PJL: May 2014 (Part 1)

Features and Essays

Adam Dean for The New York Times

Adam Dean: Death Stalks Muslims as Myanmar Cuts Off Aid (New York Times) Humanitarian crisis is unfolding among the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that Myanmar’s Buddhist-led government has increasingly deprived of the most basic liberties and aid even as it trumpets its latest democratic reforms

Ian Teh: Yellow River: China’s Environmental Sorrow (MSNBC) Teh chronicles rising pollution levels in China’s Yellow River, the second largest river in Asia, and the toll it has taken on the surrounding landscape

Chris McGrath: Devastation Persists in Tacloban Six Months After Typhoon (Time.com) Philippines

A spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee flatly denied Friday rumors circulating in the British press that London had been approached about taking over the 2016 Summer Olympics from Brazil. “Not a shred of truth to it,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams told the Associated Press in an email. “Simply a non-starter –totally without foundation and totally unfeasible.” The London Evening Standard reported earlier Friday that London, which hosted the 2012 Olympics but has already begun dismantling or converting some of the sporting venues, “has been secretly asked” to take over. Brazil, which is also hosting the FIFA World Cup this summer, has drawn criticism for massive construction delays and other issues. ICO vice president John Coates said last week the country’s preparations were “the worst I have ever experienced,” but he also said there was no “plan B.” [AP]

Moises Saman—Magnum

Moises Saman: Return to Iraq (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Saman returned to Iraq for the first time since 2010

Samuel Aranda: Iran — The Waiting Game (Panos Pictures) Aranda goes on a journey through Iran at a time of both stagnation and change

Scout Tufankjian: Global Armenian Diaspora (New York Times Lens blog) Tufankjian has been traveling the world photographing Armenian communities large and small, where traditions endure amid diversity

Andrew Quilty—Oculi for TIME

Andrew Quilty: Afghanistan Landslide (Time.com) At least 2,100 are assumed dead after two catastrophic landslides buried hundreds of homes in the Argo district in the mountainous northeastern state of Badakhshan

Carolyn Cole: In Afghanistan, childhood is often a full-time job (Los Angeles Times) It’s estimated that at least a quarter of Afghan children work, despite labor laws that forbid it

Jošt Franko: Child Refugees in Lebanon (VII) More than two million Syrians have fled their country’s civil war, now entering into its fourth year, to seek shelter in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. At least half of the refugees living over the Syrian border—roughly 1.1 million—are children

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Friday he believes the hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last month are still in the country and have not been sent across the border, despite rumors to the contrary. Jonathan's government has drawn global wrath for its sluggish response to the April 14th kidnapping of over 250 schoolgirls by the Islamic militant group. The president's comments come after some reports the girls had been brought across the border to Cameroon. "There are stories that they have moved them outside of the country," Jonathan said, Reuters reports. "But if they move that number of girls to Cameroon, people will see, so I believe they are still in Nigeria." "We are also working with the experts that will use remote sensors to see them (insurgents) wherever they are. So that basically says they are within the Sambisa area," Jonathan said, referring to the Sambisa forest near the school where the girls were taken. Jonathan's statement appears intended to refute rumors that the girls may have been sold as brides to men in neighboring Chad and Cameroon. The rumors were bolstered by a video of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau admitting his group had abducted the girls and saying "I will sell them in the market, by Allah." The White House has sent a team of military and law enforcement officials to Nigeria to help locate the missing girls. [Reuters]

Antonin Kratochvil—VII for The Wall Street Journal

Antonin Kratochvil: Razed Roma Enclave in Eforie, Romania (Wall Street Journal) Abandoned schoolhouse provides shelter after city demolishes dwellings

Jošt Franko: Disappearing Slovenia (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Herders in Slovenia’s Velika Planina, a traditional community in the foothills of the Kamnik-Savinja Alps

Mauricio Lima: Behind the Masks of Pro-Russian Militants in Ukraine (New York Times)

