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| VIINETWORK PHOTOGRAPHERS' LATEST STORIES |
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The VIINETWORK expands the ideals and journalistic mission of VII Photo to include important photographic work by selected non-members. This new collection of talented photographers permits VII Photo to continue to support its clients throughout the world in meeting the demand for high-quality, in-depth reportage, contemporary issue-based stories which provide a critical photographic perspective of the world around us. |
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Lynsey Addario • Jocelyn Bain Hogg
• Eric Bouvet • Andrea Bruce • Stefano De Luigi • Jessica Dimmock
Tivadar Domaniczky • Adam Ferguson • Ziyah Gafic • Ashley Gilbertson • Benedicte Kurzen Seamus Murphy • Maciek Nabrdalik • Tomas van Houtryve • Donald Weber |
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| Afghan women and children mourn the loss of family members who were killed in a raid by U.S. Special Forces, just outside the town of Jalalabad. Andrea Bruce / VII Network |
| ANDREA BRUCE |
| U.S. Special Operations Night Raid in Afghanistan - In May of 2010, U.S. Special Operations forces claimed they killed several insurgents in this village, just outside Jalalabad in the Nangahar District of eastern Afghanistan. But family members of the nine people killed say the massacre was unwarranted. And local Afghan officials complain that the raid left Afghan police in the dark. They attempted to respond to the raid, thinking it was a Taliban attack, and were targeted as well. Local support for women and children inside the village was prevented for several hours. |
| The Marjah Offensive - U.S. Marines and NATO forces started an offensive in Marjah, Afghanistan in February of 2010. Marjah is said to be the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province. U.S. forces are now showing a longer-than-expected effort to secure the region. The continued fighting brings questions as to whether the U.S. will be able to leave Afghanistan in the timeline President Obama has given them, and whether the upcoming military drive into Kandahar will be launched in a similar fashion. |
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| Natasha has run out of millet from the year before, so must cut small bunches for herself and her children. In Burkina Faso, much of the malnutrition is in the form of vitamin deficiency, as the prevailing diet is almost entirely grain-based. Jessica Dimmock / VII Network |
| JESSICA DIMMOCK |
 Burkina Faso: A Mother's Devotion - Natasha, a young mother living in a poverty-stricken village in rural Burkina Faso, struggles to keep her year-and-a-half-old son Alexi well nourished. Alone at 24, she scavenges firewood to sell in the market. Her meager earnings force an impossible choice: between buying food or medicine for her three kids. Jessica Dimmock's photographs and video tenderly capture the heartbreaking emotional strains experienced by a young, hard working mother simply trying to feed her children. Over the last three years, more than 40,000 children have been treated in Burkina Faso by a Doctors Without Borders therapeutic feeding program. Revolutionary, nutrient-rich ready-to-use foods are distributed to Natasha and scores of other mothers, who nourishing them back to life. |
| U.S.A.: The U.S. Standard -
In a nation that provides half of the world’s food assistance, why is substandard food being sent to the poorest corners of the earth while a U.S. government program provides nutritious foods to its own most vulnerable citizens?
Jessica Dimmock’s intimate portraits of low income families in a small Pennsylvania town reveal the other half of the U.S. food aid story. The young families benefit from the U.S. government-funded Women, Infants and Children nutrition program (WIC). WIC supports a quarter of all American children from birth to age four, and has been shown to have dramatically reduced anemia and low birth weight. Access to nutritious, enriched foods through WIC stands in stark contrast to the non-nutritious foods dumped on starving children outside the country.
