Bali: The Trilogy

The new book by the Travel Photographer, Tewifc El-Sawy can be purchased here.

The Disappeared In Nepal

Amnesty International has launched a new multi-media piece for the International Day of the Disappeared (30 August) that looks at impunity for conflict related abuses in Nepal.  Working with Purnimaya Lama (whose husband was abducted and killed by members of the Communist Party of Nepal), and local photographer Nayan Tara Gurung Kakshapati, the piece tells a story of what it is like to be left behind, uncertain of what the future holds.

Reuters Full Focus - Best Of The Year

Reuters photographers produce over half a million images every year. Some pictures define an event, others capture a moment revealing an aspect of the human condition. In the Best of the Year series, Reuters photographers offer unique insight into some of their most memorable images over the past twelve months.  Image below by Adrees Latif.

Nothing To Hold On To

GMB Akash began riding the rails with his camera in 2006. He wanted to draw attention to the danger the stowaways expose themselves to - gruesome accidents are routine for free riders. 

Pujab

The Punjab provides both a symbolic and practical access point for both India and Pakistan to heal their troubled relationship through the everyday experiences and interests of a people--to find common ground.  View more of Ed Kashi's photo essay from VII here.

Hungry In America: A Little Goes A Long Way

On this Thanksgiving day, more than 6 million Americans who are 60 and older won't have enough to eat. Photojournalist Christopher Anderson and audio journalist Jonathan Miller accompanied Nancy Hueske on her rounds to meet people struggling to put food on the table. Their powerful multimedia presentation, "A Little Goes a Long Way," is the first of four parts in a Hungry in America series produced by Magnum in Motion that AARP.org will roll out in the next several months.

Disability In India

In January 2006, Mimi Mollica was sent on assignment to India from the NGO Leonard Cheshire International, to photograph the activities they bring forward to help people with disability in the poorest areas of the country.  This set of pictures cuts across the different areas that I visited, from the Academy for Blind in Bangalore, to the tsunami affected areas in the south east of India and from the coffee plantations in Coorg, up north to the slums of Dehra Dun, city famous for its schools and the near-by Himalaya chain.

Somalia: City Of Displaced

As people continue to flee the Somali capital of Mogadishu, a new city is growing to the west.

Interview With Alixandra Fazzina

British photo-journalist Alixandra Fazzina has distinguished herself as one of the leading humanitarian reporters of our generation. For over a decade she has tirelessly rooted out stories and documented the plight of the uprooted through distinctive and moving photo reportages, with the sole aim of raising awareness of those forced to flee their homes because of conflict, violence and misery.

Natabar Sarangi - The Source

Natabar continues to find, save and share his indigenous rice seed with local farmers. To date he has managed to re-introduce over 350 varieties.  But it’s not just about the indigenous rice seed of India or about the survival of a sustainable agriculture system with the knowledge of over ten thousand years. It's about a global phenomenon taking place where a non-sustainable system systematically destroys a sustainable one, where short term profit has the power to overwhelm common sense and the consciousness of many millions, where progress is not progress but the wanton destruction of an eco-system and environment we will never be able to replace.

Natabar Sarangi is just one of a growing number of farmers throughout the world who realise that if we do not begin to repair the damage taking place to our agricultural systems and our environment, we will lose not just our cultural identity but our fundamental right to a truly sustainable system of food security.

Haiti Cholera Outbreak

Haiti, a country still recovering from the devastating earthquake of January 2010, is now dealing with a major cholera epidemic that has now reached all of the 10 provinces in the country.  Reportage by Getty Images photographer Walter Estrada is currently in Haiti covering the outbreak.

Wind Of Changer In Havana

A raft of capitalist reforms from Cuban President Raul Castro is creating something new for many of the island nation's citizens...uncertainty.  Read more from the Wall Street Journal's photo essay.

Gali

The Gali region of Abkhazia lies in the South East of the territory on the border with Georgia. It is home to the 40.000 or so Mingrelian Georgians who have managed to return to their homes since the Abkhazian struggle for the independence ended in 1993.  Largely neglected by both sides of the conflict, the people of Gali remain in the state of limbo.

Death to the Death Penalty

Amnesty International France in collaboration with advertising agency TBWA produced two short advertisements to coincide with Amnesty International's Death Penalty Campaign and will be launched on the 4th October 2010.

