Many of Huene’s subjects during this period were based at Paramount Pictures, including Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Mae West and the director Ernst Lubitsch. Paramount was regarded as having a strong European sensibility and Huene likely felt at home among this coterie. Here, Huene’s lighting accentuates Dietrich’s sculpted features and prominent cheekbones
Taylor Swift’s father will not be charged for allegedly punching a photographer in Sydney, Australian police have said.
Photographer Ben McDonald, 51, told the police that Scott Swift, 72, hit him in the face while disembarking a yacht at Neutral Bay Wharf in Sydney on 27 February, hours after Swift’s final Eras Tour show in the city.
McDonald described the incident as a “punch in the chops” but that he “didn’t require medical assistance”.
After a month-long investigation, New South Wales police have confirmed no further action will be taken.
Taylor Swift performs on stage during a concert as part of her Eras World Tour in Sydney on 23 February 2024
A statement given to the PA news agency said: “Officers attached to North Shore Police Area Command have conducted an investigation following a report of an assault at Neutral Bay Wharf about 2.30am on Tuesday, 27 February. No further police action.”
McDonald said he had been taking pictures of Swift and her entourage at a late-night celebration when the singer’s security detail put an umbrella in his face to prevent him. He told the BBC that Swift got into the car, after which her father “charged in” and attacked him without provocation.
“It was a shock. That’s never happened to me in 26 years,” McDonald said to AFP.
A spokesperson for Swift told Billboard that two people had been behaving aggressively towards the singer.
“Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water,” they said.
McDonald lodged a complaint with the police following the incident but Scott Swift left the country soon after, when the tour moved to Singapore.
Swift was in the city as part of her ongoing Eras world tour, which she is due to resume in May in Paris. She also has a new album, The Tortured Poets Department, releasing on 19 April this year.
Scott Swift, popularly called “Papa Swift” by the singer’s fans, is often seen as part of her entourage when Swift travels abroad. Fans say he is known for handing out guitar picks and sandwiches to audience members who come to her shows.
A Paolo Roversi photograph can be recognised immediately: a soft, gauzy focus, a rich interplay between shadow, colour and light, and a mood of painterly, sepia-toned romance. Sometimes, they appear like a relic from the past – like a hazy Victorian ambrotype, unearthed from an attic – other times, they are jarringly contemporary, capturing the strange, otherworldly forms of avant-garde designers like Rei Kawakubo (his work with whom formed the subject of US solo show in 2021) and Yohji Yamamoto, with whom Roversi has had a long artistic communion.
‘Paolo’s photography is timeless,’ says Sylvie Lécallier, the curator of a new exhibition of Roversi’s work which opened earlier this month at Paris’ Palais Galiera (until 14 July 2024). ’It is detached from the spirit of the times, from the ephemeral trends of fashion. It is located both at the heart of fashion and at the edge. This is what makes him a photographer apart.’
Molly, Chanel, Vogue Italia, Paris, 2015
(Image credit: Photography by Paolo Roversi)
Titled, simply, ‘Paolo Roversi‘, the exhibition includes 140 photographs by the photographer, who was born in Ravenna, northern Italy, before moving to Paris in 1973, where he began in photography, first as a reporter. In 1980, he photographed a campaign for Christian Dior beauty; later, he would go on to shoot for a slew of fashion titles, including Vogue France, Vogue Italia, and Egoïste, as well as immortalising the supermodels of the day, from Inès de la Fressange and Stella Tennant to Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss.
His distinctive style, which has included work on Polaroid as well as gelatin silver and dye transfer prints, is largely achieved through long-exposure manipulation of light, which Lécallier calls ’drawing with light’. ’[It is as if] his models and clothes are appearing from darkness,’ she continues. ’The shooting is akin to a real performance. He is like a painter, a conductor.’
(Image credit: Photography by Gautier Deblonde)
Much of his studio work takes place in Studio Luce (Luce translates from Italian as ’light’), a vaunted space in Paris’ 14th arrondissement that has cemented his longtime link with the city, something that Lécallier says is important to celebrate in what will be the first large-scale monograph of his work in Paris. As such, many of the photographs are drawn from the Palais Galliera’s personal collection, several of which have never been on display to the public before.
