© Ziyah Gafic

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the conflict in Bosnia that eventually became the worst genocide Europe since World War II. While journalists who covered the conflict and historians are now reexamining the bloody conflict and its lessons, the events of 20 years ago are not yet relegated to history. “How could they be, when there hasn’t been catharsis or absolution?” says Ziyah Gafic, a Bosnian photographer.

Gafic, who was 12 years old when Serbs attacked Bosnia in a grab for power in the former Soviet satellite, has been working with the International Commission on Missing Persons to photograph the eyeglasses, snapshots, keys and other personal belongings of victims of ethnic cleansing. The items have been collected from mass graves and are being used as tools to identify some of the 30,000 missing Bosnians. Gafic’s goal is not only to help reunite these objects with the victims’ families, but to document and remember the genocide.

“We so desperately hoped lessons learned in Bosnia will help prevent or solve faster other conflicts, but how foolish was that?” Gafic says. “Just looking at Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Libya, makes ‘never again’ quite a cynical statement.”

Related Article: Ziyah Gafic: A Forensic Documentary of Genocide

© Tetsugo Hyakutake. Courtesy of Philadelphia Photo Arts Center.

This month marks the one-year anniversary of the undersea earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Northern Japan. In observance of the tragedy, the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC) is exhibiting “Silent Existence” by the fine-art photographer Tetsugo Hyakutake. Through his images, Hyakutake has said that he wishes to explore “contemporary issues in relation to their historical contexts.” For “Silent Existence,” the contemporary and historical meld into one, as the images show the destruction caused by the tsunami soon after it occurred. The resulting photos have a quiet sadness to them, featuring the things the wave left behind.

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All photos © Rob Tringali

Rob Tringali is a freelance photographer who has specialized in sports for over 20 years. He photographed the last 22 Super Bowls, 14 World Series and numerous Olympic games as well as major golf and tennis championships, and World Cup soccer. Tringali’s clients often hire him to not only get the winning shot, but also capture the spirit of the moment through a unique perspective.

Tringali says, “I love shooting sports for a variety of reasons: I appreciate the competition and what an athlete or team has to endure to become the best, how they push themselves to limits most people couldn’t grasp. Capturing the essence of sport from such a close proximity never gets old. I’ve escaped near misses on NFL sidelines, have had hockey pucks and baseballs whiz by my head at ridiculous speeds, climbed with bulky, heavy lenses up snowy mountains—all experiences I would never trade.”

Above: Cameron Maybin #24 of the San Diego Padres poses during their photo day at the Padres Spring Training Complex on February 23, 2011 in Peoria, Arizona.

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All photos © Ben Roberts. Tent Interiors from the Occupy LSX camp, St. Paul’s Square, London.

British photographer, Ben Roberts’s latest series “Occupied Spaces” shows an intimate look at the private spaces of occupiers at the protest camp outside of St Paul’s Cathedral in central London. The project began in response to stories Roberts heard in the mainstream media claiming that “thermal imaging” proved only 10 percent of the 250 tents in St. Paul’s Square were being inhabited overnight. Skeptical of these claims, Roberts set out to record the daily life of an occupier without, as he says, “resorting to the standard photographic language of ‘protest photography.’ The traces of activity and inhabitance in these photographs serve as a document of the intense utilisation of a limited space by a large number of both permanent and temporary residents.” Roberts’s series was recently featured on the BBC. (more…)

All photos © Jake Price

The six-month anniversary of the March 11 tsunami that struck northeastern Japan came and went with little attention in the Western press. But New York-based photographer Jake Price, who has spent a total of ten weeks in Tōhoku since March, believes the environmental devastation the disaster wrought will be a story for a long time to come. While the media has focused on nuclear contamination, he says, “Walking past overturned boats, cars, trucks, I realized that their oil, gas and other chemicals emptied into the soil and groundwater.” He photographed mounds made from the bulldozed debris of entire towns, which contain insulation, fiberglas and chemical contaminants.

The salt water and oil that washed into farms has made the land unusable for five years or more. ”Many elderly farmers will never see growth on their land again. Still they work diligently to hand it off to future generations, an issue that is filled with uncertainty because so many young people have left for the big cities.”

Price shot many still images, video and audio in the region, and the BBC showed some of his images in an audio slide show.

Of the limited press attention paid to the crisis, Price notes, “I think the perception … is that the Japanese have everything figured out because it is such an orderly society.  But that is simplistic at best.  People are still coping with enormous stress and loneliness after losing everything.”

Though assignments to cover the story are rare, Price is planning to return to the region soon. “The more I get to know about Tōhoku the more interested I become.” He wants to donate his images to libraries and community centers to help the region begin restoring the visual record lost in the tsunami.