©2009 John Stanmeyer/National Geographic Today we present seven images by John Stanmeyer from the June 2009 issue of National Geographic Magazine. Above: Skilled fingers separate good seed from bad at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Philippines. “Miracle rice” varieties developed here in the 1960s doubled yields in Asia. Further growth has stalled since the mid-1990s, as investment in agriculture has declined. “Governments thought we’d won the war on food security,” says IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler. “So they put money elsewhere.” Cover: ©2009 National Geographic

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Photos by aerial photographer Jason Hawkes. This series (except for the last image) was done for a tie-in book for the BBC television series entitled “Britain from Above.” Hawkes spent three months flying throughout the UK to get these scenes and shot the images from a twin star helicopter using a Nikon D3, with either a 14-24mm or 70-200mm lens. For some of the shots, Hawkes was tethered to his MacBook Pro to check the sharpness of his images as he took them. The night images were shot using a mount with triple stabilizers mounted on the floor of the helicopter. Hawkes, who is based just outside London and works worldwide, has produced over 35 aerial photographic books for publishers such as the BBC, Random House and Harper Collins in the U.K., Europe and the U.S.

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Photo by Natan Dvir, an editorial and documentary photographer who is based in New York. Dvir just won an Honorable Mention from the New York Photo Festival (NYPH) 2009 for this image taken on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It’s from his ongoing series “Awesome,” documenting New York City street scenes.

All photos by Colby Katz courtesy Foley Gallery, NYC

While many children spend their Saturdays and Sundays indulging freely in games of tag and make believe, a few are on the road, marched and marching tall into a cutthroat industry of adorable. For the last five years, photographer Colby Katz has been documenting the behind the scenes, and the scenes of child beauty pageants. Her long focus on this project comes as Katz herself was entered into pageants as a young girl.

Beauty Pageants permits us an insider’s view, inside hotel rooms, elevators and hallways where teeny-tot contestants are being fussed and fawned over, preened and perfected, hair-sprayed and spray-tanned by a swarm of proud, ambitious mothers.

Colby Katz‘s Beauty Pageants project will be exhibited concurrently from May 28 to July 31 with Sarah Wilson‘s Blind Prom project at Foley Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, NYC.

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All photos by Sarah Wilson courtesy Foley Gallery, NYC

For the students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, prom night is a momentous occasion. Since the spring season of 2006, Sarah Wilson has offered her professional services as the prom photographer for TSBVI. She remarks, “From the moment the girls began trying on their dresses in the dorm rooms, till the last dance at midnight, I was there taking pictures, fully immersed in a familiar teenage excitement and energy. For many of the kids this was the most formal event they had ever attended. It was Prom, and it was a big deal.”

Blind Prom focuses on an American right of passage, the high school prom. Throughout the night she captures candid moments of the prom attendees, while producing their formal portraits.

Sarah Wilson‘s Blind Prom project will be exhibited concurrently from May 28 to July 31 with Colby Katz‘s Beauty Pageants project at Foley Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, NYC.

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