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The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine.  Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
July 2015 back issue
Sean Hawkey To commission Sean or to request prints of his work: www.hawkey.co.uk My name is Sean Hawkey and I'm a photographer and journalist. I’ve worked in 50+ countries, mainly on issues of social interest stories, development, humanitarian crises, solidarity. My work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, Morning Star, Huffington Post, The Telegraph, Science Magazine, the Journal of the Royal Photographic Society and has been used by 200+ organisations including Fairtrade networks in 30 countries, ACT Alliance and its member organisations around the world, DanWatch, the Centre for Journalism Ethics, World Council of Churches, World Health Organisation, World Bank, UNESCO, UNISDR, International Dalit Solidarity Network, Greenpeace, Climate Action Network and the RMT trade union. My photographs have been exhibited as joint and solo exhibitions in Mexico, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, UK and Spain. Before freelance photography I worked in international aid, I taught architecture and I ran communications for global NGOs. I'm based in the UK and I'm working freelance.
Yves Choquette To commission Yves or to request prints of his work: www.yveschoquette.com Yves Choquette begin taking photos at the age of 11, taking his father’s Brownie Super 27 camera, without his permission, to shoot people throwing stones at soldiers in the street of Montreal, during the 1970 October crisis. He found out early that he was more attracted by stories than by simply shooting for the sake of it. Yves never took it seriously until a friend asked him in the 80s to take a photographic road trip of his band, between Montreal and Chibougamau, to the far north east of Quebec. Since then, he have shot different documentaries covering mainly social or humanitarian issues.   What motivates Yves is helping groups of people suffering from injustice, to gain media
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Christian Rodriguez To commission Christian or to request prints of his work: www.christian-rodriguez.com Christian began his visual education at the “Taller Dellioti" of fine arts, studying several techniques of drawing and painting (1993-1999). His first photography courses realized in "Dimension Visual" and "Foto Club". Between 2004 and 2005 he worked as a cameraman on VTV chanel, (Uruguay). From 2006 to 2008 joined the newspaper El Observador (Uruguay). He has worked with news agencies such as AFP, AP and Reuters. In 2006, while covering the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in southern Lebanon, Christian’s work started to focus on the topic of daily life and its surroundings. In 2007 he studied fashion design at the school "Pablo Giménez" and the beginning of 2007 his work was represented by Win-initiative (stock image) in New York. In 2009 after he won the grant "Roberto Villagraz" he moved to Madrid (Spain) to study MA Documentary Photography in EFTI, winning the "Premio Futuro" for best student of his generation (2009). In 2011 was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass.
Damian Bird To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.damianbirdphotography.com Damian Bird, is a photographer and photojournalist with many years of experience, working in war zones and trouble spots around the globe.  He was educated in Photography at the Surrey College of Art and Design and at the London College of Printing where he studied for a post graduate degree in Photojournalism.  In 2011 he founded Life Force magazine with his business partner and wife of 12 years, Alice.  As well as Editing Life Force magazine, he is currently engaged in photographing a series of photo-essays on English culture and has recently returned to Afghanistan (Aug 2013). He continues to have his work published in national and international newspapers and magazines  including The Times, the Telegraph, the Express, the Observer, GQ, Esquire, Dazed & Confused,The Face, Country Life and Geographical magazine.
photo by RANKIN
He lives with his wife and four children in Devon, England.
