Australian photographer Karen Alsop and her team have used photography for years to bring a smile back to the faces of sick children. They’re well-known for the heartwarming project Christmas Wish, and they managed to pull it off this year despite the pandemic and lockdowns. I believe most of us need some extra magic during holidays. And Christmas is extra-challenging for families that have very sick children in hospital. So, Karen teamed up with a bunch of lovely volunteers again to bring joy and hope to these families through powerful and stunning artworks....

In many parts of the U.S. the reality of social distancing policies have only been in place for about a month. Yet during that time and the few weeks that preceded it, photographers have already churned through a number of phases to document and depict the outbreak. In a sense, these phases represent visual tropes – a way of immediately understanding that the photo is illustrative of the pandemic. And in its laziest form, these tropes are, in the words of Fred Ritchin, mere “signifiers....

Sometimes, you’re sitting on social media, scrolling away and something stops you in your tracks and you just can’t help but sit and stare. That was the case for me with this Milky Way photograph from landscape and commercial photographer Mark Duffy. DIYP reached out to Mark to find out more about it and how it was created. Mark says that the tree at the centre of this image is known as a Fairy Tree in Ireland....

Remember when we were kids, we would look up into the sky and try to find shapes in the clouds? Well, I still sometimes do it at 33, and the latest James Webb telescope image reminded me of this fun activity. JWST has peered into the chaos of the Cartwheel Galaxy, sending back a mesmerizing, colorful image. I loved looking at it and it reminded me of a merry-go-round that was always near the train station in my hometown....

The US Senate votes to ban TikTok on government-owned devices The US Senate votes to ban TikTok on government-owned devices The US Senate passed by voice vote a bill to bar federal employees from using TikTok. Just for context’s sake, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. The US has had reservations regarding TikTok and its data practices for quite some time now. It claims this is due to national security reasons....