The Cowboys Of Pantanal

Fernanda Preto is a Brazilian photojournalist currently based in Sao Paulo, and after living in the Amazon area for three years, has worked in environment and social reportages.  Her short film is about the Cowboys of Pantanal, which she produced using a Canon 5D Mark II. Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland in the world and is considered as one of the last natural wilderness areas in the world. The cowboys working in the area have survived for more than 100 years, doing the same task as the fathers and forefathers did, drive cattle to the highlands before the floods.

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.

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. 

Haiti Before 1.12.10

Over the past few months we've been saturated with images of Haiti after the Big One.  Check out Jeff Antebi's Haiti gallery of pre quake images to gain retrospective.

Sin And Salvation In The Mississippi Delta

Matt Eich is a photographer based in Norfolk, Virginia and a Founding Member of LUCEO Images.  Matt has started a new project documenting life in Baptist Town, Mississippi and provides the following introduction:

My goal with this project is to remind people that while we may live in a time where civil rights is taught in history classes around the country, the real legacies of racism in the south continue to impact people economically and culturally, in persistent and often pernicious ways. I want to directly focus our collective attention on this complicated inheritance, focusing on the Mississippi Delta and Baptist Town in particular by bringing an exhibition of the work created to both its residents and the more affluent white communities on the other side of the tracks.

Part 1 and Part 2 of the photo essay are available for viewing now.

Phoenix: Afghanistan 1994-2010

Seamus Murphy returned to Afghanistan in June 2010 and photographed some of the places he had on previous trips beginning in 1994. After billions of dollars spent and so many years of violence and war it is surprising how little has changed.

Zeru Zeru: Being Albino In Tanzania

Around Lake Victoria, Tanzania, evil acts are driven by the belief that albino body parts possess magical powers, which bring wealth if used in potions produced by local witchdoctors. Most clients are rich businessmen, impatient to extract more gold from their mines, or politicians, eager to be elected into office. Since 2007, official reports indicate that over 54 people with albinism have been brutally murdered; their body parts hacked off and sold for large amounts of money: $2,000 for a leg or an arm, and $10,000 for a whole albino body.

View the rest of Franck Vogel's photo essay here.

Haiti Now And Everyday

Bruce Gilden's no newcomer to Haiti.  He'd made no fewer than 19 trips to the distressed Caribbean nation between 1984 and 1995, and he felt compelled to return following the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010.  Although the Haitian capital of Port au Prince brought up familiar memories, Gilden found its architecture destroyed and its population wounded, distressed and displaced.  Yet, everywhere in the midst of destruction, among those who lost a limb, those who set up beds in the streets or in their cars at night, or those who built neat and colorful makeshift shacks from any kind of salvaged material, the Haitian people's ineffable spirit proves indestructible.

You can access Bruce's compelling slideshow here.