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An Army soldier stands in a field of plum trees during the Nanjing International Plum Blossom Festival at Zijin Shan outside of Nanjing, China.

A young girl looks on during a ring-toss game on the roadside in Suzhou, China.

Tourists walk past construction outside the Tiananmen Gate of the Forbidden City compound in Beijing, China.

Buddhists worship at the Qixia Temple outside Nanjing, China.

Freshmen at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine line up for military training on a basketball court in Nanjing, China.

Guo Yu Hua sits in her home in Fanzhuang Village, Gangyun County, Jiangsu Province, China. Her income as a farmer is no longer enough to support her family.

A statue resembling Pere David's Deer, a native Chinese species now only existing in captivity, decorates a parking lot in a luxury residential and shopping district in Haikou, Hainan, China.

A boy stands in the muddy streets of Sheng Cun, in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, China, while workers unload a truck full of concrete to be used to improve roads in the area.

An artist's renderings of monks hangs in a gallery in Shanghai, China.

Tourists ascend the Great Wall at Badaling outside of Beijing, China.

Demolition workers enter a construction site in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.

Vandalized advertisements surround a shopping center's parking lot in Pingliang, Gansu, China.

Armed police patrol the streets of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.

People walk through a street market in the city center of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China.

Billboards remind passers-by to care for the environment in Shaoxing, China.

I’m excited to announce I’ll be presenting my series, China Everbright, at Shanghai’s Dada club on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, at around 8pm. The event was organized by the multi-talented Tim Franco, who’s been spearheading the monthly event and drawing quite a crowd. I was in Xian over the weekend and met some people from Shanghai who knew about the event and were planning on being there. If it lives up to previous photographers nights at the club, it’ll definitely be the place to be on Wednesday. Check out the facebook event page. I know Matthew Niederhauser will be there showing some work, and there will be a few Chinese photographers as well. If you’re there, please say hello.

(and a big thanks to Patrick Wack for getting me connected with the event)

Duwei, drummer for the Nanjing-based punk band Overdose, rests in a park with friends before a gig at the small YuYinTang rock club in Shanghai, China.

Just a reminder that a print of Duwei (above) from the China Punk story is up for bid in the Daniel Cooney/iGavel Emerging Artists Auction until Feb. 4. Get it while the gettin’s good.

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Sun Lu Lu, 11, was orphaned in 1999, and was left to live with her grandmother Li Ru Chun in Wang Dong Village, Jiangsu Province, China.

Fan Jian Bo, 11, was orphaned in 1998, and now lives with his aunt and uncle in Fanzhuang Village, Jiangsu Province, China.

Yan Jing Ya, 9, was orphaned and now lives with his grandparents in rural Yi Ling Village, Jiangsu Province, China.

Huo Yang Xia cries as she describes the life of her orphaned grandson Fan Wen Jie, 11, who lives with her in Fanzhuan Village, Jiangsu Province, China.

Flyer for the opening of China Youth at FeztivArt

Location of Art + Shanghai

Four of my images (above) from the series Young and Abandoned, portraits of orphans on the verge of institutionalization in rural Jiangsu Province, China, will be included in an exhibition at Fe艺术iv’Art (Feztiv Art) in Shanghai, China, from January 22-26th, 2010. There is an opening on January 22 at 6:30 pm. I’ll be there.

The festival was created by the Artdidact, the Artistic Commission of the French Junior Chamber International of Shanghai, whose aim is “to take part and contribute to the progress of the global community by giving to the young the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, their social responsibility and the necessary solidarity for taking actions to produce positive changes. Members of the JCI identify and realize projects to serve the positive evolution of their city in all fields: arts, social, economics, cultural, community…”

The subject of the exhibition is “China Youth,” and the pictures will be on display at Art + Shanghai Gallery at Fumin Lu, Lane 22, House 2, (Near Yanan Lu). Phone: +86-21 6248 4388. In the off-chance that someone in Shanghai is reading this, I hope to see you there.

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Make-Do - a joint publication and exhibition by Luceo Images and MJR

Make-Do - a joint publication and exhibition by Luceo Images and MJR

David Walter Banks (previously interviewed) wrote in to tell us about the upcoming Luceo Images and MJR publication and one-night exhibition at 25CPW in New York City. The event will take place Thursday, Janaury 21, 2010, from 6-10pm at 25 Central Park West at the intersection of 62nd Street. The folks at Luceo and MJR are good friends of dva. The groups both have a ton of photo mojo, and it’s great to see their efforts combined. I asked Banks a few questions about the publication and event. His answers are excerpted below:

dvafoto: What got Luceo and MJR together? How long have you been working on this project?

David Walter Banks/Luceo: Various members of LUCEO and MJR have become friends over the past couple years, and had some time to spend together at LUCEO’s last two biannual meetings in NYC and then again at the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville. The show and publication have been at least 6 months in the making that I can remember….

Why a publication?

Both groups have strong editorial ties as well as work that leans more toward the fine-art world, so the publication was a mix between the two. The idea was to create something tangible and lasting instead of just a one-night event. It’s also the concept of taking the idea of a magazine, and creating a limited edition collectible art piece out of it. A publication that in our eyes warrants large-scale reproduction and display space on a gallery wall. To this end, the focus is more on the print piece instead of the show itself, but the catch is that you have to attend to receive the publication.

Will we be seeing new work? Whose work will be in the show (all the photographers in each collective or just a selection?)?

The piece and show will feature work from each photographer involved in the two groups, as well as the craftsmanship of the designer and editor we had the good fortune of collaborating with. The show will feature some old work and some new, but certainly all in a different presentation than before.

The release says “Issue One” — will Issue Two also be Luceo and MJR, or is the first issue testing the waters for something bigger? When will we see #2?

