David Gillanders June 30, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Scotland.Tags: Scotland
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Emergency room at The Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland 2006
David Gillanders (b. 1978, Scotland) obsession with photography developed in his early teens while training as a boxer in Glasgow. He became hypnotized by the black and white posters on the walls of the boxing clubs where he sparred. At the age of 16, he was fed up being punched in the head but still loved the atmosphere and characters in the boxing world and returned to the clubs with a camera to start and document what he saw. In the late 1990’s, David won a couple of local photographic competitions of work on Glasgow and began to secure regular commissions from several of Scotland’s leading broadsheet newspapers and magazines. With regular photographic commissions, David combines editorial and commercial assignments in an attempt to finance his own long term social documentary projects.
About the Photograph:
“This photograph is part of a series exploring the massive problems we have in Glasgow in relation to knife crime. The young man in the image, and his friend, have been subjected to a pre-meditated and sustained attacks by a young gang in retaliation for previous wrong doings. The young gang, aged between 14 and 18, were armed with machetes, swords and hammers. The subject of this photo was lucky as his friend sustained the brunt of the attack and at the time of this photo was undergoing surgery for severe head and neck wounds from a machete. It was thought that the gang were trying to decapitate him.”
Andrew Spear June 28, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Ohio University, United States.Tags: United States
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Glouster Ohio 2009
Andrew Spear (b. 1987, United States) lives in Athens, Ohio and works as a freelance photographer while continuing work on numerous personal projects. He is a recent graduate from Ohio University and has been published in national publications including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Andrew has also been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association, The Southern Short Course in News Photography and had two images selected for American Photography 26. He also collaborated on the 2008 “Soul of Athens” project which was awarded an honorable mention in Online Publications Best Use in POYi.
About the Photograph:
“I’ve been working on a project in the town of Glouster for about a year now. Glouster was once an extremely prosperous extractive industry town in southeastern Ohio. In the early 1960s, however, the mines moved out after stripping the natural resources, taking most of the jobs and opportunity with them. As with many surrounding towns, narcotics abuse is an ever-increasing problem. I was photographing a family outside their home last spring when the girl in the red dress ran by with a ferret. One of the children asked her to stop so they could look at it and I asked what was happening because she was in such a hurry. All she told me was that her Aunt had just been arrested and asked her to take care of the pet for her. She was unsure of what charges her aunt was facing.”
Ariel Zambelich June 25, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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From the project “I’ll Be A Beautiful Girl,” USA 2009
Ariel Zambelich (b. 1985, USA) is a freelance photojournalist based in Northern California. A Los Angeles native, she graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in Journalism. She worked for two years as a staff photographer at a mid-sized newspaper in Stockton, CA, before deciding to pursue her freelance career. Ariel attended the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2008 where she received an award from Life Magazine, and was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass in 2009. Her clients include the Wall Street Journal and The FADER, and she co-directs the Exposure Gallery in San Francisco, which is dedicated to documentary photography.”
About the Photograph:
“In this photograph, Elena shaves in preparation for Genital Reassignment surgery as her (now ex) wife Zing relaxes in their hotel room in Trinidad, Colorado. The couple traveled halfway across the country for the surgery. Elena viewed the trip as coming full circle; she was born in Denver, but the family that put her up for adoption as a child still lives in Trinidad. I was particularly drawn to Elena’s story because it was not only a visually remarkable transition, but it was also a complicated emotional change. In the course of a year, she shed her previous life as Rick Nafzinger, the tie-dye wearing father of five grown children, seminary graduate, Hindu priest and husband, to become Elena Jane Kelly, a name chosen for herself, and a personality she is still refining. She struggles to find her own identity in a sea of stereotypical femininity and a lifetime of male perspective. At 53 years old, she realizes she is reliving puberty in a way most take for granted. More than walking in high heels and choosing a hair color, the struggle for Elena lies in forging a new place for herself in her own life.”
