Today marks one year since anti-government protesters who had gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and the journalists covering the demonstrations, were overrun by mobs loyal to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The two sides battled with rocks, curb stones and Molotov cocktails, and gunfire could be heard around the Square. As Ron Haviv and other photographers reported to PDN from Cairo at the time, pro-Mubarak demonstrators turned on the press, assaulting several and taking or smashing photojournalists’ cameras.

Ron Haviv’s coverage of the Tahrir Square demonstrations was honored in the Photojournalism/Sports/Documentary category of the 2011 PDN Photo Annual. The extended deadline for PDN’s 2012 Photo Annual is February 17, 2012.

To view more contest entries or submit to the 2012 Photo Annual, visit www.pdnphotoannual.com.

Related articles:

Photographers Beaten, Robbed as Pro-Mubarak Gangs Turn on Press (Update)

Photographer is First Media Fatality in Egypt: Situation Remains Dangerous

From Egypt, Photographers Persisted in Filing Stories

David Rochkind’s series, “Heavy Hand, Sunken Spirit” is about the social costs and consequences of Mexico’s violent drug war. In the four years since President Felipe Calderon’s inauguration, over 35,000 people have been killed and kidnappings have skyrocketed. The cartels are ruthless, leaving the gruesome nature of their crimes visible to everyone.

Rochkind explains how Mexico is a country in crisis: “The government is battling the drug cartels, the drug cartels are battling each other and there is a palpable fear across the nation. Corruption exists throughout the state and complaints of human rights abuses by the army are widespread. The line between criminals and the authorities is so blurred that the average citizen fears everyone. These photographs attempt to move beyond simple depictions of carnage to explore the stress and tension that is left in the wake of such violence and illustrate how this conflict will impact and handicap Mexico’s future.” Rochkind’s exhibition, “Heavy Hand, Sunken Spirit,” opens at Blue Sky gallery in Portland, Oregon, on February 2, 2012.

Above: This stretch of the border divides Nogales, Arizona, at left and Nogales, Sonora, at right. There has been little violent spillover into the U.S., though recently U.S. citizens have been killed with more frequency in Mexico. In March of 2010, two U.S. Consulate workers were gunned down in Ciudad Juarez. –Courtesy of Blue Sky Gallery

“Community,” February 2007. A young girl walks by a caravan of police vehicles during a security sweep looking for criminals and drug dealers. Law enforcement officials along the border say that increased border security has resulted in more drugs staying in Mexico, which has elevated crime and created a variety of social problems. The consequences of this conflict are felt, and exhibited, throughout the daily lives of many communities in Mexico.

“Security Sweep,” March 2009. Ciudad Juraez is at the center of Mexico’s violence, with more than 5,000 drug-related murders over the past two years. President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to the city to try to stem the violence, though after a short decrease in murders, the violence blossomed once again. Here, soldiers search young men for drugs, weapons or signs of drug use in downtown Ciudad Juarez.

“Dia de Los Muertos”

"Girl reading comic book in newsstand" by Teenie Harris (c. 1940-1945) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

For over 40 years Charles “Teenie” Harris documented life in and around Pittsburgh’s Hill District for the influential black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier. Affectionately called “One Shot” due to the brisk manner in which he photographed his subjects, Harris spent as much time shooting the everyday people of the neighborhood as he did the famous people who visited it. With close to 80,000 negatives in his archive, he is said to have best captured the urban African-American experience during the 20th century.

The Carnegie Museum of Art acquired Harris’s archive in 2001 and set out preserving, cataloguing and digitizing the images. The museum is currently exhibiting the first major retrospective of his work, “Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story.” The exhibit includes a life-size projection of close to 1,000 of Harris’s images set to an original jazz score; a chronological display featuring small prints of those same images; and a mini-exhibit of 12 16 x 20-inch prints selected by various experts. The exhibit will stay in Pittsburgh through April 7 and then move on to the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.

"Duke Ellington at piano, with dancer Honey Coles and Billy Strayhorn looking on, in the Stanley Theatre" by Teenie Harris (c. 1942-1943) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Woman outside Kay’s Valet Shoppe" by Teenie Harris (c. 1938–1945) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Soldiers from the 372nd Infantry marching in parade, Fifth Avenue, Downtown" by Teenie Harris (c. July 1942) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Three men and a woman at a restaurant counter" by Teenie Harris (c. 1948–1960) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Protesters with UNPC signs outside United Mine Safety Appliance Company, Braddock Avenue, Homewood" by Teenie Harris (c. October 1963) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Lena Horne reflected in mirror in dressing room at Stanley Theatre" by Teenie Harris (c. 1944) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Roland M. Sawyer and Aileen Eckstein Sawyer posed on their wedding day on steps of The Thimble Shop, 5913 Bryant Street, Highland Park" by Teenie Harris (c. August 1938) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art

The reception will feature a film screening and slide-show with a discussion moderated by Erika and Sarah Leen, senior photo editor at National Geographic Magazine. The exhibit will run until March 13th. To see a more intimate glimpse of Larsen’s project, watch this short video.

-courtesy Redux.

Despite being home to the world’s largest breakwater, the port city of Kamaishi, Japan, was partially destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami last March 11. This former capital of Samurai steel production was bombarded by the US navy during WWII, and has survived several tsunamis in the past.  Now, the surviving residents are attempting to pick up the pieces, and start life again.  Yumi Goto, a curator, discovered Giulio Di Sturco’s images of the city when he contributed to the  “3/11 Tsunami Photo Project,” an iPad/iPhone photography book app that Goto edited. “When he attempted to photograph certain areas, he was told that there was no need as there was nothing newsworthy to be found,” Goto says. “Believing that he would find people stranded there, he ignored the advice [and] reached places beyond where other photographers stopped. The enormous challenges that he faced are apparent in the photographs.” Giulio Di Sturco’s Tsunami project will be on view in the exhibition, “11-3″  at Galleria Openmind in Milano, Italy, from Nov. 24 – Jan. 20, 2012.

Kenji Sano, 80 years old, owner of a Liquor shop in Kamaishi, completely destroiedbyt the tsumnami.

Above: Tokiland. Turkey is undergoing a huge modernization project to house the mass migration from the village to the city that is taking place throughout the whole country.  TOKI, the state owned housing development agency, has led this push. Almost always, the architecture and infrastructure are from the same blueprint. Cities are beginning to become carbon copies of each other.  Some worry that the sense of community which is so strong in Turkish culture will break down, bringing with it a number of social problems that are all too familiar in similar developments in Europe.

“New Photography” is on view at MoMA through January 16, 2012.

Hakkari.

Yenikoy.

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.

© Tako Robakidze.

© Anka Gujabidze

© Mariam Amurvelashvili

© Irina Popova

© Elene Damenia

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.