 Your new post is loading...
The people captured in “Living Periferia” live with it every day of their lives. The violence, the drugs, the weapons, the lost bullets, which take dozens of lives every year… The fights, the battles with the police. Some barely escape. Others fall in the street law and to save them from oblivion their friends and family draw enormous pictures of them on the walls of the shantytown. It’s a posthumous tribute to their courage, their way to remember them as local heroes. This work dives in a forgotten world, where many times not even mailmen are allowed in. It’s a world that goes beyond poverty. Wide ghettos in the further corners of Santiago where the State has managed for years to dump what they would rather not see. What investments must never see. What rich people should better keep ignoring. Chile is now one of the richest countries in South America. The government celebrates the 4.4% economical growth in the last year and everyone claps when they say the international crisis hasn’t reached yet. But no one looks at this face of Chile when they receive the applauses. Derelict that generates more derelict. Violence that generates more violence. The toughest and more efficient school of crime. A society inside the society whit their own codes and mechanics that result inconceivable for the rest of the world. The order inside the chaos, where only the one who yells louder, the one who hits harder or the one who shoots faster can emerge. Or survive. These photos are a personal puzzle about fragmented social representations. The foreign eyes of someone that, of all the going round, ended up being a local. But who’s look reflects the beauty of an ugly and shocking world to the eyes of whom looks from across the street.
"This journey across Ethiopia traces the origination of coffee that goes back to the thirteenth century. Legend says that a herder named Kaldi noticed his goats “dancing” after nibbling bright red berries. Kaldi brought the berries to a nearby monastery where holy men declared they must be the work of the devil and threw them into a fire. Yet, the aroma was too tempting and they quickly raked the roasted beans from the embers, ground them up, and dissolved them in hot water, yielding the world’s first cup of coffee." - Ami Vitale
"Ninety miles from America and roughly the size of Pennsylvania the totalitarian communist state of Cuba is home to more than eleven million people. A multiracial society with a population of mainly Spanish origins and Catholic faith, Cuba boasts one of the best health care systems in the world with the average life expectancy comparable to the UK while it's average monthly salary is only $20.00. Prolonged austerity and the state controlled economy's insufficiency in providing adequate services and goods have forced an estimated 40% of Cubans to turn to the black market in order to obtain necessary clothing, food and household items. Historically, Cuban law subordinates it's people from freedom of movement, speech, assembly and the press. However, efforts by the government for economic and social reform have recently loosened some of the constraints on travel, real estate and business creating a mixture of excitement and trepidation in the Cuban people." - Susi Eggenberger
Kyoko Hamada’s Self Portraits Imagine What Her Life Will be Like in 30 Years "When I first tried on her gray wig, the latex makeup, and her clothes, I gazed at the mirror for a long time. My initial reaction was to chuckle, but I started feeling a little uneasy soon after. The wrinkled face staring back at me resembled my own with thirty-plus years added to it. When I smiled, she smiled back at me. When I pouted, she pouted too." "It was the first time I had met her, but she was simultaneously someone I already knew quite well and someone I knew nothing about. It has been a year and half since I started photographing Kikuchiyo-san and I have gotten used to dressing up as her. However, when I think of what could happen if we ran into each other in a crowded train station or during a walk in the park, I get uneasy imagining her say, “I used to be you.”—Kyoko Hamada
These images were taken by American photographer Steven Brahms, for his project titled “The Evasion Studies”. Simply put they are dramatic run-for-your-life style portraits in rather unfavourable everyday places. A very simple idea and beautifully executed. In recent news Steven was one of the 2012 recipients of the Aaron Siskind Foundation — Individual Photographer’s Fellowship. Check out his work, it’s all gold.
Brick Lane is a street in East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of Osborn Street. Today, it is the heart of the city's Bangladeshi-Sylheti community and is known to some as Banglatown. It is famous for its many curry houses and the graffiti's artists. The French photographer Serge Bouvet stayed 3 hours in this street to shoot the lovely pedestrians.
Miguel Ángel Sánchez traveled in 2012 with his studio to Ulu Pamir, Turkey, a far place in the middle of Turkish Kurdistan, hidden between mountains with very hard winters and connected by a tortuous path to Van Lake. 30 years ago, this land was the witness of the arrival of a group of unusual people with unusual features. These people, originally from Kyrgyzstan, came walking from far away, from Pamir, with the promise of a better and safer life hosted by the Turkish government, avoiding the war with USSR. 30 years later, people from this place fight against the government´s abandonment and harassment of the PKK guerrilla warfare. Miguel Ángel portrayed the inhabitants from this small village and their will to preserve their roots and traditions despite being far away from their original land.
