PJL: March 2014 (Part 1)

Features and Essays

Muhammed Muheisen: Female Brick-makers in debt in Pakistan (AP Big Story) Tens of thousands of poor Pakistanis work hard in brick kilns, agriculture fields and other hard labor across Pakistan in what is called “bonded labor” to pay off family loans often passed down through generations.

Andrea Bruce: Where Lush Beauty Conceals Dread (NYT Lens) The community spirit that Andrea Bruce knew from her grandfather’s farm was nowhere to be found in India, where the widows of farmers who commit suicide confront creditors and ostracism.

Andrea Bruce and Mikhail Galustov: Afghanistan – Long and Dangerous Road (Médecins Sans Frontières) After over a decade of international aid and investment, Afghans still struggle to access critical medical care due to insecurity, distance, cost, or the dysfunction of many health facilities.

Adam Dean: Bigotry Against Muslims Fuels Massacre in Myanmar (NYT) On the increasing violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya, an estimated 1.3 million people who are denied citizenship under national law.

Mehran Hamrahi: Iranian People (Lens Culture) Currently, Iran has one of the youngest populations of any country in the world. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran’s population has grown to 76 million people — and 70% are under 35. But due to the policies of the current regime, the youth are deprived of basic social freedoms.

Samuel Rodriguez: Clown ‘revolution’ lifts refugee kids (CNN Photos) In refugee camps around the world, the group Payasos Sin Fronteras — or Clowns Without Borders — gives children something to smile about.

Davide Monteleone: Made in Maidan (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Photographer Monteleone set up a makeshift portrait studio beside one of the barricades erected by protesters, posing his subjects in front of a red carpet emblazoned with the guelder rose, one of Ukraine’s national symbols. | Also on the VII website here

Donald Weber: Cheers to the Revolution: Kiev’s Molotov Cocktails (Vice) Kiev’s EuroMaidan protesters used fire to their advantage. With fire, the protesters were able to defend their barricades, extend their lines, and fortify their positions. They were mobilized throughout the city to collect as many bottles as possible, and thousands of Molotov cocktails were used to set fire to tanks, other armored vehicles, and buses. These little bombs were the only real weapon protesters had against the government’s well-armed forces. | Also on the VII website here

Oksana Yushko: ‘Unwanted people:’ A portrait of Crimea (MSNBC) Yushko explored the lasting effects of a lifetime under Soviet rule by photographing residents of Balaklava, a small seaside town on the Crimean Peninsula that enjoyed prosperity as host to a Soviet naval base.

Andrew Querner: The Bread With Honey (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Project on a mining community in northern Kosovo

Txema Salvans: Playing ‘the waiting game’ (CNN Photos) For nearly eight years, photographer Salvans traveled the winding roads of Spain’s Mediterranean coast to document the lives of alleged prostitutes.

Fabio Bucciarelli: On the Ground in South Sudan: A new nation, in crisis (Al Jazeera America) 800,000 refugees. Massive food shortages. Ongoing violence. As the world’s newest country falls further into crisis, photographer Fabio Bucciarelli — on assignment for Al Jazeera America — documents the harsh realities

Johan Bävman: Uganda, Maternal mortality (Agence Vu) Every day, 800 women die because they are pregnant. More than half of the deaths occur in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, where the chance of surviving childbirth is the lowest in the world.

Glenna Gordon: Liberia’s new army comes of age (Al Jazeera America) The U.S. spent millions to rebuild Liberia’s army after civil war; now the force must stand on its own

Glenna Gordon: Nigeria Ever After (PROOF) Series documenting Nigerian wedding celebrations

Samuel Aranda: Battered and Broke, Africans Surge to Europe’s Door (NYT) Africans trying to reach Melilla, a Spanish enclave surrounded by Morocco on the northern coast of Africa, which offers a land border between the two continents

Marco Longari: Saving Chad’s Elephants (TIME) Anti-poaching measures in Zakouma National Park in Chad | Longari on the working on the assignment on the AFP Correspondent blog here

Ami Vitale: The Last of the Northern White Rhinos (PROOF) Documenting efforts to save the endangered species in Kenya

Brian Sokol: The Most Important Thing: Central African Republic Refugees (UNHCR) Part of series by photographer Brian Sokol focusing on the possessions that refugees take with them when they are forced to flee from their homes.