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| Passengers look out from a bus window in the rain in Pyongyang. Tomas van Houtryve / VII Network |
| TOMAS VAN HOUTRYVE |
| North Korea: Secrets and Lies - North Korea has systematically isolated itself from the world and applied communist thinking to the upmost extreme. The Kim regime has vanquished any traces of capitalism, foreign imperialism, and the enemies--real and imagined--of the radical left. Even as communism collapsed elsewhere and over a million people died of starvation in the 1990s, the government did not waver from its course. The result is a paranoid militarized society, an astounding cult of personality, and the formal absence of any individualism. |
| Vietnam: Market Leninism - Though millions fought and died under the communist flag in Vietnam during decades of warfare, it didn't take long before the country abandoned Marxist economic principles and a centrally planned economy. In 1986, only 11 years after communist forces won the war, the "Doi Moi" reforms were enacted, ending the push for collectivization and adopting a market economy. Today, the results are evident. Much of the Ho Chi Minh Trail has been turned into a highway. Towns that were once heavily bombarded by the U.S. military have now sprung up malls and KFC restaurants. Even within the Communist Party's youth wing, people join for business networking opportunities more often than they do for ideological reasons. |
| LYNSEY ADDARIO | |
| Maternal Mortality in Sierra Leone - In Sierra Leone, a country with one of the highest rates of maternal mortality, Mamma Sessay is fighting to give birth. Sessay, 18, delivered one of the twins she was carrying in a remote village outside of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. She then took a canoe, followed by an ambulance, to arrive at the clinic. Exhausted when she arrived, Sessay delivered the second twin. Shortly after the delivery, she began hemorrhaging and died soon after. Sierra Leone has roughly 900 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births; an average of five women die per day in childbirth, and one in eight women in Sierra Leone will face a lifetime risk of death during childbirth. |  |
| Taliban Reconciliation - In an attempt to bring a level of community stability to a region in the constant throes of war, American military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan have begun a process of "reintegration" of Taliban foot soldiers. Supported by Washington as part of the prevailing counterinsurgency plan to win over the civilian population, the process involves detective work ferreting out insurgents in the community, interrogating them, and making them sign pledges that they will no longer fight for the Taliban. Marines hope that the pledges, along with vouchers by elders in the community, will keep the most honest of the former insurgents from rejoining the enemy. Similar programs worked in Iraq, but commanders acknowledge that Taliban-dominated Afghanistan has a more entrenched history of fighters changing sides repeatedly. |  |
| JOCELYN BAIN HOGG | |
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A World of Their Own - Across the world, every bar filled as people gathered over their beers to watch their nations compete for the coveted 2010 World Cup. Football, after all, is a global religion and the fervour felt by many is never more clearly expressed than during soccer’s biggest event. The gamut of human emotion can therefore be seen on individual faces as they watch this from their bar stools. Multicultural faces all react in London's Duke Of Wellington Public House as the goals are scored…or not scored. This set of close-up, live action portraits documents these reactions from below the TV as the World Cup games are shown to the world in the small back room of this international, emotionally charged pub. These photographs were shot on a 1960’s tele-rolleiflex with a hand built contraption, allowing the attachment of a ring flash. An event in itself. |
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Muse - Muse takes the premise from writer J.G. Ballard’s book, "The Kindness of Women," where he states that beauty is the square inch of skin seen on waking up close to the one you love. Choosing only to photograph friends, family members and partners, this personal project, photographed over ten years, seeks to look at beauty and female emotion in an unvarnished and un-retouched way, thus challenging the 21st century ethos of cosmetic enhancement and air-brushed magazine perfection. |
| ERIC BOUVET | |
| Air Commandos - Roughly 1,900 meters above sea level, French Operational Mentor Liaison Teams, OMLT, ascend the ridges of Alasai Valley toward a small permanent military base of 12 Afghan soldiers known as the Eagle Nest. They are parachute commandos--"Commando Parachutiste de l’Air", CPA--who specialize in rescue and personnel recovery, and guiding planes. Every week the French OMLT arrive for a 24 or 36 hour mission. |  |
| Uzbin Valley - Deep within the treacherous terrain of the Uzbin Valley, young soldiers of the French International Security Assistance Force had a mission to fulfill: to take the valley, the same valley that saw a dozen French soldiers killed in an ambush by Afghan militants in August 2008. During the course of six months, the troops took the valley and every last village within, using what little strength they had left. Not once during this time had they used their weapons, nor had they seen a Taliban. There had been an occassional attack upon them, but no one knew from where. Most days, the valley was hauntingly still, like a ghost, heightening the tension and fear of confrontation. |
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| STEFANO DE LUIGI | |
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The Gold of the Delta - At the end of the longest river in Italy, the Po, the fortune of local residents has changed. This area between Venice and Rimini, feared for centuries because of endemic malaria and harsh living conditions, is experiencing an economic miracle. The reason is Ruditapes Philippinarum, a type of clam dubbed the "gold" of the delta, imported during the 80's from Japan via England and positively affecting roughly 1,500 area fishermen, half of whom are women. Reportedly 57,320 tons of clams were collected in 2009, approximately 92 percent of European production, and it is estimated that 18,500 tons are collected annually: a third of the entire national production. |
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Somaliland - Unlike southern Somalia, where 18 years of civil war has ravaged the country, Somalilanders have managed to mediate their conflicts, to demobilize the clan militias and merge them into a national army. They’ve survived, despite the lack of international recognition and a GDP of less than 50 million dollars per year. Things are different now though. A year ago, several suicide bombers blasted into the presidential Palace, the United Nations compound and the Ethiopian Embassy. Many people perished in the attacks, credited to Al-Shabab, the Somali radical Islamic group often linked to al-Qaeda, who claimed responsibility. |
| TIVADAR DOMANICZKY | |
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Breathing Dust - Gaza Strip -
On December 27, 2008, Israel launched a major military operation against the Gaza Strip, the biggest since the Six Days War. The Israeli offensive, Operation Cast Lead ended after 22 days with an unilateral ceasefire. Israel's aim was "to change realities on the ground" by stopping weapon smuggling through the tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, and the Palestinian militant activities along the Gaza-Israel border. During the more than three weeks long war about 1300 Palestinian died, thousands of homes were destroyed and the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip was severely damaged.
