Diary: Exile

DIARY: EXILE

I need to stop wearing masks, lay down myself as I am. Unlabeled, raw and naked. Accept or move on, nothing to lose here, I have already been lonely, I have already been bruised.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Abdo was born in 1982 in Oran, Algeria to a Sudanese father and an Algerian mother. Abdo studied Telecommunications Engineering at the University at of Sirte, Lybia until 2006. In 2012, he undertook an Internship at Magnum Photos Paris, which gave him the opportunity to reflect on his photographic approach and make his first story for the magazine “Rukh“, His photographs have been published by a number of printed and online magazines as well as by newspapers. In 2015 he received a nomination for Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund and in 2016 his series ‘Diary: Exile’ was selected by the Addis Fotofest, the same series was shortlisted for The CAP Prize 2017. In 2018 he receives the ADPP grant from AFAC and Magnum foundation for his ongoing project ‘Dy’.

Links:

Web: www.collective220.net/abdoshanan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.ccom/AbdoShananphoto/?ref=bookmarks

Instagram: @abdo.shanan

Twitter: @abdoshanan

100 YEARS OF RED SUN

100 YEARS OF RED SUN

BY ORLI PEREL NIR

Orli Perel Nir was born in 1977, lives and works in Israel. He has a Bachelor degree (B.E.Des) in photography with honors and excellence by Wizo Design Academy, Haifa, Israel. With several exhibitions and awards, Orli Nir works in private and public collections in New York, Poland, Israel, Russia & Romania. 

synopsis

100 Years of Red Sun is a series of portraits of young cadets from military academies in Eastern Europe, where strict military education from an early age still takes place and being a part of a the national identity after long centuries of tradition. For an outside viewer this world might seems far and strange, but altogether a unique remnant of a glorious era, a current hallmark of a distinctive heritage throughout history; a world that retained its own rules and beliefs despite the enormous changes throughout time. Young boys are being trained to be senior officers in the army while the choice of military life is being made from a very young age. The thin line between childhood and manhood in the pictures is being crossed over and over, as well as dreams and disappointments. The subjects were chosen carefully and were staged like on a theatre stage; emerging from the black background behind them or being swallowed by it. Young children posing like in the old portraits of war heroes painted in the 16th and 17th centuries, the faces of the future being held back by the past.

Editor´s note

The presented project was selected from a spontaneous submission made by Orli Perel Nir. Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

WORKS OF MERCY

WORKS OF MERCY

BY ATTILIO FIUMARELLA

Attilio Fiumarella was born in Naples, Italy and presently lives and works in Birmingham, UK. He has an Architectural background, but his great passion has always been photography and since 2011 his main activity has been as a photographer.

Already published in several magazines and books devoted to Architecture, in 2014, he was awarded with an honorable mention at "Novos Talentos FNAC" for the project "Works of Mercy" and got a bursary from "Some Cities" to develop a new project in Birmingham.

The work of this promising emergent photographer combines architectural photography with contemporary issues and his series reveal the potential of adopting an artistic and documentary approach in photography. His projects exemplify very well how photography can be used as a powerful research instrument and a privileged mean to give visibility to issues that are invisible in the main stream media and society.

"Works of Mercy" is a case in point of Attilio Fiumarella humanist conceptual framework and artistic strategy for unveiling problematic lives and issues. In this series he works, as did Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, with real people and the photography project is a powerful series inspired by the chiaroscuro light that encourages viewers to reflect on contemporary society values through the nudity of people living a harsh life.

Pedro Leão Neto

THE CONVERT CIRCLE

THE CONVERT CIRCLE

BY DANIEL GENTELEV

Daniel Gentelev was Born in 1983, Russia. In 1992 he immigrated to Israel with his family.
After his service in the IDF, he travel to South America and became interested deeply in the medium of photography.
He attended and graduated from “Bezalel” Academy of Arts and Design” photography department. He took part in Bezalel's exchange program for merit students in the third year and study at the VSUP-Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague.
His personal work known for his (mostly) square photographic portraits of adolescence and interior life.
He worked on documentary film sets as assistant cameraman and as a freelance photographer in Theater. He had his first group exhibition at the "Farkash" gallery Tel-Aviv and has been shown around several art Magazines and group exhibition around Europe.
He lives and works in Berlin and his work depicted social and classical subject matters.

