  A brief overview of the recent activity in the measurement of the elastic
electromagnetic proton and neutron form factors is presented. It is discussed
how the quality of the data has been greatly improved by performing double
polarization experiments, and the role of two-photon exchange processes will be
highlighted. The spatial information on the quark charge distribibutions in the
nucleon resulting from the form factors measurements will be discussed, as well
as the steady rate of improvements made in the lattice QCD calculations. It is
discussed how generalized parton distributions have emerged as a unifying theme
in hadron physics linking the spatial densities extracted from form factors
with the quark momentum distribution information residing in quark structure
functions. The recent progress in the electromagnetic excitation of the
$\Delta(1232)$ resonance will also briefly be discussed.
