Viewbook Photostory

Opening Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 Exhibition

alrik — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:21:14 +0000

Opening Viewbook PhotoStory Exhibition 2010 from Viewbook on Vimeo.

On December 9th we celebrated the Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 winners and opened the exhibition in the Kahmann Gallery in Amsterdam. Luis Lazo from France and Russian Daria Tuminas were there to receive their prizes. It was great to meet and have a drink with them as well as many other contenders, Viewbook users and the people from GUP Magazine and Blurb. The photo’s are on Facebook and there’s a full screen album

Honorable Mentions 2010

alrik — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:09:54 +0000

The following photographers have received a Honorable Mention from the 2010 PhotoStory jury:

Documentary

Live with unexpected reality by K. M. Asad
Love and War by Guillaume Simoneau
Top of the World by Christian Kryl
Into Oblivion by Maja Daniels
Merry-Go-Round by Alexey Vanushkin
Losjes en Blosjes by Elke Lannoo
Small Concrete Boxes: Inside China’s Zoos by M. Scott Brauer
Shanghai: Lost Identity by Víctor Garrido
The Great Mother by Giulio Di Sturco
A certain percentage of water by Ruben Snitslaar
Apuane by Joakim Kocjancic
Borderline by Jean-Christophe Guillaume
Russian Alternative by Pavel Prokopchik
Tibet Today by Marieke ten Wolde

Conceptual
Tribes by Lucia Herrero
Over Floral Bedspreads by Kelly Puleio
Plateaus of the Mind by Kylie Woon
Kasi by Joel Suganth J
Somebody or Nobody? by Jesper Petersson
De slapende arm by Marlous van der Sloot
The Swimmers by Carla Liesching
The Lurkers by Stacy Kranitz
Return by Sylvia de Swaan

Opening Winners Exhibition, Dec 9th in Amsterdam

alrik — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:17:02 +0000

We welcome you to the opening of the Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 exhibition, to celebrate the winning photographic narratives of this year’s event! You are invited to enjoy the remarkable photo stories of Daria Tuminas and Luis Lazo with drinks on the house. Feel free to take a friend. The opening is Thursday December 9th 18:00 - 22:00 at the Kahmann Gallery in Amsterdam. We hope to see you then!

To let us know you will join, just click RSVP

The Facebook event page

Kahmann Gallery
Lindengracht 35
1015 KB Amsterdam
www.kahmanngallery.com

Announcing Jury Prize Winners

alrik — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:50:56 +0000

We are honored to announce the Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 winners! The second annual Viewbook PhotoStory contest has been won by Daria Tuminas and Luis Lazo with remarkably strong photographic narratives. Naturally the jury had a very difficult task selecting the best works out of the 500 already pre-selected photo stories.

Russian photographer Daria Tuminas has won the documentary category with an intimate story titled ‘Ivan and the Moon’ about two brothers who live in a remote village in the North of Russia. They differ from city teenagers a lot - have completely other moral values and live in a fairy tale like world: go hunting and fishing, know joiner’s chisel and play with ghosts at abandoned places. In this ongoing project Daria wants to show the mysteriousness of these brothers world.

Luis Lazo from France has won first prize in the conceptual category with a very subtle and poetic story titled ‘All That You Leave’. Jury member Ernesto Bazan says; “The images in this story are soulful, placid moments where the words of the late great Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa come to mind:” “Poetry is everywhere, in the earth and in the sea, in the lakes and in the rivers. . . . There is poetry in this table, in this paper, in this inkpot.”

Both artists won an exhibition in the Kahmann Gallery in Amsterdam, a lifelong subscription to a Viewbook Pro website account, GUP magazine subscription, a custom designed book published by Blurb and various other publications.

The winning series can be viewed on www.viewbookphotostory.com.

Other prizes
The following artists have also been commended in the Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 contest:

Jury Prizes
2nd Prize-documentary: EXODUS by Vincent Elkaim
3rd Prize-documentary: IN RAMALLAH I CAN BREATHE by Guy Martin
2nd Prize-conceptual: A PORTRAIT OF AMERICA LEFT BEHIND by Brandon Schulman
3rd Prize-conceptual: FATALISTIC TENDENCY Tushikur Rahman

Public voting prizes
1st Prize-documentary: THE FLIGHT by Imran Ahmed
2nd Prize-documentary: LET THE WORLD KNOW THAT WE STILL DO IT WITH OUR HANDS by Thanasis Lomef Zacharopoulos
3rd Prize-documentary: THE EMPTY HOUSE by Gianluca Cecere

1st Prize-conceptual: WU XING by Laura Petreike
2nd Prize-conceptual: DROWNING BRIDE by Dwi Anoraganingrm
3rd Prize-conceptual: RESET by Julia Katharina Ziegler

Book publications
All jury prize winners will be published in the Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 yearbook. December 2010 The books will be available for sale at www.viewbookphotostory.com and the Blurb online bookstore.

Exhibition
From 9 - 19 December the winning works IVAN AND THE MOON by Daria Tuminas and ALL THAT YOU LEAVE by Luis Lazo will be exhibited in the Kahmann Gallery in Amsterdam. The opening takes place on Thursday December 9th, with words and drinks on the house. More information will be available soon on www.viewbookphotostory.com

The public voting closed at 12AM Amsterdam time.

alrik — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:03:22 +0000

The public voting closed today at 12AM Amsterdam time. The public prize winners are:

Documentary

1st Imran Ahmed (1419 votes)
2nd Thanasis Lomef Zacharopoulos (1418 votes)
3rd Gianluca Cecere (1411 votes)

Conceptual

1st Laura Petreike (1150 votes)
2nd Dwi Anoraganingrm (866 votes)
3rd Julia Katharina Ziegler (482 votes)

Congratulations! We will contact you soon.

The Jury prize winners will be announced later today.

3 days left to vote

alrik — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:29:32 +0000

There are three days left to vote for your favorite photo story. November 5th at 12AM Amsterdam time the public voting will close. Parallel to the public voting the jury reviewed all series for the more weighty part of the competition. The jury prize winners will be announced on November 5th.

Pre-screening 2010 submissions

alrik — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:10:38 +0000

We are in the process of pre-screening last month’s 751 submissions for the Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 contest. It’s very different viewing and screening stories build up of series of images, as opposed to single images. The extra dimension that series of images have, results in an exponentially growing diversity of idea’s, angles and concepts, which are more often discovered between the images than in the images itself. It requires deep concentration and an unprejudiced mind to perceive. Sometimes it’s difficult to empathize with truths of other cultures, where religion, humor and value’s are so very different to our Western culture.

Looking at each submission we ask ourselves; is this a story, a coherent narrative? Is there enough consistency in photographic quality throughout the series? The ones that meet these requirements are published on the website and run in the contest. All together the level of entries this year is remarkably high and to make a rough estimate, about 60 percent seems to pass the pre-screening.

All pre-screened stories have just been published on the website. The long lists will be sent to the judges tomorrow and the public voting started today. We also started the preparations for the books and exhibition. November 5th the winners will be announced.

Public voting open October 6th

alrik — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:34:32 +0000

Because of the enormous amount of submissions the pre-screening and publishing takes another day. The public voting will open on Wednesday October 6th.
An e-mailing will be send out to all participants as soon as the public voting opens.

Submissions for 2010 are closed.

alrik — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 10:48:03 +0000

The submissions for the Viewbook PhotoStory 2010 contest closed at October 1st 12PM. The incredible amount of submissions that have been submitted the last days will be pre-screened and published the coming week. On October 5th the public voting will start and the Jury will start the judging process.

