NOOR photographer Benedicte Kurzen has been covering the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Travelling from Monrovia, the capital of Liberia to the remote villages in the forest region, near the border with Guinea she has been a witness of the disease and the continuous threat it brings to the health care workers and people who are living and working in the affected areas.
Take a look at the Stern article below and the online slideshow here.
On 3 October 2013, a Libyan fishing vessel carrying over 500 migrants sunk in sight of the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. The tragic accident caused the death of 366 migrants, mostly coming from war-torn Eritrea and other troubled African countries. A year later Francesco Zizola photographed and filmed the wreck of the boat, which lies on the seabed 50 meters under water, its prow facing Lampedusa’s port.
The story was published by Internazionale, where you can also view Francesco's video footage from the site.
A report back from academy moderator, photography editor and consultant Claudia Hinterseer (former managing director of NOOR)
After five intense days, the workshop has come to an end and looking back I can only say that it was a big success.
We explored the young photographer’s interests, passions and visual story ideas; concepts they will develop with the long-distance support of Jon Lowenstein and Sebastian Liste. And although still at an early stage, all the photographers left with a clear idea of what projects they will work on in the months ahead.
A recurrent learning point this week was: follow your heart! This approach also surfaced regularly in the presentations Jon and Sebastian gave of their long-term personal projects. To achieve the best, your passion and work should be aligned.
We debated and discussed issues of ethics, security and the possibilities Instagram and other (social) media offer. We looked at a wide range of photographic projects for insights and inspiration and talked about the international photography market. Besides this, and much more, we spent the evenings together exploring Mexico City by night.
If you would like to get to know some of the participants, read their testimonies here:
Fred Ramos (El Salvador)
Sara Escobar (Mexico)
Enrique Rashide Serrato Frias (Mexico)
Ernesto Perez (Venezuela)
And so as the week came to an end, the photographers became more and more eager to start shooting their projects; this can only mean good things are to come… stay tuned via #rnwnoor.
For a video impression of the workshop see here.
Text and images: Claudia Hinterseer, testimonies by Michiel Bles.
NOOR is pleased to announce that Camilla Invernizzi, founder of aBcM agency in Milan, will be NOOR’s new Representative for Special Projects in Europe.
aBcM is specialized in developing and producing photography projects by activating a network of professionals from different fields for cultural production and communication. aBcM experiments with interactive models and participatory projects that have a social impact and generate reciprocal relationships between photography, art, public and private institutions. aBcM handles photographic projects that span the publishing world, exhibitions and multimedia events.
“The NOOR photographers are some of the most important visual storytellers of our time and their work is recognized worldwide and regularly published on the most prestigious newspapers and magazines. The aim of this collaboration is to improve the strength of NOOR as a whole, to reinforce the agency's identity by working on collective projects and building networks with institutions and organizations which will expand and diversify NOOR’s reach in Europe,” explains Camilla Invernizzi.
Invernizzi has over twenty-years of professional experience in publishing houses, communication agencies and international photography agencies. Her collaborations with the most respected players in contemporary photography and experts in the field (curators, art directors, editors...) allow her to create specific networks for each project, ensuring innovative photographic projects of outstanding quality.
Founding NOOR member Francesco Zizola elaborates: “I know Camilla for her capability and seriousness in producing cultural and communication projects at a high level. I'm sure that this will be an important relationship for NOOR.”
Camilla is based in Milan, Italy, and can be reached by email
Last week NOOR photographer Kadir van Lohuizen's exhibition 'Ali & Laila, An Amsterdam Family History' exhibition opened at the Amsterdam museum. The exhibition portrays the Dutch-Moroccan Rharib family from Amsterdam East.
In 1993, Kadir met the family for the first time and spent some time with father Ali, mother Laila and their five children. Kadir photographed them in their daily life and followed Laila and her husband to Morocco during their holidays to their home country.
