LARRY LOUIE | Tibetans: The Struggle for Cultural Preservation
When I travel I am constantly amazed by the ethnic and cultural diversity that I encounter, along with the different languages, customs and beliefs. My photographs allow me to share with others the variety and beauty of the world I see. But increasingly, I feel an urgency to document people in areas of the world threatened by urbanization and globalization—places where traditional ways of life, ancient knowledge and customs, languages and identities are disappearing at an alarming rate. People often talk about endangered species and the loss of biodiversity in nature. Some are beginning to notice the threat to the diversity of cultures.
YAAKOV ISRAEL | The Quest for the Man on the White Donkey
According to the Orthodox Jewish tradition, the Messiah (the Prophet) will arrive on a white donkey.
A few years ago, while photographing near the Dead Sea, a Palestinian man rode past me on a white donkey. I photographed him. After developing the plate, I realized I had encountered my Messiah. It was this chance encounter that inspired this work, The quest for the man on the white donkey.
GEORGE AWDE | Untitled
IN THIS WORK, I explore notions of home, be it the places we were raised or the places we find ourselves now. A home implies something foundational and grounded, but home for many of us becomes something in flux—something related to our current, often transient situations. Through the narrative of homeland, the nostalgia for the places of our youth, or the imagining and longing for the future, home is ultimately an individual struggle to identify a secure and satisfying place in the world.
EVAN ABRAMSON | She-goat, degenerate, fag
This story started as an investigation of the growing problem of child sex tourism and human trafficking in the jungle city of Iquitos. Rober was 16 when I met him last year, living with his parents in a wooden house with a thatched roof on the edge of the city, and selling his body at night dressed as a woman. He and his friends are all she goats—chivas as they call themselves. Degeneradas and mariconas—degenerates and fags. They think, feel, dress, and act as women (or at least as how they fantasize women to think, feel, dress, and act). They are fascinated with their appearances; they stare into the mirror applying makeup, posing, looking, and seeing. They are obsessed.
HYE-RYOUNG MIN | In-between Double
Coming to New York in 2005, I found myself gravitating towards the streets. I followed passersby through the rhythms of their daily lives and portrayed them by guessing their hidden emotions: love, loneliness, despair, yearning, uncertainty, memories of childhood. I humanized them for myself by representing their likeness in my own visual language.
IGOR KROPOTOV | Untitled
This series of photographs is inspired by a Russian tale of a man who goes out into the sea to find himself—to find his purpose and significance in life. After some time, however, he comes to realize the exact opposite, that he is insignificant in the large world he has discovered. He is simply a speck, leading his own life amongst many others.
DANI BOGENHAGEN | Punctum
Like a flash of inspiration, punctums descend. Viewers suddenly find themselves fixated on a photograph. Roland Barthes defines the punctum as that indefinable element that grabs the viewer, striking her unexpectedly in the heart. The punctum may be any number of things; a photograph without it provokes nothing more than mild, passing interest. In Camera Lucida, Barthes describes the punctum as marginal, incidental; the punctum cannot be the main subject of a photograph.
ERIC GREGORY POWELL | New I
It was during my first trip to Beijing in the fall of 2007 when this series started. Only two images from that journey remain. I was struck by the amount of new buildings and construction projects that enveloped the city in its pre-Olympics frenzy. But it all seemed just so fleeting. A new restaurant or shopping mall would open with fireworks and endless rows of flowers one day only to drown in litter and fall apart the next. I wanted to capture the feeling of progress that had always seemed to be collapsing on itself, again and again.
ARITI LAL | Untitled
My interest in film began at a young age. My mother would rent Bollywood films; if I was lucky enough I would get to watch two films in one night, which was six hours of action, drama, and dance. I began dancing at a young age as well, and I eventually became a choreographer for both the temple and my high school dance company. It had not been until I began my undergraduate studies when film became a passion.
PAUL JEFFREYS | Let’s Toast the Cold War!
An ongoing project, Let's Toast the Cold War! is a visual examination of America's power during and after the Cold War, and how it's affecting my American experience. In his analysis of national power, Joseph S. Nye Jr. coined the phrase “soft power,” which refers to a nation’s ability to influence other countries through its popular culture and collective beliefs.
JAIME PERMUTH | The Completely Visible World
One of the newest trends in digital imaging is High Dynamic Range (HDR). This set of techniques allows for an expanded range of exposure values between light and dark areas in a photograph. In other words, HDR aspires to render a completely visible world. It is a world where light is present everywhere; nothing is hidden and nothing is private.
ALAA HASAN | Building Damascus
If you walk the streets of Damascus, you may find a group of mostly young men sitting on a street corner, waiting for somebody who needs anything done cheaply—anything, from building a house and moving furniture, to cleaning after fires and digging holes. They mean neither harm nor misfortune; they look you in the eyes and speak in few yet confident words. Most of them come from "Al-Jazira," an area in northeastern Syria. They were once farmers; now, they’re construction workers. When I asked why they thought they were here instead of on their farms, they never answered—silence was the only answer possible.
PAUL CARBAJAL | Honduras
In Honduras the de facto government, headed by Roberto Michelleti Bain, has unleashed Operation Bloodhound to harass and disperse the demonstrators in support of constitutional president, José Manuel Zelaya.
The operation began September 22, 2009 after a day of strenuous demonstrations in which Hondurans celebrated the return of the elected president Zelaya, who had been illegally deported in a coup.
CAITLIN DUENNEBIER | The Devil & Mother Duennebier
MY MOTHER was diagnosed as a manic-depressive when I was four years old. She displayed erratic behaviour while I was growing up. One moment she would be a child, the next a stranger; on increasingly rare occasions, she would be a friend or a mother. For Mother Duennebier, the Devil embodies everything cruel, reckless and mischievous. Because of her affliction, she has accepted the Devil into her own life.
NATALIE CHEUNG | Facsimile
Facsimile is an investigation of recurring forms and images throughout the history of art. In this investigation, I produce images using chance operations and link the outcome image through research to a historically recognized work of art. I name each of my pieces using both the original date and title of the historical work that is sampled.
PHILIP MOY | Buckets Off
When I was ten, my family picked up and moved to Italy. I left everything that I had ever known behind. My friends and home were now on the other side of the world. Because I didn’t know the language, I entertained myself during the long summers by watching the few movies we had brought from the States. I personally found refuge in Star Wars.
