Mary Mokhethoa,68, with her three orphan grandchildren Itumeleng, 12, Dikeledi, 20, Lebogang, 22, and her great-granddaughter, Keamogetswe. Alexandra township, Johannesburg, South Africa; October 2012.

Jonathan Torgovnik’s photographs put a face on the destructive legacy AIDS has brought upon the families of South Africa. See more on LightBox.

Elijah Jones, 23, sits in his room on the fourth floor of the Redfern Houses. Since the storm, water has condensed on the walls and ceiling because his room is so cold, and mold is starting to grow on his walls. Every day he tries to clean the moisture from his room, but the water keeps coming back. “That’s the only light we got,” he says pointing to a spotlight on a generator in the courtyard. “We just got that like three days ago.” (photo: Finlay MacKay for TIME )

For many in Sandy’s path, the storm itself was terrifying. On Staten Island, houses collapsed, crushing people underneath; in Breezy Point, families fled blocks of homes in flames. But in Redfern, the real struggle began the next day, when it became clear that power wouldn’t return for weeks.

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New York City, 1975 (photo: Joel Meyerowitz)

In honor of the 50th anniversary of when he first took up a camera, photographer Joel Meyerowitz has compiled hundreds of his favorite images for a new two-volume collection.

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Andy Kei Ook (photo: Stephen Dupont)

Stephen Dupont’s disturbing and powerful Polaroids of latter-day outlaws in Papua New Guinea are fittingly reminiscent of wild west-era daguerreotype portraits taken more than a century ago.

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Al Roudh Primary School for Girls, Manama, Bahrain.                                                     Grade 4, English. April 15, 2007.

Regardless of where we grew up, most of us spent many of our formative years sitting in a classroom. British photographer Julian Germain spent eight years photographing students in classrooms around the world.

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Untitled from the series ‘Looking for Love, 1996’

The history of mankind is rife with love producing illogical and oddball behavior. Alec Soth’s newest book Looking for Love, 1996 is, in its way, about the search for love guided by the heart and the search of love guided by the eye.

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Masha (left), sentenced for violence, and Sveta, sentenced for theft. Juvenile prison for girls, Ukraine, 2009. (photo: Michal Chelbin)

Photographer Michal Chelbin spent three years photographing prisons in Russia and Ukraine. Her new book ‘Sailboats and Swans’ presents a striking collection of images that portray the strange and contradictory worlds of these institutions.

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Fred Rogers’s Sweater, Pittsburgh, 1998 (photo: Dan Winters)

Photographer Dan Winters’ retrospective show, ‘America: Icons and Ingenuity’, opens Sept. 14 at the Jepson Center in Savannah, Ga.

Nick Offerman wrote for LightBox about Winters’ extraordinary passion and dedication to his interests. See more photos and read the story here.

Jim Morris, 42 years, Foreman (Photo: Melissa Cacciola)

For more than a century, Mohawk ironworkers have helped shape New York City’s iconic skyline, guiding ribbons of metal into the steel skeletons that form the backbone of the city. On the 11th anniversary of September 11th, LightBox presents Melissa Cacciola’s tintype series of the Mohawk ironworkers helping to raise One World Trade Center.

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Brittany Wirth, Arvada, Colo. 

Photographer Grant Cornett took to the streets of North Carolina, capturing members from each state’s delegation. His work puts a face on the Democratic Party in 2012.

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