Pulling hard from the glamour of 1940s photo shoots in Hollywood, this series is unbearably cute and just in time for Cannes. Treat yourself and take a look — you won’t be sorry.
—Kate Bubacz, deputy photo director, BuzzFeed News
Duran Levinson has spent the past three years working on a street photography project in Cape Town, South Africa, where he grew up and still lives. Acting as a tour guide for the armchair traveler, he captures people and scenes he deems authentic to the South African culture and experience. Documenting your hometown — to separate your own experience and see it with a fresh perspective the way an outsider would — can be difficult. Here, Levinson succeeds with images captured organically and presented to viewers unsentimentally.
—Laura Geiser, photo editor, BuzzFeed News
Documenting urban decay has long been a fascination in photography. There's something poetic about capturing in one image a clear indication of the passage of time. What I love about Gohar Dashti's photos of abandoned residences in Iran are the blooms of natural beauty her spaces contain. Although born out of the horrors of war, time and flora have stepped in to mend and repair these spaces. Above all, her photographs remind us that our time on this Earth is brief, and in the absence of humans, nature flourishes.
—L.G.
August Sander's photographs are revered as some of the most seminal portraits of the 20th century, exposing the deep cultural layers of German society at a time when Nazism sought to dissolve diversity in favor of a single "master" race. Technically, these pictures are groundbreaking for their clarity; Sander's subjects feel unposed and natural, as if they could step from the frame at any moment.
—Gabriel H. Sanchez, photo essay editor, BuzzFeed News
This lovely portrait series on samurai in Fukushima allows the dignity and grief to coexist. The work examines heritage on several levels, as the photographer confronts the radical change in the region following the 2011 tsunami, discusses the efforts at rebuilding, and looks at how the past and present connect through cultural touchstones that still carry on.
—K.B.
America is a loud and ruckus place, a melting pot that's boiling over with the fiery controversies of politics, culture, and race. But in these pictures, captured by photographer Niko J. Kallianiotis and published in his new book America in a Trance, all is quiet. Kallianiotis weaves a poetic vision of American life that's grasping at the past and dreaming for a seat in the future.
—G.H.S.
Here are the most moving and breathtaking pictures from the past week.
—G.H.S.