All Photos © George Georgiou. Above: Seafront, Mersin, Turkey, 2007.
In his travels throughout Turkey in recent years, photographer George Georgiou has documented “the process of modernization, urbanization, and national identity that is happening in Turkey against a rising tide of nationalism and religion.” His compositions capture a country at a crossroads, caught between old and new, Europe and Asia, tradition and modernization. His series “Fault Lines” is currently being shown as part of the exhibition “New Photography 2011” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Also featured in the exhibition are Moyra Davey, Deana Lawson, Doug Rickard, Viviane Sassen and Zhang Dali.

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© 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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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.

All photos © Matt Lutton

Matt Lutton has been living and working in the Balkans since early 2009. His project “Only Unity” is an exploration of Serbia’s relationship with its history and a psychological portrait of the Serbian people adjusting to a radically changed landscape with physically contracting borders. Lutton is in the process of documenting a more complete picture of contemporary Serbia and the progress it is making towards healing itself.

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© Maite Hernandez. Pamplona, Fiestas de San Fermin 2011. July 14,2011.
Pamplona’s San Fermin festival is famous to outsiders for the running of the bulls through the city streets, but to locals it is a nine-day celebration of age-old magic where everything is real–and everything is possible. This image shows an old lady  dressing a “kiliki” on the last day of the festival, before he says good-bye to the children until next year. Each day the kiliki run after the kids trying to beat them with their coshes in a never ending game. Some children love them while others feel scared, but all of them cry when they say good- bye until next year.

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