Day by day, hour by hour, our planet’s rarest creatures are being hunted, trapped and slaughtered to feed a global black market in wildlife products.

The trade, worth hundreds of millions of dollars every year, is devastating some of our best loved species and could have irrevocable consequences for life on earth.

For more than ten years, Australian photographer Patrick Brown and British journalist Ben Davies have followed the global wildlife trade and its gruesome pursuit of profit. Their investigations have taken them to some of the most remote corners of Asia to document the poachers, the dealers, the trafficking routes and the battle to save what is left of our dwindling wildlife populations.

“Trading to Extinction” is the result of their decade-long project. Patrick Brown managed to crowdfund the book through Emphas.is with the support of 162 backers who raised $25,820. This is almost $11,000 more than his initial fundraising goal. This beautifully produced black and white photographic book features Brown’s prize-winning images. In one stark portrait, we see an elephant in chains that epitomizes how man has brought down some of nature’s most majestic species. In another, two poachers in a Nepalese jail who face 20 years behind bars if convicted.

Using impeccable contacts with wildlife investigators, conservationists and enforcement agencies, Brown and Davies spent time embedded with various organizations intent upon slowing the trade of exotic animals. The result is an intensely personal story told through photographs and words.

As with drug trafficking, money feeds the animal trade. Its tentacles wrap around the world from the last pristine rainforests in Asia to major cities in the West. A poacher who kills a rhino and removes its horn in India gets $350. That same horn sells for $1,000 in a nearby market town. By the time it reaches Hong Kong, Beijing or the Middle East, the horn is worth $60,000. Tiger bones are worth up to $700 per kilo.

But the fight-back has begun. There is an extraordinary worldwide movement that is bringing together people from diverse backgrounds in a bid to save our most endangered species.

‘Trading to Extinction’ is a compelling expose of the animal trade and a tribute to the men and women who are battling to save our precious wildlife before it is too late.

The project is supported by FREELAND Foundation, an international organization dedicated to stopping illegal wildlife trade and human slavery. FREELAND works throughout Asia, raising public awareness and building local capacity to protect critical ecosystems, wildlife and vulnerable people. For more information, visit Freeland or their facebook page.

About the Photographer/ Author

Patrick Brown is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Sunday Times Magazine, Aperture,   The New York Times, Stern, Der Spiegel and GEO. Brown’s photographs of the wildlife trade have earned him prestigious awards including second prize in the World Press Photo Awards 2005, Picture of the Year, Days Japan and a 3p Foundation Award. His photographs are featured in Black Market – Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia, published by Palace Press. Brown has been a member of Panos Pictures since 2004.

Ben Davies is a Bangkok-based journalist whose work has appeared in a wide range of distinguished publications and media including the International Herald Tribune, the London Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. He is the author of Black Market – Inside the Endangered Species Trade in Asia. He has also written and photographed five other books around Asia including Living with Spirits – A Journey into the Heart of Thailand.

Publisher

Emphas.is is the first crowdfunding platform devoted exclusively to photojournalism. It connects photojournalists directly with their audience, and in the process creates an alternative funding source for in-depth visual journalism. On Emphas.is photojournalists pitch their projects directly to the public. It is the public, rather than editorial boards, that gets to decide whether a story or book is worth doing. By agreeing to back a story, members of the public are making sure that the issues they care about receive the in-depth coverage they deserve. In exchange backers are invited along on the journey.

Photography as a tool for reconciliation

Last week CNN ran an interview with photographer André Liohn about the group project “Almost Dawn in Libya” that André has initiated. ADIL is an exhibition project curated by Paolo Pellegrin and Annalisa D’Angelo using photography as a tool for reconciliation in Libya. With the help of local organizations the project aims to bring four exhibitions to four Libyan cities – Benghazi, Misratah, Tripoli and Zintan.

Lynsey Addario, Eric Bouvet, Bryan Denton, Christopher Morris, Jehad Nga, Finbarr O’Reilly and Paolo Pellegrin, who all covered the Libyan conflict in the country and along the borders, joined forces to create a neutral arena were different people, with different opinions, expectations and experiences of the war, will be invited to see and react to how independent eyes saw their reality. They want to expand the lifespan of their images and bring them back to the very people they photographed.

