100 EYES MAGAZINE

from Living Stone, Dying River/100 Eyes Magazine
Photograph (c) Khaled Hasan/All rights reserved

from Children of the Black Dust/100 Eyes Magazine
Photograph (c) Shehzad Noorani/All rights reserved

from The Stone Throwers/100 Eyes Magazine
Photograph (c) Tanvir Ahmed/All rights reserved

“Pathshala is far more than teaching photography. Pathshala is about using the language of images to bring about social change.”

ANDY LEVIN is a photographer living in New Orleans, Louisiana and a former contributing photographer at Life Magazine and Black Star. In 2007 Levin was a finalist for the Eugene Smith Grant for Documentary Photography. 100 Eyes Magazine is edited, written, (beautifully) designed and programmed by Levin.

SHAHIDUL ALAM founded the Drik Picture Library in 1989 in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, taking advantage of a World Press Photo initiative. Most of the photographers showing work in this issue of 100Eyes went to Pathshala or taught there.

From Andy Levin's Introduction: "Alam and his fellow teachers, along with the World Press folks including Robert Pledge of Contact Press, have done a fantastic job. The students are exposed to classic photojournalism, poring over old issues of Life and National Geographic. Having spent hours going through the Drik archives I can testify to the training of the photographers– they always look for the single image that tells the whole story."

You can view the entire issue of Bangladesh x Bangladesh HERE

Andy Levin Website
Drik NEWS Photo Agency
Pathshala Institue of Photography
Shahidul Alam blog: Mandela

FERIT KUYAS: City of Ambition

Security Officer, Office Building, Chongqing, China 2005
Photograph (c) Ferit Kuyas/All rights reserved
Click images to enlarge

Restaurant Boats, Changjiang River, Chongqing, China 2005
Photograph (c) Ferit Kuyas/All rights reserved

Construction Site, Changjiang Nr. 1 Road, Chongqing, China 2005

Photograph (c) Ferit Kuyas/All rights reserved

Jialing River, Huanghuayuan Bridge, Chongqing, China 2005
Photograph (c) Ferit Kuyas/All rights reserved

FERIT KUYAS was born in Istanbul, Turkey. His career in photography followed his studies in architecture and law in Zurich, Switzerland. His most recent project CITY OF AMBITION: FAST FORWARD IN CHINA is a personal view of Chongqing, one of the largest cities in the world. Located in Southwest China in the Sichuan region, it was the capitol of China during World War II, now populated by almost 32 million people.

Kuyas has captured these images with a view camera on 4x5"color film. His book “City of Ambition” will be published in October 2009 (German Edition, Benteli Publishers) and spring 2010 (English Edition, Mets & Schilt Publishers). His work is available through the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles and Galerie Monika Wertheimer in Oberwil, Switzerland. He was one of 100 photographers invited to participate in Review Santa Fe 2009. Ferit Kuyas website

MARVI LACAR: Maasai Women Project

Kahlo House, Mexico © Marvi Lacar / All rights reserved

Hudson Bay, Ivujivik, Canada, 2008 © Marvi Lacar / All rights reserved

Takaya, Escaped From FGM. The Tasaru Ntomomok Safehouse for Girls, Kenya. Photograph © Marvi Lacar / All rights reserved

Mary Silio. The Tasaru Ntomomok Safehouse for Girls, Kenya

Photograph © Marvi Lacar / All rights reserved

MARVI LACAR came to the U.S. at age 15 from the Philippines. After receiving a bachelor's degree in Michigan from a liberal arts college, Lacar worked for several non-profit organizations before pursuing her master's degree in Journalism at the University of Texas in Austin. She completed a visual journalism fellowship at the Poynter Institute and interned at the Philadelphia Inquirer before moving to NYC in 2004.

