© Jo Metson Scott

For more visit www.jometsonscott.co.uk

As the title suggests this is an epic exhibition, room upon room of stunning imagery from around the globe.  Salgado is a unique photographer, he has mastered landscape photography to the standard of Ansel Adams and  yet his wildlife images could easily win Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Many would be happy to take a single image of this calibre in a lifetime, Genesis consists of over 200.

Kafue National Park, Zambia, 2010.
© Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas Images / nbpictures

His portraiture of remote tribes may rely on Exoticism – ‘ the charm of the unfamiliar’  but in this context they make sense. Glorious monochrome links  these tribes to the landscape, wildlife, and the 32 countries giving each image an equal importance. The romanticism that black and white creates can also not be avoided, for Salgado is an environmentalist.

Genesis presents us with the most remote and beautiful areas of the world, proof that they do exist but also a warning for the viewer to take heed, for many are in danger due to man’s recklessness. Unlike the work of Edward Burtynsky resource hungry corporations are never shown. Instead it is the glimpse of ourselves reflected in the glass that brings a pang of guilt. For we all, no matter how ‘green’ partake in the destruction of the natural world. Salgado states:

‘We can’t just criticise the companies that pollute and destroy nature, because we are the ones consuming their products and justifying their activities’

Brazil, 2009.
© Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas Images / nbpictures

Some may not take to Salgado, either due to the unashamedly picturesque quality of his work or  his use of it to promote his message. However for me, his sheer dedication to the project (8 years) and vision is truly inspiring.

You cannot help but be swept away by the feeling of awe his images conjure. Time and time again he produces photographs that seem impossible; impossible both in his ability to achieve such perfect composition but  impossible that one man and a camera can record such feats of nature.

Put simply Genesis will remind you why you fell in love with photography in the first place.

Genesis at the Natural History Museum runs until  the 8^th of September tickets are £10 for adults.

For more information: www.nhm.ac.uk

Around 1950, families in small and remote fishing villages in Lofoten, Northern Norway, were offered a lump sum from the Government to leave their homes and relocate to more central places, committing never to return and resettle. This was part of the Governmental plan to centralize and modernize the nation after the Second World War. As a result, the traditional self-sufficient way of life was lost, and part of the coastal culture with it.

Today, 60 years later, nature has reclaimed these areas. But looking closer, signs of past lives remain, stone fences and foundations still standing, hidden paths and traces of gardens with herbs and flowers.

In this project, Robinson brings families back to the villages in which they once lived, along with historic photographs taken in these locations. Past and present are brought together, emphasizing the passage of time and themes of history, destiny, maturity and societal changes.

For more work visit http://www.heberobinson.com/

© Hebe Robinson

© H. Jennings Sheffield

Tethered is an ongoing investigation into the tethering effect we experience in our everyday lives. Tethered communicates this feeling by portraying what a specific period of time looks like during different days of the week. Using a mathematical formula created by the artist, each print illustrates what a two hour period of time looks like as she balances artist, mother, teacher, wife, and daughter throughout the week. As unique as each two-hour interval is, certain consistencies also run through our scheduled days. The look and feel of a two hour period in the morning versus a two hour period in the afternoon conveys a very different set of characters, circumstances, interactions, responsibilities, and roles. Once compressed, and as in real life, all the the different events and interactions inevitably merge into a singular life experience.

H. Jennings Sheffield is an international artist and Assistant Professor of Art at Baylor University.

For more information and projects visit www.jenningssheffield.com

Last year the small scale and limited nature of works left the exhibition feeling sparse, this time the gallery lives up to its name hosting a bumper show filled with well displayed, impressive work.

Vignette caught up with our favourite Cristina De Middel to talk about her much praised work The Afronauts.

The project takes the abortive 1964 Zambian space program as a loose starting point. Middel runs with the story, creating a varied set of images depicting the imagined Afronauts and their space mission. Although outlandish and sometime comical Middel’s desire to question the veracity of both news stories and photography anchor the work in a much broader debate.

The project was self-published as an edition of 1000 books. After rave reviews at Arles it soon sold out and in the process accelerated Cristina De Middel’s transition from a photojournalist to ‘art’ photographer of the future. We feel her unique approach and technical adeptness make her a strong contender for the prize.

