The Vienna Parks and Recreation Department’s annual Vienna Photo Show will be held at the Vienna Community Center March 16-17, and submissions will be accepted beginning Thursday, March 14.

Ribbons will be awarded in seven categories, including animal, nature, digital art, scenic, architecture, photojournalism and portraiture.

One “Best in Show” ribbon will be awarded to the adult division, and one will be awarded to the student division. A “People’s Choice” ribbon will be awarded to the photo that receives the most votes during show hours on Saturday, March 16. Separate categories are available for middle- and high- school students grades 7-12.

Individuals can enter up to three photos (with a maximum of two in any category). The entry fee is $10 per person.

For more information, see the Website at www.viennava.gov/photo or call (703) 255-6395.

In the new episode of the project “The Story Behind the Photo,” Sniper Alley presents an interview with Peter Kullmann, the photographer who captured the siege of Sarajevo.

“I arrived on a French military flight from Ancona and had no idea what I was getting into. I was thrown off the ramp of this Transall plane standing in front of the airport building. It was a very dark day. There was a storm. It was late and getting dark. Everyone had left, and I was still sitting there, not knowing what was happening, and no one was there to take care of things in any way. Several hours later, Kurt Schork arrived, the famous Reuters reporter. He came in a car that basically had three wheels. He said he got stuck. He had been shot at. So he said, ‘You have to leave everything here. I have a trunk full of wheels. We need those wheels to get back, and they are like spare tires, wheels, and all. Leave your stuff here. We’re going to the city.’ On the way back, there were fights between Dobrinja and Ilidza,” Peter said.

He added that they were shot at again, and they had to change the front tire in all of that.

“This is war. I had no idea what it actually is and how dangerous it is, especially for journalists. So that was my entry into Sarajevo,” he continued.

He stayed in Sarajevo several times for several months from 1992 to 1995. That evening, when he had just arrived, a shell hit a courtyard in the old part of the city, killing one or two children.

“Kurt Schork and Corinne Dufka went there, and I went along, to see how it works and what is expected of me. We interviewed, that is, they talked to the parents of the family. I was surprised and shocked by the way they asked questions and how the photographs were taken, but I was also shocked by how the family, especially the father of the family, actually pushed himself and his family into the foreground of the photograph. I wasn’t shocked in the sense of: ‘How could you do that?’ but I was impressed and shocked by how they would overcome their suffering to tell this story. That was the first time I connected with the issue of people dying in war and journalists photographing it, filming it, talking about it while the father smelled the clothes of his killed children,” he said.

Peter worked with John Burns and they would drive all the way to Grbavica. They had to go all the way around, behind the airport, and to the panoramic road and then descend. It was a long drive.

“It took us a few hours to get there, going through all the checkpoints to end up about 800 meters across from the Holiday Inn, where we stayed. When we got there, it was very strange. Of course, you don’t show any bias in any way when you meet these people. I wouldn’t say you try to be friends, but you try to be friendly and not come with a hostile approach and it turned out that after the second or third day, it would be a very strange situation because these people greeted you as if we were friends. Since I’m German, some of them spoke German with me, so they would say, ‘We work in Stuttgart, we work for a big car company. We have to meet when this is over,’ and similar things, which was very strange,” he noted.

He added that it is impossible to show all the horrors that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) through photography.

“It is quite easy to go through these situations when the adrenaline is very high when you are shocked yourself. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you. Very often you don’t know what’s going on, which is good, and you literally hear the bullet only when it has passed you. When you hear it, there’s no problem. I couldn’t go through these situations if I didn’t have a camera if I wasn’t occupied with what I’m doing,” he believes.

It should be noted that in previous episodes of the “The Story Behind the Photo” project, you could meet photographers Christopher Morris, Thomas Haley, Enrico Dagnina, and Enrico Marty, Klix.ba writes.

Photo: Linkedin

Recently crowned the overall winner of the 2024 Societies of Photographers 20 x 16 Print Competition, and having won a hatful of previous awards, Jess McGovern is a leading practitioner of dog photography. 

Her beautifully composed images reveal the soul of her subjects and capture the deep emotional affinity that humans have with canines. 

Self-taught, McGovern is passionate about giving back and has helped 500,000 photographers develop and grow, both in-person and via her online photographic community. 

She is giving two talks at The Photography & Video Show: ‘Lights, camera, lick!’, on March 16 and ‘Catch! Creating classic dog action shots’ on March 18. 

We caught up with McGovern to find out more about her and her photography. 

• Standard entry tickets to 2024 start from £14.95 and are valid for any one day of the event. Click here to buy your tickets

Jess McGovern

Jess McGovern hails from the north-east of England and started a dog photography business when she was 16. She gained worldwide recognition for her work, having won 200 awards in international competitions. After starting a marketing agency, she then founded the online photographic community That Dog Spot. In 2021, McGovern relaunched it as That Photography Spot, to better reflect the genres she covers.

