All photos © Abby Robinson.

Abby Robinson’s ongoing series, In Camera, is a look into the old photo studios throughout Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Vietnam “where the past, the present, the traditional and the contemporary collide and where painted backgrounds and props give clues into notions of class, taste and aspiration.” So many of these painted backdrops and props are being replaced by digital post-production techniques, but the details of Robinson’s colorful panoramas remind us of the culturally rich creative process of in-camera studio photography.

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© Julia Margaret Cameron/Courtesy Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs

A rare exhibition of more than 20 albumen prints made from 1864 to 1874 by 19th century British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron is on view at Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs, New York, through December 2. Most of the photographs were gifts from the artist to her niece, Adeline Maria Jackson; they have remained in the family ever since and have never been exhibited.

Cameron famously began her career in photography at the age of 48 when she received a camera as a gift from her daughter. Moving in the highest circles of Victorian society, Cameron counted artists, writers and scientists among her close friends. Her famous portrait subjects included the astronomer Sir John Herschel, the naturalist Charles Darwin, the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle and the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She created the majority of her work at her home in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. Among the highlights of the exhibition is a carbon print of “A Beautiful Vision, Julia Duckworth, 1872″.  Duckworth, Cameron’s niece and goddaughter, was a frequent sitter and provided inspiration for her aunt’s photographs. She later became the mother of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf.

Writing about Cameron in his essay for the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, photo historian Larry J. Schaaf observes, “Her photographs have always been show-stoppers in any exhibition. Big, bold, and penetrating, they are at the same time incredibly natural, indeed, comfortable to behold.”

© Tako Robakidze.
The Laughter and Forgetting (L.A.F.) Project – a non-profit working to bring together photographers of post-totalitarian states – is pleased to announce the opening of a new photo exhibition: The Internally Displaced of Georgia. This exhibition is a unique chance to see the lives and struggles of the Georgian Internally Displaced Peoples, who were forced to leave their homes during the Abkhazian, Samachablo, and South Ossetian conflicts, which plagued Georgia through the 90’s and resurfaced in 2008. These photographers have captured the everyday lives of people who lost their homes, but have not lost hope or faith.

The exhibit is currently installed in Prague, Czech Republic until February 7, 2012 at Anglo American University’s [art]SPACE. The event is sponsored by Anglo American University (AAU) and is organized in partnership with Forum 2000 Human Rights Conference, the Georgian Embassy and NAPA Gallery.The exhibit opens in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro at the Gatewood Gallery from November 17th – 29th, 2011. The Opening Reception is on Monday, November 21, 2011.

Lastly, the exhibit is scheduled from December 6 – 19th, 2011 in Tbilisi, Georgia at Gallery “9″ in collaboration with the Tbilisi International Film Festival.

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© Renato D’Agostin.

The Beautiful Cliché – Venezia, is the fourth publication of photographer Renato D’Agostin. D’Agostin’s work in the darkroom brings these sliver gelatin prints to life. His eye is drawn to a hidden angle of beauty that many people over look – showing his audience something they haven’t seen in the most beautiful city in the world.

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© Arthur Bondar

Photographer Arthur Bondar has been making portraits of Ukrainian World War II veterans. He explains, “I’ve made this project during the last two years. I shoot with a classic instant camera–a Polaroid 600 Close Up–and old Polaroid 600 film. The main impetus for this story was when my grandmother, a veteran of World War II, died. Then I realized how many things I wanted to ask her. But I had a second chance because my other grandmother and her sister are veterans also. I decided to use Polaroid film because all these people will disappear like Polaroid film will fade, and all that we’ll have after they are gone are their signatures and letters. I found these people throughout Ukraine, during celebrations of Victory Day (9th of May) and other holidays, in the street, at bus and train stations, everywhere. Some subjects were unable to venture out, so I visited them at their houses in small villages and talked with them. They were so happy because nobody is interested in their life nowadays.”  Bondar’s project was included in the 2010 Magnum Expression Awards short-list and selected as the First Prize for Pikto’s Top Pick Competition in Canada.

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