Nora, Fatima and Farida in the courtyard of the house where Laila was born. Amsterdam, 1993
In 2013, 20 years later, Kadir was visiting a friend in the hospital when he bumped into a woman who recognized the photographer from her childhood. At first, Kadir did not recognize Nora, the youngest daughter of the Rharib family, as she had become a young woman and was herself now a mother. Nora was there at the hospital because her father Ali was ill from Alzheimers. Nora told Kadir. "Don't you recognize me? "We need you to come," she said simply. "My father is going to die."
Kadir and the Rharib family watch the multimedia installation at the 'Ali & Laila' exhibition.
The multimedia installation at the 'Ali & Laila' exhibition.
Once again the Rharib family invited Kadir into their lives and he soon joined them, as he did 20 years earlier, to Marroco. Kadir wondered what had changed in the meantime. Did the Rharib family found their place in Dutch society? How had the years in Amsterdam shaped their identity? Kadir documented how their lives had developed. Through this extended family portrait, the exhibit 'Ali & Laila' explores questions of identity, culture & integration in the Netherlands.
The exhibition runs until 8 March 2015 at the Amsterdam Museum.
More info: http://www.amsterdammuseum.nl/kadir-van-lohuizen
Tune in!
Kadir was a guest on the Dutch radio show 'Nooit Meer Slapen'. In the program he talks about the exhibition and his work as a photojournalist. You can listen to the show online (in Dutch) here.
Photos © Johannes De Bruycker
A report back from academy moderator, photography editor and consultant Claudia Hinterseer (former managing director of NOOR)
So nice to be part of a NOOR project once again, it feels natural, like I’ve never been away…
It’s day one of the Latin-American chapter of the RNW-NOOR Academy and we’ve kicked-off on a high note: Jon Lowenstein, Sebastian Liste, Michiel Bles and Cristina Fernández Cuéllar of the Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) and myself - united with eight Mexican, one El Salvadorian and a Venezuelan photographer at the beautiful Monterrey Tech University in Mexico City.
The Academy started a few weeks ago with a visual literacy workshop for the picture editors and designers of RNW in Hilversum, and now here in Mexico the aim is to elevate the skills of local photographers for RNW’s El Toque platform to collaborate with. After these five days they will each - during three months - work on visual stories with the support of Jon and Sebastian, culminating in the publication of their work on the El Toque platform. So stay tuned.
Today we first took our time to get to know one another. In discussing which topics people cover; not surprisingly a lot deal with issues relating to narco-culture, violence, and disappearances, but there’s also interest in indigenous people and contra-culture for instance.
It’s a mixed group with some more-established, strong visual storytellers and some less experienced students of photography... and there’s a good vibe. Most importantly, everyone is serious about their work, and that’s a good thing too - as Jon put it laughingly: “‘…’cause otherwise it would be a nightmare to work together for 12 weeks!”
For me it’s at the same time a small reunion: at the welcome dinner NOOR photographer Andrea Bruce, who recently moved to Mexico City joined us - “que padre!”, so cool, as the Mexicans say.
Text and images © Claudia Hinterseer
NOOR and Radio Netherlands Worldwide are proud to announce the list of 10 participants for the Visual Storytelling Academy, which starts Monday 20 October 2014 in Mexico City. We sincerely thank everyone who applied and congratulate the photographers who will be taking part in the academy:
Antonio Contreras Sanillan
Diego Mateos
Enrique Rashide Serrato Frías
Ernesto José Pérez Ramírez
Fred Ramos
Ivan Castaneira
Sara Escobar
Mariana Guevara
Itzia Sanchez
Montserrat Díaz Guzmán
During the academy, these participants, together with NOOR member photographers Jon Lowenstein and Sebastián Liste, and photography consultant and editor Claudia Hinterseer, will share experiences, work on portfolios, improve editing skills and learn how to pick up and develop stories.
We are looking forward to meeting all the participants, having the chance to learn about their work and sharing experiences.
This week in Hilversum, the Netherlands the RNW-NOOR Academy kicked off with a three-day training on visual storytelling for a select group of editors working for Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW). The 14 participants represent different regional editorial departments of RNW being the Arab, Africa, Latin America and China Desks. Amongst the participants were also social media editors and web designers from the ‘Themes & Projects’ department.