In its layout, the exhibition abandons a chronological timeline in favour of a more poetic movement from darkness to light. ’Paolo’s photography is so timeless that we abandoned a chronological journey, which didn’t seem to mean much to the understanding of his work,’ explains Lécallier, who worked closely with Roversi on the exhibition’s design, having known the photographer for several years prior. ’We also did not want to lock it into themes. [Instead], light is a common thread: from the darkness of the dark room towards the daylight which bathes his studio through the large bay windows.’
Guinevere, Yohji Yamamoto, Paris, 2004
(Image credit: Photography by Paolo Roversi)
As for why his collaborations with designers in particular were so successful – from Kawakubo and Yamamoto to Romeo Gigli and Azzedine Alaïa – Lécallier puts it down to Roversi’s good taste. ’Paolo has a real taste for beautiful clothes, as well as a great respect for designers who have a very strong creative universe,‘ she says. Her own favourite photograph in the display is not of a particular subject, but a pair of shoes, reflected in a mirror.
’The model is absent, she has gone to do a make-up touch-up. She’ll be back any second. This image speaks of the moment of shooting, but also of the theatre of appearances, reality and illusion,’ she says. ‘It takes us to the other side of the looking glass.’
‘Paolo Roversi’ runs at Paris’ Palais Galliera until 14 July 2024.
Natalia, Paris, 2003
(Image credit: Photography by Paolo Roversi)
Audrey, Comme des Garçons, Paris, 1996
(Image credit: Photography by Paolo Roversi)
Anna, Comme des Garçons, Tokyo, 2016
(Image credit: Photography by Paolo Roversi)
‘Cobalt’. Portrait of a miner at Mutoshi artisanal mining (ASM), COMIAKOL cooperative.
Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo. Critical Minerals – DRC Cobalt aims to investigate the exponential demand for the minerals necessary to achieve renewable energy goals. In the Democratic Republic of Congo I documented the condition and impact of cobalt mining, which is essential for the green energy transition. The environmental and human conditions of cobalt mining have been widely reported, and the mainstream narrative faithfully describes the devastating working conditions and problematic health, environmental and economic conditions that men, women and children are subjected to, directly or indirectly. This series underlines that the future of critical minerals lies not just in the depths of the earth, but in our collective commitment to creating a sustainable and equitable world. By weaving these threads into a compelling narrative, this project engages audiences in a broader conversation about the choices we make today and their profound implications for the sustainability of our planet. Image: © Davide Monteleone, Italy, Finalist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Cobalt’. Shabara is one of the largest artisanal copper and cobalt mines in the region. Around 20,000 people work at the site, in shifts of 10,000 at a time. Image: © Davide Monteleone, Italy, Finalist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Spiralkampagnen’. An archive photograph of Jytte Lyberth at the age of 14, when she had her IUD inserted. After a school medical check-up she went to hospital and was asked to take off her clothes. She was never told what was going to happen. A few months later she experienced severe pain from the coil and returned to hospital to have it removed. Since then, she has never been able to have children. Between 1966 and 1975, Greenlandic Inuit women were the victims of an involuntary birth control programme known as the Spiralkampagnen (spiral campaign). Led by the Danish authorities, nearly 4,500 intrauterine devices (‘coils’) were implanted into Inuit women and girls, some as young as 12, many of whom say that the procedure was performed without their consent. This campaign was first revealed by a Danish podcast in spring 2022, and documents now prove that the authorities implemented the policy to reduce Inuit population growth. An official investigation has now been opened, which is set to conclude at the end of 2024. Image: © Juliette Pavy, France, Finalist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Spiralkampagnen’. In 2019, Naja Lyberth, a psychologist in Nuuk, told her personal story to a local newspaper. Following revelations of the existence of a Danish policy of forced contraception, she created a Facebook group that brought together other victims: ‘We have the right to own our bodies, and it is our human right to have children.’ Image: © Juliette Pavy, France, Finalist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘LGBTQIA Refugees: Fleeing Uganda’. “Olivia and Pretty photographed in Pretty’s bedroom in a safe house for trans women in Nairobi. Today they will go to church and a nightclub; they always prepare extensively for these outings. Olivia is visiting from Kakuma refugee camp, which is where most LGBTQIA refugees are sent. They are extremely vulnerable in the camp. In May 2023, Uganda criminalised same-sex conduct for those convicted of ‘aggravated homosexuality’, even though the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 violates some of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda’s constitution. Uganda’s penal code already punishes same-sex conduct with life imprisonment, but the new law legislates on new crimes, such as the ‘promotion of homosexuality’; introduces the death penalty for several acts considered as ‘aggravated homosexuality’; and increases sentences