December equipment delivery and microgrant recipient updates

December brought a quick trip to Florida to visit family allowing for a December equipment delivery. In addition to microgrants, fototazo organizes the delivery of equipment from the US to photographers in Colombia to give them access to US market prices as well as to equipment hard to obtain in Colombia. Under this program, photographers pay the full amount, but save on average 25-30% in comparison to Colombian prices. This trip a Western Digital 500GB My Passport portable external drive was purchased for Ana García, a student at Medellín's Fundación Universitaria Bellas Artes and a book entitled Contemporary Photography From the Far East: Asian Dub Photography was purchased for Juan Pablo Chavarría Vásquez, also a student at Bellas Artes.

There are a few updates on recent microgrant award winners to pass along as well. Zhuyi Palacio Gallego is featured in this month's F-Stop Magazine on Landscape (above). Mónica Lorenza Taborda Gutiérrez had an image included in the SALÓ INTERNACIONAL DE FOTOGRAFIA DIGITAL ANDORRA 2012 as part of the 3rd SPANISH ANDORRAN IBEROAMERICAN DIGITAL CIRCUIT 2012 (below). Additionally, both Oscar Ulloa and Daniela Serna completed their university studies this semester and their work was exhibited in the Museo Universitario of the La Universidad de Antioquia as part of the completion of their degrees. Congratulations to all four!

© Mónica Lorenza Taborda

fototazo Begins Mentorship Program

© Natalia Lopera

fototazo is launching a mentorship program as we start the new year. The program matches young, emerging Colombian photographers with mentors from across the spectrum of the photographic world - gallery owners, bloggers, academics, art directors and working photographers. The goal is to provide the mentorship photographers with commentary and advice on their work from professionals in the field and to expand their network and knowledge of resources beyond Colombia.

The process will be a semi-public one. Images from the photographers will occasionally be posted on this site along with commentary from the mentors under the belief that their advice and insight will frequently be useful to other photographers and seeing how they look at and talk about photographs will be of public interest.

© Oscar Ulloa

The program will begin with four photographers, each matched with two mentors:

Photographer: Oscar Ulloa
Mentors: Matt Johnston co-runs The Photo Book Club as well as Phonar; he is a Professor at the University of Coventry in England; Kevin Thrasher is a photographer based in Richmond, Virginia

Photographer: Natalia Lopera 
Mentors: Julia Schiller co-runs the site Actual colors may vary; Oliver Schneider co-runs the site Actual colors may vary

Photographer: Daniela Serna 
Mentors: John Edwin Mason runs the blog John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History and is a Professor at the University of Virginia; Wayne Ford runs Wayne Ford's Posterous and co-runs The Photo Book Club

Photographer: Aura Lambertinez
Mentors: Charles Guice is Founder of Charles Guice Contemporary; Gwen Lafage is Founder of Gallery Carte Blanche

Bryan Formhals, Founding and Managing Editor of LPV Magazine, will be serving as a floating mentor and guest critic, periodically reviewing work from all four program photographers.

© Daniela Serna

The mentorship program photographers will be delivering new work to the mentors in roughly a month at which point some of the work and comments will begin to appear in subsequent posts.

© Aura Lambertinez

Oscar Ulloa At Alianza Francesa de Medellín

Microgrant alum Oscar Ulloa's show at the Alianza Francesa de Medellín has received local media attention. This article from the daily ADN was published August 16th. A number of the images in the show were made with the camera purchased for him by readers of fototazo through our microgrant program. Our new grant project with Margarita Valdivieso began last week; a donation can be made here.

Notes from Oscar Ulloa, 1st Microgrant Photographer

fototazo's first microgrant photographer, Oscar Ulloa, has a show opening this Thursday in Medellín at the Alianza Francesa. The show includes images made with the camera purchased for him by the readers of fototazo. Congratulations, Oscar!

Notes from Oscar Ulloa, First Microgrant Photographer

We received an email last night from Oscar Ulloa, our first microgrant photographer, with a letter addressed to his donors and the first images from his new camera which was fully funded by the readers of fototazo. The new camera, he writes, "gives me the desire to take photos every day."

To learn more about our microgrant program, please read the about fototazo page. You can learn more about our current microgrant photographer Daniela Serna here.

His letter:

Dear Donors,

I am writing to express my deepest gratitude for your generosity and for what your contribution means to me for my academic and artistic future. It has been incredibly important for the realization of my personal work and for my development during the end of my time at the university during which I have invested all my effort and my interest as a visual artist in creating photographic images. The photograph, perhaps, is our common ground or the manner and language in which we will relate to each other beyond any cultural or geographical barrier.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Oscar Eduardo Ulloa

A selection from the first photos taken with his new camera. This is the continuation of a project he discusses here.

First Microgrant Fully Funded

Last night the final donations needed to complete the funding of the first fototazo microgrant for Oscar Ulloa were received. A special thank you to all who helped to give a young photographer the opportunity to move forward in his passion and career.  The next microgrant project will be launched the week of 2.13.11.

Microgrant Photographer: Oscar Ulloa

NOTE 6.20.11: An update from Oscar with a letter to donors and images from his new camera can be found by clicking here.

Age: 24
Location: Medellín, Colombia
Request: Nikon d3100 kit
Grant Status: $590 of 590 raised (100%)
Donate here

Oscar was born in Bello, Antioquia, just outside of Medellín, where he continues to live with his parents, a brother, and four cats in an apartment directly above his grandmother. He has worked his own way through high school and college since the age of 13, making wooden crosses for first communions, crafting hand-made belts, picking up small carpentry jobs, and doing upholstery work.

After passing the admission exam for the public University of Antioquia in Medellín, Oscar began studies in sociology before moving into the fine arts after taking a course on the sociology of art. He has secured a job at the univeristy's museum that helps him cover basic tuition costs and transportation to school, but has been unable to purchase a camera to advance his studies in photography. He currently uses a compact point-and-shoot he purchased on credit to be able to take his first photography class at the university.

He looks forward to pursuing a career in photography, having found that the visual language of the medium affords him an expressive capacity he has looked for in the visual arts. He has been drawn to digital image making, finding the speed and facility of digital image manipulation to allow him to focus more on the conceptual side of his work. Early work in portraiture has lead him to an interest in both the individual and the body. He has begun to address a series of ontological questions about his relationship to his own body and existence through photographing in hospitals and morgues. He is also taking advantage of his time at the university to explore landscape and street photography.

In his eighth semester at school, Oscar is eager to move ahead after school with his career in photography and hopes you will be inspired to help him do so.

Photographer Amani Willett says about the work, "Oscar has a natural ability for 'seeing' the world as photographs.  His use of light and texture combined with his sensitivity to the signs and symbols within his images result in stunning and provocative pictures.  His is a bright future."