Through

admin — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:33:44 +0000

The Religious Triangle - Jerusalem 2010

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:59:19 +0000

Black tide under a burning sun

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:58:25 +0000

Sukhumvit Road

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:31:51 +0000

The Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok is perhaps the most commercially important and most highly frequentated road of Thailand’\'s capital. Only in the core of Bangkok the length amounts more than 10km. Further It snakes its way 400 km turning to East, near to the border of Cambodia.Furthermore this road represents one of three „Royal Roads“, which connect all areas of Thailand with each other. Along this road the huge number of cars produce a neverending traffic jam even on late night. This important street reflects nearly every characteristics of Bangkok:Traditional, countrified as soon as modern, industrial forms of life in Bankok are directly clashing. Besides Tuk-Tuk-drivers with their vehicles characterising Bangkok’s cityscape, one of the most modern of the world, the „Sky-Train“ winds through Bangkok. Mega shoppingmalls standing next to several self-build shops on wheels.Modernity and tradition, rich and poor are encounting each other like nearly nowhere in Bangkok.The following \"road story\" is telling you about the daily life of people living and working on that multifarious road: These pictures capture the contrasts, the grit, the pace and above all the people, motorcycletaxidrivers, stickersellers, jasminflower producers, western tourists or storytellers.

A Period of USA History (1967-2008)

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:14:29 +0000

When I prepared narrations for my photo book project, On Their Sites: Landscapes with Private Monuments, the pieces sometimes lined themselves up and create another bigger narrative as these six pieces are doing here. This six-frame story is an archive of a period of United States’ contemporary history.A boy fighting in 1967 grew to be a CIA boss later; an enthralled reader on 9/11 encountered more of the unexpected afterward; a Staten Island young man died in Gartan, Iraq, in 2004; a stowaway was saved by Saddam Hussein’s execution in 2006; then, people in the city of luxury learnt to differentiate between an accident and an attack, when a Wall Street businessman could not explain his odd uneasiness on a morning bus.To me, this story scans people off a ground zero for strewn shallow scratches and auras, revealing graduations the course of history left on everyday life of individuals.In the project I used 4\"x5\" film, deep depth of field, nonhierarchical composition and brightened midtones to simulate the look of uneventful lives.

Art Ranger

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:32:57 +0000

Ingar Aasen, aka Art Ranger, is a Norwegian artist. He has earned millions selling art without paying tax, and refuses “to be controlled in any way”. To the public he is known for several spectacular and provoking performance stunts. One of them was breaking in to a bishops office, pouring blood all over himself and accusing the bishops for making statements leading to homosexuals killing themselves. Another stunt he did was driving several military caravans in front of the Norwegian parliament full of dead, raped, turkeys with nametags of leading politicians.When I first meet Art Ranger he was living with a Roma-family from Romania, who came to Norway to earn money by begging and finding values at the waste sites. After meeting Art Ranger, they moved to his illegal camp on state property, and started working for him. This work consisted of helping Art Ranger with the camp, making different sculptures and some of the young boys became his lovers.After a some of trouble with the police and the locals for begging, driving illegal cars and theft, the Roma-family have left Art Rangers camp and gone back to Romania several times, but they keep coming back. The state have agreed to let Art Ranger keep living on their property if he would throw them of the property and make his camp open for tourists, but he have refused. The last time I talked to Art Ranger, the Roma-family hade once again left him and he was worried that they would not come back again because of their problems with the Norwegian authorities.

Kurds and Turks

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:05:56 +0000

In Ramallah I Can Breathe

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:38:10 +0000

Ramallah, the de-facto capital of the Occupied Palestinian West Bank, is home to a growing, educated and secular youth. After years of economic stagnation, Israeli military incursions and poor infrastructure, this once occupied city is coming back to life.Ramallah\'s youthful population, that were too young or innocent to get involved in the iconic martyr\'s funerals, stone throwing or call to arms at the beginning of the new millennium, are now coming of age in a culture surrounded by Americana, tourism and relaxed western attitudes to a myriad of Islamic sins; alcohol, sex and relationships.Mona Ennab, a 24 year old Muslim woman and a Ramallah local, is one of those taking advantage of this city\'s new freedoms. She has become one of the famous faces on the West Bank\'s growing street-car racing scene, that stretches across the battle scarred towns of Jenin, Nablus and Hebron. Here she competes against macho Palestinian men and trains in the gaze of Israeli military watchtowers.The project focuses on Mona\'s daily life as she tries to live somewhere on the bridge between the Palestinian culture she and her family respects, and the modern, secular lifestyle she so loves and desires.

Nachtgestelle

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:35:50 +0000

This series is about hunter’s perches in Germany. I am struck by their architectural variety and their inherent beauty. On the other hand, there is something uncanny in these towerlike constructions, especially at night. The series is photographed in winter to keep the pictures free from any distracting details.I was inspired by the school of New Objectivity (Bernd and Hilla Becher and their pupils). As the Bechers did in their work with water towers or framework houses, I used a standardizing, graphical approach for the series. I opted for color photography in order to better grasp the emotional value of the objects.

Egypt

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:05:20 +0000

This series was created in April, 2010. It depicts the life of two large tourist centers of Egypt, Sharm el-Sheikh and Cairo. Great mass of locals in these cities are involved in tourist service industry. Most vacationers consider locals mostly as attendants, whose private life is of no interest for them. Nevertheless, their life goes on, it is unique, full of emotions and attractive in its own way. I\'ve made an attempt to show these rare instants, in which this life comes to surface and becomes visible to a foreigner.

Exodus

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:04:52 +0000

Moroccan Jewish history began over 2000 years ago. Protected under the Islamic Principle of Tolerance, Jews flourished, holding high positions in trade and Government. The Star of David was a symbol shared by all Moroccans, appearing on currency and even the national flag. During the Holocaust, when asked for a list of Jews, King Mohammed V declared, “We have no Jews in Morocco, only Moroccan citizens.” Jews and Muslims were united by culture and kingdom.Following World War II, Zionists recruiters targeted Moroccan Jews to populate the new State of Israel. Israel’s expansion marked the beginning of the Moroccan Jewish exodus. Though 300 000 Jews inhabited Morocco as of 1940, less that 4000 remain today.What remains is a Jewish past nearly abandoned, fragments of Morocco’s Jewish culture left under the protection of Muslim guardians devoting their lives to a history that isn’t even their own, yet entirely is. Amidst breathtaking landscapes are holy saints, abandoned relics and sacred spaces. Within these spaces are pilgrims, desperately seeking to identify with what remains.This work represents a journey into the void left by this cultural exodus while revealing a history of co-existence, sacrificed in the wake of Zionism.

Fictional Cape Town

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:58:14 +0000

Cape Town has a surprisingly large film industry. It’s not like Bollywood or Nollywood (Nigeria), where homegrown stories dominate. Most shoots are in fact advertisements for foreign companies selling everything from chewing gum to yogurt (the favorable exchange rate, the sunny climate, the wide variety of locations within close distance added to the shared English language make it worth the long trip to the tip of Africa). What is fascinating is that these companies turn corners of Cape Town into European, British or American scenes: a typical wine farm can be turned into a Dutch homestead, or a Long Street cafe can become a Parisian bistro for a day or two.The work documents the way the industry semi-colonises slices of the city. The images, crooked landscapes of a crooked place, play with the friction between reality and fiction while portraying the area with both humor and marvel. I would like to think they approach issues such as the outrageous world of advertising and new forms of colonization.At first, I thought of this project in photo-journalistic terms. My idea was to treat this subject as a protest,music gig or any real event, only to document what was set up for the other cameras in a straight-forward manner. However, the lines between the fiction and the backstage quickly started to blur before my lens. This allowed me to work towards something a little less systematical and I hope more poetic. I would like people to scrutinize the pictures long enough to try to make sense of what there is to see and imagine what scenarios could occur.I accompany the pictures with factual captions to open interesting discussions about landscape, national identity and collective imagery.

Colourless Days

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:53:17 +0000

I created this story while working in a sales department at a plant that produced soft drinks. I spent 8 hours 5 days a week at the office. My day began at 9 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m. Every day was the same.In this series I tried to depict colourless and absurd atmosphere inside the office, where people do things they doesn’t really care about or do nothing at all. All surroundings - furniture, office machines, things in working places, walls, even light, make the atmosphere more strange and depressing.

