Photographers

Lauren Hermele

ICP graduate, Barcelona/New York-based photographer and teacher, Lauren Hermele made this noteworthy series whilst on a Fulbright fellowship in Romania last year.

Crit is a village in Transylvania, population 900.

"It took me a few days to get used to the rush hour traffic in Crit. Every morning and evening, the cows and sheep would take over the roads. It was there that I confronted many of the preconceived ideas I had about whether Romania's small agricultural villages were changing since it joined the European Union. For better or worse, I discovered that there was little if no change. Living in Crit is a tightrope walk between extreme beauty and what the locals refer to as "mizerie." Are the villagers prisoners of paradise like one of my colleagues suggested? I'm not sure, but that poignant statement has echoed in my mind louder than I care to admit."

"The majority of the villagers are Roma (Gypsy), but really are just poor Romanians with little in common with the caravan dwelling Roma of popular imagination. Even though Romania joined the European Union in 2007 after being marginalized from Western Europe for so long, little progress has been made. The local schools lack resources and are in poor conditions, alcoholism is prevalent; children start working in the fields and take on adult responsibilities early in life. Malnutrition and illiteracy also weave their way in and out of many households. Like many small villages in rural Romania, within the lyrical chaos and beauty in Crit, there is a structure that is inherently falling apart."

Great stories about Lauren's work on her blog where we find Lauren teaching photography to the kids in Crit.

All images 2010 © Lauren Hermele

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Marco Zecchin

Marco Zecchin's series 'Fort Ord (ret.)' consists of images from the decommissioned Army post near Monterey, California. I'd like to thank him for sharing this story.

"...driving past Fort Ord army base along the Monterey Bay in the late 50's and 60's, I was fascinated by the soldiers moving in convoys, marching in formation, and practicing shooting their rifles along the road we traveled.

In the late '60s and early '70s, approaching draft age, I found this fascination in conflict with my feelings about the Vietnam War and the men who trained there. The protests I witnessed as we drove by... along with the news of the war, confused me. My fascination with the military was confronted with the realities of war.

In the fall of 2005, during an annual reunion of photographic friends of Morley Baer's in Monterey, some of us wandered onto the now decommissioned Fort Ord army base. Walking around the base, my youthful fascination and the stories of military duty and war shared with me by my veteran friends, opened me to the energy of this place: the energy of men training and preparing for war lingers in these barracks."

All images © Marco Zecchin

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Dayv Mattt

The intro: "aCurator is dope!"

The web bio: "Dayv Mattt was born in Toronto on April 28th, 1977. He is addicted to cursing, simple white dress shirts, and shooting street photography. Dayv is very handsome and currently lives in Seoul with his equally gorgeous wife. They are both ultra-wicked-awesome. There is nothing poignant Dayv wants to say about this photography."

The artist's statement: "What I capture is the essence of Seoul, and many Koreans don't like my photography because they feel that it's too dark, negative, and somber. This is in direct contrast with people outside Korea who have said that my photography of Seoul displays a dynamic and interesting city they never knew existed. Opinions aside, I love shooting street, and will continue doing so regardless of whether I am published, noticed, or respected."

Well, Dayv, aCurator gladly noticed, published and respects you.

All images © Dayv Mattt

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Megan Kathleen McIsaac

Megan Kathleen McIssac's images are timeless, her writing is unassuming, and her website is good fun. "throughout everything that has happened, i genuinely consider myself lucky and i'm not sure what else to say about it. i discovered a passion for making photographs when i was seven or eight years old and i continue to make ends meet so that i can support my travels and photography and truly live. being stubborn, i only like to shoot film and torture myself by carrying around my heavy mamiya c330 wherever i go, often by foot. currently i'm working on self publishing my first photo-book while contemplating where and how id like to travel to next."

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Manjari Sharma: Darshan

When Manjari told me about this project I was really moved. She talked of the many trips she took with her family to visit Hindu temples and the ubiquitousness of imagery of deities in India, and that when she relocated to the States, art galleries and museums became her pilgrimages.

As commonplace as paintings and sculptures of Hindu deities are, there are no photographs. Manjari intends to change this by creating a series of photographs of specific gods and godesses, with every detail included, created from scratch. Just take a look at what she achieved for Maa Laxmi. Manjari's Kickstarter campaign is already 25% fulfilled; there are plenty of rewards available so why not consider helping to fund this project and we can all go see the enormous results in a gallery near us soon!

Maa Laxmi © Manjari Sharma

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Stefan Jora: Gay Families Project

"I thought that if I was gay, I couldn't have kids." El Segundo, 2009.

Another important series, this from Stefan Jora: "The Gay Families Project". Stefan is hoping to expand the project to Washington State. If you're feeling fundy, you can easily support the project here. Benefits start at only $1.

Leaving for work. El Segundo, 2009.

"The Project has as an objective the creation of a photobook featuring American families with parents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. Informed by the past, while drawing from the present, and looking to the future, the book has the potential for creating awareness about the commonality of such 'gay families', especially for viewers in parts of the world where ill-informed homophobia is prevalent. Thematically, I am interested in exploring the intersection of the mythical, homosexual, and political in American culture, and am aiming for a book that will contribute to the discourse on what constitutes the proverbial American Dream in the 21st century.