Davide Monteleone: Revolutionary Relics (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) Monteleone documented the everyday iconography of the revolution

Maxim Dondyuk: The Crimea Sich (Slate) Military training camp for boys in Crimea

William Daniels: Years After Chernobyl, Building Progress (New York Times)

Protect. Nurture. Love. These three words have served as my mantra and inspiration throughout my 30-year career as a photographer, allowing me the opportunity to travel the world, meeting and working with families from many walks of life. And throughout this journey, what I’ve learned about the power of motherhood is that the one emotion uniting all of us as women and mothers, is the instinctive drive to ensure that our children are safe, loved and treated with respect. In allowing them to grow and flourish, we protect the future of our world. This Mother’s Day, let’s take time to join with the devastated mothers of the over 270 girls who have “disappeared” in Nigeria…at the hands of brutal thugs and fanatics who are obviously threatened by females; especially when they are simply demanding their absolute right to an education. I also commend the families of these girls, who value their daughters and bravely support their dreams. Let’s find these girls and bring them home. To quote Chilean poet Pablo Neruda… “You can cut all the flowers, but you can’t stop the spring”… and this is what the world of motherhood and newborn babies means to me — our eternal chance at new beginnings.

Siegfried Modola— Reuters

Siegfried Modola: With armed escort, Muslims escape C.A.R. to safety in Chad (Al Jazeera America) African Union forces evacuate 1,000 Muslims on a four-day journey from Bangui to the border near Chad

William Daniels: Amid the Atrocities (LightBox) Daniels captures Central African Republic at a moment of doubt, fear and uncertainty as a series of bloody clashes and violent attacks have plunged the country into one of its darkest periods in modern history

Mark Peterson—Redux for MSNBC

Mark Peterson: NRA convention draws gun-lovers and vote-seekers (MSNBC) Tens of thousands of firearms enthusiasts gathered in Indianapolis over the weekend for the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting | Peterson’s website and Instagram

Daniel Arnold: End of the Line (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) New Yorker asked the Arnold to ride several New York subway lines to the last stop, and to document the journeys

Ryan Pfluger: The Tale of Two Schools (New York Times Magazine) Fieldston and University Heights are in the same New York borough but worlds apart. How much understanding between their students can a well-told story bring? Portraits by Ryan Pfluger

Thomas Prior: A day in the life of a divided school (MSNBC) The dramatic rise of charter schools in urban communities over the past decade has been fraught with debate, controversy and consternation. Photographer Thomas Prior recently spent some time in Harlem at the school building shared by PS 149 and Harlem Success Academy 1, and documented a day in the life of a school building divided

Landon Nordemann: Kentucky Derby (MSNBC) Photos of the spectacle

Richard Gilligan: DIY Skateparks (LightBox) Gilligan traveled around Europe and the United States photographing these self-built skate spots for a new book by Prestel called DIY / Underground Skateparks

Airlines may soon slash ticket prices — in advertisements, that is — if they can push a bill through Congress that will allow them to bury taxes and fees in fine print. The Transparent Fares Act will roll back a regulation that requires airlines to clearly advertise the final sale price, the AP reports that t Industry advocates argue that the final price confuses flyers. If customers could see the base fair, followed by a pile on of taxes and fees, they would become better informed taxpayers. The industry estimates that taxes make up roughly a quarter of the final sales price. The bill has bipartisan backing of 33 lawmakers according to AP and sailed through a committee vote last month. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. objected to the rule rewrite, calling it "just dishonest." [AP]

Jessica Lehrman

Jessica Lehrman: Hip-Hop’s New New York (New York Times) The underground rap world of New York City

Camilo José Vergara: Detroit by Night (LightBox) Photographer finds himself drawn to Detroit in the darkest hours of the night

Nicole Tung: The Code for Farewell (Al Jazeera America) Saying goodbye to the last Seminole code talker

