyes

What happens when you give cameras to a group of Kabul teens? You see Afghanistan not as a place of war and violence, but as a country where children still play and life carries on.

CAPTIONS BY PREETI AROON | JUNE 16, 2010

Iran’s Year of Turmoil

Looking back at what we saw during the Green Movement protests -- and what we didn't see.

BY CAMERON ABADI | JUNE 10, 2010

The Magnificent Migrants

Extraordinary photos of ordinary Mexicans.

Photos and text by DULCE PINZÓN | MAY 28, 2010

Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan…

Record stores, Mad Men furniture, and pencil skirts -- when Kabul had rock 'n' roll, not rockets.

BY MOHAMMAD QAYOUMI | MAY 27, 2010

Oil, Oil Everywhere

A month after a BP drilling operation began hemorrhaging crude into the Gulf of Mexico, company executives and White House officials are still volleying the blame and the responsibility for what will be the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

BY BRIAN FUNG | MAY 25, 2010

The Dark Side of Cricket

From apartheid South Africa to Bollywood financiers, the sport of cricket boasts a storied political history. Here's a look at some of the game's most controversial moments.

BY ANDREW SWIFT | MAY 14, 2010

One year later: What's changed in Gaza and Israel?

A short account of one Congressman's visit to Gaza and Israel.

BY REP. KEITH ELLISON | MAY 12, 2010

Maostalgia

An exclusive photo essay from China's red heartland.

PHOTOS BY TOMAS VAN HOUTRYVE | MAY/JUNE 2010