Bryan Derballa October 31, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Artist Chili Moon Town, New York 2009
Bryan Derballa (b. 1982, USA) is a Brooklyn-based documentary photographer. He studied English at the University of California in Berkeley before taking up photography. In 2006 he started Lovebryan, a photo blog site featuring a community of friends. Together many of the Lovebryan contributors have pushed each other to become working photojournalists, filmmakers or acclaimed fine art photographers. Bryan has used the site as an outlet for personal projects and assignments in Israel, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia, New Zealand and most recently Brazil. Bryan has photographed for clients including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The FADER, AARP, The Daily, Wired.com, Juxtapoz, Nike, Adidas, and Huck Magazine.
About the Photograph:
“A ragtag conglomeration of marching bands filled the lobby of a building in midtown Manhattan just before the beginning of a performance piece called “City of Dreams” by the artists Chili Moon Town. The were about to pile into a decorated double-decker bus banging and blowing their instruments on a drive down Broadway. It was a grand spectacle for all of New York City to see. But for me, this photo of Kate Riegle van West was far more interesting. It was the quiet moment before the cacophony that no one really noticed. She seemed so sincere- playing to herself while all the others were pacing around and joking with one another. A lot of things happened in front of my camera that day, but nothing felt so subtly emotive. When it comes down to it, that’s always my favorite feeling to photograph.”
Chien-Chi Chang October 29, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Burma, Myanmar.Tags: Burma, Myanmar
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Burma, Land of Shadows: A production of Magnum in Motion with photographs and video by Chien-Chi Chang.
“The Burmese continue to live a real-life version of Animal Farm. When I posed as a tourist to make these pictures, there always seemed to be shadows following me. Big Brother has many little brothers.”
Chien-Chi Chang (b.1961, Taiwan) earned his BA from Soochow University in 1984 and an MS from Indiana University in 1990. He has worked for The Seattle Times (1991-1993) and The Baltimore Sun (1994-1995). Chang has documented the life of illegal immigrants in New York’s Chinatown, but he is also known for documenting his homeland of Taiwan. He won the W. Eugene Smith Fund for Humanistic Photography in 1999. He lives in Taipei and in New York City and is a member of Magnum Photos
Valerio Bispuri October 27, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Peru.Tags: Peru
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Chorrillos Women’s Prison. Lima, Peru 2008
Valerio Bispuri (b.1971, Italy) graduated from university with degree in literature and has been a journalist and photo-reporter since 2001. Valerio’s photographs have been published in some of Italy’s major newspapers and magazines including: L’Espresso, Venerdi de Repubblica and L’Internazionale. His work has been exhibited in Italy, in Spain, Argentina and at Visa pour l’Image in 2011. Valerio recently received a special mention at the POYi Latin America. He is currently working on a story about the effects of the drug Paco or Pasta base de cocaína, that is killing many young people in South America.
About the Photograph:
“I made this photo in a woman’s prison in Lima, Peru. It’s part of a ten year project about seventy four prisons in Latin America. I first made contact with prisoners and guards and felt their fear and anger, but also their hope and indifference. Some convicts considered me a distraction, others looked at me with envy, others again with contempt because they thought that I was there only for taking pictures to sell of their confined life. Every jail was a way to tell the country from inside and outside. Even if everything seems to be just a reflex of violence, the contrast between life and violence belongs to one line. This corresponds to the history of South America.”
Kiana Hayeri October 24, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Canada.Tags: Canada
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Richmond Hill, a suburb of Toronto 2010
Kiana Hayeri (b.1988, Iran) moved to Canada in 2005 to pursue post-secondary education. Soon she discovered the role that photography played as a way to bridge the language barrier. With a fine arts background, Kiana developed her personal style and approach to image-making practice by using the camera to tell a story, often with social comment. Presently her work embraces a distinctive theme that illustrates her cultural background. Kiana has interned with the Hot Docs Festival and Magnum Photo Agency in Toronto. She has worked as an assistant with Magnum photographers, Christopher Anderson and Peter Marlow. Her work has been published in Magenta Flash Forward Vol. 12. She will be attending the Eddie Adams Workshop in October 2011.