David Alan Harvey is a Magnum Photographer based in New York City. He has published three major books, Cuba, Divided Soul and Living Proof. He is publisher and editor of BURN Magazine. "I have two aspects to my work. One is that I'm a magazine photographer, by trade, by profession, by career. In that sense, I'm trying to communicate things to viewers—readers of a magazine, but namely National Geographic, because they probably are not going to go to these places. So there's a basic desire just to communicate on a basic level. Then there's another side, where I'm trying to communicate on a more subliminal level with the subtleties of light, moment, and emotional experience."- Alan Harvey
"Les égouts ne sont pas réputés pour leur convivialité, mais en Asie du Sud, leur contenu est une invitation aux plus dégourdis. Personne ne prête attention à cette poignée d'hommes crottés de la tête aux pieds, mais c'est pourtant de l'or qu'ils cherchent. De la poussière d'or que des joailliers trop pressés évacuent avec leurs eaux usées. Pas de quoi ameuter les foules, mais suffisamment pour faire vivre quelques familles bengalies. Tous les matins, ils profitent que les rues soient désertes pour faire vomir les canalisations. Ils écument méticuleusement les boues avant d'en extraire l'or à l'abri des regards indiscrets.
Dhaka s'est endormie, ventre à l'air. La grande malade de l'Asie du Sud a péniblement trouvé le sommeil. Tous ses enfants l'ont rejoint, mais cette nuit, il fait si chaud que les sans abris sont encore les mieux lotis. Recroquevillés sous les jupons de la ville-mère, ils profitent des deux heures d'accalmie qui précèdent l'appel à la prière pour s'enfoncer dans un coin de trottoir moelleux. Dhaka transpire et pour cette nuit sans électricité, mieux vaut être dehors sous la caresse d'une brise moite que dans une chambre aveugle sous un ventilateur inanimé. " - ©ZEPPELIN
Magnum is probably the most famous photo agency in the world. Even if you haven't heard of it, chances are you're familiar with its images, be they Robert Capa's coverage of the Spanish Civil War, Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl or Martin Parr's very British holiday-scapes. Unlike most agencies, Magnum's members are selected by the other photographers in the agency, which, given they're the greatest photo agency in the world, means that becoming a member is a pretty grueling process. As part of an ongoing partnership with Magnum, we will be profiling some of their photographers over the coming weeks. First up is Christopher Anderson, who became a Magnum nominee in 2005 and was a full member by 2010. His early work on Haitian immigrants' illegal journey to America—during which he and they sank in the Caribbean Sea in a handmade wooden boat named Believe in God—won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal. And last year, we produced an episode of Picture Perfect about him.
"Too many people. Too little space. With every passing second, there are more and more of us. By the year 2050, the global population is expected to pass nine billion people, a significant increase from the six-and-a-half billion today. In the Philippines, they are already running out of space. The capital of Manila is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world." - Mads Nissen
Carnival in Guaranda, Ecuador, is not what it used to be. Hundreds of years ago, there were no techno-cumbia stars. There were just the haves and have-nots. The haves being the hacienda owners and the have-nots being the indigenous people who worked the land, or slaves. The hacienda owner, called the Taitico, was given camaris, by all the indigenous people, who were lucky enough to use “his” land. Camaris were offerings of corn, animals, milk, and other food products. The Taitico would bring the camaris down to the square and supply alcohol for everyone to get drunk and wash away their sorrows. During the festivities the natives, or Guarangas, used this opportunity to practice their ancient agricultural rituals. It was the second moon of the year, the coming of spring, or Capac Raymi. The time had come to give thanks to the land and ask for a successful harvest in the upcoming year. - Ivan Kashinsky
Announced last week, Al Jazeera English has now premiered its new 6-episode series on Artscape, titled The New African Photography, which documents changes across the continent through the eyes of its photographers, in an effort to "take back control" of images of Africa with more nuanced, varied depictions of the continent, instead of the extremes we often get. Expect nods to pioneers like Malick Sidibé and autodidact Seydou Keïta. The first of six episodes (one of which was executive produced by Viva Riva director Djo Munga) premiered onApril 22, and is available to watch online. Titled Invisible Borders, I've embedded it below for you to check out. It's 25 minutes long.
|
"From 1975 to 2002, war was a part of daily life for the people living in the rich African country of Angola. The beaten orange paths that zigzagged across the territory represented the displacement of more than twenty-percent of the population who had to leave their villages for government-controlled towns. Much of the population was unable to feed themselves while those that lived from the rich oil resources experienced a very different life. They were two worlds living uneasily side by side."- Ami Vitale
“FOUND is a curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives. In honor of our 125th anniversary, we are showcasing photographs that reveal cultures and moments of the past. Many of these photos have never been published and are rarely seen by the public. We hope to bring new life to these images by sharing them with audiences far and wide. Their beauty has been lost to the outside world for years and many of the images are missing their original date or location. This is just the beginning of a great adventure. We will be adding new voices, stories, and artifacts as we go. We look forward to sharing this experience with everyone, and hope you make FOUND your home for inspiration and wonder.”
