burn magazine

Federico Arcangeli – Pleasure Island

Frederico Arcangeli

Pleasure Island

A well-known tourist destination, in the summer period Rimini wakes up from its sluggishness of a small city lazily overlooking the sea, capable of attracting millions of people, becoming the capital of the clubs and nightlife of the Italian east coast.

“Even if the world is full of beautiful stuff, full of countries that like most of the village, as soon as the sun falls and comes in the evening, sitting in a chair who knows where, slowly inside your head, this place becomes the most beautiful place of the world. But how will you do…But how will you stay away from the village?” (from the movie Amarcord)

Muse and inspiration of great artists that described it though their eyes, such as native-born photographer Marco Pesaresi with his black and white shots, or great director Federico Fellini, thanks to whom, in the 70’s, Rimini became famous in the whole world after his film Amarcord. A movie telling the life the inhabitants of an oneiric Rimini, perpetually suspended between childhood dreams and teenage turmoil. During the 80’s clubs and discos lived their golden age, with a large number of visitors, VIP’s and a display of extreme luxury which led to the 90’s, where luxury and strict selection at the entrance of clubs made way for experimentation, afterhours parties and music research. Despite the fact that times have changed and several historic clubs are now shut down for good, Rimini can still charm night people who long for transgression so much.

This project by Federico Arcangeli came alive a bit by chance. Born at first more as a photo-diary of nights out going clubbing with friends, it then becomes the slice of an era, not far from its bygone splendour. Through his lens and his images he carries us to those clubs, drenched in that dreamy atmosphere that only the “Riviera” (Romagna coast) can create. Thanks to his shots we meet again those Felliniesque characters in fun and grotesque situations. We find couples dancing and holding each other, following love rituals which last a nighttime and disappear at sunrise; we find eternal youngsters who never get old, as if in Neverland. What comes out is the portrait of a sultry, sexy, charming town which resembles a playground, where one can let oneself be tempted.

Aldo Bonomi, (Sondrio, 1950). Sociologist, teacher and founder of AASTER. Observer of the territorial forms of contemporary capitalism.

Short Bio

Federico Arcangeli was born in Rimini in 1983, small city on Italy’s east coast, where he currently lives and works as a nurse.

In 2014 He discovered his passion for photography, especially for analog photography. In May 2014, he founded the blog “People_Are_Strangers” where he publishes his shots.

He takes part in some competitions with excellent results and becomes a selected photographer of World Street Photography community.

In 2015 He becomes a member of the collective Romagna Street Photography. In september 2015 He is finalist for the Marco Pesaresi award with his project, about Rimini’s beach, “Summer Attitude”.

His photos and works have been exhibited in England, California, Florida, Germany, Spain, Ireland and Italy and they have been published on magazines and national and international art platforms.

Margeaux Walter – Believe Me

Margeaux Walter

Believe Me

As I navigate a world of surveillance cameras, drones, social media, “smart” phones, and facial recognition software, I find myself in a constant struggle with both visibility and invisibility. Anonymity is becoming harder, yet so is being seen. “Believe Me,” a title inspired by Trump’s most frequently used two-word phrase, is a series of photographs resembling surveillance images that one might find in Google Earth.

Mimicking augmented realities, I am staging site-specific temporary installations in the environment that challenge our current post-fact world influenced by scripted and hyperbolic reality television, fake news, sensational journalism and virtual experiences. Using a drone (and camera with a wide-angle lens) for a surveillance point-of-view, I survey myself, twisting the indexicality of the photograph to depict this blurring of what is real and constructed in our contemporary political and social environment. Thinking about military camouflage, the anonymizing nature of the aerial view, and satellite imagery, I play with my own visibility as I allow myself to be seen and surveilled. The nature of this new type of extreme aerial imagery and how it’s used (for Google Maps, drone strikes, breaking news and policing), creates a certainty for the viewer and a validation of authenticity. A God’s-eye view that is taken at face value.

I have been shooting this project over the past year and a half, and hope to travel to site-specific locations to create new images. Ultimately it will exist as a larger series that is created in various historical, geographical and unseen locations around the country. My portfolio shows the beginning stages of this project, with images created in various locations over the past year, ranging from ideas of commerce, emoji culture, virtual reality, fake news, and climate change.

Short Bio

Margeaux Walter received her MFA from Hunter College in 2014 and BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2006. She has received multiple honors from the Magenta Foundation, Photolucida, Prix de la Photographie Paris, International Photography Awards, and other organizations. She has been awarded artist-in-residence programs at Red Gate Gallery (2011), Montalvo Arts Center (2012), Marble House Project (2015), MacDowell Colony (2017), and Yaddo (2018). In 2016, she was selected for the New York Times Portfolio Review. She has participated in dozens of exhibitions at institutions such as MOCA, Hunterdon Art Museum, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Montalvo Arts Center, Sonoma County Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, the Griffin Museum of Photography and the Butler Institute of American Art. She has been featured in publications including The New York Times, New York Post, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, and Blouin Art Info.

Hubert Barre – Le Quartier St. Antoine

Hubert Barre

Le Quartier St. Antoine

Ah matočka, they are really poor! And what a mess! But it is hardly surprising: the whole family lives in a single room, divided by small screens, for their decency.

Fëdor Dostoevskij

Jacques, Paul, Guy, Jacquot, Serge, Marie, Hamidi… only an evanescent shadow of them has remained, spat out from the memory in the form of names. Fragments of memories, which goes back to three decades ago. They all lived in Aubenas, in the Saint-Antoine quarter, the poorest in the city. Thirty years ago. Today they are no longer there and it is not hard to imagine that they are no longer even on this earth.

To remember them today is only the memory of a few and the portraits that represent them in a daily life made of tangible poverty, of daily hardship and precariousness, of difficulty and miserable belongings. A situation testified by images that, in the absence of diachronic references, rarely offer footholds to hazard a reliable dating. The faces of Jacques, Paul, Guy, Jacquot, Serge, Marie, Hamidi, often crushed by the brutality of the flash, are timeless. Even the environments and objects around them are not of great help in most cases and could even distort the reading by a number of decades.

Of course, when one runs into an image in which a Mercedes appears in the background, today we should by now say an old Mercedes… we then realise that the counting of the decades stops at three. We are at the end of the eighties, although of many of the pictures we would be tempted to say are at least from the fifties, if not before. The atmosphere emanated by the prints is difficult to define. On the one hand the dark tones lead us to a denseness that seems to adhere to the conditions of the subjects, on the other there is energy sometimes subterranean sometimes explicit that agitates between the shades between black and white.

If we were to frame these photographs within a theoretical grid of image reading, speaking about the contents we could not fail to notice the recurring presence of the thematic factor of the relationship. Many of these images refer to the relationships that are between the subjects, strong relationships, born from sharing little, of the mutual support in the hardship. Relationships that emanate a force, probably necessary, possibly desperate, certainly powerful. And perhaps this is the energy that is felt flowing under the surface of the paper, leafing through images that tell us about a quarter that today is no longer as thirty years ago.

The houses have disappeared. Jacques, Paul, Guy, Jacquot, Serge, Marie, Hamidi are not there. Times have changed one might say abusing without necessity of a common bourgeois place. And this cannot help us to reflect on the role of the medium of photography. If it is true that for thousands of years the human being has continued to evolve without which his image being mechanically declined as an analogon referent, it is also true that the iconic memory offered by photography represents a possible object of stimulus to the self-consciousness. The risk, however, is that in the superabundance and ease of production of the images these become… invisible to the eyes of most. In the face of images that are self-replicating in the reproduction of pre-established clichés, photographs that remind us of where we come from are important, probably because they allow us not to recognize ourselves as we see, fighting the homologation.

And in a Western society that in spite of its globalised crises is still able to live well beyond its needs, joining with the vital energy flowing in the portraits of the inhabitants of Saint-Antoine of thirty years ago can be a valid counterpoint to our daily dissatisfaction.

