F8Magazine #2 March 2011 by F8 Magazine

# 2 march 2011

Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert Sol Neelman Jonnek Jonneksson Thomas Lee Thomas Pickard Jon Michael Anzalone

and more...

Staff Staff Editor MIGUEL A. MOYA miguel.moya@f8mag.com

Design & Layout Ana Vida Website: www.f8mag.com Contact Information Contact us: contact@f8mag.com Contributors: iwantyou@f8mag.com Advertising: ads@f8mag.com Follow Us: Special thanks to : DAVID WALTER BANKS MATT NAGER ELSYMARIE VEGA

©F8MAGAZINE 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without permission from the publishers. The views expressed in F8Magazine are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. © Copyright Notice: All images displayed on this magazine are the property of their respective photographers. YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE, COPY, PUBLISH OR USE THE IMAGES OR ANY PART OF THE IMAGES IN ANY WAY WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER. YOU MAY NOT ALTER, MANIPULATE, ANY PART OF AN IMAGE WITHOUT CONSENT. Contact the photographer if you wish to obtain a reproduction of an image or if you wish to obtain permission to redisplay an image on another web site.

Editor´s Note Editor´s Note New issue with more great content. We travel all over the world by the hands of the best photographers. From the Arctic & Antarctic poles by Thomas Pickard to present Greece as seen by Jonnek Jonneksson. The personal and intimate vision of Jon Michael Anzalone floods our soul. We follow the life of a professional hockey player from a project by Andrew Propp, and much more ... As always, an intense look through different landscapes and cultures that inhabit our planet Earth. Also, let’s take a stroll through the streets of Hollywood by Shawn Nee and know what day to day life of a professional photographer is like with members of the group LUCEO Images. With the intense memory of the earthquake in Japan, we will discover the work of Jeremy SuttonHibbert, a Scottish photographer in Tokyo, and we will see the most weird sports captured by the camera of Sol Neeman. Continue reading, we’re still waiting with a lot of content for you. Welcome to a new issue of F8 Magazine.

Miguel A . Moya, Editor miguel.moya@f8mag.com

OUR PRAY AND SUPPORT FOR JAPANESE PEOPLE

Contents

Thomas Pickard Jonnek Jonneksson Jonnek Jonneksson Photographer´s Diary Thomas Pickard Thomas Lee

Photographer´s Diary

Street View: Hollywood Street View: Hollywood

Andrew Propp Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

Andrew Propp Jon Michael Anzalone Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert #1

Sol Neelman

JANUARY 2011

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Thomas

Thomas Lee

Capturing Feelings

A Hongkonger wearing health mask ponders his ways before entering the crowded financial district in Hong Kong on May 3, 2009, the day the city confirmed Asia’s first case of the H1N1 swine flu and raised the pandemic response level to “emergency.”

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Thomas Lee

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integrate with people in their daily routine, surrounded by symbols and good decisions and mistakes of this revolution. How do you remember the daily struggle of common people? What people or situations surprised you most from your point of view? Cuba is a good example of my dual perspectives at play. I lived in New York at the time. I was well aware of the tensions between Cuba and the USA. But I went to Cuba for two Chinese magazines, with a Hong Kong journalist who’s writing about the new dynamics -- or rapport, in her

view -- between China and Cuba, both seeking economic reforms while keeping their communist rule. So I carried multiple, conflicting points of view before I even saw Havana. And as a result I found every other person or scene surprising: I put on the “American lens” and I saw deep poverty, rundown blocks, stores rationing goods, black markets, and the regime’s propaganda; I put on the “Chinese lens” and I saw solidarity at the labor day parade, new Chinese made buses on the roads, Cuban kids practicing Taichi in Chinatown et cetera.

The annual May Day parade at Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, May 1, 2008.

You have lived in different places of the world like Hong Kong or Chicago, with almost opposite cultures. Do you think that this contrast has widen your point of view and your comprehension of the world? Does it help to get a wider framing in your photographs? I hope so. Frankly I don’t really assess what my background has done or is doing to my life and my works. I don’t think my being attached to both Chinese and American cultures should be framed solely on a high note, like “a widened world view.”

It’s probably a double-edged sword: It brings bi-continental connections and perspectives; it also reminds me of the overwhelming complexity of the world, the differences and disagreements it’s capable of. In other words my duality empowers me as much as it humbles me. In fact this parallels my take on photography, that it’s a practice simultaneously empowering and humbling. You have documented the current situation of the Cuban revolution through a series of photographs taken in 2008. In those photographs, we can see how you A beggar in Central Havana, Cuba, May 2008.

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Thomas Lee

There are too many factors out of a photographer’s control. I say we do our best and focus on the process instead of the results. In your photographs, you like showing people as main characters of their lives, facing up to their problems or living their dreams, but it seems you always want to show a positive point of view about their situations, although they live in a conflictive place. Have you always wanted to show this positive aspect? I don’t have a set agenda to show only the positive sides of my subjects. I’m pleased though that’s what you found in my photos. I do aspire to steer away from cliches, to make works that take some risks and push me to experiment. Maybe in today’s drama and tragedy infused visual media -- and I’ve done my share of contributing to the cliches -- I counter unconsciously, in my own little way, by injecting a dose of hope and beauty in my works. You have documented many social issues. In one of them, you show the abusive tuna fishing in Philippine and the imminent risk of extinction of this species, along with other species from the sea. Do you think that this kind of work can make people or government aware of the situation in order to do something about it? Yes. I wouldn’t still be pursuing documentary photography if I didn’t believe that a good visual narrative, if not a single image, can help effect change. But I think it’s unhealthy if “save the world” becomes the main concern of one’s photography. There are too many factors out of a photographer’s control. I say we do our best and focus on the process instead of the results. Unable to bridge the dock, a pump-boat fisherman has to skim through the water carrying his catch, a sashimi-grade giant yellowfin, and walk longer distance to the trading complex, making small-scale fishing difficult to sustain, General Santos, the Philippines, August 2009.

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Your photographs about the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 are really interesting. On the one hand, you show the Chinese citizens living the Olympic dream at every possible level in their lives, and in other series of photographs you show the vigilance level and security measures employed by the government to keep everything under strict control. This level of control can be seen as well in cities like Shenzhen. Is China

becoming a big brother, a police State? Which personal impression do you have, as a person who knows China first-hand? I’m glad the two part series left a strong impression. To me Special Surveillance Zone and The Olympic Eyes are closest to my overarching goal to “take some risks,” to “experiment” and “create works that blur the line between reportage and fiction,” as mentioned above, and in my bio. The photos were social/political

documentary, targeting a real issue, but together they constructed this surreal dystopia and articulated an absurdity that’s hard to pinpoint in reality. To me that’s blurring the line. But as I’ve stepped one foot into fiction, I’m in no position to say whether China is becoming a police state; I’m painting what it might feel like if it became one. I think in the current “global war on terrorism,” it’s a reflection not only to my country but other nations as well.

Policemen monitor the public watching fireworks near the National Stadium in Beijing, China, August 2008.

Thousands cheer for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games broadcasted live on a building-sized plasma screen at Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing, China, August 2008.

A policeman monitors the rush-hour pedestrians entering Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, August 2007.

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A surveillance camera at the Xidan shopping district in Beijing, China, July 2008.

Thomas Lee

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Thomas Lee

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Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama speaks to supporters at a rally at the Richmond Coliseum in Virginia, a key election battleground state that is historically carried by the Republican Party, the United States, October 2008.

You have taken photographs of people like Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, the famous graphic reporter James Natchwey or the Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad Yunus among others. From the distance that camera offers, which one of them has impressed you most? Muhammad Yunus. Likely because via an exclusive interview and a private fundraiser I got to spend the most time with him. How fitting, I thought after the shoots, that a humble, brilliant, empathetic and inspirational person -- a token grey-hair, wise old man -- came up with the idea of micro-financing.

From all the countries you have been working in, Uganda, Ghana, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, China, etc... What was the one which impressed you most in a personal level? There really isn’t a winner. The most memorable place changes, and is often my last project site. I believe when you passionately engage with a place and its people -- which is essentially what photographers do -- they would never fail to amaze you. Do you remember any experience or person that has influenced you in a professional way in any of your travels?

Here’s the second half of that Cuba story. I tried my best to alternate and balance my American and Chinese perspectives, to remain neutral, the journalistic ideal that many had recommended. When the Chinese photo essays came out, the Chinabased magazine printed mostly the uplifting images, picturing Cuba as a strategic reform partner on the rise. The Hong Kong magazine ran an analytical piece with half of my images depicting potentials, the other half challenges. Around the same time a US magazine ran a feature on Cuba and used the black and white, highcontrast, vignetted photos taken by the reporter, rendering the island quite hopeless... For me this hit home two ideas: One. Truth is relative. The best I could do as a photographer is to keep seeking it, and believe that whatever version I find, counts. Two. It’s good being conflicted by opposing perspectives and better if you take a side with your camera and make a statement. In 2006 you were working in Afghanistan. We can see in your photographs how you show people, especially the children in their daily routine, how they try to live normally surrounded by so many symbols of the wars that have devastated the country. The positive approach is a surprise, being used as we are to most mass media showing only the pain and devastation of places like this to us. Can this positive way be perceived in the look of the inhabitants? Do they have a message of hope in their own lives? I went to Afghanistan with a Chicagobased NGO called Arzu who helped Afghan women weavers source and sell their rugs as means to empower them. Throughout the trip I experienced > Camp people, merchants, and local aid workers gather on an “open taxi” heading from Parabongo IDP camp to Gulu town, northern Uganda, December 2005.

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A Ugandan boy stands beside his home destroyed by a fire that burned down nearly 200 huts at Parabongo IDP camp, northern Uganda, December 2005.

Thomas Lee

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Thomas Lee

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Children turn war remnants into playgrounds in Bamiyan village, Afghanistan, June 2006.