for attempted same-sex conduct to 10 years. Anyone advocating for the rights of LGBT people now faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment. Many LGBTQIA people have been forced to flee the country, and are now in fragile safe houses in Kenya. I felt compelled to work on this, as these laws are a violation of human rights and an assault on democracy: people in the LGBTQIA community are entitled to the same consensual rights as all humans when it comes to love and intimacy.” Image: © Brent Stirton, South Africa, Finalist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Retomada’. Under the light of a full moon, the shamans gather for a protection ritual to ward off armed men, shortly after hearing gunshots nearby. Armed with their maracas and prayer songs, shamans are on the front line in a retomada; they are the spiritual force that supports and guides collective action. Retomada Laranjeira Nhanderu, Rio Brilhante, Brazil. Within Brazil, far from the Amazon, the Retomada da Terra movement aims to reclaim agricultural lands taken from the indigenous Guaraní people. Although this struggle pits them against agribusiness syndicates, coordinated efforts have empowered some Guaraní to reclaim parts of their sacred territory, which once flourished as the Atlantic Forest, but have since been replaced by soy and corn monocultures. The Guaraní’s fight isn’t solely for survival, but encompasses environmental advocacy, an opposition to chemical pesticides and the promotion of reforestation. In a landscape dominated by monoculture fields, where forests once thrived, they emerge as custodians of the land, often paying the ultimate price with their lives. Image: © Renaud Philippe, Canada, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Retomada’. A young woman cleans the soil of a newly reclaimed soya field while a Guaraní-Kaiowá mason gives instructions for the construction of the prayer house, the first and most important building in the new Tekoha (Guaraní village). Image: © Renaud Philippe, Canada, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
”In God We Trust’. “The Orthodox faith holds a significant place in Moldova’s culture and traditions, influencing daily practices, celebrations and community gatherings. Moldova is a nation facing a complex array of challenges and influences. Its patriarchal tendencies, economic struggles, Orthodox traditions and historical ties to colonialism have shaped its society in unique ways. However, Moldova is also a place of resilience and cultural richness, with a diverse population that continues to seek its place on the global stage. Understanding these complexities is essential for both Moldovans and the international community, as it fosters empathy and offers insights into the ongoing evolution of this small yet significant Eastern European nation. Moldova. Lookbook is a project I have been developing for 15 years, aimed at creating a national visual code for my country that would help establish its identity and answer the question ‘who am I?’.” Image: © Natalia Garbu, Moldova, Republic Of, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Portrait in Earthy Tones’. “Children in Moldovan villages often experience a close-knit community life, engaging in outdoor activities and helping with household chores. Image: © Natalia Garbu, Moldova, Republic Of, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
After dragging themselves in penance, many pilgrims enter a state of anguish; their bodies tremble, their wounds bleed and tears flow. This pilgrim in Paita needed help, but his friends and family were there for him. The Ayabaca pilgrimage is at the heart of deep-rooted catholic traditions within the South American region. It is the largest pilgrimage in the continent and attracts thousands of faithful, including a specific type of fervent follower: criminals in search of redemption. I joined these pilgrims to explore and capture the performative image of their cathartic rituals, as they travelled to meet the Captive Lord, represented wearing a spiked crown as he is led to his crucifixion. Every year around May, the first pilgrims depart from southern Peru, heading north towards the highlands of Piura – a four-month walk covering more than 2,000 km. For these pilgrims, the body becomes theologically significant in the process of atoning for their sins, as if to wipe the slate clean for another year. Image: © Ernesto Benavides, Peru, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
Nil has been on a pilgrimage for the last 12 years, carrying a cross from Arequipa in the south of Peru, to Ayabaca in the north. He has walked more than 2,000 km every year, fulfilling the promise he made to the Captive Lord of Ayabaca. © Ernesto Benavides, Peru, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
A portrait of Tokhtabek, who was assigned to protect some of the installations at the Sary Shagan missile test range from further destruction by local groups of scavengers. Unfortunately, almost all of the buildings were still dismantled. Kazakhstan is the largest country in Central Asia and until 1991 it was an important republic within the Soviet Union. This vast area is the birthplace of today’s space travel and also of the international arms race. In the late 1940s, in utmost secrecy, parts of this steppe were turned into a vast open-air laboratory, which for decades formed the backdrop to the most destructive nuclear tests ever held on the surface of the planet. No care or consideration was given to the population. This body of work documents both the immense, ravaged landscape and the people who still live among the ruins and have to deal with their deadly history. Some of them come together to scour the land for old pipes and cables, or to find steel in old military installations, their lives marked by poverty and alcoholism. Image: © Eddo Hartmann, Netherlands, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
