When Andrew Kearns first started taking pictures, people told him it was almost impossible to make a living as a photographer. They thought he needed a “safe” career. They were wrong. In early 2015, he took a leap of faith and left his job at Starbucks. His Instagram took off, and soon after that, his dream became a reality.
Since then, he’s taken more risks. In the spring of 2016, he left everything behind to live out of his car and explore the world around him. These days, Kearns is still traveling, shooting sublime landscapes and chronicling his adventures on his popular vlog channel. He’s watched the sun rise and set over some of the most beautiful places on earth, and most recently, he’s hiked Ben Hope in Northern Scotland.
We interviewed Kearns about Instagram stardom, the importance of hard work, and the value of a Squarespace website.
In the last two years, Tiny Atlas Quarterly has gone from a seed in the mind of Oakland photographer Emily Nathan to a leading travel and lifestyle magazine. As of this writing, the Instagram hashtag #mytinyatlas has more than 1.7 million submissions, with photographers all over the world vying for a coveted spot on the @tinyatlasquarterly feed.
Magnolia, Massachusetts © Cavan Images / Offset
“A dog can never tell you what she knows from the smells of the world, but you know, watching her, that you know almost nothing,” the great poet Mary Oliver writes in her 2013 book Dog Songs. Anyone who has ever seen a dog at the beach knows this to be true. Whether they’re chasing a ball or digging holes in the shade, dogs love the beach in some indelible, instinctual way that us humans can never truly grasp.
It’s tragic that so many beautiful beaches are closed to dogs during peak summer months, but this story is not about those beaches. It’s about those that welcome canines large and small. In honor of the season, we culled the Offset collection in search of the most joyous, life-affirming pictures of dogs on the beach.
Rock spur, Chiesa in Valmalenco, Lombardy, Italy © Dirk Wüstenhagen / Westend61 / Offset
Sand Dunes, Lencois Maranhenses National Park, Brazil © Ronald Patrick / Offset
Half a year ago, National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin and writer Grayson Schaffer coined the term “Little person, big landscape!” to describe the kind of picture that appeals to the masses of the Instagram era. We’ve all seen it; a sole figure is dwarfed by a mountain, a forest, a vast expanse of wildflowers or snow. The genre (if we can call it that) is definitely having a moment right now. There’s even a hashtag on Instagram- #tinypeopleinbigplaces– with nearly 80,000 posts. In the wrong hands, it can seem cheap, even trite, but there’s one reason it isn’t going away: when done well, there’s nothing like it.
In defense of “Little person, big landscape!” we’ve pulled together this exhibition of breathtaking images from the Offset collection. Taking us on a journey from Italy to Jordan, Bolivia to Iceland, these pictures take a well-known trope and turn it into something more.
Kui, February Swell 2005
Kristi Convalescing, 2005
In Queens, New York, the Rockaway Beach surfers aren’t deterred by freezing temperatures; come rain or come snow, they inherit the waves. From 2004 to 2011, photographer Susannah Ray documented her people as the braved the treacherous waters of the Atlantic.
Right Coast, her most recent monograph coinciding with an exhibition at The Rockaway Beach Surf Club until August 9th, is her homage to the surf community. The word “right” of course contains two meanings, referring both to a place on the map as well as the loyalty and pride that runs across its shores.
Heaven © Andreas Joshua Carver (@theaphrodisiackitchen)
Watermelon rinds © Aliza Eliazarov (@aliza_eliazarov)
Whether we’re talking about Dutch still life painting or fast food advertisements, art and imagery has always been intimately connected to what we eat. For our latest group, show we invited you to submit photographs that show the wonderful and strange relationship between food and art. Curated by Alison Zavos, Editor-in-Chief at Feature Shoot, the resulting collection of winning images expresses just how far that theme can be stretched; we received mostly gorgeous confections, a few grotesque concoctions, and everything in between.
Appalachian Trail, Connecticut © Aurora Photos / Offset
Sea cave, Sunset Cliffs, San Diego, California © Robert Benson / Aurora Photos / Offset
There’s something special about swimming holes. They’re private, secret, and mysterious in a way that borders on the clandestine. A telling entry from Urban Dictionary defines “swimming hole” as the following: “A natural body of water used by all the cool kids in a given area. Uncool kids aren’t welcome there.”
Whoever penned that humorous description was onto something. Do a quick internet search of swimming holes around the world, and you’ll see the ones that appeal the most to travelers are those that are hidden from preying eyes. The ancient Hawaiians understood it. The Queen’s Bath in Kauai was for many years the sole territory of the royals, who were thought to have been born from a divine and sacred line. The allure of swimming holes lies in part in their exclusivity.
It’s easy to see why swimming holes are among the most coveted places on earth. Some of them are so bewitching they look like they’re from an entirely different planet. In Havasu Falls, for instance, the water is rich with magnesium and calcium carbonate, which set it aglow with an uncanny turquoise tinge. At Wadi Shab mountain ravine in Oman, the nearby date and banana trees make the hot air as fragrant as the deep green waters are beautiful. Others were carved from igneous rock formations, forged from hot lava.
We combed through Offset’s collection of work by international photographers to find the most exquisite depictions of the world’s swimming holes, from Italy to California, Iceland to Puerto Rico. Some are well-known, and others are a bit more low-key and hidden. At the risk of exposing all their secrets, we present them here, for your enjoyment.
It all started with a Google search: “the best surf in The Philippines.” Having just come off the high of shooting waves in Australia, Swedish photographer and Offset artist Karl Lundholm wanted to make one last stop on his way home. One place kept coming up in his search, and the more he learned, the more he yearned to visit the island of Siargao.
Suddenly, periods are in vogue. What was taboo two years ago is now openly discussed; feminine hygiene products are getting better and they’re being shared more widely with women in developing countries where the stigma is pervasive. Chances are you’ve heard about Thinx period panties, an alternative to pads, tampons, and menstrual cups. The press coverage has been tremendous; journalists have sampled different styles; celebrities have endorses the brand. Thanks in part to Thinx, having your period is no longer shameful; it’s cool.
At the time of this writing, Devin Graham of Devin Super Tramp has 779,244,531 views on YouTube and an astonishing 4,118,120 subscribers, but before he was a celebrity filmmaker, he was a kid making music videos with his siblings. Throughout his career, he’s kept that same childlike sense of adventure and wonder; he’s documented athletes who, inspired by the video game Assassin’s Creed, have developed insane parkour skills, jumping from one rooftop to the next in costume. He’s captured bike parkour and extreme pogo freestyle, which yes, incorporates the pogo stick, beloved by children worldwide. Graham hasn’t lost the playfulness and enthusiasm of his childhood; the only thing that’s changed is his equipment, and he’s upgraded big time with an LG UltraWide® 21:9 monitor.
In collaboration with the website-building platform, Squarespace, the great John Malkovich has brought a childhood fantasy to life in the form of a beautiful clothing brand. Read more here!