Iquitos | Amiudal Part 1

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:39:45 +0000

Iquitos, city in the northwest of Peru, on the banks of the Amazon River. It has more than 400.000 inhabitants.Amiudal, small village in the interior of Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. It has over 300 inhabitants.Emigrate, said of a person, family or people: Leave one’s country of residence for a new one.Emigration is the nexus between Iquitos and Amiudal. At the end of the 19th Century, hundreds of Galician families set off on a trip to America, in search of lands where living were easier. Epidemics and hunger made that living in Galicia were really tough. After trying their luck in several Brazilian cities, a small group of Galicians got to Iquitos attracted by its profitable rubber industry.I first traveled to the capital of the Peruvian Amazonia in 2008. I met Captain Iglesias in his Henry 7, a boat that travels from Pucalpa to Iquitos. His grandparents met on the ship that linked the Galician cost with Brazil. He was the first descendant of Galicians I stroke up a friendship with. Then, I met the sisters Florinda and Rosa Graña, whose uncle Alfonso Graña went into the rainforest and became the King of the Jibaros. I visited Mosquera bookshop, founded by Cesar Mosquera, the owner of the first car on Iquitos streets. I talked with descendants of the Fortes, who own a hostel in Raymondy Street. I visited the Barcias, whose rubber workers ancestors exploited large extensions of rainforest. All of them descendants of Galicians.Iquitos|Amiudal is a return journey. Traveling from Iquitos to Amiudal on the same means of transport used by many Galician families. Navigate the Amazon River on “lanchas”, the boats that transport passengers and goods along the great river. Crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner. From the Amazonian rainforest to the Galician mountains.CalendarPart 01 - 2008/2010, from Iquitos to Tabatinga. CompletedPart 02 - 2011, from Tabatinga to Santarem. In pre-productionPart 03 - 2011/2012, from Santarem to Amiudal via Atlantic Ocean

Havana

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:32:46 +0000

Like something for porno

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:27:20 +0000

Sex is one of the greatest taboos of modern society but only in internet, we can write \"sex\" and appear millions of results. The concept that people have about sex is depending on age, education, culture, family background, experience, etc.For centuries it was considered that sex should perform the function of procreation and nothing else. Although this type of message is changing and indeed, there is greater freedom, the shadow of sin and guilt. However, many people have tried to focus on the positive aspects of sexual activity and can see sex as something enjoyable and fun, as an opportunity to approach the couple and create greater intimacy.This project is a documentary done in places where humans come into contact with each other and are capable of inhibitions of all their prejudices, without suffering in silence their doubts about sexuality.

Kupchino

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:57:15 +0000

Name \'Kupchino\' refers to the district in south-west outskirts of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of its active development falls on sixties, so there are no mansions, palaces and other antiquities. There is only one tiny desolate channel. Actually, only cars\' number plates remind now and then that you are still in Saint Petersburg.It\'s so called \"sleeping district\". And it means that every weekday majority of working population leaves for work in other city parts, andchildren, pensioners and dogs become ultimate masters until the evening. They don\'t have any reasons for haste, so the rhythm of life here dramatically differs from downtown.Kupchino is cut from the rest of the world on all four sides by railroads. But this confinement doesn\'t bring anxiety, it rather brings feeling of comfort and self-containment, in fact it\'s enclave, a city inside the city. A very special aura prevails here: huge masses of gray soviet buildings only rarely are intermittent with gaudy spots of supermarkets and few modern building. Almost empty streets, garbage covered wastelands... All that bring to a casual spectator a feeling of stagnation, silent contamination protracted for decades.

Small Concrete Boxes: Inside China\’s Zoos

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:47:15 +0000

The animals are in cages that are too small. Weather conditions are inhospitable to many of the tropical animals on display. And the food supply is generally inadequate; visitors often throw junkfood into the trash-strewn pens. While all is not lost--in Hefei, a large city in Anhui Province, for instance, the tigers have been moved to a large, open-air habitat. Many other animals in Hefei and elsewhere throughout China, from Sanya in the far south to Beijing in the north, remain locked in their small concrete boxes.There are signs of hope. A number of well-run tiger and panda preserves have sprung up throughout the country as a means of educating the public about China\'s wildlife and as a way to foster the continuation of these species. These facilities are deserving of the international praise they\'ve received. The panda centers in Sichuan have done remarkable work in preserving the species and the animals\' habitat. But the international media has done little to report on the condition of far greater numbers of animals wasting away in the country\'s urban zoos. Rumors abound that the animals in some of these facilities become fodder for Chinese medicine and rare products such as tiger corpse wine. Visitors hound the animals, tossing plastic bottles or hot dogs into the cages, rapping on the windows. The cages are small, dirty, and otherwise poorly maintained. Many of the animals are overcrowded, injured, or unhealthy.Few foreigners see these zoos; they\'re rarely marked on English-language maps and they\'re usually located far from the well-beaten tourist path. And yet, the zoos remain enormously popular among the Chinese public. Most of the zoos are cheap (US$1-5 per ticket) in comparison to other weekend activities and the zoos offer a chance to see many animals that have been wiped out of their natural habitats by the tremendous force of Chinese development. Though conditions seem to be improving in the country\'s urban zoos, the progress is slow. The small concrete boxes filled with sickly animals will remain a fixture in China\'s cities for a long time to come.

PAUL

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:36:48 +0000

I met Paul in 2006 during my three-month stint with the Academy of Circus Arts (ACA). He had recently resigned from the Parachute Regiment of the British Army serving in conflict zones. Using a fund from the charity Prince’s Trust he enrolled in the ACA where he started training as a clown. I started documenting his life again in 2008.Naturally extrovert Paul had a tough time in school and later in the military. Together with his younger brother they were brought up by foster families until they were nine, when they were both adopted by the same parents. His younger brother died from a drug overdose while Paul was in the army.Today he lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire in the UK together with his girlfriend Rachel and his son Tomus. Rachel is his brother’s ex girlfriend and Tomus is named after him. Paul is trying to make his living by performing in local parties and community gatherings. He has also had small roles in music videos and short films.I am interested in Paul because in his character and story I read universal human conditions and feelings to their extreme. Paul’s story questions ideas about fatherhood, companionship, brotherhood, love, hate, happiness and the struggle to make a living. My hope is that viewers can recognize parts of their own selves in the story.

La Villa en Rosa

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:13:48 +0000

You\'re in a place, where people are who they are supposed to be. Where no criticism or judgement rules, unless you\'re wearing last season\'s shoes.In this pink village, drag queens are famous, is nobody really male or female, and people dance to music named after the pinkest bird in the world.I\'ve created this world based on reality, out of my own restrictions I experience in my freedom. The way of living by the great amount of homosexuals in Madrid, concentrated in the Chueca district, got me thinking how it would be, if there was a place where only gay people live.

Memory

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:58:07 +0000

\"You know, as it is with us, Russians, one - two generations, and nobody remembers anything\", as one told when I came to a small town to shoot the project on memory.Time dulls the memory.And in Russia there were too many events that destroyed our personal memories - civilian war and revolution, World War Two and political repressions.Verkhneuralsk is a small town in the South Urals, one of the oldest, it used to have several factories, now only two plants are working.During the civilian war Verkhneurals was a place of red and white сossacks troops fights, in thirties it became famous as a place of repressions victims burial. After WWII Verkhneuralsk was one of the small cities apart of growing Chelyabinsk. Small towns are rapidly deurbanizing in Russia. When a salary or a pension is too small to feed a family, most of people are working in their gardens to cultivate fruits and vegetables. And the feeling of a city is disappearing.Some people remember something of their own families, though it’s hard, some just remember their own life, but anyway our memory is too important to understand who we are.I began this project because I’m interested to survey memory connection - local story that lives or will live in someone’s mind or family album picture or in some left objects.

