Grégoire Bernardi September 30, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in England.Tags: England
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From the series “The New Burlesque”, England 2008
Grégoire Bernardi (B. 1983, France) began as a self-taught photographer from the age of seven. He began studies in art and photography at ETPA in Toulouse until 2003 later returning to Marseille where he worked as a reporter-photographer from 2003 to 2007 with the “Reportages” agency. In 2012, he relocated to Marseille, France to continue his personal work. His photographs have been published in: VSD (Fr), Les Inrockuptibles (Fr), Groove (Fr), Playboy (French and Italian edition), L’Express (Fr), Let’s Motiv (Fr), Men’s Health (Fr), (Fr), Nautiques (Netherland), Ship & Shore ( Germany), 20 Minutes (Fr), Le Journal du Dimanche (Fr), Le Monde (Fr), and The Times (Uk).
About the Photograph:
“This picture was taken at the Shepherds Bush Hall, in West London. I was working with a journalist on a project about the New Burlesque in England and we asked to photograph the duo Pustra & Vileen because they looked like very different than other performers. When I start the shooting, a pianist was playing downstairs, and the ambiance became very quiet and warm. I went on the other side of the bar, it was very small so it was difficult to move. I said nothing to them, the music gave them their cue as they changed their poses very slowly and followed the lens with their eyes. The ambiance was like a old silent movie, something was happening between us, it’s hard to explain, but we didn’t need any words to speak together. During those kinds of situations, I know why I decided to be a photographer.”
Jan Banning September 28, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in India.Tags: India
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Surinder Kumar Mandal, tax inspector, Bihar India
Jan Banning (b.1954, Netherlands) was born from Dutch-East-Indies parents. He studied social and economic history at the University of Nijmegen and has been working as a photographer since 1981. His documentary work, rooted in both art and journalism, has been exhibited and published widely in books, magazines and newspapers. The central concern in his work is the theme of state power; Banning has produced series on the world of government bureaucracy (which received a World Press Photo and several other awards) and the long-term consequences of war. Currently he is working on a portrait series of World War II “comfort women” in Indonesia.
About the Photograph:
“This photo is from the self-initiated project Bureaucratics, resulting in a book (published by Nazraeli) and travelling exhibition of 50 photographs: the product of an anarchist’s heart, a historian’s mind and an artist’s eye. It is a comparative photographic study of the culture, rituals and symbols of state civil administrations and its servants in eight countries, selected on the basis of polical, historical and cultural considerations: Bolivia, China, France, India, Liberia, Russia, the United States, and Yemen. In India I visited hundreds of offices of members of the executive. The visits were unannounced and the accompanying writer, Will Tinnemans, by interviewing kept the employees from tidying up or clearing the office. That way, the photos show what a local citizen would be confronted with when entering.”
Penny de los Santos September 25, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Tejano culture in Laredo, Texas, 2002
Penny de los Santos (b.1968, Wurzberg Germany, U.S. Military Base) is a documentary photographer based in Texas. Her clients include National Geographic Magazine, Saveur Magazine, Time Magazine, Newsweek among others. She has received numerous awards and grants including the World Press Joop Swart Master Class, National Geographic Photography Grant, National Press Photographer’s Association College Photographer of the Year 1998, 1998 Recipient National Geographic Photography Internship, Kodak Eddie Adams Workshop Grant, Marty Forsher Fellowship from the Parson’s School of Design NYC and a Kodak Profession Grant in conjunction with World Press Master class.
About the Photograph:
“In 2002 I was awarded the National Geographic Photography Grant to continue my ongoing documentary work on the Texas/Mexican border and Tejano culture. This region of Texas is a place where cultures clash and are constantly being redefined. I spent a total of four years developing the body of work, to this day I am still documenting the culture and the geography. This photograph was taken in the Texas/Mexico border town of Laredo. The young woman is being fitted for a dress by the designer, at right, her mother and designers assistants. She is being introduced into “high society” at a ball and pageant that happens annually by the Society Of Martha Washington. This induction into “high society” is based on family heritage and class and has been passed down from generation to generation since the 1950’s.”