A portrait of Bauyken, who has lived in the village of Kyzyemshek since 1962 and witnessed some of the last atmospheric nuclear explosions rise from the horizon. Just before any test, military officials would come to the village and ask everybody to leave their houses and lay on the ground. She described her pain and agony over the years. Image: © Eddo Hartmann, Netherlands, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Camp’. Victoria bringing camp to the camps. It is the little things that distinguish us as communities and create the settings for our lives, and establishing and following traditions is what sets us apart from other groups. Every year, people gather close to the Danish city of Roskilde for the Roskilde Festival, one of the largest culture and music festivals in Europe. Before the festival opens there is a gradual build-up in the campsite, which plays host to art shows, mini concerts and film screenings; while the festival revolves around music, the essence of the experience lies in camaraderie with others. Many people have established ways in which they set up their tents and construct creative camp spaces, and for these groups, camp life takes on a life of its own, with rites and traditions, and specific ways of doing things – of living. Image: © Jens Juul, Denmark, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Camp’. A giant transportable soundbox blasts music into the camp area, immediately attracting a crowd and creating a spontaneous dance party. Image: © Jens Juul, Denmark, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Alla and Adelina’. Alla and her young daughter Adelina in bed at their sponsor’s home. I wanted to show the importance of family ties when rebuilding one’s life, having been forced to flee one’s home. Alla had just got out of the shower and was waking Adelina from a nap. As she sat down next to Adelina I asked her to look at the camera, then took her portrait. In April 2022, I started photographing a community of Ukrainian refugees in Moorhaven, a village on Dartmoor in Devon, UK. I wanted to understand the impact of landing in a remote British landscape after fleeing war and making a home in the post-Brexit UK. I spent 21 months alongside the people in this project, capturing their everyday lives. The ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme saw the British public welcome refugees into their homes, with approximately 140,800 people housed. Of the hosts who participated, 80 percent said they were glad that they did and 70 percent said they were willing to host again, be it someone from Ukraine or Afghanistan. This project aims to show that the capacity to be open to human difference still exists in the UK, despite the ‘hostile environment’ policies, and that we are all connected in our need for purpose, a home, and community. Image: © Frankie Mills, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Choir’. “Olga-Maria (centre) photographed in the run-up to Ukrainian Independence Day. These women, each Ukrainian, had gathered in a park in Plymouth to rehearse traditional songs to perform during a planned event. I took this photograph to show the importance of community, ritual and tradition when displaced. I observed the women singing for 30 minutes before taking this photo mid-song. Image: © Frankie Mills, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘Exodus’. Illegal miners leave the Yanomami Indigenous Territory. Many miners have to spend a lot of their savings to leave the indigenous lands, hiding from police officers after the Brazilian government ordered an end to illegal mining in the region. ‘When all the shamans have died, I think the sky will fall. (…) The forest will be destroyed and the weather will be dark. If there are no more shamans to hold up the sky, it will not stay in place. The whites are just ingenious, they ignore shamanism, they are not the ones who will be able to hold up the sky (…) Not only the Yanomami are going to die, but all the whites too. No one is going to escape the fall of the sky.’ David Kopenawa, shaman and leader of the Yanomami people of the Amazon rainforest. The Yanomami Indigenous Territory occupies parts of the states of Roraima and Amazonas in Brazil, and is marked by illegal mining, malaria and malnutrition. In January 2023, indigenous and socio-environmental entities denounced an ongoing humanitarian tragedy in the area. Image: © Raphael Alves, Brazil, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024
‘The Falling Sky’. A Yanomami woman with severe malaria and signs of malnutrition receives assistance after arriving on a plane at an airport in the city of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, Brazil. The Brazilian government has declared a health emergency for the Yanomami people. Image: © Raphael Alves, Brazil, Shortlist, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024 DM
Each month this year, Fstoppers is running a genre specific Critique the Community contest with some amazing prizes. The theme for March is “Weddings,” and we are giving away $3,000 in prizes to 3 lucky winners. Oh, and one of the most successful wedding photographers I know, Pye Jirsa, will be guest judging the images. Here are the details!
