biloxi, mississippi © daniel cima
MetroCollective’s Daniel Cima will be returning to the Gulf Coast tomorrow to continue his project documenting the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina as well as the aftermath of the BP oil spill.
lower manhattan sunrise - february 2 © j carrier
J Carrier would like to announce that after 15 months working in the Middle East, and nearly five years before that working in Africa, he is now based in New York City.
He is also excited to announce that he will begin an MFA in photography this summer at the University of Hartford. After navigating the wilds of the world, J is eager to investigate new directions in photography, challenge his work and strengthen his understanding of the art and theory of the craft and is also looking forward to the opportunity to work with the great photographers at the Hartford Art School including the Director Robert Lyons, Professors Alec Soth and Doug Dubois and lecturer Adam Bartos.
The program is geared towards the engaged professional and is limited residency so when class is not in session, J will be working on his thesis projects, which will periodically take him back to Africa and the Middle East.
During this time J will still be accepting commissions and assignments.
“Mission to Vietnam” via Blurb © michael bonfigli
Michael Bonfigli’s new book Mission to Vietnam is now available on Blurb.
Bonfigli was invited to Hanoi last year to document the work of a friend who performs a variety of facial reconstruction surgeries on children at the Hanoi Pediatric Hospital. This was a very personal project for Michael whose own son was born with a cleft lip.
Proceeds from the book go to the non-profit group Smile Train
seed school lottery © michael bonfigli
Michael Bonfligli recently photographed the SEED Foundation lottery. SEED schools are college-preparatory boarding schools that serve underserved communities providing an academically rigorous middle and high school option to urban families. But, as public schools, SEED schools may not choose their students and to determine enrollment, each school holds an annual lottery where the wheels of luck determine who will be given the chance of a lifetime - the chance at a quality education and a better life.
This SEED school in SW DC will be featured in “Waiting for Superman” an upcoming documentary by David Guggenheim, director of “An Inconvenient Truth”.
young bedouin © j carrier
I was photographing a quarry yard in the West Bank when this young Bedouin chap came up to see what the hell I was doing. He was a chatty and inquisitive kid, considering how little we could actually communicate. Interestingly, he was smoking a joint. Unfortunately, he was savvy enough not to let it show in the photograph. It would’ve been a nice detail.
I’ve recently started carrying my Hasselblad for portrait opportunities like this, which often seem to pop up when I’m scouting and setting up 4×5 shots. I only wish I had started doing so earlier…
jericho road © j carrier
Out of over 2200 photographs J Carrier’s series No Such Thing was one of ten selected for a choice award in the CENTER awards. The series also made it to the final rounds of judging and top 4% of entries for CENTER’s project launch competition.
From the juror’s statement: “Our selection is unified by a subtle elegance, a delicate humanity, and a sense of mystery, as well as a remarkable clarity of perspective and a high level of craft.”
As a result, two photographs from the series will be part of a CENTER award exhibition at the Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Oregon this September.
Fraction magazine has a nice feature on the CENTER awards where you can check out the winning entries from the Project, Project Launch, Editor, Curator and Director’s Choice competitions.
DC’s H Street © Michael Bonfigli
From Mt. Pleasant Street to H Street, Michael Bonfigli shifts his focus to another of DC’s famous corridors. Inspired by work initially shot for a corporate commission, Bonfigli has begun a new personal project documenting life along the storied NE Washington street.
The neighborhood long suffered blight and economic setbacks after the riots following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1968 assassination but in recent years has experienced a surge in development, leading at times to conflict between the expectations of new residents and the traditions and desires of the old.
Be sure to check back as the story unfolds.
Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan – Ainagul, pictured at age 6, stopped growing when she was three. © Roberth Knoth
Robert Knoth will be exhibiting work from his project Certificate No. 000358 documenting the effects of nuclear contamination in the former Soviet Union at the Festival of Ethical Photography in Lodi, Italy.
The festival is the idea of the Gruppo Fotografico Progetto Immagine supporting the work of independent photography collectives and the relationship between ethics, communication and photography.