> this dichotomy: One minute you talked progress with a Hazara young man or a woman who lifted her burqa, the next you got distracted by a truck wreck, a burnt out Soviet tank, or a wall covered in bullet holes. Afghans have hopes. Without hopes they wouldn’t have endured decades of plight, but the war remnants hijacked any positive message... If only I could use these distractors and turn them into hope amplifiers, I thought. I began juxtaposing the full-of-life moments with the war remnants, which became War Beyond. To conclude, what advice would you give to a professional photographer who is starting and wants to tell people something through his or her photographs? Do it. It’s the worst of times if you hold photography to the traditional ways of business and distribution. It’s the best of times if you let go and just venture into the new content frontier. We are all just starting out! Thank you, Thomas.

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Football fanatics warm up to the Africa Cup of Nations opening ceremony by playing ball tricks outside the Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra, Ghana, January 2008.

Thomas Lee

An Afghan woman weaver at her loom, Bamiyan, Afghanistan, June 2006.

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Thomas Lee

thoMas l ee www.thomaslee.us

Traders, buyers and fishermen negotiate each yellowfinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quality and worth at the trading hall of the General Santos Fish Port Complex, South Cotabato, the Philippines, August 11, 2009.

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Photographer’s Diary

David Walter Banks

A personal vision by

David Walter Banks LU C E O I M AG E S ‘Barnacle’ Bill Louwjma along with his crew, Dylan Campbell, Tony Abney, and Clay Daniels on Bill’s stone crabbing boat, ‘The Whatever’, off the coast of Everglades City, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. With a population of only 479 in the 2000 census, Everglades’ still remains a bustling little town with two main industries of fising and tourism with a strong sense of local pride and community. During the 1970s and 1980s much of the town’s residents became involved in an elaborate drug smuggling operation, and by some counts as many as 80 percent of the adult male population has spent time in prison. # 2 MARCH 2011

David Walter Banks

Photographer’s Diary

My eyes burned and the alarm seemed like some cruel joke as it shocked me into consciousness at 3:45 am in our little motel room. My head throbbed slightly as I sat up from the whiskey I

shared with ex-smugglers during a firsthand history lesson at the bar

the night before. It was pitch black as I donned a pair of borrowed slickers and left our room in

Everglades, Florida for a short drive to meet up with ‘Barnacle’ Bill

Louwsma for a day on the water.

Barnacle greeted me with a quick handshake as he and his crew loaded up the stone crabbing boat he captains. We set off through the dark guided by a high-tech GPS system that directs us a few hours to the first set of traps. The crew retires to a small cabin below deck with a few bunks to catch some rest on the ride out, and I head up towards the ship’s helm with Barnacle. My chronic insomnia doesn’t stop me from drifting off to sleep atop a hard fiberglass box where I sit slumped against the wall. Between dozing off, I talk with Bill about his line of work and mine and a lively range of topics throughout the day spanning from politics and global warming to the town’s sordid past shrouded in drug smuggling. I find out that stone crab fishing has recently been designated

a green fishery due to the relative low carbon footprint. The boat begins to sway and sink with the swells as we reach the first set of traps near daybreak. I stumble about in a humbling manner as I try to document the crew already hard at work as the golden red light spills over the horizon. Barnacle weaves through buoys marking the traps as Dylan Campbell and Tony Abney snag them with long metal hooks, heaving the heavy lines up to a machine, which rapidly winds the rope pulling the trap from the ocean floor. Dylan and Tony expertly flow through the motions of emptying the traps, re-baiting them with pigs feet and dumping them back into the water or stacking them aboard the ship to move to a new location. Borrowing a word used by another waterman, the job takes both skill and a herculean effort.

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David Walter Banks

Photographer’s Diary

Around mid-day when the ugly light hits, I head back up with Bill to chat more with him and Sabrina Weeks, Dylan’s girlfriend who hitched a ride for the day to spend a little more time with her man. Clay also continues to pop his head in as his job for the day leaves him with a bit more free-time than the crew members pulling traps. I easily hit it off with Clay as we share the same goodnatured, yet prodding sense of humor. As the day heats up Clay trades his wading boots for bare feet. “They made me wear shoes in school, so I haven’t done it since,” says Clay who claims skin so tough he can walk across broken glass, which I don’t doubt. As I continually return to the deck to shoot, I’m constantly amazed at these men who seem to have feet made of steel, balancing with ease as they perform heavy manual labor. I claim to be pretty athletic, with a decent sense of balance, but these guys put me to shame. I certainly respected watermen before, but after the exhaustion I felt just trying to document them for a day, I have a new found appreciation.

Clay Daniels, the on-board comedian and most seasoned member of the crew, tells me about the process as he measures crab claws, breaks off the ones measuring over 2.75

inches

and tosses the crabs back overboard. Clay and Bill later explain to me that approximately 74 percent of the crabs with one claw removed live, as do 50 percent of those both claws removed. This gives some consolation to

my vegetarian bleeding heart and slightly curbs

my pity for the little crustaceans.

I bask in the setting sun, as the breeze grows cool on the ride home. Then it hits me--the nausea. I’ve never been one to get seasick, and I was proud to have fought it off for 14 hours. The constantly growing headache seems to be pushing me past my edge of tolerance, but I keep fighting it, reassuring myself that I’m better than that. Then it comes, and I make my way to the back of the speeding boat quickly so the projectile vomit can waft safely towards the boat’s wake. I was a bit ashamed, but fortunately my new friends were tucked away in the boat’s cabin and my weakness remained my little secret, until now of course. My sincerest thanks goes out to Barnacle and his crew for giving me

access and making me feel like I was part of the team, if only for one day. Everglades, Florida was the fourth in a series of stops scheduled over the next 24 months, on which LUCEO photographers will participate in a group project exploring the nuances of the rural American town. The project will focus on changes influencing rural population and economics. Particularly, we look at factors affecting a net gain in rural populations. While some communities continue to dwindle and dry up, the last forty years has also seen a subtle rural resurgence, driven, in part, by a globalized and increasingly decentralized and de-regionalized economy. Our first-hand experience has also revealed a trend of retained sense of pride and community as well as a connection with the land and geography that supports their way of life.

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As the project progresses we hope to continue to create personal connections with our subjects, approaching them with an open mind and avoiding exploitative trends commonly found in the documentation of rural

existence.

We believe that history extends beyond the news-cycle, and that ordinary people and personal struggle are avenues through which we can explore the bigger issues facing our world, which led us in part to this essay. We also believe in actively encouraging the completion of significant personal bodies of work, which lack funding through mainstream outlets. In pursuit of this goal, LUCEO contributes a percentage of all editorial and commercial commissions toward the LUCEO Project Fund. This fund exists solely to support the longterm projects of LUCEO’s member photographers. This project is an active example of work our clients’ commissions have been able to support.

David Walter Banks is an American born photographer living in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a conceptually based documentary and portrait photographer. LUCEO Images is a photographer

owned and operated cooperative established with the goal of supporting the significant work of its members. LUCEO produces the highest quality commercial and editorial photography and works to provide creative nourishment to our member photographers.

David Walter Banks. Portrait by Daryl Peveto/LUCEO

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Jonnek Jonneksson

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Jonnek

onneksson

Somewhere between Agra and Varanasi with an Indian Railways train, India 2007

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Jonnek Jonneksson

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and/or photojournalism and the decision to direct my point of view to the professional field was something that had clearly to do with making a living. I could say that if one day I win the lottery I will then stop spending my time and my energy trying to combine my point of view with the demands and boundaries of being a professional photographer, today. I don’t mean that this is not an interesting profession, on the contrary I like it a lot, but since I woke up with a camera in my hands just 5 years ago I feel that I need more to take photos than being involved to any industry. If it is necessary though to announce myself with a title I think that I will choose the “documentary photographer” one. Kids diving into Ganges river during an early morning ritual procedure under a roof made of cement, Varanasi, India 2007

Why are you making photos? What do you expect to get from it?

better way what I believe it deserves to be photographed, using my instinct, my personal point of view.

Photography isn’t something that I do but something that I am. I understand that this may sound kind of poetic or arrogant but I can assure you that it isn’t. In other words, I cannot not to make photos whether I am good at it or not. It’s not about a conscious choice that I made at one particular point in my life but about a habit, a fundamental need of mine such as communication or having a relationship with other people. I don’t really expect something from photography and I don’t tend to believe that photography should expect something from me, now or in the future. I just try all the time to be better in terms of expressing in a

I hate to hear some times people saying that they love photography. Well, I don’t love photography, I love my son. Loving it or not, photography is something that I can’t stop doing for any reason except, perhaps, inability. Photojournalism, documentary, social photography... How do you define yourself professionally? I define my self just as a photographer who is interested on every aspect of our everyday life. The selection of my working field as a professional wasn’t, as well, a conscious choice but a logical progress. I realized one day that what I do with the camera is called documentary

Exploring, discovering and recording significant moments of our world is what I do and it would be a lie if I say that I am not interested of showing my findings around. I don’t consider myself as a savior or a devoted artist but I feel that if there is something interesting of mine that it could be a nice or useful idea spreading it to others then why not. You always use analogue cameras. Why? I started making photos with a digital camera and I feel that this helped me to understand the basics of pointing a camera around for a particular reason in a more sufficient and quick way than if I had started with analogue. However, I ended up working with film for reasons that refer to personal taste and superiority in some technical aspects. Working almost 100% with black and white, I think that film is the way to go. In the beginning of my quest > Workers of the dry dockyard of Cape Town harbor, have a rest after a long day of repairing commercial ships, Cape Town, S. Africa 2008

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Jonnek Jonneksson

The “Wall of Death” motorcycle show, Chalkidiki, northern Greece 2009

> I found out that the combination of B/W and digital really sucks, it’s a weak substitute. The dynamic range and tolerance of the (negative) film is far superior to the digital. There are a lot of photos of mine that couldn’t exist if they were made using the digital medium. I tend to use light with generosity and digital doesn’t seem to comply with that. I have to make always a lot of compromises using digital which, at least in my case, they affect the desired result and my creativity a lot. Despite the fact that digital suppose to be quicker, cheaper and easier, I feel extremely tied up when I have to use it for professional reasons which refer always to speed of delivering the story, only. Regarding taste, I shall say that I like the aesthetics of film when I need to show things as they really are, from a photographic point of view. I think that a photo made with film looks right, looks like photography while a digital one looks like an effort of software to reach photography. Well, I don’t know. If at some point digital manage to reach or even overcome the qualities of the analogue medium, then I can’t see why I have to insist on using it. Anyway, Ralph Gibson said a nice and comforting think about that, when he has been asked for his point of view about digital during a recent interview. He said that the relationship that digital has to photography is the same with the one that videotape has to cinema. I think I agree with that. Do you think digital photography has “stolen” the soul of photography with its immediacy? No, I don’t really think so. However, I strongly believe that working with >

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Jonnek Jonneksson

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fashionable nostalgia that someone may apply to that aspect. However, the soul of photography can’t be really affected by the chosen medium, I have seen many significant photos and stories done with a digital camera as well as many crap done with film. You shoot with a Leica M6. What can you tell us about this camera? What film are you usually use?

