fototazo 90
Justin Fiset
Untitled (#0197), from the series "WLA"
2011
Series Statement: This project grew organically out of regular outings photographing near my home in West Los Angeles and eventually the greater Los Angeles area. I discovered that I was most interested in images that had been made in alleys or similar spaces. As I focused on these places I came to understand that they occupy a unique gap between public and private, deliberate and accidental; that their use or meaning changes in relation to who moves through them; that while they are places in a physical sense they are conceptually non-places, without names, left off of maps, etc. This in-between status, or liminal state is a concept widely found in myth and ritual, referring to moments, rites and places that are simultaneously loaded with potential and neutral. The threshold could either be a moment of transformation or one of stasis, as in purgatory, and gives such spaces a neutrality upon which I find their visual qualities are amplified. WLA is an investigation of the fleeting, lyrical capacity of latent spaces, a catalog of the unanticipated interactions and harmonies that materialize in these spaces and the human urge to find meaning within them.
fototazo 89
Anthony Rush
untitled, from the series "Of other spaces"
June 2011
Series statement: "Of other spaces" is an attempt to come to terms with the personal buried within a much wider political and historical context, an attempt to come to terms with the issue of belonging and identity on a cultural and personal level. The particular area of interest in this series of photographs is the joint and now former military barracks of Lisanelly and St. Lucia in Omagh, decommissioned in 2007 as one of the conditions of the Northern Ireland peace process. My interest in the space is largely a result of the time my late Father spent living there. He was the eldest son of an Irish Catholic who served as a British soldier for most of his life. The contradictions inherent in his position meant, in the light of the Northern Irish conflict, that my Father's background was for the most part not spoken about. His family, and to some extent our own, seemed always at odds with ourselves and unsure of our place within a polarized society.
fototazo 88
Ruhollah Mahmoudi
Ashura in Bijar, Kurdestan, Iran
A group of Muslims who have sorrow for his Imam Hossein on Ashura Day in Bijar, Kurdestan, Iran.
2009
Series Statement: Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year in which fighting is prohibited.
Muharram is so called because it is unlawful to fight during this month; the word is derived from the word haram, meaning "forbidden." It is held to be the most sacred of all the months, excluding Ramadan. Some Muslims fast during these days. The tenth day of Muharram is called Yaumu-l 'Ashurah, which is known by Shia Muslims as "the day of grief."
Muharram is a month of remembrance that is often considered synonymous with the event of Ashura. Ashura, which literally means the "Tenth" in Arabic, refers to the tenth day of Muharram. It is well-known because of historical significance and mourning for the martyrdom of Hossein ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
Shias start the mourning from the first night of Muharram and continue for two months and eight days. However the last days are the most important since these were the days where Imam Hossein and his family and followers (consisting of 72 people, including women, children and aged people) were killed by the army of Yazid I on his orders, Surviving members of the family of Hussain and that of his followers were taken captive and marched to Damascus and imprisoned there.
This ceremony that take place every years at the Day of Ashura in bijar, a province of Kurdestan. They make a great amount of mud to mourn for their Imam Hossein that was killed cruelly.
fototazo 87
Jamie Furlong
Smokin'
February 9, 2012
Series Statement
I sailed from Turkey to India in 2010 and since arriving in Cochin I've never left. It is now my home and slowly, very slowly, I have been getting under the skin of India and finding out what makes Indians tick. Cochin is in the state of Kerala, which is one of the most affluent and the most educated of all the states in India, but a contingency of residents are still employed in manual labour. These workers are reducing in number as the generation beneath them receive a good education and move in to white-collar jobs. The workers are fascinating to watch; I can spend hours wandering the wholesale fruit depots, or the still-functioning colonial warehouses, where skinny men in blue dhotis (wrap-around skirts) carry 30 kilo sacks of pineapples on their heads and wander the tight streets to make their delivery without complaint. I've been taking natural-light portraits of these workers, sometimes within the context of their environment but more often than not close-ups, over the last two years. Most only speak Malayalam, the regional language, not even Hindi, so although I get to know their job and their workplace, I rarely get to find out who they are and what they are all about. These intimate portraits are as close as I will ever get to these people.
fototazo 86
Tabitha Soren
Running 000823, from the series "Running"
2012
Series Statement
I'd been shooting static landscapes, but I felt they needed something.
And what they needed was not just people, but people on the verge of something.