We are excited to have Pye Jirsa guest judging the March wedding edition of Critique the Community. Pye is an amazing photographer, and his wedding company Lin and Jirsa Weddings based out of Orange County, California is one of the most in-demand wedding and portrait studios in the entire world. Have you ever heard of a $70,000 engagement session? Yeah I hadn’t either until I met Pye. We are super excited to have him giving his professional opinion about your images.
Not only is Pye going to sit in and critique some of the best images submitted to this contest, but he is also offering up the top prize for this month’s contest. One lucky winner will win a full year of group coaching through Pye’s new mentorship program $10k for $2k. This program will give you real time access with Pye in a Zoom setting but also some Done-For-You resources that have been tried and tested by Pye and his team such as social media templates, pricing guides, sales scripts, and AI tools.
The second place winner will receive a free Loupedeck CT customizable console system worth $560! This USB and Bluetooth accessory allows you to program all sorts of dynamic shortcuts, custom photo brushes and adjustments, different workspaces, and video editing tools directly onto the Loupedeck interface. Not only will this open up your creativity but it will also speed up and streamline your favorite photo, video, and livestreaming programs.
Finally, the third place winner will receive a free copy of any tutorial in the Fstoppers store valued up to $300.
To help all our readers who are trying to get into wedding photography, Lee and I have also decided to mark down our own wedding tutorial, How to Become a Commercial Wedding Photographer, and sell it for just $45 during the month of March. This tutorial was designed to give you an overview of all the different aspects and potential hangups you will face on a wedding day. We show you all the shots you need to master as well as share some of the best lighting setups and planning techniques we have used in our wedding businesses. This was one of the first tutorials we ever produced, but the content is evergreen and sure to help you get rolling in your own wedding business.
To submit your images, Click the Contests tab at the top of Fstoppers or head directly over to the Wedding Critique the Community page to upload your images. All entries must be uploaded by March 29th at 1pm. We look forward to checking out your work and giving our professional opinions to help make you a better wedding photographer. Good luck to everyone who enters!
Taylor Swift‘s father, Scott Swift, will not face any charges after allegedly assaulting a paparazzi photographer in Australia last month.
In a statement to ET, a member of the New South Wales Police Media Unit told ET that Aussie police “conducted an investigation following a report of an assault” on Feb. 27 involving “Papa Swift,” 72, and decided that “no further police action” was required or would be taken in the incident.
According to TheAustralian.com, the incident occurred at the Neutral Bay Wharf as Taylor and her dad were disembarking from a ferry and were bombarded by people waiting for them on land. The photographer involved, Ben McDonald, 51, talked with NCA Newswire after the fact and alleged that Scott became aggressive with him before jumping into a vehicle with Taylor.
In late February, a New South Wales Police Media Unit rep first confirmed that an investigation was underway in a statement, but did not share the names of those involved, only identifying the parties via their ages.
