Ronghui Chen – Freezing Land

Ronghui Chen

Freezing Land

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

We’re used to thinking of Chinese cities in the context of growth, but the country’s northeast region is an exception. Bordering Russia and North Korea, the region, with ample natural resources, was the first to develop heavy industries in the 1960s and prospered for decades. There were 15 million immigrants to northeastern China in the Mao’s era.

But since the 2000s, the northeast has become China’s most recessionary land as resources dwindled and other regions caught up. Dying industries and shortages of opportunities have been forcing people out of their home and to other parts of China in pursuit of work.

My project, Freezing Land, aims to explore descendants of immigrants living in the northeast. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping started a campaign called the “Chinese Dream”. But what does this mean to the the once prosperous land? What’s the story of today’s northeastern China?

It is difficult to encounter subjects on the street in an environment of minus 30 degrees centigrade. Therefore, I used social video app, Kuai shou, looking for young people who were willing to share their stories. The young people I met were experiencing a sense of uncertainty. They were facing a choice to leave for challenges in bigger cities, or stay behind and embrace their fate. Their voices were sparsely documented by Chinese media or through other mediums. Few people knew about their stories, colorful, yet full of loneliness.

I also photographed the derelict landscape – places that are once lively but now forgotten. During this process, the emotion expressed by these young people – a mixed sense of hesitation, loneliness, and hope – has brought me resonance.

Short Bio

Ronghui Chen (b.1989) is a Chinese photographer and storyteller based in Shanghai, whose work focus on China’s urbanization in long term projects. He has devoted himself to the study the relationship between China’s urbanization and individual’s experiences. Known for his specific interest in these social issues, he had published his first collection of photographs named Chen Ronghui, which is one of the book among China’s Contemporary Photography Catalog. His projects have brought him many awards, including World Press Photo prize, Three Shadows Photography Award & AlPA special prize.

Hajime Kimura – Mass/Remains

Hajime Kimura

Mass/Remains

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

Mass/Remains is an on-going project that tries to discover the movement of the football histories during the 90s in former Yugoslavia which ended up to influence Japanese football milestone and could be connected to compose the current geopolitics that has been reconstructed by the societies of former Yugoslavia.

On 13 May 1990, at a football stadium in Zagreb, Red Star Belgrade vs Dinamo Zagreb. Through the TV in Japan, I still remember I just wondered why such a riot happened in a football game. A lot of spectators, hooligans and police all jumbled up and rolled into the field. They looked like a flock of waves rather than only a mob. I was 8 at that time, a couple of years before the professional football league (J-League) started in Japan. Over time, many Yugoslavian players came to Japan in the mid of the 90s, Dragan Stoikovich who was a great football player in the history of Europe was to join a football team, of course as a player. I was just excited without knowing why he had to play in Japan at the very peak of his career. I also played football when I was a teenager to be like him.

In 2016 in Belgrade, I met a Serbian man who was in the riot at that time and also whom I have watched several times in the football games in Tokyo when I was kids. His name is Miša Bukumirovic, 70, married with a Croatian wife and he has worked as a single official physiotherapist for Red Star Belgrade since 1986.

Two headshots of Miša Bukumirović from his family album. One is when he was 30, the other is when he was 50. He is 70 currently.

A man at Marakana stadium in Belgrade, waiting for the game started.

A pilot seat of The 1999 F-117A shootdown by the Air Defence Missile Belgrade on 27th Mar 1999 during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The aircraft was found around 50km North-west of Belgrade centre.

990512-O-9999M-003 Post-strike bomb damage assessment photograph of the Obrva Airfield, Serbia, used by Joint Staff Vice Director for Strategic Plans and Policy Maj. Gen. Charles F. Wald, U.S. Air Force, during a press briefing on NATO Operation Allied Force in the Pentagon on May 12, 1999. DoD photo. (Released)

An aircraft of JAT airways (Yugoslav airways) used from 1963 to 1994 are shown in the backyard of The aviation museum of Belgrade.

A clip of a footage, “The Death of Yugoslavia”, made by BBC in 1995. This is the last clip just before Sarajevo was bombed by the Servian military invasion on 2nd May 1992.

The full-house derby match, Red Star Belgrade vs Partizan Belgrade at Partizan stadium on 18th Sep 2016.

During my research for this project, Miša showed me a scrapbook which his daughter made to present for him. The scrapbook was full of his cropped images from newspapers and magazines in the 90’s. I just thought the note should be one of the important histories in the 90’s. From that point, I’d like to know how general media in former Yugoslavia broadcasted in 90’s in order to compare with personal history to understand “what could make history” and “what remains after all” being involved a general sport and personal memories including me.

