Posts Tagged "photographer"

Earth Day 2013 – Share Your Photos

Posted by RZ on Apr 21, 2013

Earth Day 2013: The Face of Climate Change

Climate change has many faces.

A man in the Maldives worried about relocating his family as sea levels rise, a farmer in Kansas struggling to make ends meet as prolonged drought ravages the crops, a fisherman on the Niger River whose nets often come up empty, a child in New Jersey who lost her home to a super-storm, a woman in Bangladesh who can’t get fresh water due to more frequent flooding and cyclones…

And they’re not only human faces.

They’re the polar bear in the melting arctic, the tiger in India’s threatened mangrove forests, the right whale in plankton-poor parts of the warming North Atlantic, the orangutan in Indonesian forests segmented by more frequent bushfires and droughts…

These faces of climate change are multiplying every day.

For many, climate change can often seem remote and hazy – a vague and complex problem far off in the distance that our grandchildren may have to solve. But that’s only because they’re still fortunate enough to be insulated from its mounting consequences. Climate change has very real effects on people, animals, and the ecosystems and natural resources on which we all depend. Left unchecked, they’ll spread like wildfire.

Luckily, other faces of climate change are also multiplying every day.

Every person who does his or her part to fix the problem is also a Face of Climate Change: the entrepreneurs who see opportunity in creating the new green economy, the activists who organize community action and awareness campaigns, the engineers who design the clean technology of the future, the public servants who fight for climate change laws and for mitigation efforts, the ordinary people who commit to living sustainably…

Between now and Earth Day, we’ll collect and display images of people, animals, and places directly affected or threatened by climate change – as well as images of people stepping up to do something about it. We’ll tell the world their stories.

But we need your help. We need you to be climate reporters. So, send us your pictures and stories that show The Face of Climate Change.

On and around Earth Day, an interactive digital display of all the images will be shown at thousands of events around the world, including next to federal government buildings in countries that produce the most carbon pollution. The display will also be made available online to anyone who wants to view or show it. Together, we’ll highlight the solutions and showcase the collective power of individuals taking action across the world. In doing so, we hope to inspire our leaders to act and inspire ourselves to redouble our efforts in the fight against climate change.

http://www.earthday.org/2013/about.html

Humanity Photo Awards 2013

Posted by RZ on Mar 11, 2013

An opportunity to make your photography part of an important world heritage documentation collection.

Deadline: 15th April 2013

The project is run by the China Folklore Photographic Association and is supported by UNESCO

There are prizes to be won including visits to China for the award ceremony.

Their collection includes a diverse and fascinating selection of images from around the world.

GUIDELINES OF HUMANITY PHOTO AWARDS 2013

 Mission
We call upon responsible photographers who respect life and love to take their cameras, in the form of special photo series：

•   To explore and rescue the endangered folk cultures of worldwide nationalities by means of photography;
•  To profoundly record the changes and evolution of various folk cultures in a genuine and vivid form;
•   To record, spread and share the multicultural achievements of the world to enhance mutual understanding and exchanges of human beings and to promote the world peace and development;
•   To contribute to the World Folklore Photo Museum with world culture records.

 Organized by
THE CHINA FOLKLORE PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION (CFPA)
THE UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)

 On-line Submission
Photos can only be submitted on-line.

 Entrants must register on the website  http://www.hpa.org.cn  and submit photos in accordance with relevant requirements.

Every entrant could choose any category listed on the website and is allowed to submit no more than 3 sets. Every set entered should contain 8 to 14 photos.

Personal information as well as the photos could be modified or replaced (registered e-mail excepted) during the photo collection period.

Schedule
Photo Collection Period: September 16th, 2012—April 15th, 2013 (BeijingTime)

Selection: By mid August, 2013, the photos granted with the Performance Awards, the Nomination Awards and the Documentary Awards will be announced after two rounds of evaluation. On September 14th and 15th, 2013, the final evaluation unveils the Grand Awards of the six categories. The results will be published in stages on the above mentioned website.

Award Ceremony: September 16th, 2013. Humanity Photo Grand Awards and Jury’s Special Awards will be announced on the Award Ceremony.

Premiere Exhibition: The premiere exhibition of the HPA 2013 –Memories of Mankind Ⅷ, which consists all the wining works with the Nomination Awards and the higher ones, will be held in the same period with the final selection and the award ceremony in the same city.

