July 29, 2016

Friday Round Up - 29 July, 2016

This week on Friday Round Up a review of the exhibition Mongolian Lens 1 curated by Jerry Galea and the opening of Andrew Chapman's Giving Life exhibition at Magnet Galleries Melbourne.

Review:
Mongolian Lens 1
Curated by Jerry Gal
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(C) Otgonsuren: "Imagine relying on wood or coal-burning stoves for cooking and heating, with fuel costs eating up 40% of your income. Then imagine the discomfort of having to get up in the middle of the night when it's minus 35 C to go to the bathroom, outdoors. Worst of all, imagine you and your children breathing the thick, toxic smog from thousands of stoves everyday."

A criticism often levelled at documentary photography is that it tends to be western-centric where a photographer will enter a community and capture it from an outsider’s perspective.

One of the things that is so refreshing about the collection of images that formed the exhibition Mongolian Lens 1 is that the vast majority have been taken by Mongolian documentary photographers who show the audience the issues they want to focus on within their own communities. While many of the tropes that appear in Mongolian Lens 1 – poverty, environmental pollution, industrialisation and substance abuse – are common subjects for documentarians, the view from the inside gives greater depth; these are issues the locals want to talk about rather than the emphasis being imposed or assumed.

While the capturing of images is today more straightforward and more accessible given there is no requirement for film, developing and printing, gaining exposure for work can prove problematic even for the most seasoned photographer let alone those on the margins of the industry.

The work in this exhibition would not have made it to the walls of Magnet Galleries in Melbourne without the commitment of Australian documentary photographer and academic Jerry Galea, whose PhD research centres on how Mongolian society is transforming in the wake of globalisation. Using the lens of documentary photography, Galea examines the cultural significance of the photograph in Mongolian society and how local documentary photographers are using the medium as a vehicle through which to understand their own story. 






Above: Winter Horse Racing (C) Davaanyam Delgerjargal: "The Naadam festivals, particularly the horse racing, will certainly, always be my subject of shooting. For years, I took photos at the finishing line of horse racing...During the racing, lots of children fall down, often due to other people's wrongdoing. We, Mongolians - old and young - run to the winning horse to touch its sweat for luck. This creates such chaos that horses startle and rear. Often their child riders are tossed off as a result".







Above: Gold Rush (C) Ganzorig Lkhamsuren: "The Khuvsugul province is well-known for its natural beauty and Lake Khövsgöl is one of the country's major tourist attractions. The largest forest areas of Mongolia are located around and to the north of this lake...'Ninja miners' dig small unauthorised mines or pan for gold. They are so named because they carry the green bowls they use for panning on their backs...Locals say there are now around 5000 people attracted to the region by gold. Wild and untouched before only tsaatan (reindeer nomads or hunters) would travel this far". 

Mongolian Lens 1 is an insightful, and engaging, exhibition that reveals a culture of great depth and complexity. These images enable us to move beyond the fascination of the ‘other’ because we are seeing through the eyes of locals. This view delivers a perspective that is rich with meaning. While there are images that are unique to this part of the world, there are universal themes also. This combination creates an immersive experience and for those with an inquisitive mind, it builds knowledge and fosters understanding.


Above: Rural Schools (C) Davaanyam Delgerjargal 




Above: Fashion (C) Davaanyam Delgerjargal



Above: Ulaanbaatar Borders (C) Rentsendorj Bazarsukh: "At the edes of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, are the city's ger districts, where more than half of the capital's residents live without access to basic public services such as water, sewage and central heating. In 1989, 26.8% of Mongolia's population lived in Ulaanbaatar and by 2010 it was 45%... thousands of herders left the steppe for the ger districts building hasta - small fenced enclosures - and erecting gers and tin-roofed brick houses."

Above: Ger District (C) Khash Erdene

Mongolia is a fascinating country that is rapidly developing at the expense of many of its citizens. In these images we can see the rise of modern industry juxtaposed against a more ancient way of life and the struggle inhabitants have in trying to hold onto traditions that are dear to them. As progress continues apace more people are driven into the cities where new settlements lack basic services such as sanitation and fresh water and employment opportunities are slim. The environmental impact of progress can also be seen in the billowing towers of toxic smoke that choke cities and in the hillsides ravaged by mining. Yet it would be incorrect to assume all the images in this collection are focused on the negative. To the contrary, they show life in all its multiple truths. There are celebratory images, quiet family moments, and idiosyncratic portraits that convey the complexity of the human condition. 