A part of Serbian newspaper, Politika, which I picked up around Marakana stadium in Belgrade in 2016. The article showed the people deceased and their funeral ceremony information.

On the way back to Belgrade from Mrčajevci 130km south from Belgrade, where Miša was born in and raised in until he was 18.

A portrait of Miša Bukumirović, 70, taken at his home. Now he lives with his wife who he met in Vinkovci, Croatia in 1970.

An abandoned poster found in a suburb of Belgrade. This image, a man who numbered 10, Zvonimir Boban, famous Croatian footballer kicked a Serbian policeman in the riot of Maksimir on 13th May 1990.

I met a man from Podgorica, Montenegro at the dormitory I stayed in Belgrade. He just came to see a football game, Red Star Belgrade vs Arsenal on the preliminary round of the Champions League in 2017.

At a disco nearby Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina, Kosovo.

A hilly range nearby Zenica, 80km north-west from Sarajevo. People around there picnic in the weekend, also the area has a monument (Spomenik) built in 1968 to hope to unite for Former Yugoslavia.

Short Bio

Hajime Kimura is a Japanese photographer born in 1982. He was raised in the Chiba prefecture just outside Tokyo. Having studied architecture and anthropology in university, he began his career in 2006. In 2013, Hajime was awarded the 2nd prize at the Vattenfall Photo Award in Berlin. In 2014 he won the 3rd prize of Kassel photobook dummy award in Germany, and the book “ Scrapbook” was published in 2015. In recent, he has published “In search of lost memories” and “Snowflakes Dog Man” as handmade-book edition and “Path in between” published from L’Artiere Edizion in Paris in 2016. He is based in Japan and Switzerland.

Sanja Jugovic Burns – Fugue

Sanja Jugovic Burns

Fugue

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

In 1980, Josip Broz Tito died. Yugoslavia followed him a decade later. My family emigrated to Australia in 1985, before the war (so this project is not about the war). I have no recollection of the plane journey there. I found Australia unwelcoming, but lived in comfort that one day, when sufficiently adult, I would be able to return home.

My first journey back to Yugoslavia was as a “foreigner” and a tourist, but not a stranger. It was summer of 1990. I witnessed a country preparing to slide violently towards its death and still denied this ever being a possibility. For a long time after, and elsewhere, I did not have a reason to bother recalling the country of my birth. Then my mother passed away. My very entry into this world disappeared and I needed to relearn the world, relearn that I was from nowhere.The idea that we are from some place has an irresistible magnetism, but what happens when that place is gone? One realises all we are is a collection of fragmented images. I return to my home town frequently to look for traces of life I have left behind, but all I find is an unceremonious blur playing out in a parallel universe. The life I have had is forever gone. I languish in nostalgia. The more nostalgic I become, the less I remember. All I have is my fragments.

To relay the complexity of this process of personal reconstruction, I attempt avoiding uniformity by using different film and camera formats, and images from family archives. There are no constraints and rules around locations and backdrops for this project. My aim is to manipulate senses and evoke an emotional response, not to document a place or an event. My approach is informed by the Balinese concept of Sekala (the seen) and Niskala (the unseen, the occult), where that which is unseen but sensed is attributed equal importance and it must be respected.

Short Bio

Sanja Jugovic Burns (b. 1970, Sisak, Croatia) is an emerging photographer currently based in Bali. She is a researcher specializing in cultural understanding and sensory perception. She is an Australian citizen and has also spent 14 years living in and working from Singapore.

“My interest in photography was awakened in my father’s makeshift darkroom in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Interestingly, my most vivid memory of this time is not the pictures but the smell of the chemicals. These chemicals were akin to magic potions making something of nothing; or unveiling the hidden (as well as Antun’s overexposed photographs).”

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

Magnum Foundation

Published on December 5, 2018 by Mallory Bracken. 0 Comments

Felipe Romero Beltrán – Magdalena

Felipe Romero Beltrán

Magdalena

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

In the 1960s, an armed-conflict began in Colombia between mafias, paramilitary groups and armed guerrillas such as the FARC movement, who were all fighting to influence the decisions made by the government. The war ended in 2016, when the government and the FARC signed an historical peace deal. The bodies of many of the victims killed during the years of war were often mutilated and then thrown in the Magdalena River: a river that has been fundamental for the nation, it is a vital water source and has been established as the heart of the entire area. In the middle of the river, the zone called <<Magdalena medio>> fishermen have taken advantage of its abundance to feed entire villages. For years, the fishermen fishing in the river have found body parts in their nets and brought them out of the water. During years, the local populations have practiced relogious rituals to gain the favors of the dead.

