All photos ©  Quang-Tuan Luong

Quang-Tuan Luong’s new book,  Spectacular Yosemite, is a journey through one of the country’s most scenic national parks.  The San Jose, CA based photographer has explored Yosemite with his large format camera over the course of the last five years, capturing the park’s geology, ecology, and natural splendor.  His book was recently published by Universe a division of Rizzoli. To see more of Luong’s work click here.

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All Photos © Pieter Ten Hoopen. Above: Earthquake in Pakistan, Balakot.

Pieter Ten Hoopen left for Sweden in 1999 and studied photojournalism at the Nordens Fotoskola. He then worked as a photojournalist for four years and became represented by the Moment agency (Sweden). He has been published in major Swedish newspapers and international magazines and has also taught photojournalism at various Scandinavian schools. He received the “Memorial Mario Giacomelli” Prize in 2008 and also received the First Prize for a story in the daily life category of the World Press Photo. In 2009, he won the Award of Excellence in the portrait series category of the POY. In 2010, he won two World Press Photo Awards in the portraits and daily life categories for his series on Hungry Horse, Montana.  Featured here is a gallery of images from a variety of Pieter’s projects. To see more of his work click here. Read more about Ten Hoopen’s process on digging into stories deeply, here.
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All photos © Luis Fabini. Above: 2010 Vaqueiros / Brazil. The vaqueiros wear the handmade uniform of protective leather clothing necessary for roping cows amidst lethal thorns throughout the bush caatinga.

“Horsemen of the Americas”, is a personal study of a breed of man whose culture and relationship to its natural habitat has continued to adapt and evolve over 400 years. These working horsemen, though seldom recognized, have been a pillar of the economy and the history of the Americas since the time of the Conquest. In the United States and Canada these horsemen are called cowboys, in Mexico they are known as charros, in Ecuador as chagras, in Colombia and Venezuela as llaneros, in Peru as chalanes and qorilazos, in Chile they are called the huasos, Brazil has its pantaneiros and vaqueiros, and  Uruguay and Argentina’s the gauchos.

“Man and horse is the most formidable partnership ever forged between two living beings. Through an intrinsic bond with the land, a philosophy of masculinity, freedom and courage, these magnificent centaurs invented a new way of life, and continue today, though their number has dwindled. A way of life is surely disappearing: their traditions, their languages, and their particular legacy is being lost forever”, Fabini says.  Fabini started working on this project in 2004, and has spent an average of eight months a year on the road since then. He will be looking for a book publisher and exhibition opportunity over the next year as he concludes the 8 year project. To see more of  Luis Fabini’s work click here.
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© Larry Louie

Fog enshrouds the abandoned Tripureshwar Mahadev Mandir Temple, a cultural heritage site in Nepal. It was built as a traditional Newari temple by Queen Lalita Tripura Sundari in 1818. Located in Kathmandu, there has been talk of restoring this veiled temple. Larry Louie‘s image is included in the World in Focus 2011 online gallery.

All Photos © Scott Conarroe. Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur CA, 2010

On March 3 an exhibition of Scott Conarroe‘s “Shore” project, a series of landscape images exploring the coasts of North America, will open at Toronto’s Stephen Bulger Gallery and run through April 2. Notes Stephen Bulger Gallery, “Canada has the most expansive coastline on Earth; its boundary with the United States is the world’s longest non-militarized boarder. Together these two nations form a vast geo-cultural bloc that extends from polar extremes to the tropics, from sparse hinterlands to modern metropolises. [Conarroe's work] presents a study of North America on the cusp of a new climatic era. Cataclysmic weather and global social upheaval are anticipated, but for the time being they are seen as problems for others elsewhere. Conarroe’s photographs present the fading innocence of this idyll and a visual reference of the current state of the continent’s shorelines.” Conarroe has also traveled extensively in North America documenting the continent’s railway infrastructure. That series, “By Rail,” can be seen on his Web site, here.

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