© Gabriela Bulisova
Gabriela Bulisova’s exhibition Option of Last Resort: Iraqi Refugees in the United States opens at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts on March 9 and runs through May 30. The opening reception will be on Friday April 9, from 5-9 PM.
For a preview of the exhibition you can check out Gabriela’s feature on the MetroCollective site.
And, she has also created a very powerful multi-media piece for the exhibition that is now showing on MetroCollective’s recently launched Vimeo Channel.
tearsheet image courtesy PDN magazine
J Carrier’s essay from Sudan, “Paradise Lost”, was awarded the Grand Prize in the National Geographic Traveler/PDN World In Focus contest. His images are featured in the current (february) issue of PDN magazine.
Check out his archive to see more photographs from Sudan.
(all images © daniel cima )
Kumbh Mela is a hindu religious festival that is held in the holy town of Haridwar by the River Ganges and is the largest religious gathering in the world taking place once every 12 years.
When I arrived I couldn’t get a press pass so my movement and access to a lot of places were denied by the police and the military as security was high due to terrorist threats. There was a lot of profiling and I was stopped all the time.
At the same time people in the street thought I was Indian (they approached me, kissed my knees and talked to me in Hindi). My travel partner Susana came up with the idea that it would help if I blended in, dressing up as them. I did wear the orange shawl (which also served as an extra layer–it was very cold) and the necklaces but not the face paint. It helped me to get around and also to hide the cameras.
Daniel “blending” in Haridwar © Susana Travieso
Susana and I visited the the Sadhu camps (Akhara) so often that the sadhus recognized us and ended up inviting us to sit with them around the fire so that eventually I didn’t need my special outfit–the atmosphere was friendly and the security relaxed.
I feel I was able to get close enough to them to cover their daily lives and activities–prayers,
processions, dances and chilum smoking (a large pipe they smoke with a mixture of marihuana, hashish and who knows what other herbs).
Photographing the Sadhus and the Naga Sadhus (naked Sadhus covered with ashes) was the main reason to attend the Khumb Mela. But since there was no information available on what was happening everyday the most challenging thing was to find out the “what”, “where” & “when”. On top of that, the rickshaw ride would many times take you to the wrong place. But in the end things would work out.
Pakistan © Antoinette de Jong
Robert Knoth is in Pakistan and is available for commissions.
(© Bill Crandall)
So Viktor Yushchenko, the disfigured hero of the Orange Revolution, is officially out. The next Ukrainian president will be decided in a runoff on Feb. 7 between Yushchenko foes Viktor Yanukovich and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Both support improving ties to Russia.
From a recent Spiegel Online article:
The images [of the Orange Revolution in Kiev] were reminiscent of Prague in 1968, Gdansk in 1980 and Leipzig in 1989. Russia, which had never overcome the loss of Ukraine, a country of 46 million people, was in shock. Europe, on the other hand, was filled with optimism.
Five years later, Ukraine is almost a forgotten country. The victors of that 2004 election, once feted on Independence Square, are now deeply divided, and the country’s political institutions are paralyzed. […] The country itself is broke, only managing to stay afloat with loans from the West.
And the color orange? It isn’t even being used in the current election campaign.
How disappointing, but maybe not surprising. The vibe back in 2004-5 when I was in Kiev for a week was so positive and hopeful (despite being out in the Ukrainian cold all night every night, sleeping during the day in the artist studio belonging to the father-of-a-friend-of-a-friend). Here’s a set of images looking back at when everything seemed possible.
At least my young daughter uses the little orange ‘Yushchenko, Tak!’ scarf I bought on the street there. A quaint antique now.
(© Bill Crandall)
Bill Crandall has photographed Thievery Corporation since their beginnings in the mid-90s, including the cover art for the group’s first two CDs, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi and The Mirror Conspiracy.
Tomorrow Bill will be part of an exhibition/reception marking the start of TC’s five-night concert series at the 930 Club in Washington. If you’re in the area the festivities will be at DC’s Bar Rouge — 1315 16th St., NW.
