Marion Gambin January 30, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in India, Kashmir.Tags: India, Kashmir
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Gulmarg, Kashmir, India 2010
Marion Gambin (b.1985, France) obtained her undergraduate degree (BFA) in the Beaux-Arts of Toulouse and joined the photography section of the ENS Louis-Lumière from which she graduated with a Masters in Photography in June 2011. She has worked on assignment for Libération, Le Monde, Causette and Internazionale. Her personal work is close to the new documentary photography, with a special emphasis on portrait. It has been showed in the Phnom Penh photo festival and the Pluie d’Images festival at Brest, France. Marion currently lives in Paris.
About the Photograph:
“This photograph shows the view of Kongdoori, in Gulmarg at a small ski station in Indian Kashmir. Situated at 8,500 feet, this town claims to have the ‘highest ski lift in the world. This village scene is popular with Western tourists who like winter sports, and with privileged Indians during summer. Like the former British colonials, the Indian vacationers come to enjoy the cool weather and picturesque setting. Generally these Indian tourists come to Gulmarg as if they were going to Disneyland, staying just a few days to ride the lift, touch the snow and go sledding. The young couple in the photograph is here on honeymoon.”
“The area is heavily patrolled by the military, with several checkpoints at the entrance to the town. The region has been in conflict since the partition of India from Pakistan at the end of the colonial era 60 years ago, with both countries still claiming rights to the territory of Kashmir. This trouble explains why the construction of the ski lift took such a long time, more than 15 years, interrupted by violence, including the kidnapping of French engineers. But today Gulmarg seems perfectly peaceful, since the Indian government has made a special effort to ensure the security of the area.”
Alessandro Penso January 27, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Malta.Tags: Malta
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Migrants inside Marsa welcome center getting a haircut. Malta 2009
Alessandro Penso (b.1978, Italy) studied clinical psychology at Rome’s La Sapienza University. In 2007, he received a scholarship to study photojournalism at the “Scuola Romana di Fotografia”. Since completing his studies, his work has won several awards, including the PDN Photo Annual Award, Px3, the Project Launch Award in Santa Fe 2011, the Terry O’ Neill TAG Award 2012, and the Sofa Global award 2013. Alessandro’s work has appeared in Stern Magazine, The Guardian, BBC, The New York Times, Businessweek, Time Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, Human Rights Watch, L’Espresso, Internazionale, D di Repubblica, Vanity Fair Italia, El Periodico, Le journal de la photographie and Ekathimerini.
About the Photograph:
“This photograph is part of a reportage project entitled Big Prison. In 2009, I traveled to the island of Malta to start a long-term project on immigration in the Mediterranean, which I have now been working on for four years. Malta is not just a small Mediterranean island, but a member state of the European Union. For this reason, it is at the center of routes for migrants, most of whom come from Africa. Many people aren’t aware that Malta does not actually represent a stopping point, but is mainly a place that travelers trying to reach Italy just end up stuck in.”
“As soon as I arrived in Malta, the tragic reality that migrants are forced to endure became clear to me. Newly arrived migrants are transferred to a detention center where, as well as being recorded, they undergo interrogations and medical checks for up to 18 months. After this, those considered suitable are moved to the so-called welcome centers. Here, migrants are checked by the authorities and access is only allowed with a permit. Life is monotonous. It is very difficult to create any alternatives on a small island like Malta, where there is no real integration program. Further, according to European legislation such as Dublin II, these young people cannot leave the island, so they find themselves stuck in what seems, in the end, like a big prison.”
Sebastian Meyer January 23, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Iraq, Kurdistan.Tags: Iraq, Kurdistan
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Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers carry the coffin of an unknown Kurd who had been exhumed
from a mass grave. Erbil, Iraq 2008
Sebastian Meyer (b. 1980, United States) started working as a photographer in his home town of New York in 2004. Later that year, he moved to the UK and worked in Manchester and London till 2009 when he relocated to Northern Iraq where he helped set up Metrography, the first Iraqi photo agency. Sebastian’s work has been published by Time Magazine, Sunday Times Magazine, FT Magazine, Monocle, and other international publications. He’s also made films for National Geographic, Channel 4 News, The Guardian, and PBS. His awards include 1st Place at the Exposure Awards as well as being included in the Magenta Emerging Photographer Flash Forward Exhibition.
About the Photograph:
“I first went to Iraqi Kurdistan in 2008 on assignment for a British film company that was making a series of documentaries about the 1988 Anfal campaign during which Saddam Hussein killed thousands of Iraqi Kurds. My job was to take stills that would eventually be cut into the films and later would be used in a Kurdish history and culture museum which the Kurdish government was building in the capital, Erbil. For six weeks I traveled around the region visiting different villages and meeting and photographing survivors of Anfal.”
