Lucas Mulder April 29, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Guatemala.Tags: Guatemala
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Day of the Dead, Zunil, Guatemala 2008
Lucas Mulder (b. 1973, Canada) is an independent photographer currently based in Central America where he is working with various local non-profit organizations as well as focusing on personal projects related to agriculture, food, and religion. Lucas is a founding member of Ballad Photo, a photo cooperative based in Canada, and is the Artistic Director of Voces de Cambio, a program for teenage girls in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala that works to foster self-confidence and creative growth through writing and photography.
About the Photograph:
“This image was taken during the Day of the Dead celebrations in Zunil, a small, largely indigenous village in the southern highlands of Guatemala. In the weeks leading up to November 1st the cemetery is slowly transformed from rows of simple tombs to an incredibly lush, and vibrant sea of plant fronds, flowers and candles. Entire families spend days cleaning, painting, and finally decorating the tombs of their family members. By the end of their work the tombs are engulfed in the bright red leaves of Rooster’s Tail, highlighted with countless votives, and wreaths of Chrysanthemums, Lilies and Poinsettia. Family members then begin holding vigils at the grave site, sharing meals together, remembering their loved ones, and receiving guests as they come to pay their respects. For some the moment is clearly sombre, but for others it’s joyous, a chance to come together and celebrate family, both living and dead.”
Erica McDonald April 27, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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The Parachute Jump , Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York
Erica McDonald is a New York based photographer who was born in Ohio and raised in Massachusetts. Her degree from New York University is in Linguistics and Art History, and she has additional studies in Printmaking. As a photographer, she is largely self taught, taking inspiration from a myriad of photographers such as Penn, Koudelka, Fink and Arbus. She is currently working on a long term piece about a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Erica loves dogs, large and small alike. She is the recipient of a Keyholder Fellowship at the Lower East Side Printshop, and her work has been exhibited in Chelsea and by powerHouse, the Camera Club of New York, the Brooklyn Arts Council and has been included in projections at LOOK3, Palm Springs Photo Festival and the Slideluck Potshow. Awards and nominations include IPA/Lucies, PX3, WIP, The New York Photo Awards and the Magnum Cultural Foundation.
About the photograph:
“The image of the Parachute Jump defunct amusement ride is part of a series on an adult home in Coney Island, New York. The home, Surf Manor, is one of 65 private institutions licensed by the state and have become “de facto repositories for people who have psychiatric disorders”. A great many of the residents are capable of living independently, and they are pressing the government to provide what is known as supportive housing. This would create an option that would meet the residents’ needs by providing assistance while allowing them to be responsible for their own daily lives. A lawsuit charging that the state has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing more appropriate housing for this population will be tried later this year.”
Peter DiCampo April 24, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Ghana.Tags: Ghana
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Children play in groundnut plants after helping their families harvest, Wantugu, Ghana, 2007
Peter DiCampo (b. 1984, USA) is an American photographer who divides his time between Africa and the United States. With the help of a grant from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, he is currently documenting Ghana’s Kayayo, a class of thousands of young girls who migrate from Ghana’s barren north to find work in southern cities. He launched his freelance career in 2007 while also serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Ghana. He was a Staff Photographer at The Telegraph in Nashua, New Hampshire, and interned at VII Photo in Paris, Newsday in New York, and the Harvard University News Office. He holds a B.S. in Photojournalism from Boston University. He has received awards from the 2008 Editor and Publisher Photos of the Year Contest and the 2006 New England Press Association. His clients include TIME, The Christian Science Monitor, Jeune Afrique and The Boston Globe.
About the Photograph:
“This image is the result of a whole day spent harvesting groundnuts with women and children, and occasionally photographing them, outside of the village where I lived for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Looking at it reminds me of the limits of photography, and of storytelling in general – you stay in a place for so long that you no longer know how to tell its story. This is me, in between other photography projects and my Peace Corps work, going outside with a camera and trying to tell you about the place I lived in. It’s not enough – your soul can’t smile when you suddenly realize you can speak to people in their language, and your heart can’t break when the kid down the road falls ill and dies. You can’t breathe the dust or taste the shea fruit or hear the drumming in the night. Very few pictures have that power. All the same, here’s the tiniest glimpse of daily life in northern Ghana, a place that I once called home.”
