Rising Photographers / I

As artists, we expend a lot of our emotional energy and other resources into building our resumes, seeking relationships with peers and influentials, and working on series and portfolios.

Belgium is currently in lock down. We can only go outside to get food and some people are allowed to go to their work. We can go outside for a walk and once a day around 6:30 pm, Stephan Vanfleteren leaves with his camera to the sea, forest, fields... He named his walks: Corona walks.

Natalie Obermaier's gaze is honest and sympathetic. Absent of pretense, shyness, or posturing, nothing comes between Obermaier and her subjects. Every image expresses the subtle context of his unfettered access. When they gaze directly into the camera, her subjects seem to be looking directly at us. The conjecture of photography is shaped with contradictions... ambiguously-specific, empowered-vulnerability, truthfully-inaccurate. The nuances of these paradoxes are burned into the silver halide crystals of Obermaier's film.

Stephan Gladieu's career began in 1989 covering war & social issues, traveling across Europe,Central Asia, the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan) and Asia (India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, etc). His work began as travel features, but he became increasingly interested in using portraiture to illustrate the human condition around the world. His portraiture has included covering the Saudi Princes, Princesses in Nepal, actors & directors behind the scenes at Cannes Film Festival, politicians, intellectuals, but also everyday people the world over.

Global climate change is real and has observable effects on the environment. It affects all regions of the world. The polar ice caps are melting and the level of the oceans is rising. In some regions, extreme weather events and precipitation are becoming more frequent, while others are facing increasingly extreme heat waves and droughts. Many plants and animal species are endangered. Some terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have already moved to new territories. Plants and animals will be in serious danger of extinction if the average temperature of the planet continues to rise uncontrollably.

Global climate change is real and has observable effects on the environment. It affects all regions of the world. The polar ice caps are melting and the level of the oceans is rising. In some regions, extreme weather events and precipitation are becoming more frequent, while others are facing increasingly extreme heat waves and droughts. Many plants and animal species are endangered. Some terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have already moved to new territories. Plants and animals will be in serious danger of extinction if the average temperature of the planet continues to rise uncontrollably.

Extradition bill gave birth to a new Hong Kong political awakening. It is powerful, resilient, and it seems here to stay. It is a leaderless movement, fighting for democracy and against Chinese mainland-style authoritarian rule spilling into Hong Kong.

On Tuesday, October 8, North Dakotan wet plate collodion artist Shane Balkowitsch had the chance to make several portraits of Swedish environmental activist and 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg during her visit to North Dakota in support of indigenous groups fighting Dakota Access oil pipeline. Many in the Standing Rock tribe consider the pipeline a threat to the region's clean water and to ancient burial grounds. The shoot took place at Standing Rock, ND where Thunberg was being honored by tribal leaders for her work to fight climate change. During the closing ceremony, Thunberg was bestowed with a Lakota Native American name "Maphiyata echiyatan his win" which translates as "woman who came from the heavens."

It's really strange to return to a city that I first knew at half of the age I am today. We are afraid to find it unchanged, intact, which, by contrast, would accentuate the awareness of one's own aging. But we are equally afraid of no longer recognizing it, which would mean that time has erased our memories, which we will not find traces anywhere. Returning to Saint Louis in Senegal, 26 years after going there for the first time, I felt threatened by these two perils.