For twenty-eight years, the Rencontres de la Jeune Photographie Internationale has extended an invitation to eight (sometimes seven) young people and hosted them at the Fort Foucault, an artists’ residence in the city of Niort. When the festival was launched in 1994, the guest photographers worked with photochemical film and applications were sent by mail. The general idea, however, was already the same: to offer time and place dedicated exclusively to photographic creation. Patrick Delat, artistic director of the Rencontres, sums up the event as “a sort of creative laboratory, all in a spirit of goodwill.”

“Every year, I put together a program that allows the general public to discover all facets of photography, whether it be photojournalism, as with Philip Blenkinsop; classic analog photography, as with Descamps or Françoise Huguier; or visual arts, as with Corinne Mercadier,” says Delat. 

This year, Joan Fontcuberta is the guest of honor of the Rencontres. The Spanish artist occupies the Villa Perochon with his exhibition Monsters. A true “image recycler,” he recovers “orphaned” images from archives and puts them into dialogue with others, produced by artificial intelligence. Fontcuberta, who is also the sponsor of the 2023 residency, mentors the seven young artists-in-residence in their creative process.

Time to experiment

The Rencontres are organized in two phases. From March 25 to April 14, the Médiathèque Pierre-Moinot exhibited the works of the 2023 guest artists which they had submitted in their applications. Following fifteen days of creation, the first exhibition dedicated to the earlier works of the seven residents is replaced with the work they completed during their residency. The new works are now on view until May 27.

The 2023 residency offers a very varied selection in terms of creation. Representing France, Romy Alizée takes a feminist look at sexuality in her erotic, transgressive, black-and-white prints. Chloé Milos Azzopardi, through her almost supernatural pictures, questions our relationship with the natural world, between domination and servitude.

Valia Russo approaches the concept of collapse. Between 2021 and 2022, she created a photographic documentation of the early signs of this collapse, which according to her, has been unfolding for some time. Soft and poetic, her flash photographs of night subvert the idea of chaos that they foreshadow. Finally, France-Lan Lê Vu’s photographic installations are a reflection on the reprisal of natural techniques and alternative modes of photography in the face of ultra-modernity.

As for the international artists, three photographers have come to settle down in Niort. Md Fazla Rabbi Fatiq approaches the colonial history of Bangladesh and the reality of tea cultivation. Victor Gamarra retraces his childhood in Peru, on the beaches of Lima; while the Ukrainian photographer Yehor Simakov develops his memory on old Soviet paper, like a puzzle of archives and films.

A journey into the heart of the city

In parallel to the residency, the Rencontres hosts a panel of exhibitions, made up of works by former residents and guest artists. This is an opportunity to discover the emblematic sites of Niort, “a city built on a human scale,” points out Delat.

Niort’s former city hall and now visual arts space, Le Pilori showcases the works of former residents, Soham Gupta and David Fathi. Artist in residence in Niort in 2015, David Fathi presents his new project The Dead Govern the Living. Combining photographic images and archival videos of politicians fighting with their bare hands, the artist reflects on the future, order, and progress.

Similarly, in his photographic archive Desi Boys, Soham Gupta focuses on marginalized Indian youth and victims of xenophobia, as they confront the Hindu nationalist right, new technologies, and globalization. A photographer whose work straddles documentary, art, and writing, Gupta also exhibits Angst, a series of portraits of the poor in Calcutta, his hometown, which had already been presented during his residency in 2016.

Silver gelatin prints on photosensitive paper from the 1970s, reproductions of letters and archival documents on original Chinese paper. It is at the Pavillon Grappelli, former school of drawing and now a digital arts space, that Rachele Maistrello presents her series Blue Diamond. The Italian photographer plunges us into a fictitious universe more real than life itself. Reality or science fiction? It is up to the visitor to make up their own mind.

Not far from there, in the green island of the Desmettre gallery, the artificial botany gives way to an anarchy of wild grass. In this place, entirely surrounded by water, Sylvie Bussières combines botany, photographic images and graphite mines. Created during the confinement, her works give life to the weeds that proliferate in the absence of human presence.

Finally, Greece is invited to the Séchoir, with the works of six Greek photographers curated by Manolis Moresopoulos, director of the Athens photo festival. The exhibition Rites of Passage questions the culture and identity of Greece, a country with a considerable historical past, but with an uncertain future. Whether it is about the impact of the industrial crisis, spirituality, mourning, or the rituals of the afterlife, each artist reveals the intermediate space between presence and absence.

Rencontres de la Jeune Photographie Internationale. Exhibitions on view Tuesday to Saturday, 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., free admission.

Spring is here, and it brings with it a veritable plethora of fun and interesting photography opportunities. If you are ready to bust out your camera and shake off the rust from winter, check out this great video tutorial that will show three fun and easy spring photography ideas to get you rolling, along with some helpful advice for improving your images.

Coming to you from Park Cameras, this helpful video tutorial discusses three fun and straightforward spring photography ideas. One of the best parts about spring is how rapidly everything changes, which means an ever-rotating range of image opportunities. As such, you can easily go to the same location multiple times, as you will often get different weather, blooms, and wildlife with each successive visit. One thing to bring along to increase your opportunities is a macro lens. With all the blossoming plant life, it is worth getting some close-up shots as well. And the great thing about macro photography is that there are image opportunities all around us; you often do not have to travel far, if at all, to find worthwhile photos. Check out the video above for the full rundown, and get outside with your camera!