Lacar was the 2008 winner of the Levallois - Epson Photography Award for her Journey Through Avignon. For her work documenting the progress of Maasai girls, women and men who are fighting against Female Genital Mutilation she won the 2008 Jurors Choice, Project Competition from the Santa Fe Center for Photography. She has been a nominee for the Joop Swart Masterclass and recognized by Communication Arts, PDN, and American Photography. Her clients include The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Paris Match and Stern Magazines among many others.
Project: Healing the Deepest Scars: Rescue and Rehabilitation of Maasai Girls Escaping Circumcision and Early Marriage

Lacar lives in NYC with her husband, photojournalist Benjamin Lowy.
Website: http://www.marvi.net
PhotoBetty Post

KIDS WITH CAMERAS: Calcutta

Bengali Moon. Photograph © Kochi, 10 / Kids With Cameras

Babai. Photograph © Kochi, 10 / Kids With Cameras

Photograph © Avijit / Avijit's Postcard Collection

We believe that photography is an effective tool in igniting children's imagination and building self-esteem. We believe in the power of art to transform lives, for both the artist and the viewer.

+ + +

BORN INTO BROTHELS, a film by Photographer Zana Briski and Co-Director Ross Kauffman, won the 77th annual Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, Born into Brothels is a portrait of several unforgettable children who lived in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers worked as prostitutes.

Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, founded Kids With Cameras in 2002, teaching photography to children in Calcutta's red-light district. She gave each of the children a camera and taught them the basics of photography and camera mechanics. Kids With Cameras has since expanded workshops to include Haiti, Jerusalem and Cairo.

The photographs taken by the children are available for purchase in the Kids' Gallery, and also as a signed Limited-Edition Portfolio. 100% of proceeds from sales of the children's prints and book, go directly to support their education and well-being. Archival prints on Somerset paper: 17 x 22 inches, $175 - 36 x 48 inches, $500.

There are also updates on the children on the Kids With Cameras website. One of those children, Avijit, was 11 when he began photographing in the brothels district he lived. "An innately talented artist, he's won many competitions for his paintings. Charismatic and restlessly creative, his images were among the most compelling of the workshop. Avijit was invited by the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam to be part of their Children's Jury in 2002. In 2005, he received a four year high school scholarship to attend an incredible school in America." Avijit has now been accepted to the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. To help fund his education expenses, he's selected nine of his photographs taken and combined them into a collection of nine 4 x 6 postcards. You can help Avijit realize his educational goals by purchasing this Postcard Collection. $30. plus shipping and handling.

Purchase Avijit's Postcard Collection here
Kids With Camera's

DANNY LYON: The Bikeriders

Photograph © Danny Lyon/ Twin Palms Publishers

Photograph © Danny Lyon/ Twin Palms Publishers

Photograph © Danny Lyon/ Twin Palms Publishers

The Fourth of July weekend brings out the Harley's. A great reminder of Danny Lyon's incredible documentary photographs The Bikeriders.

BRYAN MELTZ: African Resettlement in Georgia

Photograph © Bryan Meltz/ All rights reserved

Photograph © Bryan Meltz/ All rights reserved
Click image to enlarge

Photograph © Bryan Meltz/ All rights reserved

This project began in 2006 after working as a still photographer for a PBS documentary about refugee resettlement in America. I have had the privilege of getting to know these families, and been witness to their overwhelming spirit and resilience as they assimilate to American life, while still preserving the traditions of their culture.

+ + +

BRYAN MELTZ is a contributing photographer to the international photojournalism collective WIR Pictures and has collaborated with nonprofit organizations such as Engeye Health Clinic in Uganda, Just Cause, and AbsolutelyPositive, an AIDS service organization in Atlanta. She graduated with a Visual Journalism degree from The Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California and in 2005 was the recipient of the Yarka Vendrinska Memorial Scholarship Award for emerging female documentary photographer. Her editorial clients include Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Financial Times, The Fader, Vibe, Blender, XXL, Mass Appeal, and Vice Magazine.