We’re not ready to announce anything yet, but the door is open, and this will certainly not be the end of our collaborations with MJR, who have been the driving force behind the publication….

I wouldn’t say the show is just testing the waters, because I do believe it is an end and not just a means, but it is a sign of what’s to come. Both of these groups have similar feelings about collaborating and building bridges within the photographic community and beyond. I believe each group will build from this experience and take that forward into future endeavors.

Luceo is: David Walter Banks, Kendrick Brinson, Matt Eich, Kevin German, Tim Lytvinenko, Daryl Peveto, Matt Slaby
MJR is: Mustafah Abdulaziz, Ying Ang, Matthew Craig, Julius Metoyer, Gareth Phillips, Brandon Thibodeaux

Consequences by Noor

The website had just been a teaser for the Dec. 7 premiere of Consequences by Noor, a multi-faceted essay “on the devastating effects of climate change around the globe.” Released to coincide with the Copenhagen climate change talks currently going on, Noor has scheduled a number of exhibitions and events in Copenhagen. The work is now available online: Nina Berman’s “Pine Beetles,” Kadir van Lohuizen’s “Brazil’s Range War: Assault on the Amazon,” Jan Grarup’s “And then there was silence,” Stanley Greene’s “Shadows of Change,” Jon Lowenstein’s “In the Oil Sands,” Philip Blenkinsop’s “The Fires Within: The Burning Coalfields of Jharia, India,” Francesco Zizola’s “A Paradise in Peril,” Yuri Kozyrev’s “Karabash and the Yamal Peninsula,” and Pep Bonet’s “Poland’s Coal Industry.” Additionally, if you happen to be in Copenhagen, there are 50,000 copies of a special English-language newspaper devoted to Consequences, produced by Danish newspaper Information. The sidebar of the site also says that Consequences will be on tour in 2010. Hopefully I’ll get to see it in person.

Beyond the fantastic work by each of the photographers involved in Consequences, I’m particularly interested in the distribution model for the work. Rather than focus on getting the photojournalism out to a wide audience in the traditional publishing model, Consequences’ goal seems to be getting the work seen first by people in power to make a change. I think it’s a valuable strategy. While there is a strong role for these essays to play in informing the general public about specific effects of global climate change, the public may well have reached a point of saturation for these sorts of stories. A strategic shift in intended audience, from mass public to people with influence and power, could have momentous results. Colin Powell famously cited the influence of Platon’s photos in his endorsement of Obama. More to the point, Nick Nichol’s photos of the forests of Gabon helped persuade the country’s president to create a nature preserve comprising 1/10th of the Gabon’s land. I’m sure the Copenhagen summit attendees have been staring at spreadsheets and white papers for months leading up to this summit, heads dizzy with hard data and statistical models. The photos in Consequences will put a face on the abstract issues of global climate change for those most able to make a difference in the international environmental agenda. The photographers’ work will likely have great effect during these first few days.

Sohrab Hura - Touch - Joop Swart Masterclass

The 2009 Joop Swart Masterclass has just published the participants’ work on the theme “touch.” Sohrab Hura is a favorite recent discovery, having first seen his work a year or so ago, and his contribution to the Masterclass does not disappoint. The other participants, all with interesting work are: Simona Ghizzoni, Don McNeill Healy, Bénédicte Kurzen, Mads Nissen, Kosuke Okahara, Ali Akbar Shirjian, Gihan Tubbeh, Dirk-Jan Visser, Matt Eich, and Kathryn Cook.

(via Matt Eich)

Picture Black Friday

Picture Black Friday is a photojournalism project that aims to revisit and analyze a combination of forces- a worsening economy, financial desperation, excitement, fear, absurdity, and a distinctly American cultural tradition- that culminate the morning after Thanksgiving.

Having been on a couple Black Friday stakeouts too many, Picture Black Friday strikes me as a wonderful idea. Yes, the hordes of people lined up to buy a cheap laptop or Wii is part of the story, but much more happens the day after Thanksgiving. The project, which will be exhibited on Conscientious and Too Much Chocolate, hopes to get photographers documenting the day “on their terms”, independent (or not) of the usual consumerist portrayal.

(via Conscientious)

There have been two prevailing attitudes toward the proposed conference/symposium dealing with issues of race and diversity in photography:

a) That it is absolutely necessary & b) It is a terrifying prospect.

The first point speaks for itself, and the second point becomes clear when one considers the kerfuffles, misunderstanding and (dare I say it) vitriol that has accompanied much online discussion.” -Prison Photography

Following up on earlier talk of a conference on race and photography, Pete Brook has spearheaded the effort to create an online symposium covering the subject, and the momentum is building. A great mix of potential contributors have already responded positively to the idea, and the work behind the scenes is moving quickly. Read about what we have up our sleeves over at Prison Photography. And get involved!

I just got late word that Jonas Bendiksen’s groundbreaking multimedia exhibition for his The Places We Live project is now being exhibited in Washington, D.C. at the National Building Museum. It will be there until November 15, and I really wish I could get there to see it. Jonas showed me hand-made models for this exhibition back in 2007 and I’ve been yearning to see the real deal (room size projection ‘cabinets’ with audio piped in) ever since. Aperture posted about the first unveiling of the exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo when it opened a year or so ago.

Unfortunately, this sounds like the only stop for the exhibition in the States for now and it “will travel next to cities in Europe and Asia.” But in lieu check out again this video of Bendiksen talking about the work (from the beautiful harbor in Oslo!).

Photoshelter and Look3 have just announced a call for entries for an online exhibition and projection at the upcoming Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville. Looks like a great way to sneak your work into the festival if you missed the deadline for Slideluck Potshow or can’t make it to Charlottesville.