Mimi Cherono Ng’ok (Kenya): Untitled

Gallery offline – updating soon

‘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

Gallery offline – updating soon

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

Gallery offline – updating soon

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)

Gallery offline – updating soon

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

Gallery offline – updating soon

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

Gallery offline – updating soon

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

Gallery offline – updating soon

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

Gallery offline – updating soon

“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 →

Dina Zhuk (Belarus): Got a mark on a hand

Gallery offline – updating soon

“I don’t know, nothing happened and something happened at the same time. When did it all start? How? Failed to mention. (laughing) Yes, it could be like that from the very beginning. Like that – what do I mean? I don’t know. Do we really live bad? Like all the rest. Do I love? I think, yes. Yes, for a long time. We have been living together more than a year. Am I happy? (thinking) I was happy when it all started then we moved, began to live together, but for the last several months something unnatural began to happen. No, we don’t discuss that. Everything is so tangled, I can’t clear up a mess. One day I want to be with him, the next day I don’t. Yes, something is going on with him either. Painful? I got used, you know. Yesterday he took me so strong by the hand and began to kiss. Continue reading Dina Zhuk: Got a mark on a hand →

Yang Zhou (China): Daytime Escape

Gallery offline – updating soon

Always, we have an unspeakable pitiful feeling towards an aged beauty. A writer could create huge amount of words for this vague sorrow, but in fact, what the sorrow implies is that old age is the opposite of everything we considered valuable: youth, power, beauty, etc. In our subconsciousness, we fear the process of aging. To me, this fear is more deeply rooted: my grandma’s an Alzheimer disease sufferer. She was well educated and worked as award-winning designers in fabric factories. I was shocked and frightened by how her mind had deteriorated.

However, this fear towards old age inspired me to seek knowledge of it. Therefore, summer 2010, I became frequenter of a sheltered home for the elderly people in London, interviewing and taking portraits of the residents there. During my shooting process, I was impressed by their calm and their willingness to accept it and change it into something productive. It made me feel ashamed when one of them said “Worrying about it won’t change anything, so it’s better to channel your energy into something else”. As one of them said, the elderly are very diverse. Therefore I began this project “Daytime Escape”, which takes a close look into a daytime caring centre for the elderly in a neighbourhood upon my returning to Shanghai, China. Continue reading Yang Zhou: Daytime Escape →