For its eighth iteration, the Xposure International Photography Festival claimed it would hold its largest event to date. While the proclamation is heard for many events in the region, often meaning a marginal increase in participation, in the case of the annual photography festival, the expansion is certainly felt.

The event has grown almost twofold. Running until March 5, it sprawls across 33,000 square metres at the Expo Centre Sharjah. It features group and solo exhibitions, workshop spaces, multiple stages, a dedicated cinema, as well as a trade area, where top-level photography brands are offering their products at discounted prices.

Since its inception in 2016, Xposure has sought to give photographers their due. This is especially true for this edition, where the breadth of the medium, and its ability to reflect social and climate concerns, is most evident.

The festival has installations dedicated to journalists who have recently died while covering conflicts. “Their legacy is a ceaseless call for peace,” the concrete-cast installations read, displaying the names of the journalists alongside a call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war.

One of the photographers exhibiting is Rania Matar. She is presenting a series titled Where Do I Go? Fifty Years Later. The works in the series reflect upon the destruction and inertia that have gripped Lebanon in the wake of its civil war.

Matar travelled to the US from Lebanon in 1984, in the middle of the conflict. Among the memories she has before leaving is watching Beirut’s Holiday Inn hotel – built just a year before the war erupted in 1975 – burn. The dilapidated structure still stands today, its floors gutted and walls pockmarked by shelling and bullets.

Her photograph Petra, Holiday Inn Pool captures the building’s current state. A woman in a vibrant yellow dress stands on the blue-tiled floor of the hotel’s empty pool. The structure itself looms tragically in front of her.

“I saw it from my apartment as a kid,” she says. “The war had started, and I saw room by room burn. Almost 50 years later, and it’s still like that.”

Matar began the series soon after the port explosion in August 2020. One of the first photographs is Alae (with the Mirror). It features a young woman holding up a pocket mirror, but looking off into the distance, towards the crumbled port.

“I went to Lebanon in late September 2020, right after the port explosion,” Matar says. “I thought I was going to photograph the destruction and I realised that I was more fascinated with the women and the reconstruction. I photographed Alae a few times. We went to the top floor of my father-in-law’s building. The top floor had been destroyed since the civil war.”

“We went upstairs and saw the port. When Alae lifted the mirror, she wanted to look at herself originally, but she could [also see] the port.”

It was then that Matar began the series, seeing that Beirut was evidently ensnared in the throes of a destructive cycle. Many of the photographs feature landmark buildings that have become embedded within the Lebanese collective memory. Even for those like Matar’s subjects, almost all of whom were born after the war concluded, the structures hold a shadow of the conflict and ring with the symbolisms of Beirut’s inertia.

“I left Lebanon in 1984 to study architecture and there was a major wave of emigration,” she says. “And now after the port explosion, there was this other major wave of emigration. For me, I could almost see my younger self and those women, you know, so it kind of slowly developed into a project.”

Tamary Kudita, meanwhile, is presenting Liberty. The photographs in the series take their aesthetic cue from the portraits of the Dutch painter Rembrandt, enlivening them with clothing and cultural elements of Zimbabwe.

“I started the series in 2019,” Kudita says. “The National Gallery [in Zimbabwe] was hosting a competition to reinterpret one of Rembrandt’s works but applied to the local context.”

Kudita was inspired by Saskia as Flora, a 1634 painting that depicts Rembrandt’s wife as the goddess flora, with a garland in her hair and a staff in her right hand. Kudita reinterpreted the piece to feature a Zimbabwean woman also with a floral headdress, as well as a straw-woven sweeper. Kudita says she asked herself what it would be like “to place [a] black woman within mainstream art history.

“Women often didn’t have that visibility that we that we deserve,” she says. The portrait emanates a regal energy, like many others in the series. “Even the royal aspects with the blue that she’s wearing, it adds layers of significance.” Liberty also reflects upon Kudita’s mixed heritage, which also incorporates South African and Dutch roots.

This is evident with the scenography that Kudita employs in her works, which blend motifs from various backgrounds. “It is done with bringing cultural objects together with fabric and also hairstyles, as hairstyles have a tradition of being undermined and overlooked.”

Xposure is also offering a platform to emerging names, many of whom are marking their first solo exhibition. These include Dhir Jakharia. Attracted to the landscape of the savannah since he was a child visiting the grassland during family holidays, the Kenyan-Indian photographer captures the mystery and splendour of the area across 12 photographs in his solo exhibition.