Above: Alcoholism (C) Injinaash Ing: "In Gobi Altai province, in the Biger district, children are checking to see if the drunk passed out in the middle of the steppe is someone they know."

Above: The Route the Forest (C) Davaanyam Delgerjargal: "The route to the forest is getting longer and longer. To collect wood for fires one needs to set off before light and get back well after dark".

Mongolian Lens 1 offers a contemplative view of modern life in a country that, beyond its borders, is still largely shrouded in mystery. The photographs that accompany this review are of my choosing and demonstrate the strong storytelling skills of the Mongolian documentary photographers. I look forward to following this project as it develops. To find out more visit Jerry Galea's website.


Above: From Jerry Galea's series A Wandering Life, the project which became the foundation and inspiration for his PhD research. "Early in the fieldwork I realised I had to take two distinct approaches to photography. For myself I wanted to work like a fly on the wall...(but) the photographs the nomads wanted me to take were very different. For them the photograph was an occasion, a formal event. My subjects carefully considered their clothing, chose their background and structured their pose; it was a reminder of a past when photographs were considered and a very formal event."

(C) Injinaash Ing: "On the Way to the Ovoo - in Bayankhongor province, in the Bogd district, we were taking the train with some lamas going to an Ovoo (dedicated to the holy one) worship ceremony. Ovoos are often found at the top of mountains and in high places like mountain passes. They serve mainly as Tengriism religious sites, used in the worship of the mountains and the sky as well as in Buddhist or Shamanist ceremonies, but often Ovoo are also landmarks. Almost all researchers say that originally all ovoo were made from holy woods, as well as rocks, and to this day they must include wooden elements."

End Note: This exhibition also featured a silent auction to raise funds for the Batzorig Foundation of Documentary Photography in Mongolia, which was named in honour of Tsevegmid Batzorig, a Gamma Agency pioneer Mongolian photographer who met an untimely death in the course of his documentary work in 2001. The money raised will fund a documentary project in Mongolia chosen by the Foundation. I’m excited to have been the successful bidder for "On the way to the Ovoo" (above).

Exhibition: Melbourne

Andrew Chapman - Giving Life


Award-winning Australian photojournalist Andrew Chapman knows firsthand what it's like to benefit from organ donation. Chapman received a liver transplant after being diagnosed with Haemochromatosis an inherited disorder in which iron levels in the body slowly build up over many years and destroy your liver. So when Donate Life Victoria asked him to shoot a series of pictures to promote Donate life Week (1st August) he didn't hesitate.

Shot at the Austin and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospitals in Melbourne, Giving Life charts the pathway of organ transplant and it is hoped the exhibition, and publication of the images, will motivate people to register as an organ donor. 




















(C) All images Andrew Chapman

Find out more at Donate Life.

Opens this Sunday at 2.30pm
Exhibition runs 2-10 August
Level 2, 640 Bourke Street
Melbourne



July 22, 2016

Friday Round Up - 22 July, 2016

This week legendary photojournalist Tim Page is back with another collection of unpublished images and an essay, this time from the Vietnam War protest in New York City in 1967.

In exclusive monthly installations, Tim will showcase images from his vast archive and share his experiences with Photojournalism Now's readers.  

Special Feature:
Tim Page Archive - Protest New York City 1967 



"New York City is always a weird blast when you first alight there. So big, so tall, so intense - madness is some form of organised mayhem. The inhabitants almost a separate race with a distinct argot, beyond intriguing, beguiling, seductive. For a photographer it was entrancing and that was after a long summer in France and Paris - a pay back for two years in the ‘Nam. It was the fall of ’67 and the war had seriously escalated causing the first waves of the anti-war movement.

It started mid-town outside the Hilton where Dean Rusk, Secretary of State was in residence for his daughter's marriage to a black dude; double contentious. The anti-war folk blockaded the NYPD cavalry that blocked access to the foyer. So easy to cover, it was three blocks from TIME/LIFE where they had thrust a brick of Tri-X at me and a “go get”.