synopsis
”In making and presenting the photographs of the series, i am trying to tell a story that is based on actual events.
I view the central events as a domain of my inspiration work in the community of regressive Christian in the basque country who defy western description and required to leave absolutely everything behind. in this alleged cult, everything held in common and as you integrate the group more, more conditions and rules are laid on you, such as relinquish your possessions, etc.
The whole community lives in one big house with rooms for the parents, room for the children. married couple share a room with their children. daily activities start at 6 in the morning. it is then that teaching are given and people are pray and dance. for this 70 group of people who more than half are children, consider themselves the only true Christians and believe in Yahshua, Jesus by his Hebrew name.
Outside world is unwholesome. and according to that it is the best way to keep the children apart from
the reality that doesn't agree with their beliefs. so anything different is taken out of the books.
The community force the children to work from a very young age. they have censored to avoid any theory from outside world. instead of that, they stay at home to perform different chores. the girls are in charge of household and the boys are assigned tasks such as preparing the firewood or carpentry. many of these children are born there and don't know any other environment. this is their only world, the only reality. young people are not allowed to make bonds with other young people their age outside.”

STUDIO BREINER HOUSE

STUDIO BREINER HOUSE

BY CHARLES SARRAZIN

Charles Sarrazin was the winner of the second edition of SCOPIO International Photobook Contest and, as the name implies, it was directed towards the creation of an Artist Photobook, which also involves the visual definition of a concept. Titled 'Crossing Borders Shifting Boundaries: City', this contest was focused on diverse countries and on how the migratory movements have influenced the places and people (identities) of those territories. In search of new talents, the jury awarded the photobook "Studio Breiner House".

"Studio Breiner House"
The photographer gives us interestingly detailed insight into the Breiner House, where Erasmus students use to live together during their stay in the city centre of Porto. Charles Sarrazin - a French Erasmus student - created this photobook and called it 'Studio Breiner House' because he not only lived in this large old house, but also used it simultaneously as his studio. The simple black & white photographs - views inside the house and views from there towards the city - combined with text notes give the viewer a first concentrated impression of the very special living space of Erasmus students in Porto today. In the second part of the book, we see the subjects themselves, intense portraits of the students, all in the same format and with the same focused dark background. The last chapter finally changes into colour, and the movement changes from a more documentary style at the beggining to a subjective stage-managed, lively kind of photography. 

Book trailer

STILL ALIVE

STILL ALIVE

BY MAXIM IVANOV

Maxim Ivanov is an undergraduate student of the British Higher School of Art and Design on the BA (Hons) Photography course.

Synopsis

The children depicted in this project are the residents of an orphanage in a small settlement near Moscow. With this series Maxim Ivanov aims to draw attention to the small people who live, study and are formed in an isolated regimental institution. In many senses such children are treated like impersonal things: their parents can get rid of them, they can be moved from one institution to another disregarding their interests, they can be chosen like flowers (sometimes even bought and sold); in Russia they can also be used as instruments of foreign affairs. From the very moment of birth coming through severe realities of life they manifest themselves in a specific manner. 

Editor´s note

The presented project was selected from a spontaneous submission made by Maxim Ivanov. Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

SOU O ZÉ MÁRIO BRANCO, 37 ANOS, DO PORTO

SOU O ZÉ MÁRIO BRANCO, 37 ANOS, DO PORTO

POR DINIS SANTOS

Dinis Santos nasceu em 1983. Licenciou em Pintura, pela Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto em 2007. Desde então que trabalha no Porto em regime "freelance" em fotografia e vídeo. Em 2012 faz o curso de mestrado em Filosofia Contemporânea da Universidade do Porto. Desde 2008 que tem vindo a desenvolver, paralelamente à sua actividade profissional, trabalho pessoal em fotografia e vídeo.

synopsis

Não era a primeira manifestação para a qual íamos juntos. Naqueles meses elas sucederam-se. O encontro ficou combinado em casa de um de nós. Nasci em 83 e trinta anos depois tenho novamente o FMI a barricar o caminho do futuro. Uma vez mais, a canção de José Mário Branco fazia sentido em Portugal e possivelmente fora dele também. 

Estava tudo pronto. Já estávamos todos, a sala enchia-se de fumo e ansiedade. A manifestação prometia acontecer, já havia murmúrio e os tambores rufavam ao longe. Estávamos certos de ali estar. Respira-se esperança quando alguém nos olha como cúmplice. 

O disco está a rodar. As colunas apontadas à rua. José Mário Branco canta de novo. Nós estamos agora sentados de olhar baixo. Ficou pesada a sala. Parecemos não conseguir cruzar olhares. A canção continua impiedosa no retrato da nação e a voz de José Mário Branco ecoa pela Avenida dos Aliados até que, repentinamente, o disco encrava:

 "Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda,Esta merda não anda,Esta merda não anda,Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda,Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda, Esta merda não anda...”
 Quis deus ou a história, se preferirmos, que o vinil nos presenteasse com tão dura repetição. Finalmente um de nós levantou-se, deu um toque na agulha, a canção prosseguiu e nós também.  