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Dreams Into Reality -
For nine generations, the Richter artiste family has been noted and highly acknowledged by the circus profession. The family has been touring all five continents since their circus was established in 1821 at the Brandenburg Gate. The unique elephant and equestrian acrobatic productions, that combine both traditional and new styles, have become world hits, winning them several awards at the International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo. Florian Richter and the Hungarian National Circus transform the everyday into a magical experience from evening to evening.
PLAY MULTIMEDIA » |
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| ADAM FERGUSON | |
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Truck Security - The war effort in Afghanistan relies heavily on a network of American and NATO truck conveys carrying supplies through the badlands. Because of the still-ubiquitous presence of Taliban insurgents in this area, local, private security companies are paid tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars to escort and protect these convoys on their journies. However, recent ambushes, coupled with rumors that the Afghan mercenaries are in collusion with the Taliban insurgents, bribing them to let the convoys pass, have raised suspicions in Washington. An investigation into the conduct of these sometimes unorthodox operations remains shrouded in mystery. |
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Kandahar - The U.S. pledged another 30,000 troops to Southern Afghanistan in 2010 in an attempt to secure the heartland of the Afghan insurgency before a planned drawdown of troops in July 2011. |
| ZIYAH GAFIC | |
| Tito's Bunker - Between 1953 and 1979 the Yugoslav army built a top secret military shelter, ARK, in the small, unassuming town of Konjic, Bosnia. Worth 4.5 billion USD, the shelter consists of 12 connected blocks linked together within a complex labyrinth. The construction and existence of the bunker--built as a shelter for for military operations and President Josip Broz Tito, his family and his closest associates in case of a nuclear war--was top secret until the 1990s, when ARK was finally revealed. Located at a depth of 280 meters underground, the shelter has been fully preserved: signs of the former political system remain evident and all the internal systems are fully functional. |  |
| Illiteracy in Pakistan - With a population of 170 million, Pakistan is one of the most illiterate countries in Asia, even compared to war-ravaged nations. About half of the male population is illiterate and nearly two thirds of the female population can't write their names. Why is a country with nuclear arms and elaborate security keeping its citizens illiterate? Pakistan spends 66 percent, nearly 2.6 billion Euros, of its annual budget on military expenditure and only 2.5 percent on education, roughly 600 Euros for each child of school-age. The wealthy send their children to private schools whilst the poor are forced to send their children to koranic schools or to cotton fields to earn a living. |  |
| ASHLEY GILBERTSON | |
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Bedrooms of the Fallen - These bedrooms once belonged to men and women who died fighting in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, thousands of miles away from home and the country they fought to defend. The purpose of this project is to honor these fallen – not simply as soldiers, marines, airmen and seamen, but as sons, daughters, sisters and brothers – and to remind us that before they fought, they lived, and they slept, just like us, at home. |
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Dress Rehearsal - Inside Central Louisiana's Fort Polk military base, 100,000 acres of snake-infested pine forest is designated as a training area, known as "The Box", where, each month, about 5,000 soldiers readying for tours in Afghanistan or Iraq, are trained in a full dress rehearsal for war. Mock towns built by Hollywood set designers are constructed from shipping containers covered in painted and sculpted polystyrene. The towns are filled with details -- mock fresh fish on ice, mock fruit stands, even mock butchered animal heads. Dozens of actors work around the clock, acting out their designated status of green (friendly), amber (neutral), and anti-coalition (red). The actors try to take cover during regular skirmishes between the U.S. forces and Taliban fighters, and between raids, they piece together jigsaw puzzles, play cards, or cook gumbo and cajun beans. |
| BENEDICTE KURZEN | |
| South Africa -
South Africa is a country full of imperfections--but also full of opportunities. It is a country of great diversity and disparity: in nearly no other country is the divide between the rich and the poor greater. In South Africa, there are Christians and Muslims, atheists and animists; online dating is popular but the groom still pays a dowry before the wedding (often in the form of cows); one checks their email via iPhone, and then visits traditional healers.