Boogie September 23, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Serbia.Tags: Serbia
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Belgrade, Serbia 1996
Boogie (B. 1979, Serbia) began photographing rebellion and unrest during the civil war that ravaged his country during the 1990s. Growing up in a war-torn country defined Boogie’s style and attraction to the darker side of human existence. He moved to New York City in 1998, and now lives and works in Brooklyn. He has published five monographs, IT’S ALL GOOD (powerHouse Books, 2006), BOOGIE (powerHouse Books, 2007), SAO PAULO (Upper Playground, 2008), ISTANBUL (Upper Playground, 2008) and BELGRADE BELONGS TO ME (powerHouse Books, 2009). His clients and publications credits include Nike, Lee jeans, The New York Times, Rolling Stone Magazine, Playboy and Vibe magazine. His work has been exhibited in Paris, New York, Tokyo and Istanbul.
About the Photograph:
“Living under Milošević was like living in a mental institution. It was apocalyptic. Pensions and salaries were three to five U.S. Dollars. People, especially the old and retired, were literally starving. The streets were empty. There was a shortage of gasoline, so there were very few cars on the street. And then, in the middle of the night, you would see a police truck cruising slowly. There were protests against Milosevic every day. In the beginning they were peaceful, so I didn’t go. I don’t believe in peaceful, passive resistance. It’s either grab the gun and go to the woods or sit at home. But then they turned violent. The police were very brutal, beating protesters mercilessly. And that’s when I started to go out and shoot photographs. Milosevic wasn’t sure cops from Belgrade would be tough enough—they might not want to beat on their neighbors. So cops were brought from other parts of Serbia, huge cops with mustaches, in riot gear. I ran from them a few times. Scary.”
Brent Foster September 21, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Cal and Jean Sizelove. Maine, USA 2008
Brent Foster (b. 1982, Canada) is a photojournalist and multimedia producer based in New Delhi, India. Foster was a staff Visual Journalist at the Los Angeles Times before deciding to give freelancing a try. Foster is an Eddie Adams workshop alumni, and has received numerous awards including two National Press Photographers Association ‘Best of Photojournalism Awards’ for Multimedia, and a nomination for Canadian Photojournalist of the Year through the News Photographers Association of Canada. Foster is a member of the Bombay Flying Club, a multimedia production collective, based in Denmark. His clients include TIME.com, The New York Times, Canadian Geographic, and The Globe and Mail. Check out his recent multimedia piece “Wasteland”.
About the Photograph:
“I met Cal and Jean Sizelove while attending a VII Masterclass workshop with Ron Haviv in Maine, USA, during the summer of 2008. The Sizelove’s fascinated me in the way their traditional roles had changed after Jean was diagnosed with a long-term illness. Cal learned to cook, do the laundry, prepare Jean’s medication, and did it all with tenderness and passion. Their story represents a large aging population in the United States, but it’s also more than that. It’s is a story of faith, acceptance, and ultimately, love.
Mariella Furrer September 18, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Ethiopia.Tags: Ethiopia
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Patient with Trachoma at eye clinic, Ethiopia 2005
Mariella Furrer (b. 1968, Swiss & Lebanese) has lived in Africa her whole life. She attended the Documentary Photography & Photojournalism Program at the International Center of Photography in NYC (1993), and has since been working as a freelance photojournalist based between Kenya and South Africa. She has covered Africa extensively and has worked on stories in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Mariella has been awarded grants from the 3P Foundation, France and the Hasseleblad Foundation, Sweden. She has received an Honorable Mention from Unicef Photo of the Year 2005 and has been nominated for the Santa Fe Prize for Photography 2006. Mariella has been documenting child sexual abuse in South Africa for the past six years, which will be published in book form.
About the Photograph:
“Desta Ayanew has suffered from trachoma, for decades, waits to have her eyelids operated on during an eye camp at the Fires Wega Health Post. Trachoma is a highly infectious disease, which affects the eyelids, inverting them and causing the eye lashes to scratch the cornea. Desta who has gone blind due to trachoma keeps her eyes shut almost permanently because blinking is too painful. Her eyes are tearing constantly and she has streaks down her face from the salt left over when her tears have dried up. Her son and his wife and children look after her. The eye camp for trachoma was organized by the district health department. I loved working on this story, firstly because Ethiopia is an amazing country, and secondly because although I had grown up in Africa I had never heard of trachoma before. For me, this was a great story to highlight because trachoma, although a highly infectious disease is in fact very easy to treat and to prevent – if there is adequate funding.”
Peter McCollough September 16, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Ohio University, United States.Tags: United States
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Evangelicals praying in Flint, Michigan 2007
Peter McCollough (b. 1982, United States) is a Northern California based photographer and former Marine that received his B.S. in Visual Communication at Ohio University in 2008. While in school he completed an internship at The Flint Journal in Michigan where he photographed the effects of crime and the sport of amateur cage fighting. While a student at Ohio he attended the Eddie Adams Workshop and was awarded by CPOY, NPPA, The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar and PX3. As of late he is pursuing his strong interest in narrative film making and is currently in the post-production phase of his first short film.