 Categories
The following categories could be selected as the theme of the photos:

Portrait & Costume
Portraits of people from different nationalities; costumes and adornments featuring diverse ethnic cultures, including everyday dress, ceremonial dress, hats and shoes, adornments and hairstyle, etc; the manufacture of costumes and adornments; distinctive attire customs such as dressing etiquette and taboos and so on.

 Architecture
Traditional dwellings, public facilities, the construction process of distinctive architecture (e.g. religious buildings) , structure, interior layout and furniture adornments of all kinds; the influence of the surroundings reflected on features of the local architecture; dwelling habits of different ethnic groups.

 Living and Production Custom
The traditional ways of production and life, including everyday work, such as fishing, hunting, farming, forestry, animal husbandry, handicrafts industry, etc; business trade and transportation; living habits and ways of dieting as well as food making; comprehensive life customs in series, of a specific region, of a nationality or a tribe.

 Festivities
Annual and seasonal festivals; festivals on production and recreation, religious ceremonies, temple fairs and other traditional folk activities

 Education, Recreation, Sports & Technology
Education, traditional ecology, folk science and technology, folk medicine and sanitation, folk crafts, traditional sports and recreational activities, and local dramas, etc.

 Traditional Rites
Birth, adult rite, wedding, funeral, taboo, worship, morality, respect for the old people, traditional etiquette, and traditional ceremony for individual, family, village or ethnic group, and religious rites.

 Awards
Humanity Photo Grand Awards: 6 (one for each category)

 Judging Criteria: The final prized photos will be selected according to a comprehensive evaluation of their photographic technique, documentary value and the difficulty in photographing and can best reveal the mission of the HPA contest.

 Prizes: a prize of US$2000; an award certificate; a book/CD-photo collection of the HPA 2013; an invitation to attend the award ceremony and the opening ceremony of the premiere exhibition of “Memories of Mankind Ⅷ”; transportation fee and a 3-9 days hotel accommodation; to put prized photos on the premiere exhibition.

 Humanity Photo Documentary Awards: 60

Prizes: an award certificate; a book/CD-photo collection of the HPA 2013; an invitation to attend the award ceremony and the opening ceremony of the premiere exhibition of“Memories of Mankind Ⅷ”; transportation fee and a 3-9 days hotel accommodation; to put prized photos on the premiere exhibition.

 In addition, photographs of Humanity Photo Documentary Awards will have the opportunities to win Jury’s Special Awards according to the photographer’s story-telling, interview and editing techniques. Each winner will receive photographic equipment or product which is equivalent to US$500.

Humanity Photo Nomination Awards: 100

Prizes: an award certificate; a book/CD-photo collection of the HPA 2013; an invitation to attend the award ceremony and the opening ceremony of the premiere exhibition of“Memories of Mankind Ⅷ”; a 3-9 days hotel accommodation; to put prized photos on the premiere exhibition.

 Humanity Photo Performance Awards: 500

Prizes: an electronic award certificate; name of winners and his works listed in the book/CD; An invitation to attend the award ceremony and the opening ceremony of the premiere exhibition of “Memories of Mankind Ⅷ”;Travel and accommodation expense will be at his/her own. Winners arrange their own visa formalities for participating the Award Ceremony, the organizer will help them accordingly, but will not be responsible for any problems related to visa.

Every participant except the winners for the aforementioned awards will:

• Get the electronic copy of a Commemoration Certificate of the HPA 2013 officially stamped by the two organizers — the CFPA and the UNESCO.
• Get a discount price to purchase the photo album of HPA 2013.
•  Be invited to attend the Awards Ceremony and the Premiere Exhibition.
• Those who attend the ceremony could get the hard copy of the Commemoration Certificate together with the photo album of HPA 2013. All the travel expenses should be born by the participants.

 Participant is responsible for applying for the visa on his/her own, the CFPA could offer help, but will not be responsible for any caused problems.

Entry Rules (Please read carefully.)

Entrants

 1.  Please register on the website http://www.hpa.org.cn, and all photos should be submitted on-line.

 2.  There are no restrictions on entrants in terms of profession, gender, age, nationality, country and region.

 3.  The photos must be taken by the entrant himself/ herself, otherwise the entrant will be deprived of the right to win the prizes in the contest.

 4.  Photos entered jointly by two or more than two participants will not be accepted.

 5.  Please use only Chinese or English to fill in Entry Form. The entrant’s name in Entry Form should be in accordance with that in his/her valid identity certificate.

 6.  The enrollment of this contest will be regarded as the acceptance of the Guidelines of the HPA 2013. Any legal responsibility relating to photos, such as copyright, right of reputation and portrait, right of privacy, right of trade mark, etc. will be borne by the entrants.

