Press Review
Paul Melcher:
The websites, part 9
With everything there is to see on the inter web, it can sometimes be a challenge to separate what matters from what doesn’t. Our brain emergency wiring makes it that we are captivated by the immediate and most often ignore the important. Thankfully there are more and more site that enables us to focus on what matters rather than only on what is new. Photography has this unique power to be able to communicate idea, thoughts , emotion and impact, regardless if has been taken a 100 years ago or in the last minute. Photography is surgical in its acquisition, it is timeless in its impact. More and more sites of high quality are now enabling us to intelligently surf its peaks while avoiding its dark valleys.
1. Emphas
For a trade that requires much more than personal skills, photography has been plagued by its high cost and its dwelling revenue. While more and more enjoy the pleasures of taking and seeing photographs, it appears that it has become harder to find the means to execute. Enter Emphas.is. Launched this past week, Emphas.is is a mini revolution in the world of photography. Using the emerging power of crowdsourcing, it is a platform that enables anyone to become an active participant in the creation of great photography. For as low as $5, anymore with a credit card can now become an investor in the next photo project of their favorite photographer. Photographers and viewers can now connect directly. The principle is simple. A photographer submits a project to the site along with its cost. Anyone with a credit card can then donate money to help achieve the monetary goal. Once the project finished, the financier will receive anything from a postcard to a sign print as a token of gratitude. However, the satisfaction one can receive from funding the next great photographic project will go much, much farther than that. So next time you are thinking about putting some money away for saving or the stock market, head on to emphas.is and donate.
2. Lightbox
It’s a bit strange that it took so long but finally, legendary newsweekly magazine TIME has launch its online gallery for photography. Now, thanks to Lightbox from Time, there is no need to wait to grab the print magazine to see the great photography that we are accustom to from this magazine. Since they still very often commission their own photography, it is always a guarantee to see original images from one of the great contemporary photographer. There, you can escape the wire service lassitude and experience the creativity and point of view of some of the most talented photographers in the world.
3. Alexia Foundation
Alexia Tsairis, an honor photojournalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, She was returning home for the Christmas holidays after spending a semester at the Syracuse University London Centre. Alexia was known by her peers and professors as one of the most promising photojournalism students at SU. She was a victim of the 1988terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. She had a deep commitment to world peace.
On 15 August 2003, Libya’s UN ambassador, Ahmed Own, submitted a letter to the UN Security council formally accepting “responsibility for the actions of its officials” in relation to the Lockerbie bombing. The Libyan government then proceeded to pay compensation to each family of US$8 million (from which legal fees of about US$2.5 million were deducted) and, as a result, the UN cancelled the sanctions that had been suspended four years earlier, and US trade sanctions were lifted.
Alexia’s parents took this money and created the Alexia foundation whose purpose is :
The Alexia Foundation promotes the power of photojournalism to give voice to social injustice, to respect history lest we forget it and to understand cultural difference as our strength — not our weakness. Through grants and scholarships, The Alexia Foundation supports photographers as agents for change.
Every year, the board meets and choses work-worthy photographer to receive the two grants : $15,000 for a professional photographer and a $8,000 scholarship grant for a student photographer . This year winners were recently awarded and can be seen here :
http://www.alexiafoundation.org
4. Near
You probably did not pay too much attention to what is going in in photography in Switzerland. That is why NEAR was created: “The association NEAR aims to promote contemporary photography, mainly in Switzerland but also internationally. It associates artists/photographers as well as professionals in the fields of art and of image in general : curators, art historians, art critics, collectors, museums, editors, medias…” Thanks to his nicely design website, NEAR allows anyone to be up to date with the photographic creation of this mostly alpine country. One can browse to its numerous discovery galleries or dive deeper and read more about the exhibitions, awards, lectures and projects.
It is dedicated to highlighting some of the most interesting fine art work currently being produced, or shown, in Switzerland.
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