They are two thirds of the way already, but need to raise an additional $4,600 within the next three weeks to make the project see the light of day.

With Paolo Pellegrin’s signed art print, that was offered as the $1,500 reward, already gone, André Liohn has decided to offer one of his signed art prints as a new reward to help them reach their funding goal.

Rebel fighting against pro government soldiers inside a  building in Tripoli street down town Misratah. ©André Liohn

You can claim this reward here.

Just last week Patrick Brown was followed by a team from VICE into China, where he was documenting the illegal animal trade.

What seems like an unlikely marriage between a magazine that thrives on counter-culture, and a raunchy sense of humor, and a photojournalist, who is very serious about exposing the illegal wildlife trade in Asia – a topic to which he has dedicated 10 years of his life-, might well be a very effective way to get the message out far and loud beyond the photo crowd and animal rights activists.

Vice launched Picture Perfect last year – a video series dedicated to documenting the work and lives of their favorite photojournalists. Each month, they go behind the scenes to explore the artistic process of creating visual stories. They aim to show the successes and challenges these photographers are facing while covering to all corners of the Earth.

In their upcoming episode they will air their visit to Patrick Brown in Bangkok where they talked about the craft of photography and his forthcoming book, Trading to Extinction, for which he is currently raising funds on Emphas.is. Footage will also show Brown in Guangzhou, China, where he was photographing restaurants that buy and serve exotic animals. His China trip wrapped up his decade-long project on the animal trade.

Vice will air its documentary on “their favorite photographer hard at work” on April 4th. Be sure not to miss it.

As Emphas.is opens up its admissions process, we will be relying on our talented, passionate board of reviewers to help us maintain a high level of quality photographic projects on the site. To help you get to know the people looking at project proposals (and what they’re looking for), we are posting interviews will several reviewers. This week, meet photo editor and instructor extraordinaire, Nadja Masri.

Please tell us a bit about what your history with photography and what you do now.

I’m a photo editor mostly recently working for Das Magazin in Zurich, the Saturday weekend magazine of four Swiss newspapers. I’m also the head of the photo editors program at the Ostkreuz school for photography in Berlin. I’m producing a beautiful photo book with my photo editor students right now, an incredibly talented group of people. The theme: 12 selected New York stories photographed by ICP alumni from the photojournalism and documentary program. The book is scheduled to be published in December 2011.

From 2001 to 2009 I was the bureau chief and photo editor of German GEO magazine in its New York City office and from 2005 until 2011 a faculty member of the International Center of Photography in New York. Previously I worked for Bizz, a business monthly in Cologne, Stern magazine in Hamburg, and the photo agency Ostkreuz in Berlin. I have been a guest photo book editor, panelist, juror, and portfolio reviewer on numerous international photography events and I have written articles for Photonews and Photo District News (PDN).

How did you get involved with Emphas.is and why did you decided to join the Emphas.is board of reviewers?

Emphas.is founder Tina Ahrens and I are friends and former colleagues. We go a long way back. I feel honored to be part of the board and to be able to review photography projects that require in-depth storytelling and long-term commitment.

What qualities and elements are you looking for when you review a potential project for Emphas.is?

Is the photography strong, is the photographer talented, can you see his or her signature on the work? Is the project interesting, compelling, relevant, doable?

Do you have any advice for photographers who want to crowdfund a project, or are simply working on a long-term project and looking for alternative funding?

I think what is of the utmost importance to being able to fund a project successfully on this platform is to get proactive. It’s definitely not enough to only put the project on the Emphas.is website. You need to get people’s attention. You need to be a good networker and promote your project through all possible outlets. You need to be smart and resourceful about which group of people, which institutions etc. might be interested in funding the project and get in touch with them.

As Emphas.is opens up its admissions process, we will be relying on our talented, passionate board of reviewers to help us maintain a high level of quality photographic projects on the site. To help you get to know the people looking at project proposals (and what they’re looking for), we are posting interviews will several reviewers. This week, meet photographer, Knight Fellow, and TEDGlobal fellow Teru Kuwayama.

Please tell us a bit about what your history with photography and what you do now day-today.