Short Bio

Born in FRIBOURG (RFA) in 1962, he attended the Lycée Technique Astier in Aubenas, to then enrol afterwards at the INSA (Institut Nationale des Sciences Appliquées) in Lyon.
Between 1985 and 1986, he worked for the press service of the French armed forces in Berlin as a photographer. In 1987 he dedicated himself to the story of the Saint-Antoine quarter in Aubenas en Ardèche, the work, which we are now presenting in these pages. Two years later, in 1989, he exhibited the portraits taken in Saint-Antoine and won first prize in the photography competition organised by the magazine Le généraliste. Numerous are the exhibitions that have taken place over the years until December 2014, when he exhibited, in collaboration with the Voies Off in Arles, at the Theatre Commedia d’Aubagne, and again in the following July at the Musée de la Légion Étrangère. On the occasion of the 2016 edition of Voies Off, he exhibited within the Arlesian event his work Clôture monastique, devoted to the life in the cloistered monasteries. Always at the Voies Off 2016 he presented us with his work at the portfolio reading and hence this article was born.

Hannes Jung – How is life?

Hannes Jung

How is life?

Death follows life. Always. A fact that unites all and everyone of us. As a young person I expect too die when I’m old, maybe when I’m sick, but definitely not now. So much still lies ahead of me. For the ones who are left behind, suicide always raises the question of life. Why did someone choose death over life?

The suicide rate in Lithuania is nearly three times as high as the average rate in the European Union. It is even among the highest in the world. Looking at the bigger picture, suicides occur more frequently in bigger cities. Whereas in rural areas, less people lose hope in life since social ties are still stronger. In Lithuania, on the contrary, more people commit suicide on the countryside. Especially men between 40 and 50 years of age are at a high risk to commit suicide. Alcoholism, unemployment, no perspective, and many other cases with reasons that are hard to find and even harder to understand.

Edita sits with her husband Darius in their living room. Editas father commited suicide January 2016. Europe. Lithuania, Kaunas, 21st of May 2016. Edita wrote:”I’m sitting exactly where I sat when I got your text and found out that you had killed yourself. This is the place where I sat, trembling and praying that this weren’t true. I am sorry for not being an ideal daughter. I WANT you to know that I love you. I miss you dearly. Sometimes I still call your number and wait for your call on Sundays. Sometimes I curl into a ball and cry in my bed, because I miss you so much. Why did you tell me that you’ll always stand by me? When you are gone, who should I go to? I remember you as I ride my bike – you gave me the freedom to ride it =) THANK YOU. I am happy, but I miss you so much. I no longer have a dad, and I’m angry at you. You left me. I love you and dream of you often. You are my daddy. Farewell. I love you.”

A well in the garde of D. D’s husbind tried to commit suicide in the well. Lithuania, Katiliškiai, 20th of May 2016. D. wrote: “When I saw my husband descending into the well, I got very scared, but I no longer remember what I thought. As I asked him to get out of there, he told me he could no longer do it. With the help of my mother and daughter we pulled him up.”

Volunteers of the helpline “youthline”. Europe. Lithuania, Vilnius, 10th of February 2016. Antanas, a volunteer wrote: “While working for the Youth Line, I keep meditating over the phenomenon of human free will. To what extent is suicide an impulsive, mechanical reaction to suffering, and to what extent is it a person’s choice to give up? Would all people, faced with immense suffering, choose suicide? I don’t know… But I increasingly want to respect the person’s choice, whatever it may be. To stand by them and to respect them.”

Car tracks on a road. Lithuania, near Panevėžys, 10th of May 2016.

Asta sits for a portrait in her bed-livingroom. She grew up under difficult circumstances. She wrote: “I once told my son how I wished to die, so that everything, all fears, would be gone. But my son burst into crying and asked me, “Mom, who will love me, who will need me then?” It was heart-wrenching. Of course, nobody needs you, except for me. After all, whose fault is it in this life, maybe my parents? Since I repeat everything what they did.” Zarasai, 6th of March 2018.

Cupboard in the livingroom of Eugenija. When Eugenija opens one door she could see one picture of her dead son Petras. He commited suicide. She wrote down: “Don’t be alone, we’re all from one and the same world. May no one take their own life voluntarily, because life is a gift.” Panevėžys, 1st of March 2018.

A shelf with alcohol bottles in a small shop in Varena, the district with the highest suicide rate in Lithuania. According to the WHO, Lithuania is one of the countries with the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the world. Lithuania, Varena, 25th of February 2016.

The forest close to Varena. The suicide rate in Varena is the highest in Lithuania. Lithuania, Varena, 26th of February 2016.

A wallpaper with a beautiful landscape in the livingroom of a farmers family. In Lithuania, more people commit suicide on the countryside. Lithuania, near Radeikiai, 29th of January 2016.

Portrait of Donata with her dog Mikutis in bed. Donata has suffered from depression 18 years ago, during and after the divorce from her then-husband. Her dog has been helpful to her to leave the bed every morning in order to go for walks with him, Lithuania, Kupiskis, 30th of January 2016. Donata wrote: “I thank Mikutis for bringing life back to me, and for the immense love he gave us. For sixteen years, we all shared daily life and festive moments, we grew, we lived, we learned. Mikutis is now in the hunting grounds of eternity, and we carry on living. My daughter studies at a university, I work and have her back, as the dog used to have our back at a certain point in time. It never asked questions, it never said anything, it never judged, only cuddled up to me and warmed me until all ‘ice’ melted.”

The reasons for each suicide are different. They are not an expression of personal freedom, but often affected by hopelessness and diseases. Outer, social and environmental factors also play a big role among them. Since World War II and starting with the Soviet occupation the suicide rate for men, at times, grew from ten suicides per 100,000 inhabitants to 90 annually. Experts speak about a collective trauma and loss of identity – influenced among others by forced collectivization of the farms in rural areas through the Soviets. But the reasons for each suicide are always more complex and personal and can not mainly be related to the countries trauma.

Portrait of police officer Vaidas Miliauskas with his award certificate for saving a suicidal person. Europe, Lithuania, Prienai, 18th of May 2016. He wrote: “A suicide person in an ambulance. I once saved a person who tried to take his own life by hanging himself. As we were on the way in an ambulance, together with the medic who oversaw him and his condition, he broke into violent resistance and started cursing us. They tend to have outbreaks of aggression, which would be difficult for the medic alone to subdue. This is why a officer is present at all times to oversee and, if needed, to physically restrain the person and protect not only him, but also medics from even worse outcomes. When I am off duty, resting, these faces appear not only in the form of dreams at night, but also during the day, quite unexpectedly. When these visions appear, I often think how he is doing, how his life goes and if he’s happy. Sometimes I have the luck to see some of these people and inquire if everything is fine and if they are happy.”

A dog in the garden of Janina in the small village of Salamiestis. Janinas family struggles with social problems. Lithuania, Salamiestis, 29th of January 2016.

Wind and snow on the street near Kupiskis, 27th of Feburary 2018.

A farmer plows the field with his horse to plant potatos (the potatos are food for his pigs). Lithuania, near Pagėgiai, 11th of May 2016.

Birute sits in her living room watching TV. She doesn’t have a lot of contact to people – she describes herself as lonely. I got to know her because she’s regulary calling a helpline for older people who are lonely. She wrote: “Demolished houses Grass-overgrown paths I can’t forget them I don’t even know What I’m waiting for”. Kupiskis 27th of February 2018.

Rimante sits in the room of her son Mantas, he committed suicide two years ago. She holds the rabbit Zuika in her hands. She wrote: “When I stay at home alone, I make myself a coffee and walk into Mantukas’s room – this is where I find the best company. I can peacefully sip my coffee and talk to my son about everything, even the things I never dared to discuss while he was alive.” Panevėžys, Lithuania, March 1 2018.

My story “How is Life?” is not just about photography. I worked together with the protagonists and asked them to write down their personal story. These statements (see the captions) are an essential part of this project.

I photograph life not death because death cannot be seen. Maybe you can’t take pictures of the wind. But you could try to catch the consequences of the wind, bending trees and rolling waves.

A ralleycar drives at a selfmade training race course in Varena, the district with the highest suicide rate in Lithuania. Lithuania, Varena, 20th of February 2016. Gintautas, the founder of the local car/youthclub wrote: “My favorite colors are black and white, so I dive head down, passionately, into all activities I engage in. I strive to help children under my guidance to learn to recognize and be guided by the roadsigns of life as soon as possible.”

Portrait of Teresa dancing in her kitchen. Teresas husband commited suicide 19 yeas ago. Lithuania, Varena, 21st of February 2016. Teresa wrote: “When I’m sad, I sing, play and listen to music, I relax with a good mood, I dance, I love jokes. I try to smile at all times.”

