Alice Sassu August 28, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Italy.Tags: Italy
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From the project Giambellino 146, Milan Italy
Alice Sassu (b. 1979 Italy) studied Philosophy and Photography at Cfp Bauer in Milan. After obtaining a MA degree in Philosophy, in 2009 she received a European grant to complete photo and video projects in Palestine. in January 2013 she concluded an internship at the Luz photo agency in Milan, Italy. In addition to making documentary videos, Alice has collaborated with several NGOs based in Middle East. Her photographs have been published in Der Spiegel, Foto8, Popoli and Redattore Sociale.
About the Photograph:
“This picture tells the story of Anna, a blind woman who lives with her cat and dolls in a public multi-ethnic social housing residence near Milan. Giambellino 146, is an example of self-management social housing: to compensate for the lack of public and private investment in social housing. Residents gather together in meetings and make decisions on the management/maintenance of their building. 146 Giambellino is a photographic series part of a larger project on housing issues. Later, with Italy under eviction I worked on a project about several families forcibly evicted to their houses in Milan neighborhoods. Technically, it’s called guilty arrearage: it consists of eviction because of scarce income of inhabitants. The situation worsens with the approval of the House Plan by the Italian government: for which the illegal occupants cannot have the residence, so they become invisible citizens.”
Cory Richards August 25, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Nepal.Tags: Nepal
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Bon Monastery in Mustang Kingdom, Nepal 2012
Cory Richards (b. 1981, USA) was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2012. Cory’s camera has taken him to the wild and remote corners of the world, from the unclimbed peaks of Antarctica to the Himalayas of Nepal and Pakistan —all in the attempt to capture not only the soul of adventure and exploration, but also the beauty inherent in our modern society. Cory is a passionate mountain climber on the North Face athletic team, and has carved a niche as one of the world’s leading adventure and expedition photographers. His photography has appeared in National Geographic magazine, Outside, the New York Times; and his film work has won awards at nearly every major adventure film festival including the grand prize at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.
About the Photograph:
“My first assignment for National Geographic took me to a very remote corner of Nepal tucked up against the Tibetan Border. The Kingdom of Mustang was once a thoroughfare of trade from the Tibetan Plateau to the Indian Sub-Continent. We were there trying to piece together the mysteries of thousands of man-made caves that were hewn into the sandstone of the Khali Gandaki basin centuries ago. The caves themselves are steeped in lore and myth. In order to get a deeper understanding of the culture that once existed there, I spent a lot of time trying to learn about the contemporary culture of the region. While the area is nearly entirely Buddhist, there are pockets of Bon tradition that still exist. In very basic terms, Bon is to Buddhism what Paganism is to Catholicism…much of it is rooted in the older belief system and has adopted the practices to fit the newer belief system. This particular image was taken in a Bon Monastery during a divination ritual. The younger monk was constantly looking at and relating to the older Lama, looking for cues as they worked their way through pages of script and music, calling their deities to give clues to what the coming year had in store for them.”
Brian Shumway August 21, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Dean in Playground. Pleasant Grove, Utah 2009
Brian Shumway (b. 1976, United States) is a Brooklyn-based photographer with a degree in anthropology from the University of Utah. His work covers the seemingly disconnected territory of children, family, identity, suburbia, fashion, and sexuality. Brian has shot portraits and stories for editorial clients like People Magazine, TV Guide, XXL, Wall Street Journal, Men’s Journal, and Reader’s Digest. His photographs have been recognized by American Photography, Communication Arts, PhotoLucida, Santa Fe Center, LensCulture, The Magenta Foundation and New York Center for Photographic Art. Brian’s work has been exhibited at Soho Photo, Alice Austin House, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Arts, Camera Club NY and the Central Exhibition Hall Manege in St. Petersburg, Russia.
About the Photograph:
“This is a portrait of Dean, my nephew, age 13, just beginning his teenage years. The word “Shit” (a naughty word in the conservative Utah town where he lives) is written on his hand as he wraps his body around a toy at a children’s playground where he sometimes plays, as if clinging to childhood. This moment very much represents the beginning of the loss of innocence. He’s trapped in that murky period of life where he’s no longer a child but not quite grown-up either. The photograph is part of my project called Suburban Splendor that grapples with my suburban heritage and peeks behind the veil of banality surrounding suburban life focusing on my teen and pre-teen nieces, nephews and their friends in Utah as they make their way through contemporary suburban America.”