“I took this photograph at the Erbil airport during a “repatriation” ceremony. About 50 bodies had been exhumed from a mass grave in southern Iraq and taken back up north for reburial. On that rainy day, each of the 50 bodies had been placed in separate coffins which were then individually wrapped in Kurdish flags. One by one, four Peshmerga (Kurdish soldiers) carried the coffins onto the tarmac and laid them out in rows. In the background, the president (in the grey coat and red turban) and prime minister (tall with a blue mackintosh and mustache) stood shoulder to shoulder with families of the missing. A year later I moved to Iraqi Kurdistan where I’ve been living on and off ever since. Easily the most fascinating aspect of the region is its impassioned historical drive to create its unique identity of Kurdistan. But what makes up that identity is extremely complex. Part of it is geography. Part of it is artistic culture such as music, dancing, and poetry. But part of it is also victimhood. This photograph is part of project that looks at the creation of a modern Iraqi Kurdish identity where wealth, independence, and youth clash with poverty, victimhood, and tradition.”
Linda Forsell January 20, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Rockaway, New York 2012
Linda Forsell (b.1982, Sweden) is based in New York. Her project Cause of Death (with Kerstin Weig and Karin Alfredsson) documenting violence against women was awarded special recognition in the Swedish Picture of the Year. Life’s a blast, from Israel and Palestine, became a book in 2012, at the same time as it was exhibited in Stockholm, Sweden. The series was one of the finalists of Magnum Expression Award in 2010 and was shown at the Noorderlicht photo festival in 2009. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, la Repubblica and most major Scandinavian publications. Linda has received recognition from the Swedish Arts Foundation, the Lead Awards, Flash Magenta Award and a nomination in Magnum Emergency Fund. She is a member of Kontinent and IBL photo agencies.
About the Photograph:
“This photo is from the small community Roxbury on the Rockaway Peninsula just one day after hurricane Sandy hit. The area was one of the worst hit regions and every single house had water flooding their basements and reaching above the first floor. Many were hit even worse, their homes being swept away by the water that rose and crossed over the entire peninsula from the Atlantic side to the bay side. The rare few who defied the evacuation order during the storm tell stories of swimming or surfing from their homes to the nearest safe spot.
Ted Feimer is part of the heart of Roxbury. On this day, he returned for the first time to see the devastation after the hurricane with his own eyes. There was a pressing air of sadness and uncertainty about the future lying like a blanket over the entire neighborhood. Ted did his best to turn his sadness into energy and was determined to fight for the reconstruction of his home. He walked around trying to begin by consoling his friends. In this picture he met one of his neighbors wandering across the beach trying to grasp the magnitude of what happened and without saying a word they just hugged.”
Jonathan Browning January 16, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in China.Tags: China
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Tiananmen Square, Beijing 2013
Jonathan Browning (b.1983, England) earned a degree in Photojournalism from the University of South Wales in 2005. Two years later Jonathan went to China on an adventure and he has remained there ever since. He freelances for several clients including: Der Spiegel, Foreign Policy Magazine, The Australian, Financial Times and Harvard University. His work has been exhibited at the Host Gallery FOTO8 Summer show, London, Artisty Gallery, Shanghai and the AM Gallery, Brighton. Jonathan is based in Shanghai and travels frequently throughout China documenting the massive social changes and economic growth the country has experienced during the last ten years.
About the Photograph:
“This image was shot for a story about pollution in China for Der Spiegel. It was for the opener and I had been tasked with getting something a bit more original than just traffic jams and smog on Beijing’s ring roads. This was my second visit to the square at dawn, the previous day not resulting in a stand-out scene. For me, the daily flag raising ceremony is one of the must see’s in Beijing. It’s held at Tiananmen Square at daybreak and coupled with thick smog and the flood of red light from the large LED screens it makes for a dark and authoritarian space. I was lucky that all of the children and adults in the image wearing face masks. The assignment was in early 2013 when China suffered from particularly bad air pollution, especially in the capital where the levels of PM 2.5 were between 400 – 800. According to the World Health Organization, anything above 300 is considered hazardous.”
Erin Brethauer January 13, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Ginny and Claxton, from the series Autism Camp. Black Mountain, North Carolina 2012
Erin Brethauer (b. 1983, United States) is a staff photographer turned multimedia editor at the Asheville Citizen-Times, a daily newspaper in North Carolina where she has been working since 2007. Originally from Milwaukee, WI, she graduated in 2005 with an English degree from Marquette University and photography minor from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Since then she has interned with the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram (WI), The Morning News (SC), the Milwaukee Art Museum and has worked with the Associated Press. She was the president of the North Carolina Press Photographers Association from 2011 until February of 2013. Her personal project about Camp Lakey Gap, a camp for people with autism, has been awarded by the Magenta Foundation, FotoVisura, the North Carolina Press Photographers Association and the Asheville Area Arts Council.
About the Photograph:
“Camp Lakey Gap is a residential summer camp for people with autism located in Western North Carolina. I first went there for a newspaper assignment in 2008 and have returned nearly every summer to document the people and try to visualize the different ways these people communicate. When I learned that the Autism Society of North Carolina estimates that 1 out of 88 children born today have some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder, I thought the story was especially relevant. In North Carolina they think the average is more like 1 out of 70 children.”