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Aun Raza To commission Aun or to request prints of his work: aun.photoshelter.com Personal statement: "Taking pictures for me is a way to peep into people's lives, sharing moments with them and with myself. It has become a way to read reality, to understand it and shape it in a way that would reflect a story. “I grounded this interest first through drawing and painting and my passion for photography developed later. Its immediacy offered me a way of capturing evanescent sketches and impressions for which I was often restless. People in moments of capitulation and despair, a vivid joy in the air, such moments for me are like visualizations of held breath. This immediacy offers me a way of encountering the ‘extraordinary ordinary’ moments which Stanislavsky aptly called 'public solitude.' “My travels provided me a fertile ground for exasperation and desires, music and cries, chaos and solace, life and desolation; it all kept me awake and thirsty. Crossing borders,
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Jimmy Nelson To commission Jimmy or to request prints of his work: www.beforethey.com Jimmy Nelson (Sevenoaks, Kent, 1967) started working as a photographer in 1987. Having spent 10 years at a Jesuit boarding school in the North of England, he set off on his own to traverse the length of Tibet on foot. The journey lasted a year and upon his return his unique visual diary, featuring revealing images of a previously inaccessible Tibet, was published to wide international acclaim. Soon after, he was commissioned to cover a variety of culturally newsworthy themes, ranging from the Russian involvement in Afghanistan and the ongoing strife between India and Pakistan in Kashmir to the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia. In early 1994 he and his Dutch wife produced Literary Portraits of China, a 30 month project that brought them to all the hidden corners of the newly opening People’s Republic. Upon its completion the images were exhibited in the People’s Palace on Tiananmen Square, Beijing, and then followed by a worldwide tour.
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Tomer Ifrah To commission Tomer or request prints of his work: www.tomerifrah.com Born in Israel in 1981, Tomer ifrah began photographing documentary stories in 2007, after his first trip to Ethiopia. Since then he become committed to documentary photography, taking on long term projects while addressing social issues and daily life stories. He has won several awards for his documentary work in Israel – representing a variety of issues. Along with working in Israel, Tomer frequently travels around the world for assignments and independent documentary projects.
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John Bulmer To commission John or to request prints of his work: www.johnbulmer.co.uk   John Bulmer was a pioneer of colour photography in the early 1960’s working for the Sunday Times Magazine from the very first issue till the 1970’sHe was brought up in Herefordshire, became a passionate photographer, and when he went to study engineering at Cambridge continued taking photographs- first for the University newspaper Varsity and then for Image, a picture magazine that he co-founded.  He also started shooting stories on Cambridge for Queen Magazine, the Daily Express newspaper, and finally a story on the Night Climbers of Cambridge which sold to Life Magazine. This ended his career at Cambridge, and he went up to London where he was offered a job as photographer on the Daily Express.  At the time the Express was the foremost paper in Britain for photography, and did many assignments in association with Paris Match. He soon started shooting stories for Town Magazine, a new fashion magazine that became well known for good photography, using others such as Terrence Donovan, David Bailey and Don McCullin.  John Bulmer did many groundbreaking stories for them including; The Black Country, Nelson, The North, as well as overseas stories in South America, Africa, New Guinea and Indonesia.
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Lorenzo Tugnoli To commission Lorenzo or request prints of his work: www.lorenzotugnoli.com Lorenzo Tugnoli (b. 1979, Italy) is a documentary photographer based in Kabul. His work has been published by The New York Times, Le Monde, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Wired, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Der Spiegel as well as several Italian magazines. He is a regular contributor of the The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Since 2010, Lorenzo is working on the production of photographic books for development organizations in Afghanistan, including the UN and The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He just published The Little Book of Kabul, a book on the artistic scene of Kabul.
Karan Vaid To commission Karan or to request prints of his work: www.karanvaid.com I am a documentary photographer based out of New Delhi, India.   After graduating with a business degree from Canada in 2004, I had a varying career that included Advertising and Civil Construction. I became a professional photographer in 2009. Since then, my primary focus is long-term projects including an ongoing project in Kashmir and Dog shows in India. I am also a part of the core team that organized the Delhi Photo Festival in 2011 and 2013.
Denis Tarasov To commission Denis or to request prints of his work: www.denistarasov.com Tarasov was born in 1971 in the Sverdlovsk, Russia.He finished at the Ural State Law Academy (Russia) in 1997. He has been active as a photographer since 2007 and between 2007-2011 he has participated in more than 15 exhibitions in Russia, Italy, USA and the Philippines.  In 2007 he was in the top 10 for Young photographers of Russia.  He held a personal exhibition "From supervision" in the Photographic museum of Metenkov's House (Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2008), and was the winner of "the Volga biennial 2010" (Nizhni Novgorod, Russia). In 2012 he was one of 22 young photographers to represent Russian photography at "Fotofest" - 2012 in Houston, USA in an exhibition "The Young Generation". Denis Tarasov lives in the Yekaterinburg, Russia.
