Photo of the Day: June 2022
A helicopter lowers a technician to maintain the Horns Rev wind farm in Esbjerg, Denmark. When this photo appeared in the August 2005 issue, wind generated 20 percent of all electricity in Denmark.
Gilbert Grosvenor, the first full-time employee of the National Geographic Society, tests out a new Speed Graphic camera in 1913. But this photo wouldn't appear in print until the October 1963 issue, which celebrated the Society's 75th anniversary. By that point, Grosvenor had served as both director and president of the Society, and editor of the magazine until his retirement in 1954.
An openly gay Indian-American activist stands outside the historic Stonewall Inn after an event that raised funds for LGBTQ people in India. This photo originally appeared in a September 2018 story, called "Building a New American Dream" about South Asian Americans.
A cat named Caramel sits with a visitor at the Le Louis IX cafe in Paris. This now-iconic photo first appeared in the July 1989 issue, which was entirely dedicated to France.
A pollen-covered bat emerges from a flower of the blue mahoe tree in Cuba. This photo appeared in a March 2014 story showing the fascinating relationship between some tropical flowers and pollinating bats.
A father shows his child the blossoms at Sherwood Gardens, Maryland, in the mid-1950s. A portion of the May 1956 issue was dedicated to the vibrant blooms that appear every May in the garden since its genesis in the 1920s.
A parent and child take part in a Pride march in New York City. This previously unpublished photo was taken as a part of Lynn Johnson's coverage for the January 2017 cover story on gender.
Lightning flashes over a butte in Adobe Town, Wyoming. This photo appeared in a July 2005 story about the battle over natural gas drilling in the Rockies.
Two clownfish huddle in their host anemone in the Philippines. A 2019 study found that clownfish eggs weren't hatching when exposed to artificial light at night.
When war broke out in South Sudan, hundreds of thousands of people fled for Uganda, carrying their belongings in bedsheets. Photographer Nora Lorek took portraits of families against the backdrop of their bedsheet, and a selection was published in the May 2018 issue.
The cover story of the July 2002 issue was dedicated to bald eagles. Since 2009, the bald eagle population in the lower 48 states has quadrupled.
An online story published in March 2021 told of civil rights activism in Oregon, which had a law banning Black residents when it became a state in 1859. In this photo, Portland artist and activist Cleo Davis, Jr., walks with his children in their neighborhood.
A family sets up camp alongside rhododendron plants on Roan Mountain, Tennessee. This photo appeared in a June 1957 story dedicated to the Roan Mountain rhododendrons, flowers famous enough to earn their own annual festival.
Kids jump rope on Fourth Street Northwest in Washington, D.C. This photo appeared in a January 1983 issue about the daily life and culture of the U.S. capital city.
A story in the June 1995 issue documented the recovery of sea otter populations after the fur trade nearly hunted them to extinction. Here, three orphaned otters float together at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.
A photographer swims next to an American crocodile in Gardens of the Queen, a marine reserve in Cuba. This previously unpublished photo was taken as a part of coverage for a November 2016 story on the reserve.
Museum workers at the Louvre take the "Mona Lisa" for its annual inspection. When this photo was published in the June 1971 issue, the museum was preparing to double the number of exhibits on display.
At the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa, a young visitor watches fish swim through the kelp forest exhibit. In the wild, South Africa's kelp forests are home to fish not found anywhere else in the world.
A photo essay in the April 2017 issue displayed miniature models of what the world might look like after humans are gone, constructed and photographed by artists Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber. This model is of an overgrown botanical garden. |
Father and son fishermen pull in a catch using a large net early in the morning on the Yangtze River in Wushan, China. The Yangtze is the third-longest river in the world, stretching more than 3,900 miles across China.
A beekeeper in Ames, Iowa, sprays smoke to calm bees while working among a crop of sunflowers. This photo was taken as a part of a story on the preservation of heirloom seeds in the July 2011 issue. |
A story in the February 1940 issue documented the production of and many uses for rubber. Here, a factory worker in Ravenna, Ohio, stamps a Mickey Mouse face on balloons.
Sunlight and clear waters make for beautiful and healthy coral reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. A story in the March 2012 issue documented efforts to celebrate and preserve the seas of Arabia.
A Buddhist pilgrim climbs to sacred Mount Kawagebo in Yunnan, China, between rows of prayer flags. Her journey to circle the mountain will take nearly two weeks.
A group of jellyfish known as Atlantic sea nettle swims at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Jellyfish have been in existence for more than 500 million years.
A non-binary Ugandan refugee stands outside the safe house they founded for LGBT refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. This previously unpublished portrait was taken as part of photographer Nichole Sobecki's work on how the coronavirus was affecting Kenya in 2020.
Resting in his bunk on the U.S.S. Paul Hamilton, a sailor wears light-emitting goggles for a short time after waking. When this photo was published in an August 2018 story about sleep, scientist Nita Shattuck was testing the goggles to see if they could reset sailors' internal clocks.
In Pakistan's Hunza Valley, all-girl soccer teams from surrounding villages walk onto the field for a tournament. This picture appeared in an online story called "The rising voices of women in Pakistan" in February 2019.
This photo of boats in the Golden Horn inlet appeared in a June 1922 story called "Constantinople Today." Once the seat of the Ottoman Empire, the city was renamed Istanbul in 1930.
A story in the November 2017 issue documented new discoveries about pterosaurs. In this photo, a life-sized model of a Quetzalcoatlus northropi, which lived in the Late Cretaceous Period, gets a coat of paint in a Minnesota studio.