I’ve been traveling and working a lot lately around Serbia in the last month, hence my lack of interesting posts, and I am taking off in a few hours for the Visa pour L’Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France. I’ll then be back in the United States (Seattle and New York City) from September 6 through October 24, before returning to Belgrade. If you’re in Perpignan and want to meet up, be sure to send me an email or track me down. Same if you’re in the States.

I also wanted to share a couple of places where my work has been published recently:
The New York Times Lens Blog published a feature about my project in Bosnia “This Time Tomorrow” to coincide with the 15th Anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in July. Please have a look at the nice piece that James Estrin put together.

The Sunday Times Magazine in London also published three pages of my project “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”, about the destruction of a Roma community in Belgrade. The article and web gallery are behind their paywall but you can see clips on my website.

I look forward to getting back to regular posting and sharing some of what I’ve been up to soon. Happy end of summer everyone!

“Five years feels like a long time, and many buildings have been rebuilt and a lot people have returned to the Gulf Coast devastated by Katrina. But many have not come home, and they may never. Some neighborhoods have never looked better; other areas are returning to nature. There, the vegetation grew wild and high after the ruins were bulldozed away.” -Alan Chin, Katrina: the Fifth Anniversary

Alan Chin has a wonderful piece revisiting Hurricane Katrina up at Newsweek just now. The presentation pairs images from the immediate aftermath of the hurricane with a look at how the life has moved on for the city and its people. Definitely worth a look.

Childhood
by Zeljko Naic

These images were made during two years of therapy that I have prescribed myself, in order to release the tensions and deal with complexes haunting me since I was a child. My first memories are of colorful balloons that I was playing with and a black dog’s nose sniffing my face. I also remember a man in soldier’s uniform leaning over my cradle.

My father left us when I was eight years old. My mother, trying to bring food to the table, worked low-payed jobs long after her retirement. But she could not replace him in every respect. Many things I have learned the hard way, or have never learned. When I was sixteen, the war came. Society collapsed.

Once again I felt abandoned, this time by my fatherland. People suddenly became strangers, caring only about the barest survival. The first casualty was morality, and future became irrelevant. Not that I blame them, really. They didn’t know better.

Without proper guidance, without a role model youths can only do so much with their lives. And the accumulated incapacity of individuals to make significant progress can only form a retarded society. I need to further explore these problems on both my personal and societal levels, in order to find catharsis and be able to better bring up my own children.

Today we introduce a new feature, the Dvafoto Galleries. In addition to linking to photos we find around the world that we have decided to publish some of this work directly on Dvafoto, soon in a special section of the site. The first in this series is my good friend Zeljko Naic. His work stands out in the exciting Belgrade photo community because of how extremely personal and long-term his commitment is to the work. We hope you enjoy it and leave any reactions or comments below

“It’s quiet. I keep wondering if I’ll hear the shots. After a long while the media witnesses are brought to our room, with more guards. It is done, he is dead. I didn’t hear anything.” -Trent Nelson

Trent Nelson, whose blog The Click is a must read, just posted a multi-part series about his experiences covering the execution by firing squad of Ronnie Lee Gardner. This execution has been in the news recently, also, because the Utah state Attorney General announced the execution by twitter.

• Covering the Execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• (can’t find part 4)
• Part 5
• Part 6

BagNews picked up with some brief analysis of one of Trent’s photos, as well.

“My working outfit is very casual: jeans, a shirt, documentary photographer shoes and a jacket. When we meet in these godforsaken places, we all look alike with our Timberlands, our scarves and jackets with lots of pockets. I guess there is such a thing as a documentary photographer look.” -Paolo Pellegrin talking with Nowness

There’s a strange and small interview with Paolo Pellegrin at Nowness to accompany a small selection of pictures from his upcoming Magnum Fashion magazine “Storm.” If you’re reading this here, no doubt you already know Pellegrin’s work, but on the off chance that you don’t, go get educated at the Magnum site with Pellegrin’s portfolio.

The NYTimes Lens blog just posted a piece including the words and images of Velibor Božović, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in Sarajevo. In the interview Božović said some things that have really echoed with some earlier thoughts of mine: is it possible for a photographer to photograph as someone else? In other words, to photograph in character? Actors can assume new personalities and do things (on set a least) that they would never say or do in their personal life. Does this, can this, should this apply to photography?

“[Hemon and I] spent hours talking about what these guys would do and about Rora — what would he really photograph,” Mr. Božović said. Through their conversations, Mr. Božović would discover that Rora possessed aesthetic tastes and instincts that drastically differed from his own.

This did not always sit well with him. One photograph he took still leaves him feeling uneasy. At a sidewalk café in Lviv, Ukraine, he sneaked a shot of a woman’s bare legs from underneath a coffee table.

“I simply would never do that,” he said. “But Rora would do that kind of thing.”