The Mennonites Of Manitoba

These images by Lisa Wiltse, capture the Mennonites of Manitoba in their everyday lives, now struggling to erase a recent painful past and continue to live their lives separate from the outside world. Lisa futher explains:

I aim to produce photo essays that are intimate yet strong in narrative, and that gives voice to those previously overlooked. The remote colonies seen down dusty roads are off the beaten track, and, once there, difficult to enter and fully understand. I hope to bring a greater understanding and awareness to these communities.

Daughters Of The King

Three months of work, digging into the tradition of such Jewish women, spending time with them in their homes, praying with them, and getting closer to their spiritual beauty, led Frederica Valabrega to understand that there is nothing inferior about being a woman in the Jewish faith.

Greenpeace: Voices Of Change

Over 6 million individuals will be affected by climate change...one of them is you.  Make your voice heard at greenpeace.org/my voice.

Tonya Burch: A Search For Peace

In a rough and violent neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Tonya Burch, 45, walks tirelessly in search of information to lead her to her son's murderer. Deontae Smith, 19, was shot and killed by an unknown shooter at an unsanctioned block party on August 1, 2009. Tonya has distributed and posted thousands of fliers, three billboards, and has offered a reward for information. The harsh neighborhood in which the homicide happened in remains mute, but Ms. Burch continues to press on.

No Woman Should Die Giving Birth: Maternal Mortality In Sierra Leone

This film illustrates the problem women face when giving birth in Sierra Leone. 1 in 8 women die giving birth in Sierra Leone as opposed to 1 in 4000 in developed countries. In a country where over 50% live on less then 1$ a day and a quarter live in extreme poverty, the poorer you are the more likely you are to die giving birth.

Human Rights

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Surviving The Drought

The 2009 drought in Kenya has had a devastating effect on pastoralists. Hundreds of thousands of cattle died and with them a way of life that had provided families a livelihood from the land. This essay was crafted by duckrabbit during a photofilm workshop at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi August, 2010.

America In Color From 1939-1943

These images from the Denver Post, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

IPhoneistan

Working on assignment for an NGO in Kabul this summer, Abbie Trayler-Smith found out what it means to work under the auspices of a security-conscious international organisation in times of conflict and unrest.  She writes:

It was a strange and surreal experience to be whipped around the city without being able to walk the streets or even, as I sometimes do, hang out of the car window to shoot pictures. This would be seen as drawing too much attention to us in a place where kidnap and robbery are considered a real danger.  The city as I glimpsed it through the car windows seemed to be back on its feet, functioning and busy, and I used my iPhone to capture flashes of the street life I was unable to experience. Being unobtrusive, it seemed like the right tool with which to record the view from my confined and constricted perspective. 

Inside An American Militia

Photographer Ty Cacek joins the Ohio Defense Force during a grueling weekend training exercise.

Prostitutes Of God

Former Independent journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about India's temple prostitutes (watch the trailer below).  Devadasi are young girls who are dedicated to a Hindu deity at a young age and support their families as sex workers.

Undesired

India is a diverse country, separated by class and ethnicity. But all women confront the cultural pressure to bear a son. This preference cuts through every social divide, from geography to economy. No woman is exempt.  This preference originates from the belief that men make money while women, because of their expensive dowry costs, are a financial burden. As a result, there is a near constant disregard for the lives of women and girls. From birth until old age, women face a constant threat of violence and too frequently, death.

IDs For India

India hopes to assign each of its 1.2 billion people a unique 12-digit ID number based on digital fingerprints and iris scans, in what many specialists consider the most technologically and logistically complex national identification effort ever attempted.  The sign-up effort is already under way in a handful of districts. In one early registration drive in Nagaram, dozens of people streamed into a government office one recent afternoon to have their fingerprints taken and irises scanned. Sanjit Das/Panos for The Wall Street Journal.

Photos Of Survival In An Emergency Room

Ashley Gilbertson has taken photographs in emergency rooms throughout the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. But what he saw during the week he spent in the Maimonides Medical Center emergency room in Brooklyn shocked him.  View his Photos of Survival.

City Of The Dead

The following video was produced by David Myers, a photographer who lives in Maryland.  The City of the Dead is a four mile long cemetery that extends from the northern to southern part of Cairo and is an area of tombs and mausoleums where people live and works amongst the dead. Its foundation dates back to the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642 AD, and has grown with time until it reached the equivalent of a fully functioning residential suburb of Cairo.

8-28-10

By David Myers.