Katie Falkenberg June 23, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Waiting for Free Medical Care. Virginia 2009
Katie Falkenberg (b. 1981, United States) is a freelance photographer based in Los Angeles, California. She began her career photographing the 2004 presidential campaign, which led her to Washington, D.C., where she covered the White House, Capitol Hill, and other stories throughout the nation’s capital. In the fall of 2006, Katie joined the staff of The Washington Times where assignments took her from the hollows of West Virginia to the mountains of Pakistan. Her photography and multimedia work have been awarded by Pictures of the Year International, the White House News Photographers Association, Editor & Publisher, and the NPPA. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, TIME, Rolling Stone, GQ, and Vanity Fair, among others.
About the Photograph:
“At the Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic in southwestern Virginia, thousands of people gathered outside of the fairgrounds gate each morning before dawn, waiting for their number to be called so they could enter into the clinic to receive free dental, vision, and medical treatment. The people in this photograph were still outside of the gate in the afternoon, hoping to be called before they stopped accepting patients. The family to the left of the photo said that this was a “once-a-year effort to get their eyes and teeth worked on,” so they were willing to wait as long as it took to get in. Most of the people who came to the clinic said that if it were not for RAM, they would go without this vital care. People drove hundreds of miles and waited for hours, even days, sleeping in their cars and tents outside the fairgrounds gate, hoping to make the cut-off of those admitted. Still, at the end of the weekend, some people had to be turned away as time ran out.”
Milan Jaros June 21, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Slovakia.Tags: Slovakia
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Romany Settlement, Slovakia 2008
Milan Jaros (b.1979,Czech Republic) studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague between 1998-2004. He currently works for the Czech magazine Respekt covering social issues such as the rise of racism in Eastern Europe, the environmental situation as well as projects abroad in Georgia, Lebanon and Israel. In 2009 he received the first prize in the ‘daily Life’ category of the Czech Press Photo competition and second prize in the Unicef Photo of the Year (2009). His work will be shown this month at the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism in Hannover, Germany.
About the Photograph:
“My photographs about the Romany in Slovakia was one of the first documentary projects I had ever made while still a student. I was fascinated by their authenticity and traditional way of life. It was something totally different from the boring middle class life of my surroundings and took me deeper into documentary photography. Ten years later I photographed this community for a reportage made for Respekt Magazine about how the Romany are adapting to the economic situation in Europe.”
Laure Geerts June 18, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Belgium.Tags: Belgium
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Haccourt Belgium 2009
Laure Geerts (b.1978, Belgium) studied business and marketing until she discovered photography in 2006. This revelation allowed her to discover places and people she would otherwise never have experienced. In 2008 she formed Collectif Caravane with five other photographers. Her work has been published in View Photography magazine, Focus Vif and exhibited at BIP 2010 OFF (Liège ,Belgium) and at the Centre d’Art Graphique ‘La Métairie Bruyère’, Auxerres in France. She won the “Coup de coeur” from ANI (Association Nationale des Iconographes) in Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan, France in 2009. Laure is currently based in Brussels.
About the Photograph:
“This photo is from my project Out of Wallonia. Each year, in mid-August, the small village of Haccourt in Wallonia prepares its annual folklore. You can see Belgium and blue flags on the windows. The women wear long and colorful dresses and the men put on smoking jackets. In the afternoon they cross the village with a marching band and the flag representing their team. In this photograph, three musicians from one of the bands are resting during a stop in a garden. At the falling night, the blue team defies the reds in the center of the village. The tension goes up. The trumpet players blow with of all their force and the bass drum resounds. The notes mix and the Farandoles cross.”
Andy Spyra June 16, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in India, Kashmir.Tags: India, Kashmir
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Srinagar, Kashmir 2008
Andy Spyra (born 1984, Germany) graduated from school in 2006 and following travels to Central America and SE Asia worked as a freelance photographer for a local newspaper in his hometown of Hagen, Germany. He later studied photography at the Fachhochschule in Hannover where he graduated in 2007. Andy has received grants and recognition from: Getty (Editorial Grant), Sony World Photography, POYl and PDN Emerging 30 (2010). His work has been published in Geo, Stern, One-Mag, Middle East Report, 360° Magazine, and Amnesty International. He is currently pursuing personal projects in the Balkans and the middle East.
