Sabella pavonina, commonly known as the peacock worm, is a species of marine polychaete worm in the family Sabellidae. It can be found along the coasts of western Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, in shallow, tidal waters with a bed of mud, sand or gravel. The worm is 10 to 25 centimetres (4 to 10 inches) in length, with its body divided into 100 to 600 small segments. The head has two fans of 8 to 45 feathery radioles arising from fleshy, semi-circular lobes. The body is mostly grey-green while the radioles are brown, red or purple with darker bands. This group of S. pavonina worms was photographed with a short-snouted seahorse in a protected marine natural area near Porto Cesareo, Italy. Photograph credit: Romano Gianluca Recently featured: Magna Carta (An Embroidery) Raspberry Challenger 2 Archive More featured pictures

Meet Martha Swope, the Legendary Broadway Photographer Who Captured Iconic Moments From Hundreds of Productions and Rehearsals She spent nearly 40 years taking theater and dance pictures, providing glimpses behind the scenes and creating images that the public couldn’t otherwise access Stephanie Rudig - Freelance Writer June 11, 2025 Photographer Martha Swope sitting on a floor covered with prints of her photos in 1987 Andrea Legge / © NYPL Martha Swope wanted to be a dancer. She moved from her home state of Texas to New York to attend the School of American Ballet, hoping to start a career in dance. Swope also happened to be an amateur photographer. So, in 1957, a fellow classmate invited her to bring her camera and document rehearsals for a little theater show he was working on. The classmate was director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, and the show was West Side Story. One of those rehearsal shots ended up in Life magazine, and Swope quickly started getting professional bookings. It’s notoriously tough to make it on Broadway, but through photography, Swope carved out a career capturing theater and dance. Over the course of nearly four decades, she photographed hundreds more rehearsals, productions and promotional studio shots. Unidentified male chorus members dancing during rehearsals for musical West Side Story in 1957 Martha Swope / © NYPL At a time when live performances were not often or easily captured, Swope’s photographs caught the animated moments and distilled the essence of a show into a single image: André De Shields clad in a jumpsuit as the title character in The Wiz, Patti LuPone with her arms raised overhead in Evita, the cast of Cats leaping in feline formations, a close-up of a forlorn Sheryl Lee Ralph in Dreamgirls and the row of dancers obscuring their faces with their headshots in A Chorus Line were all captured by Swope’s camera. She was also the house photographer for the New York City Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company and photographed other major dance companies such as the Ailey School. Her vision of the stage became fairly ubiquitous, with Playbill reporting that in the late 1970s, two-thirds of Broadway productions were photographed by Swope, meaning her work dominated theater and dance coverage. Carol Rosegg was early in her photography career when she heard that Swope was looking for an assistant. “I didn't frankly even know who she was,” Rosegg says. “Then the press agent who told me said, ‘Pick up any New York Times and you’ll find out.’” Swope’s background as a dancer likely equipped her to press the shutter at the exact right moment to capture movement, and to know when everyone on stage was precisely posed. She taught herself photography and early on used a Brownie camera, a simple box model made by Kodak. “She was what she described as ‘a dancer with a Brownie,’” says Barbara Stratyner, a historian of the performing arts who curated exhibitions of Swope’s work at the New York Public Library. An ensemble of dancers in rehearsal for the stage production Cats in 1982 Martha Swope / © NYPL “Dance was her first love,” Rosegg says. “She knew everything about dance. She would never use a photo of a dancer whose foot was wrong; the feet had to be perfect.” According to Rosegg, once the photo subjects knew she was shooting, “the anxiety level came down a little bit.” They knew that they’d look good in the resulting photos, and they likely trusted her intuition as a fellow dancer. Swope moved with the bearing of a dancer and often stood with her feet in ballet’s fourth position while she shot. She continued to take dance classes throughout her life, including at the prestigious Martha Graham School. Stratyner says, “As Graham got older, [Swope] was, I think, the only person who was allowed to photograph rehearsals, because Graham didn’t want rehearsals shown.” Photographic technology and the theater and dance landscapes evolved greatly over the course of Swope’s career. Rosegg points out that at the start of her own career, cameras didn’t even automatically advance the film after each shot. She explains the delicate nature of working with film, saying, “When you were shooting film, you actually had to compose, because you had 35 shots and then you had to change your film.” Swope also worked during a period of changing over from all black-and-white photos to a mixture of black-and-white and color photography. Rosegg notes that simultaneously, Swope would shoot black-and-white, and she herself would shoot color. Looking at Swope’s portfolio is also an examination of increasingly crisp photo production. Advances in photography made shooting in the dark or capturing subjects under blinding stage lights easier, and they allowed for better zooming in from afar. Martha Graham rehearses dancer Takako Asakawa and others in Heretic, a dance work choreographed by Graham, in 1986 Martha Swope / © NYPL It’s much more common nowadays to get a look behind the curtain of theater productions via social media. “The theater photographers of today need to supply so much content,” Rosegg says. “We didn’t have any of that, and getting to go backstage was kind of a big deal.” Photographers coming to document a rehearsal once might have been seen as an intrusion, but now, as Rosegg puts it, “everybody is desperate for you to come, and if you’re not there, they’re shooting it on their iPhone.” Even with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the hottest tickets in town and the biggest stars of the day, Swope remained unpretentious. She lived and worked in a brownstone with her apartment above her studio, where the film was developed in a closet and the bathroom served as a darkroom. Rosegg recalls that a phone sat in the darkroom so they could be reached while printing, and she would be amazed at the big-name producers and theater glitterati who rang in while she was making prints in an unventilated space. From left to right: Paul Winfield, Ruby Dee, Marsha Jackson and Denzel Washington in the stage production Checkmates in 1988 Martha Swope / © NYPL Swope’s approachability extended to how she chose to preserve her work. She originally sold her body of work to Time Life, and, according to Stratyner, she was unhappy with the way the photos became relatively inaccessible. She took back the rights to her collection and donated it to the New York Public Library, where many photos can be accessed by researchers in person, and the entire array of photos is available online to the public in the Digital Collections. Searching “Martha Swope” yields over 50,000 items from more than 800 productions, featuring a huge variety of figures, from a white-suited John Travolta busting a disco move in Saturday Night Fever to Andrew Lloyd Webber with Nancy Reagan at a performance of Phantom of the Opera. Swope’s extensive career was recognized in 2004 with a special Tony Award, a Tony Honors for Excellence in Theater, which are given intermittently to notable figures in theater who operate outside of traditional awards categories. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the League of Professional Theater Women in 2007. Though she retired in 1994 and died in 2017, her work still reverberates through dance and Broadway history today. For decades, she captured the fleeting moments of theater that would otherwise never be seen by the public. And her passion was clear and straightforward. As she once told an interviewer: “I’m not interested in what’s going on on my side of the camera. I’m interested in what’s happening on the other side.” Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Guided by visual effects supervisor John Knoll, ILM embraced continually evolving methodologies to craft breathtaking visual effects for the iconic space battles in First Contact and Rogue One. By Jay Stobie Visual effects supervisor John Knoll (right) confers with modelmakers Kim Smith and John Goodson with the miniature of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E during production of Star Trek: First Contact (Credit: ILM). Bolstered by visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic, Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) propelled their respective franchises to new heights. While Star Trek Generations (1994) welcomed Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) crew to the big screen, First Contact stood as the first Star Trek feature that did not focus on its original captain, the legendary James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Similarly, though Rogue One immediately preceded the events of Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), it was set apart from the episodic Star Wars films and launched an era of storytelling outside of the main Skywalker saga that has gone on to include Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), The Mandalorian (2019-23), Andor (2022-25), Ahsoka (2023), The Acolyte (2024), and more. The two films also shared a key ILM contributor, John Knoll, who served as visual effects supervisor on both projects, as well as an executive producer on Rogue One. Currently, ILM’s executive creative director and senior visual effects supervisor, Knoll – who also conceived the initial framework for Rogue One’s story – guided ILM as it brought its talents to bear on these sci-fi and fantasy epics. The work involved crafting two spectacular starship-packed space clashes – First Contact’s Battle of Sector 001 and Rogue One’s Battle of Scarif. Although these iconic installments were released roughly two decades apart, they represent a captivating case study of how ILM’s approach to visual effects has evolved over time. With this in mind, let’s examine the films’ unforgettable space battles through the lens of fascinating in-universe parallels and the ILM-produced fleets that face off near Earth and Scarif. A final frame from the Battle of Scarif in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). A Context for Conflict In First Contact, the United Federation of Planets – a 200-year-old interstellar government consisting of more than 150 member worlds – braces itself for an invasion by the Borg – an overwhelmingly powerful collective composed of cybernetic beings who devastate entire planets by assimilating their biological populations and technological innovations. The Borg only send a single vessel, a massive cube containing thousands of hive-minded drones and their queen, pushing the Federation’s Starfleet defenders to Earth’s doorstep. Conversely, in Rogue One, the Rebel Alliance – a fledgling coalition of freedom fighters – seeks to undermine and overthrow the stalwart Galactic Empire – a totalitarian regime preparing to tighten its grip on the galaxy by revealing a horrifying superweapon. A rebel team infiltrates a top-secret vault on Scarif in a bid to steal plans to that battle station, the dreaded Death Star, with hopes of exploiting a vulnerability in its design. On the surface, the situations could not seem to be more disparate, particularly in terms of the Federation’s well-established prestige and the Rebel Alliance’s haphazardly organized factions. Yet, upon closer inspection, the spaceborne conflicts at Earth and Scarif are linked by a vital commonality. The threat posed by the Borg is well-known to the Federation, but the sudden intrusion upon their space takes its defenses by surprise. Starfleet assembles any vessel within range – including antiquated Oberth-class science ships – to intercept the Borg cube in the Typhon Sector, only to be forced back to Earth on the edge of defeat. The unsanctioned mission to Scarif with Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the sudden need to take down the planet’s shield gate propels the Rebel Alliance fleet into rushing to their rescue with everything from their flagship Profundity to GR-75 medium transports. Whether Federation or Rebel Alliance, these fleets gather in last-ditch efforts to oppose enemies who would embrace their eradication – the Battles of Sector 001 and Scarif are fights for survival. From Physical to Digital By the time Jonathan Frakes was selected to direct First Contact, Star Trek’s reliance on constructing traditional physical models (many of which were built by ILM) for its features was gradually giving way to innovative computer graphics (CG) models, resulting in the film’s use of both techniques. “If one of the ships was to be seen full-screen and at length,” associate visual effects supervisor George Murphy told Cinefex’s Kevin H. Martin, “we knew it would be done as a stage model. Ships that would be doing a lot of elaborate maneuvers in space battle scenes would be created digitally.” In fact, physical and CG versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E appear in the film, with the latter being harnessed in shots involving the vessel’s entry into a temporal vortex at the conclusion of the Battle of Sector 001. Despite the technological leaps that ILM pioneered in the decades between First Contact and Rogue One, they considered filming physical miniatures for certain ship-related shots in the latter film. ILM considered filming physical miniatures for certain ship-related shots in Rogue One. The feature’s fleets were ultimately created digitally to allow for changes throughout post-production. “If it’s a photographed miniature element, it’s not possible to go back and make adjustments. So it’s the additional flexibility that comes with the computer graphics models that’s very attractive to many people,” John Knoll relayed to writer Jon Witmer at American Cinematographer’s TheASC.com. However, Knoll aimed to develop computer graphics that retained the same high-quality details as their physical counterparts, leading ILM to employ a modern approach to a time-honored modelmaking tactic. “I also wanted to emulate the