Personally, when I photograph I am likely not sure of what exactly I have done so far with my frames, so, every next frame is a new story, a fresh and still unaffected attempt to make a better shot of the same subject.

A relative of a passed away Hindu man prepares his cremation at the Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi, India 2007

> digital you can find yourself under the status of false confidence, something that usually is totally misleading. This happens specially when you check this tiny monitor of the camera, shot after shot. Everything looks right in there and you feel that whatever it could be done working on a particular subject-moment is done. Expanding that a bit, I say that knowing that you have unlimited frames and this little monitor to check “what you have done so far”, you can be driven to a state of less thinking and more doing, when by “thinking”

I mean those tiny moments between each shot where you suppose to study a bit how your instinct deals with uncertainty and by “doing” I mean pressing the button. Personally, when I photograph I am likely not sure of what exactly I have done so far with my frames, so, every next frame is a new story, a fresh and still unaffected attempt to make a better shot of the same subject. The sweet inconvenience of the unknown, which leads to pursuit for perfection, is surely a significant issue for me, and I don’t include any romantic parameters or the A passed away priest at a main street of town of Thessaloniki just before the way to the cemetery, Greece 2010

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Nelson Mandela at his office at N. Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, S. Africa 2008

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I use exclusively Kodak Tri-X always pushed to 800. I am kind of lazy and uncomfortable when it comes to experimentation with equipment, therefore when I feel satisfied with an item that I use I avoid to search for a better option which may demand a different situation. That applies also for the M6 camera. It is a very simple tool that can deliver exactly what I want it to, with minimum bad surprises and overall volume. Leica optics are known for their quality and when I felt that SLR doesn‘t really work for me anymore as my everyday companion, the choices were likely few. Now you live in Berlin. How do you see the level of photography in Germany?

kind of skeptical and blase regarding what they could achieve using their voice and their position as a unity. There are a lot of things going on right now in various places in the world which could be positively affected if the west spend less time in front of its monitor collecting information about anything and more time organizing various collectives with significant and common goals. Everybody (specially the Europeans) is totally aware of everything that happens today but respectively not so active.

I think we living at a time where although we are able to communicate and meet each other faster and better than ever by means of the technological progress, we are so distant as never before. Consciousness is something that had always a strong social value but today seems to be difficult to decide what deserves to be considered as significant and what doesn’t. It is a terrible paradox to think what could have be done if the big voices of the past had the communicational means that we have today, while today, where those means exist there aren’t any big voices anymore..

It is a terrible paradox to think what could have be done if the big voices of the past had the communicational means that we have today, while today, where those means exist there aren’t any big voices anymore..

Residents of Paralovo village play chess under a pro-American graffiti, Kosovo 2007

There are a lot of good photographers in Germany who are never stagnant. Germany has certainly a significant place in the history of photography and there are always a lot of Germanmade stories going on. This has to do with a tradition on conjectural arts that Germany has and also with the fact that Germans love to explore, to discover. They’re never sluggish. Do you think the Europeans are really conscious of the disparities and conflict that exists in other areas of the world such as India or South Africa? No, I don’t think that they are. The problem though isn’t about consciousness anymore but about simply acting and considering that today is easier than ever to act collectively, is very disappointing to realize that individualism is stronger than ever. Wealth and massive loads of information has made the westerns A heavy ill mother who suffers from AIDS surrounded by her three children who are HIV positive, Sparrow Village, S. Africa 2008

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Can photography be a weapon against intolerance and social problems? I think that there is a misunderstanding regarding the principals and responsibilities of photography. A camera cannot and should not be considered as weapon, in any case. There are a lot of times though where a photo made a considerable impact to our community by giving us the opportunity to witness a significant situation or event which otherwise would stayed in the dark.

Tell us about your work about the AIDS / HIV in South Africa. The work over that issue took place during a totally irrelevant assignment. I was to S. Africa to cover the visit of the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs together with a fellow partner and about 10 more Greek journalists. This assignment was planned to last one week but 2 days before the return flight we both decided to stay there after we discover that there was an untold story which is important to be published.

Sparrow Village is a hospice model with a unique role. Several volunteers search and collect AIDS/HIV patients from the streets of the ghettos and offer them at the hospice medication, their lost dignity and hope. I felt that this was something very important and it must be well known because a hospice such as Sparrow Village, which have managed to handle India, South Africa, Greece, Kosovo and offer very expensive medication ... Which location will impact more and treatment to patients who on a personal level? otherwise could never afford, it should be repeated and set a worldwide Every place presents its own individual basis as a realistic way to fight this features, difficulties and social aspects unstoppable and brutal illness. for which it becomes interesting, fascinating or just unforgettable. The hardest part for me was to deal I travel for photography rather than with all those orphan kids who lost photographing while I travel and I their parents because of AIDS and think that this process gives me the theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re themselves also HIV positive. opportunity to unveil the features of Their smiles helped me a lot some a place and to understand how things lonely nights in the safety of my hotel work there relatively fast. room while I was making a personal review of my experiences there during My concern is not to feel the beauty of the day. a destination via its particularities and its traditions or to have a good time Do you think it is necessary to during my stay but to dig as deeper travel to exotic places to get good as I can. The more that I discover the stories? more satisfied I am, therefore the locationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impact refers to what exactly No, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think so. Good stories are my film cans contain when I am back, everywhere and it is about personal rather to my collection of experiences. needs and a flourishing spirit of a > Photography can help our community to see and understand its social and environmental aspects but it cannot solve our problems. Photography could be an extremely useful tool but a tool needs always someone to use it, to operate it, it cannot make things happen by itself.

A bride celebrates her wedding night with friends and a fellow canteen owner beside the national road, northern Greece 2008

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During a underground religious ritual in a mobile Christian church made of a circus tent, Benoni, S. Africa 2008

Jonnek Jonneksson

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(I used later my payment from this assignment to finance a travel to India.) Anyway, it was the first time that the Public Relations office of the Greek National Opera had black and white-wide lens photos to use for its purposes for the magazines and they apparently liked it. I worked for three years with those guys and the material of that period used for a solo exhibition in the National Opera central theater in Athens and for an educational book illustrated with a generous amount of photos. This book is a pioneering opera and ballet introduction targeted to young people aged from 8 to 18 years and its language is fresh, simple and kind of alternative. What are your next projects? A bulldozer helps to fight a fire of a big old tyres pile, Athens, Greece 2009

During the Christopher Street Day parade in Berlin, Germany 2009

> photographer for those stories to be discovered and told. Experience helps a lot when it comes to a point to select what is worth to be considered as significant and what is not. A good story is not good only because it may present a strong subject, but because the photographer had made an exceptional work regarding research, subject selection, photographing, editing and presenting. In other words, there aren’t any good stories out there but just stories. It is up to the photographer to make a story a good one.

“About the Stage” What is the story behind that?

You have photographed various stages and back-stages for three years of theater, opera, circus and ballet. In 2009, the National Opera of Greece published an educational book with photos of your series

A few days later the phone rang and it was his secretary who informed me that I was allowed to go to the Theater and make a documentary over the preparations, the rehearsals and premiere, the way I wanted to.

Stage and back stage was the beginning of my professional journey. Everything started thanks to the former Director of National Opera of Greece Mr. Stefanos Lazaridis (19422010), who after he saw my work he decided that we must anyhow do something together but at the time he wasn’t sure what exactly that could be. It was the summer of 2007 and there was a preparation period for “Carmen” opera at Herodes Atticus Theater in Athens.

There are several projects currently under way but the one that interests me (and sucks my time) most is a new one over the various religions of our world. It’s kind of a long one and I don’t have any idea about when is going to be ready or how exactly is going to be its final form. I think that I am going to need a grant for that. I am also working over an ongoing project about the contemporary sociopolitical and environmental status of Greece, another one over Berlin and a small one about my own feet. Thanks for your time and your answers, Jonnek. I wish you the best.

# 2 MARCH 2011 An elderly man prepares himself for a swimming session at the lake of Schlachtensee, Berlin, Germany 2008

Jonnek Jonneksson

Portfolio

on their environment, as well as the problems that both humans and the environment face as a result of the contemporary inhuman mechanisms that the various governments and states develop and use.

ballet, opera and experimental stages in Athens.

His work has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and special editions across Europe, and he has launched a book titled “Varanasi”. He has participated in various group exhibitions in Germany and Greece and part of his work is represented by You-and-Art gallery in Zurich.