Whatever Happened To The Great Escape

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:36:21 +0000

The sea, our life

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:26:44 +0000

Trawling is one of the most important activities in Italy, practiced mostly in the Adriatic Sea, where there are more than 2000 trawler vessels.The new European Community rules on fisheries, in conjunction with the increase of fuel prices and the drastic decrease in the amount of fish, are putting in a difficult position an industry that provides livelihood for thousands of families.The crew are increasingly multi-ethnic, there is a large presence of North Africans who take over from the Italians who did not want to do this work.Despite the economic problems, the exhausting shifts, the long waits, the distance from their loved ones, for these men the sea is much more than a job: is their life.

The Lurkers

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:15:32 +0000

I am interested in how subculture self-consciously dramatizes violence through daily rituals, habits, and pastimes, thereby implicating the photographer and viewer as consumers of that violence.This series of images comes from an ongoing project, “The Lurkers”. The project uses an annual event at a dystopian compound in the northern Appalachian region of the United States to illustrate the photographer’s longings for a lost youth.I use the camera to depict youthful abandon while at the same time reconciling with my own reality of growing older. Within this context I end up producing images that fetishize youth. I have used the camera to turn disturbing, vulgar and excessive events into desired activities. I interact and immerse myself in the activities of the kids that surround me. I do the drugs they hand me and mimic their behavior with a longing to fit in. This project is not documentation. I am not accurately reflecting my surroundings through the cameras lens. I willingly cross ethical boundaries to insert myself in the experience with the focused intent to produce a hyper-real depiction of youthful abandon that is based on real events.

Rich Men, Poor Men

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:08:01 +0000

Gipsy people, known also as rroma community, is formed of many many types of smaller communities, divided mainly by there occupation. There is a confusion between Rroma (Gipsy) and Romanian, and from here a lot of discomfort going around for both parts. In Romania, Rroma people (Gipsy) are only a minority, as everywhere in the world.This photo series talks about the life of Gipsy in Romania, showing two different aspects most commonly found: rich and poor. They either live in big houses, run expensive cars, handling more or less legal businesses, or they are living at the edge, working hard for their living, in misery and oppression.The rich are sharing their culture with great delight, trying to impress with their opulence, whilst the poor withdraw with fear from the photo camera, protecting themselves of dangers like police, administrative authorities or the press.Gipsy lifestyle is a whole new world that needs to be explored. Here is just a glimpse.

Stasis

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:02:21 +0000

Stasis is a time anomaly, an artificial pause.This is not just a story about anachronism, now the past and present are mixed in weird way, just like social consciousness – 70 years of USSR, 20 of independence in corresponding percent ratio. There are artificial cheap flowers, TV sets, plush curtains and “winter garden” near old soviet symbols of hammer and sickle, there are voting places from this years presidential elections but red flags from main painted panel were not removed – only faces of Lenin and Stalin were painted over somewhere in mid 90-ies.And this is a deeply personal story: I spent here nearly every day on various classes after school, I remember cracked walls and old armchairs, columns, constant coldness of the low floors and atmospehere that scared and always fascinated me. when I got back here in 2010 for recognition, it stroke me, how everything was same and wrong.

they are diferent

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:54:56 +0000

bharat

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:37:17 +0000

this is a selection from the hindu part of photographic studies.ongoing social work of my own.a simplest documentation of daily life.the selection is mostly with religious tinge.believers, pilgrims and devotees are the main characters of this images.i was traveling through the different sacred places with a curiosity of a neutral person.this photographs are pretty much about my reflections.eugene.

The Nomadic Cinemas

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:53:21 +0000

For about six decades now, traveling tent cinema companies accompany Jatras- annual religious fairs which begin in rural Maharashtra, western India after the crop gathering season ends in October. Traveling with these fairs, not very far from the cinema capital of India- Mumbai, the tent talkies hawk an eclectic mix of films- regional language films, Bollywood blockbusters and even dubbed Hollywood flicks as they travel across the rural landscape. In keeping with the transient nature of their journey, the architecture is equally mobile and can ultimately be heaped up inside a truck. For many of the patrons in remote villages, still located far from permanent theatres, tent talkies are the only exposure to the big screen.The traveling cinemas, despite evolving to become an indispensable facet of a cultural milieu of rural Maharashtra and, flourishing to the extent of becoming synonymous with the jatras themselves; are yet to find a mention in the historical accounts on development of cinema in the country. I hope this work goes a small way in ‘photo-historicising’ a significant chapter in the history of cinema- as a form and practice- in India; documenting an old, unique yet endangered model of cinema exhibition and reception; distinctively operating in rural India.

The Great Mother

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:09:52 +0000

The river Ganges is the cradle of Indian civilization.You can feel the sacredness of river Ganga all along its tortuous course of 2500 km, from its origin in the Himalayas all the way to its confluence with the Bay of Bengal.“A giant sewer”. This is the way Gopal Krishna, an officer who deals with problems related to pollution, define the river. He continues by telling: “It’s a river of sewage, where farms and individuals pour in all kinds of garbage… And children bathe in the middle of a puddle of excrement. In the surface of water, you can see thousands of cremated Hindus’ ashes floating and, sometimes, even parts of corpses that the flames were unable to completely devour: one and the other floating in the river for the spiritual rebirth”.Along the river there are the sacred towns of Haridwar, called “the door of heaven”; Rishikesh, where “ascetics’ ashes” are buried; Kanpur, famous for its textile industries which discharge into the river Pandu, a tributary of Ganga river, the toxic sewages produced and, Allahabad where the river Yamuna joins with the Ganges.The local sadhus (gurus) protested against the government in New Delhi because of water pollution. Since 2003, they refuse to \"purify\" in the sacred river and promise not to do so until its waters will not be reclaimed.An attempt to decontaminate the river, was made in the mid-eighties - the Ganga Action Plan (Gap). However, it didn’t work out. The level of pollution is not decreased even around the \'holy cities\'.“Nowadays, the Ganges” - Gopal Krishna writes “that is a source of life in northern India, has become a symbol of the greatest ecological disaster in the country, since the last hundred years. Every minute in the Ganges basin, one people dies of diarrhoea and, every year, eight out of ten people suffer from intestinal”. attacks.Water pollution produces harmful effects on human health, altering the food chain, encouraging the increase of cancer, respiratory and kidney diseases, and affecting deeply the local ecosystem.Five hundred million people, about 8 percent of the world\'s population, live in the Ganges basin.According to a UN report, India occupies the third place in the ranking of 122 countries with the worst quality of water.The Ganges passes through, among others, the state of Bihar, one of the most populous of India (about 83 million inhabitants).The terrible floods which alternate with periods of dry hinder agricultural development in the country, reduced to starvation by now. The widespread poverty causes high rates of crime.Gange river ends up in Farakka dam, built on the border with Bangladesh and source of tension between New Delhi and Dacca.The recent report of a U.S. agency forecasts, by 2030, the death of Indian sacred river because of global warming, water pollution and construction of dams along the river.Particular mention deserves the Tehri dam, the second biggest dam in the world, which has already caused several damages to the surrounding environment and indigenous peoples who inhabited the banks of the Ganges.The dam began to operate in late 2006; is 260 meters high and has a catchment area of about 40 square km.Because of its construction, the old city of Terhi, many Hindus temples and 70 villages scattered along its basin, were submerged.The Terhi dam is considered a sensitive target in India-Pakistan war; built on seismic land, it provokes continuous earthquake’s shocks in surrounding villages and, its eventual collapse, would cause the disappearance of holy cities along the river.Ganges death not only will ravage the economy of that area but, moreover, it will affect deeply the local people spiritual life, with its ancient rituals and traditions.This story is about a journey along Ganges river in order to seize the under way transformations, the effects these upheavals will produce on the environment and the social context and, finally, to understand the forms of resistance thought by local people to preserve and renew ancestral traditions .The report will finish by recording the Kumbha Mela in 2010. This is one of the largest and most spectacular Hindu festivals, to which 30 million people, drawn from across India, participate in order to bathe in those who once were the majestic blue waters of the Sacred River.