The works feature silhouettes of animals caught on layered, luminous landscapes. There is a sense of magical realism to Jakharia’s photographs, a play on perspective that makes it seem, for instance, like a giraffe is grazing on a hot-air balloon.

The 12 exhibited images are highlights of his works, a small fraction of what he has taken in the four years since he took up photography. There are a lot of factors that come into play when setting out to take a photograph that falls in line with his visual objective.

“There’s so many things that have to be perfect,” Jakharia says. “You might go out in the morning, and you’re anticipating the sunrise, but it’s cloudy, so you don’t get the sun. If the clouds are clear, you get a nice sunrise, but you have to find an animal after that. Then after finding the animal, you need to kind of position yourself above the horizon.”

Then there are photographers who reveal sidelined and brutal histories with their works. These include Daniella Zalcman. Her Signs of Identity is an ongoing photography series that highlights the stories of survivors in the US, Canada and Australia who were subjected to systematic and forced assimilation in a bid to erase their indigenous cultural roots.

Many of them were forcibly prised from their homes and sent off to boarding schools and foster care. Their names were changed, they were forbidden to practice their customs and speak their native languages, and even when they were allowed to return, their connection to their communities had been ruptured, often irreparably.

Zalcman says she first came across these systematic government-backed programmes a decade ago while she was interviewing indigenous people in Canada for an unrelated story. The US photographer was surprised that she had never learnt about it in school, that it wasn’t mentioned in their history textbooks. “I was both really angry and quite shocked that this thing had gone on for 120 years.”

“The last school in Canada did not close until 1996,” she says. “The US government actually invented the concept of the indigenous boarding school. That original school in Pennsylvania became the model on which all of the Canadian and other American schools were based. Indigenous children as young as two years old were forcibly taken from their communities and from their parents and were sent to boarding schools.”

Zalcman’s portraits are of survivors of these schools. The works contain the names of the subjects, as well as quotes about their experiences. Mike Pinay, for instance, who attended the Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School between 1953 and 1963, is quoted as saying: “It was the worst 10 years of my life. I was away from my family from the age of six to 16. How do you learn about family? I didn’t know what love was. We weren’t even known by names back them. I was a number. Pinay was known as 73.

The earlier photographs in the series are double-exposed works and interplay the portraits with elements and landscapes that touch upon their subject’s stories. The latter works involve collaborations with artists from indigenous communities who drew and embroidered over the photographs.

These include the portrait of Nixon Martinez, who was forced into the Ramah Elementary School between 1966 and 1973. “From day one, the government tried to do away with us,” he says in the caption of the work. “They shot our livestock, they burnt our crops. Then that didn’t work, so they went after our children.” The photograph and artwork is a collaboration between Zalcman and Mo Thunder.

Each of the 400 photographers exhibited at Xposure have their own way of using the medium to reveal tragic truths, touch upon social absurdities, or capture beautiful ephemeral moments with artistic insight. The festival, in its most ambitious iteration yet, has become a labyrinth of visuals that offers something profound and touching in every turn, offering an enriching experience that effortlessly distinguishes itself even amid the busy UAE arts season.

Xposure International Photography Festival is running at Expo Centre Sharjah until March 5

Updated: March 02, 2024, 5:33 AM

Photographer Edward Burtynsky says people should be “screaming 10 alarm fire right now,” due to the urgency of the climate crisis. Instead, he says “it still feels like we’re rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”.

The 69-year-old Canadian artist has re-invented landscape photography, spending the last 40 years documenting man’s dominance over the planet.

He explores human impact across the world – in all its beauty and bleakness.

But does he see any conflict in creating beautiful images documenting such devastating impact on the earth?

He tells Sky News: “My work is revelatory, not accusatory.

“Every living species takes something from nature to survive, and we as a top predator, take quite a bit from nature to survive.

“All these things I’m showing would be perfectly fine if there were one billion human beings on the planet. The fact that there’s eight billion makes it a problem. It’s just too much of a good thing.”

His large-scale panoramas both celebrate and question human ingenuity, challenging his audience to look beyond their backyard.

They also act as a critical reminder of what could be at stake without urgent changes to the way we use the planet’s resources.

Born in Ukraine, Burtynsky’s parents moved to Canada after the Second World War. His father – who gave him his first camera as a child – died when he was just 15.

Precipices and helicopters

The necessity to earn enough money to allow him to study photography led him to find work in big industry, working in both the auto and mining industries as a young man.

