Photographer Yasmin Yassin knew she wanted to capture a Somali dance troupe that performs at festivals and weddings.

But she waited months before turning on a camera.

Instead, she showed up — at performances, rehearsals and meetings. She sat with them, ate with them. Then Yassin and her crew asked the troupe, based out of the Somali Museum of Minnesota, how they’d feel about them taking photographs and, later, video.

“That helped make this whole thing feel like it wasn’t extractive,” Yassin said. “That it was something that felt it was a mutual project we could do together.

“It felt like a collaboration.”

The resulting 18-minute documentary, “Dhaanto,” captures not only the traditional Somali dances that have become a fixture of Twin Cities events and TikTok feeds but the importance of keeping them alive and passing them on. And for that, it credits the troupe’s coach, Mohamoud Osman Mohamed.

“He’s the connector piece of all of this,” Yassin said. “It’s a culture that could have been lost in the diaspora if there wasn’t somebody who cared.”

The short film, named after a dance, debuted this fall as part of Yassin’s photo exhibition at Public Functionary in northeast Minneapolis. It gets its next screening this week at Soomaal House of Art — where Yassin’s artistic career began.

Created with a team of 20 people, “Dhaanto” is Yassin’s directorial debut. She had long taken photographs for friends and family, but it wasn’t until after moving to Minnesota from Canada five years ago that she began nabbing professional gigs.

Still, most days, she’s a scientist. Yassin earned a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University and works as a research scientist with an emphasis on science communication.

“Sometimes scientists go in, they extract data from the community and they present it to each other — and they never present it back to the community,” she told the crowd at an artist talk at Public Functionary in September. “And when they do, it doesn’t make any sense to them.”

So Yassin became interested in that circling back: “How can I tell the community in a way that’s accessible?”

By phone, she noted a public health strategy called “photovoice,” in which researchers go into a community and hand people cameras. By allowing people to photograph things themselves, researchers get a much more accurate picture of what’s important to them.

That ethos has informed Yassin’s artmaking. With “Dhaanto,” the dance troupe’s coach became a consultant. The teenage dancers had a say in the story. The film reveals their dedication, their friendship, their delight.

“One thing I like about the Dhaanto dance is, you can’t really dance it with just anyone,” someone says. “And so, when you find the right people that know each other well, when performing the dance moves, you move together as one.”

Others showing up in the Somali community might have focused on trauma, pain or controversy, Yassin said. But she decided to show another, better side.

“It’s a love letter to my community,” she said. Now, she’s hoping to continue that thread, “in the sense of, what would you write in a love letter? You would write the good things, you would show the good qualities.”

‘Dhaanto’
What: Film screening, artist talk and dance performance
When: 6:30 p.m. Fri.
Where: Soomaal House of Art, 2200 Minnehaha Av. S., Mpls.
Cost: Free, but space is limited.

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Never seen before photographs from the private collection of Elton John and husband David Furnish will go on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum next year.

The exhibition, titled Fragile Beauty, will be the V&A’s largest temporary photography exhibition to date, showcasing more than 300 rare prints from over 140 photographers – the majority of which will be on display to the public for the first time.

John and Canadian filmmaker Furnish, who have been together since 1993, own an impressive collection of works by the world’s leading contemporary photographers.

Works by American photographers Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus, and Sally Mann will be exhibited alongside photography by Ai Weiwei, Carrie Mae Weems, and South African artist Zanele Muholi.

In celebration of 30 years of collecting artwork together, the exhibition will recognise the couple’s passion for photography across eight themes, including fashion, reportage, celebrity, the male body, and American photography.

It is promised that Fragile Beauty will feature a range of portraits of starry faces from stage and screen, including photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Miles Davis, and Chet Baker.

Key historical moments, including the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, AIDs activism, and the events of 11 September 2001, will all be chronicled within the hundreds of prints on display.

John and Furnish said that their relationship with the V&A has grown since they first loaned a selection of photographs by German-American fashion photographer Horst to the west London museum in 2014.

“Fragile Beauty takes our collaboration to really exciting new heights, showcasing some of the most beloved photographers and iconic images from within our collection,” the couple said in a statement.