Boryana Katsarova August 18, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Ukraine.Tags: Ukraine
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Lenin Square, Simferopol, Crimea 2014
Boryana Katsarova (b. 1981, Bulgaria) studied photography between 1998 and 2003 and holds a Bachelors Degree from the Bulgarian National Academy for Theater and Cinema Art /NATFA/. She worked as a photographer for Agence France-Press in Bulgaria between 2007 and 2010, during which time her work appeared in major print magazines and newspapers around the world. In 2010 she decided to became a freelance photographer specializing in documentary, editorial and portrait photography and since 2011 has been represented the Cosmos Photo Agency in Paris. This image is part of a project : Ukraine: Crimea Under Siege that was funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
About the Photograph:
“The people in the photograph were attending one of the many pro-Russian rallies which were held in Simferopol and across the entire Crimean peninsula in support of the unification of Crimea with Russia ahead of the unique and internationally unrecognized Crimean Referendum that was held on March 16, 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin officially recognized the ‘reunification’ of breakaway Ukrainian region of Crimea with Russia on March 18, 2014.”
“It was really difficult to take this picture. Many people were against being photographed. It was the first time I was working in a crisis zone and the first time I have ever experienced anything like that. Just two days before, masked gunmen ran towards me and journalist Dimiter Kenarov and pushed him on the ground. They put a gun to his head demanding his smart phone he was taking pictures with. After that they ran to me and took my Nikon D3 camera. We left Ukraine three weeks after I took this picture.”
“Today, more than five months after the Crimean crisis, the unrest in eastern Ukraine is continuing and the climate for press freedom worsens everyday. Many local and international journalists covering the situation are being interrogated, targeted, their equipment seized, and the number of the ones being killed is growing. In my opinion, nowadays bearing witness as photojournalist, cameraman or reporter in crisis and war zones is a duty, that is much harder and much more responsible than ever before.”
Ben Weller August 14, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Korea.Tags: Korea
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A girl writes protest messages in chalk in front of a police line in Miryang, South Korea 2014
Ben Weller (b. 1980 USA) grew up in Indiana, and worked for his parents’ weekly newspaper in high school and summers home from college. He later went to journalism school to pursue a career in writing, but soon shifted his focus to photography. In 2008, Ben received an Overseas Press Club Foundation scholarship and interned with Reuters at their Seoul bureau. He returned to the United States and worked for a year photographing for a power generation and transmission cooperative, where he developed his eye for industrial photography and his interest in energy production. Ben now teaches courses on photography, image editing, and climate change at a university in South Korea, as well as continuing his editorial and corporate photo work. Much of his current work focuses on labor, energy production, and the environment. Ben is represented by ZUMA Press.
About the Photograph:
“Miryang is a small city located in the southeast of the Korean peninsula. It’s a pretty quiet place known for its beautiful mountain streams and unique geological features. It’s also right in the path of a high-voltage transmission line being constructed by the state utility, KEPCO, to meet the growing energy demands of South Korea. A group of local residents, mainly farmers, have been protesting construction of the line for a couple years now. They’re opposed to the huge transmission towers that have begun going up along the ridges around their communities. The day I took this photo, thousands of people from around the country had converged on Miryang to show their support to the protestors. This girl was with a group of protestors outside the local KEPCO offices, which were being guarded by riot police. The story here is about land rights, development, tradition, and power. For me personally, this picture is a reminder that these issues aren’t just about traditional farmers worried about a changing way of life. They’re also about the next generation, and whether that generation will take an active part in building the society it wants to live in.”
Isadora Kosofsky August 11, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in United States.Tags: United States
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Rosie, Los Angeles 2013
Isadora Kosofsky (b. 1993, USA) is a documentary photographer based in Los Angeles. She is the recipient of the 2012 Inge Morath Award from the Magnum Foundation for her multi-series documentary about the lives and relationships of the elderly. Her work has received numerous distinctions from Women in Photography International, Prix de la Photographie Paris and The New York Photo Festival. Isadora’s projects have been featured in Le Monde, The Huffington Post and The New Yorker Photo Booth, among others. She was chosen as a participant in the 2014 Joop Swart Masterclass of World Press Photo. In addition, her long-term documentary “Vinny and David,” about the life and incarceration of two young brothers, was recently published in TIME Lightbox as “The Intersection of Love and Loss: Confronting Youth Incarceration.”
