Looking for a break from the Beijing ‘fog’, photographers Biel Calderon and Mark Esplin decided to travel to Sanya, an Island and famous tourist destination in Southern China. ‘We felt it would be intriguing to collaborate given that we both grew up in a similar environment to Sanya – Mallorca and Torquay respectively. The concept was to collectively document our experience. Inspired by Christopher Anderson’s quote “My work is a truth, but it is my truth, my experience” we felt it would be interesting for two photographers, with different styles, to approach one story,’ said Calderon.
Flying the friendly skies, New York editorial photographer Brian Finke crisscrossed the United States photographing flight attendants on Delta, JetBlue, Hawaiian, Hooters Air, Southwest, and Song airlines before going abroad with such carriers as Air France, Qantas, and British Airways. In London, Finke visited a flight attendant school complete with emergency rafts and billowing smoke, and then, continuing east, he traveled on Air Asia, Thai, Tiger, ANA, Japan, and Cathay Pacific. The result of two years of travel is Flight Attendants, a collection of photographs documenting the lives of those adventurous souls who choose to work at 40,000 feet.
Jakarta
Martin Roemers studied photography at the Academy of Arts in Enschede, the Netherlands. His work has been exhibited widely and is held in public, private and corporate collections including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Ford Foundation in New York. He has received awards and recognitions including two World Press Photo Awards in 2006 and 2011. These photographs of megacities are from his series Metropolis, which is currently on view at Anastasia Photo in New York.
Calcutta
Bombay
Tell us about Metropolis and how it came about?
‘Half of humanity lives in a city, and the United Nations has predicted that 70 percent of the world’s population will reside in urban areas by 2050. Hence, I am photographing the world’s megacities; places with populations in excess of ten million. I wanted to explore how it is that people are able to live in cities that are so immense and crowded. The answer is that even with their bustle and chaos, megacities retain their human aspects. And this is what I want to reveal by taking photographs of crowded places where you notice not only the city’s dynamic character but also the urban traveller making his way through today’s modern society.
‘Specifically, I’m looking at the small stories of the street vendor, the commuter, the passer-by, the market stallholder and other pedestrians, who populate the street or are a part of the traffic. Despite the megacity and its mega-commotion, their environment still maintains a human dimension. I present this by photographing busy locations from above. Moreover, every photo has a long exposure time so that the city’s vitality is shown through the movement of people and traffic while the image literally focuses on the small story in question. Every megacity is a theatre and every city has a different stage and different actors. In the end every single one of them is trying to make his way in today’s urban society.
Calcutta
You have explored using long exposures in other projects, such as using an antique camera with a 10 second long exposure time to make portraits in Afghanistan. How do long exposures change the process of image making?
‘Especially for Metropolis the long exposure is necessary to show the dynamics and energy of a city. It makes me look differently at a street scene because some people can only be a usable element when they move/walk and other people/vehicles are only usable when they don’t move at all.’
Manila
Karachi
How did you choose your locations and vantage points?
‘During the day I drive and walk through the city looking for suitable crowded locations. I also have to have access to a high point like a balcony or a rooftop. At the end of the day (when the light is good), I usually have one or two usable locations to work with. Then, I’ll wait until all elements fall into place, which is something that I am never sure of. It is always a surprise when I have developed the film and see what is there.’
Bombay
Karachi
This post was contributed by photographer Greta Rybus.
Mark Coughlan is a professional documentary travel photographer specializing in global social issues and world events. He has travelled to India 17 times and most recently photographed Maha Shivaratri, an annual religious and spiritual festival held in Girnar, near Junagadh in Gujarat. He writes:
Maha Shivaratri, known as the Grand Night of Shiva (the night after Shiva created the world), lasts for six days and attracts over one million pilgrims to the site of Bhavnath Temple. Hundreds of naked Sadhus, known as ‘Naga Babas’ smear themselves in ash and sit naked smoking charas and tobacco in temporary tents representing ashrams. Many Sadhus show the strength of their muscles and sexual organs by lifting huge stones and other Sadhus with their penis. On the last day of the festival, the day before the new moon, the main attraction of the fair takes place with a procession of the Naga Babas, which is held at midnight. The procession ends with the holy bath by the Sadhus in the Mrigi Kund in the compound of Bhavnath Temple and Maha Pooja.
Chris Johnson is a travel photographer based out of New York City. His latest personal project was shot while on location in Qatar along the city of Doha’s booming skyline. Using traditional zone system techniques, Johnson isolated each building by blowing the backgrounds out creating a digital file that required no masking and little adjustment. He explains:
‘I was there for work last August for a few days, and it was my first time to the Middle East. It was not as I had pictured; the local culture there is very modern. So over the next few days, whenever I had free time (and when it wasn’t 120 degrees), I just walked around the small downtown. The architecture is not terribly tall, but like New York, all the buildings are pretty close together creating the challenge.’
This post was contributed by photographer Matt Rainwaters.
London photographer Tom Robinson got the idea for his Feet First series in 2005 while sitting on Brighton beach (England) with his new girlfriend Verity. He writes: ‘I thought the scene of our feet pointing out to sea would make a nice photo. Ever since then, we’ve continued to document our travels in this way, resulting in a collection of over 90 photos. In 2011 the series took a new twist with the arrival of a third set of feet – our daughter Matilda.’
Shaw & Shaw photographers, Joanna and Christoph Shaw, have been working together for over a decade. Their shots of wig shops, pies on shelves and empty cafes went on to define their style. Whether on the streets of New York, in the Austrian alps or at the Huddersfield indoor market Shaw & Shaw seek out the quaint, unusual and mundane. Their first project together was an award-winning self published book called Where Are You? which documented the charming and tawdry details of Northern British life.
Sivan Askayo, originally from Israel, is a New York City-based photographer, specializing in travel and kids photography. This project, Intimacy Under the Wires, began in the vibrant alleyways of Tel Aviv’s Jaffa neighborhood and has become an ongoing project, taking her to Madrid, Barcelona, London and Buenos Aires. She is currently attending the International Center of Photography in New York.