Hill of Crosses, a site of pilgrimage. Near Šiauliai, 23rd of February 2018.

Trees on the road near Kupiskis. 26th of January 2016, near Kupiskis, Lithuania.

Vitalja with her two daughters. She wrote: “I tried to scare my husband by attempting to kill myself – he couldn’t care less. I only scared my children. I think you can’t change anything by suicide, you will only hurt and damage the ones you love, who are closest to you.” Joniskis, 28th of February 2018.

Short Bio

Hannes Jung (b. 1986) is a freelance documentary photographer currently based in Berlin. He studied photography and photojournalism in Munich, Hannover and Valencia and attended the Eddie Adams Workshop. Hannes is represented by Laif photo agency.
His work was recognized with Gold in the categories Documentary and Interpretative eye by the College Photographer of the Year award (CPOY) and he recieved several prizes like the n-ost Reportage prize, Prix Mark Grosset, South Tyrol Media award or Canon Profifoto promotion award. His work was supported with several research grants from n-ost, the Robert-Bosch-Foundation and VG Bildkunst. Hannes work was shown in several exhibitions and festivals around Europe.

Partha Sengupta – The Bloodiest Border

Partha Sengupta

The Bloodiest Border

I’m a descendent of a refugee family from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) part of Bengal province during British rule, was a vast land of various creeds, cultures and a common language Bangla.

During Partition of India in 1947, an international border drawn Bengal area into East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Bengal (in India). The border changed the social fabric of the vast land with a new nationality with a strong sectarian belief. Since then the border denotes heavily guarded by paramilitary forces; human rights abuse and suspicions.

The barbed wire fence erected at the international border in Murshidabad district in West Bengal state in India and Bangladesh. The border is heavily militiarised with hundred meters apart a cluster of BSF soldiers manning the border. To prevent infiltration and cross border smuggling most of the border between the state West Bengal in India and Bangladesh, barbed wire fence had been installed. The 4156 kilometer long border with Bangladesh, India had installed fence almost covering ninety five percent of the border under it, engulfing Bangladesh like a cage. Plans are also there to install a second line of barbed wire fence at the Bangladesh side to make the border more inaccessible by ordinary citizens.

Kabijon Bibi mother of Bablu Hossain who had lost both eyes due to off a gunshot wound. His both eye were severely damaged of pellets fired by a BSF soldier near the border area. He belongs to an agrarian poor family and does farming on lease lands and some family lands they have. Earlier for extra income he had involved in cattle smuggling and during his first trade he had been noticed and open fired by a border security soldier. For his eye treatment most of their own lands were sold to meet the expenses. Even the doctors were less hopeful of his treatment. No compensation had been awarded to Bablu Hossain from government for the loss of his eyes or for medical treatment.

Cattle smuggling is one of the significant illegal trade between India and Bangladesh. Currently the cattle trade is around million dollar industry in comparison to earlier it was around billion dollar illegal trade between the two countries. Due to barbed wire fence the trade has tilted down still it is flourishes where the border is porous. Even people say who are still now associated this trade either Indian or Bangladeshi, that a percentage of the trade money shares between the BSF, the Indian security force and BGB, the Bangladesh security force. The illegal cattle trade is estimated to be worth around 5000 crore of Indian Rupees or around 70 million US dollar. Economically poor border people on both sides of the border are mostly engaged in this trade for income when many times they get killed, tortured and wounded by BSF.

Bodiyar Mia lost his right hand in the arbitrary firing by one Border Security Force security personnel. The incident happened in an area near Indo-Bangladesh Border under Cooch Behar district, West Bengal. The victim sustained gunshot injury on his hand in the firing. He underwent amputation of right upper limb. He was involved as a mere courier in cow smuggling at the time of the incident, but there was no previous alarm or lawful attempt before firing to restrict him from the act by Border Security Force. The victim after losing his hand in the firing lost his earning capacity. He has been reeling under extreme financial crisis with his family members. The incident again showed the arbitrary firing and encounter killing are still in practice in the hands of Border Security Force enjoying full impunity and flouting the international and national humanitarian norms and obligations.

Bablu Hossain had lost both eyes due to off a gunshot wound. His both eye were severely damaged of pellets fired by a BSF soldier near the border area. He belongs to an agrarian poor family and does farming on lease lands and some family lands they have. Earlier for extra income he had involved in cattle smuggling and during his first trade he had been noticed and open fired by a border security soldier. For his eye treatment most of their own lands were sold to meet the expenses. Even the doctors were less hopeful of his treatment. No compensation had been awarded to Bablu Hossain from government for the loss of his eyes or for medical treatment.

Sanjit Mondal was a victim of brutalities and torture committed by the BSF. He faced twice such brutalities, once in September, 2009 and the second one on April, 2011. In the second incident while working at his family’s agrarian land, he had received pellet injuries and was beaten mercilessly by BSF personnel with the rifles and their boot clad feet. In 2009 incident too, when he was just seventeen years old, he and his siblings had similar fate when they were severely tortured by posted BSF personnel. In both the cases no justice had been awarded to Sanjit Mondal and moreover no punitive action was against the errant BSF security personnel.

A group of Hindu men and women were in the evening prayer at a house in Kursherhaat village near the international border of India and Bangladesh.

Tarun Kanti Barman had his original residence near the international border of the state West Bengal in India and Bangladesh. He had complained that during their stay at the earlier home was difficult as BSF personnel made frequent visits to their home in the context of security reasons. They used to demand foods and money from them as they ‘are poor most of the time unable to fulfill their demand. Even they used to visit in the mid-night too. If their demand was not fulfilled they damaged their belongings and property. So for the sake of safety of their family members they sold their ancestral property and moved to a safer location which is also near to the border. Tarun Kanti had narrated their family agony as being an Indian citizen they were harassed by Indian security forces. Even instances were there that they also beaten and thrashed by the security personnel.

In the Indian side, BSF (Border Security Force of India) managed the international border. Their attitude towards the border people is with deep suspicion with extra judicial killings, custodial death and torture. Prevalence of cross border smuggling and infiltration in this region is how the security forces justified their atrocities. In 2011 Human Rights Watch termed BSF “Trigger Happy” for their notoriety.

Similarity of look and language of the border people has led to confusion of identity with regards to their nationality. Security forces ignored the history of this region, justified their atrocities is the only option to deal with the border people whose national identity is debatable.

Bablu Hossain with his year old daughter. He had lost both eyes due to off a gunshot wound. His both eye were severely damaged of pellets fired by a BSF soldier near the border area. He belongs to an agrarian poor family and does farming on lease lands and some family lands they have. Earlier for extra income he had involved in cattle smuggling and during his first trade he had been noticed and open fired by a border security soldier. For his eye treatment most of their own lands were sold to meet the expenses. Even the doctors were less hopeful of his treatment. No compensation had been awarded to Bablu Hossain from government for the loss of his eyes or for medical treatment.

It was an incident of intense physical torture by a Border Security Force personel, Bellal Islam of thirteen years of age. On the fateful day, he was returning from his aunt’s home after having afternoon meal. The residence of his aunt was just beside the fence and people normally climbed and cross a wall to make the distance short. Bellal was taken the same route and while crossed nearly 100 meters near to his home; a BSF personal restricted his movement and started bashing him. The soldier pounced and punched on his face. The father and uncle of the boy rushed to save him after hearing the screams of Bellal. The soldierl indiscriminately punched at the face, chest and head of the boy. He felt sick and rushed to the Dinhata Sub Divisional Hospital; where he was admitted for next four days and underwent medical treatment. The act of the BSF personal was not only savage and brute but also against the national and international legal provisions. The torturous act was in contravention of Article 19 and 37 of UN Convention on Rights of the Children; where the convention has stated that the right of every child to be protected from being hurt or badly treated and not to be punished in a cruel or hurtful way; respectively and India has ratified the convention way back.

Bhanga Masjid (mosque) was earlier situated near the international border of West Bengal in India and Bangladesh. Decades back the security agency of India; BSF had ordered the mosque to be shifted to a safer place which is currently at Kursherhaat village. The mosque had removed to erect the high barbed fence at the international border.