 7.  The contest is open to everyone except the members of the jury and staff of HPA 2013 Organizing Committee.

 Candidate Photos

8.  Photos that have won prizes in previous HPA contests are excluded from the HPA 2013, and other works are free to enter.

9.  There are no restrictions on countries or nationalities which are shown in the photos. (Entries can contain several ethnic groups in one country or one nationality living in different countries.)

10. There is no time limit as to when the photos were taken. They can be taken on one occasion or over a period of time.

11.  The category of the photos submitted should be specified. The Organizer and judges are not responsible to re-categorize any photo.

12.  Stories/Portfolios should consist of a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 14 photos. Each entrant is allowed to submitted no more than 3 sets.

13.  Photos must be uploaded with .jpg format, size between 1MB and 5MB.

14.   Only the necessary retouching which does not alter the original appearance of the photo is allowed. All photos are prohibited from synthesis, addition, deletion and greatly color changes. Photos with added borders, backgrounds or other kind of mounting will not be accepted. To keep the records’ authenticity, composite, splicing and tricky photos will not be judged.

15.  Each photo should contain caption that truly depicts the content of the photos.

 Declaration of the Organizer

16.  No entry fee for this contest.

17.  To guarantee the fairness of the HPA 2013, personal information should not be shown on any place of the photo nor the caption text, otherwise the photo will not be judged.

18.  With the guarantee of the right of signature for every author, the Organizer has the right to repeatedly use the photos which are submitted for HPA 2013 in related non-commercial activities, including publications, exhibitions, TV programs, internet, electronic media, etc. and without remuneration to the authors. The Organizer reserves the right to do probable editing of the photos.

19.  Photos must be submitted before April 15th, 2013 at the website above-mentioned. (The date when the photos are completely submitted is deemed as the arrival date.)

20.  CFPA reserves the right of final interpretation of the Guidelines of HPA 2013.

 Contact Information

CHINA FOLKLORE PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION (CFPA)

Address: Room 315,
NorthBuilding,
No.1 Liupukang Street,
Xicheng District,
Beijing100120,
China.

Tel.: +86 10 62252175
Fax: +86 10 62252175

 E-mail: mail@hpa.org.cn

http://www.hpa.org.cn

Monika Bulaj: The hidden light of Afghanistan

Posted by RZ on Jan 6, 2012

Monika Bulaj - discovering Noor, the hidden light of Afghanistan

“My aim is to give a voice to the silent people, to show the hidden lights behind the curtain of the great game, the small worlds ignored by the media and the prophets of a global conflict.”

Monika Bulaj was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1966 and studied Polish philology at the University of Warsaw.
Although Polish is her mother tongue she also speaks Italian, French, English, German, Russian and other Slavic languages, some Spanish and at present is studying Arab and Persian

Monika is a photographer, reporter and documentarian who classifies the main areas of her research as “The Borders of Faiths” (mystic, archetypes, divination, possession, pilgrims, body, cult of the dead) and minorities, nomads, migrants, outcasts, dispossessed, in Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Among other things she has published many books and articles, given many presentations of her work and had over 50 solo exhibitions,.

In this TED talk she shares some of her work on her project “The hidden light of Afghanistan”, an inspiring work of photojournalism and insight into the hidden lives of an ancient people in a world now devastated by war.

“My travels to Afghanistan began many, many years ago on the eastern border of my country, my homeland, Poland. I was walking through the forests of my grandmother’s tales. A land where every field hides a grave, where millions of people have been deported or killed in the 20th century.

I have been walking east for 20 years
Behind the destruction, I found a soul of places. I met humble people. I heard their prayer and ate their bread. Then I have been walking East for 20 years — from Eastern Europe to Central Asia — through the Caucasus Mountains, Middle East, North Africa, Russia. And I ever met more humble people. And I shared their bread and their prayer. This is why I went to Afghanistan.

One day, I crossed the bridge over the Oxus River. I was alone on foot. And the Afghan soldier was so surprised to see me that he forgot to stamp my passport. But he gave me a cup of tea. And I understood that his surprise was my protection.

Noor, the Hidden Light of Afghanistan
So I have been walking and traveling, by horses, by yak, by truck, by hitchhiking, from Iran’s border to the bottom, to the edge of the Wakhan Corridor. And in this way I could find noor, the hidden light of Afghanistan. My only weapon was my notebook and my Leica. I heard prayers of the Sufi — humble Muslims, hated by the Taliban. Hidden river, interconnected with the mysticism from Gibraltar to India. The mosque where the respectful foreigner is showered with blessings and with tears, and welcomed as a gift.