In the past twenty years nearly 50,000 refugees have resettled in and around Clarkston, Georgia, located ten miles east of Atlanta. It's estimated over 75 languages are now spoken in this small Georgian town. The majority of people resettled are from the African nations of Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, DRC, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Board of Health estimates show over 71% are female, and all of those are survivors of civil conflict, war, torture, trauma, rape and/or genocide.

"The Somali Bantu are becoming the largest African group from a single community to settle in the United States at one time, with nearly 13,000 arriving since 2004. Those who made it to America passed through rigorous security checks—a process that took from months to a year or more—and when they arrived they were confronted with a new world of difficulties. The Bantu, who were denied access to education and jobs, were almost completely untouched by modern life. Few could read or write in any language, and almost none spoke English. Most had never seen a light switch, a telephone, a set of stairs, or a building that wasn’t made of mud."

Meltz's portrait series Home Far From Home: Refugee Resettlement in Georgia has been recognized by the International Photography Awards, American Photo Images of the Year, annual Out of the South juried exhibit and a solo show at Composition Gallery in Atlanta. Bryan was one of 100 photographers invited to participate in Review Santa Fe 2009.

Bryan Meltz Website
Engeye Health Clinic

DANA ROMANOFF: The Women of Oaxaca

Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved
Click images to enlarge

Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved

Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved

Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved

+ + +

Here it's purely women, there are no men...

Emigration is dividing families and changing social structures in rural Mexico. As the men seek work in the United States, they leave behind the women, children and elderly. Women are doing the jobs of men and acting as both mother and father to sons and daughters. Due to riskier and more costly border crossings, the men stay in the North...some never return home. Emigration is empowering women to step out of their traditional role. Women are now in charge of families, finances, and acting as sole breadwinners for households. Machismo is giving way to a more matriarchal structure the women call pura mujer, purely women.

NO MAN'S LAND: THE WOMEN OF MEXICO is told through the stories and voices of Mexican women. This project was produced with the support of National Geographic Magazine.

DANA ROMANOFF is an award winning photojournalist selected as one of 100 photographers invited to participate in Review Santa Fe 2009. Dana Romanoff website.

SARAH WILSON: Blind Prom

Patsy
From the series Blind Prom
Prom Night at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 2008
Photograph (c) Sarah Wilson/All rights reserved.

Chasity and Michael
From the series Blind Prom
Prom Night at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 2008
Photograph (c) Sarah Wilson/All rights reserved.

Last Dance
From the series Blind Prom

Prom Night at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 2008
Photograph (c) Sarah Wilson/All rights reserved.

"People have asked me why I am photographing blind teenagers if they are never going to see the images. I have to remind them that these pictures will be shared with parents and friends – and the students certainly appreciated having somebody there to document how great they looked in their tuxes and tiaras"

+ + +

SARAH WILSON was introduced to the blind community in 2005 when she began working as a still photographer and field producer on the PBS-funded film, The Eyes of Me, a documentary about four students attending the Texas School for the Blind in Austin, Texas. Springing from her immersion into this film's new company, Wilson's own series, "Blind Prom," focuses on an American right of passage, the high school prom. Throughout the night she captures candid moments of the prom attendees, while producing their formal portraits. These rich, full-color images express the joy and spirit of, the thrill and intensity for a group of marginalized teens participating in the universal experience of attending a formal prom.

Wilson received her degree in photography from New York University. She was awarded the 2008 PhotoNOLA Review Prize from The New Orleans Photo Alliance for "Blind Prom." Her personal projects include the well known work, "Jasper, Texas: The Road To Redemption", documenting in black and white the aftermath of the brutal dragging death of James Byrd Jr., a shocking hate crime that drew international attention. After a decade in New York City, Wilson now lives back in Austin, Texas.

Sarah Wilson's Upcoming Exhibition
May 28 - July 31, 2009 Foley Gallery 547 W 27th St, New York, NY 10001

Sarah Wilson website
Texas Monthly
An Interview