WePhoto Reportage 2020 - Vol. 11 Dear all, This is yet another proud moment to be releasing the next edition in Reportage Photography under our banner - The Series. Since 2014 when WePhoto Group was founded we have come this far out of our sheer passion for this art. Over the time, thanks to the continuous help and support of many likeminded colleagues, who have been as enthusiastic as me in supporting this cause, that today we have created many platforms and thematic pages to represent the various genres in photography. Today WePhoto group has the widest presence across Facebook covering almost every possible genre in photography. As of date we represent various groups, thematic pages on Facebook, picture boards on Pinterest, a dedicated web portal and more than 100 books published on issuu.com. This annual collection called - The Series - is made of eBooks each belonging to a specific photographic genre, and includes the artwork of several authors from Italy and abroad. The one in your hands is the eleventh thematic book dedicated to Reportage. Apart from the e-version these publications are available in the form of coffee table books as well.
Editorial Board Mario Bun!uga: Editor & Art Director Pankaj Anand: Review Associate Priyanka Agrawal: Review Associate Germana De Chellis: Chief Graphic Designer Nunzia De Feo: Group Leader Reportage
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We are very excited and happy to feature these beautiful images and most of all, be able to share them with a wide range of viewers. Please spread a word around by sharing, and recommending to visit these eBooks from our webpages and links given ahead. This is how you may help us grow and share our passion for photography. In this Book you may also find the links to our Facebook Group - WePhoto. Do join the group, invite your friends to share their work there and enjoy some of the best images from around the world.
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Gratitude My special thanks to Nunzia De Feo and the entire WePhoto team who has helped me select images, contact authors and collect material for publication from the back office. Thanks to all the authors who have made this volume into such a great collection by their valuable contributions. I also wish to thank Germana De Chellis for her impeccable layout and cover designs and to Pankaj Anand and Priyanka Agrawal, who have offered themselves for English translations, proofreading of drafts, and content writing. I owe my thanks to our admin colleagues too, who are constantly managing and taking care of the group as well as its 12 thematic pages and online magazines and are ardently bringing forth the best photographers from across the globe. I have no words to express my gratitude to the wonderful work they do every day with great passion and dedication. WePhoto Network the Founder Mario BunÄ?uga
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The Authors
Anne Launcelot
Orna Naor
Elisabetta Aquilanti
Rosalie Heller
Giovanni Simone
Laura Facchini.
Vineet Sharma
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Copyrights All rights are reserved to WePhoto and Mario Bunčuga for this entire eBook and to individual authors for their work included in the related chapters. This book can be downloaded for free and distributed freely only as a whole. The images and text are exclusive property of the authors who might authorize their use elsewhere at their own discretion, if contacted personally in advance. You may also order a print version coffee table book from our link through Peecho online print service. Any misuse or otherwise will be prosecuted through the prevalent rules on the subject of copyright. © 2020 WePhoto
© 2020 Mario Buncuga
© 2020 Anne Launcelot
© 2020 Elisabetta Aquilanti
© 2020 Giovanni Simone
© 2020 Laura Facchini.
© 2020 Orna Naor
© 2020 Rosalie Heller
© 2020 Anne Launcelot
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Reportage
Since the time Photography started, a significant, if not the most important, use of this form of communication has been the documentation of events. From sports to war, from political events and trade to the narration of common life events, in the streets, cities, villages or in the fields, it is all about the description of life in its numerous forms. Sometimes it makes a story or a news that help us create awareness; while at others it creates a basis for a protest or an action. Nothing has ever made a greater impact on the mind of its viewers than a pictorial coverage of a real-life instance. Such is the purpose of this eBook and we sincerely hope that you will have the same feelings as ours by the time you flip through the last page.
Mario BunÄ?uga May 2020
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ANNE LAUNCELOT Halifax, Canada
www.annelauncelott.com facebook.com/anne.launcelott twitter.com/Stalla49
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. - British author Aldous Huxley (1884-1963) I visited Russia in October/November 2018 for the opening of my first major international solo exhibit, which was held at Krista Gallery in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast.
After unveiling of the exhibits my Russian host drove me into the countryside for the better part of a week to get a feel for what rural Russia is like. Russia is a poor country but the people are very friendly and welcoming. After visiting many small communities it soon became evident that the villagers endure a very harsh existence. They are a hard working, resilient group of people who value family. I hope these ten photos will give a bit of insight into an ordinary Russian’s life. 10
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ELISABETTA AQUILANTI Ancona, Italia facebook.com/Elisabetta-Aquilanti-Ph-247-104418657745313/
facebook.com/elisabetta.aquilanti
I was born and live in Ancona. I love to travel and meet people with different cultures and customs because it is always a moment of growth, a kind of integration of the missing parts for me. This report is a small tribute to the red people of Namibia who are still very tied to their land and traditions one of which has deeply affected me. It is the rite of birth and the song of life.
