An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist

[ EPF 2019 FINALIST ]

Political charts of the world are very fluid realities. Countries are created and countries die. In today’s world, globalization hasn’t killed the concept of Nation-State, but has certainly tore down its importance. A world once defined by borders and supervised by the static power of national governments, has been replaced by a more dynamic kind of transnational reality, in which the power is no longer connected to a single State, but takes the form of NGOs, banks and societies who rule by collecting global data. In this ever-changing scenario, little attention is paid to the fact that the map of the world is still hiding today a huge number of unrecognized States.

Our “Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist” is an imaginary journey in real territories that uses documentary photography to show the paradox of those portions of the world that self-declared their independence but – for different reasons – haven’t been recognized by the UN. By documenting and conceptualizing some aspects of the reality of these places,our work in progress aims at stimulating a reflection on the subject of personal and national identity, at a time in which this seems to us more than necessary. The physical place where one is born, where one is guarded after death, the family; these are elements defining our personal identity. On the other hand, the culture of a place (arts, monuments, traditions, food), its history and politics, the fauna and the flora, make up the identity of a “Nation”. That’s why we are dealing with tracing these elements in the 12 territories we have chosen to portray: Transnistria, North Cyprus, Catalunya, Republic of Artsakh, Isle of Man, Iraqi Kurdistan, Greenland, Somaliland, Sahrawi, Lakota, Taiwan and Ryukyu. Having already visited the first 3 territories, the Burn Emerging Fund would allow to carry on our research including the maximum variety of global situations into the Atlas, which we hope will take the form of a book and an interactive exhibition.

Short Bio

Related Links

www.laviniaparlamenti.com

www.manfredipantanella.com

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The Emerging Photographer Fund is supported by generous donors to the Magnum Foundation

The Song of the Riverside

[ EPF 2019 FINALIST ]

We need to understand where we are and how we got here. Once we are clear on these issues we can move forward…. (Thomas Berry) Rivers have river rights as well as humans have human rights. People, communities, environments, and nature have deep interrelated connection. A connection that is more complex than an ownership of land, a fishing permit, a cottage on the riverside, or a beautiful sundown on the opposite shore of the river. The name of the river in these photos is Iijoki. The name comes from an ancient word of Sami (’iddja’, ’ijje’), which means ’night’. So, the name of this river is Night. Night- River flows through Yli-Ii, the riverside village, which belongs now to bigger city of Oulu. It means that there are no public services any more. The village is disappearing. Night-River is full of songs of memories, and its riverbanks are full of people with these memories. Some of them are sacred, silenced, or even untold. Usually it seems that nobody wants to remember the song of the unforgotten village – and the blocked river. But some of the songs are still alive, or they are waking up through the people, who are starting to re-member the song of the wild, free-flowing river.

You need a light to walk along the unknown path to your dream.

A man has heard the river singing a sad song.

A surge tank for the thousands smells, and a listening dog – it’s that time of the year.

This landscape gives you a permission to be who you really are. But it’s only the landscape, not the people.

The last wild ones – a ringer man and a young Ural owl.

The deserted gazebo of the secret kisses.

The last will.

Looking for habitants of the wilderness.

This is the back part of my next Metamorphosis – ready to flow with the river. Its teardrops have covered my back.

Ludicrous droll family, who does whatever it will.

Stolen dreams.

There’s a dark land in the North, where people can create their own light – when it’s the darkest time of the year.

The landscape of the village, and the diversity and ecology of native nature, changed totally during the 1960s, when the river was dammed – and there were built many hydroelectric power-plants in it. The damming of the river was one of the biggest eco catastrophes in the area of North Finland. But it was also catastrophic for the whole society of the village and its families in many – maybe still unidentified and unconscious – ways. Nowadays the eco catastrophes is still going strong – in clearcutting and swamp ditching. But the second longest river in Finland – with its 150 rapids – is still alive under all the constructions, destructions of riverbeds, and hydroelectric dams. It lives also in peoples’ minds and bodies, in their eyes and destinies.

What more should I need? Everything is here, near. Simple life – fresh bread and catch of the upcoming summer makes you happy.