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Nat Wilkins To commission Nat or request prints of his work: www.natwilkins.com Nat Wilkins is a reportage and documentary photographer based in Northeast England. His work is regularly published locally and nationally and his most recent work has been featured in the Northern Correspondent, acurator.com, The Northumbrian, Matadornetwork.com. He has previously worked as a conservationist and nature reserve manager, a career from where he earned his MSc. He is interested in human interactions with the environment and how this impacts either positively or negatively.
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attention so their story can be known.  Yves have been published in Latitude magazine The Palestine Telegraph, SA Reporter, Demotix, Corbis as many other local newspapers and magazines. He also often partnerships with NGO such as MSF, COVA, Groupe L'Itinéraire, Mira foundation, Fauna Foundation, Global Compassion, the Post War Crisis Center and the St-James Center.
His work has evolved towards documentary photography, focusing his gaze on the lives of women, looking closely at everyday stories of the characters. His interest is to show the modern, everyday women and their environment. His work has been published in different international media like New York Times, TIME magazine, El Mundo, Yo Dona, Esquire, La Nación, El País, Pagina 12, ABC, El Observador, Lento, Seis Grados and his work has been exhibited in Uruguay, Mexico, Brasil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, U.S., Spain, France, Italy, UK and Cambodia. In 2013 won "El Nuevo Talento FNAC de Fotografia". Directs SAN JOSE FOTO International Photography Festival in Uruguay. He is a Teacher in EFTI (Spain). He gives lectures and workshops based on his personal projects.
physically and metaphorically, was nevertheless pivotal. "The rest of the world" somehow provided a spell of silence, a dis continuity in which a sense of distance and humour, a taste for interstices and diagonals could build up. I hope this can be seen in my more recent work.”
From 1997 onwards Jimmy began to successfully undertake commercial advertising assignments for many of the world’s leading brands. At the same time he started accumulating images of remote and unique cultures photographed with a traditional 50-year-old plate camera.
The Sunday Times then produced the first of the Colour Supplements, later copied by all the newspapers. John Bulmer shared the cover of the first issue with David Bailey- a picture of a footballer he took surrounded by pictures of Jean Shrimpton’s armpit!  This was a small start but John soon had a contract to shoot sixty pages a year, and travelled to nearly 100 countries on their behalf. The writer Martin Harrison, in his book about photography in the 60’s “The Young Meteors” describes the start of the Colour Magazines:-“The switch to colour was, therefore, quite sudden and few photographers were prepared for it.”John Bulmer was recognised immediately for having made the necessary adjustment and thinking specifically in terms of colour became one of the most prolific contributors of colour reportage to the Sunday Times Colour Section. Many of Bulmer’s most important assignments were abroad, but he was also acknowledged as an adroit recorder of provincial Britain. His reputation as a recorder of the industrial cityscape was probably gained at Town, where he was responsible for stories on Nelson, Lancashire, The Black Country, and The North is dead.  His work was several times singled out for awards by the Design and Art Directors Club and he has had pictures shown at the Gallery of Modern Art in New York, the Photographers' Gallery in London, and the National Museum of Photography in Bradford. By the early seventies the Sunday Times changed course, looking for stories on “Crime, Middle class living and Fashion” as described to Bulmer by the new editor.It was time for a change and John Bulmer moved sideways into making documentary films. He filmed a programme on the life of Van Gogh in the South of France, directed by Mai Zetterling, and went on to direct many films on travel and untouched tribes in the most inaccessible parts of the world. These were primarily shown on BBC, Nat Geo and Discovery Channel.He has now returned to Herefordshire to catalogue and show his huge collection of still photographs, many of which have never been seen.