"Pela vaga de fundo se sumiu o futuro histórico da minha classe, no fundo deste mar, encontrareis tesouros recuperados, de mim que estou a chegar do lado de lá para ir convosco. Tesouros infindáveis que vos trago de longe e que são vossos, o meu canto e a palavra, o meu sonho é a luz que vem do fim do mundo, dos vossos antepassados que ainda não nasceram. A minha arte é estar aqui convosco e ser-vos alimento e companhia na viagem para estar aqui de vez. Sou português, pequeno burguês de origem, filho de professores primários, artista de variedades, compositor popular, aprendiz de feiticeiro, falta-me um dente. Sou o Zé Mário Branco, 37 anos, do Porto, muito mais vivo que morto, contai com isto de mim para cantar e para o resto."

José Mário Branco - FMI"

SNAPCHOTS AFTER THE WAR

SNAPCHOTS AFTER THE WAR

BY SANJIN HADZALIC

Sanjin Hadzalic is a documentary photographer who was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, currently living in the Netherlands.

Synopsis

"We had to leave our home country of Bosnia, due to the ongoing war (1992-1995). We barely took any photographs with us to our new 'home' country, the Netherlands. The memories of home were fading and we had no records to remind us of those better days. We entered a new country and started a new life".

Snapshots After the War contains family pictures of those first years as a refugee taken by Sanjin's parents and rephotographed by Sanjin.

"I was fascinated by those first years. Adapting to a new culture, learning a new language and managing to survive without jobs and with the little money we had. From those first years I remember beeing very close with my parents, we did everything together and we were very happy".

Editor´s note

The presented project was selected from a spontaneous submission made by Sanjin Hadzalic. Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

SHOWTIME

SHOWTIME

BY GRAEME WILLIAMS

Graeme Williams was born in Cape Town in 1961 and he embraced photography passionately as a freelance photographer around the late 80´s. His decision was also influenced by how he felt in relation to the problem of apartheid and with the release of Nelson Mandela at that time William sensed he had to contribute to this battle against apartheid and joined a news agency and started reporting on the struggle. Thus, since1989 he was contracted by Reuters to cover South Africa’s transition to ANC rule and since then has worked on his personal photographic projects, and his work has been exhibited published in South Africa and Internationally.

Five monographs of his work have been published and just to mention the most recent, he has been published by VU’ Gallery showcasing a selection of photographs produced during the past 25 years. He is also represented by VU’ Gallery in Paris and Axis Gallery in New York. Photographic assignments have taken William to fifty countries and his photographs have been published in major publications worldwide, including National Geographic Magazine, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine and Photography magazine (UK).

synopsis

These portraits were taken at agricultural shows throughout South Africa during 2008.  Shows of this nature have been a tradition within the Afrikaner community for many decades. They initially served as a way of bringing farming communities together and to raise standards in agricultural production. Over the years they have grown into celebrations of Afrikaner culture and a forum for common interests. They are one of the few remaining Afrikaner cultural events that have survived post-apartheid change.

The portraits are an attempt to capture the faces of this cultural group in a way that situates the intimate and personal against the backdrop of cultural identity. The subjects were invited to stand for a portrait within a makeshift studio, set up at small, rural town shows. The resulting images with their simple backgrounds coupled with the undirected and unguarded poses of the subjects, allows the viewer to focus on the individual’s personality, within a very culturally specific context.

The past century has been a tumultuous period for Afrikaners. At the end of the 19th century they rebelled against British colonial rule in South Africa, and vacating the south of the country, the Cape, they embarked on the ‘Great Trek’ into the hinterland. The Boer War followed and Afrikaners struggled to find their place in the developing Union. The 1940s saw the rise of Afrikaner Nationalism and the election of the National Party in 1948. After 46 years of apartheid rule, President F W de Klerk was pressurized to hand over power to the African National Congress.

Since 1994, Afrikaners have struggled to come to terms with becoming a minority group whose culture and lifestyle is very different from that of the majority. The consequence of the group's loss of power and status has inevitably led to an enormous revision of cultural identity both within the group and towards the group.

Pedro Leão Neto

PORTRAITS

PORTRAITS

BY ALEXANDRA SERRANO

Alexandra Serrano is a French-Mexican photographer. She holds two Master degrees, one in Photographic Studies from Westminster University and one in Art History from the university Paris 8. Her practice is mainly autobiographical and self- reflective, tackling themes such as those of family, childhood and memory. Her work features in various publications and has been exhibited in both group and solo exhibitions across Europe and North America. Today we take a look at Alexandra’s series titled Théorie de la Cachette.

