There’s Black Friday. And Cyber Monday. What about “Photojournalism Thursday”?
OK, I'm kind of kidding, but a recent Facebook post reminded me to remind you Photobloggers that buying a print, or joining a Kickstarter campaign, or even hitting up your local newspaper for a print could be a great gift for someone on your list this holiday season.

Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
White terns, albatross and several other species of birds make Midway Atoll their home as it makes a perfect nesting location with its remote Pacific Ocean location. However, danger lurks beyond the beauty with plastic trash inadvertently being consumed by nesting birds and ghost netting ensnaring endangered marine mammals. This image is part of the Los Angeles Times' 5-part series, Altered Oceans, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.
One of the most frequent emails we get from our readers, especially after we publish The Week in Pictures or Animal Tracks is “Can I buy a copy of that image?” You can. Below, find a rundown of some ways to bring photography home.

Barbara Davidson / The Los Angeles Times
Hawa Barre Osman looks for a sign of life from her one-year-old severely malnourished child, Abdi Noor Ibrahim, inside the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) therapeutic feeding center at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, Africa, July 2011. She walked for one month, with her 5 children, from Somali, to the camp.
Lights, camera, action…print:
By buying a print, you can help fund a documentary film. Chad Stevens, who is a photojournalist and University of North Carolina assistant professor, has been working for six years on a film about a grandmother who is caught between her region’s economic backbone of coal mining, and her environmental concerns about their methods. This isn’t a Hollywood production with million-dollar backing. It’s a self-funded endeavor, with an occasional grant helping along the way. Over the course of the project, other photojournalists have admired the work and wanted to help Chad, offering prints to sell to fund his film. Until Dec. 11, you can buy one of them at A Thousand Little Cuts Online Print Auction. It was Chad’s Facebook post that inspired this blog.
Some other print sales: Nuru Projects, Friends of Anton, Fraction Magazine, Wall Space, Collect Give.
Virtual photography
Does your favorite somebody have an iPad? Or maybe a slick new tablet is waiting for them under the tree? Get them started with some photography apps. Of course there are tried and true publications like National Geographic, but be sure and check out one of our partners, newcomer Once Magazine.
A crowd-funding stocking stuffer:
Have you heard of Kickstarter and Emphas.is? They are two crowd-funding web sites that are being utilized by photojournalists to fund their in-depth projects on important topics worldwide. What’s in it for you, Santa’s little helper? You can help make sure important stories are told. Also, by contributing to these campaigns, backers get to participate in the story creation and also receive gifts like prints or books. A journalist featured on msnbc.com last year is currently running a campaign:
Life without lights: 1.4 billion people – nearly a quarter of humanity lives without access to electricity. Photojournalist Peter DiCampo explores the economic impact of energy poverty and energy’s future.
Books, of course:
It goes without saying that photography books are a great gift. One to consider is Iraq|Perspectives by Benjamin Lowy, showing every day scenes from the war in Iraq captured through Humvee windows and night-vision goggles. Check out American Photo Magazine’s Best Photo Books of 2011 for some other options.
Did you see that shot?
As always, if you’ve spotted a great image on msnbc.com, you can buy a print from the photographer or agency who originally created the image. See our FAQ for more information…and happy holidays.
While people in developed nations spent Earth Day focused on issues like conserving energy, over a billion people in the developing world live without electricity. View a case in point: northern Ghana.


We Americans, all of us even those without jobs or a place to live should be humbled by these extremely unfortunate, deprived people. This is a perfect example of how people treat their own and how selfish the human race really is. Here is a question for all you religious fanatics. "Where is God Now"???
He's watching to see what you will do to help. Its called "free will"
I don't think its a question of where is God... I think its a question of why do we allow conditions like this to exist in the first place, and then, what are we going to do about it now? It's always easy to ask what someone else can do, its time we just 'did', and quit waiting on anyone else to do for us.
Have the people in the developing world ever had electricity? Do they know what it is? Do they know what it could do for them? Can you miss that which you have never had? As there country develops will they get electricity? Clean water? Housing? Highways? Hospitals?
Reed, I was with you until the God comment. It was irrelevant. Most people that believe in God believed in God before there was electricity. What does being an underdeveloped nation have to do with God? This article had nothing to do with religion yet you are using it to push your own religious propaganda. Yes, atheism is a religion BTW. ANYWAY... This does make you appreciate what we.
Reed - 'all you religious fanatics - Where is God now'??
Probably will surprise you to learn God has nothing to do with manmade religion and why should God bale humans out of the mess they created? Like many said here -- your creator is waiting for YOU to do something rather than writing about in a comment on the internet' Unfortunately it's your exact attitude that gives cause for the mess the entire planet is in today -- step it up - leave your glass house and do something NOW