Our best photography stories from 2021

+ what it's like to live in an airport, the age when people are happiest US Edition - Today's top story: How Black Americans used portraits and family photographs to defy stereotypes [View in browser]( US Edition | 2 January 2022 [The Conversation]( In a world of endless distraction, the battle for attention has become a defining contest of our era. In this war, photographers are seasoned veterans. Long before the rest of us were forced to sift through social media posts, news alerts and email notifications, they had the daunting task of editing down the chaos and energy of the physical world into a single image or series of images. Out of infinite possibility – myriad angles and objects and subjects – they choose to direct their lens in a conscious way to tell a particular story. In doing so, they can make their audiences see the world anew. Clark University’s Janette Greenwood wrote about photographer William Bullard, whose early-20th century portraits of Black families from Worcester, Massachusetts, were recently discovered. The images, which depict the city’s Black families as ordinary, upstanding Americans, [were a quiet form of protest](: In an era when degrading images of Black Americans pervaded nearly every aspect of popular culture, Greenwood explains how Bullard’s portraits “defy nearly every stereotype of the dysfunctional Black family.” Ron Tarver spent years photographing people largely ignored in mythic depictions of the American West: Black cowboys. He didn’t just depict garden variety cattle herders, either; he documented urban cowboys who operated stables out of inner-city Philadelphia – members of clubs like the Western Wranglers and the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club. When he first published the photographs in The Philadelphia Inquirer, readers were stunned. “Some wrote, ‘There’s no such thing as Black cowboys.‘ They actually said that. I’m like, ‘These pictures prove that! I’m not making this up!’ They were just amazed that Black people could be cowboys,” [Tarver told me in an interview](. In the work of photographer Shannon Taggart, University of Maryland, Baltimore County curator Beth Saunders sees a connection to the disruptions and tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic. For 20 years, Taggart has photographed the adherents of spiritualism, a belief system centered on communication with the dead. To Saunders, it’s no coincidence that people are looking for answers in spiritualism – along with fortunetelling, tarot card readings, conspiracy theories and astrology – in our age of anxiety. “Taggart’s photographs,” [Saunders writes](, “recover the marginalized history of spiritualism at a moment when the religion feels once again on the verge of a resurgence.” I’ve also included three of the Arts and Culture section’s most popular articles from the past year: how a team of musicologists and experts in artificial intelligence [completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th symphony](, [the history of people living in airports]( and a study finding that [happiness is highest among adults in their 30s](. Nick Lehr Arts + Culture Editor We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you give now to support our work, our board will match your donation, up to $40,000. [Double my donation]( Editor's picks Portrait of Betty and Willis Coles by William Bullard from about 1902. Courtesy of Frank Morrill, Clark University and the Worcester Art Museum [How Black Americans used portraits and family photographs to defy stereotypes]( Janette Greenwood, Clark University The camera has long been used to defy a media landscape steeped in negative portrayals of Black families. ‘The Basketball Game.’ Ron Tarver [For Black cowboys – from inner-city Philly to small-town Texas – horses and riding are a way of life]( Nick Lehr, The Conversation Photojournalist Ron Tarver spent years photographing people largely ignored in mythic depictions of white cowboys and the American West. Table-tipping workshop with mediums Jane and Chris Howarth in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 2014. © Shannon Taggart. Courtesy of the Artist. [As spiritualism’s popularity grows, photographer Shannon Taggart takes viewers inside the world of séances, mediums and orbs]( Beth Saunders, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Alternative beliefs like spiritualism seem to experience resurgences in times of crisis. Taggart has spent the past 20 years exploring the oft-misunderstood religion. Reader favorites Throughout the project, Beethoven’s genius loomed. Circe Denyer [How a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony]( Ahmed Elgammal, Rutgers University When Beethoven died, all he left behind were some sketches for his 10th Symphony. Now, thanks to the help of artificial intelligence, the composer’s vision is coming to life. Mehran Karimi Nasseri sits among his belongings in a 2004 photograph taken at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he lived for nearly 18 years. Eric Fougere/VIP Images/Corbis via Getty Images [How some people can end up living at airports for months – even years – at a time]( Janet Bednarek, University of Dayton Some do so of their own accord, using airport amenities to meet their basic needs. Others, however, would rather be anywhere else – and find themselves at the mercy of bureaucratic wrangling. In an ongoing study, most of those interviewed seemed to recognize that they were happier in their 30s than they were in their 20s. RyanJLane via Getty Images [At what age are people usually happiest? New research offers surprising clues]( Clare Mehta, Emmanuel College A developmental psychologist explains how a period of life that's often hectic and stressful can also end up being quite rewarding. Like this newsletter? 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