“Police are investigating an alleged assault on Sydney’s North Shore this morning,” a representative stated at the time. “Police have been told a 71-year-old man allegedly assaulted a 51-year-old man at Neutral Bay Wharf about 2.30am (Tuesday 27 February 2024), before leaving the location. The younger man reported the incident and inquiries are now underway by officers attached to North Shore Police Area Command.”
In his interview with NewsWire, McDonald shared video of the alleged assault and told the outlet that he only recognized Scott as the alleged perpetrator upon reviewing the footage. Scott was in Sydney with his daughter, 34, for her Eras Tour shows at the time.
“I looked back at the pictures and saw he was holding hands with Taylor. It then became evident that was her father,” McDonald said.
He added that he endured a “bruised ego more than anything.”
Another video shared with 9News Sydney of the alleged assault shows a different angle in which Scott, Taylor and several security guards can be seen walking toward the singer’s waiting vehicle as security team members hold back a photographer — purportedly McDonald.
In a statement following the altercation, a spokesperson for Taylor told ET, “Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water.”
RELATED CONTENT:
A monographic exhibition of the Japanese artist, in collaboration with Kyotographie, will be held in the Salle Henri-Comte, in Arles.
In the context of an important focus on Japan by the festival, Kering and les Rencontres are also proud to show, through the Women In Motion LAB, I’m So Happy You Are Here, a group exhibition of Japanese women photographers presented by Aperture at the Palais de l’Archevêché.
Kering is also delighted to support Transcendence, an exhibition presented by Kyotographie.
Lastly, Women In Motion is proud to continue to support the Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro dedicated to emerging female talent.
2024 WOMEN IN MOTION AWARD FOR PHOTOGRAPHY PRESENTED TO ISHIUCHI MIYAKO
On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, Kering and Les Rencontres d’Arles will present the Women In Motion Award to Japanese photographer, Ishiuchi Miyako, at the Théâtre Antique d’Arles. During this special evening, she will present her work and share with the audience her personal journey and her view of women’s place in photography and society in general.
The topic of women representation permeates Ishiuchi’s work in subtle yet powerful ways. She critiques the objectification of women by reclaiming the female body as subjects of her art. Her photographs celebrate imperfections, scars, and aging, in opposition to the standards of beauty shown by mainstream media. By presenting this intimacy, Ishiuchi invites viewers to confront their own perceptions of femininity and womanhood.
Through projects like ひろしま/hiroshima and Mother’s, she confronts Japan’s wartime past and its impact on individual lives, especially women who were often overlooked in historical narratives. In her artistic practice, Ishiuchi Miyako embodies the principles of female empowerment by advocating for women’s autonomy and representation. Through her photographs, she continues to inspire dialogue on gender, culture, and memory in today’s society.
In Kyoto in 2023, Kering proudly supported the exhibition Views through my window, a dialogue between Ishiuchi Miyako and Yuhki Touyama, as part of its partnership with international photography festival Kyotographie.
THE WOMEN IN MOTION LAB 2024: I’M SO HAPPY YOU ARE HERE, JAPANESE WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM THE 1950S TO NOW
The third instalment of the Women In Motion LAB will highlight the contribution made by Japanese women photographers. This first collective exhibition in France dedicated to this history will feature twenty-five photographers, including Rinko Kawauchi, Yurie Nagashima, Kunié Sugiura, Tokuko Ushioda, and Eiko Yamazawa, among others. Curated by Lesley A. Martin, Mariko Takeuchi and Pauline Vermare and produced by Aperture and Les Rencontres d’Arles, the group show will take place at the Palais de l’Archevêché in Arles. Likewise entitled I’m So Happy You Are Here, Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now, this first publication on the topic, edited by Lesley A. Martin and Pauline Vermare with Carrie Cushman, Kellie Midori McCormick, and Mariko Takeuchi, will be published by Aperture in English and Textuel in French.
The first Women In Motion LAB-supported project, which ran from 2019 to 2021, funded the research that led to the French publication of a reference work – A world history of women photographers; it also supported its English edition. For the second LAB program, started in 2021, Kering and Les Rencontres d’Arles supported research to promote Bettina Grossman’s archives by the artist Yto Barrada, with an eponymous book, Bettina, and an exhibition of her work held as part of the festival in 2022.
