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‘SOMETIMES THE STORY IS YOU’

Saturday, June 25, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we witness a photographer’s gender transition, find Europe’s best historic villages, discover why taking a placebo can sometimes make you feel better … and see summer solstice celebrations around the world.

VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALLISON LIPPY

By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences

In photojournalism school, you’re told that you don’t have to travel halfway across the world for every story. “Sometimes it’s right in front of you,” photographer Allison Lippy told me, “and sometimes it is you.”

Allison turned the camera on herself as she underwent her medical gender transition—making hundreds of self-portraits from 2015 on (a few pictured above). Allison also felt a responsibility to document her story, knowing the importance and storytelling power of self-representation—and hoping she could reach people who could relate. Read her full story here.

At first, Allison was a stranger in front of the lens. But as time went on, she grew more comfortable: “It was more about experimenting in front of the camera and seeing my truth, in identity and emotion, come through.”

The documentation of her remarkable journey–from questions and uncertainty to finding oneself–is one that Allison is grateful for. It reminds her, as she puts it, of “how far I have come.” (Above, January 2, 2016.)

“I hope for people to see a little piece of themselves in this story, one that they can relate to, in my very human journey towards my true identity.”

Pictured above, from Allison’s powerful first-person story, is a self-portrait from May 29. Her story is accompanied by a look at how historians have represented trans people. The word “transgender” dates to the 1960s, but non-binary life has been part of humanity for thousands of years.

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STORIES WE'RE FOLLOWING

PHOTOGRAPH BY GEMUNU AMARASINGHE, AP

The tumultuous history behind Roe v. Wade. In photos: See reaction to yesterday’s decision (pictured above, joyful anti-abortion protesters outside the Supreme Court)

Why these people intentionally got COVID-19

You took a placebo. You knew it was fake. You got better. How?

See the best European villages for history. For romance. For outdoor adventure.

Ready to rumble? How gladiators did it

Hunters stunned by discovery of biggest python in Florida. Related: Guinness confirms biggest freshwater fish

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @GRETARYBUS

Midsummer celebrations: While the children begin the dances around the maypole (or majstång) each Midsommar, eventually the entire community joins in. Each summer, the town of New Sweden in remote northern Maine gathers to honor local Swedish heritage, welcoming people to experience traditional clothing, dancing, food, crafts, and music. Around the world, people celebrated summer’s start last week with festivals and even a midnight baseball game in Alaska.

SUMMERTIME REVELS

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY LEE-ANN OLWAGE

An emerging crisis: Dementia has grown with a vengeance in southern Africa and cases are expected to nearly double from today’s levels by mid-century. In the region, elder care normally falls to families, some of whom rely upon informal kinship networks, Nat Geo reports. (Pictured above is Titus Ihemba, who is tended to by his daughter on a rare visit to Rundu, a village in northern Namibia.)

A HEARTBREAKING THREAT

IN A FEW WORDS

QUOTE

Whoever we are in the world, we should not lose our essence, and culture is such an important part of our essence. It should not dictate our existence, but it certainly must be preserved.

Miora Rajaonary

Documentary photographer, Nat Geo Explorer

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEAN BOWIE THORPE AND FRANC SHOR

Don’t touch the cactus! Children play near a cactus outside a house on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, in this image that appeared in the April 1955 edition of National Geographic. The cactus was important historically to the islands—it supported the cochineal insect, which produced a red dye that was a major export in the early 1900s. “The bright colors of the foreground are particularly eye popping against the cloudy sky in the background,” says Sara Manco, senior photo archivist at the National Geographic Society. Photographer Jean Bowie Thorpe later became a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle; Franc Shor became a senior editor at Nat Geo.

SEE VINTAGE PHOTOS

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, Monica Williams, and Heather Kim. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Rita Spinks, April George, and Hobbs Bell also contributed this week. Have an idea or a link? We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for reading!

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