“Working alongside the V&A again has been a truly memorable experience, and we look forward to sharing this exhibition with the public.”

The “Rocket Man” singer and his husband are known for their world-class photography collections. In 2016, the Tate Modern exhibited The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection, in which the singer’s classic modernist photography collection from the 1920s to 1950s went on display. It included portraits of Matisse, Picasso, and Breton.

Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection will go on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 18 May 2024 to 5 January 2025.

Peter and Ian’s rigour and determination are perfectly captured across Jack’s series, building on – and ultimately epitomising – his joyous, vibrant style. “Being eccentric and visually quirky, the world of giant vegetable growing seemed like the perfect fit,” he says.

Though one of the greatest challenges was maintaining a level of aesthetic consistency, with the series being shot over vastly different seasons and weather conditions. “With our unpredictable weather I was a bit worried their seeds might fail to flourish,” Jack says, “I was also anxious that making pictures in these different weather conditions might make the project feel a bit disjointed.” However, due to Ian and Peter’s expertise, this was far from the case. “Fortunately, they somehow navigated the heatwaves and downpours to grow some herculean produce,” Jack says, “and, to my surprise, I think the pictures also benefited from the erratic English weather.”

Looking back on his 2023, Jack found photographic freedom in the slow, relatively-repetitive nature of gardening. “When the show came around, I’d become friends with Ian and Peter,” Jack recalls, “so it was easy to pull them aside for more formal portraits,” alongside capturing more casual scenes of vegetable admirers. “People were so engrossed with the collosal nature of the vegetables,” he adds, “it was fairly simple to compose these more documentary pictures in a way that I think fits with the earlier work,” as well as his overall documentary style. “I’ve spent years making pictures locally, capturing the quirks of Englishness,” he concludes, “but I’m excited to experiment and take the same approach abroad,” looking to document a camel festival in India across the final months of 2023.

From October 26 to November 9, Christie’s will present its online Photographs sale, featuring over 130 prints by major artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Peter Beard, William Klein, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Man Ray and Constantin Brancusi. The first part of Lothar Schirmer’s Glamour Collection sale (82 lots) will be devoted to the famous art publisher’s collection. The overall estimate for the sale is between 1.7 and 2.3 million euros.

With over 1,500 publications devoted to art and photography, including 386 books still available, Schirmer / Mosel Editions needs no introduction. But behind this name lies its founder, who continues to run this famous publishing house with the same passion, and who has just published Lothar Schirmer’s Glamour Collection, devoted to part of his personal collection. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of his publishing house (April 2024), and as he approaches his 80th birthday, Lothar Schirmer realizes that his collection, which illustrates the zeitgeist of his youth, is now complete.

The second part of the sale will feature a group of iconic photographs, with Helmut Newton’s portfolios Private Property, Suites I, II & III (1975-1983) as the highlight, estimated at €300,000-500,000. Helmut Newton has put together an anthology of 45 images from the previous ten years, presented in three suites of fifteen. Each suite includes iconic photographs by this brilliant photographer, who combined the disciplines of fashion, portraiture and eroticism, as in Portrait of Elsa Peretti as a Bunny, Woman into Man, Tied-up torso and Sie Kommen, to name but a few.

Another highlight of the sale was Robert Mapplethorpe’s Man in Polyester Suit (1980), estimated at €200,000-€300,000, is one of the photographer’s best-known and most controversial images. This photograph powerfully conveys Mapplethorpe’s erotic attachment to the anatomy of the model, his lover, it has above all a provocative intent and shock effect that make it, according to Randy Kennedy of the New York Times (October 1, 2015), Mapplethorpe’s “most slyly powerful work, a deadpan commentary on race, stereotypes and the slippery nature of photography itself, that continues to rattle nerves.”

Halfway between still life and fashion photography, Irving Penn’s Man Lighting Girl’s Cigarette (1949) (estimated at €70,000-90,000), features the elegant and graceful American model Jean Patchett. The play of transparency and contrasts creates a superb dialogue between foreground and background. The Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York has a print in its collection.

