Emphas.is beta

Emphas.is is a crowd-funding website for photojournalism projects.

From Emphas.is: On Emphas.is photojournalists pitch their projects directly to the public. By agreeing to back a story, for a minimum contribution of $10, you are making sure that the issues you care about receive the in-depth coverage they deserve. In exchange you are invited along on the journey. [Read more...]  

Photo above: Opposition troops take positions as they push west outside of Ras Lanuf after taking the city back from troops loyal to Qaddafi, in Eastern Libya, March 5, 2011. Lynsey Addario/VII for the NY Times


Almost Dawn in Libya by ADIL from Emphas.is

ADIL - Almost Dawn in Libya

ADIL is an Arabic name derived from the Arabic word "Adl" which means "fairness" and "justice"

An original idea by André Liohn with: Lynsey Addario, Eric Bouvet, Bryan Denton, Christopher Morris, Jehad Nga, Finbarr O'Reilly and Paolo Pellegrin.

THE PROJECT

The ADIL project's purpose is to contribute to the Reconciliation process for Libyan People facing the aftermath of the civil war. The core concept of the project is to use Visual Communication as a Bridge for Reconciliation.

International photographers who lived the conflict "on the ground" offer independent visual documentation of the war and are partnering with local organizations to bring four exhibitions to four Libyan cities - Benghazi, Misratah, Tripoli and Zintan - scheduled for the spring 2012, one year after the eruption of the conflict against the Ghaddafi regime. [Read more...]

Martin Parr: Agenda

Martin Parr gives an excellent introduction to his work and motives in a narrated Magnum in Motion slideshow entitled Agenda.

While you're there, check out some other Magnum in Motion videos.

PhotoVisura Grants

The photo-sharing network PhotoVisura funds a grant to support personal photography projects. A Look through some of the finalists' work reveals a very high standard of (mostly documentary) photography.

The judges had an almost impossible task in choosing a winner, as all of the finalists' work that I've looked at is of very even merit. The winning essay, entitled The Homecoming Project, looked at the welfare of a new generation of US war veterans returning from Afghanistan. I wasn't surprised to see that the judges were almost all American, for they understandably have a degree of empathy with their troops which we in the rest of the world lack. 

For myself, however, the more affecting essays were those concerning populations which do not often appear in our daily news. Most of world is under-reported and photojournalists like these who submitted work for this grant are to be applauded for their efforts in trying to redress this imbalance.

To do justice to the work this grant has attracted means setting aside a few hours to read the artists' statements and ponder over the photos.

One essay, entitled I'll Die for You by Laura El-Tantawy, concerns an epidemic of suicides among Indian farmers.

From her statement: Over the past 15 years, more than 250,000 farmers have committed suicide in rural India. This has been especially common among cotton farmers in the state of Maharashtra in southwestern India. 

Many had borrowed money through government lending schemes or private lenders to plant more efficient crops, but could not pay off their debts. Because of the extremely fast transition India has undergone - from a rural to an industrial, urban economy with an open market - farmers have been confronted by immense social and economic problems. [Read more...]

Well, that was news to me. This sort of work, which is of immense value, gets scant exposure in the mass media. But I'm glad there is someone doing it.

[The Finalists' Essays]

Photo: Farmer uses traditional farming methods © Laura El Tantawy

Angus Alexander Gallery

A new gallery, Angus Alexander Gallery, opens in Auckland tonight.

The first exhibition is Something Old, Something New, featuring new photographic works by Paul Pachter and existing works by other artists. Matt Blomley's site has an interview with Paul from 2004.

Alejandro Chaskielberg

Alejandro Chaskielberg was born in 1977 in Bueno Aires, Argentina, where he lives. He graduated from Argentina's National Film and Audiovisual Art Institute, ENERC. In 2006, with work experience including photojournalism and direction of television documentaries, he started exhibiting his personal photographic projects.

He has won numerous awards, including the 2011 L'Iris d'Or at the Sony World Photography Awards, for an essay entitled High Tide, consisting of large-format night-time photos of Panamanian islanders living on the Parana River Delta, with whom he lived for two years. The award-winning essay is discussed in an article in the British Journal of Photography and in the video below, which was shot at the Brighton Photo Biennial.

His website contains several portfolios, but not a lot of documentation.

Burn Magazine

From Burn Magazine: burn is an evolving journal for emerging photographers. burn was launched as an online magazine/journal on December 21, 2008, and is curated by Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey. We publish new stories or singles at least three times per week. [Read more ...]

burn magazine has an Emerging Photographer Grant. The deadline for submissions is May 15, 2012.

There is a submissions page for publication of photo essays for the magazine. 

There is also a print edition called  burn 2.0 and an email list containing news updates.

The photo essays are published online as slide shows. The website is a huge resource of emerging talent.

Lens Culture International Exposure Awards

The Lens Culture International Exposure Awards for 2011 have been posted. The video of the award winning work below, is well worth watching.



Lens Culture International Exposure Award Winners 2011

'Vivian Maier - Street Photographer' now available in NZ

The book Vivian Maier - Street Photographer, which has previously been discussed on this blog, is now available at Fishpond for NZ $62.97, including freight and GST. 

Ibán Ramón

Ibán Ramón is a Spanish photographer with a documentary approach to landscape. 

From his website: Ibán Ramón Rodríguez lives and works in Valencia (Spain). Professional designer since 1994, after working solo for a number of years, he created his own studio in 2001. He combines his work as designer with the development of his personal projects, like his photographic series. He has been commissioned to carry on fashion catalogs or images for some advertising campaigns, but his photographic work is first of all a way of personal expression, so it doesn’t come from a request. [Read more ...] 

His website is well worth a look.

Fraction Magazine: Issue 36

Issue 36 of Fraction Magazine is now online.

Harvey Benge: The Photobook - some thoughts on sequencing and editing

From Harvey Benge's Blog:  Anybody who has ever made a photobook has started out with a system, a methodology of going about it. A way of (hopefully) making it brilliant. Much has been said about this subject and guidelines laid down by people who know more than most. Think Gerry Badger and John Gossage. Yet still, why is it that so many photobooks I look at just don't cut it?


Right now I'm in the process of editing, sequencing and designing a new bookwork so this post is really written to myself, a reminder of things I must remember not to forget. I've written about this before but the fundamentals can bear repeating over and over again. Here goes..... [Read more ...]

Photo: © Harvey Benge, The Edit

Randy Halverson: Temporal Distortion

From the Lens Culture Weblog: Photographer Randy Halverson just won an award for this amazing video that he created without any digital gimmicks or special effects – it's all natural, seen through his camera's lens. [Read more...]

These spectacular time-lapse videos of night skies remind me of the importance of the stars to ancient cultures.


Temporal Distortion from Randy Halverson