Sarah Hoskins April 22, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Union workers protest rally, Chicago, 2009
Sarah Hoskins (1961,USA) is a documentary photographer based in the Chicago area. Her work has appeared in national and international publications, public television and is in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Institution, The Library of Congress and the City of Chicago. Her work was recently renewed for the third time at The Museum Of Contemporary Photography’s Midwest Photographers project in Chicago. Her documentary photography projects have been featured in American Legacy Magazine, American Photography Annual, Foto8, Photo District News and The Digital Journalist. She is the recipient of several fellowships and grants most recently for her long term project The Homeplace: Photographs from Historic African-American Hamlets in Kentucky.
About the Photograph:
“This photo was taking in Chicago. More than three thousand Chicago area SEIU local one janitors and community supporters rallied and marched to Federal Plaza to call for an economic recovery that creates good jobs for working families. It’s part of my on going documentary project revisiting Roy Stryker’s 1936 Farm Security Administration’s shooting script. This was part of my week focusing on people on and off the job.”
Liz Kuball April 20, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Storage facility, Santa Barbara, California. 2007
Liz Kuball (b. 1973, Washington, D.C.) is a photographer based in Southern California. She began photographing in 2006, and, since then, her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, and Detroit; her photographs have appeared online in the Humble Arts Foundation group show no. 16, FILE magazine, and Flak Photo; and appeared in A Field Guide to the North American Family, a novella by Garth Risk Hallberg. Liz was selected for publication in The Collector’s Guide to Emerging Fine Art Photography, published by the Humble Arts Foundation in 2009.
About the Photograph:
“Between 1985 and 2007, the square footage of self-storage facilities in the United States grew 740 percent, and driving the freeways of Southern California, this growth is evident. This incredible expansion has been spurred by Americans’ accumulation of things, gluttony of the material form. As I drove by storage facilities, I started thinking about what was behind those garage doors and padlocks. It occurred to me that the warehouses weren’t full of meaningless “stuff”-they were the repository for all kinds of memories that people weren’t willing to part with. Old furniture inherited from the recently deceased. Boxes of old love letters. Books and LPs and photographs. Storage facilities of the past typically were warehouses, and though there are plenty of those still in existence, this facility in Santa Barbara, California, part of a growing trend, mimics the architecture of a barn or farmhouse, with flowering shrubs and a homey feel-except for the freeway running alongside it. Though I tried to gain access to the facility, the staff and owner, citing security risks, denied my request, so I took this photo standing at the side of a freeway off-ramp.”
Jörg Brüggemann April 17, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Laos.Tags: Laos
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Nam Song River, Vang Vieng, Laos, 2007
Jörg Brüggemann (b.1979, Germany) began studying photography at the University of the Arts Bremen under the guidance of Professor Peter Bialobrzeski. In 2007 he formed the Kolkata Heritage Photo Project with students from his photography class which resulted in the publication of Calcutta – Chitpur Road Neighborhoods by Hatje Cantz. In July 2008 Jörg finished his studies with the project “Same Same But Different” which was published in several magazines around the world including NEON (Germany), OjodePez (Spain) and D-Magazine (Italy). He won a honorable mention at CENTER’s project competition and was invited to the 2009 Asia-Europe Emerging Photographers Forum in Kuala Lumpur. Besides freelancing in Berlin, Jörg is a project manager for the Ostkreuz photographer’s agency and photo editor for Dummy and Fluter magazine.
About the Photograph:
“Within the last decade backpacking has literally become a global youth movement. Every year millions of young people from first world countries travel the planet taking with them nothing more then their backpacks. They are hoping to find freedom, cultural exchanges and a lot of fun. It has become a tourist industry on its own that has developed its very own touristic infrastructure. In some places like Ko Pha-Ngan in Thailand, Arambol in Goa or Vang Vieng in Laos individual or alternative travel is no longer existing. It has been transfered into a different kind of packaged tour. This Photograph was taken in Vang Vieng in Laos which is the hotspot of backpacker tourism in Laos. It shows an Australian backpacker drinking a Beer Lao at the first Bar while tubing down the Nam Song. Tubing is the most popular backpacker activity in Vang Vieng.”