(Connections Across a Human Planet screenshot © Gabriela Bulisova/Photojournale.com)
“Connections Across a Human Planet” illustrates the common truths that connect the human experience and is represented by photographers from around the world. The book is drawn from an edited anthology of photo documentary and photojournalism stories published on Photojournale’s website.
The narrative of Connections follows the concept of cradle to grave; childhood, education / school, adolescence, work, home, ritual, religion, celebration, sport, art, conflict, aging, sickness, death, mourning and remembrance. It’s an emotional and human journey of images drawn the documentary stories, captured moments or situations from every continent.
The book features photographs from Metro’s Gabriela Bulisova with a foreword by award winning photographer Ami Vitale.
Hardcover or softcover can be purchased from blurb.
Michael Bonfigli photographed a feature on controlling gun violence for the Christian Science Monitor — from the streets of Baltimore.
(”Carnival Queens” 2007 © Scott Dalton)
Congratulations to Scott Dalton recipient of the 2010 Carol Crow Memorial fellowship from the Houston Center for Photography. He will be awarded $2,000 and will have a solo exhibition at HCP from May 7 – June 20, 2010.
(image © Eros Hoagland for the N.Y. Times)
“I think about it all now. About the cross of Saint George and the green-eyed villager’s accusation of crusade. Two cultures colliding in a timeless land.” –– Eros Hoagland
Check out the N.Y. Times blog “At War - Notes from the Front Lines” to read Eros’ harrowing and insightful article Stations of the Cross chronicling some of his last days in Helmand province as he wrapped up a three month stint in Afghanistan this past August.
(image © daniel cima)
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and their families and friends around the world. Certainly, it seems that Haiti will never be the same.
MetroCollective’s Daniel Cima has traveled to Haiti many times over the years and was recently there exploring the country’s raw mysticism. Here is a selection from Cima’s powerful and provocative new series on Voodoo.
And above, a photograph from Cima’s award-winning work on the spiritual cleansing at Saut d’Eau, an annual ritual that brings healing and hope to Haitians.
Cima also recently received an Honorable Mention from the Prix de la Photographie/Px3 for his work in Haiti documenting the tragic struggle of children with Hydrocephalus.
UPDATE: The American Red Cross, through an effort backed by the U.S. State Department, has set up a system by which you can make a $10 donation to support American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti by texting/SMS the word ‘Haiti’ to 90999.
Bill Crandall will be part of the Never Records art exhibition/installation in NY, opening this Friday 1/15 in the former Tower Records space. Here’s the Village Voice blurb, and the event website.
Daniel Cima will be on assignment in India from January 10 until February 15.
(all images © scott dalton)
Congratulations to Scott Dalton, whose book project “Macondo: Journeys in García Márquez’s Colombia” was selected as a PhotoLucida Critical Mass top 50 finalist; the ongoing project was also nominated for this year’s Santa Fe Prize and was a Best of Photojournalism 3rd place Portrait winner in 2007.
Begun in 2006, and photographed on 6×6 format color negative film, Macondo is a beautiful and touching body of work. Inspired by Marquez’s magical realism, these photographs are a lyrical portrait of a Columbia that Dalton calls home, which he has grown to know intimately over the years.
Artist Statement:
“Macondo: Journeys in García Márquez’s Colombia” is a documentary photo project that explores the people and places that inspired the work of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez, author of “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
García Márquez was born and raised in Aracataca, a small town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. For his writing, he drew from his childhood, his hometown, and the people and places nestled along the communities of Colombia’s coastal region, weaving them into a masterwork he titled “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The novel captivated the world and set the standard for the literary genre of magical realism, which has been a potent international force in literature, film, and art ever since.
The setting and centerpiece of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is the fictional town of Macondo. With its surreal charm, it represents the uniqueness of Colombia: eccentric and eclectic, timeless and earthy, a place where truth and fiction, myth and reality merge.
With “Macondo: Journeys in García Márquez’s Colombia,” I am trying to explore these concepts of truth and fiction, myth and reality, to discover how they co-exist and recombine to create and convey a complete sense of identity and place.