Todd Heisler: The Cuban Evolution (NYT) An island nation starts to catch up

Jehad Nga: The Comandante’s Canal (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Photographs from Nicaragua

Alessandro Gandolfi: Nogales Crossroads (Parallelo Zero) A city on the US-Mexico border

Meridith Kohut: Protests Broaden in Venezuela (NYT) Antigovernment protesters in San Cristóbal and other cities in Venezuela have taken to the streets, an outpouring attributed to a litany of problems that have long bedeviled the country — high inflation, high crime, chronic shortages of basic goods, like milk and toilet paper, and more recently, a government crackdown on public dissent.

Natalie Keyssar: Venezuela: A Tale of Two Cities (Vocativ) A year after Hugo Chavez died, two very different Caracas groups took to the streets

Renee C. Byer: Running Out of Time (zReportage) California’s criminal justice realignment through the story of one woman

Wayne Lawrence: Goldsboro (MSNBC) Beyond Trayvon Martin, a Florida community struggles to heal.

Gabriele Galimberti and Pietro Chelli: Military sexual assault survivors step out of shadows (MSNBC) Series of portraits of women who were sexually assaulted during their military service.

Graham McIndoe: My Addiction, Through My Eyes (New York Magazine) Most documentary projects about addiction expose someone else’s self-destructive behavior, but Graham MacIndoe took a very different approach: He photographed himself during the years he was addicted to drugs

Pete Marovich: The Politics of a Democracy (burn magazine) When it comes to politics in the United States, Washington, D.C. is ground zero.

Articles

A shocking image of Syria’s brutal war – a war that will continue regardless (Guardian) Even the most horrific photos are not able to prevent wars happening, they remain decoration for our conscience, argues Guardian’s Jonathan Jones

The Day We Pretended to Care About Ukraine (Politico Magazine) Sarah Kendzior critics media’s fascination with recent Kiev photo coverage

Canadian Photojournalist Ali Moustafa Killed in Syria (AP Big Story) Also on TIME here

‘A Day Without News?’ campaign marks first anniversary (BJP) A year since the launch of a worldwide campaign to highlight the risks journalists and photographers face when working in conflict zones, there’s still more to do, says Aidan Sullivan of A Day Without News?

Fred Ritchin on What the World Press Photo of the Year Means for Photography (LightBox) The underlying message of this year’s World Press Photo selection can be seen then as a nod to the increasingly pivotal role of social media.

The Art of Violence in the 21st Century (No Caption Needed) Robert Hariman’s thoughts on Christopher Vanegas’ World Press Photo award winning photograph showing a Mexico crime scene where two bodies hang from a bridge.

World Press 2014: In Search of Viking Whalers (PROOF) National Geographic Senior Photo Editor Pamela Chen and photographer Marcus Bleasdale on the World Press Photo Award winning series

World Press 2014: Cougars and Bonobos (PROOF) National Geographic Senior Editor Kathy Moran on Steve Winter’s 1st place nature story on cougars and Christian Ziegler’s 3rd place nature story on bonobos.

Pictures of the Year: Finding Stories Everywhere (NYT Lens) Barbara Davidson, who was named newspaper photographer of the year by the Pictures of the Year International contest, says there are good stories everywhere, and that “foreign is relative to where you are.”

Image of Syrian Girl Wins Unicef Photo of The Year (Daily Mail)

PDN’s 30 2014: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch (PDN) Including photographers such as Mosa’ab Elshamy, Fabio Bucciarelli, Phil Moore, Ilona Swarc, Kiana Hayeri, and many more.

Sebastián Liste, Mehran Hamrahi, Win 2014 Alexia Foundation Grants (NPPA)

Erika Larsen: In Search of a Horse (PROOF) From 2011 to 2013 Erika Larsen travelled to many locations in the western U.S. to learn about the significance of the horse in Native American culture. Larsen’s photographs documenting this bond are featured in the March 2014 issue of National Geographic.

Sebastião Salgado: Migrant in a World of Migrants (NYT Lens) In the 1960s, Sebastião Salgado’s left-leaning politics led him to flee from Brazil to France, where he explored the lives of the working poor through photography

The End of Innocence: Photojournalist Mariella Furrer documents child sexual abuse (CNN) She has compiled her work into a nearly 700-page book, “My Piece of Sky.”

