© Stefano Miliffi

Stefano Miliffi’s project examines an old tradition of healers active in Garfagnana, a mountainous area in the Italian province of Lucca. “Segnatori” (healers) are said to have the power to treat warts, shingles, and evil eye using religious icons and herbs. Miliffi says, “They do not ask for money in return and do not accept any kind of gift. It is an old tradition that is handed down from father to son at midnight on Christmas eve.” Unfortunately, he adds, the tradition is disappearing, and few segnatori remain.

Above: Elena, who is 75 years old, is a self-taught healer.  Depending on the season, she uses knot-grass, salt and oil to treat evil eye.

(more…)

© Jean-Marc Caimi/Redux

Jean-Marc Caimi, a photojournalist based in Rome,  traveled to Libya recently to shoot personal work about the aftermath of the revolution. Here is a look at part of what he captured during the month he spent traveling around the country. “We made the revolution, now is time to change people’s mind” is the slogan that Caimi heard echoing throughout the country, mostly by those who are trying to affect positive change during this critical period of transition. Caimi explains, “The air you breath is thick and tense. There’s fear, suspicion, mistrust. The dictator might be dead, but Gaddafi’s imprint is still there, strong and oppressive. Tripoli looks like an abandoned city, with garbage and rubble at every corner. The Medina lies in dreadful condition due to the negligence of 42 years of the regime.

People who appreciate the new situation seem to be the middle aged or elderly, who have been hoping for a change for years. The young are unsatisfied and angry. They are the target of the extremists who use religion to get a hold of them. Many are incapable of seeing a future. They enroll in the militias that are patrolling the streets, just to have a uniform and gun.

There’s drug and alcohol smuggling in the alleyways, just around every corner. HIV is spreading. There are weapons – everybody holds a gun, at least a knife, and is ready to use it. Almost every woman wears hijab, at least to avoid any problems from men. There might be more intellectual freedom and Libya is an oil rich country, but very few are in the position to take advantage of those factors. Life in the street is hard, dusty, and dangerous. The stranglehold of ignorance and extremism hangs gloomily over the country. Libya’s most difficult challenge has not passed. It is here and now.” (more…)

© José Picayo. Above: Magnolia kobus

José Picayo photographed these trees with his his 8” x 10” Deardorff camera, and his 8” x 10” Polaroid film at the Rutgers University Gardens, a 50-acre utopia of trees just off of U.S. Route 1 in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The stately trees pulled him Picayo in, tempting him to explore, discover and create. Over six months, he spent much of his time just sitting in the gardens observing. One giant magnolia tree in particular drew him in, so grand and immense he describes it as “a big mushroom” when viewed from the outside. A single branch twisting upward, or a system of roots gnarled around one another became the focal point of José’s obsession.

“When you walk inside, under the lush canopy, it’s just branches coming out at you. What I loved were the two very different views: beautiful shapes and an intricate root system.”

Picayo’s images will be on display in a solo exhibition at the Robin Rice gallery. The show opens tonight and runs through October 28, 2012.

-courtesy of Robin Rice gallery

(more…)

© Caleb Cain Marcus. Above: “Perito Moreno, Plate I, Patagonia, 2010.”

Caleb Cain Marcus’s new book, A Portrait of Ice, depicts the glaciers of Patagonia, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand and Alaska. It is accompanied with essays by curator and critic Marvin Heiferman and Robin Bell, a senior researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

While on a trip to Patagonia, Marcus began to think about the role of a horizon. “As the boat that crossed Lake Argentino swayed back and forth, I thought about the oppression created by the lack of a horizon in an urban environment and what would happen if there was no visible horizon in the open space. What would happen if it vanished?,” he asks. To create a successful photograph he believes, “The preconceived line between the artist’s vision and what the subject resonates blurs until the influence from artist and subject can no longer be distinguished.” - courtesy of Caleb Cain Marcus.

(more…)

© Harold Feninstein

After a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011 which raised over $40,000, Jason Landry at Panopticon Gallery teamed up with Nazraeli Press to publish Harold Feinstein | A Retrospective, Feinstein’s first-ever monograph of his classic black-and-white photographs.  As Landry states, “Harold (who is now 81) would say to me, I’ve been waiting for a book of this work since I was 15 years old.  When he said it, I knew he meant it, and I had to figure out a way to deliver it.”

Feinstein was born in Coney Island in 1931, and would often say that he fell out of his mother’s womb onto the beach on Coney Island with a Nathan’s Hot Dog in his hand and the sounds of kids screaming on The Cyclone in his ears.

He began his career in photography in 1946 at the age of 15 and within four years, Edward Steichen had purchased his work for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Feinstein joined the Photo League at 17 and became a prominent figure in the vanguard of New York City’s street photography scene, exhibiting his work at Helen Gee’s Limelight Gallery.

Over the years, Feinstein taught classes and workshops, telling his students, “When your mouth drops open…click the shutter.”

—Courtesy Panopticon Gallery
(more…)