Eighty year old Shakila Begum lost his two sons in the BSF firing. The woman is a Bangladeshi national lives near the border of India (in the state West Bengal) and Bangladesh. In 2002, his two sons Fakruddin aged twenty four and Ekramul, in the morning was busy with their farming work in their farmland. Two BSF men were seen at that place near to their field in the Bangladesh territory they were searching a smuggler who ran away a couple minutes back. The two BSF men then had an altercation with the two brothers about the whereabouts of the smuggler. During altercation one of the BSF personnel had shot and killed both the brothers instantly. No justice or compensation had been awarded to the family of the lady so far.

Suman Islam was returning home after attending an invitation at his aunt’s house. It was in the evening he was on his way to his house. Suddenly some BSF personnel stopped him and started asking him questions. Before he could even answer all the BSF personnel started beating him. He tried to explain things both in the local language and in Hindi but they kept on hitting him without even listening to his words. Then he was brought to BSF camp. Throughout the night he was being tortured by the BSF personnel. He was given electric shock and other inhuman things were done to him. He could not bear it so he lost his senses. They implicated him in a false charge. Owing to the torture he had lost his left eye and severe head injury led him to paralytic state of his left part of the body.

Bodiyar Mia lost his right hand in a gun shot wound by one Border Security Force security personnel. The incident happened in an area near Indo-Bangladesh Border under Cooch Behar district, West Bengal. The victim sustained gunshot injury on his hand in the firing. He underwent amputation of right upper limb. He was involved as a mere courier in cow smuggling at the time of the incident, but there was no previous alarm or lawful attempt before firing to restrict him from the act by Border Security Force. The victim after losing his hand in the firing lost his earning capacity. He has been reeling under extreme financial crisis with his family members. The incident again showed the arbitrary firing and encounter killing are still in practice in the hands of Border Security Force enjoying full impunity and flouting the international and national humanitarian norms and obligations.

On the wee hour of the morning Hossail Ali was in his paddy field taken on lease for watering. He was poor so he had taken lease of a land for farming. On the fateful day, in the wee hour, BSF men were searching and firing indiscriminately towards the smugglers who are running towards Bangladesh. During indiscriminate firing a stray bullet hit Hossain at his left thigh. He felt unconscious later some other farmers rescued him and admitted him to a nearby hospital. Seeing the unconscious man injured of their firing, BSF men didn’t bother for medical treatment or rescued him from agony. It violated the ‘UN Basic Principles on the use of Force and Firearm by Law Enforcement Agency’ to rescue a man who injured by their fault.

My project is the exploration of borders and its impact on the lives of the border people, where one’s own national identity is debatable. It raises the critical questions about the idea of border is enforced, the complexities of history, lives, culture and nationalists imaginary.

First time in November 2014, I traveled to Bangladesh, as an Indian underwent immigration procedures being a foreigner. Once Bangladesh was the natural place of my parents and family home was there. The partition had changed the equations of my parents who are now foreigners cease the generational old identity. The British Colonial Rule brought a sense of communal identity and animosity with the changes in Hindu-Muslims relations.

A boy with his pegion at a village naer the international border of West Bengal state in India and Bangladesh.

Azimuddin Sarkar is an activist involves against the atrocities by BSF. His involvement in social activity has earned him wrath of BSF and local Police. As BSF doesn’t has the capacity to detain a person unless he is involved in border crime, so with the help of local police twice Azimuddin had been in custody. He had to bear severe physical torture and humiliation. So fear for his life currently he is now underground at a unknown place to avoid the police detention and torture.

Choto (small) Padma Name is the name of the river. In the summer time its look like a stream. Actually it is part of the river Padma which is in the Malda district in West Bengal state of India, flows into two directions, one through West Bengal, named Ganges and other runs through Bangladesh as Padma. But the width of the river during the monsoon time is scaring. The other side of the river is Bangladesh. The river acts as a border though the international boundary runs through the river. In the night the place get a different look as the activities of the cross border smugglers get busy in the cattle trade. Local people and those who are involved in the cattle trade say that BSF personnel and the BGB of Bangladesh earns a cut of each cattle goes to Bangladesh.

A pond at a border village in Kurigram at Bangladesh.

Panchananda Mondal lost his two sons by BSF firing. The elder one, Susanta was involved in farming with Panchanan and the youngest one, Dhanapati was a school student. His complaints were not accepted at the police station as they were killed by BSF. Those two brothers were killed due to indiscriminate firing while for look out by BSF men.

Short Bio

Partha Sengupta (b. 1975) is a Kolkata based Indian documentary photographer. He is a late entrant into photography after leaving his banking career in 2012. Partha studied documentary photography mentorship at Counter Foto, Bangladesh. In 2012, he joined in a local newspaper in Kolkata and worked for three years. Since 2015, he started to work independently. His images were exhibited in the Asian Cultural Heritage in Montreal, Canada in 2012. In 2014, he was selected among fourteen young photographers by German Science & Arts for a photography project in India. His work along with other photographers published in the book ‘The India Vision Quest’ by DWIH in 2015. His works had been exhibited in Kolkata, Dhaka, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Montreal, Cologne and forthcoming at Goa in 2018. In 2018, Partha received s grant from Serendipity Arts Foundation on the photography project “Bhumiputra”. He did his post-graduation in Management and Finance. He is versed with several Indian languages.

Annika Derksen – One Hundred Ninety Nine

Annika Derksen

One Hundred Ninety Nine

Little Penquite
Lostwithiel, Cornwall

The house was bought by Fiona Mackinnon and Martyn Woodfield in 1995.
In the years that followed, Little Penquite has been rebuilt and transformed into their family home.

It’s where Fiona and Martyn raised their four children; Kerry, Bethan, Sarah and Daniel.
Fiona currently lives in Little Penquite on her own, mostly working on one of her numerous projects.
She is the family archivist who collects the family stories and narratives.
Every corner of the house occupies different objects and stories.

“Once you trigger the memories it’s kind of all there, that was so and so and that’s that and that.”

This work was shortlisted in 2018 for EPF/Fujifilm Young Talent Award

Short Bio

Annika Derksen is a Dutch photographer currently based in London producing works in which she employs documentary modes. The starting points of her projects often lie in curiosity towards that what is unknown to her. Using the camera as a tool to comprehend, Annika depicts her personal encounters through photographs.

Muhammad Hidayat – The Sounds Of Dream

Muhammad Hidayat

The Sounds Of Dream

[ EPF 2018 SHORTLIST ]

In that dream they came like shadows, voices, songs, light and gasp, they were so close, even closer than the clothes I wore. I felt like I was back to the beginning where I was walking alone in the middle of a crowd and felt cold in the middle of the blazing heat. Those dreams were so real and so clear that it made me constantly think about them.

In those few days a word always came to my mind, the word was “intuition”. I tried to find out more about that word and finally I got that intuition is an ability to understand something without rational or intellectual reasoning, it’s more about an understanding that comes suddenly, out of the awareness. Intuition is also a whisper from the heart that feels like a push to do something that sometimes even out of the ordinary and awareness of our minds.

So in that time I tried to rethink about the dreams that came a few times and appeared clearly. By following the whisper in my heart, I tried actualizing those dreams into photographs because I was pushed by this feeling of thirst to reach pleasure even though pain is unavoidable. Was it just a dream that was impossible to reach or a time to pass through the phases in those dreams themselves?

This might be an emotion, but it was actually about feelings. There were sorrow, loneliness and even the most important one which was the pleasure of love that came from the Creator.

I started to think that photography was the best way to let go all of the things that were buried inside my mind. Fear, sadness, disappointment and the things outside my awareness.

Short Bio

Muhammad Hidayat (b. 1982) lives in Aceh, Indonesia. where he works as a finance section staf for a government sector. He began to pursue photography seriously in 2015 and is currently focused on expressionistic photography. His photographs are very personal, lifting the story from his life experiences. For him, photography is more than just pressing the shutter button, but a means for pouring out one’s feelings and imagination as well.

Irina Werning – Dear Long Hair

Irina Werning

Dear Long Hair

I search for them everywhere, I travel to forgotten towns

I put up signs

I organise long hair competitions

Till i find them

And i always ask them: why do you have long hair?

“because i like it, cause my dad looks after it…”

but the true reason is invisible

and passes from generation to generation

its the culture of Latin America,

where our ancestors believed that cutting hair was cutting life, that hair is the physical manifestation of our thoughts and our souls.