The asphalt of a crew

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:58:48 +0000

Termini is the main train station in Rome, in its interior/exterior spaces there are a multitude of so-called “metropolitan dark corner”. This photographic work explore one of these place, a meeting -point of a hip-hop Filipinas crew made up of twenty immigrant or second generation boys and girls that live this space into a continuous social dialog with the station. This continuous one-to-one relationship characterized by contrast and conflict between social group, single person and spaces, identify this place like one of centrals points where the metropolis change itself. Into urban-landscapes these boys and girls live this space given it a lot of meanings. Event of petty crime and conflict with other social group are common, but in general the Filipino’s group is sociable, just looking for a little respect in the space station.

Intervention

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:40:12 +0000

“The stillness of human versus the fragile nature.”In this series, I am investigating the relationship between human and nature. How within space, these two lives interact, react one to another, and response.By photographing man-made stuff with nature, I also would like to juxtapose and at the same to proof the unavoidable evidence of human existence in the nature. To show how human has taken place and changed the space of nature without one realizes.

Domestic Helpless

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:13:40 +0000

There are 850 000 Indonesian people resides in Singapore and around 150 000 of them are working as maids. Singapore has been one of the most popular destinations for foreign workers to earn living in. For Indonesians, it is a close to home but a world apart. Languages and cultures set those differences to adapt with. Nevertheless, for the sake of better livings, more maids are coming every single day hoping to bring fortunes back someday. Maid has been regarded as a very low class job especially in the developed countries like Singapore. Hence, not few people take maids for granted and treat them as the minority.In Singapore itself, there have been many reports on how badly the maids are treated as humans. In fact, many of them run away from their employers to the Indonesian governments to seek for helps. Until today, there are more than 300 maids listed staying at the Indonesian embassy and more maids are coming every day. They wait for their cases to be processed and resolved in which most of the results are they are not allowed to work anymore.Staying behind the embassy and waiting for the uncertainty are not an easy life to go through despite they feel safe and are feed way better than when they were working. After staying for few months in the embassy, some of them are free to go home but sadly, with no fortunes to bring back at all.

Drowning Bride

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:48:39 +0000

LU

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:34:35 +0000

LU, the Ukrainian nickname for Ludmila, is a work in progress about one of those women that come to Italy from Eastern Europe to grant their family a better life. They usually work as caregivers for old people but Ludmila got ill and was hospitalised for a long period. We met in Italy but I followed her back in Ukraine for Christmas: it was three years she didn’t go home. Her world is firm and warm. Full of signs from the past but also of the welfare she’s working to afford. She managed to have a beautiful marriage for her daughter and she’s very proud of it. She’s still the head of the family, loved and well respected for what she’s doing for them. But you can feel in the air the fear for her leaving again. Her dream is completing a building they started by their house to open a florist shop.In Italy people know nothing about what these courageous women left behind: they are just seen as substitutes for what public welfare isn’t able to guarantee, and often they’re underpaid, irregular workers. There are many political proposals to get them out from this hypocrisy, but nothing will give them back the things they don’t see at home: children growing, young girls falling in love, the landscape changing through the seasons.I’m going back in September, cause they say I must see the incredible Ukrainian flowers.

A certain percentage of water

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:03:48 +0000

Auftakt

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:51:08 +0000

“Auftakt” is the upward stroke made by conductor, a gesture, that comes in the moment when music does not begin to sound yet. It\'s a gesture made in silence, but combining full information about time of performance, tempo and semantic fullness of music, it\'s stroke and character of the sound.Auftakt is the instantly disappearing fragment of time that always dissolves in it\'s own obvious ephemerality. A moment that exist invisibly at our life and in one time includes in itself the paradoxical opposite feelings. Silence and calmness that can be felt in one second before the storm comprises the great anxiety. The “Decisive moment” is preceded by the \"indecisive\" moment, and this moment interlaces the senses of cold and warmth, pleasures and melancholies, human happiness and presentiment of loneliness. These senses are presented in everything that can be snatched out from this world and transferred to the “other world” using the means of photography, the atmospheric world, which reality, nevertheless, is imperceptibly connected with the present.The context of time and locations in this project is important, but not on a first place - it\'s not just the set of visions, but their irrational expression sates every photo with especial atmosphere.All photographs were taken in Riga and Latvia during 2005-2010 using the analogue technic of 35 mm and 120 mm, and also the mobile\'s phone camera. The prints are in black-and-white.

Shanghai: Lost Identity

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:11:53 +0000

“Gigantic buildings which mercilessly siege old typical neighborhoods. Glorification of capitalist achievements and marginalization of the people who helped building them. Power and neglect. …” Shanghai, as head of the Chinese Dragon, is in a frantic run towards fierce capitalism, especially noticeable in a boom in the building industry. Numberless buildings are raised, all similar in height, colour and design, all repetitive in their poor and simplistic design. Mere stereotypes, look-alikes to those existing in other cities. There are people leading difficult lives in these circumstances. They are the witnesses of an airless hostile Shanghai, surrounded by alleged civilisation which deprives them of their right to be and empties them out of their essence; they are then easily implanted ideas which pass as progress. In short, this is an ambitious transformation program meant to prove the unquestionable rise of China above the superpowers. But it leaves behind less visible elements, such as places and people that lose their identities. A schizophrenic double personality reflects on a fascinating city which is ultimately a stage inhabited by wandering characters who do not know their part. A deliberate trend towards uniformity and lack of identity dominates the world now, creating spaces full of loneliness and contrasts. It seems logical that places should change their identities and turn blurredly into something different, but not that they should become no-places.

STATIC

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:04:28 +0000

The work STATIC is a photographic exploration of space, within the setting of caravan parks, the series being a result of a sustained investigation into openness and containment, presence and absence. The title of the book hints at the aim of the project, to look at space as something static, something tangible in a flat frame and as something that offers an unassuming kind of peace. ‘The British’, their eccentricities, leisure pursuits and use of the English landscape have been the object of much photographic scrutiny in recent years. This work set out to, as it were, document the gaps and spaces (both physical and psychological) that had been left unexplored. The caravan park provides the landscape for a specific experience of space, for both holidaymaker and photographer.Freya Kruczenyk (June 2010)

KIDS

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:45:21 +0000

Kids is an attempt of observation about where our thought were born, since early years, and those places full of emotions: curiosity, pride, companionship, expectation, happiness, or even fear, distrust, guilty, shame.Different nationalities didn\'t seam to make difference when the observation concludes that what drives them is the excitement to have different experiences, those uncatalogued as good or bad ones.Kids are also a call to quantify pleasure as moment-to-moment thing, to take it easy about life, to have more fun, to enjoy and look for things to appreciate and to create toys and opportunities for happiness where there are none.

Roots of Cristiano Ronaldo

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:21:41 +0000

Making of idols

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:40:58 +0000

Kumartuly,an area,where the potters (fine art clay workers)are making clay idols through out the year from the period of British Rulers in India. The idols of God and Goddesses are made by them using bamboo strips,straws and jute rope in making structure of the idols, uses clay to finish the idols body and after drying finally they uses lead free, weather freindly, pollution free colour to colour them.After the worship was done, the idols are immersed into the river Ganges and when the clay is being washed out the straw structure is taken out from the river to keep it pollution free

Strange thoughts

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:37:16 +0000

Final Journey.

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:53:04 +0000

A 6 month old baby named Shelloveson Quervilien, died on 12 August, 2010 at a tent city in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. The name of the tent city is ACRA on Delmas 33. He was apparently burnt alive and born within ACRA in February. Thousands of people are still living in makeshift camps around the capital Port au Prince. The Acra camp is home to around 25,000 people. It is run by the American Refugee Committee and contains temporary schools, clinics, a cinema and even a cock-fighting ring. At 9.30p.m on the night of 12th August, 2010 a fire broke out within the tents in ACRA. The child was inside the tent as the residents called The Red Cross, but the Red Cross replied \"it was too late for them to do anything\". They also called for other renowned organizations too. But nobody came to their rescue. The result being the death of this small, innocent child. The residents kept the body in the storage as they had no money for a funeral. And after a repeated cry for help, nobody came forward with any money to help them. Finally the residents gathered money from camp residents on 1st September, 2010. Alongside the funeral a demonstration was held on the streets of Port-Au-Prince protesting about the NGO\'s lack of help within the camps. Residents and family members invited members of the NGO community to come to the funeral but no-one came.