One light in the dark is the light of the belief system. But a Spirit of Riverside does not know any systems, because it’s the system itself. Natural system.

One of the Riverside Factories of Today. Unnatural System.

Why did you have to go? Where did you go? I do not recognize your shape any more, it has disappeared into the shadows. I still miss you.

I used to know this wilderness, this riverside, and all the birds and fish of it. I used to know all the paths. Now I am just standing here and looking at the devastated landscape. They have blocked the flow of water, logged the growth of trees. What can I do?

The Fall.

Please, forgive me, what I have done. Forgive all my sins, A Holy Spirit of the Swamp.

You do not want to know anything of my life under the red lights. Anyway, this is not Pigalle, or Reeperbahn. This is the red life of the livestock.

Looking for a luckier dawn.

The Earth gives you what you want, but it also leaves you addicted to it.

At some night, in some of my dreams, I am still traveling through the riverside. It can’t get me from its grip, It has decided to take me home. I am almost there. When I will raise my eyes to look the whole view, I may see where I am, who I am.

Once upon a time there was a huge, long river, which was full of big salmons, who swam up the river every summer. When people blocked the river, and the salmons could not gain, and they changed themselves to rainbows. Sometimes, somewhere, in the riverside of some wild little river, which still exists, you could trap a fish called rainbow trout. She will tell you the ancient love story of the big wild rivers and salmons.

Short Bio

Related Links

www.jannekorkko.com

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The Emerging Photographer Fund is supported by generous donors to the Magnum Foundation

Microlight

[ EPF 2019 FINALIST ]

After the death of my father in 2011, I discovered a letter, written to his psychotherapist, about his time in the Border War. He dedicated his life to sustainable projects and education in African countries, and what I read in the letter took me by surprise. It was not the man I knew. The letter detailed horrific incidents he took part in, as a 17 year old boy.

One paragraph from the letter, bothered me the most: “…she stated that I joined and did what I did, because I wanted to kill people. It is truer than true.”

Questions started harassing me. How was he raised? What influence did the apartheid regime and it’s ideologies have on the family? What circumstances could lead a 17 year old boy, to have such murderous intent? Where does all this violence stem from?

Through this journey, I discovered just how much my life has been influenced by my father’s trauma. How my father’s siblings are still affected by the ideologies of their father. Generations of trauma, ignorantly passed on, even through our genes. My generation, is the first of South Africans not to experience war. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to observe all this within ourselves. To ensure that it does not continue.

After the war, my father turned against everything the knew. He left his father, and family. He craved resolve. He wanted so badly, to be free from his shadows. But the consequences of his actions haunted him his whole life. He tried his best to keep it from his children, and his wives. Ultimately, it slipped though the cracks. Microlight is a collection of anecdotes. And through telling these stories, I hope to open this discussion. I yearn for healing. I want to understand, so that I can accept, and move on.

Short Bio

Related Links

www.jansenvanstaden.com

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The Emerging Photographer Fund is supported by generous donors to the Magnum Foundation

Say Hello to Everybody, OK?

[ EPF 2019 FINALIST ]

In 2019-2020 I will be commuting from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, D.C. via train on a weekly basis. I also intend to walk the train line in intervals, photographing the scenes I encounter on its peripheries. I view the train line as an artery between my home in Charlottesville (where my heart stays), and Washington, DC, the seat of power in the United States. During my days in Washington, DC I will document the dichotomy between the powerful and the powerless. During my days in Charlottesville, I will photograph my own family, and my community. The background for these images are the final days of Trump’s first term in office, and the lead-up to the next Presidential elections. By juxtaposing powerful circles in Washington, DC with the recovering community of Charlottesville, VA, and the largely rural area in between, I will attempt to put my finger on the pulse of our country during this critical time.