This project has been a way for me to explore panic, mortality, resilience and the role of accident in life.
fototazo 85
Mark Townsend
Santacon, from the series "In public"
11/12/11
Series Statement: The majority of people now live in cities making street photography more important than ever. Street photographs are not only comments on society, but also historical records. In a broad sense I consider my photographs as documents of the human condition. I am interested in our behaviour and what it reveals of us. The unguarded moments, gestures and interactions captured provide an unadulterated record of a particular moment in time. This captured moment allows us the chance to look at and reflect on ourselves.
fototazo 84
For the last 18 months together with people on or far beyond the outskirts of my local Market Towns community I have been recording through collaborative environmental portraiture, audio and video interviews coupled with straight documentary shoots their life stories and memories, musings, hopes and struggles.
I do this with a passion and belief that the photographs we can make have a weight and longevity beyond our time here, have an ability to communicate a story long after the characters have departed, they are time capsules awaiting discovery.
These are moments of daily endurance that in a generation will have passed forever.
I work as a full time Carer in my families home and at the end of the week there is little budget for any photographic work. Up until 3 months ago all my equipment was borrowed and all of my shoots are completed in free time away from my duties at home.
Portraits from the Small Town Inertia series are multi-award winning and have been published in print and book format worldwide.
Small Town Inertia has no end date, it's a project I will work on forever, constantly updating how I present the stories via essays, interviews, articles, stories, portraits, mixed media exhibitions and a series of books.
fototazo 83
Cynthia Bittenfield
IED, fom the series "The Home Front"
2009
Series Statement: The 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center has passed. For the majority of the past decade the United States has been at war. As time went on, news of these wars vanished from the front-page headlines eclipsed by pressing issues on the home front.
This series looks at life on the home front while referencing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a division between the soldiers who are over there fighting and their families and those who lives remain relatively untouched by war. We have yet to realize fully the impact of soldiers returning home from a combat zone as they reintegrate back into society. As they need our help, compassion and understanding, we will no longer be able to keep the sharp delineation between home front and war front.
Images from this series were shot in domestic settings, and at various military training sites in the US.
fototazo 82
I-Hsuen Chen
untitled, from the series "Nowhere in Taiwan"
2011
Series statement: Nowhere in Taiwan is a selection of photographs made while traveling through my native country of Taiwan in the summer of 2011.
Influenced by the idea of the "road trip" in American photography, exemplified in the work of such photographers as Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, and Joel Sternfeld, I set out to find scenes and situations that seem to be "in between," neither landscape nor cityscape but existing in an ambiguous space I call “nowhere.” Some of these sites are suburban, or partly urbanized, or abandoned and left behind. The aspect of location that interests me most has to do with the traces of human presence and gesture that reside or remain. In search of nowhere, I look for unexpected instances of intimacy, so that there is a sense of "nowhere" being unveiled.
fototazo 81
Martin Gremm
Goodbyes, from the series "Instants"
2011
Series statement: Not all instants in life are created equal. Most contain mundane actions and events, but there are a few that trigger powerful questions in those who witness them. Questions urgent enough that people stop to find answers. Questions like, How did this happen? What is going on? Did I cause this? Should I do something?
Many powerful Instants will be accidents and similar life-threatening events. This body of work has nothing to say about those, because such Instants usually force the protagonists into certain narrowly defined actions. Instead, this portfolio explores situations where the range of possible responses is much more fluid and the danger, if it is present at all, is emotional rather than physical.
Rather than trying to photograph naturally occurring decisive moments that capture the viewers' attention, I follow my scientific training by creating them under controlled circumstances. Every image in this series is not only carefully planned, but also carefully pared down to the essential components. They explore how much needs to be shown explicitly and how much can be implied, which clues are essential and which are merely distractions, and how much of the action can occur outside of the frame.
My work is not science. It is about discovering what awakens a viewer's curiosity. It is about leaving out what is not essential. It is about having a little bit of fun. But most of all it is about asking you to do all the hard work of imaging the before and after surrounding the Instant I created for you.
fototazo 80
Bruno Quinquet
Ueno Park, from the series "Salaryman Project" (2006-present)
2008
Series Statement: In this series, I try to approach the archetypal figure of the Japanese male office worker (aka salaryman) in a candid street photography manner. Because of the increasing tension between photography and privacy and because of my own discomfort with the idea of candid portraiture, I give my subjects a chance to escape the gaze of the camera. The result, that can be seen as a collection of missed portrait opportunities, comes in the format of a business schedule, referencing in the same vehicle office work and the specifically Japanese sense of the season. I think that the project has some kind of documentary value, but in a poetic and slightly conceptual sense rather than as a social critique. In 2006, after a 20 years career as a recording engineer, I started photography during a stay in Japan and decided not to go back to my native France. Since graduation from the Tokyo Visual Arts Photography Department, I have pursued my photography work in Japan.