“I moved far north and worked in big mines. And I got to see those worlds, first-hand. And I think it was that kind of opening my eyes to this other world that gave me the idea that most people haven’t really seen these worlds”.

Progressing from standing on the edges of perilous quarries and mines to get his shots (admitting, “my mother didn’t approve, it was sort of dangerous”), he now uses helicopters to get his aerial images.

Over four decades, his photography has seen him travel to multiple countries across every continent (except for Antarctica), with his works included in the collections of more than 60 museums around the world.

Disappearing rivers of ice

His recent trip to photograph the Coast mountains of British Columbia, Canada, for his latest exhibition – New Works – was a stark reminder of a swiftly changing world.

From his bird’s eye view, he could see the glaciers – which date as far back as 150,000 years – had receded dramatically compared with 20 years ago because of warming as a result of human activity.

Not only a visible measure of man’s impact on the environment, the disappearing rivers of ice will go on to impact the ecosystems that rely on their meltwater.

Burtynsky’s new collection also explores soil erosion in Turkey, and the impact of coal mines in Australia.

He admits it’s sometimes frustrating trying to relay the urgency of the climate emergency message.

‘Our legacy is troubled’

“We have this particular moment in time and things are evolving rapidly. I’m trying to invoke a sense of urgency out there… This is actually scientifically being charted and we’re pretty good at predicting what to expect.”

His environmental message – which is his life’s passion – is deeply held.

“I have two daughters and I want them to have a chance to have a family, too. So, if you know, the legacy that we’re leaving behind is troubled.

But his ecological vigour is also rooted within his personal knowledge of big industry. He says our use of the world’s most valuable resources is not something that can just stop, but instead needs careful planning, with alternative energy incentivisation, to help us transition to more sustainable methods.

So, what’s his view on the growing army of climate activists drawing attention to the cause by doing ever more extreme things to hit the headlines – particularly when that involves demonstrations in art galleries?

‘I understand the frustration’

“I understand why culture and the arts in particular can be a target, and somebody trying to bring attention through art celebrity. And that’s what’s happening, they’re taking a famous painting and throwing some paint on it… Or gluing themselves…

“I would think that demonstrating in front of the companies that are causing the problem might be a better place – to go direct to the source of the problem. But I understand the frustration.”

As for the renewed scrutiny on the source of funding for some of our big arts institutions, including galleries and museums accepting money from big oil companies, he says it’s a tricky path to navigate.

‘Be careful what you wish for’

“The line in a way is dangerous because you can all of a sudden find out that culture is no longer viable.

“I think as well, the oil companies have to transition, and they can do a lot to make a difference.

“We still need oil in the meantime until the transition occurs, [and we should] be careful what we wish for, because if all of a sudden the oil stopped tomorrow, I’d call that anarchy.

“We wouldn’t have food coming into the cities. We wouldn’t have transport working, everything would come to a screeching halt. So we are, unfortunately, still bound to that energy source for the foreseeable future.”

Part of that future, he believes, lies in the essential role that art can play in raising ecological awareness.

‘There’s still time’

“Artists have a role and creativity has a huge role in the future, because we have to reinvent our world. We have to find a world that isn’t built on this consumer culture saying the more stuff I own, the happier I am.

“I think everybody’s finding that that’s a bit of a shallow value system that may have been sold to us by some very influential advertising campaigns.”

So, should viewers of his work feel optimistic or pessimistic on leaving the gallery?

“I hope people can walk away saying there’s still time to do something.

“I think pessimism tends to lead to cynicism that nothing will work, so [people think] ‘Why should I bother? I’ll just carry on business as usual’. And I don’t think that’s the right attitude.”

But alongside that optimism, Burtynsky’s clear-eyed on the challenges the world is facing.

Atmospheric rivers, water bombs and heat domes

“The storms are coming – we’re hearing all kinds of new terminology: ‘Atmospheric rivers’; ‘water bombs’ – these the massive amounts of water hitting a city all at once; ‘heat domes’. All of these new terms to try and describe what’s coming.

“The fire seasons have already started early, Texas is having one of its worst fire seasons ever, and it’s a month and a half, two months early.”

He concludes: “It’s a question of how quickly we’re able to cease and desist the worst activity that we’re doing, which I’d say right now is CO2 loading in the atmosphere and is our most immediate problem.