For this tribe called Himba, an individual's age is not counted since they were born or conceived, but since the day the baby was a thought in their mother's mind. When a woman decides that she will have a baby, she sits under a tree, alone, and listens to her heart until she could hear the song of the baby wanting to be born. Then she goes back to the village to conceive her baby physically. Tribal women know that each soul has its own vibration that expresses its uniqueness. At the birth of the child, the community comes together to sing a song for them. Then, growing up, if they get hurt or fall, someone picks them up and sings that song to them. Even if the child does something wonderful, or participates in puberty rites, or when they get married, the people of the village sing their song. This song will accompany the person throughout their life in all the most significant moments, even difficult ones, should they commit a crime or a serious misconduct. This is because the tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not a punishment, but is the support, love and remembrance of the person’s true identity. 22
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GIOVANNI SIMONE Roma, Italia
giovannisimone.it/ yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/ facebook.com/giovannisimone1981
Photography was my first means of traveling. My first camera, purchased when I was only 13 years old at a market in the countryside, allowed me to start exploring the world, from the surroundings to the most distant and remote locations. These places were the ones that I read about as a child in the books, dreaming that one day I will visit them.
I have always dedicated my life to travel and I consider traveling to be a philosophy of life: a form of knowledge, a way to celebrate the gift of diversity. In spite of all my journeys in the past, I still feel like traveling across the globe looking through the eyes of a child, with that desire to know, observe and live the senses typical of childhood. The journey for me begins when my curiosity arises for an area on the planet, of which I begin to make a detailed study and then see my insights turning into the unique adventures. I consider this preliminary approach to researching for my journey in advance pertinent and it always brings great joy and emotion to be finding myself among the people and places that I had long imbibed in my imagination. The peculiarity of my travel reports is to show the captured moment as close as possible to my vision. Every photo of mine tries to expressively detail the memory of this life experience and the beauty of comparison with those real places summarizes my photographic lifestyle 34
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LAURA FACCHINI. Milano, Italia
facebook.com/laura.facchini.5 instagram.com/laly569 flickr.com/photos/laurafacchini/
I was born in Milan in 1969 and as a growing girl I soon realized I had a predisposition for photography. Over the years, this passion together with a strong enthusiasm has increasingly become an important aspect of my life. Traveling and exploring the world is another great passion of mine that combines perfectly with photography; I believe that both are complementary because taking pictures while traveling is a bit like traveling twice.
I especially love visiting eastern countries where I enjoy using natural light to capture the expressions, attitudes and experiences on the faces of the inhabitants. Seizing the depth of a look, the beauty of a smile or the spontaneity of a gesture makes me come into contact with the soul of the person in front of me. The strong emotion that I have experienced in photographing people over the years has led me to prefer portrait photography. I think that through the expressive medium of photography my personality is represented, the trait that identifies my style, the emotions that I experience when I come into contact with places, people, cultures and traditions different from ours and all this I try to convey through the pictures I make. 46
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ORNA NAOR Tel-Aviv, Israel
orna.naor@gmail.com www.ornanaor.com
I am a Street Photographer, based in Israel, and I travel a lot. My street photography is shown in brick and mortar galleries in Israel and abroad, as well as in various Street Photography groups over the net, in some of which I'm an Admin, too.
I focus on human moments and emotions, while creating my own story about what is happening. My work has been published in various Street books and magazines (WePhoto Street, World Street Photography, MonoPix, WeStreet, Israeli Lens Magazine, Shades of Grey Magazine and more). I have also showcased my work at many exhibitions and festivals in US, Spain, Israel, India, Slovenia, France and other places. 58
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ROSALIE HELLER Baltimore Maryland, United States
facebook.com/rags2roses4 instagram.com/rosaliehellerphotography youtu.be/UPII1eVQCKk
Edward Weston said - I start with no preconceived idea. Discovery excites me to focus. I am an American photographer born in Baltimore Maryland, on the eastern coast of the United States. As a child I loved to sketch images with pencil on paper. I kept a box of black and white photos torn from fashion magazines to study light and shadow.
Thirty years ago I began shooting film with an Olympus 35mm SLR, a Yashica and Mamiya medium format cameras. I shot mostly in black and white, developed in my makeshift kitchen darkroom and printed on a 1940’s Omega enlarger that my uncle had gifted me. Into the wee hours of the morning I worked my images as my children slept. Each morning I had to dismantle the darkroom. Eventually my cameras and lenses became too heavy for me to carry. When I discovered mobile photography I was hooked. I could capture life on the street unnoticed and free from the weight of my heavy equipment. The images I have selected for this series were captured in Rajasthan India, Rehoboth Delaware and at the March for Women’s Rights in Washington DC.
All were shot with a Samsung Galaxy 9+ and
processed on a tablet using an editing program and my finger as a brush. I work the images as if I were back in my darkroom. I hope my images resonate with the viewer and convey our common humanity. 70
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VINEET SHARMA Varanasi, India
I always feel privileged for having been born and brought up in the holiest city of Varanasi in India. Varanasi is revered amongst Hindus and Buddhists as a seat of spiritual consciousness, being situated on the banks of sacred river Ganges. A world heritage site as per UNESCO, it is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. I am fond of photography, traveling and off-road adventures but most of my works are proudly confined to my own city.
My images have won a lot of competitions in India and abroad, and have earned me accolades. One of them has appeared on the covers of Street Photography in World, India Street, published in Italy. A 5-page detailed article based on Varanasi’s Ghats and Streets was published along with the cover photo in Az Utazo Magazine, a premium publication of Europe published from Budapest, Hungary. My detailed photo coverage of Prayag Kumbh -2019 was also published in Az Utazo and in TRIP & Travel Magazine published from Budapest, Hungary. A similar photo coverage with an article is about to be published in SISRA Magazine, Hong Kong. A detailed interview has also been published in WordPress as one of the top Street Photographers of India. 82
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Reportage Vol 10 - April 2019
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