Members of the homeless community are often the focus of photojournalists cameras as they sometimes can be found sleeping on cardboard boxes or creating shanties under city scaffolding.

The lens gets turned around as the new CameraCares Photography Mentorship program in conjunction with the New York Press Photographers Association and the Bowery Mission equips some of these same people with cameras of their own. Professional photographer mentors will help these disadvanaged individuals learn a skill that might allow them to earn a living and express themselves as they never had before.

These skills will culminate in an exhibit by those who are served at the Bowery Mission entitled, “the Bowery Collection,” on Saturday, May 6 at the Mission headquarters at 227 Bowery in Manhattan. The exhibit is open to the public.

Richard Liebowitz, founder and director of the program, started doing volunteer work at the Bowery soup kitchen one year ago and discovered many disadvantaged people just needed direction and mentorship.

Liebowitz, a copyright attorney and avid photographer, said that while volunteering, he discovered that many poor people in the shelter programs “just needed to get back on their feet and improve their lives.”

“I found that while feeding people, many were just looking for support and guidance in their lives – many don’t have families and are living day to day,” Liebowitz said. “At the mission, people are getting three hot meals a day, but we can give them more and a light bulb went off – wouldn’t it be great if we could help Bowery Mission clients, interested in photography – help them learn composition, lighting, visual storytelling. They are on the streets all day and they see life and may be they have an eye for it.”

Liebowitz joined the mission with the New York Press Photographers Association and four working photographers became mentors. Canon USA loaned out cameras to the participants and Liebowitz provided backpacks and Amazon Kindles loaded with the editing application “Photoshop,” so that mentees could upload and manage images.

Bruce Cotler, president of the NYPPA and a professional photographer for 40 years, has served as a mentor to Bowery client Heriberto Juarez, a Mexican immigrant with limited English, has already visited Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and plans to accompany Juarez to Chinatown.

“We are usually photographing everyone so it’s nice to be helping people to get on their feet and give them something they may become passionate about and even make a career from,” Cotler said. “They are now out there trying to make beautiful art and meet people – this will help them get their lives back on track.”

Currently, sessions for participants run weekly for 10 weeks. Each mentoring session can run two hours and up to an entire day. In addition to helping clients learn photography, they also create “mentorship bonds,” that expand discussions to life experiences.

“They are not just talking about cameras, but what is going on in their life and how a mentor can help – even just to lend a friendly ear,” Liebowitz said. “The mentee relates about difficult times, leaping hurdles of life – they often have heart-to-heart talks about life’s obstacles. At the same time, they learn a skill of setting up portraits, understanding depth of field or just knowing when to take a photo – reading emotions. They can go on to become freelancers, pro photographers just by learning personal skills and how to interact with people.”

Liebowitz said the exhibit on May 6 will allow the public to purchase pictures or even license them for publication with the profits going to the photographer.

Debra Rothenberg, a pro photographer known for entertainment, concerts and most notably Bruce Springsteen pictures,said she finds mentoring, “rewarding that someone I’m mentoring not only is learning but enjoying taking photos.”

“I like giving back to people – I believe in paying it forward,” said Rothenberg, who is also vice president of the NYPPA.

Rothenberg mentored Chanel Caple, a resident of the Women’s Center of the Bowery Mission.

“It reminds me of the first time I was in a darkroom making black & white prints and you say OMG when the print comes out,” Chanel said. “It’s now the same thing in the digital world, when you look at the print on the computer – it takes me back. And I can’t wait to see the excitement when they see the pictures on the wall of the exhibit.

As for her relationship with Chanel, “pretty freak’n awesome.”

“Chanel has the drive, energy, passion and I know Chanel will do well whatever They put their mind to,” Rothenberg said. “I haven’t seent hat much drive in anyone in a long time. And our friendship will not end – when our schedules are open, we will still get together to take pictures – that’s a real success.”

Caple, 31, born and raised in Brooklyn, felt the same way about her mentor.

“From the moment we spoke on Zoom, it seems our relationship was effortless, almost like I knew her long before I met her,” said Caple, who currently lives at the Bowery Women’s Mission in Harlem for the past year, having lost her job and home after a “mental crisis.”

“She was so kind and giving of her knowledge – we’d meet up and I’d give her an idea of what I’d want to create and she was more than willing to be supportive and share ideas and vision of the things I wanted to work on and assist me in being able to capture what I saw in my mind.”

“This has been a great opportunity to get back on my feet in a place where I can be stable again.”

Caple believes her photography will help her move towards getting a job and becoming independent again.

“I am grateful to have met Debbie and build upon our relationship – I have so much to learn, can’t wait for the opportunity to learn and at the same time, I’m job searching trying to get back into customer service with fitness as my passion. I’m trying to become stable again with financial needs and my further knowledge in photography, it’s all like a breath of fresh air.”

Greg Vadala Vocational Specialist at the Bowery Mission that serves the homeless and hungry since the 1870s, said the mentor program is a boon to his clients.

“Anytime you can offer a new skill and possibly turn it into a full-time or at least part-time income, may be sell some pictures – if they are passionate about it, it can be an income stream or even a hobby that gives a sense of well being to live,” said Vadala who deals with 45 men at the Bowery Mission in lower Manhattan.

“Boosting self esteem, while building skills while developing an enrichment to life is beautiful. People who’ve done it, enjoyed the process of what they got to learn, and we look forward to others who want to do it.”

Anyone interested in mentoring, sponsoring or purchasing any of the pictures from the Bowery Mission at the exhibit on May 6, may contact [email protected]