Shooting

When i was a little girl, my mother was an assistant curator at the Natural History Museum in Raleigh, NC. When she brought me with her to work, I would spend hours in its diorama room. These exhibits are both fascinating and macabre; I think of them now as a relic of our troubled coexistence with nature.

“I enjoy finding good light, instead of making it,” says Alabama-based pro Cary Norton. And most of us would agree.The available-light strategy makes a lot of sense for many photographers for several reasons: Good light is usually easy to find, it comes in all varieties (flat, contrasty, bright, or dim), and, when you’re lucky enough to find it, costs nothing.

Sometimes we forget that photography doesn’t have to capture a single decisive moment. Sometimes it can be more: a glimpse outside our usual sensory boundaries that reveals something both familiar and alien.New York City-based photographer Bill Wadman (billwadman.com) was inspired by motion blur in an old boxing photo to try something lyrical with several friends who happened to be professional dancers.