I have been working on this project for close to two years, and have thus far met with and photographed over twenty families in California. With your support, I plan to photograph families living in Washington state this summer, which will give me a better idea as to whether I need to expand the Project to other U.S. states in the future, or continue and complete it in the Golden State alone."

In bed with the egg donor. San Mateo, 2010

HIV-positive parents. San Francisco, 2010

Heading to the playground. Mill Valley, 2010

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SVA MFA 2011

At the School of Visual Arts' MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media 2011 Thesis exhibition I saw a few interesting photographs and installations, one of which, Carly Gaebe's 'The Pattern of Your Ways', where the artist created performances to reconnect with her Czech great-grandparents' routines, necessitated the eating of fresh Kolache (a Czech pastry). A couple of the photographs in Liz Arenberg's 'you see me', a series about her relationship with her sister, were simply beautiful. I thought Chris Sellas' project 'You. I.' was interesting - Chris mailed 2 copies of the same photograph to people from his past; he'd commented on one and the recipient should comment on the other.

Kimo Kim's project was really, really entertaining. "As a student in New York, South Korean fashion photographer Kimo Kim found that her normally gregarious personality was stifled by language and cultural differences. In response, she invented a fictional fashion show set in New York and Seoul, which she planned and executed online with her best friend at home, Sodam Yoon. The video culminates with the fashion show, in which Kim sheds her timid persona to become a runway model let loose on the streets of Manhattan." It's a little long, but worth a watch.

You. I. © Chris Sellas Left: I feel like you never really let me in.
Right: You tried and tried, but the key just didn't fit.

Learning To Balance from The Pattern of Your Ways © Carly Gaebe

you see me © Liz Arenberg

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Dina Litovsky

Dina Litovsky's project 'Untag This Photo' consists of her photographs of New York City nightlife: clubs, lounges, bars, and parties - both private and public. Now that there's a common tendency to see what you're doing through the lens of whatever recording device you have in-hand, Dina noticed 'people partying' shift to 'people photographing the partying', and a change in the behaviour of women in these contexts.

"This project explores how social behavior and self-representation of women have been influenced by new technologies, specifically digital cameras, iPhones and social networking sites", Dina says in a smart statement. "The desire to reveal has transformed into a willingness to expose."

The project has just been chosen by Whitney Johnson of the New Yorker to be part of PRC Exposure 2011 Exhibition, opening in July.

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Miriam O'Connor

Miriam O'Connor is my latest crush. Her submission of 'Attention Seekers' filled me with joy; it's refreshing, smart and humorous. I think her statement outlines this project best, but I will say to go to her website because each category is a gift in its own right. Relatively young still, Miriam's been exhibited in her hometown of Dublin and elsewhere in Europe. I hope she continues to get the exposure she deserves.

"In this work O' Connor's approach is best surmised as being concerned with the representation of scenes which appear to 'petition for attention'... Each of the scenes, while executed with a formal exactitude, exhibit ambiguous clues and mischievous impressions, where the interplay of color, form and sequencing are all-important signifiers in engaging with the series."

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Ronny Sen: Don't Breathe

Stifling, claustrophobic, oppressive, sweltering. I'm not talking about the tube's airless Circle Line or the subway's over-conditioned L train in rush hour but the unreserved general compartments of Indian Railways.

Kolkata-based Ronny Sen has worked for publications in both India and abroad. His works have been published and exhibited in many countries. Since 2006 he has been awarded by the Sony World Photography Awards, National Geographic Magazine, Shoot nations by the UN, Powerhouse, The Forward Thinking Museum, and The Lonely Planet Magazine. Presently, he is working on his long term project 'Documenting Death' which revolves around people who are dying.

Ronny waxes lyrical about this work-in-progress:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd,
Petals on a wet, black bough.
- In a Station of the Metro.

...unforgettable as an expression of a poetic experience of the highest order. The inexorable spell of these two lines by Ezra Pound weighs upon me whenever I catch sight of a typically Indian scene crammed with people. The lines recycle themselves into visuals as I scratch around for the right frame to showcase my perception of the Indian reality. Particularly when my camera chances upon the mess one finds so frequently in the unreserved general compartments of a railway carriage.

It is needless to remind ourselves that the lines have nothing characteristically Indian about them. Ostensibly, though, they depict the crowd in a station of the Metro. The pen-picture of the 'Petals on a wet, black bough' speaks clearly of a different clime. 'The apparition of these faces in the crowd' of the first line, on the other hand, keeps haunting you even as you try to escape.

Travel the length of the country. Board a train, thrust your way through the crowd to some messy corner of a general compartment and you start loosing your identity. One can safely predict a traumatic journey to the destination of absolute facelessness.

What the series seeks to capture is the chaos of a sick, thick throng gasping of air. It takes you straight into the heart of the muddle and the mess. It makes you listen to the muffled voice of individuality.

Ruthlessly robbed of your right to breathe, you are already there, sharing with the hapless masses the unbearable tightness of being---bearing with them the full burden of an inescapable Indian experience.