The Salaryman Project has been featured in "Street Photography Now" (Thames & Hudson 2010), HotShoe Magazine, 1000 Words Photography, Invisible Photographer Asia... and fototazo! I am now trying to self-publish this work through a crowdfunding campaign.
fototazo 79
Natasha Gudermane
Leela, from the series "Mademoiselles"
2011
Series Statement: I photograph young Parisian women, my friends as well as strangers met in the street, nude, at their homes, in their intimate surroundings.
I love undressing people in front of my camera because I believe that it sends them back to the idea of who they are, to the idea of their gender. Having nothing on to cover their bodies, my models seem to envelope themselves in their souls. It is this magic moment I am trying to capture in my lens.
fototazo 78
Nancy Newberry
09 11 19, 2010, from the series "Mum"
Series Statement: Artificial, shiny, spirited and virtually unknown outside of Texas, the Homecoming Mum is an elaborate corsage, or for the boys, a garter worn on the arm. Exchanged between friends, The Mum consists of a large silk flower decorated with long glittery ribbons and other trinkets, which indicate the wearer's interests, social standing, and allegiances to friends. Mums are proudly worn for all activities on Homecoming Friday, and then immortalized as trophies on bedroom walls all over Texas. Each year the collection grows with a more elaborate Mum, marking progress and personal history.
As both adornment and insignia, the Mum offers its wearer the opportunity to promote self-image, while identifying their status an integral member of their particular community. At a time when many American high schoolers seem actively disengaged from the world around them, the Homecoming Mum constitutes both a unique act of cultural immersion, and a specific brand of folk art.
Shot slowly and based on interpretation of memory, I have limited the settings of the photographs to in an around the subject's personal space, to further contain and charge the portraits through confines of the subject's own making.
I have intentionally paired diverse visual language of both spontaneous and carefully arranged moments. This work is a cultural investigation and reflects the chaotic nature of self-identity and the interplay between individuality and social affiliation.
The work highlights the importance of rituals as vehicles of expression. Customs are vital in defining all cultures. The simple existence of the Homecoming Mum is an artifact that is symbolically relevant. It isn’t necessarily important to relate directly to the Mum tradition or to understand why it exists. This photographic treatise serves as an invitation to immerse ourselves in appreciating another culture on a very basic level. Human existence is a creative act; the mystery is in how we are driven to innovate and engage the unspoken narrative of ourselves.
fototazo 77
Natan Dvir
Amona, 2006 from the series "Belief"
Having been raised in Israel, I was regularly exposed to strong religious, social and political beliefs and ideas from an early age. Holy sites situated throughout Israel make the (physically) small country extremely important for Jews, Christians, Muslim and many other religions. The regionʼs history combined with the volatile political situation today, result in a complex and intense reality in which people emphatically and publicly express themselves.
I am fascinated and sometimes frightened by the extreme situations people reach in the pursuit and defense of their beliefs. I explore the various sides of how people practice their beliefs, the places it brings them to and the scenes in which they take part. Regardless of specific religious or political affinities, belief can provide a sense of community, belonging, safety, and understanding, yet might also provoke hatred, separation and aggressiveness.
Tranquility vs. anger, ecstasy vs. rage, understanding vs. fanaticism.
Using my camera as a tool for examination, I documented religious ceremonies, political events and situations of conflict throughout Israel. The photographs in this project are direct examinations of the public as a whole yet focus on individuals and their experiences as well.
The dialogue between the pictures is as important as every individual image, as each one has the potential to connect with viewers in a unique way. By displaying multiple images in this series, I aim to show the multifaceted nature of belief and the various ways it impacts the lives of individuals and communities. Belief can often shape peopleʼs behavior and personal interactions but this is typically unnoticed by those who are most deeply influenced by it. This project promotes self-reflection and encourages viewers to contemplate their own beliefs, or the ideals of their communities, and the intensity with which belief affects their actions and way of life.
fototazo 76
Walker Pickering
Hole
2009
Series Statement: This image is from a body of work called Nearly West. The work was shot on a series of road trips throughout the Southern and Southwestern United States over the course of the past five years.
fototazo 75
Arturo Soto
Untitled, Queens, NY, from the series "Blind Views"
2009
Series Statement: I am interested in how public spaces influence our quotidian experience.
The images in "Blind Views" depict urban landscapes from Mexico City, New York, El Paso and Panama.
Their aim is to show the rich amalgamation of cultural signs that make up the visual infrastructure of the street.
I am particularly drawn towards spaces that, because of their apparent neutrality, offer numerous possibilities of interpretation.