“This is an image of Ginny sharing a moment with her camper Claxton. She’s trying to coax him out of the pool at the end of the day. I think this picture helps challenge the perception that people with autism don’t make emotional connections with people. Ginny had a great fondness for Claxton and was very perceptive to the ways he communicated with her through facial and body language. They grew very close over their week together, forming a deep bond that was mostly nonverbal. It’s often the fleeting moments like this that the counselors cherish. Here they’re looking into each others eyes which, for Claxton, was a sign of trust.”
Michael Tsegaye January 9, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Ethiopia.Tags: Ehiopia
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Farmland outside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2011
Michael Tsegaye (b. 1975, Ethiopia) graduated from the School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa, and subsequently found his passion in photography. He has worked with international publications such as Der Spiegel, Jeune Afrique, and enorm; as well as the press agencies Bloomberg and Reuters. Michael has exhibited in various galleries in New York, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Morocco, Canada, Amsterdam, Mali, Miami, and Sao Paulo. His work can be found in a number of international magazines and various including Snap Judgments: New Directions in African Photography, edited by Okwui Enwezor, and published by the International Center for Photography in New York City in 2007.
About the Photograph:
“This photo was taken from a low-flying plane just outside Addis Ababa—I was on my way to the eastern border of Ethiopia for an assignment. The backbone of the Ethiopian economy is agriculture, and for centuries this has meant the rural landscape is made up of small farms of one or two hectares, planted with a diversity of crops at any given point of the year. In recent years, the Ethiopian government has aggressively introduced programs to transform Ethiopian agriculture into large-scale commercial farming enterprises. These small farms are going to disappear soon.”
Olaf Schuelke January 6, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in North Korea.Tags: North Korea
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Commuters in Pyongyang Metro. North Korea 2012
Olaf Schuelke (b.1968, Germany) graduated from The University of Stuttgart with a Master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Design and worked as an architect in Germany and Ireland before completely turning to photography in 2011. Olaf has traveled extensively over the past 20 years and focuses on self-driven documentary projects and street photography around Asia. His work has been published in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Der Tagesspiegel, Berliner Zeitung, Stern, Discovery Channel Magazine, La Vanguardia Magazine and CNN. His images are currently distributed by Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo. He is currently based in Singapore.
About the Photograph:
This photo is from my project about daily life in North Korea. It’s of local North Korean commuters inside a Pyongyang Metro on an early weekday morning. The subway trains were purchased from Berlin in the late nineties and now run on the two lines that make up the Pyongyang metro system 100 meters below the city. Inside each compartment small frames holding the images of the former two North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are displayed. Western visitors are only allowed to ride the metro for a short number of stops at the most impressive stations. Despite the increasing number of foreigners that now come to visit the last Stalinist regime of North Korea one cannot move around freely and are always accompanied by minders. They constantly keep an eye on the visitors and any contact with local North Koreans is impossible. New destinations inside the isolated country are slowly emerging and more places that were previously off limits are now accessible. Public transport outside of Pyongyang does not exist apart from a very limited number of buses in other cities. The people shown in this image are privileged residents of Pyongyang. They live a much better life than the rest of the North Korean population.”
Marika Dee January 2, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Turkey.Tags: Turkey
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From the project “Deadly Jeans”. Istanbul 2012
Marika Dee (b.1972, Belgium) is a documentary photographer based in Brussels. She graduated with a law degree from the University of Leuven in Belgium. After years of working as a jurist specialized in international law, Marika recently started working as a freelance documentary photographer. Since then she has photographed in Kosovo, Romania, Turkey, Belgium and Italy. Her images have been published in De Volkskrant, dS Weekblad, LeVif/L’express and Arbetaren among others. Her work has received recognition from UNICEF POY and International Photography Awards.
About the Photograph:
“The photograph is part of the series called “Deadly Jeans” on the human cost of sandblasting in the jeans industry in Turkey, one of the world’s biggest exporters of jeans. Before being diagnosed with silicosis, an incurable and often deadly pulmonary disease, Mehmet sandblasted jeans in workshops in Istanbul. He ives with his extended family in the working class neighborhood of Gaziosmanpaşa in Istanbul. Like many who ended up working in the sandblasting industry in Istanbul, the family came from a poor region in eastern Turkey looking for work. Mehmet spends most of his days in bed, often in the company of his nephew Faruk. He suffers from a severe shortness of breath and oxygen therapy facilitates his breathing. Since being diagnosed with silicosis seven years ago, Mehmet’s medical condition has steadily deteriorated.”
“The sandblasting technique is used to give jeans a worn look. Workers use compressors to blow under high pressure sand at jeans. In Turkey the practice was widespread until banned in 2009 when doctors diagnosed silicosis in former textile workers. Although the danger of silicosis has been known for a long time, especially in the mining industry, Turkey was the first country where textile workers were diagnosed with the disease. Until now approximately 60 persons have died and about 1200 have been diagnosed with silicosis. But medical experts fear that more than 5,000 persons are affected in Turkey.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 