Christie’s will also present two photographs by Constantin Brancusi, La Négresse blanche de trois-quarts vue de nuit and Le poisson, (estimated at €30,000-50,000 and €20,000-30,000 respectively), which reflect the artist’s own view of his work. Considered one of the founding fathers of modern sculpture, Brancusi turned to photography, particularly after his meeting with Man Ray in 1914, as a privileged means of looking at his work. Light, framing and the setting up of each piece in the studio were all essential elements to which Brancusi attached the utmost importance, the latter sometimes betrayed by the presence of a reflection, as here with Fish, in which the artist’s tripod and camera can be seen in the polished bronze of the fish reduced to a simple ellipsoidal shape.

Online sale from October 26 to November 9, 2023
Exhibition from November 4 to 9, 2023, free admission

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Raymond Mfon has the creative instinct. Some
people are very good at one thing through years of practice or an innate
ability; few – like Raymond – have the creative disposition that they can bring
to just about anything. By ‘day’ Raymond is Tag’s studio manager for the
retouching team, a role he’s held for over eight years. In that time, he’s
worked on CGI and animation jobs too, transitioning to look after the post
production that Tag’s shoot production team does.

His creative roots, however, reach much further than that.

One of Raymond’s first creative ventures was the clothing
brand, Happy Chap, which was worn by multiple musicians, including Ed Sheeran.
He started the brand while still at university as a bit of an experiment that
grew in success over the five years that he ran it. As for photography, Raymond
says he was a big fan from a young age though he didn’t start to explore it
properly until 2016. “One of my friends, a musician, asked me if I would join
him on tour to help with photography and styling. He didn’t have the budget to
pay a professional,” Raymond laughs while recalling the story. “I had no
camera, no anything, but I had a passion to help a friend out.”

Raymond says that he knew the basics of photography, but he
didn’t have his own camera or have the skills to take professional-grade
photos. He reached out to a then-colleague and talented photographer, Mark
Diamond, asking for a crash-course in how to capture images. “He recommended a
low budget camera, which I bought, showed me the basics and then with that
knowledge I spent two weeks going around the UK shooting for my friend’s tour.”

“I got thrown in the deep end, and everything that I
would’ve spent maybe two, three years learning about photography, I had to learn
within those two weeks,” Raymond says.

A year later, another opportunity popped up at the right
time. Raymond’s friend living in Uganda invited him along. After some
hesitation, he decided to join the trip and take the time to further develop
his photography skills, especially street photography and portraiture. “I
bought a new camera and two weeks later I was in Uganda. I threw myself into
photography.”

He really wanted to take portraits, but Raymond discovered
that he was too nervous to ask the locals to take their picture. “Even asking
the questions felt like climbing a mountain.” He turned to street photography
in the meantime, honing his eyes on the seemingly mundane to find the real
story, the casual beauty of what others might miss. Raymond is nothing but
humble when discussing his eye for a good picture. “If you ask me to break down
the science and the specifics of the process, I won’t be able to do that in a
way that someone who studied photography could. But I do think that God has
given me a gift to see and capture moments.” That first trip to Uganda put
Raymond in touch with his surroundings, and the omnipresence of a camera around
his neck helped him attune to different moments, to locate their significance.

After returning to the UK,
Raymond knew that he needed to continue growing as a photographer. “I didn’t
really know what direction I wanted to take my photography in, but I decided to
offer my service and time to my church, taking photos, and this is where I
truly learned that I loved capturing moments. It helped me craft my skill and I
believe this was where the seed was planted that has been growing ever since,”
he explains. 

A creative sabbatical

In 2020, Raymond decided it was time for a sabbatical to
further develop his passion for photography. (We all know why that didn’t go to
plan.) Fast forward to 2023 and the idea was still fresh in his mind. With full
support of his manager at Tag, Raymond and his family embarked on another trip
to Uganda, travelling to Kampala for three months to witness the good work that
his friend, a head teacher at a school, and others were carrying out. “I love
my managers; they were really supportive. It’s not always the easiest to get
something like this signed off but they all encouraged me to go,” Raymond says.