I started off photographing punk rock bands and Tibetan monks. I lived as a traveler in South Asia, and then crossed into Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir about a decade ago. Since then, my attention has been focused on this region and on the spectrum of intertwined military operations and humanitarian crises sometimes referred to as “complex emergency.” In the process I’ve become increasingly interested in communities, systems, and networks.

How did you get involved with Emphas.is and why did you decided to join the Emphas.is board of reviewers?

Karim asked me to participate. He’s a difficult person to say no to, and I do what I can do to help other people do what they can do.

What qualities and elements are you looking for when you review a potential project for Emphas.is?

I have no preconceptions, but a general suggestion that extends beyond Emphas.is proposals is to articulate your interests, intentions, and goals as clearly, simply, and specifically as possible – skip the poetry. Even ambitious projects are best served by concise, detailed, down-to-earth proposals. Explain the value of the project, not just the subject. There’s no shortage of photographs in the world, so what’s different about yours, or your use of them? What happens to the photographs? What’s the plan to make an impact?

Do you have any advice for photographers who want to crowdfund a project, or are simply working on a long-term and looking for alternative funding?

To quote Darwin: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Reach beyond photojournalism, or whatever species you belong to.

That doesn’t mean you should just add audio and video and wait for the old world to come back. It isn’t coming back, nor should it.

This generation of photographers operates in a much more complex ecosystem than its predecessors. Making photographs is now a part of what we do — the workspace has expanded to encompass financing, publishing, distribution, branding, marketing, strategic and tactical communications, and ever more. It’s a pain in the ass, but like it or not, here we are – and in crisis, there is opportunity.

Where it was once your assignment to make images for an organization – it is now your mission to imagine and organize. Go for it.

The making-of-zone on Emphas.is is the place where photographers update their backers. Once a photographer is on the road and producing his story, he will share insights into the production of his story, and share tales from the journey in the form of videos, images and blog posts.

Tomas van Houtryve, a member at VII, is currently producing part of his project “Borderline: North Korea”. Since he recently managed to enter the Demilitarized Zone he has opened up the making-of-zone of his project.

As photographer, Tomas has been fascinated with North Korea for years. He visited Pyongyang twice, but there was a limit of how much he could see or learn from the inside. Next, his curiosity took him to the Chinese-North Korean border with the help of a grant from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund. He managed to meet with several North Koreans who had left their country in the past year. They told him of recent food shortages, ongoing power cuts, and the shocking brutality or authorities.

He now started the second phase of his North Korean border project, tracing the North-South Korean frontier and the D.M.Z. Here is part of Tomas’ update from the road:

“After a long wait, I received a message that the South Korean army had granted me access to the D.M.Z. The location was the farthest observation post on the east side of Korea, near the Sea of Japan.

Accompanied by my Korean friend, Woohae, and an employee of the Ministry of National Defense, we left a military hostel at 6:00 am. It was still dark and snowing as we headed out.

We had to pass through two fortified gates before we reached the outpost. The first gate is called the CCL, or Civilian Control Line. Here our documents were checked with a list of authorized visitors, and we were issued blue armbands marked “Press” in English and Korean. Once inside the first gate, a Jeep escort lead the way into the D.M.Z.

The second gate is called the SLL, or Southern Limit Line. I shot video as we passed through. Then we passed a series of anti-tank columns and headed up an extremely steep and icy hill. As our tires started slipping, I noticed the small triangular signs on both sides of the road warning of land mines.

The escort Jeep ahead of us started slipping, even though they had on snow chains. We didn’t have chains. Half way up the hill our car’s tires spun until we couldn’t advance. We gingerly backed into a parking spot on the edge of the mine warning signs. Then we loaded into the South Korean military Jeep to continue to the top.

After we arrived at the observation post, I met with two U.S. Army soldiers who were stationed there as observers. One of them had been there for two and a half years, and he said I was the first Western photographer he had seen.

“I don’t know who you know, or how you managed to get access, but it is rare to be allowed up here, especially to take pictures. A South Korea TV crew visited last year, but they were only allowed to film that lake on the North Korean side of the border. They weren’t allow to aim their cameras anywhere else,” he said as he pointed to a frozen lake about 2 km in the distance.

