Photojournalism Now: photo essays

Showing posts with label photo essays. Show all posts

July 21, 2017

Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - 21st July, 2017

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up - Valentyn Odnoviun's Surveillance, the annual Swan Upping on the Thames, Monique Jaques Gaza Girls to become a book, and the winners of the Magnum Photography Awards are announced.

Photo Essay:

Valentyn Odnoviun - Surveillance

Ukrainian photographer Valentyn Odnoviun, who is based in Vilnius, Lithuania, has spent the past few years creating images of the spy holes in the prison cell doors and the solitary walking yards of former prisoners of the KGB.

It’s an intriguing series that leaves much to the imagination of the viewer, which is Odnoviun’s objective: “to create a more concrete communication with the help of interpretation and conceptual thinking”.

Thanks to Doug Spowart for introducing me to this work, which he discovered at this year's Vienna PhotoBook Festival.

Event:

What's Swan Upping you might ask?

This week the annual count of the Queen's swans began on the Thames. Known as Swan Upping this is perhaps one of the more quaint and quirky of the British royals' rituals, but it makes for a fabulous photo opportunity.

Book:
Monique Jaques - Gaza Girls: Growing Up in the Gaza Strip

Over the past five years photojournalist Monique Jaques has travelled to the Gaza Strip to document what she describes as the “strength, creativity and vibrancy of Palestinian girls and young women”.

Now she has partnered with FotoEvidence to publish a book of her photographs. “Gaza Girls: Growing Up in the Gaza Strip” is a collection of photographic essays and written accounts of women coming of age in a place we more readily associate with war and conflict. It is intended to highlight the challenges of daily life, as well as moments of joy found in a complicated existence.

To find out more check out the project at Kickstarter.

Awards:
Magnum Photography Awards 2017

This week the annual Magnum Photography Award winners were announced. Congratulations to all who won and a special shout out to Nick Hannes who has been featured on Photojournalism Now in the past with his Mediterranean and the Continuity of Man series. This week Nick took out the Documentary Series award for his brilliant Bread and Circuses, a photo essay on Dubai's elite. You can see all the winners on the Lensculture site.

All photos (C) Nick Hannes

November 11, 2016

Friday Round Up - 11 November, 2016

This week Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up features photographic essays on Iran, Russia and Scotland.

Exhibition: Melbourne

Hoda Afshar – In the Exodus, I Love You More

Hoda is originally from Iran and now lives in Melbourne. I interviewed her a couple of years ago about her series Under Western Eyes and am pleased to share some of her new work with you.

In the Exodus, I Love You More is a continuation of her work on her homeland. “This series captures Iran and Iranians' lives and their changing faces during a time of great transition,” Hoda says. “(It) is very close to me, and I am honoured to be holding the first major exhibition of the work at Brightspace Gallery.”

Valeriy Klamm - The Siberians: Daily Life of Rural Russia

In 2012 I interviewed Valeriy Klamm the project coordinator of the community blog ‘Birthmark on the Map’, a project capturing rural Russia with a focus on Siberia. At the time he told me of his decade long bid to bring a view of rural Russia to a broader audience – to tell a different story about Russia, one that didn't focus on war, climate or deprivation.

Valeriy works in the cultural sector in his hometown of Novosibirsk, Siberia. He said, “I wanted to tell the story to the outside world of who we are in reality, not a polished view... I am very happy that the content has stayed real. The blog continues to develop and it is like an endless puzzle, an endless chain”.

This puzzle now has a new piece, Valeriy’s own series The Siberians which is also a book. You can see the book here. I visited Russia some years ago now, but I didn't get to Siberia; the country is so vast it was impossible to cram everything on my 'to do' list into three weeks. Russia is incredibly rich culturally and I found it fascinating, as are Valeriy's photographs.

French photographer Laetitia Vancon’s photo essay of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland’s western islands, captures some of the last Gaelic-speaking villages and their inhabitants. It’s a hauntingly beautiful series that will be exhibited next month in Paris. Laetitia’s documentary photography encompasses a diverse range of topics with essays on the blood feud in Albania, the vanishing art of mud wrestling in India and the gentrification of Istanbul. You can see more of her work here.

May 13, 2016

Friday Round Up - 13th May, 2016

This week on Friday Round Up a photo essay by Italian photographer Pierpaolo Mittica, a new book that documents the history of the Greek milk bars in Australia, Sandro Miller's amazing Homage: Malkovich and the Masters opens in New York, and some interesting weekend reading. Don't forget if you're in Sydney Head On Photo Festival is on until 22nd May. You can read my Head On Diary for L'Oeil de la Photographie here.

Photo Essay:
Pierpaolo Mittica - Living Toxic

The 13,000 odd residents of Karabash, a remote Russian copper mining town about 160km north of Kazakhstan, live in a polluted environment that Italian photographer Pierpaolo Mittica describes as “post-apocalyptic”. Mittica photographed Karabash for his ongoing series Living Toxic which he began in 2013. Living Toxic documents some of the world’s most environmentally damaged towns. Here the stench from the copper smelting plant makes the air virtually unbreathable, the river is poisoned and a huge black slag heap runs for about 1.5km through the town.

In the 1940s Greek milk bars started springing up around Australia, becoming focal points for regional towns where entertainment options were limited. This wonderful new book Greek Cafes & Milk Bars of Australia features hundred of photographs, stories and even old sample menus. It’s a great addition to Australia’s rich migrant history. How bland our world would have been without immigration. To find out more or buy the book click here.

Exhibition: New York

Sandro Miller - Homage: Malkovich and the Masters

Andres Serrano / Piss Christ (C) Sandro Miller

Dorothea Lange/ Migrant Mother (C) Sandro Miller

Herb Ritts/Jack Nicholson The Joker (C) Sandro Miller

Coinciding with the release of the book, which I'll be reviewing in the coming weeks, Chicago photographer Sandro Miller's Homage: Malkovich and the Masters opened last night in New York. I interviewed Sandro when he was in Australia last year for Head On Photo Festival and since then I've written a number of stories on his work. He's collaborated with John Malkovich for more than two decades and this body of work is nothing short of extraordinary - he and Mallkovich have painstakingly recreated some of the most iconic images of the 20th Century. Sandro is one of the most generous and talented photographers I've had the pleasure to interview and his work with Malkovich will be exhibited far and wide this year - from New York it goes to Amsterdam and then onto Russia. If you're in New York check it out. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Until 1 July

Yancey Richardson Gallery
525 West 22nd Street,
New York, NY. 10011

Weekend Reading:

BJP interview the new CEO of NOOR Clément Saccomani

Don McCullin on Digital Photography (an older article but still relevant)

Visa pour l'image previews its 2016 programme

Caleb Cain Marcus's photo essay on the Ganges on National Geographic Proof Why Facts Aren’t Always Truths in Photography - Peter van Agtmael TIME magazine