Geoffrey Hiller August 19, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Burma, Myanmar.Tags: Buddhism, Burma, Myanmar
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Shwe In Bin Kyaung Monastery. Mandalay, Burma 2011
Editor’s Note: I’ll be taking off two weeks from Verve Photo. One of my prints is currently available on collect.give , a brilliant site founded by Kevin Miyazaki. It’s a place to collect contemporary photography and donate to worthy causes at the same time. I’ve pledged to donate 100% of the profits from my print sales to 100 Friends.org. Your fifty dollars goes to health and education projects in Burma/Myanmar. I recently returned from there and can personally vouch for the work that 100 Friends carries out.
About the Photograph:
“I made this image during one of my early morning walks in Mandalay, known for its large number of Buddhist monasteries. Entering the grounds of Shwe In Bin Kyaung you feel as though you are crossing an imaginary line where the noise and chaos of the city disappear. The monks and novices wake up at 4 am to begin meditation and study. Besides their spiritual practice, the monks provide after-school classes, take in orphans, and do other social outreach in a country where the government provides no safety net for the poor. The monks serve as the conscience of the nation, since they are present everywhere, and are often at the forefront of political protest in Burma.”
The photography of Geoffrey Hiller has been published in magazines in the USA, Europe, and Japan including Geo, Newsweek, Mother Jones and the New York Times Magazine. He has completed dozens of photo essays in Asia, Latin America, Europe and West Africa and was on the staff of the Brazilian edition of National Geographic for two years. His award-winning multimedia projects about Vietnam, Eastern Europe, Ghana, Burma, and Brazil have earned recognition from Adobe, The Christian Science Monitor and USA Today. He has received grants from the Paul Allen Foundation, the California Arts Council, Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland, Oregon, among others. Geoffrey was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2008-2009.
Julie Glassberg August 17, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Marissa and Mikey @ the Chicken Hut, Brooklyn 2009
Julie Glassberg (b. 1984, France) studied graphic design for four years and later decided to make her passion for photography become her life. Her interests are primarily based on the diversity of world cultures, subcultures, underground scenes as well as misfits of society, the weak, the feared, the unaccepted. Photography is like a passport to enter worlds that she would never be able to see otherwise. Julie is currently working in New York City on projects as well as freelancing for clients such as The New York Times. She is the recipient for the LUCIE Scholarship Emerging Grant (2010), a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography (2010), a 2011 POYi award of excellence, and was selected by PhotoEspana Descubrimiento 2011.
About the Photograph:
“This photo comes from a long term project called Bike Kill, about the tall bike subculture in Brooklyn. A lot of the images are chaotic. It’s a bit of a destructive, crazy environment. Good crazy though. This community is full of artists, self taught kids, and DIY experiments. I like the quiet moment captured while everyone was going crazy, alcohol flowing and music playing loud. At some point Mikey pulled me out of the crowd. He took me to a huge elevator and locked the door. There were five of us and Chacha the dog. Coming from the chaotic party, this became a very quiet, intimate moment. I shot a few pictures in the elevator and then this perfect instant just happened: the position of the arm, the looks, the leg up. This photo says a lot about those kids. Marissa and Mikey are friends and we can tell by this picture that they are really close. That’s how this community works. It might be a chaotic environment, but it is more about a big family, caring for each other, sharing and creating.”
Eric Michael Johnson August 15, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Egypt.Tags: Egypt
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Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt 2011
Eric Michael Johnson (b. 1972, USA) is a recent graduate of the International Center of Photography school of Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program 2010 where he was recipient of The New York Times Company Foundation Scholarship. In 2010, Eric was a winner of the PDN Pix Digital Imaging Contest in the Multimedia category for his work “Bellevue” on New York City’s largest homeless shelter. Eric is currently a freelance photographer/ filmmaker based between New York and Mexico City. His work is focused on documenting recurring social and political issue and has been published by the United Nations, The New York Times, Mother Jones, among others. His first documentary film was short-listed for an Academy Award Nomination in the Documentary Shorts category.