KERING SUPPORTS TRANSCENDENCE, KYOTOGRAPHIE CELEBRATES CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS
Presented by Kyotographie and featuring the works of Mayumi Hosokura, Aï Iwane, Mayumi Suzuki, Hideka Tonomura and Tamaki Yoshida, this chorus of contemporary women photographers provides a glimpse into the modern complexities of Japanese society. From intimate portraits to stirring landscapes, this collection of stories illuminates the resilience, creativity, and diversity of women who actively employ photography to survive and self-express, transcending their realities and forging their own narratives.
About Ishiuchi Miyako
Ishiuchi Miyako was born in 1947 in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. She grew up in the city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture. In 1979, she won the 4th Kimura Ihei Award for her work Apartment. In 2005, she represented Japan at the Venice Biennale with her series Mother’s, for which she photographed items inherited from her late mother. In 2007, she began her internationally renowned ひろしま/hiroshima series, for which she photographs belongings of atom bomb victims (hibakusha). In 2013, she received the Japanese Medal of Honor with purple ribbon, and in 2014 the ‘Hasselblad Award’ (known as the ‘Nobel prize for photography’).
Recent exhibitions include the solo shows Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2015), Grain and Image (Yokohama Museum of Art, 2017), Ishiuchi Miyako (Each Modern, Taiwan, 2022), Ishiuchi Miyako (Stills, Edinburgh, UK, 2022), and group show Roppongi Crossing (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2022). Her photobook Frida: Love and Pain (Iwanami Shoten) was published in 2016. Ishiuchi’s works are part of the permanent collections of Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the Yokohama Museum of Art, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and Tate Modern.
About Women In Motion
Kering’s commitment to women is at the heart of the Group’s priorities and extends, through Women In Motion, to the field of arts and culture, where gender inequalities are still glaring, even though creation is one of the most powerful vectors for change.
In 2015, Kering launched Women In Motion at the Festival de Cannes with the ambition of highlighting women in cinema, both in front of and behind the camera. The program has since expanded in a major way to photography, but also to art, design, choreography, and music. Through its Awards, the program recognizes inspirational figures and emerging female talent, while its Talks and Podcasts provide an opportunity for leading personalities to share their views on the representation of women in their profession.
Since it was created, Women In Motion has become a platform of choice that contributes to changing mind sets and thinking on the place of women – and the recognition they receive – in the arts and culture.
About the Rencontres d’Arles
Through exhibitions held in various exceptional heritage sites around the city, the Rencontres d’Arles has contributed to supporting worldwide photographic heritage every summer since 1970, and in so doing has become a melting pot for contemporary creation. A true cultural incubator for artists, the Rencontres d’Arles is an annual hub for photographic creation. Echoing and promoting artistic reflections and practices at a crossroads of disciplines, the Rencontres d’Arles each year presents the work of more than 130 artists and curators, through around forty exhibitions in venues with specially designed scenographies. For an ever more discerning public, the festival reveals trends, forges new paths, explores, and questions the status of the changing image, creating content that reflects the sociological and geographical diversity of our world. The 55th edition of the Rencontres d’Arles will take place from July 1 to September 29, 2024.
About Kering
A global Luxury group, Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods and Jewelry: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin, Ginori 1735 as well as Kering Eyewear and Kering Beauté. By placing creativity at the heart of its strategy, Kering enables its Houses to set new limits in terms of their creative expression while crafting tomorrow’s Luxury in a sustainable and responsible way. We capture these beliefs in our signature: “Empowering Imagination”.
For more information
Please visit the Women In Motion press section
TAMBA, Hyogo — For a limited time, drone photography will be allowed at a west Japan site known as the “castle in the sky.”
The lofty Takeda Castle Ruins are located on top of a mountain in Asago, Hyogo Prefecture. For the safety of visitors and to protect the cultural property, photography by drone is banned except with special permission.
