The Stein Sisters’ “Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer”

Filmmakers Emily and Alice Stein’s “Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer” is a charming documentary about a pair of ballroom-dancing kids, Francesco Cesario and Chiara Morgese. Capturing their everyday lives, and (of course) their incredible dancing, the film offers a glimpse into a passion that’s enviable and infectious. After photographing young ballroom dancers, the sisters and filmmakers focused on Francesco and Chiara because, “They are so …

The 170-Year History of Food Photography

The first image of food wasn’t avocado toast—instead it was a still life of fruit, shot by William Henry Fox Talbot (a British scientist and mathematician, best known as a pioneer photographer and the inventor of several photog processes). Influenced by traditional painting, food photography took some time to develop on its own—in 1927, Edward Steichen was commissioned by the Stehli Silk Corporation to “produce …

Tracing the Evolution of Language

Michael Gavin, associate professor of human dimensions of natural resources at Colorado State University, and other researchers across six disciplines formed a unit (in 2010) with the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and they’re on a mission to better understand why our species, collectively, speaks over 7,000 distinct languages. They began by reviewing existing studies (language studies around the equator and …