García Márquez has consistently said that his characters and stories, although embellished, are based on real people and events and that every town along the Colombian coast contains an aspect of Macondo. With this in mind, I have set out to discover for myself what survives of Macondo in today’s Colombia.
More of Dalton’s poignant and enigmatic Columbia work can be seen at: www.DaltonFoto.com
With an eerie return to Virginia Tech where he covered the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, Hector Emanuel has photographs in the Time Magazine photo-essay on Major Nidal Hasan’s roots in Virginia.
Michael Bonfigli is off to Honduras this week to cover the nation’s upcoming elections for the Christian Science Monitor.
Michael Robinson Chavez has a nice photo-essay (which appears to be medium-format and film) documenting the economic downturn on the L.A. Times website.
Robert Knoth’s books Certificate No. 000358 with writer Antoinette de Jong is “a poignant and infuriating indictment of the Nuclear Age… on the human devastation in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, the Urals and Siberia” and Hira Mandi from the red-light district of Lahore, Pakistan, which peers into the secret and illicit world of the Hijras are now available in the U.S.
Had a great photo event (dubbed ‘Outernational’) last night with fellow members of Metro Collective. It was part of FotoweekDC, we took over the upstairs space at Local 16, a bar/restaurant on U Street in Washington.
I was frankly a bit surprised (pleasantly) by the turnout, we must have had nearly 100 people there, many standing throughout. The four DC-based members of Metro showed multimedia slideshows of our documentary work and had short discussion between segments, with our friend Andre Kravchenko from Mondano as host. Simple format of course, but it was amazing how good the vibe was and how engaged people were. We used the word Outernational (nicked with permission from our pals over at Thievery Corporation) to convey a sense of beyond borders, embracing what is out there beyond the line of sight.
The whole thing worked on many levels. I think it’s an encouraging model that deals with the question of how to bring photography to people in fresh ways. In this case, you had the cinematic experience of the photos combined with the living-room intimacy of the setting. Unfortunately, that’s a novel concept here in DC, though in many ways it’s the perfect city for such gatherings, there are a lot of internationally-minded people here who are also quite visually literate.
I felt like people were ’surprised to be surprised’ by the photography; everyone is saturated with images these days, and maybe becoming a bit numb. But this showed if you present good work in the right way, still photography can really pack a resonant punch.
Continuing with our Outernational ‘tour’ (thinking branding now), we hope to do more such events, including one we’re planning for next month geared for students and an open-air rooftop thing next year when the weather permits. Hopefully we can work out a way for our international members to attend as well. Stay tuned!
Compiling more than ten years of work in Eastern Europe, Bill Crandall has published “East”, a beautiful little magazine containing a select group of images from Belarus, Kiev, Kosovo, Serbia, Poland, Prague, and Romania.
For those of you in the DC area, Bill will be showing East this Sunday night, October 4th, at Marvin. The show starts at 8 and there will be free magazines for a lucky twenty people. Check it out, it’s sure to be a good time.
Hector Emanuel
Robert Knoth
World Press Photo has launched their online archive. Going back to 1955 the website covers over 50 years of award-winning images, and features around 10,000 photographs. Each photo contains full caption information and category placement. It’s a veritable who’s who of photographers and virtual what’s what of the last half century–it is a history lesson in and of itself, but be careful, it’s also a black hole, sucking your time away as you click and click. and click. and click.
Eros has a nice spread in the September 7 issue of TIME Magazine article “How Crime Pays for the Taliban”. Check out the photo-essay on TIME’s website.
J carrier has placed third in the International Photography Awards for his editorial photo-essay “Paradise Lost: Sudan”
Check out the IPA winners gallery to see all of this years great work.
Recently in Italy to photograph a wedding, I had the chance to wander around the streets of Florence and Rome — the recent series of steamy sex scandals may finally take down Silvio Berlusconi but it seems that the country’s young couples have taken his lead and aren’t at all gun shy about making out in public… ahh Italia!
“I decided to hold on to a naive and childish perspective. A photographic history filled with fences, flowers and other symbols, to point out the essence of the phenomenon.”