2010 - Solo exhibition “Canteens of Greece” for Athens Photo Festival, Athens, Greece (+catalogue).

In 2008 his work about AIDS/HIV in South Africa was nominated for the “UNICEF Photo of the Year Award”. In 2009 the National Opera of Greece published an educational book illustrated with photos from his series “About the Stage”.

2010 - Group exhibition “Who We Are” for Lightroom Gallery at Taf gallery, Athens, Greece.

2010 - Solo exhibition “www.berlin. com” for Thessaloniki Photo Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece (+catalogue). 2010 - Solo exhibition “Greece” at Kulturkueche, Berlin, Germany. 2010 - Duet exhibition “www.berlin. com” at Galeria Fotografii B&B, Krakow, Poland (+catalogue).

In 2010 he selected as one of the eight finalists for the Cedefop Photomuseum Award with his work about the dry dockyard of the Cape Town harbor. Cavo Paradiso club, Mykonos, Greece 2010

Jonnek Jonneksson is a

freelance photographer based in Berlin, Germany. He is 38 years old and he is photographing since 2006. Social issues and the human conditions that surround them are his main concern, a quest set to reveal what exists under the veil of everyday life by discovering the conditions that are responsible for the significant changes and progress of the global community. Also, an emphasis is given to people and their dependence

Also in 2010 he selected as one of the 3 finalists for the Photophilanthropy Activist Award with the “Sparrow Village” essay, about an AIDS/HIV hospice model in the area of Soweto, South Africa. Today he lives in Berlin with his family and works as a documentary and photojournalism professor at the f/16 Schule fuer Fotografie.

Selected Exhibitions: 2007 - Solo exhibition in the Central Theater of National Opera of Greece, with his backstage work over several Jonnek Jonneksson portrait

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Jonnek Jonneksson

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jonnek j onnekssOn www.jonnekjonneksson.com

Kids playing with a trampoline in the black ghetto of Alexandra, South Africa 2008

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Thomas Pickard

Projects

olar ork

A project by

Thomas Pickard Scientist Camille White standing outside a tent on the polar plateau, while conducting an Australian Antarctic Division sponsored project, Mac Robertson Land, Antarctica, on the 24 January 2005.

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Thomas Pickard

Projects

Frank Hurley’s Shackleton’s

The first photo book I ever received was ill-fated journey to coffee table book on Antarctica. As an impressionable teenager, I vividly remember looking at Hurley’s iconic photos trying to imagine the biting cold and what it would be like to live in such an unforgiving polar environment. The realisation that someone could be a photographer and travel to such a place was a huge inspiration to me at that age. Though it sounds naïve to say it now, at the time I really believed that if someone could be a photographer and go to Antarctica, then I could to.

The polar cruise ship the Clipper Adventurer in pack ice, Snow Hill Island, Weddell Sea, Antarctica, on the 4 December 2008.

View of an iceberg arch, Hall Bredning, Renland (Tugtut Nunat), Greenland, on the 20 August 2007.

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Thomas Pickard

Projects

Antarctica on an Australian Antarctic Division sponsored research By the time I was eighteen I managed to visit

project. My role was as a Field Assistant to a researcher, which meant each day we would fly out from a research station and collect samples at various locations. Though I wasn’t going as a photographer, I did have my one camera a Nikon FM - with one lens and 30 odd rolls of film. In my mind I felt like a polar photographer. I had visions of shooting amazing work and launching myself onto the world stage of polar photography. Little did I know.

In the month after the trip, I had my photos developed and was sorely and disappointed. My dreams of producing long-lasting images of people in the polar environment, was replaced by poorly composed photos, which lacked decent lighting and at times, terrible exposures. I had learnt my first lesson as a wanna-be photographer – having a camera and being in an amazing location was not enough. I needed to learn more about the craft of photography.

epic polar images

PhD researcher Duanne White looking for sample sites as part of a study on global warming and paleo climatic change, Unnamed Valley, Manning Massif, Northern Prince Charles Mountains, Mac Robertson Land, Antarctica, December 2003.

Cape Petrels’ and a massive tabular iceberg, Antarctica.

Field guide Anthony Hull (R) and PhD researcher Duanne White (L) looking for sample sites as part of a study on global warming and paleo climatic change, Mac Robertson Land, Antarctica, 3 December 2003.

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In 2003, 12-years after my first trip to Antarctica, I returned to the continent, this time supporting a researcher on a multi-week trip in the remote . Unlike my first trip I had actually managed to teach myself some things about photography. Before heading south , again, I upgraded my equipment, purchasing a wide-angle lens, telephoto lens, a flash, and 75 rolls of Velvia. I felt I had enough knowledge and a suitable kit, to produce some good photos. Before I left, I gave myself three photographic goals for the trip: get close to the action, always take photos during the worst conditions

Thomas Pickard

Northern Prince Charles Mountains

Nikon F100

and shoot in good light.

The bow of the Australian icebreaker, The Aurora Australis plunging into large ocean waves during a voyage to Antarctica, The Southern Ocean, on the 21 November 2004.

PhD researcher Duanne White (L) and Dan Zwartz (R) on Mt Lanyon at 2.00 am in the morning whilst searching for sample sites as part of a study into paleo climates and current day global warming,

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Thomas Pickard

Projects

PhD researcher Jane Edgar at Trajer Hut, Trajer Ridge, Vestfold Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica, January 2004.

The photos I shot on that trip were a vast improvement over what I had previously produced. Looking through my material it became clear , both that my interest was in in terms of showing the scale of the landscape and in terms of showing what life is like living and working in a remote part of Antarctica. This theme of people against the backdrop of the would become a greater focus on subsequent trips to the Arctic and Antarctica.

photographing people

polar-regions

Two men cast long shadows after a day working on a scientific project in the Northern Prince Charles Mountains, on the 1 January 2004.

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Thomas Pickard

Projects

In the summer of 2008, I signed on as a Polar Guide / Photography Lecturer on a for an 8-week season on the Antarctic Peninsula. Unlike my previous three trips to the continent, this was my first trip . Though tourists pay to be taken to the continent, with I learnt from conversations with many of them, that they visit Antarctica for very personal reasons. Reasons that came up again and again, included: ‘learning more about this unique continent’, ‘seeing Antarctica before it disappears due to and my favourite, ‘it was always a place I knew I had to visit’. This last reason really resonated with me. From the moment I was given Frank Hurley’s book as a teenager, I just knew I had to get to Antarctica and experience the place for myself.

100-passenger expedition cruise ship tourists

global warming’

A firefighter standing at the ready next to an ice runway used for Australian Antarctic Division aircraft, North Masson Range, Framnes Mountains, Mac Robertson Land, Antarctica, on the 3 February 2005. The distant range is David Range.

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Thomas Pickard

Projects

Spending time with passengers on and off the ship sparked this idea that I should start photographing the passengers against the backdrop and that our of Antarctica. Given my time off the ship on landings was limited to two landings each day, photographing tourists was quite a practical thing to do - I was always surrounded by them when we went ashore.

role as a Guide

Tourists standing on the bow deck of the tourist cruise ship the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, Nordkappsundet, Spitsbergen / Svalbard, Norway, on the 27 June 2007.

Sea kayak Guide Solan Jenson paddling past a large iceberg, Hall Bredning, Renland (Tugtut Nunat), Greenland, on the 20 August 2007.

# 2 MARCH 2011 A polar guide and his inflatable motorized boat, known as a zodiac, being lifted onto the deck of the expedition cruise ship the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, Hambergbukta, Torell Land, Spitsbergen/Svalbard, Norway, on 1 July 2007. The Akademik Sergey Vavilov is a former Russian research vessel and is now used for tourism charters in the polar regions.

Thomas Pickard

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Conceptually I wanted to isolate some of the people in the imagery I shot. To me it was a metaphor about the . To do this, I would deliberately look for tourists who had wandered off on their own, away from the larger group (we often had 100 people ashore at any one time). My time on landings was always limited for photography. As a result I made a really conscious decision to just shoot everything I thought worth photographing and not worry too much about the results, then and there. Surprisingly, this approach seemed to free me up creatively. The work I produced during that 8-week trip has been some of my best Antarctic work to date.

experience

Tourists watching a Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) on a snowbank, Cuverville Island, Danco Coast, Graham Land, Antarctica, on the 17 November 2008.

Antarctic

A polar guide looking for a route through sea ice, Vernadsky Station, Argentine Islands, Wilhelm Archipelago, Graham Land, Antarctica, on the 25 November 2008.

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Thomas Pickard Despite four seasons in Antarctica and two seasons in the Arctic, comprehending the enormity of the landscape is still something I find really difficult to convey to people. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one thing to stand on the edge of a frozen lake, look across to the other side and know that it is 10-kilometres from one side to the other. To show that in a photo is really difficult. Visually I have tried to solve this problem by using people to give the image a sense of scale. The photograph in of the lone sea kayaker below a Greenland is one of my favourite examples of this.

vastness

colossal iceberg

Expedition staff on a scouting run prior to a passenger landing, Port Lockroy, Goudier Island, Danco Coast, Graham Land, Antarctica, on the 26 November 2008.

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Thomas Pickard

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Where once Antarctica was a destination that was difficult to get to and as a result photograph, the truth now is almost the opposite. can go to Antarctica, whether by plane, ship or on a chartered yacht. As the continent has become more accessible, more amateur and professional photographers have visited it than ever before. Photographing the landscape and the wildlife is a common subject for visiting photographers and for good reason – it is stunning. Though I have and produced photographed photography during my polar trips, I have some always wanted to produce imagery that showed the polar-regions a little differently to the bulk of polar photography that exists today. Concentrating more on people – whether they are scientists or visiting tourists – has felt like a way in which I could accomplish this to some extent.

Anyone with the money

straight landscapes wildlife

Photographer Thomas Pickard self portrait, Stromness, South Georgia, on the 18 December 2008.