This work will be absorbed into a larger series called “Say Hello to Everybody, OK?”, which looks at America in the years surrounding Trump’s time in office, beginning in 2014. The series will either conclude in 2020 or 2024, likely resulting in a monograph and exhibitions, but my primary intention is to disseminate the work through widely distributed free newsprint publications and pop-up installations in underserved communities. My goal is to find, or create, a connective visual tissue throughout our country during this divided time. With my work I am looking for the threads that connect us as families, as communities, as Americans and as humans. If we are at risk of forgetting too much of our world, and ourselves, photography is an antidote.

Short Bio

Matt Eich is a photographic essayist working on long-form projects related to memory, family, community, and the American condition. Matt’s work has received grant support from an Aaron Siskind Fellowship, a VMFA Fellowship and two Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography. His prints and books are held in the permanent collections of The Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The New York Public Library, Chrysler Museum of Art and others. In 2013 Matt was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work, and in 2019 he was an Artist-in-Residence at a Robert Rauschenberg Residency. Eich holds a BS in photojournalism from Ohio University and an MFA in Photography from Hartford Art School’s International Limited-Residency Program. His is the author of three monographs, Carry Me Ohio (Sturm & Drang, 2016), I Love You, I’m Leaving, (ceiba editions, 2017), and Sin & Salvation in Baptist Town (Sturm & Drang, 2018). He has two forthcoming monographs with Sturm & Drang scheduled for release in 2019 and 2020. Matt splits his time between Washington, DC and Charlottesville, Virginia, where he resides with his family.

Related Links

www.matteichphoto.com

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The Emerging Photographer Fund is supported by generous donors to the Magnum Foundation

Human & Wildlife Conflict

[ EPF 2019 FINALIST ]

During my stay in Kenya I witnessed the difficulty of life in various ways that different groups of people and animals daily face. Often people pity the wildlife such as Elephants, Hyenas, Monkeys and Lions for being harmed or killed by locals. However, people forget that Elephants are a large threat to locals. They often see their farms destroyed and crops eaten. As a consequence, families are ripped apart and forced to work in cities. For many of these farmers, taking away the threat is a common solution, meaning wildlife will be harmed or killed. This killing can also be part of tradition. For the Kamba Tribe this is the case. For ages they hunt on bushmeat to provide for their families and honor their tradition. However, due to Western pressure hunting bushmeat is now by law illegal. As a result, you take away long-standing traditions and deny specific cultures from existing. This is perfectly exemplified in America with the Indians, the traditions vanished because of the pressure of western civilization. The same thing will happen in Kenya. You can already see the Maasai slowly disappearing. There are still Kamba Tribesmen hunting on wildlife and on the other side you find the anti-poaching units that are just like the tribes providing for their families and improving their situation. Unfortunately, the improvement of both their situations is conflicting since they both perceive wildlife differently.

By spending time in Kenya I understand the actions of both the tribesmen and the anti-poaching units. I am not approving these actions, but as an outsider I feel their burden which is partly a result of Western paternalism. The tribesmen haven’t changed their attitude towards wildlife whilst the West has caused damage over the years and tries to resolve that now. The anti-poaching units have the luxury to worry for elements in life which are secondary in nature to survival. This make the perspectives and perceptions completely different and hard to unify.

Short Bio

A central theme often explored in Pieter Bas his photos is the balance and imbalance between humans and nature. It often appears in his photographs of animals, destroyed or decayed surroundings and any other traces of human intervention. This strongly relates to the transience and fleeting character of things. More specifically, it grasps a tiny piece of the most fundamental aspects of life, involving the passage of time, of nature and the world as a whole, that is slowly disappearing due to human intervention. Contrasts become more obvious under tense circumstances. By showing the effects on a micro level, the wider imprint feels more present. The transience and fleeting characters are visually translated by a blurry suggestion of movements and dynamics. Confronted with these impressions often goes together with a certain nostalgic and melancholic feeling about everything that’s lost, and for everything that will be lost… His images are slowly and carefully composed. Compositions are attentively considered, using colors and shapes while trusting basic intuition. Although, impressions appear to be seemingly perfect, they never fully are. To Pieter Bas, beauty is to be found in the imperfection of life.

Related Links

www.pieterbasbouwman.com

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The Emerging Photographer Fund is supported by generous donors to the Magnum Foundation