Qiana Mestrich Photography - Panama City, Panama 2008

UK's Hereford Photography Festival Highlights South Africa

17 May - 14 June 2008

Now in it's 18th year, the Hereford Photography Festival is the UK's longest running annual celebration of the photographic image.

This year's theme is "Here http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif& There" and some of the work focuses on international work from South Africa.

Check the Hereford Photography Festival website for exhibition details.

PHOTO: Black Empowerment, Copyright Per-Anders Pettersson

En Foco New Works #11 Award Winners

En Foco is a non-profit dedicated to cultural diversity in photography.

En Foco's New Works Photography Awards is an annual program selecting three to seven U.S. based photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American, or Pacific Islander heritage through an open call for submissions. Acting as a creative incubator, it enables artists to create or complete an in-depth photographic series exploring themes of their choice, while providing an honoraria and infrastructure for a professional exhibition in New York.

New Works #11 Winners are Kesha Bruce, Adriana Katzew, Donald Daedalus plus Honorable Mention Awardees Charlie Grosso, Myra Greene, Esther Hidalgo and Wanda Acosta.

Exhibition runs May 23 - July 5, 2008
Hosted by Taller Boricua/The Puerto Rican Workshops

Opening Reception:
Friday, May 30, 6:00-9:00pm
Come meet all the artists! Free and Open to the public

Artist Talk:
Saturday, May 31, 1:00-3:00pm
with Kesha Bruce, Adriana Katzew and Donald Daedalus

Location:http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
El Taller Boricua Galleries
The Julia De Burgos Cultural Center
1680 Lexington Avenue @ 106th Street
New York, NY 10029
Tel: 212.831.4333

PHOTO: © Kesha Bruce, That they Might be Lovely, 2008
(Re)calling and (Re)telling series
Archival Pigment Print, 20x27

I Heart Women Photographers Like Tatiana Cardeal

Tatiana Cardeal's latest blog entries feature stunning portraits of attendees at the 2008 Indigenous National Festival at Bertioga city in Brazil.

Here's an excerpt from her bio on Lightstalkers:

"I used to work for the editorial market as art director and graphic designer, but since the end of 2005, I’ve been concentrating my activities in the production of social images, using as support the documentary photography. It’s in this area that I produce interpretations through a visual search, with emphasis on images that seek feelings of humanity and equality existing in different socio-cultural identities."

PHOTO: Copyright © Tatiana Cardeal. All rights reserved.

American Civil Rights Photographer Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson, Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement and East Harlem
Through July 5. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays
Jackson Fine Art, 3115 E. Shadowlawn Ave., Atlanta. 404-233-3739
www.jacksonfineart.com


Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson has tackled a range of subjects from circus life to photographing celebrities like Brad Pitt. Though some of the most important work of this iconic American photographer is his coverage of the Civil Rights movement; currently on view at the Jackson Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta, GA.

Davidson's photographs don't capture the public events of the Civil Rights Movement like the protests and demonstrations. Instead he gets up close and personal with each of his subjects, capturing their intimate moments of struggle and strife fueled by determination.

A great photographer uses all of his life experience and skills to get the shot. Bruce Davidson has mastered this. In this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, he describes how he was able to dart in and out of dangerous situations during his coverage of the Civil Rights by using his high school track star abilities.

Davidson's photographs have great impact, partly due to his use of composition. Look at a Bruce Davidson photograph. Take a few minutes to scan every corner and inch of the frame... it's loaded with details about the subject and their relationship to the environment/events occurring around them.

PHOTO: Copyright Bruce Davidson - During the 1961 Freedom Rides, Bruce Davidson captured this image of riders singing.

Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan

May 16 – September 7, 2008
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas @ 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
Phone 212.857.0000

A long time in the making, this ICP NYC survey of contemporary Japanese photo-based work is the first major U.S. exhibit in over 10 years.

PHOTO: Risaku Suzuki, Kumano, 1997 © Risaku Suzuki, Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi and
Yoshii Gallery, NY

Legend: Chester Higgins, Jr.

NY Times staff photographer Chester Higgins, Jr. has dedicated his life to documenting the African Americans, Africans, and African of the Diaspora with the medium of photography

"We are Africans not because we are born in Africa, but because Africa is born in us. Look around you and behold us in our greatness. Greatness is an African possibility; you can make it yours. "

- Chester Higgins, Jr.

Mr. Higgins' published photography books include "Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa" (Bantam Books, 1994) and "Elder Grace" (Bullfinch/Little Brown and Company, 2000).

Watch NY Times VIDEO: Chester Higgins Jr., staff photographer at The New York Times, on how he conceived his Lens images and the techniques used to create them. (Produced by David Frank)

CONTACT Toronto, Canada Photography Festival

Now through May 31, 2008.

CONTACT is an annual month long festival of photography with over 500 local, national and international artists at more than 200 venues across the Greater Toronto Area in May. Founded as a not-for-profit organization 12 years ago, CONTACT is devoted to celebrating, and fostering an appreciation of the art and profession of photography.

This year's theme is "Between Memory & History" exploring "how photography shapes our understanding of the world around us and the enduring role it plays in the preservation of individual and collective memories."

Visit the CONTACT Toronto, Canada Photography Festival website for a list of photographers and venues.

PHOTO: © Julie Rémy / www.julieremy.com
Pregnant in Pelé Simon, a slum of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 2007

Photography Studio with Mary Giancoli: Round Trip Migrations from Mexico to New York

Harlem School of the Arts
Friday, May 9th
6:30pm – 7:45pm in Studio 105
645 St. Nicholas Avenue
between 145th and 141st Streets
New York, NY 10030

For the past decade, Mary has been documenting Mexican migrants and the recent wave of immigration to New York by looking at work, family, traditional dances, foods and religious rituals carried out in New York and Mexico. Giancoli traveled to Puebla, one of the regions that send people to New York to pursue the American Dream. Giancoli documented the same rituals at their origin, and the lives of families who have remained.

Giancoli will present images from the Virgin of Guadalupe series highlighting processions in New York and the renowned Virgin of Guadalupe pilgrimage from Atlixco, Puebla to Mexico, City. This will be followed by images from Mexican Lives, Mexican Rituals, a black and white series on Mexican dance festivals and holidays such as Day of the Dead. From her Mexican archive, she will include the Atlixcayotl, a dance festival that showcases pre-hispanic and traditional dances; and the Feria de Huipil in Cuetzalan, Puebla, a festival to honor indigenous people who have been displaced from their lands which culminates in the Procession of the Wax. She will culminate with her newest work on migrant farm workers in Long Island, juxtaposed with farm workers in Mexico.

Explore more of Mary's work online.

PHOTO: "Huipil Contest, Cuetzalan, Mexico", Copyright Mary Teresa Giancoli