The group, together with NOOR photographer Kadir van Lohuizen and photography consultant and photo editor Claudia Hinterseer, learned how to select and develop visual stories from existing photographic material.
“It’s great to see the enthusiasm amongst the participants. Everyone seems eager to explore new ways of visual storytelling on their respective online platforms and get inspired by Kadir and other great photographers’ work,” said Claudia Hinterseer. “It’s very interesting to discuss topics like image quality and resources, ethical and copyright issues, and sequencing with this varied and energized group.”
Claudia Hinterseer gave an introduction to picture editing and led a hands-on session where the participants had to prepare an online thematic slideshow from scratch, using the themes and resources available to RNW, in order to make the exercise as realistic as possible.
“It’s almost like making a movie,” said Kadir van Lohuizen about working on long-term multimedia projects. “The difference between making a movie and being a photographer is that you have to do everything yourself, the research, the planning, the shooting, etc.”
Kadir van Lohuizen showed and talked about his extensive project Via PanAm and allowed the group to edit a part of his story, which lead to interesting discussions about different opinions and ways of editing a story.
Kadir also reflected on how nowadays he uses video as part of the process: “For me with video it is the sequence that makes it strong. With stills it is the decisive moment that makes it strong. I use video more to support my stills.”
“The NOOR photography workshop really opened my eyes to great tools and ways to build a photo story,” commented Issa Shaker video editor at the Arab Desk.
Catarina Gomez, social media editor at the Themes & Projects department, found the workshop very refreshing: “Photo editing is not only about illustrating your written story, it's about thinking visually how to tell your story. I never thought it was possible to tell a story with just still images.”
As part of the RNW-NOOR Academy, Jon Lowenstein and Sebastian Liste will conduct a training in Mexico City from October 20-24 for 10 young visual storytellers from Latin America. After the initial 5 day workshop the group will be mentored for three months by the NOOR photographers.
NOOR's recent group project in Za'atari is now shown at PHOTOVILLE – the largest annual photographic event of New York City; it is a modular venue built from re-purposed shipping containers. For Nina Berman this is an inspiring event ''it was here that I first started thinking about the possibilities for large-scale outdoor photographic displays''. NOOR is excited to bring the Za'atari project to this location, after it was initially installed on the walls of the refugee camp in Jordan. The installation features 4 meter wide images by photographers Alixandra Fazzina, Andrea Bruce, Stanley Greene and Nina Berman.
''Having covered stories of refugees around the world over nearly two decades, Zaatari Camp in Jordan puts a different face on what a crisis should look like. Far from languishing in the desert to wait out the ongoing conflict, the 120,000 Syrian refugees at Zaatari have mobilised themselves. Facing up to what is a protracted situation, they are getting by day to day in what has become a new temporary city across the frontier. These threads of new lives that are weaving together the community in Zaatari compelled me to look beyond the surface, to try and tell a more sensitive and positive narrative of the people I came to meet'' - says NOOR photographer Alixandra Fazzina, whose work is now available on the NOOR website - 'Za'atiri, New Lives' http://noorimages.com/feature/zaatari-new-lives/`
Also at Photoville, on Sunday September 28, there will be a Panel Discussion with Nina Berman on Photography in Public Space. This discussion will explore the politics, meanings, and impact of site-specific artwork, examining case studies from photographers who have mounted larger-than-life photographs everywhere.
More information on the installation:
http://www.photoville.com/2014-installations/zaatari/
More information on the panel discussion:
http://www.photoville.com/2014-programming/2014-talks-workshops/whose-space-our-space/
What to do at Photoville?
http://www.featureshoot.com/2014/09/10-workshops-panels-and-events-you-shouldnt-miss-at-photoville-2014/
Vista Hermosa is one of Venezuela’s most notorious prisons. As violence plagued the
country, the prison population grew and clashes between prisoners and guards became common. Rather than improving conditions, prison authorities have allowed them to descend into near-chaos. Inside, the inmates live and die in a world of their own making. In Venezuelan prisons, inmates are in control.
