Annie Flanagan (USA): Hey, Best Friend!

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On September 20, 2012 I met Nekqua; that night Brittney’s father was killed in a work related accident. The next day, when I met up with Nekqua outside of the South West Community center in Syracuse, she had finished all of her homework and was leaning against a fence wearing a near see-through, white, button up t-shirt, that was revealing her leopard print bra that matched her headband. In her left hand was a banana, in her right a brown paper bag. “What’s for lunch?” I asked. “Condoms” she replied, “I can’t be a godmother again, so, I have to drop off condoms at my best friend’s house.” Continue reading Annie Flanagan: Hey, Best Friend! →

Ioana Cirlig (Romania): Post-Industrial Romania

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Post-Industrial Romania is a long term study of deindustrialization and it’s effects in Romania. In over 40 years of communism Romania was heavily industrialized. Every town had a industrial center and people from all over the country were moved to urbanize the areas around mines and factories. Huge industrial centers were built in rural areas, changing the landscape completely. The factory workers and the miners were the country’s pride, idealized and portrayed as heroes. Mining areas were rich, people had the biggest salaries and there was never a lack of food in these places, not even in the late 80’s, the poorest time during Ceausescu’s regime. In 1989 there were 8 million people working in Romania, now

only 4 million are employed. Young people are migrating to Western Europe, mostly to Spain, Italy, Germany or France. After ’89, in the transition from communism to a market economy, almost all the industrial centers have been closed, leaving whole communities jobless. A black market for iron was created and the buildings quickly turned to ruins. Mono industrial communities suffer a severe depression after the loss of the central activity. Continue reading Ioana Cîrlig: Post-Industrial Romania →

Mimi Cherono Ng’ok (Kenya): Untitled

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‘Untitled’ is a collection of photographs taken between 2008 and 2013 when I returned to Kenya. Using analog photography I document occupied and empty spaces in relationship to myself, and those close to me; I map personal memory and intimacy from a Kenyan middle class perspective. Implying a visual diary, my photographs include the emotions attached to seeing a familiar place, friends and family and the associated nostalgia. Rather than a reconciliation, this series is an oscillation between shared narratives and a personal story. I attempt to define ‘home’ in an accumulative way, by shooting landscapes, architecture, family members, still life(s), self-portraits and domestic spaces, creating photographs intersecting experience, memory, fiction and nostalgia. Inspired by my daily surroundings, recollections of growing up middle class in Nairobi, and the experience of returning to what was once familiar and is now distant, my work functions as an exploratory dialogue between my country and I.

Juliette Lynch (USA): Carcinoma in Familia

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Her son was barely one; her daughter about to enter preschool. The water covered her body as she ran her fingers over her skin, to check again that what she felt was real. It was Saturday morning, Father’s Day, and a routine shower became a moment fixed in time as Rebecca felt the lump in her right breast. She didn’t tell her husband for three days.

The doctors told her it was carcinoma in situ and invasive ductal carcinoma. It was a rare, aggressive, genetic form of breast cancer. Stage 3. She would need a bilateral mastectomy, two types of chemo, radiation, and a lengthy list of drugs to follow. Recovery would take years. Continue reading Juliette Lynch: Carcinoma in Familia →

Ana Andrade (Mexico): Ñongos

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Ñongo (adj. Said of a situation or dealing: Insecure, uncertain, riddled with difficulties or obstacles). Term utilized by the inhabitants of the Tijuana river canalization in reference to the ephemeral refuge constructed with their own hands.