“We’ve got a lot of problems, and I think if people are going to act, they need to act. The time for words is way over.”

Edward Burtynsky New Works is showing at Flowers Gallery until 6 April.

A retrospective of his work, Extraction /Abstraction, is showing at the Saatchi Gallery until 6 May.

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Bethany Truax in the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company’s production of “Sleeping Beauty” from spring 2023. Truax is involved locally in dance and a number of artistic endeavors with plans to continue in dance and study photography. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — For Bethany Truax of Vienna, dance is about expressing herself and finding beauty in movement.

The 18-year-old home-schooled high school senior is entering her 11th year of dance with the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company.

She got involved with it through a friend and had her mother sign her up to see if it was something that she might like to do.

“I enjoyed it so that is where I ended up now,” Truax said.

Many people think of dance as something visual, but she likes the emotions it evokes.

Bethany Truax as the Snow Queen from the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company’s production of “The Nutcracker” from 2023. Truax has been involved with the ballet company for over 10 years. (Photo Provided)

“It is more about how it feels,” Truax said. “People always talk about how it looks, but when I am dancing it feels very emotional.

“You can really put emotion into it. That is what I love to do is hear the music and match up the movements. It looks beautiful, and it feels beautiful to me. That is the reason I love it so much.”

Truax has performed in many productions for the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company over the years. Her favorite was “Sleeping Beauty,” which was her first main role that she got to do on pointe shoes, which can be difficult.

“It was a struggle to do because the pointe shoes are very hard to dance with,” Truax said. “It was a struggle for me because I have never had anything that big before.

“I had so many people to help me, teach me through it, and walk me through it. I got so good at it, it was a piece of cake at the end of it.”

Bethany Truax as the Snow Queen from the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company’s production of “The Nutcracker” from 2023. Truax has been involved with the ballet company for over 10 years. (Photo Provided)

She credits her dance teacher, Suzy Gunter, with helping her become a better dancer and a better person by including life lessons with her instruction of dance in not only relying on others, but also working as part of a team to bring a performance together.

“She’s an amazing woman who is like a second mom to me,” Truax said. “She has helped me through a lot of situations in my life by telling me I need to be strong and independent.”

One goal Truax has is to do a modern dance piece to “Gymnopedie No. 1” by Erik Satie or “Reflections” by Toshifumi Hinata.

“A nice modern piece would look beautiful with a nice piece of music behind it,” she said.

She wants to be able to do the piece in pointe shoes.

Bethany Truax in the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company’s production of “Sleeping Beauty” from spring 2023. Truax is involved locally in dance and a number of artistic endeavors with plans to continue in dance and study photography. (Photo Provided)

Truax was 12 years old when she got fitted for her first pair of pointe shoes, then started taking pointe classes to help her understand how to properly dance in them without getting hurt. Pointe shoes are made out of nails, wood, glue and fabric and are put together to fit the person wearing them.

“I’ve been working hard with my shoes to do steps and turns that I never thought I could do,” Truax said. “Ballerinas have to make everything look effortless, when in reality it’s super hard to do. You are basically holding up your entire body on just your toes, so it makes it really hard to walk let alone perform in.”

In addition to being involved with the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company, Truax also works at The Watering Can studio at the Grand Central Mall. Working there, she sees people of all skill levels trying their hand at creating art. Some produce really beautiful works.

“I love seeing that,” Truax said.

She has been homeschooled since she was in elementary school. It could be challenging at times with dance, but has allowed her time to be able to participate in the company’s annual performances of “The Nutcracker” at area schools for local students every holiday season.

In addition to dance, Bethany Truax of Vienna has an interest in photography. She took this picture in downtown Marietta at night. (Photo Provided)

It is always a joy for the people in the show to hear students laughing at the mice during the battle scene.

“We love listening to them laugh at the mice,” Truax said. “The mice are always really funny looking.”

The openness of her schedule has also allowed her to be able to take some classes for college credit.

Although she is a senior, a time when many age out of the dance program, she is remaining with the ballet company and will be allowed to still to take dance classes and be in the shows.

“I will be doing that as well as college stuff,” she said.

Truax plans to attend college at West Virginia University at Parkersburg to stay in the area. She plans to pursue her interest in photography, which ties into her love of art as she likes to focus on specific things she thinks are pretty.

“I love just capturing nature and the beauty of people,” Truax said. “I just love watching people. I just love the beauty of people.”

She likes to enhance scenes with the camera and make them come to life in her view, playing with lighting and shadows.

