Paolo Pellegrin at Visa Pour L’Image Perpignan

David Guttenfelder and Stephen Dupont photographed at Palais De Congress Perpignan Visa Pour L’ImageEugene Richards at a book signing at Couvant Des Minims at Visa Pour L’Image Perpignan France

William Klein signs a book for Paolo Pellegrin at Couvant Des Minim

Commonly represented as VISA, the 22nd Visa Pour L’Image International Festival of Photojournalism is on again in the mediterranean town of Perpignan with its intense observation of international events, its magnificent exhibitions and nightly projections. Highlights: the Stephen Dupont, David Guttenfelder presentation in Palais des Congress on their work in Afghanistan,  meeting Paul Fusco on the streets of Perpignan, Paolo Pellegrin presentation, Brian Storm’s multimedia work with MediaStorm, Mike Nicholls photos of California redwoods,Munem Wasif’s work from Bangladesh.  Here are some photos from the scene in Perpignan.

Stephen Dupont photographed at Palais De Congress at Visa Pour L’Image Bohdan Warchomij

Tomas van Houtryve Visa Pour L’Image Perpignan Photo Bohdan Warchomij

Visa Pour L’Image Perpignan Photo Bohdan Warchomij

This opportunity is open to all photographers, people who work with photography as a medium using any photographic themes and processes.

Closing date for entries:  8am Friday, 17th September 2010
Cost to enter: $25

Entry form is also available at www.pcp.org.au.

Photo Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

Five years after the disaster and debacle of Katrina’s impact on New Orleans Mario Tama from Getty Images has published a moving book of his involvement in that tragedy. Called “Coming Back” the profits of sales from the book will be going into the New Schools for New Orleans program and that alone is worth supporting this publishing effort.  My awareness of his work has come though an Australian compatriot Daniel Berehuliak who is working tirelessly in the floodwaters of Pakistan for Getty Images and himself producing amazing work.  Getty Images’ Reportage portfolio continues to impress. Mario Tama’s work on New Orleans After Katrina is a monumental piece of publishing.

Southern Literary Review of  “Coming Back”

http://southernlitreview.com/tag/coming-back-new-orleans-resurgent

PBS News Hour

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/weather/july-dec10/photoessay_08-23.html

Mario Tama Coming Back New Orleans Resurgent

The commendation prize went to Narelle Conwell and the student prize went to Joseph Landro.

Claire Martin IRIS AWARD Winner 2010 “Tony”

Narelle Conwell IRIS Commendation Prize Winner

Solidarity Joseph Landro IRIS Award Student Winner

Images Copyright Tommaso Ausili

The Sony World Photography Awards are up for grabs again. Browsing through the images on a beautifully designed website  I came across some familiar names as well as some beautiful images from unestablished photographers. Worth browsing, and worth entering. 2010 winners included noted photographers Walter Astrada and Paolo Pellegrin and Tommaso Ausili for his Slaughterhouse series. Ausili said in collecting his prize in April that the images had made him feel guilty but that the win had vindicated the assignment. These awards are a platform for professional and amateur and student photographers.

Registration and Entries: http://www.worldphoto.org/

Hot Shot Winners Claire Hester, Kalpesh Lathigra

Read about the details of the deadline extension and $10,000 prize on the HHS! blog.

In addition to the hallmark awards of past competitions, this year we are offering a $5,000 $10,000 honorarium and five Curator’s Choice Awards.

The Big Picture continues its innovative process of discovery. Many thanks to the editor for sharing these incredible images.

In the years, 1909 and 1912 photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time – when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun. The subjects had to sit still while the photographer exposed the three images. This is great pre digital technology and shows great insight into the photographic process. Incredibly beautiful images plunging us all deeply into history.

Photo Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

Photo Copyright Adam Pretty Getty Images

Our borders remain the hot election issue, and we are becoming fools again, baying at strangers, terrified and stupid”.
Deborah Kelly, Aug 2010.

The day before the inconclusive Australian federal election, the boat-people.org and pvi collective held a protest which involved individuals in a muffled protest against the political agenda of border protection. Protestors wrapped their heads in the Australian national flag in Forest Place in Perth,  Friday 20th August  2010 in a media protest.

Muffled Protest Perth Photo Darren Smith

Guillaume Herbaut

For someone with a profound interest in Ukrainian issues  it was a revelation  to come across  Guillaume Herbaut’s story on the pillaging of metal from the so called Exclusion Zone of Chornobyl. The story was posted in the blog  of the relatively new Institute for Artist Management and the work details the movement of radioactive metal  from the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant for cash. Each week, more than two hundred tons of radioactive metal  leave the exclusion zone. In the town of Chornobyl there are hotels and workers involved in the legal industry that the protection of the Zone has evolved into.

During the turmoil that followed the explosion of the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986, the authorities  buried  highly contaminated villages, created  burial grounds for tons of radioactive metal and encircled the town of Pripyat with a metal fence to prevent looting.

The reality of the exclusion zone and its precious cargo is different. In 2007, a stock of copper and nickel tubes coming from the Buriakovka burial ground was intercepted outside the exclusion zone. The metals contamination rate was 23 times higher than the legal standards. In May 2009, ten tons of metal disappeared. The radioactivity rate was above 30 000 microRems, a thousand times higher than the authorised level. During the night of September 10th 2009, a shipping of 25 tons of untreated metal was  intercepted by Ukrainian Intelligence Service. It mainly consisted of tubes found in the whereabouts of Reactor 4 and its radioactivity rate was thirteen times higher than the legal level.

According  to Herbaut and Bruno Masi there were 8 million tons of metal in the exclusion zone after the explosion. Today, only two million tons remain and  this stock  is valued at 1 billion hryvnias (100 million euros). It travels via  Eastern Ukrainian factories to Turkey and to China for the ultimate material reward.

http://stories.instituteartistmanagement.com/guillaumeherbaut-black-gold-of-chernobyl.html

Guillaume Herbaut copyright photo of Helicopters used during the Chornobyl disaster