"Christ’s Hospital is one of the oldest schools in the country, they still wear Tudor uniforms and yellow socks. They also have the biggest number of free/subsidised places, which are given to kids from London, as the school was originallyunder the juristrisction of the City of London."- Martin Parr
The Asian presence in Catalonia goes back to the last third of the 19thcentury when a small group of Filipinos lived in Barcelona. Apart from a few isolated incidents, the Asian presence was not really visible to the general society until the second half of the 90s when, on par with the global trend of foreign immigrants, their number increased significantly. F rom the end of 1996 until June 2004, for example, the Asian population in Catalonia increased threefold. However, if you count those actually coming from Asia there are only 99.454 people out of a total of 1.097.966 immigrants living in Catalonia, almost 10 per cent of the whole (IDESCAT, 2008). Even with these figures, it is not easy to determine the exact number of immigrants in Catalonia as the statistics published by the official sources do not take into account the anomalous situation of many immigrants. The Chinese, the Pakistani, the Indian and the Philippine (in this order) are the most numerous communities and those that have significant establishments.- Mikel Aristregi
"From humble beginnings fifty years ago, when men from Pakistan and India arrived to take up factory jobs in England, the Muslim community has grown to become a significant force in the British society.
Today, generations of Muslims live happily as British citizens, study and working side-by-side with the whites. Yet harmony is being eroded by terrorism and a growing siege mentality. In the impoverished north, where crumbled textile factories stand as stark reminders of better days, Muslims confine themselves to bleak, isolated quarters." - Justin Jin
Commissioned by M Magazine of Holland.
The work of Wassim Ghozlani takes the form of round images 40cm in diameter, the size of a Do Not Enter sign, which he imitates in his photographs by dressing women in red burqas and barring their eyes with a white headband, evoking their loss of sight and limited access to knowledge. This virulent series is matched by the work of eight women artists questioning their status, Patricia Triki and Héla Ammar at the White Box, as well as Amel Ben Attia, Nicène Kossentini and Mouna Jemal Siala at the Fiaf gallery.
Hip hop, which first began on the streets of the South Bronx in the early 1970s, has traveled the globe, finding a home in every corner of the planet. Remade by local cultures in their own language and regional style, hip hop's versatility speaks to its accessibility and universality. The lyrics, the look, and the lifestyle could easily be a cultural anthropologist's best example-or worst nightmare-of America's influence and cultural dominance.
In 2005, Magnum Photographer David Alan Harvey began photographing local emcees in the Bronx River Projects, home of hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, whose legendary Zulu Nation parties of the 70s inspired a new generation of b-boys and b-girls. It is their descendants that Harvey has captured in Living Proof, a glimpse into hip hop in its many forms.
Boogie Down thugs Uptown and Ruckus, unsigned artists whose lyrics are presented here, became Harvey's trusted friends and self-appointed guides, bringing him inside their homes, their families, and their lives. Harvey soon realized that the code of the streets would bring one of three fates: jail, death, or success. And so he traveled from the ''hood" to Hollywood, gaining access to Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Nelly-artists who went through the system and came out kings. Keepin' it real becomes a little surreal when gold records and semi-automatics mix like gin and tonics.
Going global to document the regional manifestations of a culture a mere three decades in existence, Harvey discovered conversations with DAM in East Jerusalem sounded just like the ramble with Uptown and Ruckus. Hip hop, for all its pop-pop-pop, for all it's and ya don't stop, for all its rise to the top, has always been about speaking to the guy on the corner and the girl at the club-because skills and styls come from a hard love.
Graham Miller is an Australian photographer based in Fremantle whose work is included in international and national collections. Austrailian-based photographer Graham Miller combines constructed portraits, documentary street portraits, landscapes and still lifes in a series named after the 1992 Leonard Cohen song, Waiting for the Miracle. Miller explores narratives created through the interplay of these images and the connections made between them. While this results in an open ended and ambiguous experience, the images seem to hold compelling stories within the fictional coastal town Miller has constructed. Miller echoes the words of photographer Robert Adams in his statement, speaking of the young protagonists that “cling precariously but tenaciously to a sense of possibility, hope, and resolve.”