Sinopsis

''A Common Story'' tells a story about the journey of returning to the Greek countryside in the face of the country's deep crisis. This is a revival of images that came from a simple tale: the story of the father.
Where do we come from? To what extent do we really remember a place we left behind? What finally makes a man from the countryside escape elsewhere or stay?
The one who stays witnesses past expectations as well as the current reality. He walks a line between utopia and dystopia, with only his own individual efforts to shape the landscape.
The landscape becomes a place of promise, but a forced feeling of ancestry and nostalgia prevails in the narration. Hoping, believing and living by counting absences.
Those who remain share a land(scape) as a reference point for their last image and encounter.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

BY MIKA SPERLING

Mika Sperling was born in Norilsk, Russia. She grew up in Germany, in a family of ten.

In her work, she focuses on narrative portraits. During her studies, she began to work on a project about the ethnical-religious group of Russian Mennonites she used to be part of until the age of thirteen. As she spent more time in the community, questions arose about her own identity and together with the interviews she took, the project developed a reflection of her own fears and thoughts.

Mika is among the LensCulture Emerging Talents of 2015. She was fortunate to be nomina­ted for the Joop Swart Masterclass 2015 and is one of the participants at the ISSP in Latvia and the Eddie Adams Workshop in Jeffersonville, New York in 2015.

Mika is currently based in Germany, working as a freelance photographer.

synopsis

Since their birth in the 16th century as a branch of Christianity, the Mennonites have faced persecution and suppression. Indeed, for nearly three centuries, they have been in near constant movement. During the World Wars, their bitter fate reached its climax. Originally, a Germanic community, the group reached Ukraine, only to be shipped off to Siberia.

During the economic crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, 100,000 Mennonites immigrated to Germany. Soon, over a hundred of their Brethren churches were founded, with about 30,000 members. At the same time, Canada also became a new destination for the emigrants.

Across this diaspora, they are connected by their faith, their culture and their Low German dialect.

As a child my oldest sister took us to Sunday school as my parents did not raise us religious. I was thirteen when I stopped attending church services and never thought I would come back with a camera and the idea of a project about them. Working on the project has challenged me in many ways, as I have been forced to face my personal fears about being judged for being not a faithful Mennonite anymore. It was a very personal process and I am glad I met so many people who let me inside their lives and thoughts, because one way to gain trust was to open myself completely and I became quite vulnerable. Today four of my sisters are members of Brethren Churches.

The question about the individuality of my faithful brothers and sisters lead me to families in Russia, Germany and Canada. Curiosity about their thoughts, wishes, dreams and fears increased my desire to portrait them in their daily lifes and let them tell their stories through interviews.

editor's note

Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers

BROKEN GROUND

BROKEN GROUND

BY ANA CATARINA PINHO

Ana Catarina Pinho studied Visual Arts in Oporto Superior Art School, in 2007, and finished her Master degree in Documentary photography, in 2010. Since then has been participating in art residencies and international projects such as Picture Berlin’10, Nomadic’1012, European Borderlines. Received collaborative grants from European Cultural Foundation and Roberto Cimetta Fund.

Founder, editor and project coordinator of Archivo Photography, she is currently working as a freelance photographer and Documentary Photography lecturer in Polytechnic Institute of Porto, based in Portugal.

Ana Catarina Pinho is represented in several exhibitions and her projects are in print on a number of different publications. Her documentary work is mostly characterised by an artistic strategy where we can feel the influences of significant authors as Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Stephen Shore and also of more recent and contemporary photographers as Alec Soth.

The work of this promising emergent photographer combines a documentary and artistic approach, relating diverse people with the landscape and places where they live or work. Several significant projects could be mentioned as for example Symbolic Landscape, Nomads and Broken Ground, all of which are powerful series where the fictional reinforces the documentary.

In Broken Ground we perceive the concern of Ana Catarina Pinho for unveiling certain contemporary social issues and contradictions, relating them with architecture and urban space, making people with their expectations and emotions the center of interest and the core of this series. It is interesting that the author merges the images of diverse suburban areas belonging to Portugal and Turkey creating a fictional place that calls the attention for the similarities of situations and people between different cultures, showing at the same time the psychological and spatial border that divide people and spaces in many of our contemporary territories.

In the last two years, Ana Catarina Pinho has been working on a new project concerning aspects of the social and political state of Portugal, since it became a country under a severe financial crisis. In this work in progress, the photographer focuses on the everyday aspects of the personal, social and landscape, relating it to previous tension moments in the country's history, trying to approach this theme as a way of reflecting on a possible preview and memory of times to come.

