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Photo/Essay | How My Picture of a Guy on a Diving Board Wound Up on the Cover of an Elton John Album

The photographer and curator Tim Barber has shot work for publications ranging from Vice to Vogue, and for brands like Nike, Levi’s and Opening Ceremony. But his most famous client is undoubtedly Sir Elton John, who used a decade-old photo of Barber’s as the cover of his 31st studio album, “The Diving Board,” out Sept. 24. Here, Barber relates the story of the image:

I took this photo about 10 years ago somewhere between Vancouver and Squamish, on the coast of British Columbia. I don’t actually know exactly where. It’s a kind of legendary secret swimming spot where some kids had installed a diving board on the side of a cliff. You had to park really far away and walk through the woods to get there. I was with some friends from Vancouver who knew about it. I think it was October.

When I took the picture — literally, while I was pushing the button — I was thinking, “This looks amazing.” It was just a special moment and the light was crazy that day. The air was super clear. Something I strive for in my photos is to imply a greater narrative, to make the viewer wonder what happened before and what happened after. I think this picture is a good example of that. It’s also the photo of mine that people always think is fake — like that it’s been Photoshopped, or shot on a green screen. I like that. Something that was so simple and real ended up so surreal and hard to believe.

My good friend Ryan McGinley is friends with Elton John, who is a big collector of contemporary photography and has collected a lot of Ryan’s work. Elton already had the title for the album, so he contacted Ryan and asked him if he had any images that might work for it. Ryan knew about my photo, and suggested it to Elton for the record. Elton called out of the blue, to ask about using the photo and to talk about the record. That experience was almost as surreal as the picture.

This photo has been around quite a bit and seen by a lot of people, but being on this album cover is such a different scale. It’s one of those times when you think about how big the world is, how many eyes are going to see this picture now. People are sending me photos of it on billboards, it’s just a different level of visibility. I love thinking about the dissemination of this image — and that moment — just going out into the world and lasting forever.

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The 10 Best Photo Essays of the Month

This month’s Photojournalism Links collection highlights 10 excellent photo essays from across the world, including Tomas Munita ‘s photographs from Gaza and Israel, made on assignment for the New York Times . The work, coinciding with the first anniversary of last year’s 50 day war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, consists of eight innovative stop-motion-sequences which take us to the streets, hospitals, and homes on both sides of the conflict, and provide an immersive glimpse of how the two groups of communities are coping, one year after.

Tomas Munita: Walking in War’s Path (The New York Times )

Brent Stirton: Tracking Ivory: Terror in Africa | Ivory’s Human Toll (National Geographic) Two strong sets of images for National Geographic magazine’s latest cover story.

Lynsey Addario: Inside the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Diamond Mines (TIME LightBox) Terrific set of images looking at Congo’s diamond mining communities.

Andres Kudacki: Spain’s Housing Crisis (TIME LightBox) Powerful three-year project on the country’s home evictions, now on show at Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival.

Mary Ellen Mark: New Orleans (CNN Money) The legendary photographer’s final assignment, done ahead of Hurricane Katrina’s 10th anniversary.

Daniel Etter: Hands Across Water (Al Jazeera America) Moving series on a small Sea-Watch ship, with a rotating crew of just eight volunteers, trying to save refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.

Sergey Ponomarev: On Island of Lesbos, a Microcosm of Greece’s Other Crisis: Migrants (The New York Times ) Dramatic photographs of refugees and migrants arriving to the Greek island.

Allison Joyce: Child Marriage Bangladesh (International Business Times) Heartbreaking pictures of a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl’s wedding | See also Joyce’s other Bangladeshi child marriage series at Mashable .

Andrea Bruce: Romania’s Disappearing Girls (Al Jazeera America) The Noor photographer’s work shows how poverty and desperation drive Romanian girls into the arms of sex traffickers.

Matt Black: Geography of Poverty: Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 (MSNBC) Second and third chapters of the Magnum photographer’s ambitious project mapping poverty around the U.S.

Mikko Takkunen is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME. Follow him on Twitter @photojournalism .

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Photojournalism Challenge

Each year, The School of The New York Times encourages NYC Summer Academy students to participate in our annual Photojournalism Challenge on Instagram by sharing photos from their time in New York City. We ask The New York Times’s Social Media Photo Editor to review hundreds of entries and select one grand prize winner whose photo is featured in a nationwide print edition of The New York Times.

Congratulations, 2018 Photojournalism Challenge Winner Connie Tu!

Kerri MacDonald, The New York Times's Social Media Photo Editor, selected Connie Tu, a student from our Cultural and Creative Writing course, as the winner of our 2018 Photojournalism Challenge.

During her summer in New York City, Connie documented subtle moments that might not have jumped out to everyone. Her appreciation for both light and color stand out in her photography—from a view of Manhattan's West Side Highway to a photo of friends on a nighttime boat cruise, Connie beautifully captured the magic of our city. Kerri MacDonald, The New York Times's Social Media Photo Editor

View more of Connie's photos below

2018 Finalists

With so many talented student photojournalists it's always hard to choose one winning image. Congratulations to all of our 2018 Finalists!

Iris Workman, Term 2

Gibson Borelli, Term 3

Katie Han, Term 4

Want to enter the challenge?

Our annual Photojournalism Challenge is part of NYC Summer Academy. Applications for NYC Summer Academy 2019 open in December.

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Donald Trump, ‘a Clear and Present Danger to All’

More from our inbox:, justice alito’s upside-down american flag, debate ground rules, marriage penalties.