About the Photograph:
“The photograph is part of my long term project on Kashmir. The people were mourning over the destruction of their houses by the local government, which claimed that the houses were build illegally on the shores of Dal lake and therefore had to be removed. The fact is, at the time of construction, no building permits or anything like that existed. As part of an ecologic campaign to save the rapidly shrinking and polluted Dal Lake the government is trying to move people away and resettle them somewhere in the countryside of Kashmir. Obviously most people don’t want to leave their homes voluntary so the government comes back with force and destroys the houses. Why this has to happen at the beginning of the long and cold Kashmiri winter is a question that remains unanswered.”
Natan Dvir June 14, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Israel.Tags: Israel
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Aseel, Um El-Fahem 2009
Natan Dvir (b. 1972, Israel) received his MBA at Tel Aviv University and MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY. His work has been published in Newsweek, Glamour, Le Monde, Stern, Focus, Die Zeit, among others. Natan is a winner of the PDN Annual, American Photograph and B&W Spider Awards. He is represented by Polaris Images. Natan recently won the New York Photo Festival Award in the Social Documentary Essay category for his work “Eighteen” sponsored by the Other Israel film festival about the Arab population of Israel. It’s on exhibit this month at Visual Arts Gallery in NYC.
About the Photograph:
“Mixed emotions filled me as I entered Um Al Fahem to meet Aseel: a Jewish man in an Arab city considered by most Jewish Israelis as violent. I was a tourist in my own country. Amazing hospitality and openness soon chased away any fears, replacing them with curiosity and interest. Although I lived in Israel and photographed it most of my life I felt I did not really know or understand its large Arab minority (over 20% of the country’s population) born into an identity crisis. Most individuals I approached expressed great skepticism about my project- “Why would a Jewish person be interested in investigating an Arab person’s life?” The initial tension waned down in most cases leading to interesting interaction.”
Kalpesh Lathigra June 11, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Afghanistan.Tags: Afghanistan
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British Soldiers, Afghanistan 2006
Kalpesh Lathigra (b.1971, London, England) was educated at the London College of Printing with a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism. In 2000 he gave up working for newspapers and made the decision to work on long term projects. In the same year he was awarded the arts prize with World Press Photo. In 2003, he embarked on a long term project documenting the lives of Widows in India, receiving The W.Eugene Smith Fellowship and Churchill Fellowship. In 2005, Kalpesh started a new approach to his photographic practice merging fine art and documentary practice being primarily influenced by the American Colourists. He is currently working on the series “A State of Grace” looking a the USA since the election of Barack Obama. Kalpesh has exhibited at PhotoEspana, Noorderlicht, Savignano, Italy and Galleria Contemporaneo in Venice among others.
About the Photograph:
“This photograph was taken as part of a commission I undertook for The Guardian Weekend Magazine and is about the undercurrents of war and those who fight and live in these environments. Putting aside the politics of conflict, when you are in close proximity to these men, who are mostly aged between 18 -25, they are just normal young men reading magazines, smoking, watching tv, laughing, etc but then you also see the mental and emotionally switch when they go on patrol as soldiers. There is an infrastructure of war which is another world and it is these things I am trying to explore. These three guys were with the parachute regiment. I spent a lot of time with them and this was a quiet moment in the evening. One had just come in after having a smoke, the other was reading a letter and the last just relaxing. Take away the context of an army tent and they could be three friends anywhere in the world just hanging out.”
Noah Addis June 9, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Brazil.Tags: Brazil
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Jardim Edite Favela. São Paulo 2009
Noah Addis (b.1975, USA) worked as a staff photographer at the Star-Ledger newspaper in Newark, NJ until 2008, when he left to work on long-term personal projects. His photographs have been published in: The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, People, US News & World Report and many others. Noah was part of a team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2005. Other awards include New Jersey Photographer of the Year three times, runner-up in the portfolio category of the NPPA Best of Photojournalism and POYI . In 2010 he had an exhibition at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and was awarded a career development fellowship by the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia. He is currently represented by Corbis.
About the Photograph:
“This photograph is from ‘Future Cities’ a long-term project documenting the residents of squatter communities in the world’s major cities. The Jardim Edite favela (slum) in São Paulo was built near an affluent business district. The residents, including Arnaldo Reis and his family, were evicted in 2009 and their homes were demolished. Many of the residents moved to other favelas in the area, some of which are also slated for demolition. Many squatters are hard-working citizens who, through lack of education or poor job opportunities, are forced to work in low-paying jobs and do not earn enough to rent a legal home. The vast majority are not criminals. They are merely looking for a safe place to live. As one squatter living under high-tension power lines in a favela in São Paulo told me, my dream is to have a legal address.”