It remained peaceful until fledgling mobs broke off to stop traffic and climb on cars. The police gloves came off and the cavalry started breaking up the demonstrators. Billy clubs and police vans followed, folk went home, the message well broadcast as virtually all the networks and papers were within blocks of the action. 






























Daybreak found the whole contingent back on the streets, this time downtown around the armed forces induction centre on Canal Street. There was a turnout of thousands, mostly older folk. Concerned mothers, old veterans, business types. The younger part of the crowd contained the same radical elements that went feral the previous night. For an hour or so there was a running skirmish in lower Manhattan as the majority peacefully blockaded the draft centre preventing its opening and the next lot of cannon fodder from joining the armed forces.

The power of the anti-war movement escalated parallel to that of the conflict, a movement that the North Vietnamese and Liberation Front played to: the swell against the war now took in blacks, gays, hippies as well as having the sympathies of more than half the populace. It would be a key factor in Johnson not running again, Robert Kennedy’s assassination and Nixon’s demise. Public opinion plus other global protests contributed heavily to the cessation of that misguided adventure in neo-colonialism." Words and pictures by Tim Page

July 15, 2016

Friday Round Up - 15 July, 2016

This week on Friday Round Up the winners of the inaugural Magnum Photography Awards and some interesting weekend reading; 'Surviving Suicide in Wyoming' with photos by Daniella Zalcman, stories about that Baton Rouge photo and 'Horses and the Palestinians who raise them' with beautiful images by Daniel Berehulak for the New York Times.

Awards:
Magnum Photography Awards

Magnum Photos and LensCulture have announced the 44 photographers who have been chosen by an international jury for the inaugural Magnum Photography Awards. You can see all the winners and finalists on LensCulture, but here are my favs. Such diversity. Just wonderful.

Dougie Wallace (UK) - Harrodsburg
Category: Series - Street











Mauricio Lima (Brazil) - Refugees
Category: Series - Documentary

 








Jens Juul (Denmark) - Six Degrees of Copenhagen
Category: Series - Portrait






Sandra Hoyn (Germany) - The Longing of the Others
Category: Series - Photojournalism



Kajol with a customer. She thinks she is 17 years but does not know her exact age. She was married for 9 years. Her aunt sold her to the Kandapara brothel. She has a 6-month old son, Mehedi. Two weeks after the birth, she was forced to have sex again with customers. Because of the baby, her business has not been so good. © Sandra Hoyn. Photojournalism Series Winner, Magnum Photography Awards 2016.


Used condoms outside the brothel in Tangail. © Sandra Hoyn


Pakhi,15 years old, with a customer in her room in the brothel. She has lived for one year in the brothel. She was married when 12, but then ran away from home. A man picked her up from the streets and sold her into the brothel. © Sandra Hoyn.

Weekend Reading:
Surviving Suicide In Wyoming



Kenny drives back to his ranch from Bighorn National Forest. A box of 9mm cartridges in his truck.

I came across this story on Fivethirtyeight about the prevalence of suicides in middle-aged men living in the USA. Written by Anna Maria Barry-Jester with pictures by Daniella Zalcman, it uncovers how you can spiral into the darkness of depression, and how you can make it back to the light. It's a great read that addresses important issues around self-esteem, but also how societal 'norms' impact individuals. Daniella's images capture the isolation found in the landscape, and also the lifestyle, both of which can become insurmountable burdens.

"As a middle-age white man living in the mountains of the Western United States, Kenny (Michelena) is among the demographic of Americans most at risk for suicide in the country. With a suicide rate of 44 per 100,000, men in this age and geographical group have more than three times the risk of dying by suicide than the national average. In Wyoming, approximately 80 percent of suicides are men; a quarter are men ages 45-64." Read the full story on Fivethirtyeight

Can a photograph become instantly iconic? 
According to various publications, yes and below are a couple of articles about this photo. While I don't dispute its power, I'm not convinced that the word 'iconic' is being used in the right context. We, as in the media, tend to rush to label images and push a particular message. Again, I'm not arguing the validity of the protest, I'm questioning the need to claim an iconic status.



BBC - Baton Rouge killing: Black Lives Matter protest photo hailed as 'legendary'
Petapixel - Photo Editors Weigh In on Jonathan Bachman’s Iconic Protest Photo

Horses and the Palestinians who raise them  
New York Times with photos by Daniel Berehulak