This is a proper book club post because Božović’s comments are referring to the book that he made with his friend, the writer Aleksandar Hemon called The Lazarus Project. In it there are two characters traveling through Eastern Europe (Bosnia, Moldova, Ukraine) in search of certain historical events and this is exactly what the author and his photographer friend, Božović and Hemon, did in real life. This curious parallelism is found often in Hemon’s books, which I count amongst my favorites of recent years, especially his first: The Question of Bruno. This mixing of first person narrative, of fiction and real experience, even to the point of having a character named Hemun that fits biographical features of the real Hemon, work incredibly well at playing the tensile strings of fragile immigrant identities. But what about doing this with photographs and blurring the line of who is the photographer? Does the biography of a photographer matter? Does it matter if they exist at all in a non-fiction world?

Interesting ideas for me.

Be sure to look at Božović’s work, especially the whole Lazarus Project set on his website and the Stone Sleepers project which we’ve previously written about on dva. Word is that he is traveling to Russia at the moment, I hope for some nice new secret project. Can’t wait to see it when he’s back.

I just got word of a new series of grants put together by the Magnum Foundation, which is the non-profit arm of Magnum Photos. They sponsor programs previously noted: the Emerging Photographer Grant, the Inge Morath award and the Young Photographer in the Caucasus award. The new program is called the Emergency Fund, and their press release really says it best so I’m including it here. I’ll just say that this is very exciting news, terrific for Magnum and all the photographers awarded!

From Magnum Foundation:

NEW YORK, NY – The Magnum Foundation has committed more than $100,000 to support experienced photographers working to document critical issues that have been overlooked or underrepresented by mainstream media.

The 2010 Emergency Fund photographers will tackle issues of local, national, or global concern, with preference given to projects carried out in anticipation of, rather than in response to, a crisis. Selected projects include an examination of homelessness on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh; an in-depth look at coming of age amidst the HIV epidemic in Swaziland; and a non-embedded perspective on the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

The 2010 Emergency Fund Photographers are: Christopher Anderson; Jonas Bendiksen; Cedric Gerbehaye; Bruce Gilden; Saiful Huq Omi; Sohrab Hura; Krisanne Johnson; Alex Majoli; Karen Mirzoyan; Dominic Nahr; Simon Norfolk; Louie Palu; Paolo Pellegrin; Gilles Peress; Eugene Richards; Larry Towell; Shehab Uddin; Geert van Kesteren; Kadir van Lohuizen; and Wang Yishu.

Other projects explore intertribal relations in Kenya, foreclosures in America, and climate change in Asia. In addition to the 16 projects the Foundation has committed to funding, it maintains a roster of photographers to address situations as they arise.

The Magnum Foundation was created to sustain the field of independent documentary photography for a new generation of photographers. The Emergency Fund supports photographers to produce independent projects and to partner with advocacy, human rights, and humanitarian organizations to engage targeted audiences and reach a broad public. The photographers are represented by a wide variety of agencies that distribute their work through editorial and other channels.

A group of 10 photography professionals nominated 100 photographers to submit proposals. The recipients were selected—based on the strength of their work and the importance of the issues they proposed to address—by an independent Editorial Board comprised of: Bob Dannin, former editorial director of Magnum Photos and professor of history at Suffolk University; renowned author Philip Gourevitch; Marc Kusnetz, former senior producer for NBC News and consultant for Human Rights First; Susan Meiselas, photographer and president of the Magnum Foundation; and Amy Yenkin, director of the Documentary Photography Project at the Open Society Institute.

We’ve linked quite a few times to pieces written by photographer Asim Rafiqui, who posts regularly on his indispensable blog The Spinning Head. We unfortunately haven’t posted much about his work though. So when he wrote me this week with the great news that his project The Idea of India, which previously was awarded the Aftermath Project grant in 2009 and received Blue Earth Alliance support the same year, was just honored with a Fulbright Scholarship, I had to share here. Rafiqui will be based for a year in New Delhi, India with this support and will continue to produce new chapters for his ever expanding project. I went through a few of the essays and pulled out some of my favorite images. These pictures show the intensely rich and unsentimental texture of a nation so often photographed in cliche. I think this is a beautiful accomplishment and the essence of what makes this project and Rafiqui special.

It is great and inspiring to see interesting and important projects getting the support they deserve. And it is at least one good sign that there are photographers and supporters (grants, programs, publications) out there willing to develop long term and less-than-obvious projects. One of the first pieces I read by Rafiqui that set me off into thought was his series “What Ails Photojournalism”, which I wrote about here on Dva in March 2009 in the post What Ails Us. Rafiqui is putting his time and energy where his mouth is, and is proving that there are some outlets, however hard to track down and gain the support of, for big idea and revolutionary projects. And thats terrific, I hope we see more.

There are a lot of photographs and even more information flowing out of Bangkok these days but I wanted to share some of what I’ve come across. While much has been said about the “power of twitter” in the wake of recent big events (Iran, Kyrgyzstan, etc.) I must say that it is proving itself useful time and again for me to keep up with ‘developing’ stories.

