Photo of the Day: April 2021
In Ocean Grove, New Jersey, a woman walks her dog past some classic cars. The small town—nicknamed "God's Square Mile"—welcomes thousands of tourists every summer.
Farmers harvest tobacco plants on a terraced hill in Puerto Rico. This picture originally appeared in the April 1983 issue, examining the lives of Puerto Ricans as they considered possible futures as a U.S. state, commonwealth, or independent nation.
Ballet students practice under the eye of a Russian instructor in Cairo, Egypt. This photo appeared in a May 1972 story about Cairo's citizens trying to maintain a normal life in the midst of an economic downturn and ongoing threats of conflict with other Middle Eastern countries.
Atlantic walruses migrate from Russia to Svalbard, Norway, where they will spend the summer. Svalbard, an archipelago that lies between Norway and the North Pole, has seen dramatic temperature increases and ice melt in the past 50 years due to global warming.
Lipizzan colts roam free in an alpine meadow over Piber, Austria. The horse breed dates back to the 16th century, and to this day are used in classical dressage performances in Vienna's Spanish Riding School.
A trio of emperor penguins is surrounded by chicks on the frozen Ross Sea, Antarctica. In a colony of thousands, emperor penguins use unique vocalisations to find and identify their partners and chicks.
A Costa Rican variable harlequin frog perches on a plant in this photo from the July 1973 issue. Today, the tiny frog is listed as critically endangered due to environmental changes caused by climate change.
At the Eden Project in Cornwall, morning mist covers 4,500 different plant species. The tourist attraction's tropical biome is the largest indoor rainforest in the world.
An aerial view shows the lushness of the Flint Hills in Kansas, one of the last places in North America where tallgrass prairie survives—the rest of it turned into farmland.
Farmers paid by the government not to grow crops whittle at a store.
To prevent art theft and vandalism, statues in Rome's Villa Borghese gardens have been removed and stored in a shed. A special unit of the Italian police force works to recover stolen art, an all-too-common problem in the country.
In New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, hikers pause to study a gnarled tree. The nation's largest national park is roughly the same size as the state of Connecticut.
Orphan elephants playfully vie for a bottle of formula at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's elephant nursery in Nairobi, Kenya. Here, young elephants who have lost their parents to poachers are raised until they can be released back into the wild.
A story in the October 1987 issue examined the lives of women in Saudi Arabia. Here, a woman wears a traditional niqab, but the young girls won't start wearing the veil until they reach puberty.
Spinner dolphins return from foraging to a bay off Oahu, Hawaii. Spinner dolphins are highly social, gathering in groups that can number in the thousands.
A story in the May 2009 issue looked at the growing trend of rooftop gardens around the world. In this photo, a chef at a Vancouver hotel harvests apples growing on the roof.
In this photo from the August 1966 issue, troops participate in a ceremonial parade in front of the Palace of Rey Bouba, Cameroon, to mark the end of Ramadan.
In this photo from the April 1921 issue, tourists stand in front of a 19th-century rock carving just south of Tehran, Iran. At the end of 2020, the tourism department of Tehran Province announced that the carving would undergo repair and preservation processes to combat years of damage and erosion.
On Tidore Island, Indonesia, a boy drinks from a freshwater pool. This picture appeared in a June 1976 story that retraced explorer Ferdinand Magellan's voyage around the globe.
A boy gets a haircut at a barbershop in Norfolk, Virginia. This picture appeared in a July 1985 story about the communities of Hampton Roads—the name of both a body of water and the metropolitan area it touches.
A person freshens a sheet out the window of a building in Arles, France. This photo originally appeared in the October 1997 issue, in a story about the life and travels of artist Vincent Van Gogh.
After being nearly eradicated by trappers in the mid-1800s, beavers are making a comeback in the Western United States, including this river in Grand Teton National Park. To avoid predators, the large rodents can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes.
Climbers establish Hanging Camp at 19,500 feet on Trango Tower, in Pakistan's Karakoram mountains. This story from the April 1996 issue followed a group of climbers from Wyoming who spent nine weeks scaling the vertical rock face.
Tarahumara people celebrate Easter by a fire in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains, Mexico. Spanish colonisers arrived in the area in the 1500s, and centuries of violent conflict followed. Ultimately, many of the Indigenous people converted to Catholicism.
A group of Jewish friends in Warsaw, Poland, gather for Passover seder. When this story was published in September 1986, there were fewer than 5,000 Jews living in Poland. Today, Poland is home to one of the fastest growing Jewish populations in the world.
In White River National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas, biologists and volunteers search for the ivory-billed woodpecker. The last confirmed U.S. sighting of the bird was in 1944—but that hasn't stopped scientists and hobbyists from searching.
More than 400 children carry lanterns through the streets of Mendrisio, Switzerland, to commemorate Good Friday. In 2019, the centuries-old tradition received a spot on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.
A member of the El Paso Diablos bows his head during the national anthem. This photo appeared on the cover of the April 1991 issue, which featured a story about minor league baseball in the U.S.
