Monthly Archive for October, 2018

Alfio Tommasini – Via Lactea

Alfio Tommasini

Via Lactea

The dairy farmers of Via Lactea are part of a story that began with a genetic mutation in their ancestors, shortly after the first agricultural settlements in Switzerland. A change that allowed them to tolerate lactose even at an adult age, thus facilitating their survival in these harsh mountainous lands, often cold and covered in snow.

 

 

Although the consumption of milk is not a matter of survival anymore, breeders and producers, convinced of the goodness of their product and worried about the decrease in consumption and incomes, make sure that their own people (among the most lactose tolerant in the world) aren’t going to lose this characteristic based on an enzyme that stays active only if continuously stimulated.

 

 

In a context of modern agriculture, I wanted to interpret the character of something apparently ordinary but strongly related with the identity and continuous transformation of these lands and the habits of their inhabitants. In the long winter months I travelled across my country, to observe the people who earn their living from milk production, trying to find in them the reflections of that mysterious enzyme they preserve, as a characteristic of their nature. Switzerland (2015-2018)

 

 

Short Bio

Alfio Tommasini is a photographer born in a very small village south of the Swiss Alps. He’s particularly interested in the relationship, adaptation and transformation that people have with the territory where they live. He decided to start to narrate human stories with images when living for some years in Mexico and Central America working on social and environmental issues. He  studied in Madrid, Spain (a Masters at EFTI) and has published and exhibited his works internationally.  Recently, with the project Via Lactea he has been awarded the 3rd prize in the Sony World Photography Awards contemporary issues category, and he was a finalist at Prix Photoforum Pasquart, Switzerland and Head On Photo Awards, Australia.
He conceived and co-founded Verzasca FOTO Festival, for which he’s in charge of the artistic direction. He’s currently based in Ticino, Switzerland working as a free-lance.

 

Related Links

alfiotommasini.com

 

Published on October 30, 2018 by burn magazine. comments closed.

Cole Barash – Grimsey

Cole Barash

Grimséy

 

Set on the remote island of Grimséy, twenty-five miles north of mainland Iceland and bordering the Arctic Circle, this series focuses on the lives of a small, insular fishing community in one of the most unique locations on earth. Taken on multiple visits over the course of two years, these images capture the idiosyncrasies of life in a region with a remarkable blend of influences: an Icelandic-Island culture, fixated as much by the prevalence of maritime commerce as it is unbounded by its unique remoteness. Imitating a documentary style, my photographs are heavy with the emotional pull of real lives, yet they embody an especially uneasy sense of familiarity: a product of building upon established traditions in landscape and portrait photography, while also incorporating formal elements of abstract-modernism.

 

 

 

The landscapes and interiors in Grimséy are noticeably self-contained. Small artifacts of life are found everywhere in the series – seagulls, children’s toys, traps and fishing gear – each isolated within one of the island’s immense vistas: stark plaster walls, pastel curtains, grassy fields undulating into cliffs and sea, everywhere united by angular elements of perspective and color. Any individual element of life on Grimséy, perhaps familiar to the audience by itself, somehow resists assimilation in the larger unity of the images.

 

 

 

 

The feeling of resistance found in the series is a testament to the authenticity of the island’s sub-culture, a sense that is completed by the portraits of the denizens themselves, who in their candid humility are, nevertheless, impenetrably distant and wonderfully remote.

 

 

Short Bio

Cole Barash (b. 1987) is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Working in the mediums of digital, analog, and archival photography, his work often focuses on the conversation of color and composition between two objects or moments. His photography has been featured in numerous publications including, Time Lightbox, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and Relapse Mag, among others. His book, Grimséy (2015) was published by The Silas Finch Foundation and subsequently recognized by TIME as one of the top photobooks of 2015. Images from Grimséy have been displayed in a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Iceland in 2017. Barash’s most recent book, Smokejumpers (2017) presents a vision into the truly inaccessible world of wildland firefighters and was shortlisted for the 2017 Anamorphosis Prize becoming part of the Franklin Furnace Archive as well as the collection at the MoMA Library.

 

Related Links

 

colebarash.com

Published on October 10, 2018 by burn magazine. comments closed.

Margaret Lansink – Hesitation

Margaret Lansink

Hesitation

Visual investigation of the relationship between humans and their (physical) environment is the main focus of my’s work. Who we are is often determined by our social environment and (family) history. How we build our self-esteem, often determines how we look to the outside world and how we react to the other. For me, I often feel a spectator of a play; looking from the outside in to what happens, how and why the other and I interact like they do. In my work, I’m exploring these relationships, trying to bridge the personal and universal. The way I photograph is purely intuitive; my images present an open and honest reflection of my own inner emotions at a certain time, space and interaction.

 

 

This intuitive way of photography also favours a different way of experiencing my work; not as a reflection of a reality but more as an open, artistic interaction between the personal and the universal. Providing an invitation to embark on a journey through your own intricate web of memories, emotions, expectations, fears and desires. All with the intention to ultimately give meaning to your life from your own source; your true self. Therefore I use different cameras, mostly analogue, to capture the different atmospheres of my inner emotions. And giving the images the freedom to act as an overflow from reality to dream.

 

 

Hesitation is about that universal feeling in an intimate human relationship of giving yourself emotionally to the other person. This series mirrors my own inner feelings of deep fear when not having the control anymore. With no place to hide and no other way forward than to truly open up to this other person. Showing my bright as well as my dark side, my own good and bad. By doing so putting my trust completely in the other person; the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

 

Short Bio

Margaret  received a BA from the PhotoAcademy in Amsterdam. She also participated the year-long program of LeMasterklass of Klavdij Sluban and Nestan Nijaradze in Paris. In the past years she has exhibited her work in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Vancouver, New York, Arles, UK, Lithuania, Japan and in her old hometown of Oldenzaal. Her work has been awarded the Dutch New Talent 2013, the Big Print Photo contest Amsterdam in 2015, Bronze Star Award for fine art book at ND Awards in 2016. In 2018 her series ‘Borders of Nothingness was part of @FOTOFILMIC18 Shortlist show and of Reclaim Photography Festival Wolverhampton UK. In 2016 she has been rewarded with an AIR of the Kaunas Gallery in Lithuania and in 2017 of Shiro Oni Studio in Japan; both for her ongoing project ‘the Art of Empathy’, which book will be released in 2019 in collaboration with Kaunas Gallery. Since 2018 Lansink is member of FemmesPHOTOgraphes Paris. Additionally, she often coaches young photographers in developing their signature and portfolio.

 

Related Links

 

margaretlansink.com

 

Published on October 4, 2018 by burn magazine. comments closed.