However, with growing requests from drone enthusiasts and others, a trial was held over 12 days while the mountain site was closed in February. The Asago City Tourism Association received positive feedback from the limited number of invited participants, such as “I’d like to visit again in another season,” and, “We could capture panoramic views of the magnificent mountain castle.”
Drones will be permitted on a reservation basis between 6 and 8 a.m., before the site opens to general visitors, on Thursdays between March 28 and May 30. Photographers will likely aim for scenes of the ruins amid cherry blossoms and fresh spring foliage.
Daily reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis, and priced at 60,000 yen (around $400) per slot of two hours per day. Up to two drone operators are permitted per slot, with non-operators also allowed to accompany them. Payment can be made using Japan’s “hometown tax” gift system with contributions of 200,000 yen (approx. $1,320). A viewing fee of 500 yen (about $3.30) per person is also charged. Applications are open via a special tourism association website at: https://va.apollon.nta.co.jp/takedacastle_drone3/ and inquiries (in Japanese) can be made through 079-668-9177.
(Japanese original by Yoshiko Yukinaga, Tamba Local Bureau)
On Daniel Arsham’s 11th birthday, his grandfather gave him a Pentax K1000 and explained its function in simple terms. “Focus, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO,” he wrote in the introduction of his new monograph, Daniel Arsham: Photographer, which accompanies a solo exhibition that recently opened at Fotografiska New York. “By using those four elements together and combining them in unique ways, the possibilities for producing images become infinite.” It immediately piqued his interest—he started by photographing the front doors in the South Florida suburb where he grew up, fascinated by how different colors and door knockers gave them personality in an otherwise cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood. “I understood almost immediately,” he says, “that the camera required its operator to see and understand their surroundings in a deeper and more critical way.”
Arsham began documenting his life—and his budding sculptural practice—through photography. Though he’s most well-known for eroded casts of cultural objects and high-profile collaborations with the likes of Porsche, Tiffany, and Dior, the prolific artist and Snarkitecture co-founder has snapped more than 200,000 pictures as somewhat of a personal archive. Where his sculptures are tinged with surrealism and the unsettling notion of today’s relics excavated in the future, his photography is pure diaristic realism. “Photography for me is much more instinctual,” Arsham tells Surface. “[It’s] more about the exercise of doing it than something conscious.” Yet it echoes themes often explored in his sculptures, which are dotted throughout the Fotografiska show. Exposures of a twinkling night sky explore his signature black-and-white palette; a silhouetted family in the American Museum of Natural History plays with negative space.
Many of the photographs were only intended for Arsham’s eyes—and he scoured a trove of negatives and hard drives to select the ones that would make the exhibition and book. “Because I never took photographs with the intention of showing them, they were about documenting and understanding,” he says. “The input to another medium’s output.” Despite the clear delineation, photography is just as vital—and personal—of a creative outlet for him. Arsham dedicated the monograph to his late grandfather, without whom many of these photographs may not exist. He suffered another loss when Hurricane Andrew struck Florida, damaging his home and ruining his images of the doors. One remained: a grainy photograph that his mother took of a teenaged Arsham posing with his beloved Pentax, the Grand Canyon’s vast expanse behind him. It’s the book’s final photograph. “As much as I liked the images that came out of that,” he says, “I loved the object even more, the camera.”
All photography by Daniel Arsham.
“Daniel Arsham: Phases” will be on view at Fotografiska (281 Park Ave South, New York) until June 14.
Solan, March 26
The School of Media and Communications, Shoolini University, recently hosted a workshop on ‘Digital Photography Techniques’.
The guest speaker was Nitin Kumar Mengi, who has over 15 years of experience in academia and professional photography, and has a Punjab Lalit Kala Academy State Award (2011) to his credit.
Mengi emphasised the pivotal role of light in photography, which is key to every captivating image. “Photography is essentially drawing with light,” he said, explaining the relationship between light and photography, and the origin of the word (photo means light, graphy denotes drawing). Distinguishing between digital and mirror DSLR cameras, Mengi explained technical nuances, shedding light on factors influencing file size variations. He also talked about the importance of a camera’s processor.
Mengi urged participants to cultivate observation skills and advocated for beginning photography journeys with beginner-friendly devices.