The Invisible Days

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:48:07 +0000

The Invisible DayI often ponder about things that I can see and things I cannot see.When I was a child the radio in the kitchen was on every morning.I heard strangers\' voices.I heard noises of a town far away, and I listened to songs that I have never heard.I walk a long country road to school with the sounds of the unseen world resonating in my ears.After I became an adult, I traveled to a place to see the scenery.When I got to the destination the weather was not very good, and I was not able to see the scenery clearly.Even though I was not seeing the scenery well I got a strong impression of beauty when I was there.The next day the weather got much better, and I decided to visit the place one more time. I saw all the details of the scenery clearly this time, but somehow the impression I got was not as strong as the one I got the precious day.I was feeling more when I was not seeing.Generally, a photograph is constrained in a rectangle frame.Blank space tend to be around the edges of the frame and viewers\' eyes naturally escaped to outside of the image.In this project I wanted to direct eyes of a viewer inside and not outside.I have made this possible by using something people cannot see clearly.By trying to define the line between what people can see and cannot see, I walk the edge of reality and fantasy, ordinary and unordinary.

water to water

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:46:03 +0000

The Dinner

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:45:24 +0000

This story is about a mother and a child having dinner together after a long day.I was just sitting outside a tent where i stayed for a day. And i saw this incident unfolding. The dinner is compassionate, caring and affectionate without any glitters and myths of the modern world.It was very private and personal in nature.The simplicity of the incidents really touched me.

Dance Nation

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:24:36 +0000

Obesity in the United States has been increasingly cited as a major health issue in recent decades. While many industrialized countries have experienced similar increases, obesity rates in the U.S. are among the highest in the world with as of 2007 around 75% of the adults being overweight or obese. The government and various organizations have been trying out means to reverse this trend, and one creative way that has come up is through dance. July 31, 2010 was officially declared as \"National Dance Day\" in the U.S., and in Los Angeles people from all walks of life did their part by simply dancing together to promote healthy lifestyle.

La-La Land

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 07:19:15 +0000

This is a photo essay of the Irwindale Renaissance Faire 2010 in Los Angeles, California. Chicago journalist Neil Steinberg said, \"If theme parks, with their pasteboard main streets, reek of a bland, safe, homogenized, whitebread America, the Renaissance Faire is at the other end of the social spectrum, a whiff of the occult, a flash of danger and a hint of the erotic. Here, they let you throw axes. Here are more beer and bosoms than you\'ll find in all of Disney World.\" Indeed, nothing can be truer than this.

\’7 teen have place\’

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:03:10 +0000

Humedales / Peruvian Wetlands

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:57:01 +0000

The Peruvian Coast is a large and narrow strip of desert bathed by thewaters of the Pacific Ocean. In this wide open territory, open spaces, asoasis, appeared, which are filled with vegetation, water, wildfire andliving spaces. They are called humedales (wetlands), which are areas atconstant risk of disappearing because of the threat of climate change. Inthese spaces where there is life, there is also hope for many families thatfound in the \"humedales\" a source of livelihood.The story of the last years in Peru was influenced by the violence of andinternal war, which was exacerbated by poverty. Lima, the capital of Peru,which concentrated more than a third of the peruvian population, appealedto thousands of refugees from violence that came from the mountains andforest areas. One of these places where these families arrived was thehumedales called Paraiso and Albufera de Medio Mundo,located in the sorroundings of Lima. These families came looking for hopeand future, meanwhile the humedales offered them riches, water,fish, grazing livestrock and plants as junco and totora.

Cotton Pickers of Memphis

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:18:33 +0000

While driving 20 miles south from my school, Memphis College of Art School was the Mississippi River. Near the river, were large cotton fields and a small town. Roaming around the town, I decided to knock at each door that I can possibly encounter. My last resort of this town was a small church. Slowly as the people of the church welcomed me, I started to document their way of life. Most of the people that lived in this town were African American. Although I am very different from their ways of life, they welcomed me in their house with open arms. Beyond their eyes, I was able to notice their inner beauty and beyond their black skin. I was able to discover the beauty in which you can find from a black pearl. Even though they were not wealthy, they showed me hospitality, kindness, friendship, and most importantly their love. Through their compassion, I was able to experience their lives personally and intimately. When I grasped the moments of the people, I did not capture just a photograph, but their mind, love, and heart of these people.

Horses & Donkeys needing Care in Egypt

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 03:59:08 +0000

The Island

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:45:04 +0000

Isle de Jean Charles is disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico. Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians first bought land here in 1876. The land is a fourth the size it was when its oldest residents were children. Less than sixty water-damaged houses remain on the island. More than half of them are empty. The road that leads to the Island disappears underwater during storms. Each day, at high tide, water rises to the edge.The Levees built by the Army Corp of Engineers in the 1960’s, along the Mississippi River disrupted the marshland and allowed it to be eaten away by the Gulf’s saltwater. A new levee, currently under construction to protect the small towns along the coast from storm surge, will skip Isle de Jean Charles. The island and its residents have been abandoned by the state of Louisiana.Oil pipelines began cutting up the land in the early 1900’s. The Gulf Oil spill is coating the islands vegetation with crude and chemical dispersants; killing off what is holding the island together and further accelerating erosion.Both the US government and multinational corporations have posed constantthreats to the island through a series of decisions that reflect a callousoblivion or apathy toward its existence. The following images of the islandillustrate a reckoning with one’s place in the world.

NYC Street Graphis

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:35:39 +0000

I enjoy going into the city to take pictures. I especially enjoy observing people in an urban environment. One thing I find so prevalent in New York City is a visual environment of consumer advertising. This series grew out of exploring the multiple exposures feature on my camera. With this I was able to double expose people with the visual environment of the city. I noticed through these photographs the juxtapositions recorded between people and the advertising patina spread out through Manhattan as a critique of our urban visual environment. As I look at these photographs I see that the people are disconnected from the ads which are exquisitely posed with our cultural idealisms while not exposing us to any of today\'s realities like obesity, aging, or the electro isolation electronic toys are creating.

The Red Playground

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:33:38 +0000

20 years ago, Ecology Professor Chris Dickman arrived in the Simpson Desert. He planned to spend five or six years researching the patterns, distributions and abundances of small mammals and reptiles in the area before moving onto another site. After two decades, the University of Sydney’s Desert Ecology Research Group (DERG), of which Dickman is director, shows no sign of slowing down, or moving on.The team, made up of Professors, students and volunteers, leave Sydney to travel 2000 kilometres North West four times a year. They stay for three weeks.Once there, days start early. Everyone is up with the sun, having breakfast. In the summer months, they sometimes beat it. First stop is usually checking pitfall traps, followed by processing the small mammals and reptiles. Lunch isn\'t far behind. Afternoons can be filled with anything from predator tracking to vegetation surveys. When the sun sinks in the sky, the fire brings everyone together for dinner and late night discussions. There is also always the option to go spotlighting for predators. When the coals grow dim, it\'s time to roll out the swag, grab some sleep and do it all again the next day.

Over my dead father

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:06:16 +0000

Here is my family, father, aunt and grandmother. All three living in the same house since forever. A house where time has warped. Lost amidst these walls impregnated with fading memories, I take a look from the inside in order to understand and remember what where once these people to me. It is also trying to understand what path lead their life to this present situation.Grandma has lost all memory and mobility due to Alzheimer disease. Her daughter never left the house and is now taking full responsibility of her. My father facing trouble with alcoholism and bipolar disorder went back to live with them since has long has I can remember. The house that was once their shelter as caged them, leaving them with a gradual lost of will to live.I try trough photography to understand what motivation is left in these people that are close family but at the same time strangers to me. This project is trying to bring back memories, create memories and stop time in the same way their communal living has tried to stop it. Caught in the same patterns every photography are like looking back at me.