About the Author

Thomas Pickard

is an Australian born photographer currently residing in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Formally trained in photography, Thomas began his freelance career in 2006 during a two-year stay in the sun-soaked Maldives. In between epic surf sessions at the local surf breaks, Thomas spent his time photographing island culture, commercial fishermen and five-star resorts for magazine clients. Today Thomas divides his time between shooting for commercial and magazine clients, working as a polar guide / photography lecturer in the Arctic and Antarctica and experiencing as much of the world as he can. Thomas has travelled to 40 countries and worked in the Arctic, Antarctica, Cambodia, India, Maldives, New Zealand, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

To view more visit www.thomaspickard.com Feet of an Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), Paulet Island, Erebus and Terror Gulf, Antarctica, on the 8 December 2008.

King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus), Salisbury Plain, South Georgia, on the 18 December 2008.

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Jeremy

Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

uttonHibbert

A Scottish photographer in Tokyo

A man exits a train line carrying a huge model skull, in Shibuya train station, in Tokyo, Japan,

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Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

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How does a Scottish photographer arrive in Tokyo? I came to Tokyo to be with a girl I’d met, and who is now my wife. It was also a good time to leave my home city of Glasgow, in Scotland, and the diminishing editorial photography market there, and come to the bigger metropolis of Tokyo. How many years have you lived there? Do you speak Japanese? I came to Tokyo about eight years ago now. My Japanese isn’t the best, I need to study more… I was in Japan in 2008 with a Japanese girl (that’s another story!) traveling to different cities. What do you think of their culture? It can be a very conservative and inward looking country with quite old-fashioned attitudes. And trying to work here as a photographer one can encounter many barriers thrown up by that conservatism and traditionalism. It can be hard to open doors and gain access. But there is a lot of history here which is fascinating. And of course modern, high tech Japan is the one everyone knows and expects, but that really only exists in small pockets in the major cities. Tell me some things that you like in Japan. (And don’t tell me sushi or sakura!) It’s a relatively safe place to live and work, and have a family. It’s clean. The infrastructure works, - traveling around the country on assignment by (shinkansen) bullet train is very easy and it never fails to impress me.

Shoko Tendo holding her 2 year old daughter Komachi, Tokyo, Japan.

How would you define the type of photography you do? I work mainly in editorial photography, photographing in a ‘reportage’ type style for newspapers and magazines. I also shoot for NGO’s, and some corporate clients. I have also undertaken self-initiated and self-financed projects, most notably ‘Satra, The Roma of Sintesti’, which you could call a documentary project. How is a working day in Tokyoland? Not every day is full of photography. I have to promote my work, maintain contact with clients, find new clients, liaise with journalists I work with regularly here, shoot assignments, edit and archive work. I need to also maintain my own archives of work, get my images into libraries, to think of projects …the workload is endless; I’m never short of work to do. The glories are all mine, but so are the failures.

I enjoy the opportunities to meet people and get into places, or situations, that without a camera I would not get. I’ve enjoyed incredible opportunities for travel and met incredible people, and learned a lot through these opportunities. It can be a highly educational occupation. I like the adventure.

The photography can pay the bills but ... What do you get from the photography from an emotional standpoint? I enjoy the opportunities to meet people and get into places, or situations, that without a camera I would not get. I’ve enjoyed incredible opportunities for travel and met incredible people, and learned a lot through these opportunities. It can be a highly educational occupation. I like the adventure. I like the sense of exploring the world and times I live in, and living my life to the full, and my cameras help me to do this by affording me opportunities such as I mentioned that I’d perhaps not otherwise get.

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Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

What story would you like to narrate with your photos? I like to photograph people, normal people. We all have stories to tell, every person in every street has fascinating stories. I like to hear them, and in some cases I get the chances to photograph them and then others can hopefully hear the stories. All the little stories, of all the people, make up the society we live in, and in turn the history of our times. And that history would have changed you with your photos? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not sure my photographs can change history, but I do feel it is important to photograph for the future. My project on the Roma of Sintesti, Romania, for instance is one such project. In the time frame I worked on that project the culture and life, of the one camp where I worked, went under a large transformation. I think my photographs serve as a record of those times, and of some things that have now, or will soon, vanish. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be very proud if years from now historians could look at my work and glean some insights into the lives of the Roma, or if my images stand the test of time and become a historical document of the Roma at that time of change. During the past decade, you were one of the leading photographers for Greenpeace International. How is it working for Greenpeace? How have you grown as a professional and person? I enjoy immensely the Greenpeace assignments I do. As well as the travel it is always educational for me to learn of the environmental problems facing society, the impact man is > Police remove a huge wooden crucifix which a protestor had been carrying during anti-Iraq war and anti-American demonstrations in front of the American embassy, Tokyo, Japan. 2003

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Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

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> having on the planet and the ways in which we can try to reduce this impact. Before I worked with Greenpeace I was perhaps a little less aware of these issues, but now I take much more notice, and try to live accordingly. Again it comes down to the individual in society, we all have our individual part to play in the greater issues that society as a whole faces. Also, quite often when working with Greenpeace I am working as part of a team, and that is a welcome break from the occasional solitude of freelance life. I am passionate about what I photograph, so there is always the hope that the images will strike a chord with a viewer and as a result they may take action to help the environment, or perhaps to reexamine their own lifestyle, or even if the pictures can just make someone more aware of the issues facing the planet then that is great. This drives you to make as powerful images as possible. You’ve traveled in many countries. What places have marked you a personal level? It is a hard question, so many countries or places leave their mark on me for different reasons…my travels in the Central Asian countries were great, good assignments and I worked with the same two guys in four countries which was great and they became lifelong friends; my travels with Greenpeace and in particular to Papua New Guinea on two occasions, a country I’d wished to visit since I was a child, it’s a place of outstanding natural beauty and interesting culture both of which are sadly at risk due to the impact of the logging industry. I was fortunate to

join two Greenpeace expeditions to the Southern Ocean to photograph the Japanese whaling fleet in action, and the chance to see and experience such a mighty ocean, and working on a ship for a few weeks at a time as part of a team. I enjoy all assignments, but in particular the long ones, one or two months type, those transcend being just an assignment and become a period of your life, and that brings with it many memories, experiences and the chance to learn new things. Have you ever experienced a situation of danger in your work that you can tell in a pub to impress a girl? It is easy after twenty years of being in the job to be the guy with endless anecdotes, funny ones, strange incidents, scary and dangerous moments, or about people I’ve photographed- famous or otherwise. I don’t mind sharing the stories but it can be easy to come across as boasting or ‘seen it all, done it all’. Most people have interesting stories to tell, I’d rather the girl tell me her stories ! I personally think that photography can help change the world by giving visibility to the rights and wrongs of humanity, documenting our existence. What are you looking with your photography? I like to try and give a voice to the underdog, to tell the stories of those who otherwise might not have their story heard. That may be by trying to cut through stereotypes and show how some of the roma live in Romania, or by helping the inhabitants of a small Papua New Guinean village voice their fears and worries about the illegal logging industries which operate on their land. If through my > Children play on the beach of Han Island, in the Carterets Atoll, - an atoll at risk from rising sea levels, in Papua New Guinea, 2006.

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Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

Turama Forest Industries loggers bulldozing through the forest near Morere to extract trees, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea, September 2008.

A young child stands in front of an area of land which has been illegally logged for timber, near Omati, Papua New Guinea, September 2008.

A local land owner paddles his canoe near to a barge laden with illegally logged trees from the rain forests of Papua New Guinea, September 2008.

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Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

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I like to try and give a voice to the underdog, to tell the stories of those who otherwise might not have their story heard.

> photography someone stops and takes some notice of these stories then thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be great, and if it brings about any change for the better then my work will have been worth it. What do you like to dedicate a few years? Teach in college, writing books? Having been out of Scotland for a few years I would like to return and to complete a large photographic project there. I know what I will do, and where. I am also interested more and more in editing of images, and could see that in years to come I may work as a picture editor somewhere. In a few words, what advice would you give to a photographer who is beginning his career? Be prepared to give it your all, to commit to it fully. He who travels light travels fast. Always dress appropriately for the situation you are in. Be polite and remember your manners. Do you think you will stay in Japan or will someday return to live under the gray sky of Scotland? Japan is my base for the moment, but I will undoubtedly return home to Scotland at some point. Thanks for your time and your answers Jeremy Thank you for your interest in my work, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appreciated.

A woman and child stand outside their home in the Roma camp of Sintesti, near Bucharest, Romania, in August 1994

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Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

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Preparations for a roma wedding in Sintesti, Romania, 1996.

Natural rain forest, and the destruction of it, to make way for Sinar Mas/APP-owned plantations to produce pulp paper, Indonesia, October 2010.

Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert was

born in Scotland, UK, but is now based in Tokyo, Japan. Sutton-Hibbert has worked for editorial, corporate and NGO clients for almost 20 years. His work has appeared in magazines such as National Geographic, Time, Marie Claire, Le Figaro, The Sunday Times Magazine and many, many more. His work has been given awards of distinction and have appeared in exhibitions worldwide. More works and information, can be found at:

www.jeremysuttonhibbert.com

Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert portrait..

The fluke of a minke whale brakes the surface of the Southern OCean, under the bow of The Yushin Maru catcher ship of the Japanese whaling fleet.

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Jeremy Sutton - Hibbert

jEremy s uttOn-hibbert www.jeremysuttonhibbert.com Eight years after the country declared its independence, in 1991, from the Soviet Union a statue of Lenin looks over preparations for National Childrens day celebrations in Ala-Too Square, formerly Lenin Square, in the capital city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 1999.

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Jon Michael Anzalone

Jon Michael

nzalone

Noise in the Soul

Bucharest, Romania. 2008.