Short Bio

Irina grew up in Buenos Aires. She studied a BA in Economics and an MA in History. She began to travel in Asia and Middle East and ended up in London where she studied an MA in Photojournalism and lived for 7 years. She’s now back in Buenos Aires and focuses on personal long term projects. She loves to build sets and invent stages for her subjects. She can spend hours in a tool shop.

Alfonso Fonseca – It Could Have Happened Here

Alfonso Fonseca

It Could Have Happened Here

[ FUJIFILM / YOUNG TALENT AWARD 2018 SHORTLIST ]

“It Could Have Happened Here” is a project where I find crimes that have occurred in the Phoenix, Arizona area; Research them, Photograph the places they have occurred at, and then create a narrative with those photos along with archival photos and others I find. This lets me explore time, place, narrative, and the relationship between all three. The crimes I research usually take place before the 1980s, some of the events are well known, while others are crimes that not many know about. The photos depict crime scenes as they are today often with no trace of the crime that was committed and any deviation from the original site will be indicated through handwritten text on the photographs. The photographs will function as signposts for invisible histories. Then the series of photos will be sequenced for a book, each crime being it’s own volume.

The photos are shot in similar ways that forensic and newspaper photos were shot. High contrast black and white photos shot usually with some kind of flash. This creates images similar to Weegee and other newspaper photographers. I then write on the prints in a similar fashion influenced by Jim Goldberg and Bill Burke’s work. I also do this to the archival photos I find online, using the handwritten text as a way to share more information. I then try to create a narrative with all this. I try to create a sequence that makes the viewer feel like they are discovering this information, as if they stumbled upon it. I use the information from my research to create a compelling story about what happened.

Short Bio

Alfonso Fonseca was born in Palm Springs California and lived in the Coachella Valley for most of his life. As a child of Mexican immigrants he had an understanding of culture and place, as frequent trips to Mexico to see his family helped him to start seeing how one place and its history can be drastically different from another. As an artist he began to be interested in how someone can document with photography, whether it has to do with everyday occurrences or finding interesting sub-culture to investigate. Influenced by photographers like Bruce Davidson, Alec Soth, Jim Goldberg, Alex Webb, and many more he began shooting in a formal documentary style to then investigate the connection and conflicts between past and present. Sometimes a historical or even personal past, either way he documents these through landscapes, portrait, and sometimes even uses archival materials. Alfonso currently studying for his B.F.A in photography with a minor in film at Arizona State University.

Snezhana von Buedingen – Meeting Sofie

Snezhana von Buedingen

Meeting Sofie

[ EPF 2018 SHORTLIST ]

In my series “Meeting Sofie,” I depict the life of a 19 year old girl with down syndrome born into a German emigrant family in Denmark. For the last eight years Sofie has been living with her family on a small farm in east Germany but grew up in the care of a successful Antiques dealer.

Since completing school Sofie spends most of her life on the farm. She enjoys being alone as well as with the few people with whom she has built close relationships –– her family, the farm animals, and her boyfriend Andy. The series gives the viewer a glimpse into the life of Sofie and her family. It shows Sofie’s emotional world, which may be akin to ours.

Short Bio

Snezhana von Buedingen, born in 1983 in Perm, Russia, studied Photography at the Fotoakademie Cologne, finishing her Diploma in 2016. Characterized by her international background, Snezhana focuses on documentary and portrait photography.
Snezhana lives and works as an independent photographer in Cologne/Germany.

Marius Ionut Scarlat – From East to West

Marius Ionut Scarlat

From East to West

[ EPF 2018 SHORTLIST ]

Romania generates the greatest migratory flow of the European Union. After the revolution of ’89 and the death of Ceausescu, the Romanians were anxious for an immediate improvement. However this improvement did not happen and everything was even worse. The opening of the Schengen area and the entry of the country into the European Union, there has been a process of depopulation with serious consequences for the country. Romania has around 20, 000,000 million inhabitants and almost 4 live abroad.

This is a documentary project that talks about the emigration of my parents from Romania to Spain. This project talks about the experience or the new meaning that acquires everything that has been left behind. For me, this series of images means to get closer to that past. And also means to rediscover latent past which is still present in my house, in my family, in the landscape, in those objects that still decorate what it was my home and rediscover, through the camera, all the emotions and memories that, apparently, no longer existed. What was my childhood place, my home, my family… that comfortable and happy place had suddenly become a much more raw reality.

Short Bio

Marius I. Scarlat is a photographer who was born in 1993 in a village in Romania, where he spent his childhood. At the age of 11 he moved to Spain with his family. He studied a degree in Audiovisual Communication at the University of Alcal? and a master’s degree in Art Photography and Narrative Documentaries at the TAI School. His work seeks to reflect on concepts such as the passage of time, the trace and memory.

During this last year he has received several awards: La maquina grant 2018, 1st prize; selected to participate in the Students Canon 2018 program at Visa pour l’image; selected in the open call of exhibition proposals HACER organized by the Community of Madrid to produce and exhibit his project From East to West during the festival PHotoEspa?a; Roberto Villagraz grant 2018, finalist; talent scholarship from the TAI School (2018).

Juan Pablo Bellandi – The Tale Nobody Tells

An officer points his finger as a capture signal of another individual during a night patrol in one of the slums in the city of Merida/Venezuela.

Juan Pablo Bellandi

The Tale Nobody Tells

[ EPF 2018 SHORTLIST ]

My job as a Photographer of the pólice in Venezuela for more than two years has taught me through crude lessons to see myself as a policeman, with the particularity that I possess a camera.

Venezuela faces an extremely deep crisis; absurd and improbable situations occur. In a collective language we constantly repeat to ourselves and to others: how can one live like this?

More than 450 cops were killed in 2016 by the hands of delinquency , 13 October night was not an exception, the officer Rivera received multiple shots. with an altar in every comando all colleagues remember him.

Anibal Peña 47 years old, with 25 years of service to the police of Merida – Venezuela in 2003 was seriously injured with one FN FAL assault rifle during a robbery in one bank of the city, Anibal lost his left lung and still continued serving the police with passion. Now 13 years later he is asking for his resignation due to the low salary danger and few benefits of being part of this tropical madness that we live.

But Venezuelan reality has other shores, tales that nobody tells. It is very difficult for the police to maintain public order. The government has diminished to almost zero all the supplies for the proper functioning of the department. There aren’t working tools, protective equipment, basic goods or spare parts for their vehicles. There aren’t any police cars or motorcycles for tracking and surveillance.

In addition, the poor salaries of the police officers worsen the situation, promoting a vicious cycle of corruption. Therefore, extracting money from citizens through non-legal practices becomes more profitable and necessary for police officers to achieve their survival and to provide for their families. This is considering a country where a day of work is not worth a single dollar, when converting to our currency.

The Police officer Henry Araque has three childrens and his wife Helen is now waiting for his fourth daughter isabella. Araque always tells how difficult it is being a cop these days and advance with his salary , always says how difficult is coming back home safe from danger, Araque it is also mechanic because he need another income to go on with his life .In the picture the Baby shower of Helen in Chama Slum on December 2016 Merida State, Almost all essays conclude with a funeral, while I will close off mine celebrating a new life a hope.

On december 9th 2016 66 students graduated as Police Officers in Merida State , in 2015 there were almost 200 and in 2014 450, little by little the situation with the police become more dramatic, nobody feels respect towards police forces because they are related with corruption and government. In the picture the recent graduates clap to the governor Alexis Ramirez one of the strong and millionares of Nicolas Maduro group and Venezuela.

After documenting crime on a daily basis, which is one of the main problems of my country I realized that there is a background story to which I have belonged and to which I owe as a photographer. It is the story of the uniformed people who stay behind the conflict, who are often called guilty, who have a life that we do not know and that are a fundamental part of the disaster in which we find ourselves.

What does it mean to be a policeman in a country as Venezuela? A country with a comatose economy, a destroyed health system and a sunken education system. Bluntly a country living a humanitarian crisis. Families, pressures, obligations, acting evilly, stealing, saving or not saving their own lives.

