Darcy Padilla’s Award Winning Work, “The Julie Project” – Opens THIS Thursday, May 20th, 5:00 – 7:30 PM
JULIE – “For the last 16 years I have been documenting the life of an AIDs-afflicted woman, Julie Baird. Julie has been on her own since her sexually abusive stepfather threw her through a glass window when she was 14 years old. She ran away from home, lived on the street, used drugs, contracted HIV, and had five children. When I first met Julie in February 1993 in the lobby of a SRO hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, she was 18 years old and had just given birth to her first child, Rachel. Julie and Jack Fyffe, the 19 year-old father were both HIV positive. Rachel, they said, was their main reason for living.
Throughout the years I have photographed Julie’s complex story of AIDS, abusive relationships, drug use, multiple homes and poverty. A victim of child abuse, Julie often neglected her own children. A high school dropout, she depends on welfare to feed her family. HIV-positive, she fights to stay off drugs.
Julie’s is a story of a survivor. The telling of it enriches the understanding of the poorest and most desperate among us. I am continuing to document Julie’s life and it is my fervent hope that Julie’s story inspires a greater awareness of the plight of people like her.”
Darcy Padilla’s unflinching portrayal of Julie Baird is one of the most in-depth, visceral, and captivating documentaries in recent memory.
Her work has received numerous grants and awards including an Alexia Foundation for World Peace & Understanding Award, Open Society Institute Individual Fellowship, and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.
The latest iteration of this paramount work will be on display at Fifty Crows Gallery, beginning with our May 20th opening. Doors will be open from 4 PM to 7:30 PM. Fifty Crows would like to welcome everyone to join us in this momentous event. We hope to see you there.
Get your calendars out… It’s grant writing time…
Cross the T’s, dot the I’s, and proof read your proposals. These dates are coming up soon:
Deadline for all entries is 31 May 2010. First place winners receive £1500. Second place wins a slick photo kit.
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Daylight / CDS Photo Awards Overview:
Deadline is Saturday, May 15, 2010, 8 p.m. (EST)
The First Prize Winner will receive a solo exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies, a multimedia Daylight podcast, a feature in CDS’s newsmagazine Document, presentation in Daylight and CDS online galleries, and $1,000 for exhibition-related expenses.
Juror’s Pick Winners will be part of a group exhibition at the Center for Documentary Studies and featured in Daylight and CDS online galleries. Ten Honorable Mentions will be named on Daylight and CDS websites.
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Angkor Photo Festival, Siem Reap:
The deadline for submitting work is May, 28th, 2010.
All photographers will receive an answer by the end of July 2010.
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Deadline for entries is April 30th!
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Call for Proposals: Moving Walls 18, Documentary Photography Exhibition
Deadline is June 11, 2010, 5pm EST
The Open Society Institute invites photographers and artists to submit a proposal and completed body of work for consideration in the Moving Walls 18 group exhibition.
Call for Proposals: Documentary Photography Audience Engagement Grant: Deadline is July 23, 2010, 5pm EST
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Requests for Proposals: 2-Dimensional Artwork for Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center
Deadline is May 3, 11:59 p.m., PST
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Best of luck to everyone!
Fine Print Program – Shelby Lee Adams
One of the most important components of FiftyCrows is the Fine Print Program, which is a major source of funding for the foundations initiatives. These limited-edition prints have been donated by 35 masters of photography, such as Eve Arnold, Hansel Mieth, and Jacques Lowe. Purchasing a print from the FiftyCrows Fine Print Program enables the foundation to cultivate the future of documentary photography by creating more exhibitions, lectures, and grants. All the prints can be viewed and purchased online at the FiftyCrows website. Please note that if you become a member of FiftyCrows for $35/year you can receive a $200-$1500 discount on photographs from the Fine Print Program. Contact FiftyCrows at info@fiftycrows.org if you are interested in membership or Fine Prints.
For 25 years, Shelby Lee Adams has been documenting the people of Appalachia. His affectionate portraits of individuals and families speak to us with tenderness and sincerity, and the fact that Adams returns to the mountains year after year is a testament to his dedication to show their challenging existence while maintaining their dignity. Adams has received two NEA fellowships, and his work is also included in the collections of many major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Adams’ photographs have been published in two volumes: Appalachian Portraits, 1993, and Appalachian Legacy, 1998.