kit-bashing aesthetic that had been part of Star Wars from the very beginning, where a lot of mechanical detail had been added onto the ships by using little pieces from plastic model kits,” explained Knoll in his chat with TheASC.com. For Rogue One, ILM replicated the process by obtaining such kits, scanning their parts, building a computer graphics library, and applying the CG parts to digitally modeled ships. “I’m very happy to say it was super-successful,” concluded Knoll. “I think a lot of our digital models look like they are motion-control models.” John Knoll (second from left) confers with Kim Smith and John Goodson with the miniature of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E during production of Star Trek: First Contact (Credit: ILM). Legendary Lineages In First Contact, Captain Picard commanded a brand-new vessel, the Sovereign-class U.S.S. Enterprise-E, continuing the celebrated starship’s legacy in terms of its famous name and design aesthetic. Designed by John Eaves and developed into blueprints by Rick Sternbach, the Enterprise-E was built into a 10-foot physical model by ILM model project supervisor John Goodson and his shop’s talented team. ILM infused the ship with extraordinary detail, including viewports equipped with backlit set images from the craft’s predecessor, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. For the vessel’s larger windows, namely those associated with the observation lounge and arboretum, ILM took a painstakingly practical approach to match the interiors shown with the real-world set pieces. “We filled that area of the model with tiny, micro-scale furniture,” Goodson informed Cinefex, “including tables and chairs.” Rogue One’s rebel team initially traversed the galaxy in a U-wing transport/gunship, which, much like the Enterprise-E, was a unique vessel that nonetheless channeled a certain degree of inspiration from a classic design. Lucasfilm’s Doug Chiang, a co-production designer for Rogue One, referred to the U-wing as the film’s “Huey helicopter version of an X-wing” in the Designing Rogue One bonus featurette on Disney+ before revealing that, “Towards the end of the design cycle, we actually decided that maybe we should put in more X-wing features. And so we took the X-wing engines and literally mounted them onto the configuration that we had going.” Modeled by ILM digital artist Colie Wertz, the U-wing’s final computer graphics design subtly incorporated these X-wing influences to give the transport a distinctive feel without making the craft seem out of place within the rebel fleet. While ILM’s work on the Enterprise-E’s viewports offered a compelling view toward the ship’s interior, a breakthrough LED setup for Rogue One permitted ILM to obtain realistic lighting on actors as they looked out from their ships and into the space around them. “All of our major spaceship cockpit scenes were done that way, with the gimbal in this giant horseshoe of LED panels we got from [equipment vendor] VER, and we prepared graphics that went on the screens,” John Knoll shared with American Cinematographer’s Benjamin B and Jon D. Witmer. Furthermore, in Disney+’s Rogue One: Digital Storytelling bonus featurette, visual effects producer Janet Lewin noted, “For the actors, I think, in the space battle cockpits, for them to be able to see what was happening in the battle brought a higher level of accuracy to their performance.” The U.S.S. Enterprise-E in Star Trek: First Contact (Credit: Paramount). Familiar Foes To transport First Contact’s Borg invaders, John Goodson’s team at ILM resurrected the Borg cube design previously seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), creating a nearly three-foot physical model to replace the one from the series. Art consultant and ILM veteran Bill George proposed that the cube’s seemingly straightforward layout be augmented with a complex network of photo-etched brass, a suggestion which produced a jagged surface and offered a visual that was both intricate and menacing. ILM also developed a two-foot motion-control model for a Borg sphere, a brand-new auxiliary vessel that emerged from the cube. “We vacuformed about 15 different patterns that conformed to this spherical curve and covered those with a lot of molded and cast pieces. Then we added tons of acid-etched brass over it, just like we had on the cube,” Goodson outlined to Cinefex’s Kevin H. Martin. As for Rogue One’s villainous fleet, reproducing the original trilogy’s Death Star and Imperial Star Destroyers centered upon translating physical models into digital assets. Although ILM no longer possessed A New Hope’s three-foot Death Star shooting model, John Knoll recreated the station’s surface paneling by gathering archival images, and as he spelled out to writer Joe Fordham in Cinefex, “I pieced all the images together. I unwrapped them into texture space and projected them onto a sphere with a trench. By doing that with enough pictures, I got pretty complete coverage of the original model, and that became a template upon which to redraw very high-resolution texture maps. Every panel, every vertical striped line, I matched from a photograph. It was as accurate as it was possible to be as a reproduction of the original model.” Knoll’s investigative eye continued to pay dividends when analyzing the three-foot and eight-foot Star Destroyer motion-control models, which had been built for A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), respectively. “Our general mantra was, ‘Match your memory of it more than the reality,’ because sometimes you go look at the actual prop in the archive building or you look back at the actual shot from the movie, and you go, ‘Oh, I remember it being a little better than that,’” Knoll conveyed to TheASC.com. This philosophy motivated ILM to combine elements from those two physical models into a single digital design. “Generally, we copied the three-footer for details like the superstructure on the top of the bridge, but then we copied the internal lighting plan from the eight-footer,” Knoll explained. “And then the upper surface of the three-footer was relatively undetailed because there were no shots that saw it closely, so we took a lot of the high-detail upper surface from the eight-footer. So it’s this amalgam of the two models, but the goal was to try to make it look like you remember it from A New Hope.” A final frame from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). Forming Up the Fleets In addition to the U.S.S. Enterprise-E, the Battle of Sector 001 debuted numerous vessels representing four new Starfleet ship classes – the Akira, Steamrunner, Saber, and Norway – all designed by ILM visual effects art director Alex Jaeger. “Since we figured a lot of the background action in the space battle would be done with computer graphics ships that needed to be built from scratch anyway, I realized that there was no reason not to do some new designs,” John Knoll told American Cinematographer writer Ron Magid. Used in previous Star Trek projects, older physical models for the Oberth and Nebula classes were mixed into the fleet for good measure, though the vast majority of the armada originated as computer graphics. Over at Scarif, ILM portrayed the Rebel Alliance forces with computer graphics models of fresh designs (the MC75 cruiser Profundity and