Magdalena is a project that explores the processes of reconciliation in the post-conflict era in Colombia. The story is located in an area full of magic and at the same time a palpable desire for reconciliation and memory with the past.

Short Bio

Felipe Romero (25 years old) is a documentary photographer and artist born in Bogota, Colombia. After spending his childhood in his city, he earned a scholarship in Argentina and moved to Buenos Aires. By that time, he had developed an interest in photojournalism and traveled many times abroad for his projects. In 2014, he earned a scholarship in Jerusalem, at the Academy of Arts Bezalel and moved to Israel. Felipe developed projects in Palestine, Egypt and Israel, focusing on social issues. Years later, He got a MFA degree in photography (King Juan Carlos University) in Madrid, Spain. Felipe is currently working on issues related to post-conflict processes in Latin America and at the same time he is developing a Phd program in Fine Arts.

Tabitha Barnard – Cult of Womanhood

Tabitha Barnard was the recipient of the 2018 Fujifilm/Young Talent Award for this essay. This honor recognizes photographers 25 and under, granting them $10,000 from Fujifilm to continue the work.

Tabitha Barnard

Cult of Womanhood

[ FUJIFILM/YOUNG TALENT AWARD 2018 WINNER – $10,000 ]

Growing up in a small town in rural Maine, my contact with others was limited. I was raised alongside three sisters and lived in a close-knit religious culture where sexuality was never mentioned. As children we created elaborate fantasy games and tried to find every Bible passage we could about powerful women and witches. The forbidden nature and the ritual of the occult fascinated us.

Our household was staunchly Christian, I witnessed the demonization of sexuality and femininity in our church, yet I was surrounded by powerful feminine energy. In Christianity, women are considered to be the weaker sex. Unable to even teach in the church. But it was widely accepted that all it took for a man’s morality to come into question was the presence of a sensual temptress. My sisters both loved and despised the story of Bathsheba for that same reason. When she was fourteen, my youngest sister called for a meeting between the four of us. Disclosing her secret relationship with another girl and her queerness. It was months longer until she told my parents. While she was accepted and loved in my family, the push-pull between existing as a queer woman in a religious community, especially during puberty, was a struggle. This struggle was played out on her body as she picked and scratched at her skin. Almost mimicking the blood and suffering we spoke of while taking communion.

For the last six years, I have made images that document my sisters in their unique transitions to womanhood. As a young woman, I watched while girls changed from children to objects sexualized by older men. My photographs explore religion and the community I created with my sisters, lifting a veil on a formerly intimate and private exchange between the four of us. In our religious cult of womanhood there exists a theater of eternal youth and femininity. We are confrontational while on display, finding our escape from this repression in the forests and seascapes of Maine.

Short Bio

Tabitha Barnard was born in Freedom, New Hampshire, in 1994. She is a photographer who grew up in rural Maine with three sisters. Growing up in a very Christian female-dominated family has had a huge influence on her work. She works primarily in digital and analog color photography, exploring themes of femininity, religion, and ritual. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art from Maine College of Art in the Spring of 2016. Her first solo exhibition opened in the summer of 2018 at Speedwell Projects in Portland Maine. Since then she was recognized as a finalist in the Lens Culture Art Photography competition and had work featured in various online magazines. In the spring of 2019 pieces from Tabitha’s longest ongoing series Cult of Womanhood will be included in the Art Photography show at Aperture gallery in New York. She currently works as the media technician at the Maine College of Art with hopes to apply to graduate school in the coming fall.

Shadman Shahid – No Quarter

Shadman Shahid was the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Photographer Fund and was granted $10,000 for this essay. Burn Magazine revolves around the EPF and it is our most important curatorial contribution to the oftentimes chaotic landscape of photography today. Most importantly, our mission is to give recognition to the finest emerging authors out there and to provide some funding to keep going and to continue making a mark.

Shadman Shahid

No Quarter

[ EPF 2018 WINNER – $10,000]

87% of the women in Bangladesh are victims of domestic violence in Bangladesh. The numbers tell us that the Bangladeshi society, including the victims, take it as a normal part of life. In many cases, the couple stays in such abusive relationships for years. The victims remain silent, enduring throughout the time and the abuser stays unpunished and unchanged.