The work was inspired by Baudelaire’s essay The Painter of Modern Life, which proposes to distill from the present the "mysterious element of beauty that it may contain, however slight or minimal that element may be."
The work was inspired by Baudelaire’s essay The Painter of Modern Life, which proposes to distill from the present the "mysterious element of beauty that it may contain, however slight or minimal that element may be."
fototazo 74
Lucia Herrero
untitled, from the series "Tribes"
2009
Series Statement: "Tribes" is a social analysis, a raw portrait of occidental society. Groups of families and friends set themselves up by the sea, equipped to spend a day in the sun. All this, harmoniously juxtaposed, seems like a poem of customs that reveal with humour, colour and tenderness, the profundity of a whole society.
These photos of modern-day beach groups are inspired by the studio portraits of ancient tribes who proudly posed in traditional costumes next to their prized possessions. The sky and the sea become the painted backdrop of the studio and the sand seems as if it’s sprinkled on the studio floor. The lighting and the theatricality of the groups add an element of fantasy to the portraits of real people in their natural surroundings. That enlightens a banal situation and elevates it to a state of exception. I call this way of social photography “Antropologia Fantástica.”
The series talks about the human condition during a moment of peaceful holiday, their pride of being there, their honesty and vulnerability. The objectively limited surrounding offers a complete extract of the essential.
This portrait of the "Spanish Tragicomedy" is meant to have many different interpretations. On one hand it talks about the Western middle class, which is suffering from an identity crisis created by the current economic situation. These images make us wonder what changes and what remains afterwards. On the other hand, they challenge the beauty concept of today.
The photos were taken along the Spanish coast and people were asked to participate in situ.
fototazo 73
Mariela Sancari
Two-Headed Horse
2011
Series Statement: After my father's suicide when we were 14 years-old, the lives of my twin sister and my mother, as well as my own, changed radically. Every aspect of our destiny as a middle class family was interrupted by his death.
We ran away on a trip, aimlessly, until arriving in Mexico...
The absence became presence among us and strengthened the bond between my sister and I that has led to a complex universe of meanings and roles, blurred memories and ideas that end up weaving an encrypted universe between fiction and reality.
This series of photographs are part of an ongoing project on this relationship with my sister. The trip (both real and metaphorical), the runaway, the clothing and the household objects we brought with us all create, frame and dress one being with two visions of reality, a being that imagines that they will find their dad around the corner.
I want to think about identity and memory and the many ways they are affected by time and space. Nature and the first home are a return to childhood and adolescence, when the loss of our father left us suspended in time.
Two views of one reality.
fototazo 72
Nina Mouritzen
The Noisettes, New York
2006
Statement: During my work for Mary Ellen Mark and Patrick Demarchelier, I was simultaneously laboring over my own projects that centered around downtown New York in the early '00s. Most of these characters were tomorrow's stars and I have since then, continued to document many figures of the music scenes for publications such as Dazed & Confused, Spin, and Tokion. My photographs tend to have an intimate journalistic or almost diary-like atmosphere to them, and the line is blurred between commissioned work and personal projects.
This image is of a British band, The Noisettes, taken on a rooftop in the West Village of Manhattan...on a very gloomy morning.
fototazo 71
David Lykes Keenan
Car Wash, from the project "Fair Witness"
2009
Series Statement: "It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness-" -- Paul Strand, photographer.
My photographs, at least the ones that I show to people, almost always include people. Pictures of most "things", even lovely landscapes or seascapes, I find overwhelmingly boring. Rarely are these pictures of anything that I haven't seen before.
People pictures, on the other hand, are never the same. Things will always be, but people come and go, smile and frown, laugh and cry, love and hate, live and die. Things collect dust (I know, I have plenty) but people are life.
I watch people living their lives, doing mundane things that they, more often then not, are consciously unaware of. If I am on my game and have my camera ready then that otherwise lost moment is captured.
By now tens of thousands of such moments fill my negative archives and hard disks along with the occasional pictures of "things" that caught the fancy of my shutter finger. A very select few escape the archive and appear on my website or become a candidate for some other public viewing.