Leading the charge in my consumption of Thai news this week has been the indomitable Yumi Goto, who clued me into the tweets of (terrific) photographers Agnes Dherbeys (see her website) and my friend Kosuke Okahara (see his website). Also providing a barrage of harrowing front-line reporting is journalist Andrew Marshall who is tweeting as Journotopia. While complete (more or less) news accounts in newspapers are essential to understanding more of the story on any given day, the short bursts of information that come from multiple sources on the ground at the same time is fascinating and enlightening.

Though these tweets I found this first hand account of photographing a group of red shirts being shot at by government troops by photographer Nick Nostitz. He said of the battle he photographed yesterday: “Sitting here at home, I wonder if this day, the 15th of May, has been real, or just a terrible nightmare. Never in my whole life have I been so scared. I thought that I am going to die today.” Nostitz’s report is another incredible story of being very close to violence and war, I definitely recommend reading whether or not you think you’ll ever be in a similar situation.

I hope everyone reporting from Thailand this week stays safe, I’ll keep my eye out for your photographs and reports. There have already been injured and wounded journalists and reports of targeting of journos. I wish them a speedy recovery.

On Wednesday I got word from an old colleague and friend that he had been arrested in Colorado following his coverage of an environmental protest at the Valmont Power Plant near Boulder on Tuesday April 27th. Ethan Welty was independently covering the protest by environmental activists and was photographing from outside of the plant’s perimeter and in the crowd that had gathered. He has put together his pictures from the event on photoshelter. Shortly after the four who had trespassed on the plant’s property were arrested and escorted out police approached Welty, who was on property outside of the power plant, and arrested him. All five were charged with 2nd Degree Criminal trespass, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $750 fine. Welty is trying to set the record straight, as media is reporting that simply five were arrested at the protest and no one (including the police) is acknowledging that he was there covering the event as a member of the press and that he was obviously not with the four protesters inside the plant. All five were booked and released on the misdemeanor charge, and are awaiting a June 17th court appearance.

Here is the statement he has been trying to circulate to the AP and other publications who have run stories about the event, who have included him by name as one of the protesters arrested (for instance, see coverage on Google News):

I’m writing on behalf of myself, in an attempt to set the record straight regarding yesterday’s arrests at the Valmont Power Plant.

I, Ethan Welty, was at the protest as an independent photojournalist following a news lead, and maintained that role throughout. My photos from the event, all taken legally from outside plant property (and linked below), make it extremely clear that I was not with the four activists on the coal pile, something your article (and by now the nation’s press) wrongfully implies. My questionable arrest occurred after theirs, suddenly and unexpectedly, while I was standing in the street by the rally.

He also described the situation to me in an email:
“My arrest occurred after the four protesters had been escorted out of the plant and into police vehicles. I was standing on the sidewalk besides the rally, two large cameras slung around my neck, when officers suddenly approached me, ordered me to stop shooting pictures and seized me by the wrist.

They informed me that Xcel Energy (who owns the plant) had pointed me out, claiming they had evidence of me trespassing – and thus I was under arrest. I was so shocked and confused that I could hardly utter a defense (being arrested was a first for me). To their credit, they were polite and very respectful of my equipment, allowing me to choose whether or not to hand over my gear for safekeeping. Concerned that my images might never see the light of day, I decided to trust a bystander with my memory cards, and supposedly I will be able to retrieve my camera equipment from the Boulder County Courthouse later this week [ed: Welty picked up the equipment on Thursday morning].
While the Sheriff’s Office lumped me with the four protesters (efforts at the jail to explain otherwise were stopped short with “tell it to the Judge”), according to a reporter, the Xcel spokesperson referred to me as the Daily Camera photographer (the local Boulder newspaper) – so Xcel was likely aware that I was press, and no protester.”

The Daily Camera has issued a correction to their story that originally said Welty was one of the protesters, but many other publications and the police have not recognized Welty as a member of the press. For the clearest and most disappointing example of how this has shown itself, see this article and screen grab of mugshots by Denver’s ABC television station, which had to correct its article after Welty contacted them.

The key document here is the Boulder County Sheriff’s Offices’ media release, which states that Welty was one of “five of the protesters [who] climbed over the fence and on to property belonging to Xcel”. He denies ever entering Xcel’s property and the evidence from his photographs support this. The statement does not mention anything about him being separate from the group nor a photographer. It is clear that there was lazy investigation and reporting by the police which led to lazy journalism by publications picking up the story, who have essentially reprinted the police’s inaccurate press release. Welty added that the four declined to make statements at the jail until they had spoken with their attorney, which is why they have not “gone on the record” saying that he was not part of the group.

This is an issue not just of press freedom for an independent photographer covering an event but of Ethan Welty’s ability to fight false accusations and bad reporting which have brought his name into media reports of the event. He stresses that the fact of this inaccurate and poor reporting, on both the Boulder Police’s part and the echoing media, is what has angered him the most. It seems likely that Welty will be able to fight against this charge in front of a judge in June and prove his innocent role in the event, but the media reports are already done and unlikely to be corrected or retracted in 6 weeks’ time.