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.