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In April of 2011, photographer Jon Michael Anzalone is traveling to Istanbul, where he plans to shoot a roll of film every hour for 24 consecutive hours. We spoke with him a little bit about his background as an artist and about the project. Why did you become a photographer? I picked up a Holga about 6 years ago because someone showed me photos they took with it. I found the optics of it very appealing--dreamy and strange, unpredictable. I have always been a creative person, but I just lack the ability to render things realistically. When I found the Holga, I found that its optics worked well with my creative process. Something could be real and yet still feel unreal. It was very appealing to me. I’ve since moved away from the Lomography / plastic camera trend for a variety of reasons. Do you remember the first photo that impacted you? By the time I was being exposed to good photography, I was being exposed to a lot of it. It’s hard to remember a particular first as a standout. There are a few photographers whose work is a constant inspiration to me: Roman Drits, Noel Ruiz, Zehra Guveli, John Vanderslice, Kahka Kahkiani, Ori Jauch. How would you define your photography? I think photography is about the marriage of moments: the internal, what is going on inside the artist’s emotions, and the external, what is going on in the emotion of the place or subject.

Riga, Latvia. 2008.

I did most of my best work to date during dark times in my life, and I think that is reflected in the work. There are calms before storms, storms before calms, and the ability to find love in it all: a joy at the end of all things. Your photos are usually slightly out of focus, noisy, vaporous. It reminds us of past epochs. What do you think about this? Timelessness is an important quality to me. I want my work to be relevant in or out of context of its time. I avoid pop culture references or things like cars, street signs, advertisements-anything that could shift focus from the image onto all of these unremarkable signifiers.

There is a great Peter Adams quote, that photography is about “depth of feeling, not depth of field.” Laying too heavily into technical training can take the soul out of photography. I see photographs that do that and it feels like someone is shouting at me. After all, the camera is only a means of expression. In your photography I want to see that you have expressed yourself, not that you are good at doing an unintriguing thing. Do you prefer to use analog or digital photography? I am a film purist. I will not work in digital. The day they take away my film is the day I take up painting! What type of analog equipment use it on your projects? As I mentioned earlier, I started with a Holga. A few years later, I found a Voigtlander Vito CL camera in a flea market. Someone must have thought it was broken and sold it, >

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Virginia Beach, Virginia. 2008.

Jon Michael Anzalone

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Jon Michael Anzalone

> but I was able to fix it. I bonded with that camera over several trips and I understand it very well. My girlfriend’s father gave me his old Nikon, which was such a great honor, and the work that I have done with it thus far has been very much to my liking. As for film, I love Ilford. I really like to shoot 400 and 3200 speed Ilford B&W. What kind of post-production techniques do you employ? I develop all of my B&W film at home and scan the negatives. I try to be true to the image as best as I can, but I’m not above making creative post-production choices if it means salvaging a strong image that would have been lost otherwise. You can’t tell, I promise. Tell us briefly what your workflow is like. I love to shoot when I travel, and I do that once a year if I’m lucky. I end up doing most of my photography over the course of a week or two and then do the production end of it when I return. I can’t sleep when I have undeveloped film at home. I work very hard and intensely. Then, if I’m lucky, there are shows. I’ve discovered that I love installation and figuring out how to use a space. Tell us about an experience that has marked your life. A location, a person, a situation... I spent a lot of time on trains between towns and cities. I would sit there and try to come up with manifests on my theories about photography. I wanted to have some kind of comprehensive written document on why this works for me the way it does. But I got distracted and stopped, and I saw something, stuck my camera out the> Istanbul, Turkey. 2008.

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Cluj, Romania. 2008.

Sighisoara, Romania. 2008.

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(a common situation in the state) so we couldn’t even read what was happening on the news. My parents couldn’t hear from me until about 12 hours after the attacks began, so for all they knew I was in the middle of it. They had already been through this before with my brother who worked at the World Trade Center in NYC and had been late to work on 9/11, so he had been safe but unreachable for hours as well. I couldn’t put them through that any more, so I went to chase a few job leads in Europe where I could stay with friends. Some of them had hopeful prospects of getting my thengirlfriend a visa so she could join me, but it didn’t work out. The jobs all fell through and I ended up broke and back in New York, sleeping on a couch for a few months. The relationship fell apart of course, despite our best intentions.

my school days. People who have been taken advantage of stand up for themselves and cast off corruption and oppressive systems, and they stand together and take care of each other. But everywhere in the US media there is constant reflection on Iran in ‘79. It’s so ignorant. I had planned to begin my project in Cairo because I wanted to show the daily, normal life of people in a country with Islamic cultural heritage. Sharing these kinds of images--we all want to have jobs, eat good food, love our families, better ourselves, and, for some people, to honor God--disassembles some of the media constructs that keep us from really seeing each >

My parents couldn’t hear from me until about 12 hours after the attacks began, so for all they knew I was in the middle of it. They had already been through this before with my brother who worked at the World Trade Center in NYC and had been late to work on 9/11, so he had been safe but unreachable for hours as well.

I did a lot of great work during those days.

> window, and took a photo like this. (up) It’s chaos, and you can struggle to stand still and brace yourself, or you can ride it and see what you find. If you’re overthinking when you are shooting, you aren’t going to get a good result. You can overthink the editorial stage when you choose the images that represent your experience. Take good photos first. You lived in Mumbai in 2008 during the terrorist siege. What was this situation like? What decisions did you take after this

experience? This was a very difficult time for me. I was in a relationship with a girl in Mumbai. We had just come back to the city from a long trip to a wedding in Nagpur, in central India. I remember walking to the apartment that night and feeling like I was finally “home”. We would have gone out downtown where the attacks were. We had actually planned to but we were too tired and went to sleep instead. We got a phone call in the middle of the night asking if we were okay, and by morning we saw what was going on. There was no electricity that day

You travel to Turkey in April to begin a new project. Tell us about it. Why Istanbul? I actually had planned to do the project in Cairo until the revolution broke out, and there are a lot of layers of conflict and irony with everything here. This will be a little bit of a long story. The revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and hopefully Libya, have been stories that are so inspiring to me not only as a human, but also as an American. The overthrow of a government that doesn’t respect its citizens, and to do so with general nonviolence, dignity, and pride--it’s what I learned to value while studying history throughout

Brooklyn, New York. 2008.

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Sibiu, Romania. 2008.

Jon Michael Anzalone

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Istanbul, Turkey. 2008.

Stockholm, Sweden. 2008.

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Istanbul, Turkey. 2008.

> other and respecting each other. I want to do my part to remove fear from the media. Now, of course, that the region fell into conflict at this time to a point where I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do the project in Cairo seems to be a terrible irony. But what were people fighting for? Dignity, eliminating corruption, democracy and representation, the ability to work and to buy food, selfdetermination. These are all things we hold very dearly as Americans. But the revolutionary period is an anomaly in the timeline. It would be fascinating to document it, but I am not a journalist. I moved the project to Istanbul for personal security reasons as well the fact that it is out of the context of the constancy of daily life.

Riga, Latvia. 2009.

Istanbul has a very different heritage, still with Islamic foundations, and it offers a metropolitan aspect that means the city will have some part of it that is awake during the night hours of my project. Restoring the recognition of the dignity of all of the people in the world brings mutual respect, and that in turn brings peace. And removing fear from the American political barometer takes the wind out of the sails of the truly heinous political movements here in The States. This is a very demanding project which poses many challenges. Are you looking for challenges in your projects that will get the better of you as a professional photographer?

Part of the project, beyond what I feel are the extroverted aspects which I discussed in the previous question, are the introverted aspects. I want to be able to look back at my project to read it step-by-step, minuteby-minute, to have a document of how the thought process evolved that led me to the great photos. I know not every shot will be strong, I expect them not to be. Normally on a good roll, I demand one great shot of myself.

to learn about myself as I do about my subject, and like I said in one of your first questions, I think what will be unique is the marriage of those two things. It will be a very personal document as well as a celebration of the world I discover. Thanks Jon, we hope to see the results of this exciting project soon.

The rest get put aside, but they do have a value that explains the context of the great photo. I also want to see what happens when there is the same amount of emphasis put on photos taken in the perfect soft light in the evening as there is in the middle of the night when Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been awake for some 20 hours. I think I have as much Jon Michael Anzalone portrait.

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jon michael a nzalone www.defeats.us

Transilvania (countryside), Romania. 2008.

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1. Who are you? 2. How old are you? 3. Where do you live? 4. How many years have you lived in Hollywood?

My name is

Shawn Nee, and I am a documentary

photographer based in Los I’ve lived in

Angeles.

Hollywood for 10 years and I’ve been

doing documentary and street work for about 4 years. Online, I’m known as discarted and I run a blog with my close friend called boywithgrenade.org

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5. Define your city in a word. Broke/n.

Anti-war protestors march in Hollywood, Ca.

Anti-illegal immigration advocates demonstrate near Leimert Park in Los Angeles, Ca.

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6. How is living in Hollywood? Hollywood is a great place to live for all kinds of reasons. And if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a photographer interested in doing

documentary work, then you should certainly try living in this city because all you have to do to find someone or something to photograph is leave your house everyday with your camera. This city is a

rabbit hole of opportunity.

Superman and the Hulk take a break form the Boulevard.

A man dressed as the Tin Man walks Hollywood Boulevard.

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7. How are the people? (Define the inhabitants in general) If you ask ten people you will get ten different answers Twin shows me a tattoo he got in memory of his son.

describing the inhabitants of L.A. But I see Hollywood as a

dysfunctional melting pot of ubiquitous the extremely

hipsters,

wealthy and poor, wannabe movie-

types (everybodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a screenwriter in this town), thugs, cops, illegal immigrants, the uninsured, simple-minded and

corrupt

city officials, and the disenfranchised whom begrudgingly coexist and keep this city moving on credit without any true regard for one anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existence.