To the Editor:

Re “ Trump Knows Dominance Wins ,” by M. Steven Fish (Opinion guest essay, May 7):

It used to be that the two parties disparaged each other for three months out of four years during election time. After that, they went back to hammering out helpful policies with civility, despite their different interests and philosophies. Governance worked, and democracy worked.

Over the last 30 years one party gradually stopped caucusing and stopped making policy and instead kept testing the effectiveness of words of disparagement within the world of talk radio while cynically pandering to the pain of a large segment of Americans.

That accelerated when a man who can stuff more slurs and smears into one sentence than a sausage maker can stuff meat in the sausage took over the leadership of his party with his genius for smearing his opponents.

People need to write his sentences down one by one to see the ugliness in each one. His followers love him because they think that his ugly words mean that he cares about them and is fighting for their welfare.

We are close to electing a would-be tyrant for the presidency 250 years after we revolted against a British monarchy — a tyrant who would persecute his opponents and abolish free elections with a “heads I win, tails you lose” philosophy.

Let’s stop talking about “democracy” and start talking about “tyranny.”

Jerrold Bonn Spring House, Pa.

Re “ Wall Street Warms Up to Trump ” (Business, May 16):

I have rarely been as disgusted after reading a New York Times article as I was reading this one. The fact that these Wall Street Daddy Warbucks types are willing to put our democracy at risk by supporting a presidential candidate who has made his autocratic intentions quite clear, apparently believing that they can make even more profits under a second Donald Trump presidency, illustrates nothing if not their shortsightedness.

Aren’t these supposed to be the smartest guys in the room? Haven’t they read the research showing that democracy has a positive effect on per capita gross domestic product ? How can they not see that the authoritarianism, amorality, cronyism and corruption of a second Trump presidency would weaken the systems in which they currently thrive, and would jeopardize their businesses as a result?

Think twice, Wall Street titans. Putting our democracy in further peril for your perceived financial gain risks losing both.

James Misak Cleveland

Re “ From Decades of Reporting, a Long View of Hope ,” by Nicholas Kristof (column, May 12):

While I am heartened by Mr. Kristof’s good news on things like reducing poverty, improving health, etc., his belief that America’s “dynamism and inner strength” can survive a second Donald Trump presidency, despite “four years of national misrule, chaos and subversion of democracy,” is naïve to me.

Four years of a president bent on destroying the environment would render all positive advances meaningless if we no longer have a planet healthy enough to sustain us. Mr. Trump is a clear and present danger to all.

Sally Chrisman Princeton, N.J.

Re “ Finding Someone to Help Is a Job in Itself ” (Thursday Styles, May 16):

I loved how Bianca Giaever was offering help to strangers in New York City, and I actually do something similar in L.A. I, too, want to help people, but I have a different approach.

Humor has always been my go-to, and when Donald Trump was president I decided I needed to do something. I came up with a therapy booth like Lucy’s in the Peanuts comics. Only mine was dealing with Trump-Induced Anxiety, “TheraTrumpy,” as I called it.

It was a big hit then, and I decided that I would bring it back by popular demand and see if I could help people deal with this current nightmare through laughter and intelligent conversation. Besides getting people to smile or laugh, I also suggest breathing, meditation, not watching so much news and a doll with orange hair that people can shake to vent.

I feel that I’m doing L.A. a great service.

Denise McCanles West Hollywood, Calif.

Re “ At Alito’s Home, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol Flew ” (front page, May 17):

Justice Samuel Alito’s blame-the-wife defense for flying a “Stop the Steal” symbol at his home shows contempt for the American people, our democratic processes and the integrity of the court on which he serves.

In recent years, my own house has displayed a “Justice for George Floyd” banner, an improvised Ukrainian flag and each December a “Bah Humbug” sign. In every case, my husband and I consulted before it went up.

Could a man with both the power and the clear inclination to shape American lives not have managed at least a “Hon, maybe not a great look”?

Andrea R. Tebbets Raleigh, N.C.

When I was growing up, I was taught that hanging an American flag upside down was disrespectful. Apparently now, hanging the American flag upside down is a symbol of approving of Donald Trump.

To me, it is a symbol of the world being turned upside down, where politically wrong is right, insurrection is patriotic and morals have been turned on their head.

Jimmy Burgoff Belchertown, Mass.

Re “ Biden and Trump Agree to Debate Twice in Summer ” (front page, May 16):

I hope that CNN and ABC will do everything conceivable to rein in theatrics and encourage a substantive and civilized discourse by establishing ground rules for the upcoming presidential debates. Several possibilities come to mind:

1) Any candidate who interrupts his opponent shall forfeit time.

2) Any candidate who exceeds his allotted time by more than 15 seconds shall have his microphone cut off.

3) Candidate statements shall be verified by independent, real-time fact-checking, the results of which will be aired before the conclusion of the debate.

The goal here must be an opportunity to inform and educate the American electorate.

Gail Southard Canzano West Hartford, Conn.

Re “ Disabled Adults Shouldn’t Have to Pay This Price to Marry, ” by Pepper Stetler (Opinion guest essay, May 15):

While the federal Supplemental Security Income program discourages disabled adults from marrying by reducing the benefits, my 75-year-old disabled brother could not continue to receive our father’s military pension from the federal Defense Finance Accounting Service should he marry. Were he to marry, his main financial support would vanish.

My brother became permanently disabled when he was our father’s dependent child. Our father chose less of a pension when he retired after 31 years of Army service, including combat in two wars, so that upon his and our mother’s deaths my brother would receive this vital financial support.

Suzanne O’Keefe Brooklyn