About the Photograph:
“The photograph is a simple portrait, but an important one in the context of the Egyptian revolution. It was taken on February 12, 2011 in Tahrir Square, Cairo, one day after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down. Documenting the revolution was a very difficult task. Nobody knew what was going to happen next. Just a few days prior, Mubarak had given a televised speech announcing he would not step down. One moment you were allowed to photograph the military and the next you couldn’t without being detained. In this picture, the man on the left was extending his appreciation to a member of the military for supporting the people, allowing them to protest peacefully. What left the most lasting impression on me, and what in my opinion is different from the other similar uprisings in the world, is the relationship the people of Egypt have with their military. I witnessed that relationship displayed on a grand scale with crowds surrounding tanks and cheering, but this quiet moment between two men got my attention.”
Stuart Matthews August 12, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in England.Tags: England
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Stuart Matthews (b. 1984, England) graduated from Plymouth University in 2007 after being selected a finalist of the Ilford Student Photographer of the Year. During his final year he traveled to China to document this evolving super power of the 21st century. Stuart covered Kosovo’s independence in 2008 and later that year interned at NOOR Images. Since then, he has made various trips to document the impact of climate change in Bangladesh and the effect that this is having on communities living on the front line. He was funded as part of the Ideas Tap / Magnum Photos Photographic Award 2010 to continue his work there.
About the Photograph:
“This photograph is from a project titled ‘High Hopes and Expectations’. It is a story that I shot in 2010, documenting fans throughout London crowded around TV’s nervously waiting in anticipation to see their country competing in the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This image was taken in an Italian bar in Soho, the atmosphere was quite intense after Paraguay had scored just before half time. Italian fans waited and prayed in hope of an equalizer which came from Daniel De Rossi in the 63rd minute to draw their opening game.”
Dado Galdieri August 10, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Bolivia.Tags: Bolivia
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El Alto, Bolivia 2009
Dado Galdieri (b. 1974, Brazil) studied Sociology and Communications. Upon finishing college he traveled across his native country while based in São Paulo contributing to the Associated Press and national newspapers. His work has been published in magazines and newspapers such as: Der Spiegel, National Geographic, The Sunday Times Traveler, The Guardian and Dagens Nyheter. He left AP in 2010 to pursue an independent path and stories with a more in-depth approach. He is currently based in Lima, Peru covering South and Central America focusing on environmental and social stories, collaborating with international and local magazines and newspapers. Dido also works for corporate clients and is leading photo reportage tours for enthusiasts and adventurers in the Andean mountains.
About the Photograph:
“I took this picture while wandering in the late afternoon on the outskirts of El Alto, a new city which sprouted as a satellite dormitory town outside of Bolivia’s seat of government. I spent the day photographing men that hide in the city’s cliffs and illegal pubs to drink pure alcohol and other cheap, often deadly spirits. After so many hours drinking non stop it’s common to see people crashed in the most incredible public places. This picture is part of an ongoing project named K’ajj: Tradition and Alcoholism in the Andes. The central idea is to portray the patterns of behavior enhanced or created by the widespread alcohol consumption between indigenous and mestizos in Bolivia, to depict its relation to their religious beliefs as well as the negative consequences of the substance and how it can lead to alcoholism, domestic violence, chronic diseases and death.”
Mae Ryan August 8, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Convent of Mary the Queen in Yonkers, NY 2010
Mae Ryan (b. 1987, United States) is a documentary photographer and multimedia producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a graduate of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program at The International Center of Photography and holds a BS in Architectural Design from Stanford University. Her work has appeared in TIME Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The FADER and Architectural Record and she has produced multimedia pieces for Magnum In Motion. In 2010, Mae attended the Eddie Adams Workshop and in 2011 she won a scholarship to attend the Foundry Workshop in Buenos Aires.