U-wings), live-action versions of Star Wars Rebels’ VCX-100 light freighter Ghost and Hammerhead corvettes, and Star Wars staples (Nebulon-B frigates, X-wings, Y-wings, and more). These ships face off against two Imperial Star Destroyers and squadrons of TIE fighters, and – upon their late arrival to the battle – Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer and the Death Star. The Tantive IV, a CR90 corvette more popularly referred to as a blockade runner, made its own special cameo at the tail end of the fight. As Princess Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher and Ingvild Deila) personal ship, the Tantive IV received the Death Star plans and fled the scene, destined to be captured by Vader’s Star Destroyer at the beginning of A New Hope. And, while we’re on the subject of intricate starship maneuvers and space-based choreography… Although the First Contact team could plan visual effects shots with animated storyboards, ILM supplied Gareth Edwards with a next-level virtual viewfinder that allowed the director to select his shots by immersing himself among Rogue One’s ships in real time. “What we wanted to do is give Gareth the opportunity to shoot his space battles and other all-digital scenes the same way he shoots his live-action. Then he could go in with this sort of virtual viewfinder and view the space battle going on, and figure out what the best angle was to shoot those ships from,” senior animation supervisor Hal Hickel described in the Rogue One: Digital Storytelling featurette. Hickel divulged that the sequence involving the dish array docking with the Death Star was an example of the “spontaneous discovery of great angles,” as the scene was never storyboarded or previsualized. Visual effects supervisor John Knoll with director Gareth Edwards during production of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). Tough Little Ships The Federation and Rebel Alliance each deployed “tough little ships” (an endearing description Commander William T. Riker [Jonathan Frakes] bestowed upon the U.S.S. Defiant in First Contact) in their respective conflicts, namely the U.S.S. Defiant from Deep Space Nine and the Tantive IV from A New Hope. VisionArt had already built a CG Defiant for the Deep Space Nine series, but ILM upgraded the model with images gathered from the ship’s three-foot physical model. A similar tactic was taken to bring the Tantive IV into the digital realm for Rogue One. “This was the Blockade Runner. This was the most accurate 1:1 reproduction we could possibly have made,” model supervisor Russell Paul declared to Cinefex’s Joe Fordham. “We did an extensive photo reference shoot and photogrammetry re-creation of the miniature. From there, we built it out as accurately as possible.” Speaking of sturdy ships, if you look very closely, you can spot a model of the Millennium Falcon flashing across the background as the U.S.S. Defiant makes an attack run on the Borg cube at the Battle of Sector 001! Exploration and Hope The in-universe ramifications that materialize from the Battles of Sector 001 and Scarif are monumental. The destruction of the Borg cube compels the Borg Queen to travel back in time in an attempt to vanquish Earth before the Federation can even be formed, but Captain Picard and the Enterprise-E foil the plot and end up helping their 21st century ancestors make “first contact” with another species, the logic-revering Vulcans. The post-Scarif benefits take longer to play out for the Rebel Alliance, but the theft of the Death Star plans eventually leads to the superweapon’s destruction. The Galactic Civil War is far from over, but Scarif is a significant step in the Alliance’s effort to overthrow the Empire. The visual effects ILM provided for First Contact and Rogue One contributed significantly to the critical and commercial acclaim both pictures enjoyed, a victory reflecting the relentless dedication, tireless work ethic, and innovative spirit embodied by visual effects supervisor John Knoll and ILM’s entire staff. While being interviewed for The Making of Star Trek: First Contact, actor Patrick Stewart praised ILM’s invaluable influence, emphasizing, “ILM was with us, on this movie, almost every day on set. There is so much that they are involved in.” And, regardless of your personal preferences – phasers or lasers, photon torpedoes or proton torpedoes, warp speed or hyperspace – perhaps Industrial Light & Magic’s ability to infuse excitement into both franchises demonstrates that Star Trek and Star Wars encompass themes that are not competitive, but compatible. After all, what goes together better than exploration and hope? – Jay Stobie (he/him) is a writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to ILM.com, Skysound.com, Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, Star Trek Explorer, Star Trek Magazine, and StarTrek.com. Jay loves sci-fi, fantasy, and film, and you can learn more about him by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

The Rustline Home is decorated is an affair of terracotta, rust, and cream. This space mixes warm tones with bold art, creating an atmosphere that feels expressive. From color-blocked accents to framed pieces that pop against soft backdrops… the home feels like a live-in gallery!This space is decorated by Tetyana Savchenko and photographed by Sergiy Kadulin Photography. The living room in the Rustline Home blends soft grey upholstery with bold accents in rust, ochre, and black. The layered throw and cushions echo the terracotta tones found throughout the home. Simultaneously, the black-and-white geometric rug anchors the space with artistic contrast. Sculptural vases and art books on the nesting tables turn the coffee zone into a mini gallery. Finally, a tripod floor lamp adds a hint of the mid-century modern style. Just beyond, the kitchen continues the warm color story with matte terracotta cabinetry, subtly ribbed for texture, paired with light oak base cabinets and a speckled grey stone backsplash. Minimalist black fixtures and hardware offer a graphic element, while open sightlines between the kitchen and living room create a seamless flow. Tucked between clean lines and creamy walls, the dining area feels like a serene art gallery moment. The rounded table and boucle chairs add softness, while playful wall art and sculptural lighting add whimsy. Whether it’s morning coffee or a dinner chat, this corner makes everyday dining feel curated. This bedroom is anchored by a mix of rust, navy, and marigold. The bold textiles and striped pillows create a dynamic rhythm, while the geometric wall art adds visual interest. Crisp white bedding keeps the look fresh, and the floating nightstands with sculptural vases save floor space while adding functionality. This bedroom features a grid-style mirror that expands the space visually. Bold, framed art pieces inject personality. The color-blocked bedding and folk-style throw hint at global influences, while the adjacent workspace, with its woven baskets and sculptural decor, adds functionality. The bathrooms in the Rustline Home blend warm terracotta vanities with white sinks and black fixtures. Stone-textured tiles add depth, while round mirrors and curated accents keep the look soft and modern. Thoughtful touches, like framed prints and rolled towels, make these spaces feel calm and creative.