Sergey Ponomarev on covering the Russian army in Crimea (NYT Lens) Sergey Ponomarev has been covering the unrest in Ukraine since early December for The New York Times, first from Kiev and now from Crimea.

Ukraine’s People Power in Photos by Anastasia Taylor-Lind (National Geographic News) A makeshift photo studio provides a captivating look at the Ukrainian upheaval. | Related on Foreign Policy here

Ukraine Euromaidan Protests: The Stories Behind Pictures Of Deadly Riots (Huffington Post UK)

Ed Ou Captures Quiet Moments Amid the Conflict in Ukraine (National Geographic News) Ou describes the challenges of documenting the unfolding crisis—and the patience that’s required.

Larry Towell on photographing the revolution in Kiev (CBC) “I’m looking for images that tell a story obviously and things that suggest sometimes what’s going on outside of the frame, not necessarily what is in the frame, as poetry does with language.” | Text, photos and audio

Instagramming Ukraine’s Revolution (Newsweek) Brendan Hoffman’s on his Instagram photos from Ukraine

Crimea: Where War Photography Was Born (LIFE)

Meanwhile, #Venezuela (Roads & Kingdoms) Eduardo Leal on photographing the turmoil in Venezuela

On Everybody Street: Meet New York’s Famous Street Photographers (LightBox) Everybody Street, a new documentary by Cheryl Dunn, chronicles the life and work of 13 of New York’s most renowned street photographers

Afghan Photography (BBC) 5 minute radio piece on a new documentary film about the resurgence of photojournalism in Afghanistan

The True Henri Cartier-Bresson (The Daily Beast) Over the years, the famed photographer’s work has been the subject of many shows. But a new retrospective in Paris takes a more complete look at the full range of his career.

Comrade Cartier-Bresson: the great photographer revealed as a communist (Guardian) A comprehensive new exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris shows off the street photographer’s little-known surrealist shots – and reveals his radical politics

What is Bruce Gilden Doing? (Vice) Magnum Photos Creative Director Gideon Jacobs on the polarizing figure that is Bruce Gilden

Facebook’s Teru Kuwayama on How To Use Social Media for Documentary Storytelling (PDN Pulse)

The world’s largest photo service just made its pictures free to use (The Verge) Getty Images is betting its business on embeddable photos

Industry concerned about Getty Images’ free-for-all approach (BJP) Representatives organisations around the world, including the American Society of Media Photographers and the National Press Photographers Association in the US, have condemned Getty Images’ decision to offer 35 million images at no cost for all non-commercial uses

Nick Ballon’s best photograph: on the trail of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Guardian)

Featured photographer: Mark Edward Harris (Verve Photo) Harris on his photograph from North Korea

Featured photographer: Lottie Hedley (Verve Photo) Photographer based in New Zealand

Featured photographer: Fatemeh Behboudi (Verve Photo) Iranian photographer

Interviews and Talks

Erika Larsen (NPPA) Jim Colton interviews Larsen about her career so far

John Stanmeyer on his World Press Photo of The Year (Think Tank Photo Vimeo)

Susan Meiselas (Aperture blog) Magazine’s guest editor Susan Meiselas discusses how documentary photographers can respond to a transformed media environment by utilizing the new tools and opportunities for connection offered by digital platforms.

Susan Meiselas (NYT Lens) Empowering photographers to embrace an uncertain future

David Guttenfelder on the Second Camera (NYT Magazine 6th Floor blog)

Thomas Dworzak (Ideas Tap) Magnum Photos’ Thomas Dworzak on war and photojournalism

Jason Larkin (A Photographer Discloses) Larkin on his work, Cairo Divided, a series of photographs documenting the development of high-end housing communities just outside of Cairo.

David Burnett (Jarecke + Murnion Creative Group) Burnett shares some thoughts and images from the Sochi Games

Lauren Greenfield (The Editorial)

Michael Christopher Brown (Vice)

Diana Markosian (Columbia Visuals) “I’m always trying to find other ways to fund my work”

Glenna Gordon (African Digital Art) Gordon is a documentary photographer who has been working in West Africa for a number of years.

Mikko Takkunen is an associate photo editor at TIME.com. Follow him on Twitter @photojournalism.