There were restrictions placed on me too. I wasn’t allowed to photograph the South Korean guard posts on top of the hills on either side of the central observations post. They also told me not to take pictures of their weapons and electronic jamming equipment. But they did let me walk along the fence with patrolling soldiers and take many photos from the terrace around the post…”

To see the images, follow Tomas on his journey. People who sign-up and pay $10 to help fund the project on Emphas.is will get the back-story as he makes my way along the border. You are encouraged to ask questions, post comments, and get involved with the issue on a deeper level.

De février 2012 à mars 2013, l’ethnologue Yann Borjon-Privé et le photographe Nicolas Mingasson vont mener expédition ethno-photographique le long de la rivière Khatanga en Russie. Au programme : la réalisation portrait après portrait d’une cartographie humaine de la région. Les photos seront prises en noir et blanc argentique et les entretiens filmés.

Engagés dans une démarche originale et inédite, l’ethnologue et le photographe vont croiser leurs regards et enrichir réciproquement leurs travaux dans le but d’étudier et témoigner des changements culturels, sociaux, économiques et environnementaux rapides auxquels ces populations se trouvent confrontées.

Cette mission est la première étape d’un vaste projet autour de l’Arctique. D’autres expéditions sont prévues, toujours en partenariat avec une équipe d’ethnologues, pour réaliser un tableau de l’ensemble des populations de l’Arctique. Ce travail sera présenté dans le cadre de l’Observatoire Photographique de l’Arctique.

As Emphas.is opens up its admissions process, we will be relying on our talented, passionate board of reviewers to help us maintain a high level of quality photographic projects on the site. To help you get to know the people looking at project proposals (and what they’re looking for), we are posting interviews with several reviewers. This week, meet Susan Glen, picture editor at The Independent‘s Sunday Review for 15 years.

Please tell us a bit about your history with photography and what you do now.

I have worked for two British photo agencies and as a picture editor for 15 years of The Independent‘s Sunday Review where I assigned and bought photo stories. I have judged photo competitions in Europe, in particular Visa Pour L’image for News and features, as well as the Fujichrome Africa Awards, Scoop, Prix Canon Femme, and the Slovenian Press Awards. I currently lecture in British universities and manage picture editing projects. I’m also an adviser for The London Street Photography Festival.

How did you get involved with Emphas.is and why did you decided to join the Emphas.is board of reviewers?

Karim Ben Khalifa approached me and asked me to join. I said yes straight away because I knew that this method would work. I wanted to be part of the process. I want to see fresh approaches utilized to complement the classic outlets.

What qualities and elements are you looking for when you review a potential project for Emphas.is?

Commitment, solid research, and evidence that the project is underway and has strong potential for completion.

Are there specific things that would make a project not appropriate for Emphas.is?

I dislike bull-shitters and people who don’t know what they are talking about. A poorly researched and half-prepared project will not be supported.

Do you have any advice for photographers who want to crowdfund a project, or are simply working on a long-term and looking for alternative funding?

A strong pitching video is important — and a strong social network is even more important to the success of the project.

As Emphas.is opens up its admissions process, we will be relying on our talented, passionate board of reviewers to help us maintain a high level of quality photographic projects on the site. To help you get to know the people looking at project proposals (and what they’re looking for), we’ll be posting interviews with several reviewers over the coming weeks. First up is MSF International Photo Editor Bruno De Cock.

Please tell us a bit about what your history with photography and what you do now day-today.

Born and based in Ghent, Belgium, I have been a documentary photographer since 1994. This has evolved into photo editing as a full-time job, starting as a freelancer on the photo desk of a local Belgian newspaper, and then moving on to the photo department of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Belgium. After working there for eight years, I am now the MSF International Photo Editor, overseeing the organization’s archive and photo production on a global level, I am the co-author of MSF’s ethical guidelines for ethical photo use, and I’m involved in several multimedia projects developed in collaboration with agencies and multimedia producers.

I have also maintained a strong hands-on role in photography, traveling to Africa, Asia, and throughout Europe, documenting the work of MSF. In addition, I have been a teacher/instructor, training staff and patients in basic photography in order to provide finished galleries and multi-media projects.

In a different direction, I have always continued to make personal work, often using low-tech photography such as phone cameras and Polaroids, and I have successfully sold a series of prints to Belgium galleries and collectors over the past years.