No quarter is a story of such a couple, Alo and Sagor, who have been in an abusive relationship for more than 20 years now. It is a Docu-fiction created based on the many interviews that I have taken of Alo. During the interviews, she shared the memories that have left the deepest marks, like sharing snapshots from a family album except these snapshots are not as biased to happy memories as most family albums are.

During her interview she told me, while growing up, she was a bright child and how she was her father’s favorite among all her siblings. She liked the Thundercats and she liked to make dolls. She told me that it was normal for a girl to get married when they were nine, but she herself got married when she was 15 to a man who was 30. Right after their first daughter was born, the abuse started. Her husband would beat her up every time she disagreed with him, if she complained about anything, if she talked to another guy and sometimes just for existing. There was a period in their life when she was accused of being pregnant with her brother’s child. During that time, she was forced to get an abortion of a child that was three months old in her womb. She told me about her suicidal tendencies and how she takes blood out of her own body with a syringe to paint the walls with it. It was her favorite pastime for a while. I have tried to visualize her story by making a Docu-fictional family album using images from their actual family album and staged images that were created based on the memories she shared with me. – Names have been changed and faces hidden to protect the identities of the people involved.

Short Bio

Shadman Shahid is a freelance documentary photographer born and raised in Dhaka Bangladesh. He has completed a three-year course in photography from Pathshala South Asian Media Academy. After enlisting for a basic photography class in 2011, in order to improve his filmmaking skills, he got enchanted by the medium’s allure and has been practicing photography passionately since then. He likes to work on small isolated communities and personal stories. He has participated in workshops conducted by Gary Knight, Munem Wasif, Abir Abdullah, Jodi Haines, Gael Turine, Swapan Parekh, Ian The and Kosuke Okahara. He has been selected for the 2017 Joop Swart Masterclass. He is currently based in Rotterdam in Netherlands where is he is working on his personal projects as well as studying in the Master at Photography and Society program in The Royal Academy of Art in Hague.

The Emerging Photographer Fund 2018 – The Recipients

The Emerging Photographer Fund 2018

Shahid Shadman, No Quarter

Shadman Shahid

No Quarter

EPF 2018 RECIPIENT – $10,000

No quarter speaks about the victims of domestic violence in Bangladesh. It takes the form of a docu-fiction about Alo and Sagor, a couple who have been in an abusive relationship for more than 20 years.

Stay tuned for the full essay.

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The EPF Fujifilm/Young Talent Award 2018

Tabitha Barnard - Cult of Womanhood

Tabitha Barnard

Cult of Womanhood

FUJIFILM/YOUNG TALENT AWARD 2018 RECIPIENT – $10,000

Cult of Womanhood explores religion and the community Tabitha created with her sisters, revealing a theater of eternal youth and femininity during their transition to womanhood, while escaping from repression in the forests and seascapes of rural Maine, USA.

Stay tuned for the full essay.

The Fujifilm/Young Talent Award is given every year to an emerging photographer who is 25 or younger.

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The Emerging Photographer Fund 2018 – Finalists

Liza Ambrossio

Tabitha Barnard (winner Fujifilm/Young Talent Award 2018)

Felipe Romero Beltran

Rosie Brock

Sanja Jugovic Burns

Ronghui Chen

Hajime Kimura

David Molina

Annalisa Natali Murri

Tommaso Protti

Shadman Shahid (winner Emerging Photographer Fund 2018)

The full essays of the winners and shortlisted entries will be published here on BURN magazine.

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Emerging Photographer Fund 2018 – Judges:

(in alphabetical order)

Adam Broomberg | Artist, professor of photography at HFBK in Hamburg and teacher at KABK in The Hague

MaryAnne Golon | Assistant Managing Editor and Director of Photography at The Washington Post

Sohrab Hura | Photographer, Magnum Photos

Azu Nwagbogu | Founder and Director of African Artists’ Foundation AAF

Fiona Rogers | Global Director of Business Development for Magnum Photos

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Previous EPF Winners

The 2008 Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to
Sean Gallagher for his essay on the environmental Desertification of China.

The 2009 Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to
Alejandro Chaskielberg for his 8×10 format essay on the Parana River Delta ‘The High Tide’.

The 2010 Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to
Davide Monteleone for his essay ‘Northern Caucasus’.

The 2011 Emerging Photographer Fund grant was awarded to
Irina Werning for her essay ‘Back to the Future’.