See Jess McGovern at The Photography Show

• ‘Lights, camera, lick!’ with Jess McGovern takes place at The Photography & Video Show on March 16 at 16:00. 

• ‘Catch! Creating classic dog action shots’ with Jess McGovern takes place at The Photography & Video Show on March 18 at 10:15. 

Standard entry tickets to The Photography & Video Show 2024 start from £14.95 and are valid for any one day of the event. Click here to buy your tickets.

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This interview appears in the April 2024 issue of Digital Camera magazine, on sale from 1 March. Click the link below to see our latest special subscription deal! 

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If you love animals, take a look at the best cameras for wildlife photography along with the best lenses for bird and wildlife photography.

OROVILLE — Erin Lackey’s journey from a passionate hobbyist to a professional photographer took a significant turn following her sister’s tragic death, leading to the opening of a new studio. At age 9, Lackey discovered her love for photography, a passion that stayed with her into adulthood. Despite working as an x-ray technician, her dream of being a professional photographer persisted. The loss of her sister Shanin in 2017 became a pivotal moment, driving Lackey to pursue photography full-time and use her art to bring love, light, and hope into the world. By 2021, her business was thriving, leading her to open a 1,400-square-foot studio on Huntoon Street, showcasing her commitment to capturing cherished moments.

Nan Goldin breaks the rules, but not just for the sake of doing it. Her work is rarely a direct protest against society’s norms, instead, it is a deliberate act of ignoring them. It was Nan Goldin who embraced and accepted the big art world and not vice versa. Learn more about what it is that makes Nan Goldin’s work so special and unconventional.

What Is so Special about Nan Goldin? 

For the last five decades, Nan Goldin, the American superstar of photography, has been telling her story on her own terms. A troubled drug-addicted teenager turned into one of the biggest names in contemporary art, she overcame many barriers and broke many rules, largely ignoring the idea of social expectations and norms. Her first experiments with a camera started in high school.

Growing up in a strict conservative family that was torn apart by the suicide of her elder sister, Goldin could never truly express herself. As a teenager, she was quiet but disruptive, unsure where she could channel all the energy and emotion rumbling inside her. Once she took a camera and held it in her hands, she felt like she had finally found her voice. From that moment on, photography became Goldin’s principal way of perceiving and expressing her understanding of the world.

Not an Onlooker, But an Insider 

Essentially, Goldin has always been letting her subjects be themselves to the fullest extent. Many of her friends noted that she has a unique talent for opening up one’s personality. She can dare people to act and express themselves in the most natural way possible. Goldin uses portraiture to reveal the beauty of the people she personally adores.

Soon after finishing high school, Nan Goldin’s close friend, another photographer, David Armstrong, introduced her to a community of Boston drag queens centered around the legendary club The Other Side. Goldin was completely mesmerized by the queens’ unconventional beauty and their ways of constructing their identities. She also admired the all-encompassing sense of community they shared.

The Other Side was a safe space where people could be themselves without fear or embarrassment. Soon, the artist moved in with three drag queens, documenting their daily lives and even falling in love with one of them. After moving out and enrolling in art school, she attempted to come back and shoot the queens again, but the result was disappointing. Despite still being loved by her friends, Goldin had distanced herself from them enough to diminish the tender magic of her old images.

Part of her fascination with drag queens lay in their deliberate act of stepping outside of gender barriers and norms. The artist refers to them as the real winners in the battle of the sexes since they decided to quit the fight completely instead of accepting its rules. Surprisingly, Goldin found the same rejection of these unwritten rules in the behavior of children. The artist believes that kids have not yet been spoiled by the questionable standards present in the adult world.

In many art history books, Nan Goldin is wrongly categorized as a photographer of marginalized groups of people. As an artist, she radically opposes this evaluation. Her models were never marginalized in her eyes—they were her friends, her loved ones, and the people she considered her chosen family. As a photographer, she never intruded into their personal spaces since she was also an inherent part of it.

Snapshot Style 

One of the principal technical innovations of Nan Goldin was her signature raw style. Her snapshots radically contrasted with the carefully curated images, organized compositions, and artificially constructed narratives. Goldin’s life is what inspired her artwork. Her job was to find the proper moment to capture it.

This approach brings Goldin’s work close to the realm of documentary photography. However, the artist has never aimed at any kind of objectivity when it comes to her art. Her work is a subjective and biased record of her life that no one could ever revise, erase, or make more or less compelling.

Nan Goldin’s uncompromising style influenced generations of photographers after her. These artists have not only legitimized her style but they also turned it into a trend. Moreover, her influence had seeped through into the realm of social media and popular culture. Today, even a clothing brand campaign could be shot in a nan-goldin-esque style, with the necessary omission of explicit sex, drugs, and emotional distress. The artist herself is not a fan of it, despite the all-encompassing fame the countless imitations brought her. She believes that social media and omnipresent advertisements have killed the importance and intensity of visual communication, making it almost impossible for audiences to truly engage with works of art.

