Esplanade des Olympiades. Paris, France 2008

Carlos Luján (b.1975, Spain) studied image and sound and later photography at the school of Arts and Crafts of Valencia, Spain. He is currently  working and publishing in several Spanish (El País Semanal, XL Semanal, GEO, Yo Dona) and International (Il Sole 24h, Newsweek, Marie Claire, Financial Times Magazine, Corrier International, Le Monde…) newspapers and magazines. He has always been interested in working on social themes, that includes several reportage’s. Carlos has received grants and prizes from: The Culture Ministry of Spain, Injuve prize of Photography, Nuevo Talento Fnac de Fotografía 2004 (Spain). He is member of the Spanish photo collective NOPHOTO and lives in Madrid.

About the Photograph:

“The Asian district in Paris is a work on the religious, cultural and daily life of an important and large part of the Parisian population. This community is composed of Chinese, Laotian, Cambodian, and Vietnamese. They are all well integrated into the western dynamics. However it is impossible not to notice their behaviour and their philosophy of life which have strong roots with their origins. They are not willing to forget their origin nor do they want the future generation to forget them.”

Jamey, 18 & one month pregnant, shares a smoke with her mother moments before her wedding. Ohio, 2007

Kainaz Amaria (b. 1978, USA & India) is a photojournalist and multimedia producer with a B.A. in international relations from Boston University (2000) and a M.A. in visual communication from Ohio University (2008). After OU she completed photography internships at US News & World Report in Washington D.C. and with the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. Her images and multimedia projects have been recognized by numerous contests including the CPOY, Women in Photojournalism, Atlanta Photojournalism Conference, the NPPA Multimedia Contest, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and by the South Asian Journalist Association. Kainaz was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Mumbai, India, where she will be based beginning November 2009.

About the Photograph:

“I made this image while working on my first picture essay during my graduate studies at Ohio University. The essay was a broad look at how the coal mining industry effected Southeastern Ohio. Coal mining once dominated this Appalachian region, however as the resource ran out, corporations left town leaving the surrounding communities in dire economic conditions. While spending time with people in this region, I witnessed the cyclical nature of poverty passed down from one generation to another. Many times it began with teenagers having children with little resources to raise a family. I wanted to somehow capture that in an image. I met Jamey at her high school prom. She and her boyfriend were inseparable on the dance floor, and as they passionately embraced I began making their picture. They later told me that Jamey was pregnant and they were getting married the following weekend.”

“I spent a week with Jamey, documenting her life leading up to her wedding day, her teenage emotions ran from sheer excitement to a quiet terror. The day of the wedding, which she planned on her own in less than two weeks, Jamey was frantic and felt as if she was failing everyone. Moments before walking down the aisle, she snuck out of the church for a cigarette with her mother, who had Jamey when she was a teenager. The image captures three generations; mother, daughter and an unborn baby girl.”

]]> http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/kainaz-amaria/feed/ 0 Geoffrey Hiller Bookmark and Share http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/adam-panczuk/ http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/adam-panczuk/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:04:17 +0000 Geoffrey Hiller http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/?p=3848 ]]>

Rafal, From the Karczeby series

Adam Panczuk (b.1978, Poland). After finishing secondary school, Adam moved to Poznań, where he took up studies at the University of Economics and Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan. He graduated in 2005.and traveled through Asia from the  Mid East to Siam taking photos. He reported on rickshaw pullers in India and on brothels in Bangkok. Five years ago he started working on a project about a Polish village which focused on the relationship between human beings and their relation to the earth, the seasons. In 2009 he won first prize at the Grand Press Photo in Poland and was also selected for the short list at the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards. He has also been awarded from the National Geographic Photography Contest.

About the Photograph:

“The photo comes from the Karczeby series. Karczeby in one of the dialects spoken in the east of Poland, which is a mixture of Polish and Belorussian. It is also a vernacular word for people strongly attached to the land they cultivate. A  Karczeb is also called a stump with roots still stuck in the earth after the tree has been cut down – allegorical for the problems the various aggressive authorities have had with these people, trying to eradicate or dislocate them. However, they still stand tall on their land. And when a Karczeb farmer’s life comes to an end, he is buried in his soil, later on tilled by his children or grandchildren.  In the photo, Rafal, who  graduated from Law school at Warsaw University returned to father’s house to help him cultivate his 70-hectares farm.”

Kuliga, Russia 2008

Graeme Jennings (b. 1978, New Zealand)  grew up in Auckland and completed a course in photography at the Unitec Institute of Technology in 1998. In 2001 he moved to England and freelanced as a news photographer and traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe. Graeme has  photographed the impact of landmines in Bosnia Herzegovina for the NGO Norwegian Peoples Aid. He has also under taken assignments in Azerbaijan, and the southern Russian republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia, where he has photographed internally displaced populations for the Danish Refugee Council.  Graeme’s work has  appeared in GEO and the British Journal of photography.  In 2008 he moved to the States and is currently based in Washington D.C.