Graham Miller April 15, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Australia.Tags: Australia
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Rhonda and Chantelle, Australia, 2007, from “Suburban Splendor”
Graham Miller (b. 1966, Hong Kong) is a photographic artist and co-founder of FotoFreo a biennial international festival of photography based in Fremantle, Western Australia. His work has been exhibited internationally and throughout Australia, including Pingyao International Festival of Photography China, Recontres Photographie Internationale de France, Kaunas Photo Lithuania, Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Photography Gallery of Western Australia. He is interested in the ambiguity of images. The way that all photographs have elements of fabrication and truth making.
About the Photograph:
“This image is part of the series Suburban Splendor, which I started in 2005 in Perth, Australia where I live. The series emerged out of the frustration and helplessness I felt to a political climate that saw the escalation of the Iraqi war, the mistreatment of asylum seekers, and an apathy by our government to a growing environmental crisis. From this feeling, I began to construct suburban visual narratives which became metaphors of isolation and disconnection, and meditations on human frailty. In the introduction to his collection of short stories ‘Where I’m Calling From’ Raymond Carver quotes V.S Pritchett”s description of the short story as something glimpsed from the corner of the eye, in passing. First the glimpse, the glimpse given life and turned into something which will illuminate the moment. Many of my own photographs take shape in a similar way. I caught a glimpse of the red interior of a friend’s car in the fading light. This fragment remained with me, and later I was able to figure out how to incorporate it into an image which would resonate and achieve the emotional tone that I wanted.”
Michael Itkoff April 13, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Demo Derby Heat, Pittston, Pennsylvania, 2008
Michael Itkoff (b.1981. USA) is the editor of Daylight Magazine. His work is in public and private collections in the United States and he has been a recipient of the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism (2006), a Creative Artists Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Arts Council (2007), and a Puffin Foundation Grant (2008). Itkoff’s monograph ‘Street Portraits’ was published by Charta Editions in February 2009.
About the Photograph:
“The arena at the Northeast Fair in Pittston, PA is, like so many other demolition derby tracks, simply a patch of dirt surrounded by cement barriers. Instead of a grandstand with a stage and bleachers, the Northeast Fairgrounds boast a leveled off pit next to a hill from which the spectacle can be observed. Last June, men and women of all ages gathered one Saturday night for the fairs’ main event. Derby’s consist of one or more ‘heats’ where cars or trucks ram into each other until only one is able to move. An ambulance and fire truck is always on hand to evacuate injured participants and control any fires that may break out. This photograph was taken near the end of the last heat when many of the cars had been rendered immobile and the steam emanating from busted radiators shrouded the action in a ghostly fog.”
Michael Zumstein April 10, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Kenya.Tags: Kenya
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NGO Facilities, Lokichokio, Kenya
Michaël Zumstein (b. 1970, France) has been a member of the Oeil Public agency since 2001. He divides his time between assignments for the French and foreign press and his personal projects. His work focuses on the “relationships between Africa and the West” and he is especially interested in the situation in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. His work has been published extensively in France and internationally.
About the Photograph:
“Kenyan town faces loss of livelihood after Sudan peace deal: Lokichokio has thrived on business generated by humanitarian aid organisations but soon they may move out. Lokichokio, in northern Kenya, is no ordinary town. For the Past 16 years it has hosted one of the world’s largest humanitarian operations, growing from a tiny, arid frontier post of fewer than 1,000 people to a bustling logistical and transit hub of 12,000 – largely working for international aid groups (NGOs) and UN agencies delivering hundreds of millions of dollars of relief to war-ravaged southern Sudan. However, Lokichokio faces challenging times. The southern Sudanese rebels and the Khartoum government recently signed a treaty to end a 21-year conflict, a move that should enable aid agencies to transfer operations to the area they serve without fear of being shot or bombed. For Lokichokio – which has flourished in a time of war – peace could mean a return to obscurity.”
Tim Hussin April 8, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.add a comment
Prep School, Denver , Colorado 2008
Tim Hussin (b. 1985, USA) is a recent graduate in Journalism from the University of Florida. He was named 2008 College Photographer of the Year and will intern at National Geographic in Fall 2009. Hussin has interned at the Monroe Evening News, the Deseret News and Rocky Mountain News and will live in New York in Summer 2009 to intern with MediaStorm. He was a student at the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2008 where he was awarded an assignment at Washingtonpost/ Newsweek Interactive.