Bevis Fusha has a photo-essay and short interview in the World Press Photo magazine Enter highlighting his work documenting blood feuds for the organisation Children Today in his native Albania.
To see more of this work check out the MetroCollective feature Tyl.
Image courtesy Mother Jones
Photographs from Eros Hoagland’s long term project “Narco-Land” which focuses on the violent and brutal drug war along the U.S./Mexico Border appear in the July/August issue of Mother Jones Magazine.
And if you’ve got a spare second, Mother Jones also has some interesting photo-essays online that are prime for a peep.
Michael Robinson Chavez will be giving a lecture on August 20th titled Photographing a Shrinking World at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, where he will discuss “why he undertook certain assignments, how he was able to gain access and his process of telling stories through image making.”
The lecture is a part of the Iris Nights series which also includes lectures from some of the top photographers in the industry including Susan Meiselas, Dan Winters, David Burnett, and Teru Kuwayama. Lectures are free but on a first come first serve basis with online registration.
Also worth checking out at the Annenberg Space: Pictures of the Year International — on exhibit through November.
Following the solo exhibition of Bill Crandall’s “East” project at Galeria Zoya in Warsaw last year, the Polish art periodical Working Title ran a nice feature of images from the show.
Michael Robinson Chavez has a great multi-media feature on the L.A. Times website, “Promise and Peril in South L.A.”, an in-depth series of essays documenting how life has and sometimes hasn’t changed in one of America’s most notorious neighborhoods.
Michael is currently en route to India to lead the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop “Storytelling with Heart and Power” in Manali, India.
Images from “Promise and Peril in South L.A.” by Michael Robinson Chavez featured in The L.A. Times
It’s nice to see that the newspapers that are surviving are doing so in style and are still willing to dedicate time and energy to meaningful in-depth stories.
“Dorobanti, Romania - 2008″ Bill Crandall
“Kenya: Election Aftermath” J Carrier
Bill Crandall and J Carrier were selected for exhibition in the Foto8 Summer Show at HOST Gallery in London, England.
From Foto8’s website: ”The 2009 Summer Show saw an overwhelming response, with over 2300 images entered from 44 different countries, including Bangladesh, Iran, Mexico, Thailand and Turkey. For one month, the Summer Show provides London’s greatest spectacle of photography with over 100 images on display….”
The opening exhibition and party is on Friday July 24th. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood and check out all the great work.
Posters depicting “Barack Hussein Obama” wearing a keffiyeh, the trademark attire of Yassir Arafat, late leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, with the words “anti-semitic jew-hater” were hung around the city of Jerusalem shortly after President Obama’s Cairo speech to the muslim world. In his speech, President Obama pressured Israel to end its controversial settlement expansion and to engage in new peace talks with the Palestinians. Hard-line Israeli conservatives are now adjusting to the sometimes uncomfortable realities of the new Obama administration.
“Olmert’s Lament” by Kevin Peraino, from the June 22 issue of Newsweek.
To read more about J’s shoot with the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to see additional photographs check out “Postcards from the Field.“
J Carrier is now based in Jerusalem covering the Middle East and Africa. Visit his site Postcards from the Field to view the multi-media essay “This Maze of Shadows”
J Carrier had three photographs nominated in the NY Photo Awards and his image “Darfur, Paradise Lost” — published last year in the National Geographic Book Visions of Paradise — was awarded an Honorable Mention.
Hector Emanuel receives second place from POYi for his portrait series done on the Republic of Lakotah: Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota.
Michael Robinson Chavez receives an Award of Excellence from POYi in the Newspaper Photographer of the Year category.
by J Carrier
Deep in the interior of Africa in the dense jungles of Cameroon, where scientists have determined that HIV originated, jumping from chimps to humans possibly more than a century ago, the Global Viral Forecast team of Dr. Nathan Wolfe are searching for the newest viral threats with the hope of stopping the next global disease pandemic before it’s too late.
Be sure to check out this month’s Men’s Journal and my photographs featured in “The Virus Hunter”, by Tom Clynes, and click here to view a small gallery of images shot on assignment in Cameroon.
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