About the Photograph:
“May God Be With You My Daughter is the story of Iranian teenage girls who are leaving Iran, each for a different and personal reason, but all hoping for a better future. A passage from girlhood into adulthood, with all the other complications that it entails, taking place within a new culture and environment. I aim to tell the story of my own journey through capturing the daily lives of these girls and the challenges they face around ‘the turning point’ of their lives; some before they leave Iran and some upon their arrival in the new country. Soheila, an 18-year-old, coming from a traditional Sunni family, is adopting to a new lifestyle; being oppressed and covered up at home, happy and relieved away from home. Hiding it from her parents, in this photograph, she was meeting up with a few friends to go to an Iranian church for one of those missionary sessions. As she was being introduced to friends’ of friends, and I was waiting for the right moment, she did a long pause, holding back from shaking the boyfriend’s hand. When we got on the bus, she whispered in my ear I didn’t know if I should do it in front of the camera or not.”
Rony Zakaria October 20, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Indonesia.Tags: Bali, Indonesia
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Temple Offering. Bali 2009
Rony Zakaria (b. 1984, Indonesia) is a documentary photographer based in Indonesia. He studied Mathematics and Computer Science in college before starting his career as a photographer. Rony has been recognized with awards and grants from the National Press Photographers Association ‘Best of Photojournalism’, the Mochtar Lubis Award and the United Nations FAO Indonesia Grant. He has worked with many leading publications including TIME Asia, Monocle, The New York Times, National Geographic Indonesia among others. He is a current fellow at Asian Center for Journalism, Philippines.
About the Photograph:
“Between 2008-2010 I visited many mountains and coastlines in Indonesia, mostly in Java and Bali. I was documenting the people and communities living on the slopes of the volcanoes and sea shores for a project called Men, Mountains and the Sea. In late 2009 I was in Bali and witnessed this ceremony, a ritual to cleanse bad spirits. Recently the Hindu temple was broken into by a thief, stealing ruby stones attached on a sacred masked stored in the temple. A Balinese man was holding a goose while circling the temple with others. They were performing a ritual before sacrificing the offerings which included dogs, chickens and geese. Later the offerings was taken along with the mask to be cleansed in the sea. Balinese believe evil spirits live in the sea and need to be released there.”
Tessa Bunney October 17, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Finland.Tags: Finland
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Uimaranta, Finland 2010
Tessa Bunney (b. 1966, England) is a documentary photographer undertaking personal projects and editorial work as well as a wide range of commissions and residencies nationally and internationally. Her most recent project ‘Home Work’ was published by Dewi Lewis in 2010 and was exhibited and published nationally and internationally including the Land exhibition as part of the Noorderlicht Festival, 2010. Previous projects include Hand to Mouth, Lamb and Eat Better and Eat British all of which explore the lives of farmers and small food producers in Yorkshire where she has been living for the past 15 years. Her current project, Field, Forest and Family, explores the lives of ethnic minority women in South West China. Tessa recently received a grant from the Arts Council, England to continue this work in Laos.
About the Photograph:
“This image was part of a series produced whilst I was artist in residence at Jyväskylä print making center in Central Finland as part of Connections North, International Residency Exchange Project. Jyväskylä being situated in the Finnish Lakeland, an area of more than 188,000 lakes, was an ideal location to explore aspects of the Finnish close relationship with nature. In photographing the uimaranta/ swimming places around the city, my aim was to develop work which explored the interrelations between people and their immediate environment allowing the viewer to reflect on diverse uses of natural landscapes. This work will be exhibited in UK and Finland in 2012 and I am currently working on an artists’ book.”
Diana Markosian October 13, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Russia.Tags: Russia
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Russia’s Traveling Circus, Moscow 2010
Diana Markosian (b.1989, Russia) is a freelance photojournalist and multimedia producer working out of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Although she has only been seriously involved with photography since Spring 2010, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Reuters, Observer, Vanity Fair, Slate, CNN International, MSNBC, and Human Rights Watch. She is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Diana attended the Eddie Adams Workshop in October 2011 and is also the recipient of the Alfred DuPont Fellowship and a winner of Columbia University’s College Photographer of the Year.
About the Photograph:
“This image was taken in a small town in the outskirts of Moscow. I had recently moved to Russia, where I began working on a piece about the traveling circus. It was the last day of August. The summer month ended in thunderstorms and rain. When I approached the gazebo, the area was desolate with people hiding from the rain. I walked inside the trailer to dry off. Within minutes, a crowd of people lined outside, waiting to buy their ticket for the night’s performance. The trailer itself was pretty tiny, which made it difficult for one to peek inside. I took this photo about a dozen times before landing on this image.”