Oree and Betty at the Gilbert Hotel in Hollywood, CA.

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8. Your favorite place is... My favorite place is actually not in Los Angeles, but in the desert towns of

Blythe and Palo Verde, which sit

on the western side of Colorado

10 Freeway.

River in California along the

Many people would avoid these places because

of the extreme heat, but I love the area and the people and I go there regularly to get away from the city to camp and fish. For me,

fishing and photography are very similar activities that share the same emotions and involve patience.

Linda by Carlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Jr.

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9. Your best memory in this city. I will never forget my encounter with

LA County

Sheriffs who accused me of being “in cahoots with

Al-Qaeda” and threatened to submit my name to the TLO and put me on the

“FBI’s hit-list” for taking photos of the

newly-installed turnstiles at the Hollywood and Western station. The officers never determined if I was working with terrorists (which I’m not), debunking their entire reasoning and legitimacy for my detainment. The encounter was captured

on video and is on

YouTube.

An unidentified man confronts an LAPD officer.

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10. A moment to photograph... I have definitely had my own “moments” while

photographing strangers in public. And I do believe that brief, kinetic links are made on occasion; there’s

a vibe you feel when it happens and the

energy pulls you into the moment with the other person. On the other hand, this feeling could be completely one-sided on my part, and despite what the image may project when looking at it, you really don’t know what the other person was experiencing then. Overall, I feel it’s a rare occurrence for a moment that lasts less than a second to become anything but fleeting for the person I just photographed going about their daily lives. My truly important moments and meaningful

connections with others mostly

occur while working on long-term documentary projects.

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11. A special moment to share Special moments are usually private

moments and it’s best

not to share them with everyone. However, if you’re in Los Angeles and you want to create a unique moment for yourself and someone else, the 6th

Street gun range near downtown Los Angeles on

Valentine’s Day is a good place to start. It’s a spot where hipsters, girls modeling mini-skirts and six-inch heels, gangsters, and cops gather to showcase their love for their significant other while packing rented heat. The range allows photography too, so you can take all the photos you want of people pumping lead into targets of approaching

zombies, domestic

terrorists, and dock workers.

Bryan looks up to the sky for UFOs.

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12. A special person you’ve photographed at the street Unrelated to my street work, I photographed a man named

Bill Bowersock for a multimedia project on Social

Security inequality, highlighting the reality that the federal

government does not recognize homosexual relationships as valid. Which, basically means that

LGBT couples do not

qualify for the benefits that heterosexual couples get the luxury of having. Bill was with his partner, television producer

Harvey

Frand, for 32 years (which is longer than most heterosexual relationships), and after Frand’s death in 2009, he was forced to move out of their home because he did not qualify for Harvey’s survivors benefits—all because he was gay. The money, which rightfully belonged to Harvey and would’ve helped Bill pay their

mortgage, pretty much vanished into thin air, forcing Bill to leave the home that he shared with Harvey. Photographing Bill and helping him tell his story is the most important thing I’ve done as a photographer. The video can be see on discarted.com Jon waits to cross at the corner of Hollywood and Highland.

To view more: www.discarted.com

boywithgrenade.com

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Sol Neelman

eelman

Weird Sports?

Dog surfing seems like a fun idea for a dog owner. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not always the case for the dog.

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photographers, whom inspire and challenge me. I laugh when I think about the talented photographers I can call dear friends. And my über-talented photo editor, Mike Davis, whom I worked with at The Oregonian, is editing my photo book on Weird Sports, which should be released by Kehrer Verlag in the Fall of 2011. My first professional photography job was in 1996, when I was 25, working for an NGO in Bosnia after the war. I knew I was in such an amazingly photogenic place and time, but I didn’t have the skills to make even good photographs. I returned home with a goal of working for newspapers so that I could fine-tune those skills and then later travel as a freelance photographer.

Golfers take to the streets to participate and celebrate World Urban Golf Day.

In your bio you make a confession: you are a failed athlete. Is this the reason that you travel around the world photographing weird sports?

friends followed sports, so it gave us something in common. And I travel because I love meeting new people and visiting new places.

I joke that I’m a failed athlete in part because I am. I’ve always loved sports, but I was never very coordinated. High school basketball coaches kept me around because I was tall. Sadly, height is not a skill.

Worked ten years as a newspaper photojournalist. The final seven years documenting your state, Oregon. You left for travel and photography weird sports. What are the reasons, is there any excuse?

My interest in sports in large part stems from growing up as an onlychild without a father. Sports was a vague, masculine blueprint on how to become a man. All my guy

It was time for a change. Newspapers were a wonderful training ground for me to get my visual bearings, to discover my interests and to become friends with a crazy collection of

Woods. In fact, I don’t know he’d be any good at it. How many countries and places you have visited in search of material for your photography? In all my travels, I’ve been to about 30 countries. But not all of those trips were made with Weird Sports in mind. While I seem to have created a persona as “The Weird Sports Photographer,” I love photographing pretty much all sports. Even football. Tell us, the weirdest place... That’s got to be one of my first stops for this project, East Dublin, Georgia to photograph the Redneck Games with friends. The Redneck Games >

My interest in sports in large part stems from growing up as an onlychild without a father. Sports was a vague, masculine blueprint on how to become a man. All my guy friends followed sports, so it gave us something in common. And I travel because I love meeting new people and visiting new places.

Of course, once I started working for newspapers that was all I thought about doing. I thought I’d retire a newspaper photographer. But with all the layoffs and shrinking profits in newspapers, a long-term future seemed very unlikely. I felt like leaving on my terms rather than theirs. After I caught my breath with my freelance career, I realized I had subconsciously accomplished my goal set back in 1996. Crazy how life works like that. What do you think are the reasons why these people organize and participate in these sports? I think that people strive to have their own identity - and to have fun doing it. It’s communal, like-minded people having fun together, shaping a traditional sport and putting some of their own personality into it. Golf, while popular, is pretty elitist and I think rather dull. But Urban Golf, played in the streets with tennis balls, well that’s just plain fun. And anyone call play. You don’t have to be Tiger Hog Wrasslin’ seems simple enough: be the fastest team to stuff a muddy pig in a barrel. It helps to have a cooperative hog.

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> were created in 1996 by a radio station spoofing the nearby Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. They created mud pit belly flops, bobbing for pigs feet, armpit serenading, etc. I half expected to discover people there pretending to be rednecks. But by and large, they all seemed like authentic people, celebrating their personalities. Everywhere we turned, there were photos. And people laughing. And doing stupid shit. It was magical. And surreal. The weirdest person... That’s a good question. Most of the people I discover playing Weird Sports are actually quite normal. Weird Sports is their outlet. The cat that puts on the Tough Guy obstacle race in England, Mr. Mouse (aka Bill Wilson), he’s pretty squirrelly. He seems to enjoy being weird. In order to participate in the Tough Guy, you have to sign your own death warrant. The weirdest situation... One that comes to mind was photographing Kung Fu near the Shaolin Temple in China. The area is littered with dozens of martial arts academies. A girlfriend and I came across this vast field, full of hundreds of students in red outfits practicing Kung Fu. It was an amazing visual discovery. But because I went as a tourist and not an official photographer with chaperone, they stopped practice until I left. Hundreds of students in a huge field, all staring at me, waiting for me to leave before continuing. It was hard for me to explain to them, even with a translator, what I was doing. And the level of paranoia was very high. I still consider it a wonderfully successful day of making images.

You have photographed major sporting events as the Olympic Games of Vancouver and Beijing, but you show another point of view... Photographing the Olympic Games, to me, is a daunting challenge. It’s not hard to make the same photos that everyone else is making - they’re standing right next to you in the photo well with a 400mm lens. My challenge is to make photos that others aren’t seeing. But access is extremely limited. Those from larger agencies and publications get special treatment and access, which I understand. In a lot of ways, I don’t want that access. I want to be in the worst position possible because no one will be seeing what I see. An advantage I had to photographing the Olympics was that I was trying to simply make photos I liked. So, I took a lot of chances. Like I said, I tried to put myself where others weren’t. I even took days off from the Olympics in Beijing to photograph the city environment. A couple of my favorite images are from those times. Sports photography is often looked as simply action photography. But to me, I treat it as spot news, general news, features and environmental portraits. And I seldom use long glass. If I can make a good sports image with my 35mm lens, I’m a happy camper. I’ve been lucky to photograph two Olympics. Not sure if I need to do another - unless someone hires me to do it. There are way more interesting photos to be made at these Weird Sports events. And the access there is to die for. Tell us about some of the strangest sport you’ve photographed.

Members of the CTDL (Cardboard Tube Dueling League) fight on the battlefield of Gas Works Park in Seattle. The individual winner will receive a swanky, custom-made cardboard tube. Losers risk bruised egos and annoying paper cuts.

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A red-clay spray showers spectators at the mud-pit belly flop, highlight of the annual Summer Redneck Games.

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That might well be Pig-NFords races in Tillamook, Oregon. One of those talented buddies I was talking about, Matt Eich, gave me a heads up about this Weird Sports along the Oregon Coast his discovered while on assignment. The first Pig-N-Ford Race took place at the Tillamook County Fair in 1925. The idea for the race happened when a couple Tillamook County farmers were transporting some pigs and one got loose. They chased the pig in their Model-T Fords and had so much fun; they decided to create an annual race

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at the fair. Drivers haul a pig under their arm while doing laps. Those that race today are descendants of those original farmers. And the vehicles are the same Model-T Fords. I love shit like that. History, community, sport and weirdness all wrapped together. Do you play any sports? Do any weird sport? I play basketball, one of the sports I could photograph anytime, anywhere. In fact, at the Beijing Olympics, I treated myself to as many menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basketball games as I could attend. Such a crazy team of talent to watch and document. >

The annual Mud Bowl held at Hog Coliseum has been called the cleanest sport ever played in knee-deep mud.