One

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:59:46 +0000

The project rises around that intimate relationship which ties the loneliness of the gaze to the act of contemplation, a process which emotionally sees how melancholy weaves a thread between the observer and that which is observed. The selected location where my gaze experiences this empathic exchange relationship is may native land, which carries in its landscapes and in its way of being an island my own way of facing the outside world and relating to others in my everyday life.Feeling lonely hanging in the everlasting balance of “remembering the future”.Living loneliness not in its usual negative meaning, but as a longing for life and connection with the world.

Aylesbury Estate: talking about a regeneration

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:25:51 +0000

The Aylesbury Estate in South London is known as the largest housing estate in the UK, accommodating 2,700 households. Built in the 1960s and 1970s, it declined through the 1980s, with residents facing high crime prevalence and considerable social disadvantage. Since the late 1990s, the Southwark Council has planned the Estate’s demolition and regeneration.However, this regeneration has created strong opposition from the residents, as many of them would rather like the buildings to be restored in order to keep their current life, their friends and family connections with the area. By spending time with Aylesbury residents, I have tried to demonstrate concern and empathy for the subject as a photographer, and embrace their cause and opinions.

Hidden People

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:20:06 +0000

To what extent are you gone when you’re gone? When dead takes us away we dissapear but what will happen with everything that surrounds us in life. Every visible trace of our lives that says; I was here.Hidden people is about saving stuff from are deseased loved ones and how these things are saved. Things which contains the memories of our deseased loved ones. Hidden people ask the question to what extent you are gone when you’re gone.

traces

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:05:33 +0000

A Disappearing Sea

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:04:15 +0000

A disappearing seaUntil the 1970s the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, now only ten percent remains. Efforts to save the Northern Aral Sea in Kazakhstan have prevented the larger Southern Aral Sea from receiving any water supply, as it is still shrinking.The irreversible consequences of this evaporation have affected all aspects of life in the entire region. These include an extreme climate change due to the desertification of the land and a wide range of emerging health issues, all affecting a society in which people have difficulties enough adjusting to and surviving the post-Soviet Union structure.

Eight Years Under a Rainbow

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:02:13 +0000

Christian Hip-Hop

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:56:39 +0000

Christian Hip-Hop(Darmstadt,Germany July - Semtember 2010)With Hip-Hop, Rap, and Reggaeton is how Irlandy a priest of a Christian Church in Darmstadt Germany, along with his two also Christian companions, give the message of their religion and their God, in a not very peculiar ‘religion’ way.  The group is formed by two Cuban pastors and a Spanish student of theology. the group was mainly created thinking about young people getting closer to their religion, and that is why they don’t really care about people’s criticism about their way of working in the group, a Hip-Hop group.. In their worship and preaching they wear suit and tie, but while making music on stage they wear baseball caps, jerseys and camouflaged baggy pants. But in both places, church and stage, they talk about God, prayers and messages about their religion, but right now they do it only in Spanish for Spanish speakers.Anyway they are planning to do their job in other languages like German and English so that more people get to know them and follow them, as well as their music and messages.Making Hip-Hop is how they want to make their religion more powerful.©Irving Villegas

Traces of a Recurring Dream

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:45:12 +0000

construction

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:43:46 +0000

vegetable study

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:34:15 +0000

Vanishing Shanghai

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:30:49 +0000

These images focus on an area in central Shanghai known as Old Town. A small part of this community will be preserved, while the majority is due to be demolished. The Chinese government favors high-rise buildings and modern architecture over this historic settlement. Old Town is the oldest community in the city of Shanghai. The people that live here, live a life that will forever be altered when they are forced to move out of their community. These images focus on the energy of the people and their traditional lifestyle.

Take a walk from Dam square to Station square!

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:16:03 +0000

Losjes en Blosjes

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:01:27 +0000

Holland\’s Dream Dies

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:00:43 +0000

What started out as a big, bright carnival of orange bodies in the sunlight of Amersfort town square became a long drawn-out wait for Dutch goals that never came.Hard tackles and poor decisions culminated in a pivotal sending off in extra time. Holland\'s world cup dream hung in the balance and on the shoulders of 10 men, watched by the video-lit faces of the crowd in Amersfort.They wouldn\'t have to wait long. A single Spanish goal killed them off.For some in the crowd the party was over before the game had even started.

Carpe Diem

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:56:29 +0000

Nomadic Communites

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:53:01 +0000

Kolbeliya-.Bawariya-Banjara : Nomad communities - RajasthanThe Indian nomad communities have had an important role until the mid 1800s, when a British law rendered them illegal.Tiger hunters, snake charmers, animal merchants, musicians, are only some of the roles of each gimpsy community.India is the cradle of the nomad culture and during the centuries, the wandering mentality pushed these communities toward West, until they reached Europe.In Rajasthan, near the town of Alwar, outside of the town centers, you can find some of the communities that in past centuries have crossed India.The current law, although it does not consider them illegal, force any Indian citizen to have an address, a residence, which has forced the tribes to in part give up their nomad nature.The Kolbeliya to the East of Alwar, the Bawariya South West and even further South, the Banjara, are part of a project for the re-evaluation of the cultural heritage, targeting both the young people of these people and the Western Indian communities.The Chinh association, founded by two Indian filmmakers, has been managing this project for years.Short and long documentaries filmed by them, have received International Awards and opportunities for the nomad world.

Children at protest rallies

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:49:02 +0000

There are these invariable questions which come to my mind every time I see children taking part in protest rallies and manifestations : is it legitimate on the part of parents to bring their children to manifestations? Is there not a certain politicization of children at work ? Is it really necessary to give them a bitter taste of life at such tender ages ? Are children mature enough to comprehend the grave situations at hand ? If not , would they not be better off studying at school or playing out in the field ?A collection of photographs from France and India,ranging from separatist movement marches in north Bengal and South India to protests against Israel and China as well as the present ruling government in France.

Nightdriver

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:47:13 +0000

The planet, my home

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:37:16 +0000

The photo\'s tell the story of people in Cambodia and Guatemala.It is a story about development in the third world.War, abuse and diseases are pushing the people more in poverty.In contrast there is a strong culture and a diverse natural heritage.I am Cas Janssens, photographer for Caluna-world.For this occasion I added a poem from Zabrisky...Walking through your village...I am walking through your village,it is raining in my eyes,which will never dry again.In my teardrops the sun is shining,this is the true source...I am walking though your village,you have pain to be there.You are waiting for the night...Who had did that in mind?Hope is not for sale...I am walking though your village,lost paradise,just another trip.People are in love,they touch the other,for himself...

Cyclone survivors of Bangladesh

alrik — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:19:05 +0000

“we’ve been waiting here six hours for water but still nobody arrived with waters” said Nazma begum around 50 of Shamnagar showing hes empty water jar. She said again “we had everything just before three days ago but only within 15-20 minutes devastation of cyclone we become pauper. Now we don’t even have place to bury the dead bodies”. She added “we haven’t eaten anything for two days & we don’t know how long we can survive without any food & water”. It has become a common and familiar scene in the affected areas that people have been waiting in the streets in queues for food and water. At least 275 people have been killed and millions have been displaced by cyclone Aila, which hit parts of coastal Bangladesh and eastern India on May 25th 2009 . Shyamnagar Upazila, an area of Bangladesh's Satkhira district that has seen some of the worst damage. The cylone triggered tidal surges and severe flooding. Several thousand homes in the area were washed away while agricultural land was swamped. More than 500 shrimp farms were flooded by five to seven feet high tidal surges in the affected area. Aid agencies are warning that a lack of food and clean drinking water could lead to many more deaths These peoples lost everything literally in recent cyclone hits which destroys all the necessary belongings of life. Now the status of their life is most vulnerable. They are crawling to life with all their strength of soul .Even though they are smashed & destroyed heavily but still they are unbeaten like a real survival of the fittest.