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| Amaqabane - When apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela became the first black president of modern South Africa, it was thanks in part to fighters whose lives are deeply entwined with South Africa's violent past. From 1961 to 1994, thousands of young men went into exile to train and dedicate youth to fight against the whites-only rule. Once admired as heroes of an era, the ex-combatants are now denied social support and recognition. They feel they have been abandoned by their former leaders as well as by the democracy for which they fought, the democracy that led to South Africa's first multi-racial elections in 1994. Today 60 percent of them are unemployed, under-skilled, uneducated, living in poor conditions and traumatized as a direct consequence of their involvement in the struggle. From the frail iron walls of their shacks to the mountains of the Magaliesburg, some of them have decided to confront their deep-seated fears: through traditional beliefs and rituals, they hope to end years suffered in silence and to exorcise their ghosts. |  |
| SEAMUS MURPHY |
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| Phoenix (Afghanistan 1994-2010) - "I returned to Afghanistan in May/June 2010 and revisited some locations I had photographed on my first trip to Afghanistan in 1994. It was surprising how little had actually changed after all the years of violence and tumult in Kabul, and after all the billions of dollars that Afghanistan and the Afghans are supposed to be grateful for receiving. Not much evidence of it here. I was able to reframe the original places using reference points like poles and structures that were still standing from 1994." |
Diamond Mining in Angola -
Today, Angola is the world's fifth-largest diamond producer by value. Much of Angola's diamond reserves are alluvial, meaning the stones have been washed out of the earth. These are mined by thousands of Angola's artisanal miners, "garimpeiros" in Portuguese.
A violent economy prevails in which thousands of garimpeiros eke out a living searching for diamonds, which are available to anyone with a shovel but are difficult for mining companies to secure. Because they lack government permits, miners say they are routinely beaten and shaken down for bribes by soldiers and private security guards - and, in extreme cases, killed. |
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| MACIEK NABRDALIK | |
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Presidential Campaign of Jaroslaw Kaczynski - Jaroslaw Kaczynski declared his candidacy for a presidential election following the death of his twin brother, Poland’s late president Lech Kaczynski, in a plane crash in Russia on April 10. Despite an upsurge of sympathy for the Kaczynski family, Jaroslaw Kaczynski lost the elections to acting President Bronislaw Komorowski, of the centrist Civic Platform, but he won as a leader of the Law and Justice party, which has doubled the number of its supporters. |
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Auschwitz-Birkenau - The Polish government is calling on other countries to help support the newly-founded Auschwitz-Birkenau foundation, which hopes to raise 120 million euros to maintain the site of the former Nazi death camp. Public interest in the camp has never been higher. Visits have doubled this decade, from 492,500 in 2001 to more than one million in 2009. But Auschwitz—with its 155 buildings and hundreds of thousands of artifacts—is deteriorating. |
| DONALD WEBER | |
| Women’s Micro Financing in Afghanistan - Every year a group of women, mostly single mothers, are each given micro-loans and training to start small businesses. While the loans may be small, their impact is enormous. "The single most important indicator of whether a child will live to his or her fifth birthday is their mother's access to income. So, if you give loans, create businesses and foster education for women and girls, you literally change a society for the better," says Dr. Samantha Nutt, executive director of War Child Canada. The average loan amount is $200 and the repayment rate is almost 100 percent. Now, in the sixth year of the Afghan Women's Community Support Project, women with good financial track records have been granted bigger loans to expand their businesses. |  |
The Night Watch of Democracy -
While the world awaits the judgment of history in Afghanistan and Iraq, fearing the worst, the 2009 local elections in Kosovo, the country's first free elections since declaring independence, shows that democracy in the Balkans retains the staying power of the nearby Adriatic Sea. These photographs were taken during various political party functions, demonstrations, meetings and rallies in October and November, 2009. The nation's ethnic diversity is evident from the character-driven faces of these mature men and women. They come from lower and upper classes, but all of them are equally hopeful of their future prospects. |
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| VII NETWORK NEWS |
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ENAMORED
Exhibition featuring Andrea Bruce The Museum of Modern Art "Carlos Merida" Guatemala City July 6 to 31, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
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CINEMA MUNDI
Exhibition by Stefano De Luigi Polka Galerie 12, rue Saint-Gilles, Paris March 11 to July 31 Please visit the website for details. |
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TROUBLED ISLAM
