I am the person responsible for most of the photos you see at the top of all the articles published on this blog. Every week I sift through thousands of stock photos to pick something that is both free and illustrates adequately the article’s subject.

On the HBO show Last Week Tonight, comedian and host John Oliver joked in a monologue about “the United Kingdom, where I’m formally known as ‘who?’”

It’s hard to overstate the importance of mothers to society and to the individual lives of their children; each of us can provide anecdotal evidence of that.

Those of you who know me are aware of my undying love for David Bowie. My well-known fascination (slightly bordering on blind obsession) with the artist can be described as being so ingrained in my daily life that my college roommate once lovingly made me a bracelet with the letters WWDBD, or What Would David Bowie Do?

Lately I have found myself walking around town, going about my everyday activities, and getting increasingly frustrated. I’m not frustrated with the average worries of modern life such as a busy daily commute, and eternally long bank lines. 

Having lived in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city for 9 months, I have had ample time to test the many different modes of available transportation. With never-ending traffic jams, poorly maintained roads, and rarely enforced laws, getting from A to B sometimes presents major challenges.

In June earlier this year, in Nyeri County, Kenya, there were two separate incidents where wives attempted to chop off their husbands’ penises. In the first incident, Anne Njeri attacked Daniel King'ori, her husband of seven years, after she found condoms in his pockets when he returned home from a late-night drinking session.

During my summer field research, I traveled to the Maasai Mara, the Kenyan half of the incredible Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, and the home of the Maasai ethnic group.  For many of us, this probably evokes a sense of timelessness, and a society untouched by the ‘evils of modernity’. It is also one that many National Geographic documentaries and glossy tourist brochures continue to perpetuate. However, it is but a small sliver of the reality there, like looking at one pixel of an entire photograph; beautiful, perhaps, but incomplete.

Genocide. The annihilation of an ethnic or religious group. A shocking, unthinkable crime committed only by the sadistic and depraved. Arguably the worst crime ever to be committed by the human race.

Children in modern, western societies grow up under surveillance much more than ever before. Let’s start with play-areas. Nowadays it is very rare to see children playing on streets or in playgrounds without being supervised by an adult.

In this article I discuss some fascinating trends: tinier homes, changing family living arrangements, and more open and egalitarian work spaces in the US. I will ask, are we seeing - in the actions of the Millennial Generation – evolving use of space, as well as attitudes to consumption and to family and private life? 

The second anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh—an industrial disaster which killed over 1,130 garment workers producing clothing destined for North American and European markets—was marked on 24 April 2015.

After the Stonewall riots in 1969 companies began to become increasingly aware of the profitability of appealing to gay consumers. Promptly, marketers started targeting mythical ‘dream consumers’ - white, middle-class, gay men with double income, but no kids to spend it on.

The symbol of the US dollar looks like this: $. But you don’t need me to tell you that. The dollar sign is so widely recognized that it often surpasses its literal meaning as the symbol for US currency and comes to symbolize money and wealth in general. The dollar sign, in short, has become part of a language of symbols.

The exhibit by Croatian photographer Tomislav Može entitled command+shift+3 (the shortcut keys for a screenshot) is an exploration into our daily involvement with the digital world. Far beyond its mechanical creativity, the project challenges the modern world of social media we have constructed.

This evening the 87th Academy Awards - replete with glitz and glamour - will be watched by expectant viewers from across the globe. But what do the Oscars really tell us about the world in which we reside? In this collaborative piece, the best and brightest of IANS staff talk about representation, popular culture, politics and at points - and somewhat refreshingly - an unashamed love of film. Unlike the members of the Academy, we did not reach a consensus! 

There is a debate amongst coeliacs as to whether this demand has helped or hindered coeliac living. On one hand it has bolstered public awareness on a rare and incurable disease. On the other, it’s born a storm of misconceptions about what actually constitutes gluten-free food, placing coeliacs at risk of ingesting gluten through products advertised as so-called gluten-free.

Let’s have a debate… Whilst doing anthropological fieldwork in Tsumkwe I got involved with/co-founded a project which, in my humble opinion, is pretty exciting: CEDU is a grassroot organisation which is helping the Ju/’hoansi San, one of the oldest indigenous groups in the world, claim back their public image by producing their own media.

On a cold and historic day in February 1964 the iconic red and white maple leaf flag was raised for the first time ending what would later be referred to as the “The Great Canadian Flag Debate”. Chances are you have never heard of the great flag debate, even though it was once the subject of a controversial and heated international dispute.

Beauty standards are everywhere we look, every day. In these times of photo-shopped images, and social experiments such as the Dove Real Beauty stunt, the detrimental effects of media portrayals are at the forefront of everybody’s minds.

A few weeks ago I visited the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh for the first time to see part of the Art Festival and GENERATION – a Scotland-wide celebration of Scottish art.

Yes, I outwardly judge you for posting overly filtered photos on your social media page. But inwardly, I kind of really love it. I love the imagined nostalgia that converts bland mobile phone images into a romantic narrative. I love that photo filters bring design into daily life.

Cultural appropriation in fashion and dress is not often associated with the everyday clothing of Western consumers, but it should be.

In Arusha and Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania, tourism is the bee’s knees to a degree. Tanzania, with Mount Kilimanjaro and the Northern Safari Circuit (with National Parks like Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara) being key attractions, has attracted more than a million tourists in recent years.