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE Decor editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.When Corey Moriarty moved into a new home in Palm Beach, Florida with his four dogs—Maverick and Bauer (Golden Retrievers) and Blue and Titan (Siberian Huskies)—he found himself wondering what to do with his spare bedroom: “We had an extra room just sitting there, and instead of turning it into an office or a guest room no one ever uses, we thought, ‘Why not make it a space entirely for them?’”What started as a lark quickly turned delightfully over-the-top. Moriarty outfitted the room with custom bunk beds, a Murphy bed, and a wall lined with glass jars filled with the dogs' favorite snacks. There’s a ball pit, a full TV setup for nightly Bluey viewings, and a closet containing all of their outfits. Moriarty has been documenting the room’s evolution on TikTok, where his latest post racked up more than 24 million views.Corey MoriartyCorey Moriarty’s dogs have their own bonafide bedroom, complete with bunk beds, a TV area, and a treat wall. Pet ownership is booming in the U.S. In 2024, 59.8 million households had dogs, and 42.2 million had cats, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. And people aren’t just adding pets to their families—they’re investing in them. In 2023, Americans spent more than $147 billion on their pets, per the American Pet Products Association, with an increasing chunk of that going toward pet-focused home upgrades. These aren’t mere afterthoughts—they’re carefully crafted extensions of the home that call for thoughtful planning and, often, the expertise of an interior designer. In fact, the dog room has truly become the newest status symbol.View full post on TiktokA dog room's scale can range from a small nook under the stairs to a full-on suite complete with built-in feeding stations, toy storage, grooming areas, and plush four-poster beds. Some include tiled dog showers, temperature-controlled flooring, and built-in cabinetry. Others have more indulgent luxuries—like a TV with DOGTV, a streaming channel with programming designed specifically for canine attention spans. Think: dogs playing in fields, soothing nature sounds, and friendly humans doing relaxing things with pets. It’s ambient TV, but for your hyper-active schnauzer.For Moriarty, the trend taps into a bigger cultural shift. “There’s a continuing movement toward including pets more fully in people’s lives—as real family members,” he says. “Social media has poured gas on the fire. Everyone’s showing off these amazing pet spaces, and it’s inspiring others to level up.” The result is a growing “barkitecture” trend, where design for pets isn’t an afterthought—it’s part of the floor plan from day one. “We’re in the process of finding or building a more permanent home,” he adds, “and a huge part of that decision is based on what the dogs need—a pool, a yard, a room of their own, space to add a dog wash station.”Ken FulkKen Fulk’s three cream golden retrievers found a home in the curry colored library of his Provincetown home, overlooking the harbor in an antique captain’s daybed. Interior designers are seeing a rise in the trend, too. And some are even participating themselves. Ken Fulk, who shares his Provincetown home with four dogs—three English cream golden retrievers (above) and a wirehaired Dachshund named Wiggy—says one room evolved into their dedicated canine space, though it wasn’t premeditated. “Our often-photographed curry colored library became a de facto nursery,” he says. “Soon, no one would come upstairs with us to bed. They preferred their perch overlooking the harbor in an antique captain’s daybed.”Matt McWaltersKen Fulk’s L.A. shop sells wicker dog beds. And for those not ready to sacrifice a spare room? You don’t have to ditch your home office to make your pets feel like part of the design. Fulk says more clients are requesting pet-focused features, like custom dog beds, built-in food stations, and dog-wash areas in stylish mudrooms. At his new shop in Los Angeles, Fulk even offers wicker dog beds upholstered in outdoor fabric, including his own Designer Dogs print for Pierre Frey, as well as an Air Blue and Indigo Stripe. In a world where dogs are living better than their owners, what's next? "I got some very positive feedback on my idea of our doggy hotel called DEN," Fulk laughs. "It was dreamed up as an April Fool’s joke, but there just might be something there."Rachel SilvaAssociate Digital EditorRachel Silva is the associate digital editor at ELLE DECOR, where she covers all things design, architecture, and lifestyle. She also oversees the publication’s feature article coverage, and is, at any moment, knee-deep in an investigation on everything from the best spa gifts to the best faux florals on the internet right now. She has more than 16 years of experience in editorial, working as a photo assignment editor at Time and acting as the president of Women in Media in NYC. She went to Columbia Journalism School, and her work has been nominated for awards from ASME, the Society of Publication Designers, and World Press Photo. 

