All Images © 2013 Ziyah Gafić

Bosnian photojournalist, Ziyah Gafić’s project, “Quest for Identity,” contains thousands of photographs of personal belongings and artifacts unearthed from mass graves in the aftermath of the Bosnian War. These items are the remains of their identity, regardless of their simplicity. Gafić’s aim is to create a searchable online database which will not only aid in the ongoing trials of war crimes, but also as a tool for visual identification of the missing 30,000 Bosnians. The accompanying book, “Quest for Identity” (de.Mo Design Limited), will be available in August 2013. PDN began following this project in 2011. Click here for more.

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“#5060,” 2006-2009. © Mike Brodie: from A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, Courtesy M+B Gallery, Los Angeles.

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” ―Jack Kerouac, On the Road

There’s an excitement and allure to hitting the road with no destination in sight and no route in mind. This is part of the appeal of Mike Brodie‘s recent work. Captured during a three-year period when, as a teenager, he hitchhiked, rode freight trains and lived off the grid with a group of fellow travelers, Brodie’s images have a movement and restlessness to them that celebrates the freedom of the itinerant life. This is the modern-day equivalent of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel On the Road. But just as Kerouac and his Beat Generation peers had their share of despair, Brodie’s photos show that life on the road is not for the faint of heart. His subjects are soot-covered, sleeping on the side of the tracks and surviving on the food others have thrown away. Yet they ride on, ever curious about what the next spot on the map can bring.

“Mike Brodie: A Period of Juvenile Prosperity” opens at M+B gallery in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 16, with a book signing by the artist, whose first monograph, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, was published earlier this month by Twin Palms. A concurrent exhibition is also running in New York City at Yossi Milo Gallery.

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All images © Trevor Traynor

“Throughout my travels and transit time to and from shoots I started using the iPhone camera to scout locations and collect inspirational content for potential projects. I shot my first newsstand near Broadway and Morris Stretts in New York City and immediately found myself stopping to take portraits at every stand I passed. I’m drawn to the vibrant organized colors and compact product placement that provides an instant time stamp via magazine covers and headlines. The New York City newsstand is a staple in the Big Apple and its perfect square structure is an immediate attraction to the composition fanatic in me. The iPhone has a great dynamic range and its unobtrusive ability lets me shoot with a lot more ease. Paired with editing apps such as Snapseed & PicFx, the end-product emulates the qualities of my favored Hasselblad. I revisited a handful of newsstands with different cameras, and although each camera delivers its own advantage, the iPhone is my current first choice. This project is ongoing and recently I was able to expand the collection to kiosks in Barcelona and Paris.” –Courtesy of Trevor Traynor

To see more of the “NewsStand Project,” visit Traynor’s Instagram feed @ishootpeople or #NewstandprojectbyTrevorTraynor.

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La Brasserie de l’Ile St. Louis, Paris, 1994. © Peter Turnley-Corbis. All rights reserved.

Photojournalist Peter Turnley, whose images have appeared on the cover of Newsweek 43 times and who is best known for his career covering conflict, also has a softer side. He has been documenting life in his “adopted home” of Paris since 1975–making images that explore love in the City of Lights. He explains that if “there were any justification for trying to bring greater attention to those suffering from oppression [and various forms of injustices],” it would be to also show that “life is beautiful.”  In the 1980s he assisted Robert Doisneau, the French photojournalist and creator of the famous “Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville (The Kiss)“ photograph and says he is “proud to continue to underline the ongoing universal theme of beauty and romance and love” in his work. He is currently working on compiling his “French Kiss” series of nearly 40 years of work into a book with the same title.

To read more about his week-long street photography workshops, visit this link. For updates on his work, visit his Facebook page.

–Lindsay Comstock

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All images © William Anthony

“While on assignment for Portland Monthly magazine at the Oregon Historical Society’s storage ‘vault,’ I came across their stored archive of vintage mannequins, spanning decades, from the now-defunct department store Meier & Frank. And while we did not photograph these for the feature, I couldn’t get them out of my mind. So, a few weeks later I asked my contact at the historical society if I could return to photograph a selection of them. But instead of lighting them like artifacts, I chose to light them as portraits.

The results were uncanny. I was careful to not remove any visible signs that these are inanimate objects (Velcro, seams, etc.). My point isn’t to confuse or obfuscate, but instead to reflect on what it is that makes humans animate. Some of these are so lifelike, but at the same time there is something indescribable that betrays their insentience.” –Courtesy of William Anthony

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