Whether it is dance, photography, drawing or any of her other creative endeavors, art remains an important part of her life.

“I’m an artist,” she said. “I am obsessed with art and the beauty of it. I love doing it.”

Through it all, it is the people in her family and at the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Company who are a big part of her accomplishments.

“I wouldn’t be here without them,” Truax said.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

Larry Lee McGraw, an esteemed former teacher in the York County Schools and a passionate photographer, has passed away at the age of 84 in Williamsburg, Virginia. His death on Thursday, February 29, 2024, marks the end of a life dedicated to education, art, and community involvement.

Life and Legacy

Born to Walter and Opal McGraw, Larry Lee McGraw’s journey through life was marked by his commitment to teaching and his love for photography. After serving in the Army, McGraw pursued higher education at Beckley College and Morris Harvey College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts. His passion for knowledge and sharing it led him to a rewarding career in teaching with the York County Schools, impacting countless students over the years. Beyond the classroom, Larry found joy and expression in photography, working both as a hobbyist and professionally for Sam’s Camera and McGraw Photography.

Remembering Larry

Larry’s life was not just defined by his professional achievements but also by the deep connections he forged with those around him. He is survived by his daughters, Kelly A. McGraw and Suzanne M. McGraw, who remember him as a loving father. His legacy also lives on through the friendships he cherished, notably with Bill and Carole Evans, Gerald Abraham, and Sam and Selena Elkins, who have been credited for their years of friendship. A graveside service to honor Larry’s life and contributions will be held on Monday, March 11, 2024, at Williamsburg Memorial Park.

A Call to Honor His Memory

In lieu of traditional floral tributes, Larry’s family has requested donations to Faith in Action or a charity of the donor’s choice, reflecting his spirit of giving and support for the community. This gesture serves as a testament to Larry’s belief in the power of collective support and kindness, principles he lived by and encouraged in others.

Larry Lee McGraw’s departure leaves behind a legacy of education, art, and community service. As we reflect on his life, we are reminded of the indelible mark he has left on the hearts of those who knew him and the communities he served. His memory lives on not only through his family and friends but also through the countless students he inspired and the beautiful photographs that capture moments of our world through his eyes.

The Associated Press (AP), winner of 58 Pulitzer Prizes and one of the world’s most essential and significant news agencies, has named veteran photojournalist Lucy Nicholson its next Director of Photography. Nicholson is the first woman ever to assume the role.

Nicholson will assume her new role “around the end of May” and take over for J. David Ake, who was named Director of Photography in November 2018. During his tenure, Ake oversaw numerous significant changes at AP, including the organization’s shift to exclusively using Sony cameras. The AP also added AI-powered search to its photo and video licensing platform last year, one of the many examples of how the news media landscape has changed in recent years.

Lucy Nicholson will bring nearly two decades of professional photojournalism experience to AP, including 17 years as a Los Angeles-based Reuters photographer. In that role, she worked on many stories across the world, including as part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2019 for its coverage of migrants traveling to the United States.

She also covered many major sporting events, including eight Olympics, several NFL Super Bowls, and 16 NBA finals.

Nicholson was most recently Reuters Europe Editor, leading nearly 200 staff and contract photographers, visual journalists, and photo editors in 50 countries across the region. During this time, she has led photo coverage of the biggest stories in Europe, including the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Lucy Nicholson is the first woman to serve as AP’s Director of Photography in the organization’s long and illustrious history. She will serve in her role from London and report to Derl McCrudden, AP’s Vice President and Head of Global News Production, who is also in London.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Nicholson has a master’s degree in journalism, science, and climate from Columbia University, studied international politics at Penn State, and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at The City University of New York.

Nicholson is from a family of journalists. Her sister, Sophie Nicholson, is a television, radio, and print journalist and the Deputy Chief Editor for Agence France-Press (AFP) Fact Check in Paris.

In the age of artificial intelligence, it is worth noting that beyond a rich resume as a photojournalist and editor, Nicholson has also been involved with the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI).

“As documentary photojournalists, we try to represent the truth of news events — and the visual context of news events — as best as we can. We typically do that by sharing a wide range of photographs, to show context, and to allow an audience to make up their minds about something. Disinformation, up until now, has had abstract effects on our lives as photojournalists. In the last year in particular, it’s had very tangible effects on journalists’ physical safety,” Nicholson said during a CAI presentation in April 2023.