All images © Michael Patrick O’Leary

“This series of animal portraits came as a result of a benefit I helped out with for the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. They gave me behind-the-scenes access to all of these animals so that I could produce prints for the benefit auction. These animals were amazing to photograph. The lions were particularly striking. Their strength is always very apparent, yet their personalities so different. The male lion roared loud enough that I couldn’t hear the zookeeper standing right next to me. He wasn’t happy about my presence and made sure I knew it with his lingering, harmonic growl. The female was the complete opposite: I was able to kneel inches from her and photograph her indefinitely. So peaceful, just laying there staring into the lens. Animals keep you on your toes. It’s just a dance you have to do with them to try to frame something unique, find that window of light that will silhouette them cleanly.” –Courtesy of Michael Patrick O’Leary

(more…)

All images © Sarah Fretwell

Sarah Fretwell’s photographs may be beautiful to look at, but the truths they reveal are not easy to digest. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one woman (or child) is raped nearly every minute, according to the project statement on her website, The Truth Told. When Fretwell launched the project site in 2011, it was to bring awareness and funding to help prevent these atrocities, a result of the fight for resources in the mineral-rich nation where, according to Fretwell, “rape is used by rebel and military groups as a scare tactic to control and destroy local communities.”  This violence, however, has sadly become a way of life for many. For a period of 50 days Fretwell teamed with humanitarian and writer Amy Ernst, and the human rights group COPERMA, to interview and photograph victims of rape in the North Kivu region of the DRC to promote healing and help the women (and family members of the women) in isolated communities get their stories out into the world. “With no immediate way to protect themselves and a dysfunctional ‘justice system’ survivors are left alone and afraid they will be attacked again,” she explains in her project statement. The image above depicts a 14-year-old young woman, named Kavira, who had to flee her family and village after being raped and ended up at a COPERMA center where she hopes to be able to rebuild her life.

To see more of Fretwell’s work, visit: www.sarahfretwell.com.

– Lindsay Comstock

(more…)

All images © John Schabel, from the book Passengers

The images contained in photographer John Schabel’s recently released book, Passengers, published by Twin Palms, documents the in-between time of airplane travel and the state of mind of the traveler–a mixture of excitement, trust, wonder and reflection.

Schabel describes the series as a meditation on the strangers framed in little windows, waiting to take flight. “Suspended between departure and arrival, we sit 30,000 feet high, sealed in a metal tube, gliding over geography with a low hum,” he says.

The International Center of Photography in New York City will host a book signing event for Passengers on Friday, February 8, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

(more…)

 “54 Park,” People for Progress event, 1984. ©Ricky Flores.

To outsiders, the South Bronx of the 1970s and 1980s was a notorious symbol of urban blight. Its abandoned, burned-out buildings and rubble-strewn lots were widely photographed as a testament to New York City’s social, political and economic failures. But six photographers of Puerto Rican descent–Joe Conzo, Jr, Ricky Flores, Ángel Franco, David Gonzalez, Edwin Pagán and Francisco Molina Reyes II–were documenting the people and communities of the South Bronx from an insider’s perspective. They didn’t shy away from the poverty, crime and violence: Theirs was a more intimate and sympathetic take than that of most outsiders. All moved on to successful careers (and other subjects), but after comparing notes at a chance meeting in 2009 and realizing their early work and careers had overlapped, they formed a collective called Seis del Sur (Six from the South). The Bronx Documentary Center is now mounting an exhibition of their collected work from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that combines street photography, portraiture, crime scene photos and snapshots from the birth of hip hop. The goal is to create a richer story about the South Bronx and to expand the conversation about “where we’ve been and where we’re going,” says Bronx Documentary Center founder Michael Kamber. The exhibition runs through March 8.

(more…)

Honolulu, 1968. © Kenneth Josephson, courtesy Gitterman Gallery.

An exhibition on view at Gitterman Gallery in New York City through March 16 features rarely seen images by Kenneth Josephson. This early work of Josephson’s was influenced by Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan and made while he completed his master’s degree at the Institute of Design in Chicago. The exhibition features two continuous themes that have appeared in Josephson’s work since the 1950s: His exploration of abstraction with light, and his dialogue with nature.

Though much of Josephson’s work deals with conceptual ideas, formal concerns are integral to his vision. His early images have a syncopated rhythm of light which is echoed in much of the work he made in the 1960s. It is in his exploration of the abstraction of light in nature that this rhythm becomes almost meditative. In his later work, nature’s palette becomes more subtle and seemingly infinite.

–courtesy Gitterman Gallery

(more…)