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Come intern with us! We are looking for a couple of photo editing interns for the Winter/Spring semester. There is also a science photo editing internship and a video production internship for NPR Music. Deadline is Nov. 15. While these are all editing focused internships, there are opportunities to shoot and pitch ideas for the web.

kateoplis:

Photoquai 2013: Qingjun Huang, Family Stuff

In a certain region of the Missouri Ozarks called Devil’s Promenade, there are tales of a “spook light.” According to local accounts, it’s a mysterious orb-like light that appears in the woods — but only on chance nights. And as many local legends are, this one is shrouded in mystery: Is the spook light real? What is it? Is it evil? Is it good?

Photographer Lara Shipley says there’s no consensus — and that’s what drew her to the spook light. She and her collaborator Antone Dolezal have been to the region — right where Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas meet — twice. Their photos don’t literally show the light (which, Shipley says, they may or may not have seen at one point), but they convey “a feeling of what this place is like.”

On The Devil’s Promenade, Searching For The Spook Light

Photo Credit: Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal

pbsthisdayinhistory:

teatimeatwinterpalace:

Happy Halloween 

My favorite is the middle row, far right, so cool!

The past is way spookier than the present. -Emily

pulitzerfieldnotes:

An ex-gang member who spent his entire life in Arizona. He was recruited into gangs after crossing the U.S. border with his mother at the age of two. Young men such as this are the foot soldiers and front line in Mexico’s drug war. 

— Pulitzer Center grantee Louie Palu. Palu is manning Now This is News’ Instagram account this week to share photos and stories about the Mexican drug war.

In November, you will be able to see his work in person in DC and New York City. Palu’s photos are part of the Pulitzer Center’s engaging FotoWeekDC exhibit on borders. Palu and photographer Tomas van Houtryve will discuss their work Sunday, November 3rd. (More info here.)

Starting November 8th, his photos will be featured at the Brooklyn Museum in an incredible new exhibit on the aftermath of war. (More info here.)

natgeofound:

Westinghouse demonstrates an electric razor using x-ray technology, May 1941.Photograph by Westinghouse Electric Corp.

All of this is incredibly spooky. -Emily

americanguide:

LAND OF OZ - BEACH MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA

As I step off of Dorothy’s back porch, I see the withered twitching legs of the Wicked Witch of the East under the house. The yellow brick road is before me and brighter and more magical than I ever imagined.

Hidden among the twisty roads of Beech Mountain, NC, the highest town east of the Rocky Mountains, the Land of Oz awaits. The defunct theme park was the passion project of Grover Robbins, the man behind the successful and still operational Tweetsie Railroad. The park was plagued with problems from the onset with Grover’s death shortly before the park opened in 1970. Problems continued throughout the park’s ten year run, including a devastating fire in 1975.

Grover Robbins knew that the L. Frank Baum books and Wizard of Oz film from 1939 would endure. Cynthia Keller, caretaker to the park, sees it every year for the popular Autumn at Oz event (usually the first weekend in October). People of all ages, take the slow drive up the twisty mountain to travel to Oz.

For the two day event, there are hordes of Dorothys with ruby red slippers and prides of cowardly lions enjoying the park. Costumed volunteers line the walk: one of the scarecrows is a master of somersaults and one of the tin men says “oil me” through clenched teeth.

There is an intriguing mix of psychedelic elements (the middle of Dorothy’s house is dark and seen in black light with a projected twister), homemade and Hollywood (they have some props and costumes from the film), as well as melancholy and whimsy.

Parts of the walk are truly terrifying: green faced guards block the entrance to the witch’s lair and those horrible flying monkeys pop out from seemingly nowhere to give chase for a few steps. I don’t know if it is the lack of oxygen or my great affection for these characters (growing up the film was an annual event and I was Dorothy from age 8-10 in a small 4th of July parade in Iowa), but I love this place.

The 2013 Autumn at Oz took place October 5th & 6th. During the rest of the year, Dorothy’s home is rentable as a hotel room. If you ask nicely, Cynthia Keller can usually leave the gate open so you can take a look as long as she knows and you won’t steal the bricks.

* * *

Tammy Mercure is a State Guide to Tennessee. She was recently named one of the “100 under 100: The New Superstars of Southern Art” by Oxford American magazine.

Follow on Tumblr at tammymercure or on her website,TammyMercure.com. Support her work at TCB Press.

Closed theme parks are super spooky, but this is such a neat event! -Emily

For this month’s Public Square assignment, we asked you to share the story of your commute and challenged you to find beauty in the everyday. Many of you rose (or should we say rode!) to the occasion. Here are some of our favorites.

Stay tuned for our next assignment and follow us on Instagram @npr and @kpcc.

Planes, Trains And Gondolas: Your Commute In Photos

Photo Credits: @donilee, @anjalid and @katetyler

here are a few unavoidable things in life: death, taxes and, for most of us, commuting. This month we want you to take a closer look at your commute, a continuation of our “Public Square" series with KPCC.

Document something beautiful, strange, memorable — something that makes your daily trek remarkable — and share it on Instagram or Twitter with #PSCommute. Even if it’s just the mental commute to your home office. Get creative!

You might find that the exercise makes your commute a little longer — but also a little more fun.

Public Square Photo Assignment: Show Us Your Commute!

Photo Credits: Kainaz Amaria/@kainazamaria, Karen Grubby/@mrsgrubby, Sonia Narang/@sonianarang, Sheldon Serkin/@shelserkin

The people who keep the world functioning — its garbage collectors, utility workers, public transit operators — often go unnoticed, existing as a kind of invisible backbone to our lives. But three residents of Richmond, Va., want to change that, by focusing on the city’s bus drivers. Their project, Driving Richmond: Stories and Portraits of the GRTC Bus Drivers, was on view at the RVA Street Art Festival last month.

Laura Browder first came up with the idea when a former student (and the festival’s curator), Vaughn Garland, told her about the exhibition space: a long, cavernous brick building that housed Richmond’s public transit company for over 100 years. At the time, Browder was conducting oral history interviews for a project about civil rights in Richmond.

"It was clear to me from those interviews how pivotal buses, and busing, were in this Southern city that underwent profound changes during the civil rights era," she says.

Portraits Of The People Who Drive Richmond, Va.

Photo Credit: Michael Lease