Travel Fashion Documentary Editorial & Portrait Photographers: Feature Shoot'

Photographer Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini brings us more great work from the forefront of the Syrian conflict, this time showcasing women from an all-female fighting unit of the Free Syrian Army based in Aleppo. Strong and with conviction, the women stand ready.

via TIME

Japanese photographer Ayaka Yamamoto’s portraits play with the idea of identity; not so much with how one is created but rather how one is stripped away. In 2009, Yamamoto traveled to Estonia and Latvia in Northern Europe to capture these shots—lands that were far different from her own. She says the language barrier and unfamiliar culture enabled her to view her subjects as “new beings”, free of information and context built up over time. They are presented as mysterious and intriguing, almost in a state of transition—it’s hard to discern where they’ve been or where they’re headed.

New York based photographer Melissa Cacciola recently talked to us about War and Peace, a series of tintype portraits of active duty military and veterans. The work is currently on display at United Photo Industries in Brooklyn through April 27th, 2013.

How did you select the active duty military and veterans that you shot for this series?
“I began by calling, writing, and e-mailing five government branches, my local congressman, and by visiting recruiting offices. Without having connections or contacts, finding willing subjects could have been an impossible process. It really wasn’t until I made contact with two Marines that things began to move forward.

“The United States Coast Guard, Navy, Army, and the Wounded Warrior Project gave me their full support so that I could get access to the people I needed. So many people trusted me without knowing me or about my work. I could not have told their story otherwise.”

Was there a specific reason that you chose to document the military using tintype?
“I began War and Peace during the anniversary year of September 11th as a way of reflecting on how this event impacted the nation and New York City. We have been a country at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for over twelve years now and many of the people I photographed for my project enlisted because of 9/11. We often talk about warfare in technological terms, but there is a human side to it. I wanted to create intimate portraits. And considering the origin of tintyping, it was also a unique opportunity to explore the rich history of the tintype and its beginnings documenting the Civil War.”

What was the conversation with the subjects like regarding the non-military version of their portraits? Did they choose what they would wear themselves?
“I asked my subjects to make their civilian portrait as personal as possible in an effort to connect with the viewer. Each person put a great deal of thought into his/her portrait. Ray, a U.S. Coast Guard officer, wore a guayabera in honor of his Puerto Rican heritage while Edward wore a business suit to symbolize his re-entry into the non-military sector of commerce from the U.S. Marine Corps.

“Each little detail you see in the civilian portraits carries a great deal of weight and meaning. Much like Roland Barthes’ punctum, there are layers to explore within a single gesture. In contrast, the military portraits had to be so structured because of rules governing how uniforms could be worn, from the angle of a cover or hat to the polish of buttons on the jackets.”

Your bio says that you studied historic preservation of fine art, how do you think that created and influenced your perspective as a photographer?
“Having a background in fine art means that I’m always looking at art—whether it be Velasquez’s paintings of the Spanish court, Bill Viola’s transformative video installations, or the photographs of August Sander. Often at a microscopic level, I’m investigating brushstrokes in a painting or the gelatin reticulation pattern in a print. Tintyping brings together my interests in history, process, and chemistry.”

How did you first start working in tintype? You studied some tintype techniques with John Coffer but what first interested you in the process?
“I fell in love with tintyping during a class in historic preservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were studying tintype portraits from the Civil War. They were so powerful and haunting I couldn’t stop thinking about them. That was what brought me to study with John Coffer and embark on my own with the technique.”

Since the original idea of the tintype was to show the subject their image right away, was this something you did with your subjects?
“Absolutely. Everyone that comes to the studio for a portrait ends up in the darkroom seeing his/her portrait materialize in the fixer. It’s pure magic every time. I never get tired of or take this very intimate and special moment for granted.”

This post was contributed by photographer Laura Barisonzi.

Most people I photograph are acutely aware of their imperfections and try to minimize them. Some have confided in me that, in their attempt to look more normal, they strive for impassivity and repress their smiles. They worry that this effort is altering who they are emotionally and affecting how other people respond to them. While most of us assume that our expressions convey our emotions, it seems that the inverse can also be true: our emotions can, in some ways, be influenced by our facial expressions.—Sage Sohier

For the past three years, Massachusetts-based photographer Sage Sohier has spent time in a facial nerve clinic in Massachusetts capturing portraits of people with facial paralysis caused by either Bell’s palsy, tumors, strokes, accidents, or congenital nerve damage. About Face offers what the photographer says is a fascinating view of two expressions at once, while honoring the courage required for one to cope with medical afflictions.

About Face opens at Foley Gallery in New York on April 17th and will remain on view through May 24th, 2013.

