CALL FOR ENTRIES:
The Smithsonian Photography Initiative (SPI) invites you to contribute images and stories to “click! photography changes everything” (click.si.edu), an online exhibit that explores how photography influences every aspect of our lives. This month’s focus: “Seeing Other Worlds”: ~Submit your photo and story (www.click.si.edu/Connect.aspx) about how photography influences our ability to see people, places, and things ‘unseen’ or ‘unfamiliar’. You can also share your thoughts about photos of the universe from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. ~Selected entries will be added to the “click!” website, which features photos and stories from innovators, writers, and public figures across multiple disciplines. ~Entries selected for the “click!” website will be eligible to receive a copy of the book, At First Sight: Photography and the Smithsonian, an intriguing glimpse into the Smithsonian’s more than seven hundred photographic collections.
BLOG INTERACTION:
Visit the Smithsonian’s photography blog, “THE BIGGER PICTURE” (blog.photography.si.edu), which presents an inside look at the Smithsonian’s photography collections and invites audiences to engage in an online discussion with guest contributors from throughout the Smithsonian about photography’s powerful impact on our world. During the month of May 2009, the blog discussions will focus on photography, astronomy, and the broader notion of exploring “other worlds” to celebrate the beginning of the International Year of Astronomy. Guest bloggers will include staff from National Museum of American History’s Physical Sciences Division, National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian Magazine, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
VISIT FLICKR COMMONS:
In honor of the International Year of Astronomy, new images are being added to the Smithsonian Institution’s photostream at The Commons on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/sets/72157608016866848/). View the Chandra X-ray Observatory set featuring images made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999 and is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About the Smithsonian Photography Initiative
The Smithsonian Photography Initiative (SPI) (www.photography.si.edu) exists to increase public understanding of the photography collections from the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, and the National Zoo. Leveraging emerging new media, SPI seeks to create new opportunities for research and scholarship about the cultural impact of photographs. Through interactive, online exhibitions, publications, and educational outreach, SPI is dedicated to engaging new and existing Smithsonian audiences in a dialogue about the nature and meaning of images today.