Exhibition Opening: Mimi Chakarova, “The Price of Sex” – Thursday, April 15 , 5:00-7:30pm
One of the first posts on the FiftyCrows blog was about Berkeley based photographer, Mimi Chakarova who has been documenting sex trafficking in Eastern Europe and the Middle East for the past eight years. This Thursday, April, 15th from 5:00-7:30, FiftyCrows will be holding an exhibition opening for Chakarova’s work, “The Price of Sex”. The intimate portraits and unique curation transcend the confines of the gallery space to tell the harrowing stories of the women subjected to sexual slavery, harsh abuse, extreme poverty, and devastation hardship. Chakarova will be present at the opening.
Below is the original blog post about Chakarova’s work. There are two short videos that are part of Chakarova’s work on a full length documentary film on the subject. Also, check out the many important links on resources and ways to help.
For over eight years, investigative reporter and photographer Mimi Chakarova has carried out painstaking, often dangerous, on-the-ground reporting into all aspects of the sex trafficking trade from Eastern Europe, including investigations into the countries of origin, the process of transit, and the initial allure and stark realities these women face in the receiving countries. She has slowly built trust and developed relationships with young women in Eastern Europe who have been trafficked abroad. Over the years she has traveled through Eastern Europe, Southern Europe/Mediterranean regions and the Middle East for this project. Her work has won a 2008 Emmy Nomination and a 2008 Webby Award, and has appeared on PBS Frontline/World and CBS 60 Minutes. This long-term project was also awarded the Inge Morath Magnum Photo Grant for outstanding documentary work.
BACKGROUND
After the fall of the Soviet Union, millions of young women in Eastern Europe came of age amid economic misery. Their childhood fantasies of a better life in the West became a human trafficker’s golden opportunity. Through agents and brokers who arrange the travel and job placements, young women are escorted to their destinations and delivered to their employers. Upon reaching the foreign land, some women learn that they have been deceived about the nature of the work they will do. Most have been lied to about the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment, and most find themselves in coercive and abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous.
Currently the main destinations for sex trafficking of Eastern European women are Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. Most women are proposed work as seasonal and factory workers, waitresses, domestic servants and au pairs. After arriving in the country of destination, their passports, documents, money, and personal belongings are taken away. They become today’s sex slaves, sold and resold like cattle. Those who manage to escape their traffickers are deported. Back home, they rarely tell their loved ones the truth. The stigmatization of prostitution is every family’s deepest shame.
For more stories, videos, and images go to: http://priceofsex.org
On the website there are two very important links which provide information on ways to help:
HOW TO HELP – http://priceofsex.org/content/how-help
LINKS & RESOURCES – http://priceofsex.org/content/links-and-resources
Affect/Effect: Photographs That Create Change – Susan Meiselas discusses all potential of photography
“We have to know about each other. Photography gives us that opportunity.”
-Susan Meiselas
This is an amazing video where Magnum photographer and Open Society Institute – Moving Walls co-curator Susan Meiselas talks about the impact that photography can make on social consciousness. Her personal website is also very interesting as it includes an audio component on every page with her commentary on her work and photography in general. The Open Society Institute is an extremely important resource for documentary photographers with grants, fellowships, exhibitions, online multimedia and portfolios, and a resource center for a multitude of social programs.
Judith Fox on NPR
Get an intimate, behind-the-scenes glimpse of I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer’s, as Judith Fox shares her personal account with NPR. Click here to listen to the interview.
I told Ed that some of the photographs I took of him saw straight through to his soul and asked if he minded being that exposed. He said “No. You can show my soul; just don’t show my penis.” So that’s our agreement.
For more information on Judith Fox and FiftyCrows, click here.
Judith Fox: I Still Do and Sea of Dreams, Exhibition Opening and Book Signing- Thursday, March 4th, 5:00 to 7:30
You are invited Thursday, March 4th for an opening and book signing with Judith Fox. We are excited to exhibit two bodies of work by Fox: “I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer’s”, a powerful, poetic and universal portrayal of aging, loving, humor, mortality and hope, also the subject of a touching photographic memoir published by powerHouse. We also present, “Sea of Dreams”, an abstract depiction of haunting beauty that explores the powerful turbulence beneath the surface calm of the ocean. Seen together, these images offer both direct and metaphoric representation of deep emotion and the resilience of the human spirit. Ms. Fox will be present and signing her new book. Books available for purchase at the gallery.