Exhibition by Ziyah Gafic War Photo Limited Dubrovnik, Croatia May 1 to July 28, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
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THE YEAR Exhibition featuring Tomas van Houtryve and other winners of Pictures of the Year International (POYi) The Annenberg Space for Photography Los Angeles June 26 to October 10, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
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BEHIND THE CURTAINS: STORIES FROM THE LAST COMMUNIST HOLDOUTS Exhibition by Tomas van Houtryve Visa pour l'Image Perpignan, France August 28 to September 17, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
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DRUNKEN BRIDE: RUSSIA UNVEILED Exhibition by Donald Weber Fotosommer Festival 2010 Stuttgart, Germany July 30 to September 5, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
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MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES 25th ANNIVERSARY Exhibition featuring Donald Weber Traveling exhibition: View calendar September 8, 2009 to August 2, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
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LIVING IN THE WORLD Exhibition by Donald Weber and others Savignano Immagini Festival 2010 Savignano, Italy September 10-12, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
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FOTOGRAFIA Exhibition by Donald Weber and others GotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma Rome, Italy September 23 to October 24, 2010 Please visit the website for details. |
| VIINETWORK RECENTLY PUBLISHED |
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| Fantasmi di Guerra by Ashley Gilbertson in D la Repubblica delle Donne |
A Tale of Soldiers and a School by Adam Ferguson for Time |
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| Maostalgia by Tomas van Houtryve for Foreign Policy |
Dying to Give Birth by Lynsey Addario for Time |
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| Paparazzi by Jessica Dimmock in Russian Reporter |
Land im Aufbruch by Benedicte Kurzen for Stern |
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| Dure, la Vie dans le Delta du Po by Stefano de Luigi for Geo France |
The Life of the Blind by Stefano de Luigi in PDN |
| VII THE MAGAZINE |
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VII Photo has announced the launch of an online program to expand the agency’s presence in the web and mobile environments, starting with VII The Magazine, syndicated online through a number of distributors worldwide. VII’s online strategy will harness the power of the Internet and mobile devices to reach further and more intimately into the lives of readers, sharing powerful stories supported by the personal testimony of the photographers.
Throughout the 2010 World Cup every bar around the globe has been filled as people gather to watch their nations compete. The gamut of human emotion can be seen on every face as they watch from their bar stools. London is arguably the most multicultural city in the world, with Notting Hill’s Portobello Road the epicentre. Its throbbing heart is The Duke Of Wellington Public House. French, Italian, Polish, Brazilian, Jamaican, Australian, Spanish, Samoan, Russian, American, German, New Zealand, Irish and English faces all react in this bar as the goals are scored … or not scored. This set of close up, live action portraits documents these reactions from below the TV as the World Cup games are shown in the small back room of this emotionally charged pub. Visit VII The Magazine » Receive an RSS feed of all the newest features » |
| VII DUMBO |
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| VII DUMBO is open Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm. Located at 28 Jay Street, Brooklyn; 2 blocks west of York Street station (F train). Map... Bookstore: Rare, limited edition, and signed photography books available |
| New to the Book Store | |
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BLANCO by Stefano De Luigi Publisher: Trolley, 2010 Language: English Price: $49.95 Hardbound |
| Current Exhibition: GLASTONBURY: ANOTHER STAGE Photographs by Venetia Dearden July 8 to September 3, 2010 - VII Gallery, 28 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY. Opening Reception August 5, 2010, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Glastonbury festival is the largest performing arts festival in the world, situated in the Vale of Avalon, UK. Venetia Dearden has been documenting the people of Glastonbury Festival since 2004 with a portable studio, capturing the motives and personas that make up the fabric of this extraordinary midsummer gathering.
October 1-3, 2010
For more information contact: alina@viiphoto.com or visit www.viiphoto.com |
| VII is proud to participate in the 1st Thursday DUMBO Gallery Walk. |
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| VIINETWORK FOR ALL IMAGE SALES AND RESEARCH, PLEASE CONTACT: |
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Nick Papadopoulos Sales and Research Europe, Asia, Africa +33.1.4013 9561 nick@viiphoto.com |
Alina Grosman Sales and Research U.S. and the Americas +1.212.337.3130 alina@viiphoto.com |
Dominique Viger Sales and Research France +33.1.4013 9561 dominique@viiphoto.com |
Ian Ginsberg Director, Projects & Partnerships U.S. and International +1.212.337.3130 ian@viiphoto.com |
| VIINETWORK NEWSLETTER JULY 2010 | www.viiphoto.com | © VIIPHOTO AGENCY |
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