These pictures of particular humor, irony, melancholy, of startling incongruity, of humanity came from within.
archive
fototazo 70: Orhan Tsolak, untitled
fototazo 69: Camp Photo Day, from the series "Cruel Story of Youth"
fototazo 68: Nur Moo, Edipo Re_*, from the series "Le due madri"
fototazo 67: Arianna Sanesi, untitled, from the series "Urban Resistance"
fototazo 66: Sarah Moore, Spring, from the series "Expanse"
fototazo 65: Alireza Abbasy, untitled, from the series "Streets, Amsterdam"
fototazo 64: Yanina Boldyreva, untitled, from the series "Glass"
fototazo 63: Julia Kozerski, Ruins No. 1, from the series "Half"
fototazo 62: Rachel Barrett, Cassidy
fototazo 61: Ole Elfenkaemper, untitled
fototazo 60: Alison Turner, Christmas Bingo In Colorado, from the series "Bingo Culture"
fototazo 59: Juergen Buergin, NYC, The Umbrella
fototazo 58: Luis Circa Melgarejo, Felipe and Pupé Quazar Drag
fototazo 57: Juan Margolles, untitled, from the series "No context"
fototazo 56: Juan Camilo Bedoya Vargas, untitled
fototazo 55: Clara Patricia Machado, Mi Espacio
fototazo 54: Stefany Cruz, untitled
fototazo 53: Lorena Endara, Don Manolo
fototazo 52: Zisis Kardianos, Untitled, from the series "Still Going"
fototazo 51: Marie Quéau, Untitled, from the series "Paillasse"
fototazo 50: Greg Girard, Aircraft Beacon, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 1985
fototazo 49: Natalia Lopera, Abuelos
fototazo 48: Jordanna Kalman, August
fototazo 47: Garvan Gallagher, Anne F., from the series "My Way" (2010-2011)
fototazo 46: Julia Schiller, Blank, from the series "Almost There"
fototazo 45: Dimitris Triantafyllou, Basi
fototazo 44: Chiara Tocci, untitled
fototazo 43: Oliver Schneider, Bittersweet
fototazo 42: Miriam O'Connor, untitled from the series "Attention Seekers"
fototazo 41: Christian Rodriguez, Cindy, from the project "Mujeres Migrantes"
fototazo 40: Matt Johnston, Ratliff Stadium, Odessa, Texas 'Permian Panthers Vs Midland Lee Rebels, 17,800 in attendance
fototazo 39: James Friedman, #249, from the series "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"
fototazo 38: Aura Lambertinez, Niña
fototazo 37: Blake Andrews, Emmett
fototazo 36: Matt Eich, Peter Swimming, from the series "American Solstice"
fototazo 35: Christin Boggs, Kale and Row Cover, Mud Creek Farm
fototazo 34: Nguan, Singapore
fototazo 33: George Nebieridze, Untitled, from the series "Fresh Meat"
fototazo 32: Nayeli Cruz, Untitled
fototazo 31: Anastasia Cazabon, 1st Rib, from the series "Neurosis"
fototazo 30: Scot Sothern, Drive-By Shooting - Hollywood Blvd.
fototazo 29: Barry W. Huges, Untitled (Body), from the series "Falling Down"
fototazo 28 Chrissy Deiger, Onna
fototazo 27 Irina Rozovsky, Untitled, from the series "One to Nothing"
fototazo 26 Jess T. Dugan, Mom, Chris, and Abby, Watertown, Massachusetts
fototazo 25 Ayala Gazit, Diving Board
fototazo 24 Gregory Halpern, Untitled
fototazo 23 Daria Tuminas, from the series "Ivan and the Moon"
fototazo 22 Dina Kantor, Andre, Helsinki, from the "Finnish and Jewish" series
fototazo 21 Erika Ritzel, Ogden Street, Englewood, CO (Ceramic Statue)
fototazo 20 Michael Werner, Mum Jan's Back Yard, Forster NSW
fototazo 19 Amani Willett, The Smoker
fototazo 18 Yves Choquette, Pointing
fototazo 17 S. Billie Mandle, Saint Joseph, from the series "Reconciliation"
fototazo 16 Phil Jung, Emerald City
fototazo 15 John MacLean, Biggy
fototazo 14 Juan Posada, Indomitable Will
fototazo 13 Suzi Livingstone, Grey Wings
fototazo 12 Serge Campo, Untitled Portrait
fototazo 11 Dawn Roe, Goldfield Study (Burned Log)
fototazo 10 Lydia Panas, Insect
fototazo 9 Michael Cardinali, Blooming Tree Against Sky
fototazo 8 Cori Pepelnjak, Roxo (Purple)
fototazo 7 Alexander Harding, Oil Spill
fototazo 6 Aline Smithson, Not As Interesting, from the series "Shadows and Stains"
fototazo 5 Kevin McCollister, Man With Infected Nose
fototazo 4 Kevin Thrasher, Patched Brick Wall
fototazo 3 Dina Litovsky, Bride , from the ongoing project "Untag This Photo"
fototazo 2 Khaled Hasan, Acid Fatality
fototazo 1 Shen Wei, Untitled self-portrait (Touch)