Drivers haul a pig under their arm while doing laps. Those that race today are descendants of those original farmers. And the vehicles are the same Model-T Fords. I love shit like that. History, community, sport and weirdness all wrapped together. Sol Neeman protrait. Photo by m. Pig-N-Ford Race, Tillamook County Fair.

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> People ask if I participate in my Weird Sports. For better or worse, I’m a watcher. I so love taking photos, that it often trumps being in the games. I might need to break out of this cycle, though. There’s a lot of wild shit out there. OK, I love this kind of sports! What do you think about organizing Olympic weird sports? Would you like to give the medals? I’ve actually toyed with having a Weird Sports festival. I’m very curious what - if any - level of interest in Weird Sports my upcoming photo book will create. If you’re asking if I’d like to rule the world of Weird Sports, the answer is Hell Yes.

Unique Halloween costumes and accessories are on display during a special weekend of Cyclo Cross racing.

Uniforms in the Lingerie Football League consist of shoulder pads, helmets, elbow pads, knee pads, garters, bras and panties. Players are fined for wearing anything underneath that might prevent - yes, prevent - a wardrobe malfunction.

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When Sen. John McCain saw one of the first Ultimate Fighting Championship fights, he quickly declared them to be â&#x20AC;&#x153;human cockfighting.â&#x20AC;? Starting with UFC 14, gloves became mandatory. Kicks to a downed opponent, hair pulling, fish hooking, headbutting and groin strikes were banned.

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A monster wrestling (“Kaiju”) bout ends suddenly as “Giii the Space Pirate” pins “Dusto Bunny” before a frenzied, sold-out crowd.

Do you think the United States could win many gold medals at this Olympics? Americans have the lead, easily. But the Germans, English and Italians are not that far behind. Lots of weirdness for everyone. How do you see the future of the weird sports? When I started photographing Weird Sports in 2005, there were about 10 that were on everyone’s list. Well, that list has grown and become more interesting. I think that smaller communities will seize more opportunities to host Weird Sports. I also think that brands like Red Bull will expand their sponsorship of these events. People love to have fun, so there’s always growth in that. And thanks to the Internet, word of these Weird Sports will continue to get out. How can it not? If you want to add something more... I’m always looking for new Weird Sports to photograph. My contact info as well as news on my upcoming photo book are available on my web site: http://www.solneelman.com Thank you, Sol

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Case in point is a boot camp for mascots in rural Pennsylvania. The camp offers high school and college students a chance to learn new tricks of their trade while perfecting their schtick in front of fans.

A modest crowd watches a captivating match of hoop sepak takraw. The team sport, popular in Southeast Asia, involves kicking a ball into suspending nets 26 feet above the court.

Originally called Octopush, underwater hockey was invented back in 1954 by four English divers looking to stay fit during the winter months, when it was too cold to dive the North Sea.

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s ol n eelMan www.solneelman.com

Despite severe congestion and slick road conditions, weaving through San Francisco traffic has never been more fun than at the annual Big Wheel Race.

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eeping

An Even Keel

A project by

Mark Parrish puts new laces on his skates before a home game against the Worcester Sharks.

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At thirty-four, Mark Parrish is the oldest player on the minor league hockey team Portland Pirates. The Pirates play in Maine’s largest city—Portland—and are the farmteam for the National Hockey League Buffalo Sabres. In a locker-room full of young players looking to break into the NHL, Mark stands out from the rest of the team because he has already achieved what they still seek: a decade-long career in the world’s premier hockey league. Drafted in 1996 by the Colorado Avalanche, Mark is a veteran hockey player, a one-time all-star, and a respected goal-scorer who has played for a number of NHL teams. In 2006 he signed with the Minnesota Wild, a move celebrated by the local media as the return of a native Minnesotan to his hometown team. But in the summer of 2008 Mark was bought out from his multi-million dollar contract with the Wild, a sudden move that shocked both Mark’s family and portions of the Wild fan-base. In the ensuing years, Mark has played for five other NHL and minor-league teams, unable to earn a permanent spot on an NHL roster. When I began my project with Mark, he had just joined the Portland Pirates after being signed by the Buffalo Sabres during their training camp. At first glance, this photo essay offers a behind-the-scenes look at the daily existence of a hockey player. My concern wasn’t covering the hockey games but rather the team’s preparation for them and the players’ lives outside the rink. When I pitched the project to Mark, I emphasized that I wanted to focus on him “not only as a hockey player, but also as a dad.” I think there’s this perception that hockey players are larger-thanlife, brutal -- yet incredibly skilled

Andrew Propp

-- athletes who make their living whizzing across a giant sheet of ice for sixty minutes at a time. To an extent, that’s correct. The view the mainstream media affords the general public of professional athletes focuses heavily on games and provides little context about the rest of their lives. The press is not entirely to blame for this phenomenon; the management of these teams limits access to players and spends great energy grooming the public perception of them. This point isn’t raised as a critique of the system but rather to emphasize that the access I got was extraordinary. Like any other documentary project, this essay’s success hinged on initial research and an ability to work within a closely controlled environment. Coaches work extremely hard to control their locker rooms, which are notoriously fickle places. Photographing Mark required befriending his teammates, coaches, and the support staff. I dealt with some restrictions imposed by the head coach, but they appeared to be less than those placed on beat reporters working for the local media. Although the bulk of the project was spent at the rink covering practices and workouts, I also went with the team on outings into the city, and was invited into Mark’s home.

Each player is given a customized workout based on his position and age.

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The team’s trainer checks Mark’s right shoulder because of occasional soreness. According to Mark, bumps and bruises are a constant part of playing hockey.

The notion of aging in professional sports is also a theme of this essay. At thirty-four, Mark has many more goals left in his professional career. But, historically, he has reached the point where goal production begins to decline and it’s harder to cultivate the interest of teams more attentive to the bountiful, young talent seeking to get into the top league.

Mark celebrates his team’s winning goal during a street hockey game in the Cumberland Civic Center. The Pirates were scheduled to skate at another rink, but with its power out, Coach Dineen decided to hold practice on the stadium’s bare floor instead.

“You just can’t worry about the things you can’t control,” says Parrish... “All you can do is play your game to the best of your ability.” Though Mark is a remarkably upbeat person, his demeanor couldn’t disguise the physical beating his body took in the few months I spent with him. The photos show a man frequently pushing his body to the brink and suffering the >

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A nap is an important part of Mark’s pre-game ritual.

Mark plays with his two-year old daughter Gianna before heading to the Cumberland Civic Center for a home game.

> consequences of doing so. While professional athletes at Mark’s level live a privileged life, it is also one full of tension. Minor league hockey players battle not only for their coach’s attention but also for a call-up to their NHL affiliate. The potential for Mark to be loaned to the Buffalo Sabres with little warning often gave me reason to think about how to best cover

such a potential rapid turn in his story. Unfortunately for Mark, his sudden development wasn’t a call up but rather a serious injury. During a game against the Springfield Falcons he tore his groin muscle after being awkwardly hit behind the opponent’s goal. Suddenly, Mark’s story had changed to one about physical recovery, not an immediate >

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Mark listens as Coach Dineen delivers a scouting report on their opponent’s goalie.

Mark absorbs a hard hit in a game against the Providence Bruins. “The thing that I’m reminding myself most is just don’t get too worked up or too caught up in anything else, just relax, and play the game.”

> return to the NHL. While the story primarily focuses on the hockey rink, it’s also about a man negotiating a path to balance his family life with his professional career. Early on in my project I found an article in the Virginian Pilot, a newspaper based in Norfolk, Virginia, where Mark discusses the difficulties of spending time on the road away from his family. In particular he spoke of playing in Norfolk while his wife

was expecting their second child and living in Tampa Bay, Florida. He described these difficulties with a candidness few professional players are willing to employ. With this unusual trait in mind, I spent as much time as possible at his home. There it became clear to me that the spouses, girlfriends, and family are the unsung heroes behind each >

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Mark lies down before receiving an MRI at the Mercy Hospital in Portland. On November 27th, 2010, Mark injured his groin in a game against the Springfield Falcons, sidelining him for over a month.

> hockey player, the glue that keeps them together despite frequent moves and a helterskelter lifestyle. The moments Mark had with his wife and children were his refuge from the other world he inhabited— instances where his unfettered love for his family were on display. It was important to me to include these photographs to show his nuances. While “hockey has given [Mark] everything,” and he is the first

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Mark takes part in a hockey tradition known as a “hot stove.” After a game, players drink beer and talk about hockey in a secluded corner of the ice rink.

to admit that “[he doesn’t] know anything else in life besides hockey,” these photos depict a man navigating not only the rapid turns in his professional career but also the joys of a new family. Or as Mark would put it, his attempts to “keep an even keel” amidst it all.

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While the story primarily focuses on the hockey rink, it’s also about a man negotiating a path to balance his family life with his professional career.

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About the Author Originally hailing from the greater Washington D.C. area, I began experimenting with photography in my late teenage years, while working at a wilderness camp for boys in Maine. I continued to develop a profound photographic consciousness throughout my undergraduate academic career at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where I engaged in both personal documentary projects as well as paid formal assignments. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, I attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, a place that fostered my understanding of photojournalism. I’m currently in the midst of a five-month long séjour throughout Europe and Africa, using my documentarian abilities to capture the nuances of life in each of the regions I visit. After my return in May I will be based in Washington D.C. To view more about me and my work, please visit http://www.proppphotography.com/ The Pirate’s trainer helps Mark rehab a torn groin. “You just can’t worry about the things you can’t control,” says Mark... “All you can do is play your game to the best of your ability.”

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Mark Parrish prepares to enter a scrum on the boards during a game against the Worcester Sharks. “Hockey has given me everything,” says Mark. “I don’t know anything else in life besides hockey.”

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