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, 2011 © Cristina De Middel Courtesy of the artist

Vignette: Firstly congratulations on the nomination,  a big achievement!

Cristina de Middel: Yes I agree!

How does it feel to be nominated?

Honestly? I don’t know! It’s a life changing experience it has changed everything for me, and opened up possibilities for future projects. But its also a responsibility, I used to work in a more private environment and now everything I do is object to the opinions of other people and the expectations of other people, I wasn’t ready for that!

The images look great, they hold the idea of a low budget space program without themselves looking amateurish, how did you achieve that balance?

I think because I was working in the same spirit, I had a very low budget and wanted it to look good, I think I was more inspired by how movies are made more than any type of photographic discipline.

The locations seem very important. How did you go about finding them, how long did the process take you?

I needed a dry area, so living in Spain that was very easy; I needed elephants so I went to the zoo near my hometown! but throughout the whole production process I was not just working on The Afronauts, I was traveling and working but I always had the project in mind, I was spotting locations as I went. For example this image ( below) is on the outskirts of Madrid, these are cement mixers. Whilst on assignment in Palestine for the Red Cross I decided to go to the Dead Sea, and I found a group of Africans having a mud bath there and decided ‘ok your Afronauts’.

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, 2011 © Cristina De Middel Courtesy of the artist

So it wasn’t all shot in Spain?

No no some images are shot in Italy, the alien was shot in Roswell,  New Mexico…only one was shot in Africa, In Senegal.

I hadn’t realized it was such a multinational project! How did you achieve a consistency?

I always shoot in the same way, so that’s my style, I might make some adjustments on the raw file, put the white borders and so on but most of my images look the same. They have had this type of look for a long while so it was actually pretty easy to make them work together.

You mentioned movies, what were the main influences?

Yes definitely b-movies but also cartoons, Tintin was an influence. I studied fine art with a focus on drawing and I produced cartoons. So I always do story boards and I used a lot of storyboards when creating this project to help conceptualize what I wanted.

So for some of the shots you visulise them before you take them?

This one definitely ( below), all the Afronauts yes- in fact for most of them there is a drawing often a very quick one but something that gives me an idea to work from.

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, 2011 © Cristina De Middel Courtesy of the artist

Your working on this idea of questioning what we are told in the media, you tell the story that never was, is that something you will work with in future?

 I have been working and playing with the documentary value of photography for quite a long time, even when I was working as a photojournalist for a newspaper I had my ‘ b side work’ where I was questioning it, but this was more a private joke. Now its become serious, I have found that I am now only attracted to those stories that have an open end, where your not sure if its real or not. That’s where there is a lot of potential in photography.

Almost providing an alternative reality?

Exactly, I think after being a photojournalist for many years and seeing how the audience consumes photography, I really want to raise a debate, not in a patronising way, but to raise awareness about what you’re seeing and why your seeing that image, it is there for a reason, don’t just accept it as a pure fact, its there for a reason.

The book is a key part of the project and why you are nominated for the Deutsche Börse, how important was it for you to create a book of the project?

At the beginning it was meant to be an exhibition, a gallery I was working with at the time asked me to make a proposal for my next solo show so I proposed the The Afronauts, whilst doing the research I collected documents, empehra and my own drawings but the exhibition never happened.  At the same time a museum in southern Spain offered me the opportunity to produce a small exhibition and a catalogue, I decided to take that chance and turn the catalogue into a self published book, but they gave me a deadline and I work really well to deadlines!

So did the fact that you were expanding from a catalogue mean you chose to go down the self-published route?

Yes they gave me €2.500 to produce both, so this was not a lot of money, I invested more money to do the catalogue and then I decided if I was going to invest even more money then I should make it great.

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, 2011 © Cristina De Middel Courtesy of the artist

The book is now sold out, a lot has been made of its sell out status, how do you feel about the reaction? Was it expected?

No of course not, I thought I would have books for 3 years! It has been a huge surprise, I knew the story was attractive but you never know, I normally do documentary stories so this was a real challenge for me, and it was really the first time I was doing 1,000 copies of something I was not sure of, it was quite a surprise.