What Do We Know About the Country and the People that We Pretend to Protect?
What do we know about the country and the people that we pretend to protect, about the villages where the only one medicine to kill the pain and to stop the hunger is opium? These are opium-addicted people on the roofs of Kabul 10 years after the beginning of our war. These are the nomad girls who became prostitutes for Afghan businessmen.

What do we know about the women 10 years after the war? Clothed in this nylon bag, made in China, with the name of burqa. I saw one day, the largest school in Afghanistan, a girls’ school. 13,000 girls studying here in the rooms underground, full of scorpions. And their love [for studying] was so big that I cried.

What do we know about the death threats by the Taliban nailed on the doors of the people who dare to send their daughters to school as in Balkh? The region is not secure, but full of the Taliban, and they did it.

My aim is to give a voice to the silent people, to show the hidden lights behind the curtain of the great game, the small worlds ignored by the media and the prophets of a global conflict.”

——————-

http://www.monikabulaj.com/eng/
———————-

Below is a selection of extracts from press statements about her work.

“If you suspect that the ancient faith does not lie in the choked squares, the marble cathedrals or the great metropolis, but rather in the periphery, in the forgotten villages on the farthest borders of the empire, then you should visit the work of Monika Bulaj”.”
Paolo Rumiz, La Repubblica, Rome

“If justice belonged to this world, “People of God” would be a textbook in every school of the world. Thanks to a moving and elegant writing style, and to dozens and dozens of photographs, this book confirms how people of different ethnic origin, nationality, and religion can and do live together. … The faces worn by time, endless and without a beginning, caught behind windows that look as if they have never been opened, behind dusty glass panels which, if broken, are never replaced; …. the villages lost in remote and distant regions, almost crystallized by ice and snow…”
Alessandro Marrongiu, Liberal, Turin

“Monika Bulaj is a “light hunter”. Rather than being interested in the boundaries among different cultures, she is focused on the spaces where what was impossible to blend has actually blended. Hers are simply provocations to those who believe in solid and established truths. She thinks that respect means to work without flash, because she is looking for the light, even when there is only shadow, and the details and outlines are blurred. This is how she creates her images that suggest action and motion.”
Christiane Schlotzer, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Munich

Can Art Change the World?

Posted by RZ on Jun 22, 2011

Parisian photographer and street artist “JR” has undertaken many projects that have spanned the planet, using giant billboard sized monochromatic photographs in unexpected places, in positions of high visibility.

He started out as a graffiti artist in Paris, but after finding a camera on the Metro, began taking photographs documenting his friends painting graffiti on the rooftops and walls of the city..

He now mixes the two mediums of photography and graffiti, calling himself a “photograffeur”, posting giant black and white photographs in public places.

Can Art turn the world inside out?

Part of this is a giant triptych of a rabbi, a priest and an immam wearing intentionally comic expressions. The message is simple but powerful: there is far more that unites humanity than that which divides it. “It’s about breaking down barriers,” JR says. “With humour, there is life.”

Women are Heroes
His more recent “Women are Heroes” project took him to meet, work with and photograph women in slums and war-torn, poverty stricken communities across the world, using art as a medium to reaffirm the positive, creative side of humanity.

“They keep on asking you: what is the purpose of your project? Are you an NGO? are you the media? … Art. Just an artist…
Some who understood the project will explain it to others: to a man who did not understand I heard someone said:
“You know, You’ve been here for a few hours trying to understand this thing with your fellows. During that time, you haven’t think about what you’re going to eat tomorrow. This is art.”

“Women are Heroes” created a new dynamic in each of the communities and the women kept that dynamic after we left. For example, we created book, not for sale, but that all the community would get but to get it they would have to make it signed by one of the women…

Its really important point to me is that I don’t use any brands or corporate sponsor, so I have no responsibility to anyone but myself and the sisters…
They made me promise… please, make our story travel with you…so I did…look… that’s Paris, that’s Rio… that’s London… New York…”

Turn the World Inside Out – Participate in a Global Project
His latest project is one that everyone can participate in:
“I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world.. INSIDE OUT.

When we act together, the whole thing is more than the sum of the parts.
So I hope that together we will create something that the world will remember, and this starts right now, and depends on you.”

Use the link below to find out how you can participate.

www.insideoutproject.net