Uncompromising Brutal Honesty 

One of the main aims of Goldin’s art is to minimize the distance between the photographer and the subject. Today, the concept of photographing one’s own life and presenting it to the world as a work of art feels much less absurd than in the decades preceding Goldin’s innovation. It might have all changed thanks to the determination of a single artist who decided to record her life in her own way. In a sense, self-portraiture was a way for the artist to settle into her own body and reclaim it.

In the narrative of her own life, Goldin does not shy away from showing things that are painful, disgusting, or horrifying. Her most famous work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, includes the story of her troubled romance with an ex-marine called Brian. The relationship was essentially destructive, comprised of co-dependency, drug addiction, and violence. During one of their numerous fights, Brian had beaten Nan so severely that she almost lost an eye and had to stitch it back into the eye socket on her own. Using photography as her principal way of expression, Goldin documented the aftermath of this incident, just like she recorded her horrific descent into drug addiction and the subsequent recovery from it. According to the artist, after getting out of rehab in the late 1980s, she made dozens of self-portraits, trying to find herself in a new sober state.

Nan Goldin’s Works Never Seem Static 

The traditional notion of photography as a medium supposes a fixed image or a series of it, which are static and self-sufficient. Many photographers aim to translate the principles of painting to the newer medium, attempting to capture a specific fleeting moment on its own. Nan Goldin’s approach goes against the grain of this traditional concept.

As an art school student, she worked in a traditional manner, spending hours in the darkroom developing her photographs. She never truly enjoyed the process, however. She found it boring, tiresome, and mostly inaccessible. She quickly found a solution and started to present her works using a slide projector. This decision allowed her to physically interact with her displayed works while changing slides in the projector. She could comment on every work, recite poetry, and even play musical records to accompany the presentations. All these aspects gave Goldin great freedom and the possibility to construct complex narratives using her works. Thus, a series of party photographs could turn into a heartbreaking story, and a group of Goldin’s Friends could become movie characters.

However, these narratives never stayed fixed or definitive. For years, Goldin rearranged her slides before each presentation. She changed music or poetic captions and added or removed certain images. The same collection of images could suddenly tell an entirely different story, with a shifted emotional undertone or a new principal character. Today, Nan Goldin prefers using digital format, yet she still makes frequent changes and additions to her work. So, if you have a chance to see Nan Goldin’s show, be aware that you are about to witness something completely unique and special.

With today being World Wildlife Day, it’s the perfect time to see the astonishing world and wildlife of Saudi Arabia like never before in the new mind-blowing three-part photobook series by renowned photographer Oliver Pilcher, forming part of Assouline’s Ultimate Collection. 

These three new visually-led coffee table photography books are dedicated to the beautiful wildlife of Saudi Arabia, with each series focusing on the wildlife of the Arabian Gulf. They are named Falcons from Saudi Arabia, Camels from Saudi Arabia and Horses from Saudi Arabia.

These luxury coffee table books pay homage to these three powerful creatures that have become synonymous with Saudi Arabian culture, and each series enables you to explore the wonders of the Arabian Gulf and its wildlife like never before.

Falcons from Saudi Arabia

This wonderful book delves into the ancient traditions of falconry in the Arabian Gulf, revealing the deep-rooted connection between falcon and falconer. 

In this richly detailed exploration, you’ll discover how falconry is more than just a hobby; it’s a cherished tradition that embodies the profound respect and admiration for these majestic birds. Through vivid storytelling and stunning imagery, the book highlights the integral role of falconry in traditional Arabic culture, offering a unique glimpse into a world where falcons reign supreme.

Camels from Saudi Arabia

This fascinating exploration of one of the most iconic creatures of the Arabian landscape – the dromedary camel. Throughout history, these majestic animals have been celebrated in poetry, art, and legends, symbolizing the rich cultural heritage of Saudi Arabia. 

This captivating book embarks you on a journey that spans centuries, bridging the gap between the past and present, as you delve into the fascinating world of camels with stunning imagery and insightful storytelling of these magnificent creatures and the enduring legacy they hold in Arabian culture.

Horses from Saudi Arabia

In the heart of Saudi Arabia, the Arabian horse has been sculpted by the land itself – its athleticism refined, its distinctive features perfected and its temperament shaped by the desert. 

Today, Saudi Arabia’s passion for all things equestrian is evident in the hosting of the world’s largest and most prestigious horse race, as well as a wealth of other valuable equine competitions and events. 

Through vivid imagery and compelling storytelling, Horses from Saudi Arabia invites you to witness the sheer beauty of these beloved animals in their natural habitat, offering a glimpse into a world where horses are treated like gods.

All three of these photobooks from Assouline capture the incredible sights and nature of the Arabian Gulf and showcase what it truly means to be Arabian.

However, for those interested in buying either one book or the whole set, your name had better start with “Sheikh”, as each volume is priced at  $1,200/ £1,000 / AU$1,200 and can be purchased at  and Assouline stores worldwide.

You might also be interested in the best books on photography, as well as the best cameras for wildlife photography and the best lenses for bird and wildlife photography.