About the Photograph:
“The series this photo is a part of was made during a five hour event during the first month of my newspaper internship in Flint, Michigan, in April of 2007. The cluster to the left is a group of several different churches preaching to and praying with one another. They are standing around a flatbed trailer turned into a portable makeshift stage. They spent the day traveling to different points in the city where violent crimes had occurred. They came to cleanse and bless these areas, and to evangelize to the immediate communities. The wanted to change Flint.” (more…)
Christoph Bangert September 14, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Iraq.Tags: Iraq
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Sandstorm, Baghdad, Iraq 2006
Christoph Bangert (b. 1978, Germany) graduated from ICP in 2003. In 2002 he shipped an old Landrover from Germany to Buenos Aires and in six months, drove from Argentina, 22,000 miles to New York City. The resulting photos of the trip were published in his first book titled Travel Notes. (powerHouse 2007) He has been covering the Iraq war since 2005 for the New York Times. His work from Iraq is collected in: “IRAQ: The Space Between”. He has exhibited in Germany, New York and at the Musee de L’Elysee in Switzerland where he was selected as one of 50 emerging photographers for an exhibit and book titled: reGeneration (Thames & Hudson 2005; Aperture 2006). Christoph was chosen as one of PDN’s 30 emerging photographers and for the 2007 Joop Swart Masterclass. He recently returned from a 14 month long overland journey with his Land Rover across Africa.
About the Photograph:
“I took this picture while I was on assignment for The New York Times in Iraq. One day a huge sandstorm swept across Baghdad and the fine dust in the air turned everything bright yellow and orange. This is one of the few pictures I was able to take in public on the streets of Baghdad between 2005 and 2006. During this time kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners forced the few western journalists that remained in Iraq to travel with armed Iraqi escorts and cautiously plan every trip ahead of time. Most neighborhoods were completely off limits for outsiders. Wandering the streets and taking pictures openly became unthinkable. Occasionally I received requests from western publications to take pictures of daily life in Baghdad. I always struggled to explain that this probably was the single most dangerous assignment in the world for a foreign photographer at the time.” (more…)
Tony Fouhse September 11, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Car Wash. Lafayette, Alabama
Tony Fouhse (b. 1954, Canada) is an Ottawa based editorial and commercial photographer. He also spends a lot of time, money and emotion shooting personal work. Since 2004 he has completed projects in California, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio and New Jersey. Closer to home, Fouhse has been working on a story in his home town: “USER: Portraits of Crack Addicts”. His publication credits include: Macleans, Amtrak, CA Magazine, Chatelaine, Canadian Business, Cottage Life, Wish, Business 2.0 amongst many others.
About the Photograph:
“A lot of my photographs look documentary, but none of them are. I set up every shot. I go places where people hang out. Car washes, laundromats, small towns, the desert. Once there I look for people and locations that I find interesting. When I see a person I’d like to photograph, I go over, introduce myself and explain what I’m doing. Typically we’ll have a conversation about any-and-everything. This is my favorite part. After a while I begin to take pictures. I move the subject to where I want them to be. Then I block them in the shot and direct them as to how I want them to look, hold their body and so on. I usually shoot between two and eight frames in each situation. This particular image of Jerry Holloway was shot in Lafayette, Alabama. He was washing his car. I liked the situation so I hardly had to move him around at all. I like to say that my photos aren’t real, but they are based on reality.”
Dai Sugano September 9, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in India.Tags: India
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Mumbai, India, 2009
Dai Sugano (b. 1976, Japan) is a photojournalist and senior multimedia editor at the San Jose Mercury News. He co-created Mercury NewsPhoto.com whose interactive story telling has been judged among the world’s best two years in a row in the Pictures of the Year International contest. Sugano covers wide range of assignments which have included: Hmong refugees’ immigration to the United States; the California Recall; former Japanese Internment camp survivors and number of stories in politics. In 2008, “Uprooted,” which looks at displacement of a group of mobile home residents in Sunnyvale, won an Emmy Award. His other work have been nominated for an Emmy Award and a Pulitzer Prize in photography; and have received international and national recognitions. Dai also teaches multimedia to graduate students at Stanford University. Dai recently edited a beautiful short video on India shot by Ami Vitale.