Brandon Thibodeaux October 10, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Shishmaref, Alaska 2006
Brandon Thibodeaux (b. 1981, United States) is a member of the New York based photography collective, MJR. Following his university studies in photojournalism and international development he now resides in Dallas, Texas, where he regularly contributes to the Financial Times Weekend Magazine, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is a member of the Getty Reportage 2009-10 Emerging Talent, and the Eddie Adams XIX alumnus.
About the Photograph:
“This image is from my first real project endeavor during my senior year of college. In August 2006 I traveled 120 miles northwest of Nome, Alaska, landing in the small island village of Shishmaref. Its roughly 550 Inupiaq residents faced a looming migration due to the severe erosion plaguing the tiny island. Climate change was keeping protective sea ice from forming around its shoreline leaving its brittle sand and permafrost foundation vulnerable against harsh winter storms. I was taken aback by the elements of pop culture that I found, like 2 Pac posters, and video game consoles, intertwined with the community’s more traditional ways of life. Shortly after this image was taken we feasted on caribou steaks and Akutaq – otherwise known as Eskimo ice cream made from whipped caribou fat and seal oil, mixed with fresh picked salmon berries.”
Katie Orlinsky October 6, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Israel.Tags: Israel
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Shoshanna and her children at home in Mea Sharim, Jerusalem. 2010
Katie Orlinsky (b.1983, USA) received a B.A. in Political Science/Latin American Studies from Colorado College in 2005. Her interest in international politics and a desire to raise awareness on social and humanitarian issues led her to photojournalism. Katie is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and various non-profit organizations. Her work has been published in Life, Newsweek, Le Monde, Stern, Time, Adbusters and the International Herald Tribune among others. Katie is the 2011 POYI Emerging Vision recipient and was awarded the Le prix ANI – Pix Palace in 2010. She is currently a fellow at the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University.
About the Photograph:
“In April 2010 I began a project in Mea Sharim, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem that is notoriously closed off and anti-Zionist. I was interested in exploring the problems going on at the time between mainstream Israeli society and the Hasidim. The project never panned out because I received an assignment in Gaza for the following week. Knowing I wouldn’t have the time to complete a full story, I decided to wander around Jerusalem and just have fun with street photography. I still went to Mea Sharim almost every day however- changing into a black skirt, black shoes, tights, and carrying my camera in a small purse before entering the extremely religious neighborhood. I did so to blend in with the local Jewish women in the area. I can’t imagine being able to photograph there any other way. The tension in Jerusalem is palpable everywhere you go; rules, social norms and identity politics often dictate who you speak to and what you see. This photo, and the larger series “Jerusalem Journal”, is a view of the city that both addresses these constraints and actively ignores them. It is a letter to Jerusalem from a newcomer and outsider, open to exploring a place and it’s people.”
Brian Widdis October 3, 2011
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Grand Rapids, Michigan 2006
Brian Widdis (b. 1969, USA) began his professional work in 1995 doing commercial photography in Lansing and Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2001, he relocated to Detroit and began doing editorial work. In 2009, Brian photographed the ritual of collecting the daily mail as part of the series ‘Delivery’. Since 2007, he has been photographing his home life and his experience being a dad for a project titled ‘The Home Front’. Brian is also working with fellow Detroit photographer Romain Blanquart about the city of Detroit called ‘Can’t Forget the Motor City’. His work has been published in Rolling Stone, Time, The Guardian, The New York Times, Education Week and NPR. Brian lives with his family in Detroit.
About the Photograph:
“This photograph is part of my project – ‘The Passion of St. James’. In 2006, my elementary school in Grand Rapids, Michigan closed. Before they closed, I made a final visit to see how my memory compared to its last days as a Catholic grade school. Squinting through the viewfinder, I was reassured by things familiar to me – unchanged classrooms and the sunken gymnasium with the same 1970‘s blue and gold carpet that I remembered. Also reassuring was the unfamiliar – a new media center with computers and new textbooks told of a school changing, as of course they must. St. James was the site of many milestones for me – my first crush and my first Communion. My personal history at the school was confirmed by a library book – a biography of baseball player Roberto Clemente that I remember checking out, still bore the deliberate cursive ‘Brian W.’ some 30 years later.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 