Short Bio

Juan Pablo Bellandi born in Mérida, Venezuela in 1990. Studying photography at the Escuela Argentina de Fotografía in Buenos Aires, majored in photojournalism. The political situation in his homeland is the theme of his long-term projects: ‘En la Intimidad con el Levantamiento’ (Intimate with the Uprising) documents the demonstrations of Venezuelans against their government. The serie was short-listed for the 2015 Ian Parry Scholarship, and was exhibited in London. In 2016 Juan Pablo was one of the 12 photographers as a finalist in the Leica Oskar Barnack Award with his work Chasing HAMPA. Also he won the mentorship grant of the first masterclass organized by MeMo Agency. In 2017 have been a nominee for the Joop Swart Masterclass of World Press Photo,his work have been published by The Sunday Times Magazine, Photonews Germany, Lensculture, LFI, Doc!Photomagazine, Sueddeutsche Zeitung among others..

Ignacio Colo – At the Same Time

Ignacio Colo

At the Same Time

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

Eduardo and Miguel Portnoy are two 50-year-old twins from Buenos Aires, Argentina. They live together, they have never been apart since they were born, and today they are all alone in this world. Their family passed away with time: their parents, their only brother, also their uncles. They don’t have any close friends. They do everything alone. But they are never alone, because they have each other. The only support they have, their last safety net, is the Jewish community, that gives them employment, helping them materially but also, to a certain extent, emotionally. But, all in all, their main support is the love they have for each other and that symbiosis so typical of twins. The two of them are their only shelter, built upon love, loneliness and vulnerability.

Eduardo y Miguel son dos hermanos de 49 años que viven y trabajan juntos en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Todos los días se despiertan muy temprano y salen a caminar.

Los dos nacieron con 7 minutos de diferencia el 1ero de mayo de 1968. A pesar de que físicamente son casi idénticos, tienen rasgos de personalidad diferentes.

Miguel es el menor de los dos (por 7 minutos). Es también el más irreverente y atrevido.

Eduardo es el mayor (por 7 minutos). Como buen hermano mayor, es el responsable y el que siempre está atento a las reglas.

Aunque llueva, salen a caminar todas las mañanas.

La ropa que habitualmente utilizan para Shabat.

Todos los días se despiertan muy temprano y salen a caminar.

En su casa llevan a cabo todas las tareas domésticas sin ayuda de nadie: limpian la casa y se lavan su ropa todos los días.

La complicidad entre los dos hermanos gemelos es total y absoluta.

El espejo perteneció a su madre, que fue el principal sostén de los gemelos hasta su muerte en 20xx. La partida de su madre los obligó a crecer de golpe y emanciparse a la fuerza.

Short Bio

Ignacio Coló is a photographer and photo editor born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1980.

He lived in Paris, where he specialized in Photography History at the Sorbonne University. Back in Buenos Aires, he completed photography studies at the Escuela Argentina de Fotografía (EAF) and studied Cinematography at SICA, the union of filmmaking professionals.

He currently works at the Sunday Magazine of La Nacion, a major Argentinian newspaper, as a photographer and photo editor. His photographs are regularly published in media such as Financial Times (UK), Le Monde (France), L´Equipe Magazine (France), France Football (France), Society (France), El Mundo (Spain), Papel (Spain), de Volkskrant (Netherlands), Art Magazine (Germany), among others.

His photographs have been exhibited in individual and collective shows.

Massimo Nicolaci – I Carusi

Massimo Nicolaci

I Carusi

Sicily, for its past history and for its multiple influences and contaminations, is a place that preserves and sends forward a long tradition of faith, linked to Christianity, which has a large pagan and theatrical part connected to the populations that live there.

The man, the Sicilian, needs a hold on something extra terrain. He needs something that goes beyond everyday life. This manifests the theatricality of a people, shows its traditions and highlights its popular culture.

It is a physical manifestation, a staging, made of flesh and sweat, of cyclical rituals and appointments. Where the individual, together with his own community, detaches from the everyday, leaves his social situation and becomes something else, where he comes close to something higher, even for just a moment.

It is a great excuse to seek one’s own redemption on earth.

From 3rd to 5th of February, Catania dedicates a great celebration to the Saint, a mixture of faith and folklore. According to the tradition, when the news of the return of the Saint’s relics arrived in 1126, the bishop went out in procession through the city with bare feet and a night robe, followed by the clergy, nobles and the people. The origin of the traditional dress that devotees wear in the days of the festivities is controversial, the Sacco agatino: white coats and gloves with a black skullcap on their head. A deep-rooted popular legend is related to the fact that the citizens of Catania, awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of the bells when the relics were returned to the city, poured into the streets in a nightgown.

Other typical elements of the feast are the silver reliquary where the relics of the Saint are placed in turn on a chariot or Vara, also this one in silver.

Tied to the vehicle are two cordons of over 100 meters to which hundreds of “Devoti” cling, who untiringly pull the cart until the 6th of February. The reliquary is carried in procession preceded by the twelve candelore or “cannalori” each belonging to the corporations of the city craftsmen.

Everything happens between the wings of a crowd waving white handkerchiefs and shouting “Cittadini, cittadini, semu tutti devoti tutti”. It is considered one of the three most influential Catholic festivals worldwide.

Since many years out to Sicily, I was back in Catania, in the city where I was born, to take pictures at the sant’Agata festival.

There are many legends around this festivity, which are the “Candelore”, the votive candles that precede the Saint in the procession.

It is said that there is a use of money from the mafia around this celebration, that the bearers use drugs to support the effort and that there are clandestine bets around that.

I had the possibility to be put, in natural way, near the butchers candelora (à cannelora ri chianchieri) arround 2011.

My intention is to narrate the human world, i Carusi (the guys), that keep moving around this big candle. Is a material ritual, bodies, fisicitys, a men’s world, that have eyes only for one woman, the lovely, Agata.

This project represents the reconnection to my origin and to the culture that I left, to then return to Sicily and try to understand some parts of me.

I found myself in everyone of them, in every single Caruso.

Short Bio

Massimo Nicolaci (Catania, 1989), since 2006 attended several workshops by Obiettivo Granieri: Lorenzo Castore (2006/2007), Michael Ackerman (2007/2008), Morten Andersen (2011). In 2008 he moved to Rome from Sicily. On 22 June 2009, one of the young photographers chosen to participate in the “First Impression” portfolio reading organized by Magnum Photos in collaboration with the Photography Gallery in London. In March of 2010 he moved to New York. At that time, built a small photographic project called NYC. It prefers the work of wide-ranging, including: Catania (since 2006), Rome (since 2008), Paris (2015 / 2017), Berlin (since 2009), New York (2010). In 2013 he photographed the Conclave with Christopher Morris (VII agency) for Time Magazine in Rome. In 2015 he is still photographer in the new film by Alessandro Comodin, “Happy time will come soon”. Since 2008 collaborates closely with Lorenzo Castore.Since 2010 collaborates with Michael Ackerman (Camera Obscura Gallery – Paris). In July 2017, he released his first book LA CERVA BIANCA – La Biche Blanche published by LUCE and Shellac Sud. Now he lives in Berlin.

(Untitled)

[ 2018 FUJIFILM / YOUNG TALENT AWARD SHORTLIST ]

My Grandmother’s father and brother were both beheaded by the Japanese during the occupation of Malaysia from 1941 to 1945 during WWII for being Chinese. This meant she had to flee the country with her mother at the age of 3. With this leaving of the country, all ties to her heritage were severed. In 2016 I went out to Malaysia to explore how atrocities have many indirect effects, including myself not feeling as having ties to Chinese or Eastern culture. From this trip I managed to find long lost family through a common ancestor and was able to fill in their family tree for them as well as add to my own. Through these connections I tried to find out as much as I could about my Grandmothers father and brother, where they would have lived and worked. Also exploring the myth that my Grandmother believes her brother is still alive. While exploring my family history I also look at the locations of atrocities and the inspection centres which led to these atrocities to contemplate wether my family would have been subject to these locations. I also look at Singapore as an important amount of the Japanese occupation was carried out there. An interesting aspect about this work is that prior to the Japanese, the British had occupied Malaysia so for me to come as a British citizen to make work here draws up interesting parallels which I am yet to explore further.

This project explores indirect effects of war on a personal scale which is something that I have not yet encountered. With my previous work I have looked at indirect effects from war and tried to keep an objective outlook on the happenings that I made work on. This work combines my examination of war with the question of identity as I have such a diverse heritage, it seems that war, like millions of others, has shaped my life without it being evident at all to me bringing me to question myself as well as the development of civilisation.

