Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up

December 13, 2013

Friday Round Up - 13 December

This week on Friday Round Up a photo essay on Russia's remote Norilsk mining city, Peter Turnley's exquisite French Kiss, photojournalist Jack Picone releases an exclusive Hong Kong boxed set and a new exhibition for Berliners.

Photo Essay:
Elena Chernyshova – Days of Night – Nights of Day

From the moment I read about Norilsk in a magazine in 1999 and saw Paul Blackmore’s amazing black and white photographs I became fascinated with this nickel-mining city in Russia's far north where temperatures plummet to below 50 (Celsius) in winter and never make it into positive numbers in the summer. For two months of the year the inhabitants live in darkness, separated from civilisation by vast distances. 170,000 people live in this outpost that was built by Gulag prisoners and has the dubious honour of being counted in the top ten most polluted cities on earth.

Russian photographer Elena Chernyshova documented the inhabitants of Norilsk over a 12-month period commencing in February 2012. Her rich colour photographs are nothing short of startling, presenting a foreign environment in every context of the word. Yet the connecting thread are the people of this city and Chernyshova’s images give us an insight into daily routines in this manufactured city where the things we take for granted – fresh fruit and vegetables, sunlight, a warm breeze – are absent.

These images are hauntingly beautiful and Chernyshova has brilliantly melded her creative vision with a strong documentary element that reinforces the significance of this visual study into a unique community. Unreservedly this is one of my favourite photographic essays for 2013.

All images (C) Elena Chernyshova
Supported by the Lagardére Foundation Grant for Photography

To view more of Elena's work visit her website here

Book:

Peter Turnley - French Kiss – A Love Letter to Paris

From 1984 to 2003 acclaimed American photojournalist Peter Turnley focused his camera on world events covering most of the wars on the planet and documenting the historical moments that shaped the geopolitical landscape. From his base in Paris he traversed the globe from Iraq and Afghanistan to Bosnia and Kosovo, documenting the human experience in times of conflict as well as photographing many natural disasters. He’s photographed in more than 90 countries and his pictures have made the covers of the world’s leading news magazines countless times.

Of his career Turnley says, "I came in contact with a tremendous amount of human suffering, of moments when life was much less than what it can be…Paris has offered for me an incredible balance. When I am in Paris I am constantly reminded of how beautiful and wonderful and poetic life can be".

"When I make photographs of people it is very important that I look them in the eye ... there is an amazing connection that can take place through eye contact.” The photographs in “French Kiss – A Love Letter to Paris” are testament to this philosophy. Warm, intimate and ultimately engaging, these exquisite black and white portraits convey the joy of dancing under the Eiffel Tower and of lying in the arms of the one you love on a summer’s day in the Jardin des Tuileries. They inspire and comfort and above all reinforce the joie de vivre that Paris arouses.

(C) Peter Turnley

Turnley says French Kiss “is a tribute to everything this city has brought me over the past 40 years ... when I photograph I try to put my heart and my concentration and my energy and maybe everything that I know about the world at the service of trying to make a photograph that is going to touch other people and say what I would like people to feel that I felt when I observed the moment”.

“French Kiss – A Love Letter to Paris” is simply beautiful. From the moment I opened the FedEx bag I fell in love with this book and its brilliant red linen slipcase, its glossy red cover with the evocative black and white photograph of couples walking in the rain along the Seine. I too love Paris and French Kiss with its images that span almost 40 years is a sumptuous reminder that this is truly the most romantic city in the world.

Peter Turnley

You can buy your copy directly from Peter by clicking here

Boxed Set:
Jack Picone - Hong Kong Panoramas

(C) Jack Picone

Another award-winning photojournalist who has been mining his archives is Australian Jack Picone who has released a limited edition fine art boxed set of superb black and white prints.

“Hong Kong Panoramas” features photographs taken by Picone between 2005 and 2012 and he says, “Each photograph invites interpretation and captures fragments of life in one of the world’s most vibrant, and most vertical, cities. Together they ask the viewer to reflect on the past, present and future of Hong Kong”.

Picone has shot these images on the Hasselblad X Pan 11 Panoramic film camera and each photograph is handcrafted and individually signed. Printed on archival gallery paper, there are seven black and white silver gelatin prints (24 x 8 inches) in each set. Presented in a stylish, tailor-made box “Hong Kong Panoramas” is certain to peak the interest of fine art collectors.

To find out more about Hong Kong Panoramas click here

Exhibition: Berlin
So Gesehen – Group Show
So Gesehen (As Seen) is the latest exhibition for the Neue Schule Fur Fotographie (New School of Photography) in Berlin. The exhibition features work from emerging photographers Jenny Fitz, Alex Giegold, Marjola Rukaj, Cina F. Sommerfeld and Markus Ulrich, all of who have worked with lecturer Eva Bertram over the past year to explore themes of identity.