Liz Hingley June 7, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in England.Tags: England
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Polish Community Center. Birmingham, England 2008
Liz Hingley (b.1985, UK) is a documentary photographer and researcher based in London. She graduated from Brighton University with a first class BA Honours in Editorial Photography and recently completed a two-year scholarship with Fabrica research and communications department in Italy. Liz is now studying for her MSc in Social Anthropology at University College London. Her photography has won international awards including the ‘Taylor Wessing’ National Portrait award 2009, Ian Parry award 2007 and finalist in the Terry O’Neil award. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in the UK, France and Budapest. Her photographs have been featured in arts and journalist publications and academic journals in the UK, France Italy and China from the Sunday Times and Le Monde to Foto8. She is currently working on educational projects with the National Portrait gallery in London and the Royal society of Arts in Paris.
About the Photograph:
“This image is from the project ‘Under Gods, stories from Soho Road’, which explores the everyday spiritual practices and religious life that play out on this one street. The Soho Road in Birmingham, one of the UK’s most culturally diverse cities where over 90 different nationalities now live, is the site of some 30 religious centers for denominations from around the world. The Polish are now an established community in Britain with many immigrants still arriving each year. They show incredible devotion to Catholicism and their traditional religious practices from back home. I met this chef in the Polish community center restaurant on Soho road, catching a moment of calm amongst the hectic Christmas festivities. The center is more than busy at this time, catering to an array of celebrations from St Nicholas visits to hundreds of children and their eager mothers, to the over 80’s Christmas dinner dance.”
Ilana Panich-Linsman June 4, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Teen Party, Brooklyn 2009
Ilana Panich-Linsman (b. 1984, USA) is a documentary photographer currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Scripps College in Claremont, California and is a graduate of the International Center of Photography’s Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program and also studied at the Maine Photographic Workshops. Most recently, she attended the 2009 Eddie Adams Workshops, Barnstorm XXII. Ilana was awarded the Director’s Fellowship from the International Center of Photography and was also a finalist at the New York Photo Awards in 2009. In June 2010, Ilana’s work will be on display at the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism in Hannover, Germany.
About the Photo:
“Fifteen is a photo essay examining a small corner of female teenage culture. These young women have grown up in a society saturated with images that they read and use in their own coded manner. By creating a persona, they mimic adult behaviors such as language and dress. Their exaggerated gestures and expressions are their language to this abstract time in their lives. In this photo the girls attended a party in Bushwick, Brooklyn hosted by older teenagers, who were unknown to them. They paid five dollars at the door. They were able to drink and smoke without anyone batting an eye. One of the girls in the background flirts with an older boy, and in the foreground, one of the boys in the group flagrantly smokes pot as the music pulses off beer-stained floorboards. All of this, and then home by 11 p.m.”
Didier Ruef June 2, 2010
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Angola.Tags: Angola
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Angola 2000
Didier Ruef (b.1961, Switzerland) graduated in Economics from the University of Geneva and later studied photojournalism at ICP in New York. Since returning to Switzerland in 1987, he began working as a photojournalist and has visited all five continents, with a preference for Africa. He was a member of Network Photographers Agency in London from 1991 to 1997 and a founding member of Pixsil from 2002 to 2009. He is currently represented by Cosmos in France, Luz Photo in Italy, Visum in Germany and Bildbyran Silver in Scandinavia. His photographs have been published in Time, The Observer Magazine, Daily Telegraph, Le Monde, among others. He has published several books and has been involved in a worldwide project about man and waste which he plans to publish next year.
About the Photograph:
“I made this photograph in Angola with Médecins Sans Frontières as part of an essay on the waste of war. While walking in the late afternoon between the houses, I came upon the picture I was looking for. Chance may not be the accurate word because I was already in Menongue for a week and had been walking all around town looking for a scene which showed daily life and the side effects of war. I moved closer to the scene and shot a few pictures of an old woman crushing corn in front of her house with a destroyed T72 tank in her courtyard. I tried to talk to her when she took a break, but she could not understand or speak Portuguese.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 