How did you get involved with Emphas.is and why did you decided to join the Emphas.is board of reviewers?

I had  met Karim many years ago in the MSF offices in Brussels, when he was still living in Belgium. We worked together a couple of times and stayed in touch over the years. When I heard about his project, I immediately volunteered to help in any way I could. That turned out to be the board of reviewers and I’m really happy to be part of this.

What qualities and elements are you looking for when you review a potential project for Emphas.is?

I’m really interested to discover what kind of projects will be presented. So far, I have been very impressed by the projects on Emphas.is and I think it’s part of our job to maintain that level. What I like to see with any photographer is commitment and personal involvement in their work. There are many photographers out there, and many stories are covered by multiple photographers; to me, the level of personal involvement is usually the thing that makes the difference.

The Emphas.is platform is perfect to sustain a type of photography that has come under pressure over the last years because of lack of space and budget to produce these stories. It would be great if we could make them happen with the support of crowdfunding.

I believe that with the direct involvement of the ‘public’, or the funders, comes a different type of commitment. I think these projects require a transparancy to the donors, and a clear action plan. What’s the message, the aim, and how do they plan to make a difference? I think those questions should be answered by the project. Credibility is also crucial here, and there is no place for vague intentions or lack of insight on what the story is really about.

Do you have any advice for photographers who want to crowdfund a project, or are simply working on a long-term project and looking for alternative funding?

Since I have no first hand experience in crowd funding, I think it’s difficult to give sound advice. I would recommend embracing the nature of crowd funding and the internet as it is today. Play the game by participating in the exchange between fans/supporters or just interested people. Join the conversation, as they say.

The “Making Of” section on Emhas.is is really an added value and should be used well. I haven’t had the time to follow all of the projects, but I liked Tomas van Houtryve’s approach a lot. Giving many details and sharing the things they’re struggling with as they’re working, responding to questions and listening to suggestions.

A photographer seeking to find support and a public should use the channels available for this, steadily building a network. The key here is to find a balance in releasing the work and letting supporters engage with it, while  keeping control over the story as an author.

Уже в течение более двух лет мы, трое фотографов, Ольга Кравец, Мария Морина и Оксана Юшко, снимаем проект про Грозный. Вот его сайт http://groznyninecities.com/. За два года у нас было несколько выставок, мы получили несколько призов, но в то же время все держится на нашем голом энтузиазме, потому что почти никто в мире уже не заинтересован в освещении Чечни – особенно так, как она есть на самом деле. Поэтому мы начали кампанию по сбору денег на проект, на сайте, где фотожурналисты могут обратиться непосредственно к аудитории http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=345 и любой заинтересованный человек может поучаствовать.
Как поддержать “Грозный: девять городов” через сайт Emphas.is

1. Откройте ссылку http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=345
Прокрутите страницу вниз и нажмите на кнопку FUND THIS PROJECT

2. Затем пройдите в раздел PLEASE SIGN UP
Emphasis создал короткое видео для тех, у кого могут возникнуть проблемы с регистрацией

http://blog.emphas.is/?p=703

3. После того, как регистрация завершена, вы должны выбрать, какую сумму вы хотите внести в проект. Можно выбрать из следующих опций:

$10 – доступ в закрытый раздел проекта на сайте, где мы будем рассказывать вам, как идет работа, как только вернемся в Грозный. И еще немного любви от нас.

$25 – веб-доступ к новым частям нашей видео-инсталляции

$30 – набор открыток с личными благодарностями от нас всех

$100 – ваше имя на сайте проекта или отпечаток 30×20 cm

$250 – арт-объект работы молодого чеченского художника

$500 – номерной отпечаток с подписью автора

$1000 – набор из трех отпечатков с подписями, по одному от каждой из нас

$2000  – логотип вашей организации на нашем сайте

3. Введите ваш адрес для получения выбранного подарка (при желании остаться анонимным, вы все равно получите подарок, но в этом случае вам надо будет кликнуть на

I want to be an anonymous backer for this project. Do not display my name in the recent backers list.

4. Как только вы нажмете CONFIRM, вас перебросит на сайт PayPal – надежной платежной системы, где после аналогичного процесса регистрации вы можете платить кредитной картой.

ЗАРАНЕЕ СПАСИБО за вашу поддержку!