Rodrigo Abd: Illegal gold mining in Peru (Guardian) Peru is tackling illegal gold mining. Madre de Dios state has an estimated 40,000 illegal miners, most of whom are poor migrants from the Andean highland, and their work accounts for about 20% of Peru’s gold exports. Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd documents the frantic work of the miners up to the moment when government forces arrived to put them out of business

Sebastiano Tomada: Life Inside Rio’s Favelas (CNN Photo blog) In anticipation of the World Cup soccer tournament, which Brazil hosts in June, military police have stormed dozens of slums in Rio de Janeiro to push out drug gangs and “pacify” the neighborhoods. Tomada recently spent time with the police and those who live in these favelas

Articles

The Olympic rings are displayed ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at the Olympic Park in Sochi, Russia on Feb. 2, 2014.

Daniel Berehulak—Getty Images

Daniel Berehulak won the 2014 Getty Images and Chris Hondros Fund Award (New York Times Lens blog) Related on LightBox

Testament: Remembering Chris Hondros’ Iconic Photograph From Iraq (LightBox) Getty’s Director of Photography Pancho Bernasconi on Chris Hondros’ iconic Iraq image

Tyler Hicks Awarded 2013 Robert Capa Gold Medal Award (NPPA)

Recognizing Outstanding Photojournalism Overseas (New York Times Lens blog) The Overseas Press Club has honored several photographers for their coverage of conflicts that have spanned decades, or almost escaped attention

World Press Photo names 2014 Joop Swart Masterclass participants (British Journal of Photography) Six men and six women were selected for the Joop Swart Masterclass from a longlist of 141 photojournalists and documentary photographers spanning 53 countries

What are the current standards relating to the manipulation of photographs? A discussion at the World Press Photo Awards Days 2014 (David Campbell blog)

Stuffed animals are a near-universal symbol of comfort, safety, and familiarity, an association that’s so powerful it’s been exploited in a number of different areas—from the eminently lovable animal friends we see in Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit stories to the sometimes strange stuffed animals we see on the big screen. The Viennese art collective Gelitin aren’t the latest to take advantage of the positive aura surrounding plushy toys, but their interpretation might be one of the creepiest. https://twitter.com/mbhula24/status/329984211907923970 Over a period of five years, the group knitted a gigantic, pink, woolen rabbit named “Hase” (Hare)—200 feet long, 20 feet high—and, in 2005, plopped it on top of a hill in the Piedmont region of Italy. Why? It’s there for hikers to enjoy, and, by 2025, for it to decay completely. “Happily in love you step down the decaying corpse, through the wound, now small like a maggot, over woolen kidney and bowel,” the group writes on the project’s website. “Such is the happiness which made this rabbit,” they continue, “I love the rabbit the rabbit loves me.” https://twitter.com/BluScottishRose/status/452107028131901440 (h/t Death and Taxes)

George Steinmetz—National Geographic

George Steinmetz Wonders: Was It Worth Getting Arrested for National Geographic Cover Story Photos? (PDN Pulse) This month’s cover story of National Geographic, about how to meet growing worldwide demand for food, is the story that got photographer George Steinmetz in trouble last June, and he’s still stinging from the experience

Twenty Years After Apartheid (New York Times Lens blog) Joao Silva came of age as a photographer as his native South Africa was navigating a treacherous path to democracy. Twenty years later, he reflects on what has — and has not — changed

Times of Protest (Reuters Photographers’ Blog) Jorge Silva on covering the recent and ongoing unrest in Venezuela

Journal : Issue #4 (Reportage by Getty Images) E-magazine showcasing recent work and news related to Reportage photographers

Notes From the Road: John Stanmeyer in Jerusalem (PROOF) Stanmeyer writes about his current National Geographic assignment, as part of a series on assignments in progress

Finding the Faces of Farming: A Peruvian Potato Harvest (PROOF) Jim Richardson on his assignment photographing The Faces of Farming, a series of portraits appearing in the May 2014 issue | Related PROOF post

