"In her collection Strange Hours, the writer Rebecca Bengal considers over a century of photography that has defined our relationship to the medium. Through generous and in-depth essays, profiles, reviews, and interviews, Bengal contemplates photography's narrative power, from the radical intimacy of Nan Goldin's New York demimonde to Justine Kurland's pictures of rebel girls on the open road. Bengal brings us closer to several pioneering artists...

Observed from space, Earth looks like a blue planet, particularly in the wondrous blue tones emanating from south of the equator. Indeed, about two-thirds of the Earth's surface is covered in water, and our pride in this is exceeded only by what we feel when witnessing the overwhelming abundance and beauty of our natural scenery. The closer we approach each individual landscape, the greater the color ranges become as nature continues to surprise us....