April 2010 Archives

We've got lots of great news to report:

Another great, all-new issue of Lens Culture is online now. This issue features an eclectic mix of contemporary photography from all over the world, including work by photographers Laurence Demaison (France), Zoltán Vancsó (Hungary), Árpád Kurucz (Hungary), Lewis Koch (USA), Alfred Yaghobzadeh (Iran), Susan A. Barnett (USA), Mindaugas Kavaliauskas (Lithuania), John Chang (USA), David Rochkind (Mexico), Andrew Phelps (Japan), Philip Jones Griffiths (UK), and Han Sungpil (Korea).

We’re also delighted to be able to offer our readers a magazine inside the magazine, so to speak. This month we kicked-off a very special partnership with one of the premiere groups for worldwide photojournalism, VII Photo Agency. VII The Magazine provides an insider’s view of photojournalism and very current world events. Multimedia content is updated weekly.

And this is really BIG news:

Lens Culture has teamed up with Wendy Watriss, Fred Baldwin and Marta Sánchez Philippe of Houston FotoFest, to create Lens Culture FotoFest Paris 2010, a new international portfolio review and Meeting Place in Paris France this November 15-16-17. It will be 3 days of portfolio reviews, networking, inspiration, biz, and fun — in Paris! 120 photographers. 40 international expert reviewers. Details at: www.fotofest-paris.com. Registration opens May 6, 2010, and we expect the demand will be high, and that places will sell out quickly. So, mark you calendars — and join us in Paris for a remarkable event in November!

This is a remarkable multimedia report from a young photographer in Thaliand, who presents her first-person account of the violent protests going on in the streets. Photojournalist Agnes Dherbeys is a participant in the VII Mentor Program, conceived by VII Photo to provide professional development for the brightest emerging talents in the industry. Agnes Dherbeys' coverage of the unrest in Thailand is the first in a series of Mentor features.

Scott Thode, Editor of VII The Magazine, was able to interview Agnes for this story and get her understanding of the history of the Red Shirts protests and her personal feelings and observations about what is happening there. We're very pleased to offer this timely, intimate account for the readers of Lens Culture.

Some of these images appear in a special report for The New York Times this weekend, as well.

VII: The Magazine just uploaded two new multimedia slideshows for the readers of Lens Culture. One shows the imagery that four top photographers captured in the aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti. The other reports on an absurd, extreme bicycling race through a favela in Rio de Janeiro. You can see these reports, plus lots more from VII Photo at VII: The Magazine right here in Lens Culture.

And please feel free to write your personal comments in the space below.

Haiti by VII
Haiti has always been a land of beauty and pain, of light and darkness. When a catastrophic earthquake hit the island on Tuesday, January 12th, the world was shaken by the magnitude of the destruction and human suffering. In this story for VII The Magazine, photographers James Nachtwey, Ron Haviv, Lynsey Addario and Benjamin Lowy provide a look at this disaster and its aftermath.

Desafio
"You have no idea how off the hook it is. Three thousand stray dogs in the favela, bullet holes all over, raw sewage on the course and 100 armed police for security – unreal!"

Downhill mountain bikers are used to sprinting, jumping and sliding over steps, roofs, walls and rocks, but the challenge that awaited some of the world’s best at “Red Bull Desafio no Morro” in Rio de Janeiro's favela Dona Marta surpassed anything and everything that had gone before.

For many years now, the photographer Björn Abelin has been portraying people with tattoos. Their life stories, the motifs they have etched into their bodies, and their reasons are all different. It is not always that important to show their tattoos to the world. Often it is enough to know that it is there and can be uncovered and displayed on occasions that they choose themselves. This exhibition is one such occasion.

Björn Abelin: INKcorporated
Kulturhuset Stockholm, Sweden
30 April–15 August 2010. Admission free

All images copyright Björn Abelin.

Daylight Magazine and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University have started an international competition, the Daylight/CDS Photo Awards, to honor and promote talented and committed photographers, both emerging and established.

DEADLINE: Saturday, May 15, 2010, 8 P.M. (EST)

Jury:

VINCE ALETTI, writer/critic, the New Yorker magazine
DARIUS HIMES, editor/curator, Radius Books
JULIE SAUL, gallery owner/director, Julie Saul Gallery
ALEC SOTH, photographer
HANK WILLIS THOMAS, photographer
JAMIE WELLFORD, international photo editor, Newsweek magazine
TAJ FORER and MICHAEL ITKOFF, editors, Daylight Magazine
ALEXA DILWORTH, publishing director, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
COURTNEY REID-EATON, exhibitions director, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

Two awards: a Project Prize and a Work-in-Process Prize. Winners will be announced in mid-June 2010.

More details here.

Lens Culture is delighted to announce a very important collaboration with the leading international photo agency, VII Photo, to present a dynamic, innovative online project that will give readers of Lens Culture unprecedented access and insight to the work of some of the world’s leading photojournalists.

VII Photo represents 29 photojournalists working at the forefront of the news industry. Their work appears regularly on the covers and pages of the world’s leading news media including Time Magazine, National Geographic, The New Yorker, The Times and now online at www.lensculture.com.

Features are edited specifically for online distribution for VII The Magazine by Scott Thode (former Photo Editor of Fortune Magazine) and will be accompanied by intimate commentaries from the photographers themselves, recorded exclusively for this website. Michael Hanna of Protean Films (New York) has been consulting on video content and has produced the interviews in The Magazine. Revolt communications of Denmark has developed the elegant and flexible online infrastructure to showcase this remarkable project.

VII Photo Managing Director Stephen Mayes comments, “This collaboration has produced a visionary platform to showcase some great work. This innovative project will allow the photographers of VII Photo to spread their wings in choosing the subjects they cover, and gives them a unique opportunity to tell the stories with unprecedented intimacy. We are excited to connect so directly with the readers of Lens Culture.”

ABOUT VII PHOTO AGENCY

VII Photo Agency was created in 2001 by seven of the world's leading photojournalists, and by 2005 VII Photo was listed in third position in American Photo’s “100 Most Important People in Photography” with a reputation that continues to grow for committed journalism and innovative practice. VII Photo has earned a reputation as one of the most dynamic and admired names in the world of photojournalism even as they expand in to new media with a growing number of awards for film, video and multimedia.

Mayes continues, “One of the primary intentions of the founders, and something that differentiates the group from other photo agencies, is the use of innovative methods to address and communicate the pressing issues of our time independently of the traditional media. The agency has a reputation for pioneering and effective partnerships with a growing track record of projects developed in association with leading NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) such as International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Medecins Sans Frontieres and others. Canon and Apple as corporate partners have collaborated significantly on the educational projects that are part of the core activity of the group. The affiliation with the Lens Culture is a proud addition to VII Photo’s roster of partners.”