In Kampala, Raymond spent time immersing himself in the
local community and culture, getting to know the individuals that would later
feature in his photos. “It was a very holistic trip with a lot of road trips to
see the projects my friend is involved in. I spent a lot of time with the
locals and made some really great friends; everyone was really welcoming and
made me feel at home,” he recalls. It was on this trip that Raymond felt his
photography really start to evolve. He moved away from being, in his own words,
“trigger happy” and towards “shooting because you see the story, you’re aware
of your surroundings and environment.” He spent days getting to know people and
their stories so when the time to photograph them came, some of that biography
would make it into the final images.

One photo from the trip particularly stands out for Raymond.
After a five-hour walking trip, he was walking through a village when he
spotted a young boy in the distance. The boy was perfectly framed by a half
tire in the ground – a frame within a frame. Raymond snapped just three
pictures, fast, before the boy moved. The second shot captured the light
shining on the boy’s silhouette and his figure in that impossibly precise spot.
When posting the image to his Instagram, Raymond wrote: “Sometimes your favourite photograph isn’t planned.
Sometimes it’s simply being in the right place at the right time. When that
time comes there’s an excitement and a rush. Time seems to stand still, but not
for long. The race is on, because what you see, you know in a moment will be
gone. But, when you fire that shutter and capture that moment, it’s a moment in
time captured forever.”

Raymond took thousands of photos on his trip. He captured
the beauty of the landscapes, the energy of the children, and the daily life of
locals. When he returned to Tag from his sabbatical, the head of photography, Amanda
Wallis, suggested that more people need to see his work. The result is an
upcoming exhibition, which he’s planning to title ‘EWAFE’, at Tag’s London HQ.
On display will be many of Raymond’s favourite and treasured photos from the
trip. For Raymond, it’s an opportunity to “honour the people that I met out
there and the projects that are supporting those communities.” Kitintale Skate
Park (supported by Skate Aid Uganda and the Uganda Skateboard Union), East
Coast Boxing Club, and Groundbreaker Talents.

While the exhibition will be free to attend, visitors are
encouraged to make a charitable donation towards the charities and community projects that are dear to
Raymond’s heart; the donations can be monetary or in the form of a books or an item of clothing, all of which will go towards the great work that Raymond observed and
documented being done in Kampala.

Raymond’s exhibition, EWAFE, will
launch on 16th November with a private, intimate event, and it will remain on
display at Tag HQ until the end of the year. If you are visiting Tag over the
next few months, come and see Raymond’s work for yourself. If you would like to
register interest in attending the launch event, please click here.

Nikoletta Stoyanova, highly commended, 2023

Stoyanova was working for the Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne as a photojournalist in Odesa when the Russian invasion began. She stayed to document everything and became a fixer. ‘In almost a year of work, fixing became the best school of reporting,’ she said. ‘Working with experienced journalists, photographers and videographers, you learn how to be like them. You learn to search for topics, contacts, people, places. You organise all the work, start writing texts and then do the pictures’

Photograph: Nikoletta Stoyanova/IPPG 2023

Photo provided to the Times Observer
This photo by Christopher Goff took Best of Show in the Warren County Conservation District’s annual photo contest.

Christopher Goff has won Best of Show in the Warren County Conservation District’s photo contest.

Sherry Moore, conservation program assistant, said that there were 58 entries in the WCCD’s fourth version of the contest.

Photos fell into one of four categories – Creeks, Rivers, Puddles, Ponds & Lakes; Mushrooms/Fungus; Furry Friends in Nature and Open – Nature Related.

“A few members of the Warren Camera Club judged the entries on Oct. 4,” Moore said. “We received 51 votes for the People’s Choice” which was held from Sept. 19 through Oct. 2.

In addition to Best of Show, Goff also took first place in Furry Friends and third in the open category.

Other winners include Ericka Dominick in second place for the water category and Mushrooms/Fungus and third in Furry Friends and first in the open category.

Third in the water category went to Rita Goldthwaite; first in Mushroom/Fungus went to Kristen Kiedaisch and third to Elaine Fahrenkamp; second in Furry Friends to Lisa Keesler and second in the open category went to Tim Meley.

People’s Choice winners were Nikki Bailey in the water category, Kiedaisch in Mushroom/Fungus and Dominick in both Furry Friends and the open category.

“The first-place winners, Best of Show and People’s Choice prizes were donated by Allegheny Outfitters,” Moore said.