To coincide with their latest photo special issue the good people over at The Fader magazine have released a new photo website called Double Vision. It features “zoomable” landscapes from the American West by Victoria Sambunaris and a randomized gallery of photographs from America by Peter van Agtmael. Listed as coming soon include a number of essays from the likes of Fader’s own John Francis Peters (whose American project we wrote about earlier), Matt Eich, Dominic Nahr and a few other intriguing pieces. Go have a look, it seems a bit of work in progress but it is a nicely curated take on “America Now”.

So, I was not in Perpignan last week like I said and planned to be. A story that I have been working on since April about the displacement of significant and entrenched Roma settlements here in Belgrade hit its climax last Monday and I decided to stay here to photograph. I look forward to sharing part of this important story soon.
But first I wanted to share some new images that I mentioned a few weeks ago from my Kosovo New Born project, which I began in 2007.

I returned to the youngest country in the world again in early August to get further into the periphery of issues and locations that are at the heart of Kosovo’s political and economic stability and viability. While it was a difficult trip, with some closed doors and unproductive scheduling, I am pleased that many pictures are contributing new visions and perspectives on the broader sentiments I am hoping to capture with this project.

The next step for me is to (frighteningly enough) prepare a book dummy for this admittedly unfinished body of work. I started my degree at the University of Washington six years ago and I’ve decided that it is high time to finally graduate. So I endeavor to finish my last requirement: a thesis. As a multidisciplinary exercise for my degree in the Comparative History of Ideas program I am attempting to create a historical, documentary and scholarly approach to Kosovo in the form of a more permanent contemporary photographic document. Hence my interest in Peter van Agtmael’s new book 2nd Tour, Hope I don’t Die, which I think works on much the same level. As this project comes together I’ll have more to share, though I’m sure it will take more time than I’ve budgeted in my head.

Also in Balkan news, I’ve seen (and have been sent) a number of increasingly alarmist articles about the dire state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In my opinion, and that of many smart colleagues here, while it is not a happy or stable place Bosnia isn’t about to explode either. As a western writer friend here opined, this is as much a cry for relevance by Balkan commentators in this short-attention span world as anything else (and as someone with interest in keeping eyes on the important stories here, I’m not exactly against this). So that said, the continuing slow decline of Bosnia’s political foundations is worth paying attention to. I’m continuing to photograph some of these ideas with my project This Time Tomorrow: Post-War Bosnia at the Crossroads and will try to provide updates from my perspective here in Belgrade.

I’m glad to see M. Scott’s new posts, not least of which it keeps you all busy with content while I get myself back in gear to post more. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been on the road over the last few weeks photographing a number of things: in Bosnia the Srebrenica Anniversary and the famous bridge divers in Mostar and more recently new work on my project Kosovo New Born. I will have a longer post in the next week or so talking about this Kosovo work, with updates from this trip and my plans to bring it together in book form and as a feature at a popular web magazine.
The next few weeks, before a dvafoto trip to Perpignan for Visa pour l’Image (more from M Scott and I on this soon!), will be devoted to editing and producing a book dummy and continuing with the Roma Relocation project here in Belgrade.

Speaking of books, I just came across 2nd Tour, Hope I Don’t Die by Peter van Agtmael, just published by Photolucida through their Critical Mass portfolio review. I’ve been ambivalent about some of van Agtmael’s work in the past but this package really seems to codify an interesting perspective and photographs about our modern American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would be very interested to see this in person, do let me know if you get a copy. I’m curious how this sort of personal narrative about a larger “news” story works in book form, not least of which because I’m approaching this with my work, but also for its ability to open a possibly new medium for distributing long term documentary that is closer to what typically runs in the mainstream press than book publishing.

Yesterday morning I saw a post on the Magnum Blog by nominee Peter van Agtmael, with some pictures he took out the window of buses in Africa. It immediately brought to mind my endless hours on the roads and rails of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. As it turns out, I’ve taken many more pictures from the train trips I’ve taken than the buses (probably because I was concentrating on sleeping and/or not getting sick while riding the buses), and I thus was inspired to dig through my archive (strange trips down the memory lane) and pull out some of those pictures that otherwise would not have seen the light of day. One of the original goals of the original incarnation of Dvafoto was for Scott and I to have an outlet for the pictures that we wouldn’t publish anywhere else.. the outtakes, the near-misses. So here I present a new set of images from the last couple of years on the rails. And sorry I don’t have, at this moment, any stories to tell from these pictures (like Peter)… I am rather exhausted from hours spent digging through harddrives… hopefully soon.

[caption id="attachment_774" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Between Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. May 2007."][/caption]








If you pester me, maybe I can tell you about the 28hour trip I took from Moldova to Kiev with gallons of smuggled wine (not mine of course) hidden in the panels above my bunk in the ancient Moldovan train car, with two young Russian-Moldovan minors watching over my car with the bought conductor. It was a good time, actually, sharing dvds and me getting to practice my Russian. Thankfully the Ukrainian customs weren’t too thorough…

Fan favorite The Fader this week released its latest issue, “57″ (pdf download). It is the annual Photo Special and has, coincidentally, one of my favorite bands (who I wrote about earlier this week) on the cover: TV on the Radio.

Firstly, congrats to the staff including Phil and John Francis Peters who put together a bang-up issue of an already terrific publication. (Ed note: I am an occasional contributor to the Fader)

Most important, and relevant, to us are the great photo essays included in the book including work by Peter van Agtmael: “American Wars”, Krisanne Johnson: “The Conundrum” and Gabriel Estabile: “Temporary Residence”.

Another time I’m sure I’ll gush more about the Fader’s use of photography and the brilliant art work led by Phil, but I think if you take a look at the mag you’ll understand this immediately on your own.

But what I’ve been stuck on from this issue is this story/project/something by Lauren Fleishman as the ‘Style’ section of the mag. (PS.. I enjoy Fleishman’s work, especially the piece .. which also appeared in the Fader .. about Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, another one of my favorite artists.)

I haven’t contacted anyone about this for their response, so please take this simply as a first impression and question: ‘what the heck is going on here?’.

Seemingly documentary pictures of an interesting person in a ‘hard’ situation (read the story on page 142 of the magazine, page 73 of the pdf), but all of the pictures are captioned with the clothes the woman is wearing. It seems to be another example of ‘real life people’ being used as models? (the toxic link: “Tasteless Vogue Photo Shoot” from Lightstalkers, about Vogue India using impoverished people to model luxury goods. Lets be clear, I don’t think there is exploitation going on in the Fader pictures, but it draws the comparison to other uses of ‘nonmodels’ and the possible implications). M. Scott and I both have seen things like this before, I think in the Fader too (examples elude me at the moment), and we’re more curious what their goals are, rather than their motives.

Frankly, I don’t get it and don’t know what to think. The pictures are beautiful. The woman has an incredible story. Definitely seems relevant and important; why the emphasis on the style not her story then? Are the pictures set up, are they actually portraits, or does it matter? What are your thoughts?