The canal, a location where the dividing line between Mexico and the United States begins, also known as “el bordo” given its location, is used by deportees as a waiting area before they try returning to the United States. The majority awaits resources from their family members to enlist the aid of a “pollero,” others wait for fog so they can try to cross on their own. Therefore, due to their desperation, the majority turns to drug pushing for a living and end up living at the river for years, some of them ‘till death. Continue reading Ana Andrade: Ñongos →

Natasha Jdanova (Russia): Le Cheval Blanc (The White Horse)

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Year after year taking pictures of different countries, towns, streets, men and roads I don’t think why. I’m just observing, making sketches. Photography is my prayer, the patter, the mantra. To think about a book of photographs means thinking about poem, poem-manifesto with description of some rules of existence, line with a plot and birth of the idea at the end. This set is about a woman, about a beauty and tenderness of not possession. This is a try of observing the nature and beauty of things and creatures, admiring of them. Continue reading Natasha Jdanova: Le Cheval Blanc →

Laura Morton (US): The Social Stage

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San Francisco, California has a thriving culture of what is often referred to as high society. This small group of wealthy people attends numerous glamorous social events with each other throughout the year to socialize while financially supporting local cultural institutions and other charity organizations.

The large galas to celebrate the openings of the opera, symphony and ballet and those in support of local museums are some of the most high profile parties to attend for people who wish to be a part of such society. These elaborate events give participants a chance to dress up, mingle with one another and generally see and be seen on the social stage.

Continue reading Laura Morton: The Social Stage →

Ana Carolina Matias (Brazil): Mekarõ | Mehin

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Mekarõ
The Krahô, one of the Brazilian indigenous peoples, were first contact by the Government was over two hundred years ago. However, they remain living in the country area, in their circular typical villages, where they also kept their language alive. But even though they kept traditions; they are not alienated from the contemporary issues: from the earlier 2000, a group of the Krahô youth began using the image and sound technologies as a great contribution to their cultural resistance. Several videos were produced by the Mentuwajê Group (guardians of the culture), one group of filmmakers of Aldeia Pedra Branca (White Stone Village), the largest on Krahô territory, located in the north of the Tocantins state, in Brazil’s central area.

From the contemporary use of a word with a less recent meaning, the concepts of ‘Mekarõ’ reveal the complexity of indigenous reality. ‘Mekarõ’ designates both the technical image – videos and photos – as other images associated to the body – a reflection, a shadow and even the soul. Considering the semantic richness of the term and prejudices that still exist towards the indigenous people, the project aims to present a cultural matrix still poorly recognized. Continue reading Ana Carolina Matias: Mekaro | Mehin →

Insa Cathérine Hagemann (Germany): Transition – The Last Dance

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Karine Seneca is alone on a large dark stage. This is her final rehearsal, the last one of her distinguished career. Seneca, who is forty now, is rehearsing for the ballet “Madame Bovary”, a production that will soon have its premiere. The ballerina knows all too well that it is her last rehearsal, her final role in a premiere, and that she will perform her last dance. Ballet dancers have their share of tension and pressure, but this time, this performance, this moment are all clouded in uncertainty and anxiety for Karine Seneca. She‘s forty, and she knows it is time to leave. At seventeen, Karine Seneca began her career as a talented member of the Ballet Basel. She went on to perform with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Zurich Ballet and then with the Staatsoper Hannover. For many years, the prima ballerina‘s life was a busy and public one, with little time left for privacy and quiet. Continue reading Insa Cathérine Hagemann: Transition – The Last Dance →

Lauren Pond (US): Faith and Its Price
Inge Morath Award Finalist, 2013

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“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” – Mark 16: 17-18

For Pentecostal Signs Followers, better known as “serpent-handlers,” these verses in the King James Bible are the word of God, and, as such, are to be taken literally. For more than a century, members of this uniquely Appalachian religious denomination have drunk poison and handled venomous snakes during their worship services, risking death as evidence of their connection to the Holy Spirit and their unwavering faith in God’s will. Though many mainstream Protestant congregations in the U.S. are shrinking, and the death of Pastor Mack Wolford from snakebite made international headlines last spring, the Signs Following religion continues to flourish in certain areas, particularly among young adults. Yet serpent-handling remains poorly understood, heavily ridiculed, and superficially reported. Continue reading Lauren Pond: Faith and Its Price →