You just released the app, was that in the reaction to the sell out print run?

Yes exactly, its not that I don’t want to do a second edition but because it’s a self-published book it’s a lot of work. I would have to stop all the ongoing project’s and I have two more big projects to finish, so if I did a second edition its just to feed peoples hunger to have the object. I thought I would do something similar where there is no limited edition, where you can download 100 thousand times! I haven’t decided if I will do a second run or not, but definitely not now.

Do you think you will always be producing books for each project?

This one had a lot of potential, and we had a good idea of structure before we started, so it was not a difficult book to produce, I knew what I wanted. For coming ones I don’t know, I don’t think it will be that easy but I will always try, I want to be as multimedia as possible with each project; exhibition book, app…I really love the creative process of translating a concept into each output, and helping people to understand the project.

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, 2011 © Cristina De Middel Courtesy of the artist

Previously you were a photojournalist, why did you decide to give it up and do you ever miss it?

I miss the rhythm, I quit photojournalism because I had a huge disappointment, kind of like in the Matrix I was able to see from the outside and was like ‘ok this isn’t working’ I had a very romantic relationship with photography, I believed it could really make a change, when I reaslied this wasn’t happening I just felt I needed to try something else.

But still working with photography?

Of course, I believe in the media photography is underrated it has much more potential that hasn’t been taken advantage in relation to story telling and educating people and pushing an opinion.

I suppose photography is becoming steadily more and more respected…

It is but on the other hand less so, because there is more and more, anybody can take a picture. I’m sure if there is a future in photography it is based in story telling and documenting ones own opinion rather than pretending to tell the truth. The only thing is we need good people with strong opinions based on their own experience to tell their opinon and share that. So far its been a very mechanic thing, you go somewhere you take the picture every expects you to take and you say ‘ this is true’ but this has to change and this is changing.

 www.lademiddel.com

The Winner of the 2013 Deutsche Börse Prize will be announced on the 10th of June. 

www.thephotographersgallery.org.uk

© Brian Cassey

Born in London but long based in Australia’s northern tropical city of Cairns, Brian Cassey is a freelance photojournalist working for Australian and International media. He is also a member of the photojournalist collective – ‘fotostrada’.

‘Hedda’ is a personal work taken backstage during the indigenous Hidden Republic Concert on remote Thursday Island in the Torres Strait of Australia. Cassey was captivated by Hedda’s confident presence and contrasting innocence.

Cassey’s major works involve coverage of the tsunami aftermath in Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar in 2004 and northern Papua New Guinea in 1998, the evacuation of refugees from East Timor 1999, the coup in Fiji and the World Economic Forum riots in Melbourne in 2000, the victims of the 2002 Bali bomb blasts and the category 5 Cyclones Larry (2006) & Yasi (2011) which brought devastation to Queensland Australia.

For more images visit http://www.briancasseyphotographer.com/

© Michele Palazzi, Gone with the Dust #02, 2012

Young Environmental Photographer of the Year Award was won by Eleanor Bennet and the Environmental Video of the Year Award was awadred to Jonathan Goldberg. The competition has rapidly established a name for itself, this year with 3,000 entries from around the world.

The finalist exhibtion is on display at the Royal Geographic Society London until the 3rd of May.

For more infromation: www.epoty.org

© Thor Elias Engelstad Courtesy Buratti Fine Art www.buratti.com.au

Thor Elias Engelstad is a Norwegian born photographer based in Australia. Thor’s work combines fashion and fine art in an innovative and recognisable style. When not shooting for clients Engelstad travels the world adding to his varied personal portfolio.

More work can be viewed here: http://www.thorelias.com

‘June 20th, 2009, 15:45′ by Max Cardelli

© Max Cardelli

This image is taken from Goddard-Jones’s Pastimes series.  The project documents the pastimes of Western Australians early in the 21st Century, capturing the ways in which citizens seek social connection and outlets for physical energy in spite of the growing lure of television and computers.  The images not only celebrate the activities themselves, but also our ability to record them freely in a world in which rights to photograph these highly personal events are being lost to agencies that care little for the photo’s value as a nostalgic, historical document.

To view this project and many besides, visit http://www.goddard-jones.com