Photo: Aaron Fallon

Photo: Cynthia Wood

Photo: Jackie Furtado

Photo: Kathleen Hayes

Photo: Tim Gruber

Photo: Jonathan Lipkin

Photo: Gareth Phillips

Photo: Tim Morris

Photo: Robin Cracknell

Photo: Janine Autolitano

Photo: Daniel Porter

Photo: Rickett and Sones

Photo: Patricia Karallis

Photo: Mark Yaggie

Photo: Andrei Nacu

Photo: Matt Wilson

Photo: Chus Khairuddin

Photo: Lauren Pisano

Photo: Lou Mora

Photo: Hollis Bennett

Photo: Geralyn Shukwit

Photo: Gabriel Dominguez Duran

Photo: Florian Rainer

Photo: Caesar Lima

Photo: Erin Leydon

Photo: Emese Benko

Photo: Ellie Smith

Photo: Dragos Bardac

Photo: David Kimelman

Photo: Ágnes Jakab

Photo: Jessie Chaney

Photo: Yiorgos Kordakis

Photo: Amber Parker

*This show was curated from reader submissions.

The maternity ward of the Juan Pablo Pina Hospital attends 600 births a month without hot water. Women labor on old plastic mattresses, electricity is sporadic, and relatives clean patients in crowded rooms at this public hospital in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic. Although 98% of Dominican women had a skilled attendant at birth, the maternal mortality ratio was the second highest in the Caribbean when these photographs were taken in 2006 – 2007.
—Alice Proujansky

Brooklyn-based photojournalist Alice Proujansky has been working on a project about birth and culture for the last 6 years, documenting women and their birthing experiences in the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, the Navajo Nation, Massachusetts and Mexico. Proujansky explores midwifery, cultural traditions, the ever-present risk of maternal mortality in developing countries, and the universal intensity of giving birth. Delivery, shown here, takes us inside a hospital in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic.

I walked into a storage closet filled with approximately one-hundred human brains, none of them normal, taken from patients at the Texas State Mental Hospital. The brains sat in large jars of fluid, each labeled with a date of death or autopsy, a brief description in Latin, and a case number. These case numbers corresponded to microfilm held by the State Hospital detailing medical histories. But somehow, regardless of how amazing and fascinating this collection was, it had been largely untouched, and unstudied for nearly three decades.

Driving back to my studio with a brain snugly belted into the passenger seat, I quickly became obsessed with the idea of photographing the collection, preserving the already decaying brains, and corresponding the images to their medical histories.—Adam Voorhes

Two years ago Scientific American magazine sent Austin-based photographer Adam Voorhes to the University of Texas to borrow a human brain to photograph. That’s when he stumbled upon a cerebral mecca, a moment Voorhes describes above. Working with features journalist Alex Hannaford, the two have spent the last year investigating these fascinating specimens.

The collection dates back to the 1950s but the intent to study and display it was halted due to a lack of funding, and unfortunately the microfilm histories Voorhes mentions above were destroyed long ago. Luckily, the University of Texas has shown some new interest and is planning to make MRI scans of the brains, which will help piece together the collection’s history. Voorhes’ project seems particularly relevant as President Obama just announced a $100 million brain research initiative to develop new methods and technologies for understanding the human brain.

In India, where sex is taboo and AIDS/HIV carries a heavy stigma, infection rates have grown to epidemic proportions. Major forms of transmission include blood transfusions, men who have sex with men, and intravenous drug users. However, by far, the highest infection rates are due to heterosexual sex.

Second only to Africa, the numbers were predicted to reach 10 million by 2010. Yet, it is still an issue that most of India is not talking about and that most of the world does not know.—Leah Nash

AIDS in India is Portland-based photographer Leah Nash’s powerful documentation of a country coping with its current AIDS crisis. Nash leads us on an arresting journey that reveals the myriad facets of India’s epidemic—we see the heartbreak of HIV-positive children in an orphanage, the lack of knowledge and treatment due to the still-present stigma, the sobering realities of the disease, and also education efforts moving forward.

At Gilead’s Balm, a Christian based heroin detox center in Manipur, India new patients are chained to prevent escape. The longer their stay, the more links are added to the chain. The program, which lasts two years, is immensely popular with the community and is entirely locally funded. Their motto is “Chaining is changing.”

Raju contracted HIV through needle-sharing and for the last four months has been unable to speak or move. His wife, Assalata, does all his care-giving and says she is, “Not brave enough to test herself.” They have been married for two years.

A strip of “rubber goods” stores in Calcutta. Most people in India are embarrassed to buy condoms and have no knowledge of how to use them.

Thanks to our friends at ONA bags, we are giving away one handcrafted Brixton camera and laptop bag. The Brixton trades in the bulky camera bag for a sharp messenger/satchel style. Fashioned with water-resistant waxed canvas and leather detail, it’s designed to protect a DSLR, two to three lenses and up to a 13-inch laptop. The four removeable dividers inside make it customizable, and the two front pockets are perfect for stashing your lens caps, batteries, and small accesories. Cheers to functional, good-looking gear!

To enter, like ONA on Facebook and leave a link to your website in the comments section of this post.

This giveaway is now over. Thanks to all who entered.