About the Photograph:
“India’s rising prosperity is a remarkable story. Millions of peoplehave been lifted from poverty in recent years. But the new glitter ofIndia’s cities can’t hide the grim reality that remains daily life for hundreds of millions of its citizens. The U.S. news media in the United States often carry stories about India’s economic development, praising it as the next economic next super power. But rarely do the media touch upon the reality that behind India’s economic development — a reality in which, hundreds of millions people are struggling and failing to escape from poverty.”
Sheila Zhao September 7, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in China.Tags: China
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A Chinese child extra waiting for filming to start. Yixian, Hebei Province, 2008
Sheila Zhao (b. 1983, China) grew up in the United States and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University in 2005. Immediately following graduation, she relocated to Beijing, China, and began a career in photography in 2007. That same year, Sheila was selected to participate in the Angkor Photo Festival’s workshop for young, emerging Asian photographers. Since then, she has worked on a variety of projects around China, including a three months stint as a stills photographer on a Chinese movie set. Most recently, Sheila just completed a six months photo editing internship with TIME Magazine’s Asia photo department in Hong Kong.
About the Photograph:
“In the summer of 2008, I spent some time photographing on a Chinese movie set. The story line was a period drama that involved love, mystery, and of course, kung-fu. Hundreds of extras old and young were cast during filming and one day, I saw this girl [pictured]. She was part of a group of child extras drafted from a nearby martial arts school. I noticed her right away because of her big, sad eyes, and kept an eye on her for the rest of the afternoon. At one point, while waiting for the rest of the cast and crew to start filming, she picked up the prop assigned to her – a dry gourd shell – and stood in a such a way that I thought accentuated her melancholic demeanor. Fortunately, I was close enough to capture this moment.”
Nina Berman September 4, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Afghanistan.Tags: Afghanistan
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Kabul, Afghanistan, 1998
Nina Berman (b. 1960, USA) is a documentary photographer widely published, exhibited and collected, with a primary interest in the American political and social landscape. She is internationally known for her images of wounded American military, which received two World Press Photo awards and several American foundation grants. She is the author of Purple Hearts-Back from Iraq and Homeland, both published by Trolley books. Her images and book projects have been featured in Aperture, Art in America, Colors, Fortune, German Geo, Le Monde, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Sunday Times and Mother Jones where she is a contributing photographer. She frequently lectures on photography and is on the faculty at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in her hometown of New York City. Nina is a member of Noor Images.
About the Photograph:
“I took this image in Kabul, Afghanistan in May of 1998. The women were attending a child birthing class organized by the United Nations. It was one of the few classes or social gathering places open to women. I was on assignment for Newsweek magazine with the writer Carla Power. Photographing in Kabul at the time was extremely difficult. Most everything outdoors was male and off limits to the camera as the Taliban had imposed strict rules against photography. But indoors was another world, the world of women. I took this picture a moment after I had entered the room. Some of the women, the two in the back, were nervous about revealing their identities, and so they covered their faces. The others were curious about who we were and wanted to share their stories. They appeared beautiful to me, in their ethnic variety, the shape of their faces. I was surprised by their make-up. This was the first time I saw a group of women without burqas and I realized how the cloaking of their bodies and faces played with my perceptions and fantasies. So for me this picture was a huge accomplishment in my attempt to show the individuality of Afghan women and to take them from this place of “the other” to something more accessible and familiar.”
Ryan Carter September 2, 2009
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in DR Congo.Tags: DR Congo
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Selling shirts in Goma, Eastern DR Congo, 2008
Ryan Carter (b. 1981, Toronto, Canada) is based in the United Arab Emirates where he divides his time between assignments and personal projects that explore the connections between people and their environments. In 2009 Ryan received recognition from Applied Arts, Communication Arts, and the National Press Photographers Association of America. His work will be included in the Foto 8 Summer Show, the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward 2009 book / exhibition and the Gallery 44 Emergence book. Ryan has recently completed assignments for the Canadian International Development Agency, the Crown Princes Court of Abu Dhabi, the International Herald Tribune, Monocle and the New York Times Magazine.
About the Photograph:
“In 2008 I found myself on assignment for The National newspaper in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the course of two trips I spent five weeks doing a number of small specific assignments for the foreign pages of the paper. In my down time I would walk the streets exploring, looking for images of daily life. The scene in this image is a common one, a young man walking the dusty, dirty streets of Goma, selling shirts. Life in eastern DR Congo is extremely difficult, poverty is rampant, and the civil war continues to destabilize the region making the survival a constant struggle.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 