Julie Platner To commission Julie or to request prints of her work: www.julieplatner.com Julie was born in California in 1982.  In 2009, she acquired her first digital SLR camera from a film-set still-photographer with whom she was working and spent the subsequent year learning how to use it. She quickly concentrated her attention on documentary storytelling through the use of still-photography and video.Her fascination with the oddity of human behavior has brought her into contact with the many weird, wonderful, and often very dark elements of our collective experience. She has work in collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Memoria y Tolerancia, D.F. Mexico City.  Clients include M, le magazine du Monde, D – La repubblica, and The New York Times.
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Araminta de Clermont To commission Araminta or to request prints of her work: www.aramintadeclermont.com Araminta de Clermont (b.1971) trained as an Architect, at The Bartlett, U.C.L, before turning to photography, which she studied at Central St Martin’s, London. Following a move to South Africa she initially worked as a photographer at The Sunday Times, South Africa. The picture editor was Greg Marinovich of The Bang Bang Club. This time was “a complete education in itself, both in photography and in the realities of a nation attempting to recover”. Underlying themes of de Clermont’s work include the visual currencies of group identity, and the search for a sense of self versus the search for a sense of belonging. The relationship between the built environment and its inhabitants informs much of her work, as does the disparity between the power of a promise of a new life versus the reality of the conditions in which so many South Africans live. Her first solo show “Life After” 2008 was an exploration into highly tattooed South African “Number” gangsters, who, having been “kings” in prison, struggle on release to re-integrate
into society. Her second series “Before Life” looked at youngsters hailing from the same areas, on the night of their Matriculation Ball, dressed to express their very different hopes and dreams. Her next body of work “A New Beginning” focused on newly initiated young men (from South Africa’s Xhosa and Sotho tribes, but living in the townships surrounding Cape Town, their families having formerly been displaced from rural areas), who, having gone through a process of initiation in the bush, wear very particular clothes for up to 6 months to signify their new status as “real men”. Her work has appeared in The Times Magazine, Spectrum, Colors Magazine, The Guardian, and Marie Claire U.S.A, amongst others. She has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Berlin, London and South Africa, and as part of group shows in America, South Africa, at The Nobel Peace Centre, and in The U.K. In 2010, de Clermont won a career development grant at The Africa Centre’s Spier Contemporary biennial. Public Collections include: The University of South Africa, U.C.T, Simmons College, Boston, and The South African National Gallery. She currently lives and works in London.
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Shib Shankar Chatterjee To commission Shib or request prints of his work: shibshankarc@gmail.com I am a New Delhi-based journalist, who can also shoot & edit. I have written and shot pictures on conflict situations including ethnic-violence, women and child issues, India-Bangladesh international border skirmishes, international border disputes of India-China, refugee problems of India-Nepal, India-Bhutan, India-Bangladesh & Indo-Burma (that is, Mayanmar), natural calamities like – Flood in Northeast India, Earthquake in Nepal, Hurricane in West Bengal State of India, insurgency, environmental issues, Business & Commerce etc. I also worked as a Photographer, reporter, contributor and producer in the national and international houses like – Associated Press (AP), Agence France-Presse (AFP), Press Trust Of India (PTI), India Today, Frontline, Outlook, Business Today, The Times Of India, Hindustan Times, The Statesman, The Telegraph, The Assam Tribune, Asia Times, News Blaze and BBC World Service’s (Radio & Online) section.  Apart from routine coverage like – photo-features and news feature articles, I also filed footage and reports as a Video- journalist for Indian news channels including  – NDTV, Doordarshan(DD), CNN-IBN and CNBC-TV18. Apart from these, I worked (as a Video-grapher and Researcher) in three documentary films, (where my footage have been included)  - one in National Documentary Film on ‘Ethnic Clash in Northeast India’, International Documentary Film “World’s Apart” on ‘International Borders Of The World’ (released in French & English Languages) from Canada under Qubec & Canadian Broadcasting House of Productions & International Documentary Film “Derrière les murs”, a film by Claude-Pierre Chavanon on ‘International Borders Of The World’ (releases in French & English Languages) from Paris (France) under Auteurs Associés Broadcasting House of Productions. I am writing a book on the “Incessant Bangladeshi migrants & emerging conflict in India & South Asia” as a photographer- cum-writer.  