Study the Secrets of Early American Photography at This New Exhibition “The New Art: American Photography, 1839-1910” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will feature more than 250 photographs Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor June 6, 2025 This image, taken by an unknown photographer in 1905, is an example of a cyanotype. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, William L. Schaeffer Collection A new exhibition at the crossroads of art, history and technology chronicles the beginnings of early American photography. Titled “The New Art: American Photography, 1839-1910,” the show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City features more than 250 photographs that capture “the complexities of a nation in the midst of profound transformation,” says Max Hollein, the Met’s CEO, in a statement. Curator Jeff Rosenheim tells the Wall Street Journal’s William Meyers that the exhibition focuses “on how early artists used the different formats to record individuals and the built and natural environments surrounding them.” A daguerrotype from around 1850 depicts a woman wearing a tignon, a headcovering popular among Creole women of African descent. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, William L. Schaeffer Collection The oldest photographs on display are daguerreotypes, named for inventor Louis Daguerre, which were introduced in 1839 as the first publicly available form of photography. Creating a daguerreotype was a delicate, sometimes painstaking process that involved several chemical treatments and variable exposure times. The process yielded a sharply detailed picture on a silver background and was usually used for studio portraiture. The exhibition moves through the history of photography, from daguerreotypes and other photographs made on metal to those made on glass and, eventually, paper. It even features stereographs, two photos showing an object from slightly different points of view, creating an illusion of three-dimensionality. Installation view of "The New Art: American Photography, 1839-1910" Eugenia Tinsely / The Met Rosenheim believes that early photographic portraits empowered working-class Americans. “Photographic portraits play a role in people feeling like they could be a citizen,” Rosenheim tells the Guardian’s Veronica Esposito. “It’s a psychological, empowering thing to own your own likeness.” Photographs in the exhibition also spotlight key moments in American history. Items on view include a portrait of formerly enslaved individuals and an image of a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The exhibition features big names in American photography, such as John Moran, who advocated for the recognition of photography as an art form, and Alice Austen, a pioneering landscape photographer. Group on Petria, Lake Mahopac​​​​​​, photographed in 1888 by Alice Austen The Metropolitan Museum of Art, William L. Schaeffer Collection Many of the photographs on display were taken by unknown artists. One of the most recent photos in the exhibition, taken by an unknown artist in 1905, is a cyanotype depicting figures tobogganing on a hill in Massachusetts. Cyanotypes were created by exposing a chemically treated paper to UV light, such as sunlight, yielding the blue pigment it was named for. Beyond portraits and landscapes, the exhibition features several enigmatic images, such as one of a boot placed in a roller skate and positioned on top of a stool. Rosenheim tells the Guardian that the mysterious photo “asks more questions than it answers.” An unknown photographer took this unconventional still life in the 1860s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, William L. Schaeffer Collection “It’s very emblematic of the whole of 19th-century American photography,” he adds. The exhibition features photographs from across time and economic divides, with portraits of the working-class and wealthy alike. “The collection is just filled with the everyday stories of people,” Rosenheim tells the Guardian. “I don’t think painting can touch that.” “The New Art: American Photography, 1839-1910” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City through July 20, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is a very large bird of prey in the monotypic genus Gypaetus. It is vernacularly known as the Homa, a bird in Iranian mythology. The bearded vulture is the only known vertebrate whose diet consists of 70 to 90 per cent bone. It lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in Iran, southern Europe, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and the Caucasus. The bearded vulture population is thought to be in decline; since 2014, it has been classified as near threatened on the IUCN Red List. Bearded vultures are 94 to 125 centimetres (37 to 49 inches) long, with a wingspan of 2.31 to 2.83 metres (7.6 to 9.3 feet). This bearded vulture was photographed carrying a piece of carrion in the Alps in Switzerland, where the species was reintroduced in the late 20th century after having become locally extinct in the early 20th century. Photograph credit: Giles Laurent Recently featured: London King's Cross railway station Daft Punk Eastern quoll Archive More featured pictures

A New Museum Dedicated to Frida Kahlo’s Early Years and Family Life Is Coming to Mexico City The Museo Casa Kahlo will be located beside the popular Museo Frida Kahlo. It will display letters, artworks and mementos that shed light on the Mexican artist’s childhood Frida Kahlo in 1944 Bettmann via Getty Images A new museum dedicated to the early life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is opening in Mexico City. Located in the city’s historic Coyoacán district, the Museo Casa Kahlo will tell the Mexican painter’s story through letters, toys, artworks and other personal items. “This museum isn’t just about her work—it’s about her world,” Frida Hentschel Romeo, Kahlo’s great-grand-niece, tells Vogue’s Chloe Schama. “It’s about how the people closest to her shaped who she became. And it’s also about the living family—those of us who carry her legacy forward.” The museum will occupy a building known as Casa Roja, a home belonging to the Kahlo family. It’s next door to the already famous Casa Azul, the family home built by Kahlo’s father in 1904. The Museo Frida Kahlo, which occupies Casa Azul, has been open since 1958. Andrew Hasson / Getty Images Born in 1907, Kahlo grew up in Casa Azul and later shared it with her husband, fellow artist Diego Rivera. She purchased the neighboring red house (also owned by her parents) for her sister Cristina’s family. Four years after Kahlo’s death in 1954, Casa Azul was converted into the popular Museo Frida Kahlo, which displays art and objects from Kahlo’s adult life alongside rotating exhibitions. Casa Roja has remained in the Kahlo family, passed down by Cristina’s descendants. “Cristina was by her side through so much,” Hentschel Romeo tells Vogue. “Traveling with her to New York for her first major exhibition, supporting her through surgeries and recovery.” Frida Kahlo photographed by her father in 1932 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons Pain was a constant throughout Kahlo’s life. After sustaining serious injuries from a bus accident at 18, she endured chronic symptoms for the rest of her life. Despite these challenges, Kahlo thrived as an artist, garnering international acclaim for her vibrant, wrenching