Everyday People in Everyday Asia (New York Times Lens blog) Inspired by a project that challenges stereotypes about Africa, a Delhi-based freelancer aims to portray daily moments in Asia

Sure, the show's cancellation is sad — but fans were lucky to have five seasons

101 Photo Industry Professionals You Should Follow on Twitter (Feature Shoot) Want to keep up with what’s happening in the photo industry? Then this list is for you

Andrew Quilty on Learning to Love Instagram (LightBox) After years of staunch resistance, Occuli photographer Andrew Quilty has embraced Instagram as a powerful tool for photojournalists and documentary photographers around the world

Sontag, Photography, and Moral Knowledge (No Caption Needed)

Speech by HRH Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands at the 2014 Awards Ceremony (World Press Photo) Prince Constantijn on John Stanmeyer’s World Press Photo of the Year

Vivian Maier: Still Missing (Daily Beast) After discovering a trove of unknown photographs at an auction, John Maloof set about exposing the nanny-cum-artist who took them. But does ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ tell the whole story? Article by Malcolm Jones

A Visit to Garry Winogrand’s Retrospective (PROOF) Winogrand’s 25-year retrospective, currently on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. About one-third of the show comes from Winogrand’s vast stockpile of unpublished work

Larry Fink’s “The Beats” (The New Yorker’s Photo Booth) “The Beats,” a collection of Fink’s previously unpublished photographs, is out from powerHouse Books. Photo Booth represents a selection of work from the book, as well as photographs of jazz and blues musicians from the late 50s | Related on the Lens blog

Feature photographer: Brennan O’Connor (Verve Photo)

Interviews and Talks

Ami Vitale

Ami Vitale (Annenberg Space for Photography) Travel the globe through the stories and images of Ami Vitale’s Iris Nights lecture

Tyler Hicks Tells The Story Behind His Pulitzer-Winning Nairobi Mall Photos (NPR)

Magnum’s Peter van Agtmael on being a self-taught photographer (Ideas Tap) Van Agtmael has covered wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and their impact in the USA. After being voted in as a full member at last year’s Magnum AGM, he talks about photography schools, small cameras, conceptual documentary, and more

Reliving Joel Meyerowitz’s European Road Trip (American Photo) Joel Meyerowitz on his 1964 work European Trip: Photographs from the Car, which is on is on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York from April 18 – May 31, 2014

Stephanie Sinclair and Jessica Dimmock (MediaStorm for International Center of Photography) Too Young to Wed, a transmedia campaign using images by Stephanie Sinclair and videos by Jessica Dimmock, works to support girls who are already married and ultimately bring an end to child marriage | Recipient of Infinity Award for Photojournalism

Jürgen Schadeberg (MediaStorm for International Center of Photography) Schadeberg, whose career spans more than 65 years, has been called the father of South African photography. He photographed defining moments in South African history, including the early days of Nelson Mandela’s political presence | Recipients of the Cornell Capa Lifetime Achievement Infinity Award

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin (MediaStorm for International Center of Photography) Broomberg and Chanarin are a collaborative team that has spent the last 15 years pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a traditional photographer | Recipients of Infinity Award for Publication for their Holy Bible book