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Robert Holmes To commission Robert or request prints of his work: www.robertholmesphotography.com Robert Holmes career as one of the world’s most successful and prolific travel photographers has extended over 30 years.  He was the first photographer to be twice honored by the Society of American Travel Writers with their Travel Photographer of the Year Award and he received the award for the third time in 2010. He has worked for National Geographic, Geo, Saveur, Wine Spectator, Life, Time and hundreds of other major magazines and international companies.  His stock catalogue of over half-a-million images is represented for licensing by National Geographic Image Collection, Corbis and Getty. His assignments have taken him from coverage of the 1975 British Everest Expedition for the London Daily Mail and Paris Match to searching for snow leopards in the remote valleys of western Nepal for National Geographic Magazine, trekking into the rain forests of Borneo with Penan tribesmen for Islands Magazine and crossing the Great Indian Desert on camel for Departures.Bob has illustrated over 40 books and he has regularly been one
of the elite group of the world’s 100 best photojournalists invited to participate in the acclaimed “Day in the Life” series. His passion for food and wine has lead to extensive work in those industries including the illustration of 9 books on wine and 5 cookbooks.  More recently Bob has added film production to his talents and in partnership with Andrea Johnson has been producing videos for clients in the wine and hospitality industries.
Myriam Meloni To commission Myriam or request prints of her work: www.myriammeloni.com Myriam Meloni (b. 1980 in Cagliari) is an Italian photographer currently based in Barcelona, Spain. Originally trained as a lawyer at the University of Bologna, specialising in criminology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, she embarked on photography, completing the three-year-course at the Photographic Institute of Catalonia. After moving to Argentina, she specialized in documentary photography and she started to collaborate with national newspapers and international NGOs. She has been focusing her work on social issues, with a very intimate approach, using everyday life of our society to discuss more general themes. Her first documentary work "Fragile", on crack abuse among adolescents in Argentina, has been recognized as cultural patrimony of the Argentinian Republic. In 2011 she was candidate for the Joop Swart Masterclass in the World Press Photo. In 2013 her work received the Sony award in Arts & Culture, the Picture of the Year Latin America, the Firecracker grant for European women photographers, and was nominated for the Prix Pictet. In 2014 her work " Behind the Absence" was awarded with the Sony Award in Lifestyle and won t he FINI International Festival of Photography in Mexico.
Her work has been featured in numerous publications, and exhibited internationally. She is represented by the French agency Picturetank.
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Patrick Ward To commission Patrick or to request prints of his work: www.patrickwardphoto.com During the last five decades Patrick Ward, born in London in 1937, has continuously photographed the English at play, bringing a wry and affectionate eye to his images of their eccentric and often bizarre rituals. His interest in photography began while completing compulsory military service in the 1950s. The only escape from army camp then was an evening course and Patrick chose photography. By some miracle his then girlfriend sent him the seminal book, The Family of Man, a photographic monument to the joys and tribulations of life, as edited by the great Edward Steichin. The dye was cast. A full time photography course was followed by a much more rewarding learning curve assisting John Chillingworth, of Picture Post fame. His was a generous influence, helping Patrick to make the leap from student to working photographer. Patrick then went freelance and was lucky to catch the new wave of newspaper colour magazines springing up in the early 1960s. He worked with the Observer and Sunday Times magazines and later for the Telegraph Magazine during the 1960s and 1970s,
travelling widely on assignments. In 1980 a Bicentennial Fellowship allowed him to explore America for a year and this led on to assignments from American journals, Including National Geographic Traveler and the Smithsonian Magazine. Throughout this period Patrick continued his personal project of photographing the English at play, mostly in black and white. In viewing this small collection from his 1970s work it’s tempting to assume that he brought a political agenda to this personal work and images such as Eton Wall Game at Eton College, 1977, seen side by side with Pearlie Family, East London, 1977, might tend to support this view. The reality is that Patrick’s primary concern has always been to simply and honestly document individual people, whatever their social background. However, we bring our own feelings and prejudices to viewing photographs and so, forty years on, these images are for you to enjoy and interpret as you wish. In 2014 Patrick published a collection of his personal work titled Being English.
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