About the Photograph:

“I took this photograph in the small village of Kuliga – A former collective farm with a population of twelve. The village is located in the Komi Republic, a region located in the far north of the Russian European plain.  The elderly woman in the foreground is on her way home after visiting  a friend for tea in a nearby house. Following the dissolution of socialism and the subsequent economic reforms of the 1990’s, the collective farms and state run enterprises that provided a means of employment and prosperity for rural villages were forced to close. The few who have remained are mostly the old and alienated, struggling with a lack of identity and resolve. With an entire ideology suddenly gone, along with the lack of employment opportunities, the social fabric of the Russian village has slowly fallen apart.  Of the approximate 150,000 of Russia’s rural villages, over 13,000 have been abandoned altogether as more and more people migrate to the cities.”

Greenland, 2008

Andrea Gjestvang (b. 1981, Norway) is a Norwegian photojournalist based in Berlin. While living in Oslo, she worked for several major Norwegian newspapers and magazines. In Berlin she is a freelance photographer with the Norwegian Newspaper Verdens Gang, and a member of Moment Agency. She spends most of her time travelling around the world on assignments or working on her own projects. 
Two years ago Andrea made her first expedition to Greenland, and started what has become a long-term project: Greenland – Disappearing Ice Age. About how climate change influences everyday life of village communities in Greenland.

About the Photograph:

“I met these children just after arriving in the little village of Aappilattoq on the west coast of Greenland. To get there, I went with a local fisherman on his snowmobile for three hours. It was in February, and pretty cold. He left me there, and returned back home. I felt really lost, but suddenly these girls came and asked me to follow them. We walked up to a hilltop where they showed me a fantastic view in the sunset. They were playing around. When I saw them making angels in the snow, it was a magic moment, almost a cliché. I think it symbolizes a lot of the loneliness but also future hope I experience among the Greenlanders. They live in the middle of this beautiful but enormous and changing nature environment.”

Blessing of the Animals. Los Angeles, California 2009

Morgan Hagar (b. 1975, United States) is an independent documentary photographer based out of Los Angeles, California. He studied at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California and was the first to graduate from the renowned Visual Journalism program. While in school he held a staff photographer position at the Santa Barbara News-Press and shortly thereafter became Photo Editor at the Ventura County Reporter. Since then, he has devoted much of time to personal projects, which have garnered awards and international recognition. His work has been shown in various print publications and throughout the web as well as in solo and group exhibitions.

About the Photograph:

For years I have dedicated a great amount of my time and effort traveling throughout the world to cover topics that interest me personally. Many of those topics included the problems of other nations, other peoples. More recently, I have turned my focus inward, to my home, my backyard, to America. If there is great change afoot in America, like so many speak of, I feel now is the perfect time to document this nation and its culture. This image was produced while photographing the “Blessing of the Animals,” a tradition held in downtown Los Angeles by Cardinal Roger Mahony. Here, two girls wait for their chance to dance for the thousands of onlookers that came out that day. There was a small parade, local food and dancing much like any festival held throughout the country. I was not on assignment, I was just curious to learn about a small part of my city’s culture, its history and share that knowledge with others. That, to me, is true documentary photography.

Ayodhya, India

Asim Rafiqui (b. 1966, Pakistan) is an independent photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. He has been working professionally since 2003 and began by focusing on stories from Afghanistan and Pakistan while also pursuing personal projects that focused on issues related to the aftermath of conflict. This focus has led him to produce work from Iraqi Kurdistan, Haiti, Israel and the tribal areas of Pakistan. He has also regularly shot assignments for magazines like National Geographic (France), Stern (Germany), The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Newsweek, and Time (USA, Asia). He authors the blog site called The Spinning Head, and also the essays that accompany his later India work at The Idea of India.

Editors Note: Asim was the 2009 grant recipient of the Aftermath Project, a yearly grant competition open to working photographers worldwide covering the aftermath of conflict. The deadline for the 2010 cycle will be November 2nd. Check the web site for details.

About the Photograph:

“The project, called The Idea of India, is a personal attempt to, as Walter Benjamin once said to articulate the past not to “…recognize it ‘the way it really was’ [but]…to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger.” I spent over a month in Ayodhya and this photograph was taken on the famous Ram Ki Pairi - a series of steps that lead to now unused bathing pools. Sitting outside a shop selling Hindu literature this mahant was subjected to the shrill rhetoric of a Hindu revisionist who owned the stall. At a moment when exasperation, perhaps despondency, seemed to take over his and my soul, I clicked the shutter.”

Young Cossack Recruits, Novopavlovsk, Russia 2007

Guy Martin (b.1983, England) graduated from the University of Wales in 2006. He began pursuing long term projects, one of which ‘Trading over the Borderline’ won him the Guardian/Observer Hodge student award. His other projects include work in: Georgia, Sudan, Uganda, Turkey, Northern Iraq, Russia. His photographs have appeared in the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, FADER Magazine, the British Journal of Photography amongst other publications. In 2007 and 2009 Guy was named in the MAGENTA foundations top emerging photographers. In 2008 he also had work from his Cossack project shown in the National Portrait Gallery. Guy is now based in Cornwall, England, continuing his work on personal projects and freelancing for national and international magazines. He is represented internationally by Zuma Press.