In 2012 three Emerging Photographer Fund grants were awarded:
one major to Matt Lutton for his essay ‘Only Unity’ and
two minors to Giovanni Cocco for his essay ‘Monia’ and to Simona Ghizzoni for her essay ‘Afterdark’.

In 2013 four Emerging Photographer Fund grants were awarded:
one major to Diana Markosian for her essay ‘My Father The Stranger’ and
three minors to Iveta Vaivode for her essay ‘Somewhere on Disappearing Path’,
Oksana Yushko for her essay ‘Balklava: The Lost History’ and
Maciej Pisuk for his essay ‘Under The Skin; Photographs From Brzeska Street’.

In 2014 two Emerging Photographer Fund grants were awarded:
one major to Alessandro Penso for his essay ‘Lost Generation’ and
one minor to Birte Kaufmann for her essay ‘The Travelers’.

In 2015 the Emerging Photographer Fund was awarded to Danila Tkachenko for ‘Restricted Areas’, and
the Fujifilm Young Talent Award to Sofia Valiente for ‘Miracle Village’.

In 2016 the Emerging Photographer Fund was awarded to Annie Flanagan for ‘Deafening Sound’, and
the Fujifilm Young Talent Award to Aleksander Raczynski for ‘Views’

In 2017 the Emerging Photographer Fund was awarded to Antoine Bruy for ‘Outback Mythologies’, and
the Fujifilm Young Talent Award to Aleksey Kondratyev for ‘Ice Fishers’

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Editor’s note:

I cannot express my thanks enough to MaryAnne, Sohrab, Fiona, Azu and Adam. They worked together to finely tune their choices, looked at the finalists from every angle and awarded the EPF grants to the photographers they felt most deserving. Of course, once it got down to the finalists, choices became extremely difficult, but that is a given… and they did an admirable job. Thank you.

A heartfelt thank you also to Fujifilm for making it possible for the EPF to keep the focus on the future generations, the young ones, the ones with a vision already making a mark now… and just might make another jump soon.

FujiFilm_Basic-Black

Burn Magazine revolves around the EPF. Our most important curatorial contribution to the oftentimes chaotic landscape of photography today. By choosing a jury whose lifetimes have been spent in looking at photographs and making photographs, we try to give our Burn readers a distilled version of the best work of all that flows before their eyes every day.

Most importantly our mission is to give recognition to the finest emerging authors out there and to provide some funding to at least a few to keep going and to continue making a mark. Our previous winners prove this is not in vain.

Many thanks especially to my EPF team Anton Kusters, Diego Orlando, and Mallory Bracken. First off, they must deal with me!! Never easy. In all seriousness, they all show amazing dedication to the spirit of doing something which just feels good. To provide a platform for the up and coming.

Special thanks to Susan Meiselas of the Magnum Foundation. Nobody on the planet is more dedicated to allowing new talent to develop.

Special thanks also to Michael Loyd Young, EPF funder and BURN Magazine board member.

-dah-

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The Emerging Photographer Fund is a yearly award given to an emerging photographer, supporting the development of his or her work.
In tandem, the Fujifilm/Young Talent Award is given every year to an emerging photographer who is 25 or younger.
The Emerging Photographer Fund was created and is directed by David Alan Harvey, curated and produced by Anton Kusters & Diego Orlando.

Published on November 25, 2018 by burn magazine. 1 Comment

Ronghui Chen

Freezing Land

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

Short Bio

Related Links

Hajime Kimura

Mass/Remains

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

Short Bio

Related Links

Sanja Jugovic Burns

Fugue

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

Short Bio

Felipe Romero Beltrán

Magdalena

[ EPF 2018 FINALIST ]

Short Bio

Related Links

Tabitha Barnard

Cult of Womanhood

[ FUJIFILM/YOUNG TALENT AWARD 2018 WINNER – $10,000 ]

Short Bio

Related Links

Shadman Shahid

No Quarter

[ EPF 2018 WINNER – $10,000]

Short Bio

Related Links

The Emerging Photographer Fund 2018

Shadman Shahid

No Quarter

EPF 2018 RECIPIENT – $10,000

Stay tuned for the full essay.

The EPF Fujifilm/Young Talent Award 2018

Tabitha Barnard

Cult of Womanhood

FUJIFILM/YOUNG TALENT AWARD 2018 RECIPIENT – $10,000

Stay tuned for the full essay.

The Emerging Photographer Fund 2018 – Finalists

Emerging Photographer Fund 2018 – Judges:

Previous EPF Winners

Editor’s note:

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