Pim by Ted

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:16:05 +0000

Wu Xing

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:14:08 +0000

Wu XingThis project was inspired by Wu Xing Chinese traditional fields, sometimes translated as five “Elements” or five “Phases”. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water are essential parts of the phenomenon, which is described by the Wu Xing system.The system is based on two cycles that are opposite to each other and are described as creation and its opposition – destruction. All together there are 15 interactions of the elements and these phases flow in order, like Wood feeds Fire; Fire creates Earth (ash), Earth bears Metal etc.This time my vision for this project was to translate all the stages of cycles in to today’s world. With help of people, nature, locations, colours, emotions and light each image is a representation of all stages or relationship within the cycle. Everything you see in the image is very symbolic and is related to certain individual characteristics of each element. Just like every symbol has its own colour, energy, season, development stage, emotions and stage of life, the building blocks for each image have been put together influenced by model’s age, chosen location, qualities of the materials - everything is for a reason and nothing is included by accident…Generating1.Wood feeds Fire2.Fire creates Earth3.Earth bears Metal4.Metal carries Water5.Water nourishes WoodOvercoming6.Wood parts Earth7.Earth absorbs Water8.Water quenches Fire9.Fire melts Metal10.Metal chops Wood11.Wood absorbs Water12.Water rusts Metal13.Metal breaks up Earth14.Earth smothers Fire15.Fire burns Wood

The beach

alrik — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:13:46 +0000

Set along the coastline that borders the fading amusement parks of New York's Coney Island, The Beach is, at first glance, a series of portraits of the people who flock to these shores seeking respite from crowded apartments and sweltering city streets. A colorful wonderland on a hazy summer afternoon, Coney Island is an escapist's dreamworld as it is simultaneously gritty and urban and real. All but forgotten by those who can afford to vacation elsewhere, the landscape and character of this beach are threatened by development and ignored in debates about blight and eminent domain. But stop by any Saturday in August. This is no graveyard for lost dreams- the beach is vibrant and alive. The kindness and generosity I encountered as I walked along the shore was overwhelming. I was invited onto towels and blankets and offered endless amounts of food and beer. In a city where we must be guarded and private and competitive to survive, the beach stands in my memory as an ephemeral paradise of sharing and warmth. Everything dies, summer fades into autumn, and soon we will barricade ourselves against cold and wind in our cozy little bunkers, but the beach will live in my heart forever.

Bratronice

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:09:52 +0000

Bratronice is a small manor house in Czech Republic where nobles Battaglias lived. They were poor and disliked by communist regime throughout their live. People called them barons on bicycles, they were riding everyday more then 40 kilometres back and forward to work. Siblings Blanka and Christian Battaglias were well educated people but they had to do jobs like grave digger. They let their home stay in layers of dust and damaged, afraid if it would look nice it will be taken from them by government.

PHOTOGRAPHY AS VISUAL ART

alrik — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:58:23 +0000

Soldier

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:57:15 +0000

Soldier The series \'Soldier\' is a Photo story that is based on a comic strip. It shows brutality and crime in a typical noir style where the viewer is forced to take an instant dislike to the Soldier, a personality of contradictions. This first impression gets shaked of the crime that is committed unexpectedly and questions arise because of the unknown background of this criminal act. As the pictures don\'t give any answers it\'s up to the viewer to make up his mind and try to complete the story on his own. As the story, the visual style is also adopted from noir. A low-key that is very little colored with the attention on hard contrasts. The whole scenery is with the blowing wind and falling snow, very romantic to get the viewers feelings involved to the happenings.

Playing Children

alrik — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:39:57 +0000

Children are one of my favorite subject. I have seen them. Children from the family of Lower Middle Class, Children from the family Below Poverty Line, they have nothing to read, none to listen and they are like to play all the time in all places. They need not a refry to whistle for stopping there match. There is no boundary at their field. They are with full of energy to play all the time.My frames are showing some of them and their energy.

Belarus: A Fleeting Glimpse

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:33:36 +0000

Belarus is a country in transition in the heart of Europe that still is, to a certain extent, adopting socialistic means of production and wealth distribution, in accordance with the former USSR model, the so-called \"last dictatorship in Europe\" (to quote Condoleeza Rice). The love-hate relationship between Belarus and mother Russia heats up at times as Belarus holds a special geopolitical position, an energy road between Russia and the West. Belarus is Belarus, a rather isolated, flat-terrained, landlocked but otherwise stranger-friendly place.

Transformação

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:31:58 +0000

I am concerned with the change of traditional gender roles. The importance of the sex as the main identity marker. Differ male gestures realy from female gestures? If yes, how and why? The definition of a man or woman beyond the sex is changing, it almost seems to blend.In my work I am playing with the perception of sex and gender and from what this perception is affected by.The series “Transformação” consists of seven portraits of the female members of the stone workshop at the Faculdade de Belas Artes, Lisboa. During a period of eight weeks I took portraits of the women, each time some minutes after the course has ended before their bodys could recover from the manual labour.Karolin Klüppel

Ivan and The Moon

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:31:35 +0000

Ivan is the elder, he is 16.Andrey, nicknamed “Moon”, is the younger, 14 by now.Two brothers live in a far located village in the northern part of Russia. They differ from city teenagers a lot - have completely other moral values and fairy tale world inside: go hunting and fishing, know joiner\'s chisel, play with ghosts at abandoned places, do not want to move to a city, love nature (I have never heard from city boys words like: “Look! The sunset is so beautiful tonight!”)...Mature and childish at the same time. Naive and enigmatic.In this ongoing project I want to show the mysteriousness of these brothers world.

You looking at me looking at you

alrik — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:22:11 +0000

We(sterners) have been conditioned over centuries on how to imagine India. Through visual representation we have been & continue to be shown the form in which to gaze at this other, never taking into account how these characters wish to represent themselves. Often, we believe a portrait is some profound window looking into a person's being, when really, it's just you looking at me looking at you. Sometimes by pointing out similarities, we can then begin to notice the differences. Even the most deeply buried nuances...

Pole Art

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:19:56 +0000

Pole dance as a performing art originated from Indian tribes (as early as the 12th century) and Chinese circus performers. At the time, these pole artists were all men. Now women are coming forward and performing the same incredible tricks, one wrongly assumes it must always be a cry for male attention. Of course for some it may be, but by no means all.Like many people, I used to believe that pole dance was solely for the purpose of entertaining male clientele in a strip club, until I saw pole acts by two of the world’s greatest pole performers. Never before had I seen anyone move with such grace, strength and power. These women projected confidence, elegance and class in a way I had not seen before. I had to discover for myself just how much dedication it really took to execute these moves. I want to open people’s minds, let them see that this is a performing art and break down the outdated stereotype and stigma attached to this beautiful art.A stripper dances to entice, a pole artist dances to amaze.

I’ll Die For You

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:13:45 +0000

Hindu scriptures say a person who commits suicide becomes part of the spirit world, wandering the earth until he/she would have normally died.Over the past decade, more than 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in India. Many had borrowed money through government lending schemes or private lenders to plant more efficient crops but could not pay off their debts due to persistent crop failure. Due to the extremely fast transition India has undergone -- from a rural to an industrial, urban society with an open market -- farmers have been confronted by immense social and economic strains. Challenged by globalization, which has opened the market to foreign produce sold cheaper than locally produced crops and unpredictable weather patterns ascribed to global warming, farmers in India have been unable to cope with the immense pressure. “I\'ll Die For You” focuses on the bond between the people and the land, symbolically reflected in the texture of the skin of the farmers juxtaposed against details from the landscape to show in this environment the land and its inhabitants are one and the same: When one dies, so does the other. The work also focuses on the idea of emotional loss seen through the women left behind.

The shadows of Budapest

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:08:55 +0000