Carl Kiilsgaard June 29, 2009

The White Family

Carl Kiilsgaard (b.1986,United States) is currently a student at Western Kentucky University where, if  everything goes as planned, he will graduate in 2010. He has interned at Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Times, the Napa (California) Register, and the Palm Beach (Florida) Post. Carl has used his camera as a tool to meet people, experience life, and he hopes to one day affect social change in a positive way. His work has been recognized by POYi, BOP, the Alexia Foundation, PDN, Canon, and the Magenta Foundation. Carl was one of Getty Images Reportage’s Emerging Talent picks in 2008.

About the Photograph:

“This is a picture I took last summer from a project I have been working on entitled The White Family. We had walked down the holler to talk with some neighbors when the kids began playing in the front yard while the adults talked in the background. This project is very near and dear to my heart and I consider the subjects as part of my own family now. The experiences I’ve shared with them have shaped both my world view and taught me many things about compassion and the acceptance of cultures different from my own. In spite of many setbacks, they have been able to persevere because of their strong family bond.”

Daryl Peveto June 22, 2009

Birthday Boy from the series “American Nomads”

Daryl Peveto is a freelance photographer and videographer with a passion for social documentary storytelling. Over the last few years he has worked on  issues ranging from American nomads to the black market economies of Peru to active octogenarians. From these images he was accepted to the prestigious Eddie Adams Workshop in 2006 and has since been recognized by Photo District News, College Photographer of the Year, the Missouri Photo Workshop, the National Press Photographers Association and Sportsshooter.com. His clients include The New York Times, The FADER, San Diego Union-Tribune, ABC television, and MSNBC. Daryl is currently based in Southern California.

About the Photograph:

“A central goal of the American Dream is to one day own your own home.  Yet our beginnings were forged out of another, antithetical idea: that of movement and searching for self-determination. Today this idea still exists, but far away from our neatly manicured suburban homes and out of view of the mainstream. In the United States, large communities exist which have turned their backs on the idea of settling down, opting for a nomadic life. One such community is Slab City, located on the Salton Sea in southern California. In this photo, Willie Reynolds cools off with his weekly bath in a pool that he borrowed from his six dogs. The summers in the Slabs reach as much as 120 degrees. Willie was given arm floaties for his birthday. He says, “They are good to keep me from drowning.” Adding, “today is my birthday, so I wanted to take a bath for my party.” Willie’s friends threw him a barbecue and surprised him with a cake.

“On a side note, I missed the latter part of Willie’s birthday party due to being sick. When I went to see him the next day to apologize, he asked me if I wanted some cake. He then told me that he waited to blow out the candles and serve the cake until I could be there to celebrate with him. It was an incredibly touching moment for me.”

Jon Lowenstein June 17, 2009

From the series “Chicagoland”

Jon Lowenstein (b.1970, United States) specializes in long-term, in-depth documentary photographic projects which question the status quo. He attended the University of Iowa and graduated with a degree in English in 1993. Jon has been documenting the South Side Chicago community for the past eight years and his recent work includes stories from Central America. His awards include a 2008 Alicia Patterson Fellow and garnering the 2007 Getty Award for Editorial Images. He also received a 2007 World Press Photo Award, a 2007 USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism Fellowship, the 2005 NPPA New America Award, Nikon Sabbatical Grant, and Fuji Community Awareness Award. He participated in the Open Society Institute’s Moving Walls Exhibition and was a finalist for the 2006 W. Eugene Smith Award.

About the Photograph:

“Chicago is not typically designated in dream-like terms.  If anything, its nostalgia is evoked through a mythology of its icy literalness. It is, after all, the poster-city of American industrial power, sweet home to ruthless gangsters and red-faced politicians. For years, the ‘Second City’ has been overlooked in favor of the more urbane New York and the glitterati of Los Angeles. Chicagoland is a photographic dream journey through what many term The Most American City.   Obama’s election to the presidency reflects the straight-thinking values historically associated with Chicago and in doing so, brings the world’s gaze to its lakeshores.  Unlike the older east coast cities with their Anglo colonial roots, Chicago has always been the working immigrant’s kind of town. The adage that to understand Chicago is to understand America has perhaps never been so much the case.”

Kim Badawi June 15, 2009

From the “Taqwacores” Project, 2007

Kim Badawi (b. 1980, France) studied at l’ Ecole Superieure des Arts Graphiques, in Paris. He  graduated with a BFA in 2003, from the School of Visual Arts, in New York. While working as a photo assistant at Magnum Photos and Time Inc. he participated in various group exhibitions in both Manhattan and Washington DC. In 2005, he covered the plight of surviving refugee families from Mississippi to Texas during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. He recently graduated from the Documentary and Photo-journalism program at ICP while interning at Contact Press Inmages. Kim’s work appeared in 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers (PowerHouse Books, 2008) and The Taqwacores- A history of the American Muslim punk genre by  (PowerHouse Books, 2009).

About the Photograph:

“This photo was taken on assignment for Rolling Stone in the basement of a punk house known as La Casa Malidita in Chicago during the first ever Taqwa Tour in 2007.  It shows guitarist Shahjehan Khan of the Kominas’ – a Taqwacore band from Boston- being fed a freshly seared enchilada by former singer of Dia Critical, Omar Waqar – a Taqwacore band from Washington DC.  Taqwacore, encompasses a wide variety of musical styles, orientations, and includes individuals from different religious and cultural backgrounds.  Although this photo never ran in Rolling Stone I believe it encapsulates the notion of cross cultural acceptance and diversity.”

Marc Asnin June 10, 2009

Charlie and  Blanca. From the project “Uncle Charlie”

Marc Asnin (b.1964) likes to say he was born and raised in Brooklyn when “Brooklyn was Brooklyn.” Which is his way of saying, not the hip, phony, expensive version that comes to mind these days. If this sounds like he has a chip on his shoulder, think again: it’s on both shoulders. His clients include: The New Yorker, Stern, Life, New York Times Magazine, and many others. His various awards include the Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography in 1993, the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography in 2000 and the Alicia Patterson Fellowship in 2001. For the past 29 years, Marc has photographed his Uncle Charlie. This body of work was recently selected to appear in the book Blink, published by Phaidon. Marc has also taught at the International Center for Photography and the School of Visual Arts. Uncle Charlie was published by Contrasto. Check out the website for the book here.

About the Photograph:

“The process of taking pictures for the Uncle Charlie project was always very intimate.  This image is a prime example of that intimacy. In this image Charlie was coming out of one of his most anorexic and house-bound states. As he and Blanca were lying down, I was suddenly struck by how similar Charlie looked like his mother, my grandmother, when she was on her deathbed. It was a very eerie feeling to see a sort of death mask on Charlie’s face, one that looked so much like his mother.  One of the major underlying themes of the Uncle Charlie project is the cyclical nature of contemporary society, how poverty and mental illness are often inherited. For Charlie to so closely resemble his dying mother in his current dilapidated state really brought the project full circle for me on both a professional and personal level.”