"Conventional prisons are secured by thick walls, barbed wire and guards. The prisoners are locked away for 23 hours a day. Bastoey, an island in the Oslo-fjord in Norway, is a prison without walls and fences. Maybe it is the most liberal and ecological prison in the world. On the island you don't make out the prison at first sight. Murderers, paedophiles and other criminals live here together in shared apartments. They work in the island’s forest, with animals and on the fields. Even more the prisoners have an own beach. The images of Espen Eichhoefer show the daily routine of the detainees and deliver insight in probably the most beautiful prison of the world."- Espen Eichhöfer
Out of all the clever photo hacks we’ve seen, this one may be the most creative. Johnny Tergo, a Los Angeles photographer, has built an over-the-top camera and lighting setup in his Chevy Silverado that he uses to take studio-quality portraits of pedestrians. The photos document moments that can’t be shot any other way. Try lugging studio lights down the street and capturing the same scenes. Tergo, 35, says he commutes a lot as a freelancer he wanted to exploit his time behind the wheel. “What I’ve tried to do is bring the studio lighting aspect to everyday real life on the streets,” he says. Inside the truck on the passenger side, Tergo bolted a platform that holds a Canon 1D Mark IV with a 16-35 mm lens, a computer, an iPad mini and a studio light. Outside near the tailgate he’s attached a second studio light and reflector to a boom that extends 10 feet above the ground. Two gas generators in the bed of the truck pump out 4,000 watts for the lights, including a third that’s rigged under the bumper (photos of his setup are included at the end of the gallery). As Tergo drives in neighborhoods with high foot traffic, he sets his exposure using an app called Capture Pilot on the iPad mini. He also adjusts the strobes for the ambient light using the strobe controls positioned in the cab. When he spots a subject, he drives around the block while he frames up the shot. He’s learned a few tricks to get the best results. He leads moving subjects by pulling forward slightly, waiting for them to enter the frame. He’s also not above honking the horn and pretending to be angry with another driver to get people to look toward the camera. The whole apparatus is triggered with a PocketWizard. Images are sent to Tergo’s dash-mounted iPhone via on-board wifi so he can review them. If he likes the photo he moves on. If not he tries to get another frame off before the subject figures out what’s going on. He says on a normal day he takes between 40 and 50 pictures with about five that are actually usable. Some people are not so stoked to get their photo taken without consent. Tergo says there’s been a lot of yelling. “A lot of people think I’m up to something nefarious,” he says. “But there have also been a couple times where someone has been really cool and I’ve pulled over and explained what I was doing.” Tergo wants to add a second truck and more lights to the mix. Ideally, he’d have the extra truck pull up somewhere off to the side or behind the subject so it could uses it’s flashes as a rim light, which would help define the body of the person in the frame. “I enjoy the rigging as much as the image making and anything that I find that will take it to the next level, I add it,” he says. “I don’t want to stop with good enough, I want it to be awesome.”
"The number of churches in the Democratic Republic of Congo is growing on a daily basis. Most of them are revival churches, led by Congolese men who acclaim being priests and prophets. In return for money, they perform exorcisms on 'bewitched' children, to heal them from evil spirits. - he number of churches in the Democratic Republic of Congo is growing on a daily basis. Most of them are revival churches, led by Congolese men who acclaim being priests and prophets. In return for money, they perform exorcisms on 'bewitched' children, to heal them from evil spirits."- Ilvy Njiokiktjien Ilvy Njiokiktjien is an independent photographer and multimedia journalist based in the Netherlands. She has worked in many parts of the world, with a focus on Africa.
Gaijin is a japanese word meaning "the foreigner" «For a Swiss, I am a Japanese and for a Japanese I am a Swiss or rather a gaijin.» My name is David "Takashi" Favrod. I was born on the 2nd of July 1982 in Kobe, Japan, of a Japanese mother and a Swiss father. When I was 6 months old, my parents decided to come and live in Switzerland, more precisely in Vionnaz, a little village in lower Valais. As my father had to travel for his work a lot, I was mainly brought up by my mother who taught me her principles and her culture. When I was 18, I asked for double nationality at the Japanese embassy, but they refused, because it is only given to Japanese women who wish to obtain their husband’s nationality.
It is from this feeling of rejection and also from a desire to prove that I am as Japanese as I am Swiss that this work was created. “Gaijin” is a fictional narrative, a tool for my quest for identity, where self-portraits imply an intimate and solitary relationship that I have with myself. The mirror image is frozen in a figurative alter ego that serves as an anchor point.The aim of this work is to create “my own Japan”, in Switzerland, from memories of my journeys when I was small, my mother’s stories, popular and traditional culture and my grandparents war narratives.- David Favrod
|