Short Bio

With an interest in the spectacle of modern warfare, I explore spaces in which conflict occur particularly interested in the indirect effects on war; how they surface in the everyday and how these issues are dealt with in absence of mainstream media. Using a simple, unintrusive approach to many of the projects, I attempt to make invisible subjects visible through the use of landscape and context. Photographing in a slow and quiet manor, I try to force the viewer to study the image to extract the most information they can to then be reinforced by their own contextual knowledge and personal views. Consciously realising my place as a western spectator of modern conflict issues, I try to make work which aims to resonate with the western viewer in a non-confrontational way, believing empathy is most effective when the viewer pieces the puzzle together for themselves.

Mathias Depardon – Gold Rivers

Mathias Depardon

Gold Rivers

[ EPF 2018 SHORTLIST ]

The history of the Mesopotamian rivers and their presence in our own cultural history may be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, spanning some, 10,000 years of world heritage. In the 4th millennium BCE, the first literate societies emerged in Southern Mesopotamia, often referred to as the Cradle of Civilization. What was once considered to be the Garden of Eden is now in danger of disappearing.

The Euphrates and Tigris rivers occupy a central place in the daily life, ecology, and history of millions of people living around them. The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of the Middle East flowing over 1,700 miles from eastern Turkey through Syria and Iraq.

Commuters on a ferry boat traveling across the Keban dam on the Euphrates river located in eastern Anatolia. Keban, Turkey

The Göksu is a tributary of the Euphrates, joining it from the north some 20 km downstream of the Atatürk Dam, east of the village of Kızılin. Turkey

Local girls from the village of Hasankeyf are meeting over a tea together. By 2018, the Ilisu dam project will start flooding 80% of the ancient monuments of Hasankeyf along with 52 other villages and 15 small towns. It will destroy 400 kilometers of the Tigris’s ecosystem and force the relocation of about 60,000 persons among the people of Hasankeyf. Turkey

Local tourists visiting the former village of Savaçan flooded by the reservoir lake of the Birecik Dam in 1999 located on the Euphrates river. Turkey

A woman working in a local cafe is looking at a tourist boat arriving in the former Savaçan Village flooded the Birecik Dam on the Euphrates river in the late 90’s. The town was among those settlements, ancient and contemporary, that would remain under the rising water levels of the local dams and rivers following the execution of the GAP project. Until the area was flooded in 1999, the people lived from fishing in the Euphrates and farming on the riverbank. Savaçan, Turkey

Local tourists visiting the village of Halfeti partly flooded by the reservoir lake of the Birecik Dam on the Euphrates river.The dam was built on top of the ruins of the ancient city of Zeugma. The inhabitants of Halfeti and Savaçan were displaced to the city of Karaotlak built by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey in 2000. Halfeti,Turkey

A beekeeper is standing by his beehives in a field near the town of Halfeti. The town of Halfeti partly flooded by the reservoir lake of the Birecik Dam on the Euphrates river.The dam was built on top of the ruins of the ancient city of Zeugma. The inhabitants of Halfeti and Savaçan were displaced to the city of Karaotlak (also called New Halfeti) built by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey. Halfeti,Turkey Halfeti, Turkey

A herd of cattle are walking back towards the village by the banks of the Tigris river. Hasankeyf, Turkey

Young farmers are standing on top of a hill dominating the banks of the Tigris river. The Ilisu dam project due in 2018 will flood 80% of the ancient monuments of Hasankeyf along with 52 other villages and 15 small towns by 2018. Kesmeköprü, Turkey

Sait and Turan are teachers in a local High School near the dam of Ataturk. They are overlooking at the artificial lake of the biggest dam in Turkey, located on the Euphrates River on the border of Adıyaman Province and Şanlıurfa Province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Built both to generate electricity and to irrigate the plains in the region, it was renamed in honour of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the founder of the Turkish Republic. The construction began in 1983 and was completed in 1990. Turkey

The town of Hasankeyf in southeast Turkey is the only place in the world that has met nine out of ten criteria for Unesco’s world heritage sites. However, the Turkish government has made no effort to bid for its inclusion in the coveted world heritage list, or to promote tourism in the ancient town located along the Tigris River. Any effort to do so would harm the development of the Ilisu dam — a state project that is supposed to entirely flood Hasankeyf, along with 52 other villages and 15 nearby towns, by 2019.

Already, a number of towns and villages located on the Euphrates River have been flooded as part of Turkey’s controversial Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi — or Southeastern Anatolia Project. GAP, as it is known, is currently Ankara’s most significant territory planning project, involving eight provinces, and will irrigate 1.7 million dry hectares of earth from 22 different dams all fed by water from the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

A villager from Hasankeyf is sitting at a café. The Ilisu Dam project due in 2018 will flood 80% of the ancient monuments of Hasankeyf along with 52 other villages and 15 small towns destroying a unique historical site where a mix of Assyrians, Roman and Ottoman monuments belong. Hasankeyf, Turkey

View from the dam construction site of Ilisu. Planned in 2018, the dam of Ilisu on the edges of the Tigris, will become the second biggest reservoir of water and the fourth hydro electrical power station of Turkey, with an annual production of 3,8 billions of kW / h. His expense is estimated at 1,2 billion euro. Ilisu, Turkey

A shepherd is walking with his sheep on the banks of the Tigris river near Hasankeyf. The river is predominant in the life of the inhabitants of the village of Hasankeyf. The Ilisu Dam project due towards the end of 2018 will flood 80% of the ancient monuments of Hasankeyf along with 52 other villages and 15 small towns destroying a unique historical site where a mix of Assyrians, Roman and Ottoman monuments belong. Hasankeyf, Turkey

View on the new settlement of Karaotlak. Halfeti is a small farming district on the east bank of the river Euphrates partly submerged in 1999 under the waters behind the dam on the Euphrates at Birecik. The town was therefore removed to the village of Karaotlak (also called New Halfeti) where the residency of the new town is now complete. Karaotlak, Turkey

Men are refilling water from a small spring on the side of the road between Siverek and the city of Sanliurfa.Turkey

A fisherman is fishing long the stream of a tributary river to the Euphrates across a cement factory.Turkey

Leyla is picking up grape leaves for her traditional dolma recipe in the fields of Harran. The Atatürk Dam and the Şanlıurfa Tunnel system are two major components of the GAP project. Irrigation started in the Harran Plain in the spring of 1995. The impact of the irrigation on the economy of the region is significant. In ninety percent of the irrigated area, cotton is planted. Irrigation expansion within the Harran plains also increased Southeastern Anatolia’s cotton production from 164,000 to 400,000 metric tons in 2001, or nearly sixty percent. With almost 50% share of the country’s cotton production, the region developed to the leader in Turkey. Harran, Turkey

A man is paddling in a boat across the Keban Lake in eastern Anatolia. The Keban Dam was the first and uppermost of several large scale hydroelectric dam to be built on the Euphrates by Turkey. Although the Dam was not originally constructed as a part of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), it is now a fully integrated component of the project, which aims to stimulate economic development in Southeastern Turkey. Keban Dam Lake, reservoir created by the Keban Dam is reputedly the fourth-largest lake in Turkey after Lake Van, Lake Tuz and the reservoir created by the Atatürk Dam. Keban, Turkey

A restaurant terrace on the Tigris river during a summer day. The river is predominant in the life of the inhabitants of the region of Hasankeyf. The Ilisu Dam project due in 2018 will flood 80% of the ancient monuments of Hasankeyf along with 52 other villages and 15 small towns by 2018 destroying a unique historical site where a mix of Assyrians, Roman and Ottoman monuments belong. Hasankeyf, Turkey

A man sits by the road facing a 12th century bridge leading to Hasankeyf over the Tigris River which will soon be flooded along with the town itself by the Ilisu Dam. Hasankeyf, Turkey.

View on a terrace of a restaurant above the Tigris. The Old Bridge is a ruined four-arch bridge spanning the Tigris River in the town of Hasankeyf. It was built by the Artuqid Turkmens in the mid-12th century, between about 1147 and 1167, and at the time its central arch was one of the largest in the world, if not the largest. The town along with the bridge will be flooded by the Ilisu dam within the year 2018. Hasankeyf, Turkey

Both residents of southeastern Turkey and international observers continue to question the Ilisu dam, which will destroy a unique historical site, where Assyrians, Roman, and Ottoman monuments exist in close proximity. Yet the Turkish government maintains that the project will aid the impoverished region, allowing the creation of 10,000 jobs and the development of local farming and agriculture.