About the Photograph:

“This photograph is part of a three year personal project looking at the rise and re-birth of the Cossack movement in Southern Russia and the Caucasuss. My initial goal was to spend time in Cossack only military schools, finding out what was so different about Cossack traditions and customs. This picture was made on a baking hot spring day. My interpreter told me that there was going to be a Cossack summer camp opening in the district and that we should go down and try and visit the place and speak to a few of the residents. The image was made almost immediately after stepping out of the car. My previous experience of Cossacks in the region were from veterans of the Chechen war, Afghanistan and disillusioned, nationalist, adolescent boys desperate for a fight and to feel part of something. The girl, almost too pretty to be wearing combat fatigues stood out from the crowd of boys she was with. She looked at me for a split second and then turned back into the crowd. Walking past her later I found she was carrying a loaded handgun.”

“Young Cossack recruits discuss the day ahead as they embark on a days military training in the Southern Russian border down of Novopavlovsk. The town is just one hour away from North Ossetia where Chechen terrorists carried out the Beslan School massacre in 2003. Due to the towns proximity to the republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and the increasing violence that is repeatedly occurring in the region, the Cossacks of Southern Russia are re-arming and patrolling the southern borders to prevent any violence and terrorist activities happening in the ‘Motherland’.”

Earthquake Victims, Kashmir 2005

Teru Kuwayama’s (b. 1974, Japan) photographs have appeared in magazines including Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, Outside, Fortune, and Vibe. His work on the Tibetan refugee diaspora received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, and have been exhibited at the Open Society Institute and at the United Nations. In 2004, Esquire magazine profiled him as among the “Best and Brightest” of his generation for his reportage on the occupation of Iraq. In 2005, PDN cited his work in Kashmir in a selection of the most iconic images in contemporary photography. In 2006 he received a Nikon Storyteller Award, a Days Japan International Photojournalism Award, and a W. Eugene Smith fellowship for his work on Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. He is the founder Lightstalker’s and is currently a Knight Fellow at Stanford University.

About the Photograph:

“On October 8th, 2005, a massive earthquake struck south-central Asia, with its epicenter in Pakistan administered Kashmir, and the Northwest Frontier Province. 80,000 people were killed in a single morning, with 3.5 million survivors displaced. In the wake of the earthquake, there was a fear that an even greater number of people would die of communicable diseases like cholera. The photograph was made at dusk in an IDP camp in Muzzafarabad, Azad Kashmir, as the women and children of were gathered for inoculations.”

]]> http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/teru-kuwayama/feed/ 0 Geoffrey Hiller wayama.jpg Bookmark and Share http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/mike-tsang/ http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/mike-tsang/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:04:46 +0000 Geoffrey Hiller http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/?p=3748 ]]>

Ed Maggs, Maggs Books London 2009

Mike Tsang (b. 1982, England) was born to Chinese-Mauritian parents who had emigrated to the UK during the great Commonwealth influx of the 1970’s. This influence of Asian-European-African cultures has shaped both his photography and life. Mike’s life passion for photography eluded him for 23 years and led him through a career in the bustling world of Finance before he began assisting in London to a variety of different photographers. Amazing experiences traveling through Asia led him to settle in Japan in 2007 to connect more with the East. He began freelancing in Tokyo after receiving his own commissions across Asia. In 2009 he spent time in Africa on humanitarian and development commissions, culminating in a portrait project  with the Dinka people of Sudan. His clients include BBC News Interactive, Tearfund, Cancer Research, WWF and a range of Japanese and Mauritian governmental and cultural agencies.

About the Photograph:

“Rare book dealers make fascinating portrait subjects as they are strong individualists, united only by a love of books and a determination to preserve their quite unique way of life.  The internet age has certainly created challenges for the trade as knowledge of the rarity and value of these books has become more disseminated amongst the public instead being confined to learned professionals.  Also the rise in high street rents, the fall in literary budgets, the competition from charity bookshops – these causes combined have led to the reduction in the number of independent book dealers in London by almost a third in the last decade alone.”

“I undertook this project to capture this great literary tradition before it is altered too much from these external forces.  The London book trade is by definition quite close and I gained access to a lot of the portrait subjects by purely word of mouth from a previous subject who supported the project.  As the project progressed, it became clear that the environments the book dealers inhabit were just as much the subject as the dealers themselves as they often had distinct characters of their own.  The man in the photograph is Ed Maggs, descendant of the original founders of Maggs Books, an institution in the London antiquarian book trade.  He was photographed in one of storage rooms holding books that need to be rebound and mended before going on sale to the public.  Thus these books are given a second life – what I felt was a fitting metaphor for the book trade as it embarks on a new existence within the digital age.”