About the Photograph:
“In the summer of 2008, I interned at the now defunct Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. This image was part of a project the paper was persuing documenting the growth of a local prepratory school for low-income Hispanic students. Each morning the students would line up to go to class in the expanded wing of the cafeteria. The cafeteria used to end at the carpet, but now each morning beautiful light would cascade into this new room through slitted windows. The administrators were very strict at this school, and despite the lack of freedom the students were given they excelled to be one of the highest ranked middle schools in the county.”
Juan Manuel Castro Prieto April 6, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Vanuatu.Tags: Vanuatu
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Vanuatu, 2005
Juan Manuel Castro Prieto (b. 1958, Spain) is a scientist by training and a lover of photography. He has managed to combine his passions and become one of the most aware, demanding and subtle European photographers. After having, created prints from original glass plates by Martin Chambi he developed a passion for Peru. Ten years later, he crossed the country on a “journey to the sun”, allowing himself to portray his tenderness for the people and beauty of the landscape. He has also worked with color, recently, using highly personal tonality which, from Ethiopia and India, has allowed him to create visions which are both mental and based on a troubling realism, a form of travel, between dream and reality. He is represented by Agence Vu in Paris.
About the Photograph:
“Vanuatu comprises 80 islands in the Pacific ocean and has been independent since 1980. It is now a parliamentary republic of 200,000 inhabitants. The British navigator James Cook was the first European to set foot on the big southern island of Tanna in August 1774, attracted by the red light of the volcano of mount Yasur which dominates the village of Ipeukel, where the ones called “John Frum” gather. ” (more…)
Samantha Appleton April 3, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Nigeria.Tags: Nigeria
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Makoko Slum. Lagos, Nigeria
Samantha Appleton works primarily on long-term projects including recent work in the Middle East and illegal immigration in America. She has won numerous awards from POY and the World Press Photo. Her clients include Time magazine and The New Yorker. Samantha has worked on stories as varied as the conflict in Iraq, Malaria in Africa and fishing communities of Maine. She began her journalism career as a writer and became a full time photographer after assisting James Nachtwey in 1999-2000. Since then she has been named one of the “30 Under 30” photographers featured in PDN and received the Kodak Professional Award. She is currently a member of the NOOR photo agency.
About the Photograph:
“The Megacity of Lagos, Nigeria is a teeming cluster of slums that continues to grow exponentially and will soon become the third largest city in the world. Lagos is urban poverty at its most horrific, in a country with one of the world’s largest oil supplies. People have built up their own towns and social systems in the wake of complete governmental abandonment. Nigeria does not provide the most basic of services. Indentured slavery is standard, health care is non-existent, and corruption is the only system.”
Adriana Sanfeliu April 1, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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From the series Life on the Block, New York
A native of Barcelona, Spain, Adriana Lopez Sanfeliu moved to New York in 2002 to pursue a career in photography. Up until then, however, she had never taken a formal photography class. She enrolled in classes with Eugene Richards at the Maine Photographic Workshops and took a course at the school of the International Center of Photography, for which she began shooting a long term project in Spanish Harlem. Adriana is a freelance photographer in New York City with a roster of clients that includes The New York Times, Newsweek, and Glamour. She earned degrees in Art History and Graphic Design in Barcelona before coming to NYC in the summer of 2001 to study Photography.
About the Photograph:
Since April of 2002, Adriana has been capturing the lives of young Puerto Rican women and their families in Spanish Harlem, NYC. “There is a hardness that characterizes these streets,” Adriana explains, “and innocence dies young.” She has spent the past four years developing the this project. To get “Life on the Block” off the ground Adriana just kept pushing it further. As she describes it, “After accomplishing a certain chapter I would take it to a higher level, from having an open outdoor projection to a formal gallery show. Always searching for my very personal vision and staying true to myself. Photography is a way of raising questions to engage dialogue. Bearing witness to people’s daily life helps to inform and educate, bringing awareness that stretches our collective mental boundaries, which in turn encourages and enables social change, growth and wholeness.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 