So maybe it will be five seasons and some memories instead. Word came down this afternoon that NBC was cancelling the eccentric Dan Harmon sitcom Community, which has tap-danced on the edge of doom practically since its premiere in 2009. Maybe it will get its avowed one more season and a movie from another network, or a streaming site, or Kickstarter, or through the intervention of Inspector Spacetime. But for right now, we have to at least work on the assumption that, as Abed said in the now-maybe-series finale, an asteroid destroyed human civilization — "and that's canon!" And I feel —well, not fine, but OK with it. That is, I'm sad to see Community end. This last season, with Harmon returned to run his baby after being forced to hand off the series for season four, suggested it had creative fuel for at least another year. Several episodes — YMMV, but "Cooperative Polygraphy," "Geothermal Escapism," "Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality" — reached the show's pre-interregnum peaks. But this isn't one of those cancellations where I can really rail against the injustice of the universe and the cruel stupidity of the suits. I have no brief for NBC, but it's hard to say the network didn't give it a fair chance. It was the sort of show born to be cancelled — that is, rewarding intense attention, willing to take risks and fail, unafraid to shift tones and go dark — and yet it ran five seasons. If it might have gotten more promotion here or better scheduling there, there was no magic time slot that would have forced the general public to love it as deeply as its fans did. And yet those fans followed it, maintaining a stready if small rating even when Community went up against monsters like The Big Bang Theory. Community's audience was small in the grand scheme of things, but it showed up. And more important, Community showed up for them. It didn't try to remake itself to try to break mainstream. (I won't get into the fourth season in depth here, but while I wasn't a fan of it, even then the caretakers also didn't wholesale make Community into something it was not.) It did what more art should do, which is take massive swings and be willing to fail. It had a sense of play and excitement about the possibilities of its medium, be it in elaborate parodies or realistic heart-to-heart character studies. It cultivated a talented ensemble — for all its backstage drama, it even used Chevy Chase well. And as dark as the turns of Harmon's creative mind could be, in the end the show had a real sense of joy and hope: it was, after all, about little-c community. Whether or not there's hope for it now, that a show as weird and idiosyncratic as it can execute its vision for five years on a network now is, however today feels for fans, reason for joy. And that's canon.

Jerome Delay—AP

Jerome Delay (Overseas Press Club of America) Delay won the 2013 John Faber Award for his work titled “Central African Republic Unrest”

Marcus Bleasdale on capturing conflict mineral trade in Democratic Republic of Congo (TEDx YouTube)

Elliott Erwitt at Work (American Photo) Photography’s preeminent wit answers some of our questions—and evades most of them. Fortunately, his pictures speak for themselves

Sacha Lecca (NPPA) Deputy Photography Editor at Rolling Stone

Elizabeth Griffin (Photo Brigade) Griffin is the photo editor of Esquire.com

Stuffed animals are a near-universal symbol of comfort, safety, and familiarity, an association that’s so powerful it’s been exploited in a number of different areas—from the eminently lovable animal friends we see in Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit stories to the sometimes strange stuffed animals we see on the big screen. The Viennese art collective Gelitin aren’t the latest to take advantage of the positive aura surrounding plushy toys, but their interpretation might be one of the creepiest. https://twitter.com/mbhula24/status/329984211907923970 Over a period of five years, the group knitted a gigantic, pink, woolen rabbit named “Hase” (Hare)—200 feet long, 20 feet high—and, in 2005, plopped it on top of a hill in the Piedmont region of Italy. Why? It’s there for hikers to enjoy, and, by 2025, for it to decay completely. “Happily in love you step down the decaying corpse, through the wound, now small like a maggot, over woolen kidney and bowel,” the group writes on the project’s website. “Such is the happiness which made this rabbit,” they continue, “I love the rabbit the rabbit loves me.” https://twitter.com/BluScottishRose/status/452107028131901440 (h/t Death and Taxes)

Jost Franko—VII Mentor Program

Conversation: Christopher Morris and Jošt Franko (PROOF) Conversations is an ongoing series where photographers, editors, and curators talk about concepts in photography as well as recent projects

Mark Lubell (New York Times Lens blog) The director of International Center of Photography, Mark Lubell, talks about his vision for the center’s future

Teru Kuwayama (Vice) Kuwayama serves as the photo community manager at Facebook

Fritz Hoffmann’s Mojo Bag (PROOF) Artifacts is a series about physical items that have meaning to photographers in the field. The items are styled, shot, and described by the photographers themselves

Gaza’s only female photojournalist, Eman Mohammed (Ted blog)

Lauren Justice (New York Times Lens blog) A photographer moved to a small town to understand what people hold dear. In time, she found herself drawn to subtler, quieter scenes

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

Contact us at letters@time.com.