Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up

September 04, 2015

Friday Round Up - 4 September, 2015

This week on Friday Round Up - Getty Images announces its grant winners at Visa Pour l'Image, Photoville gears up in New York and Photo Shanghai has its second outing.

But before turning to those stories, I want to write briefly about this heartbreaking image that rocked the world.

(Dogan News Agency / European Pressphoto Agency)

Nothing underpins the capacity of a photograph to move public opinion than that of the body of 3 year old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a beach in Turkey. This photograph has been published around the world and shared many thousands of times on social media. It has made millions question their role as a citizen of the world and to call for action from their governments. It is heartbreaking, yet the horror of this reality is galvanising people across nations.

It has also given the media an opportunity to take back their place as the Fourth Estate, if only temporarily. Newspapers across Britain have run the photograph shaming the British government who is anticipated to make an announcement that it will take more refugees. In the US newspapers are also pushing for a greater refugee intake.

Media are also justifying why they chose to publish the photograph. Here is an excerpt from an editorial published in the Los Angeles Times written by Kim Murphy, Assistant Managing Editor, Foreign and National News who said it was "imperative" the paper publish this photograph:

“We have written stories about migrants suffocated in trucks, run over by trains, drowned in capsized boats, but these tragedies have unfolded largely unwitnessed; here was a boy...whose fate forced anyone who saw him to confront the magnitude of the migrant crisis unfolding in Europe and the Middle East. A crisis that our nation, through the wars it has fought in the region, had a hand in igniting. A human drama that has seen European nations struggle to confront the streams of refugees, some of them fleeing horrific violence, who have turned up pleading at their doors — while the U.S. admitted just 36 Syrian refugees in fiscal 2013.” Click here to read the full story.

The Washington Post's Beirut Bureau Chief, Liz Sly, shared the photo of Aylan on Twitter on Wednesday after seeing it on a Turkish news site. Here's what she said:

“Instantly I received a huge response, mostly from people who said they too were deeply moved by the image. Some people, however, criticized me — and those retweeting me — for sharing the picture at all. This response puzzled me...How many photos of dead Syrian children show up on social media every day? Don’t people know what has been happening in Syria?

And then it occurred to me — perhaps they don’t.

My colleagues and I have been writing about Syria’s war for four years, about the desperation of the refugees who fled the country and the 250,000 people, including children, who have died over the course of the conflict. Some of us, Syrian and foreign journalists, have died, too, trying to tell their stories.

Yet it has seemed that no one really paid much attention — at least, not in terms of seriously trying to solve the problem, seriously trying to help. If it takes photographs of dead children to make people realize children are dying, so be it." You can read the full story here.

May the good in humanity prevail.

Awards:
2015 Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography
The winners for this year's Getty Grants were announced at Visa Pour l'Image yesterday:

Salvatore Esposito for What is Missing?

This project explores the complicated social layers of Naples, telling the story of the city by analysing the feeblest and neediest social structures within the city. The work is captured with a desire to show the negligence that has arisen as a result of the city’s ruling class.

Javier Arcenillas for Latidoamerica

Honduras is considered one of the most violent places on earth. Every day on the streets of Honduras’ cities murders, robberies and violence are commonplace. This project aims to document the axis of uncontrolled violence in Honduras as social and political factors aggressively feed the issue.

Mojgan Ghanbari for Zanan

Iran, with a population of 77 million, is the third highest populated country in the Middle East, with a 50 percent female demographic and over 60 percent of the population under the age of 35. Profound changes took place in the country as a result of the Islamic revolution in 1979, which had a significant impact on the lives of women. Legislative changes to Islamic rules resulted in further restrictions being imposed on women; restrictions on community participation, enforcement of the mandatory hijab and the Family Protection Law. Despite every effort by the State to convey a positive image of Shia Muslim Iran, there are still many clauses that limit women and their civil rights. Women are legally prohibited from the presidency, and are discriminated against in senior leadership positions, judgeships and educational fields; inheritance laws are significantly prejudiced against women.

Matt Eich for Carry Me Ohio

Heroin has seen a resurgence across the United States in recent years, but it is keenly prevalent in Ohio. In 2010, 315 people in Ohio died in heroin-related deaths. By 2012 that number soared to 725. The state's response has been wide-ranging, with new laws creating stricter penalties for drug traffickers and creative ideas to expand treatment and needle-exchange programs. Although Ohio is at the vanguard of drug-prevention policy, the state's efforts appear to have their limits. Statistics show heroin is winning.

This year Getty Images received almost 400 applications from 78 countries. Each photojournalist will receive US$10,000 as well as collaborative editorial support from Getty Images. Getty Images Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein said, “The 2015 Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography recipients exemplify the dedication, determination and integrity that define the photojournalism community. We strongly believe in the power of imagery to move the world and I am extremely proud that our grants programme continues to provide emerging and established photojournalists with the freedom to bring global attention to complex issues that otherwise may remain unseen.”

Getty Images has also announced that one of the Getty Images Editorial Grants will be renamed The David Laidler Memorial Award, in honour of former employee, the late David Laidler, who passed away last month. David was instrumental in bringing the Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography programme to life.

Festivals & Fairs:

Photoville - New York City

Photoville is the largest annual photographic event in New York City with exhibitions housed in re-purposed shipping containers that create a modular venue in Brooklyn Bridge Park. In addition to the exhibitions are workshops and nightly screenings and events in the famed Photoville Beer Garden. This year there are more than 70 ‘container’ exhibitions as well as those works featured on the FENCE in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Boston, Atlanta and Houston. Here's a peek at what you can expect from this year's program:

Brenda Ann Kenneally’s Upstate Girls: Unraveling Collar City, an examination of post-industrial America through photographs, film and collected ephemera of young people as they come of age on one block in North Troy, NY

Daniel Berehulak’s Scenes From The Ebola Crisis, which covers his four-month, Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Ebola crisis in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea presented by The New York Times.

Eugene Richards’ Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down, an examination of life in the impoverished Arkansas Delta forty years ago and today. The exhibition interweaves old black-and-white photographs with recent color photographs and a short story.

Jeff Sheng's Fearless, for which he photographed over 200 LGBT student athletes between 2003 and 2015

Matt Black’s The Geography of Poverty, an exhibition of images collected during a three-month, 30 state trip on which Black photographed some of America’s most destitute communities

Radcliffe Roye’s When Living Is a Protest, documenting the everyday reality of those living in the struggle for racial equality

Stephanie Sinclair’s Too Young to Wed, an exhibition of photographs documenting the millions of young girls who are forced into marriage.

Photoville
10-20 September
Brooklyn Bridge Park

Photo Shanghai Art Fair
Organised by the World Photography Organisation, the second edition of Photo Shanghai art fair features 50 international galleries and over 500 works of art. In addition Photo Shanghai also presents its education series, which includes a discussion panel on the role of photography in international museums with Christopher Phillips from ICP New York and Liu Heung Shing from ScOP, Shanghai. Last year the Fair attracted 25,000 visitors.