Along with environmental and social risks, the geopolitical impact of the dam cannot be ignored either. The development of Ilisu has been severely criticized by neighboring Iraq and Syria, who accuse Turkey of appropriating waters of two rivers that connect to their territories, which are already hit by arid conditions and drought.

Short Bio

b. 1980 France. Mathias Depardon was raised between France, Belgium and the USA. After studying communication and journalism in Brussels, Mathias briefly joined the Belgian national newspaper Le Soir before devoting himself to reportage and feature work. His immersive process and slower approach to journalism allow for comprehensive bodies of work that reveal and frame important social, economic and political issues in territories under tension such as Turkey and Iraq where he question the idea of border and territory. Through series of portraits and landscapes, Mathias Depardon probe a Turkey torn between modernization and the reminiscence of the ottoman values evoking the notion of Pan-Turkism in the neighboring countries. In 2018 he is the finalist of the Grand Prix de la Photographie Documentaire in Sète and laureate of the Grant for Contemporary Documentary Photography (Centre National des Arts Plastiques). Exhibitions have included the Musée des Archives nationales and Arles.

Sébastien Van Malleghem – Nordic Noir

Sébastien Van Malleghem

Nordic Noir

An artistic residence in Norway (Halsnoy Cloister, 2013) ignites a passion with the North. Iceland, then Scandinavia further fuels the flame, revealing a personal confrontation with an endless space, a passionate and brutal encounter.

Captivated by the Scandinavian lands from a residence in Norway, Sébastien Van Malleghem has since advanced his travels from Denmark to Iceland, passing through Finland and Sweden. Nordic Noir is the visual recital of this contrasting trek. With breath-taking and timeless landscapes, scenes of life and harsh portraits, the series is closer to a constellation than a linear path. In the explosion of emotions that is the series, the photographer finds the right balance between the sublime and the banal, between the grandiose and the intimate. Leaning towards reverie in this work, Sébastien Van Malleghem’s eye remains sharp and keen; just as well when the scenery lends itself to pure contemplation, to the exhilaration of large spaces, to the experience of solitude where he captures a carefree and unbridled youthfulness that lays itself unreservedly open in front of the lens.

CONVERSATION WITH DIEGO ORLANDO

Sébastien, i know for you this has been a deep personal project, a sort of “personal long love story” as you described it, so i want to know more what keeps you close to this work and how you see it after years. The way you are looking at it has changed?

No, not at all. Nordic Noir, made me look deeper. That work I started in 2012 gave me the guts to do what I love to do and to believe in it. So far, making these photographs made me extremely happy and more confident. I didn’t change my way to look at the world, that work didn’t change it either, at the opposite: it confirmed it.

And are the pictures telling new things to you after years? I mean are they showing some secondary layer you didn’t see at the time?

I don’t think so, everything became clear when I looked at the book and when we made it. If my photographs would mean something new, it would just be my mind going in different mood looking at them, but I know their origin and what surrounds them – when I made them, why I made them, and how I presented them. Nordic Noir is a big part of my life and what’s going on in my mind when I’m looking at reality. It is presented with exactitude in the photography book « Nordic Noir » published at the end of 2017.

Do you miss the way you were looking at world at that time?

That questions sounds like you can have a way to look at the world and then change it. As it is a style or a filter. That is totally not the case for me. Nordic Noir is exactly how I feel and sense the world that surrounds me. Yes, I love black in my photographs, yes most of my reports are about the people in the margins, yes these are important reports that deserves attention; and Nordic Noir is my own wild run.

I can’t « miss » this way to look at the world, because it is inside my DNA. Going to the extremes, with Nordic Noir was deep honesty towards love, photography, and the main themes that I’m questioning. I can’t miss my way to look at it cause I’m still shooting there. I still need it, it became a necessary part of my life: a balance. I’ll be back in Iceland in few month, and later on in winter 2019 I have been invited to an Artist Residency in North Norway: Vesteralen. I never stopped being up there, even after the book was published I was making photographs in Norway…

I explain my question in a different way.. sometime when a project is finished we close that chapter inside us and we start exploring different directions opening deeper level of our perceptions. Yet, after a while, sometime after years, the immediate and first way of looking and capturing moments that we had on our first big project is something that we miss because we realize we cannot replicate.

The key is that Nordic Noir isn’t my first big project. Nordic Noir was made in parallel of my work of reporter. So when I was documenting the Mexican Morgues, or the Heroine crisis in North of France, and other reportages in EU I needed to breathe. Therefore I would head up to Scandinavia and just photograph what I was personally interested by, and confront myself to quiet places. That is why that work is personal and spread over 5 years. Because it’s not a first, and after 11 years of being a photographer I know how to close a reportage, but personal works are limitless. It just depends of your mood and feeling to continue it or end it, but in anyway it sticks to your soul.
Now I’m working on this new personal project and reportage in the USA, I evolved from Nordic Noir, and I can do the distinction with the new project and the one still running.
It’s a personal choice to continue something with will and desire or to start something new.

Short Bio

His long-term projects focus on the idea of justice in contemporary Europe. For four years he followed the daily job of police officers and their interaction with the public, then he decided to enter inside Belgian prisons for more than three years from 2011 until 2014. Sébastien went in Libya in 2012 to work on the ruins of the power after the death of Kaddafi. He covered the daily life of the people living in the streets of Berlin during five months in 2013. Van Malleghem focused on the Mexican Morgues in 2017, Heroine addicts in North of France in 2018 and went back to Belgium to photograph asylums in Flanders. Next to his European reportages, Sébastien started another long-term project in 2012 focused on Scandinavia, which has been published in 2018 under the name of Nordic Noir and selected has one of the most captivating photo-book of the year by the independant magazine Mother Jones (USA)

Andrew Sullivan – Endangered Species

Andrew Sullivan

Endangered Species

Mexico’s murder rate went up 16% in the first half of 2018, a grim statistic that suggested this year would be the bloodiest in the country’s history. Time magazine approximated that someone was killed every 15 minutes in May. Where I live in Mexico has the reputation of being a safe haven. In travel around the country, I have seldom been in danger, yet I worry about personal safety. Reconciling my daily life with the headlines I see in the “prensa amarilla” leads to thoughts that I’m living in a fantastical bubble while a war rages closer than I want to believe.

While I recognize that I am not a target of the violence between rival criminal cartels, that sense of unease provided the idea for this project. I thought of looking over my shoulder on a quiet street in a strange town, and noticed Mexicans doing the same as I would pass in the street. I sensed a certain vigilance, and started to photograph scenes that seemed to signify something other than what was depicted. I didn’t want to photograph blatant violence. I wanted the photos themselves, and the relationships between pictures, to suggest that something was awry, that something lay beneath the surface. Mexico blends beauty with the sinister, joy with despair, and mystery with the mundane. It’s those contradictions that interest me- and make me uncomfortable.

Short Bio

Andrew Sullivan has worked as a photographer in Kenya, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. His work has been published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the United States Olympic Committee, and many publications around the world. He has exhibited at Universidad Veracruzana, and other galleries in Mexico, Italy, and the United States. Based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, he uses photography as a tool for trying to understand daily life. He believes that photography can investigate truths in a way no other medium can.

Yorgos Yatromanolakis – The Splitting of the Chrysalis & the Slow Unfolding of the Wings

Yorgos Yatromanolakis

The Splitting of the Chrysalis & the Slow Unfolding of the Wings

‘The Splitting of the Chrysalis & the Slow Unfolding of the Wings’ arose from my unforeseen return to my homeland and my residence there for four years. Isolated in the countryside of the island, I was constantly confronted with my traumatic past, my memories and myself.

Gradually, through wandering in nature, a conceivable field of action was created within me, an intermediate space full of transformative dynamics, a place of becoming. I surrendered to the fluidity of this space, to a paradoxical and cosmogenic ceremony. I was faced with the most enigmatic aspects of myself; I was searching for a new reality in which I would be able to exist. These photographs are part of a notebook, constructed through this experience, attempting to capture the cycle of an internal process of metamorphosis.

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