Pedro Leão Neto

BE STILL MY HEART

BE STILL, MY HEART

BY MARTA GIACCONE

Marta Giaccone is an Italian photographer usually based in Milan, Italy, but currently living and studying in Newport, Wales, UK. she has a MA Documentary Photography, University of South Wales, Newport, UK. With several works and exhibitions, she was represented by Anzenberger Agency in 2012. 

synopsis

This is a documentary project about teenage mothers in the south of Wales. Britain has one of Europe's highest rates of teenage pregnancies and in the eyes of society this is still seen looked down upon. I was interested to meet young girls and help them tell their stories through photos and interviews. From as early as 16 years old they are very brave mothers who fight to defend their dignity with a humbling maturity. Meeting them has given me a very positive insight into this "issue", seemingly perceived as such by everyone save the girls themselves. They are all proud mothers who have generally experienced domestic hardships but nonetheless decided to go through with their pregnancies, even though nearly always advised not to, and who now consider their children their saving grace.

Editor´s note

The presented project was selected from a spontaneous submission made by Marta Giaconne. Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

ARREFECEU A COR DOS TEUS CABELOS

ARREFECEU A COR DOS TEUS CABELOS

POR LARA JACINTO

Lara Jacinto nasceu 1982 em Leiria. Vive e trabalha no Porto. Licenciada em Design Multimédia, completou também o Curso de Fotografia do Instituto Português de Fotografia no Porto. Actualmente, trabalha como fotógrafa freelancer, colabora com a agência NFactos, publicando no jornal Público, Expresso e revista Visão. Em paralelo, desenvolve trabalhos de autor, tendo participado em vários projectos e mostras individuais e colectivas. Vencedora do concurso Jovens Criadores em 2010, volta a ser premiada em 2011 ao vencer o concurso Novos Talentos FNAC. Nomeada na categoria Fotografia dos Prémios Novos 2013.

Sinopse

Arrefeceu a Cor dos Teus Cabelos reflecte a passagem do tempo na forma como vemos os outros e cada um se vê a si próprio. Duas pessoas procuram vestígios do que foram, ao mesmo tempo que tomam consciência de que tudo se altera à passagem do tempo; conseguem, no entanto, apaziguar o confronto dessas memórias com a realidade que agora encontram. Um olhar inicial parece evidenciar que tudo mudou, rejeitar a correspondência entre a passado e presente, servindo de ponto de partida a uma viagem à estranheza e distância, mas também à aceitação da mudança como uma constante da vida. 

Nota do editor

Este trabalho "arrefeceu a cor dos teus cabelos" encontrou título na Vénus Adormecida de Miguel Torga. O trabalho desta promissora fotógrafa emergente reflecte a volatilidade do mundo, numa mistura de entusiasmo e melancolia. Segundo a autora o entusiasmo pela beleza que existe pelo facto das coisas orgânicas não permanecerem iguais. Melancolia ao observar vulnerabilidade do Homem à passagem do tempo; a minha própria transformação e a transformação dos que me são próximos (a perda a cada dia que passa). Neste processo irreversível, com a constatação da impossibilidade de repetição surge um sentimento de desconforto e estranheza que me interessou explorar.

A COMMON STORY

A COMMON STORY

BY KOSTAS KAPSIANIS

Kostas Kapsianis was born in Athens.
He lives and works in Athens.
He studied photography at the “Photographic Circle” in 2001.
Kostas Kapsianis is co-founder of the photographic collective “KOLEKTIV8″/” Depression Era”.His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions and festivals, including Mois De La Photo in Paris, Athens Photo Festival, European Month of Photography in Budapest, Medphoto Festival, Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art and Fotoistanbul. Furthemore, he has exhibited his photographs in Benaki Museum (Athens), Lieu BOZAR-Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels) and several galleries in Europe.

Sinopsis

''A Common Story'' tells a story about the journey of returning to the Greek countryside in the face of the country's deep crisis. This is a revival of images that came from a simple tale: the story of the father.
Where do we come from? To what extent do we really remember a place we left behind? What finally makes a man from the countryside escape elsewhere or stay?
The one who stays witnesses past expectations as well as the current reality. He walks a line between utopia and dystopia, with only his own individual efforts to shape the landscape.
The landscape becomes a place of promise, but a forced feeling of ancestry and nostalgia prevails in the narration. Hoping, believing and living by counting absences.
Those who remain share a land(scape) as a reference point for their last image and encounter.