self-portraits. Some of Kahlo’s most famous paintings are painful depictions of women’s suffering, her own injuries and her turbulent marriage to Rivera, who had countless affairs (including one with Cristina). Casa Roja was eventually passed down to Cristina’s granddaughter, Mara Romeo Kahlo, who is Kahlo’s closest living relative, reports the New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin. Romeo Kahlo volunteered the red house to host the new Museo Casa Kahlo, which will open in late September. Its development is being overseen by Fundación Kahlo, a nonprofit recently established by the Kahlo family, which aims to “preserve Frida’s legacy and promote Mexican, Indigenous and Latin American art and culture on a global scale,” according to its website. “For the first time, the voice of the family will be at the heart of how Frida’s story is told,” Hentschel Romeo tells Vogue. As Romeo Kahlo explains to the Times, “The family was very important for Frida because it was her support.” While Casa Azul focuses on Kahlo’s adult life, the new museum will focus on her early development. Visitors will examine never-before-seen personal artifacts, such as childhood photographs, dolls, letters, jewelry, clothes and a piece of embroidery Kahlo sewed when she was 5. Other highlights include the artist’s only known mural and her first oil painting.Hentschel Romeo tells Vogue that Kahlo showed this painting to her husband, asking him to judge whether she had the talent to be a painter. “It is incredibly moving to see up close,” she adds. “This is a dream long held by our family,” Romeo Kahlo says in a statement. “Frida’s legacy belongs to the world, but it begins here—on this land, in these homes and in the culture that shaped her. Museo Casa Kahlo will allow us to tell new stories, share family secrets, host new voices and build a future that honors her spirit.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) is a medium-sized carnivorous marsupial in the dasyurid family, and one of six extant species of quolls. Endemic to Australia, the species occurs on the island of Tasmania, and was formerly found across much of southeastern mainland Australia before becoming functionally extinct there in the 1960s. Eastern quolls are about the size of a small domestic cat and have a thick, light fawn or near-black, coat with white spots. They are solitary predators, hunting at night for their prey of insects, small mammals, birds, and reptiles. This fawn-morph eastern quoll was photographed in Upper Esk, Tasmania. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp Recently featured: Battle of Diamond Rock Drosera capensis Cucumis metuliferus Archive More featured pictures

Pros Supports multiple big radiatorsExcellent dust filtrationSpace for open-loop cooling components Cons Not fully EATX-compliantMidpack thermal performance in our tests MSI MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ Specs 120mm or 140mm Fan Positions 10 120mm to 200mm Fans Included 3 Dimensions (HWD) 20.6 by 9.3 by 19.5 inches Fan Controller Included? Front Panel Ports HD Audio Front Panel Ports USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (2) Front Panel Ports USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Included Fan Lighting Color Addressable RGB Internal 2.5-Inch Bays 5 Internal 3.5-Inch Bays 2 Internal Chassis Lighting Color None Maximum CPU Cooler Height 165 Maximum GPU Length 400 Motherboard Form Factors Supported ATX Motherboard Form Factors Supported MicroATX Motherboard Form Factors Supported Mini-ITX PCI Expansion Slot Positions 7 Power Supply Form Factor Supported ATX Power Supply Maximum Length 260 Power Supply Mounting Location Bottom Side Window(s)? Yes (Tempered Glass) Weight 23.5 All Specs MSI has built a formidable reputation over the past four decades, beginning with motherboards and working its way through servers and graphics cards before finally becoming a premier laptop manufacturer. Its name is synonymous with shopping for PC components, but its PC cases usually come to mind only when we think of its prebuilt desktop machines. Built from sturdy materials and loaded with popular features, its $149.99 MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ is designed to leave a more lasting impression. Supporting MSI’s reverse-connector Project Zero motherboards and smartly designed for accommodating a substantive build that’s air- or liquid-cooled, the Velox is a worthy rival to Asus’ TUF Gaming cable-hiding case. PC builders weighing a Project Zero build to minimize visible cabling should shortlist this chassis, though the selection of reverse-connector-compatible PC cases is growing fast.Design: Packing in the Features for Project ZeroWith a sturdy steel structure making up most of its 23.5 pounds of heft, the MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ is as weighty as its name is long. (We’ll call it“Velox 300R” from here on out.) Its numerous strengths include dust filters that cover every air inlet, giant 160mm ARGB intake fans connected to a factory-installed controller/hub, and even a logo-emblazoned low-restriction faceplate that will probably help make any dust that collects on the filter behind it slightly less noticeable as the PC waits for its next cleaning. A light tint on the 4mm-thick tempered glass side panel makes the black 120mm exhaust fan harder to spot against the case’s black interior. Mounted on four snaps and three guide pins, the faceplate easily pulls away to access the front panel’s plastic-framed nylon-sheet dust filter. Secured with three magnets on each side, the filter pulls easily away from the fans for cleaning.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Though “front-panel” ports and buttons often end up on the top panel of modern cases, the Velox 300R’s placement is somewhat unusual in that it’s a bit farther away from the actual front of the case than on most cases. Lined up along its right edge are a power button with a power-indicator LED window, an LED mode button, a headset (headphone/microphone) combo jack, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, and a Gen 2x2 Type-C port. Unfortunately, there’s no reset button or drive-activity light.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The rear panel features the only Velox 300R vents that aren’t covered in dust filters, though that’s okay; these should probably be viewed as exhaust vents that flow filtered air from those big front-panel fans. We also see the ATX standard’s seven expansion slots, a 120mm exhaust fan screwed onto slots that allow a little vertical adjustment, a power supply mount with two sets of holes to allow inverted mounting, and two vertical vent sections running up the forward and rear portions of the right side panel.The expansion-slot panel is inset, which simplifies graphics card installation. (In short: There's no interference between the card bracket and the clearance area above the screws, as there sometimes is with cheaper cases with non-inset panels.) (Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)A long dust filter that covers most of the bottom panel slides out the back of the case from beneath the power supply bay.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The top panel and two long side panel vents are each covered internally with a perforated metal filter sheet, each of which uses magnetic tape around its periphery to stick to the steel panel.