About the Photograph:
“I first met Rosie when I was photographing residents at a nursing home in Los Angeles. After Rosie was released, I continued to photograph her at home. I was particularly drawn to Rosie’s relationship with her caretaker-husband, Adam, who was twenty years younger. Her illness relegated her to bed for the two years that I shadowed her life. We sat for hours at a time, and when there was no more conversation, we stared out the window at Adam’s half-dozen cats and watched a bougainvillea grow and overtake all open space in their yard.”
“This image was taken before an excursion to a desert date farm two hours from the confines of her home. Rosie was embarrassed to leave the house because of her appearance. She often talked about not even wanting to be seen at a supermarket. Eight months after this photograph was taken, Rosie passed away. At her funeral, her sister spoke of Rosie’s once jovial nature and how her house had always been full of friends. Yet, as her sister pointed out, after Rosie became ill, those friends disappeared. Adam became her sole comfort. Moments after this photograph was taken, Rosie cried in the open doorway, frustrated with Adam and apprehensive about venturing out into the unknown. This photograph marks Rosie’s defiance of being hidden.”
Paccarik Orue August 7, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Peru.Tags: Peru
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Delivering cheese and milk, Cerro de Pasco, Peru. 2013
Paccarik Orue (b.1976, Peru) currently resides in San Francisco where he earned a BFA in photography from the Academy of Art University. As an immigrant, Paccarik is interested in themes of social relevance and the relationship between people and the environment. His work has been shown at SF Camerawork, Book & Job Gallery, Carte Blanche, Contemporary Art Center New Orleans and it has been featured in Conscientious, Fototazo, Feature Shoot and Lenscratch among others. He is the recipient of En Foco’s NewWorks Photography Award Fellowship #17. Paccarik’s first monograph, There is Nothing Beautiful Around here, was published by Owl & Tiger Books in 2012.
About the Photograph:
“This image, Repartiendo queso y leche (delivering cheese and milk,) is from my ongoing project entitled El Muqui. The project is about environmental problems, folkloric and cultural traditions in the mining city of Cerro de Paso, in the Peruvian Andes, and how these elements coexist with each other. It is important for me that this body of work captures the desire of the inhabitants of Cerro de Pasco to live a normal life under such harsh conditions caused by the pollution of mining activities. The image speaks about such desire. I had seen this woman making deliveries earlier but I was unable to catch up with her. A few days later I happened to be taking photos near the home of one of her customers and finally made her portrait.”
Aapo Huhta August 4, 2014
Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Finland.Tags: Finland
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From the Kainuu project in Northeast Finland 2013
Aapo Huhta (B.1985, Finland) holds a BA in photography from the Lahti Institute of Design and Fine Arts and is currently studying for his Master’s degree at the Aalto University of Arts and Design in Helsinki Finland. He works with various editorial magazines and also produces personal documentary based projects. Aapo was awarded the Finnish Young Photojournalist of the Year 2011. In 2014 he was selected as one of the Top 30 Under 30 photographers by Magnum Photos, was included in the PDN Photo Annual Student Work Prize, and shortlisted for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. His photographs have been published in Vice, Red Cross Publications, Photo Raw, Suomen Kuvalehti, Image and Helsingin Sanomat.
About the Photograph:
“This image was made while I was working on our collaborative Kainuu project in Northeast Finland. What struck me about the region is the contrast between rural and urban environments. The area is the birthplace of an old Finnish mythology that everybody learns at school. Together with four other photographers we have been going there to explore these old stories through contemporary photography. For the project I was driving from house to house and meeting people to photograph. Helvi , the lady in the picture told me that she does a lot of puzzles in this summer nest of hers. She decorated the whole bedroom with the puzzles, so I asked if I could photograph her in this room. I like the challenge of making photographs out of the ordinary and trying to find key elements to make something interesting. But sometimes you are just lucky to find characters or situations which make the photographs intriguing by itself.”
Verve Photo- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers 