Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up

March 06, 2015

Friday Round Up - 6th March, 2015

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights" Gloria Steinem

This week Friday Round Up celebrates International Women’s Day (March 8) by featuring the work of a diverse group of female photographers – Darcy Padilla, Mary F. Calvert, Farzana Hossen, Katie Orlinsky, Stephanie Sinclair, Louise Whelan, Nicola Dracoulis, Fatemeh Behboudi, Viviane Dalles and Shiho Fukada. Plus Christina Brown who was the first UK press photographer at the turn of the last century.

Darcy Padilla
The Julie Project

Based in San Francisco, Darcy is a multi-award winner who after internships with the New York Times and Washington Post, chose the precarious life of a documentary photographer. More than 20 years on her commitment to what can only be considered a vocation is unwavering and best evidenced in her long term story The Julie Project which she began in 1993 and pursued for 21 years. In this story Darcy chronicles the life of single mother Julie Baird whom she met when Julie was living on the streets; a poverty stricken teenager, strung out on heroin, and suffering from AIDS. This story is not only the portrayal of one woman’s struggle with the hand dealt her, but also a profound commentary on the lives of those living on the margins.

Mary F. Calvert
The Battle Within: Sexual assault in America’s military
Part 1: The Hearings. Part 2: The Survivors

American Mary F. Calvert has invested years pursuing her story about sexual abuse in the US armed forces. The numbers cited are horrific – in the last year alone 26,000 women were raped and sexually assaulted in the American armed forces. Mary says “most military rape survivors are forced out of service and many are even compelled to continue working with their rapists”. Mary’s project is split into two parts – the Hearings (only one in ten cases reported goes to trial) and the Survivors, many suffer MST (Military Stress Trauma) – ‘depression, substance abuse, paranoia and feelings of isolation’. Suicide rates are also high.

Farzana Hossen
Lingering Scars

Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Farzana’s photo essay “Lingering Scars” portrays women who have been horrifically scared from acid attacks and other horrendous acts of violence often perpetrated by their husbands and other male relatives. “There are scores of new acid attacks and burn victims arriving everyday at the hospital. In addition to disfigurement of the face and body, some have permanent loss of eyesight; some will never be able to eat with their mouth…In Bangladesh, reports of violence against women is on the rise…and is sanctioned by both society and the state…in the name of culture, tradition and religious practices, women are usually forced to live with their abusive spouse to maintain social norms”.

Katie Orlinsky
Bought and Sold in Nepal

A native of New York, photographer and cinematographer Katie Orlinsky focuses on contemporary social issues and her investigations have taken her all over the world. Her photo essay Bought and Sold in Nepal exposes the trafficking of women who are sold into servitude. In Nepal the social devaluation of women, coupled with endemic poverty, has seen tens of thousands of young girls and women smuggled from their homeland into India where they end up enslaved the red light districts of India’s teeming metropolises such as Mumbai.

Stephanie Sinclair
Too Young to Wed

In more than 50 countries millions of girls as young as six years old are still forced into marriage with adult men. These girls face a life of abuse and torment. Uneducated, marginalized and persecuted by the families into which they are married, child brides lose their chance to be children free to play and explore, they lose the opportunity to better themselves and are denied basic human rights. American photographer Stephanie Sinclair has made this story her life’s work and her powerful body of work allows these innocent young girls to have a voice.

Louise Whelan
African/Australians

This series of portraits is the next installment in a project that Sydney photographer Louise Whelan has been working on for several years; documenting the multiplicity of nationalities that make up the face of modern Australia. These portraits feature people from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan, encapsulating the diversity of Australia’s African migrant population.

In this series Louise has combined both her documentary practice as well as her fine art portraiture, creating real depth in the narrative. These portraits are rich, not only through Louise’s masterful use of colour, but in their celebration of the courage of those who have left behind everything they’ve known to make a new life.

Melbourne photographer Nicola Dracoulis’ exploration of nine young people living in Rio’s favelas is gripping. Shot in 2006 and 2013 in this series of portraits Nicola revisits the same people seven years apart capturing both the changes in individuals and their habitats.

In this poignant black and white photo essay, Iranian photographer Fatemeh Behboudi has photographed Iranian mothers who still mourn the loss of their beloved sons who never returned from the Iran Iraq war in the 1980s. She says many of these mothers believe they communicate with their sons in their dreams, so deep and ever present is their grief.

In 2012 while French social documentary photographer Viviane Dalles was in Australia she worked on several personal projects including this story of a young refugee, Farkhonda, who came to Australia with her family when she was ten years old. Twelve years later at the age of 22 years, Fakhonda completed her studies at University and planned her return to Afghanistan. Viviane documented her life in Australia and also visited Farkhonda in Kabul, where she is now employed with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Afghanistan) in Kabul and active in working to help her people.

Shiho Fukada
Japan’s Disposable Workers: Lost in Global Unemployment

Japanese photojournalist Shiho Fukada's work on Japan's Disposable Workers highlights the plight of those who work without security, in temporary jobs where they are considered "disposable". But this label extends beyond to the workforce to their personal lives where many live in isolation and poverty shunned by wider society. At a time when the economic models around the world are failing and governments and businesses have forgotten that people should come before money, this photo essay is a sobering reality and perhaps even more poignant given its setting - Japan - which has in the past been admired for its values, which are being lost to that country’s economic meltdown. Shiho is a Pulitzer Grantee.

Suffragette 1909

In a career that spanned 36 years, Christina Broom took around 40,000 photographs focusing on social issues such as the Suffragette processions as well as images of the First World War. She also covered general news stories.