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The Velox 300R’s top panel is designed to hold a 360mm-format radiator up to 420mm long. (The radiator will have around 57mm of clearance above the motherboard’s top edge.) The Velox 300R’s top panel also includes a second set of mounting slots to enable three 140mm fans to be placed there instead.From this angle, we can also see that the power supply cover has two 120mm fan mounts, that an adjustable card brace is attached slightly forward of the power supply cover, and that a removable multi-purpose bracket is factory-mounted to the 120mm fan location at the front of the case’s bottom panel. The bracket is drilled to hold a single 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drive, as well as a variety of open-loop liquid-cooling pump/reservoir combos.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Like the multifunction bracket that sits in front of it, the outer three-quarters of the power supply cover is removable. That fact eased the installation and removal of modular cables on our power supply.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The Velox 300R’s motherboard tray includes several extra pass-through holes designed to fit the connector locations of MSI’s Project Zero motherboards, but they are not excluded, in any way we can see, from otherwise supporting its largest competitor’s rear-facing-connector design, Asus BTF. A side mount that can hold up to three 120mm fans and/or 360mm-format radiators up to 440mm long is offset an inch behind the motherboard tray, so that a fan up to 38mm thick could fit behind an EATX motherboard if we add the length of the standoffs to that thickness. We wouldn’t call the Velox an EATX case, because it has no mechanical support to hold 13-inch-long boards, but some slightly bigger-than-ATX boards will fit without requiring such supports.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Behind the Velox 300R’s motherboard tray are its ARGB controller/fan hub and two drive trays. (Note that we also pulled the face panel off for our open case photos.) The controller’s hub supports four PWM fans and four ARGB devices.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Removing the plastic plugs above and below the front-face 160mm factory ARGB fans allows us to see that the fan rails running up and down the face are also removable. Had we also removed the factory-fitted 160mm fans themselves, we could have used the extra mounting holes you can see to move the brackets inward to 140mm or 120mm fan spacing. The 480mm of space (height) behind that mount exceeds the length of any 420mm-format radiator we’ve seen, so you could put a really big radiator up front if you so desire. That said, you'll probably want to keep these oversized fans if you are air cooling; they have a nifty design, with an offset circle of blades inside a larger circle(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The drive trays include one dual-2.5-inch tray without 3.5-inch provisions and one with 3.5-inch provisions. Installing a 3.5-inch drive fitted with vibration-damping grommets precludes the use of any 2.5-inch drives in the second tray.Recommended by Our Editors(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Building With the MSI Velox 300RLet's dig into the accessory kit. The Velox 300R includes an installation guide and a case sticker, four combo-head power supply screws, a Phillips-to-hex-adapter socket for installing standoffs, two spare standoffs, and lots of additional screws. These include 21 standard M3 screws, eight M3 and four #6-32 shoulder screws (for installing drives onto the grommet-filled drive tray), and 12 extra-long #6-32 screws (for installing 120mm fans to the top of the power supply cover). You also get a bag of six replacement snaps for the ball-snap side-panel attachments, and two hook-and-loop and six zip-style cable ties.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Case cables include a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 for the Type-A ports, a Type-E Gen 2x2 for the Type-C port, and an F_PANEL combo cable with breakout pins for a reset button that the case itself lacks. The ARGB controller/fan hub accepts PWM and ARGB control signals from the motherboard and is powered by a SATA-style power cable from your PSU.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Our standard ATX motherboard fit the Velox 300R perfectly, and its card brace slid up to meet the edge of our test graphics card’s fan bracket nicely.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)The ARGB controller defaults to obeying the motherboard’s signal whenever its ARGB input is connected to the motherboard, but those who won’t be using motherboard control can also scroll through the controller’s inbuilt patterns via its mode button or even disable lighting entirely simply by holding the button for a few seconds.Here’s how the Velox looked all fleshed out with our standard test parts...(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)MSI also sent along one of its motherboards, based on the Z790 chipset, so we could show this PZ (Project Zero) case built with its cable concealment fully deployed. This photo shows how all the cable headers that would have been pointing outward on a traditional motherboard point backward on this model.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)We’ll have to push some of those ARGB fan controller/hub cables aside to reach the ARGB and ATX12V headers of the Z790 Project Zero motherboard.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)We’ll also have to stuff away a little more cable length since most of our cables are no longer required to reach around to the front of the board.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Though the displaced power and data cabling cleaned up the show side of our build nicely, we still have our graphics card’s supplemental power cable (12VHPWR) and our AIO CPU cooler’s tubes to contend with. Still, mighty clean and almost "Zero."(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)And though the Z790 Project Zero motherboard has far less lighting than the board from our standardized kit, some would argue that it still looks better thanks to the reduced cable clutter.(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)Testing the MSI Velox 300R: Twice-Benchmarked, Once With Project ZeroHere’s a list of the internal components from both of the above-photographed builds, along with the settings we used for our tests.The Velox 300R’s thermal performance is exactly mid-pack when using our standard test kit, and swapping in the rear-connector motherboard only resulted in a faster-warming voltage regulator (likely due to the lower mass of its heat sink). Its temperature control falls behind its most direct competitor, the Asus TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB, in both configurations.The reason the Velox 300R’s cooling performance fell behind the Lian Li Lancool 207 and GT302 ARGB appears fairly obvious when observing our noise charts: It’s quieter than both those cases.Both companies were aware that they could get better thermal results simply by spinning their fans a little harder, but MSI appears to have favored a quieter approach. Be aware that simply enabling the automatic fan profiles for your motherboard could potentially put all three of these cases into a tie with regard to both temperature and noise.