About the Photograph:
“I took this photo of Sister Marilda on the first day that I stepped into the Convent of Mary the Queen in Yonkers, NY. The Sisters had invited me to document a funeral at their in-house chapel and as I was leaving I noticed that Sister Marilda was lingering in the foyer to watch her friends leave. I later learned that over thirty years ago Sister Marilda fell ill and promised God that if her health improved she would wear the full habit until the day she died. Pictured behind her is Elizabeth Ann Seton, who founded the Sisters of Charity in 1809. This order of nuns was once a thriving community that served as teachers and nurses throughout the New York area. Today there are about 300 living members of the community, however no one has joined the order in the past five years. 80 of these nuns now live in the Convent of Mary the Queen, which the community established to take care of the aging Sisters as they approached the end of their lives.” (more…)
Gilles Sabrié August 5, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in China.Tags: China
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From the Series “Mingongs” Beijing 2005
Gilles Sabrié (b. 1964, France) is an independent photographer based in Beijing. After years working in television, he switched careers to embrace documentary photography. Since then, he has focused on documenting social changes in China where he settled three years ago. Besides documenting major events such as the Beijing Olympics, and the Sichuan earthquake, Gilles has produced several stories such as 175 Meters (about the Three Gorges Dam) and the traveling opera. He has contributed to National Geographic’s “Inside China”, “9 days in the Kingdom” celebrating Thailand, and is the author of the web documentary Zhang, une jeunesse Chinoise for the French broadcaster France 5. His work has been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Focus and L’Espresso. He is a regular contributor to the French daily Libération and runs a photo blog Un oeil sur la Chine.
About the Photograph:
“This picture is part of a series I did on the migrant-workers, the millions of people who migrate each year from the impoverished Chinese countryside to urban centers in search of a better life. The image was taken in a phone shop in a suburb of Beijing where low rent shacks are home to hundreds of them. A group of migrant workers on the phone and lining up to call relatives back home hundreds of miles away, where perhaps they will return to visit once a year at most.”
Lurdes R. Basolí August 3, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Venezuela.Tags: Venezuela
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Caracas, Venezuela 2009
Lurdes R. Basolí (b. 1981, Spain) is a freelance photographer currently based in Barcelona. She has a BA in audiovisual communication from Universitat Ramon Llull, and post-graduate degree in photojournalism from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Lurdes began her professional career in 2005, working for Spanish and American magazines. She later became involved with her own documentary photography projects. Her long-term project about violence in Caracas received the FotoPres’09 grant and was selected in Descubrimientos PhotoEspaña 2008. The work has been part of both individual and group exhibitions, such as the Noorderlicht photo festival in 2009, and received the Inge Morath Magnum Foundation award in 2010.
About the Photograph:
“When I took this picture I didn’t know yet that the story would become a long-term and personal project. I was starting to investigate and document the violence in Caracas, the most dangerous capital city of Latin America. In 2009 there were 19,133 homicides in the country, four times more than in Iraq that same year. Many factors allow this situation to continue. Violence has become a lifestyle between young kids that grow up on the streets of the barrios. Killing each other is the way they solve their problems. In this photograph, the dead man is Johan Manuel Escalona, aged 25, who was shot five times when getting out of a taxi. His friend was killed too. They returned home from partying early in the morning and the murderers were waiting for them, to “solve” the problems they had. In the image, Johan’s brother swears revenge. That night 20 people were killed in Caracas.”
McNair Evans August 1, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Easter Morning, North Carolina 2010
McNair Evans (b. 1979, USA) found photography as a powerful ethnographic tool for exploring the human condition. His work draws parallels between the lives of individuals and universal shared experiences, correlations that create first-person narrative journeys. Recognizing subjectivity as an unalienable characteristic of our medium, McNair utilizes mental and emotional states as mood and context. He has received multiple graduate level scholarships and has been published in USA Today, the Academy of Art and National Geographic Adventurer. In 2011 McNair won the Curator’s Choice from CENTER.
About the Photograph:
“My elder sister Patricia and her husband are shown saying grace with our Mom’s hand reaching into the frame. An original member of this prayer circle, I saw the lighting, Mom’s hand gesturing to Patricia, and made this single image. Removing myself from the circle to photograph this intimate moment echoes the difficult balance of photographing loved ones. This photograph belongs to a larger series titled A Journal of Southern History that describes my return home in 2010 to photograph the lasting emotional landscape of my father’s death and insolvency. My goal was to retrace my father’s life, using photography as a vehicle of resolution. Within my immediate family, I witnessed intense affliction and perseverance. This theme resonates in my sister on Easter morning, which also conveys the continuum of religion in their lives.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 