Author Archive

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.

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.

In the 1970s, six South American military dictatorships came up with a clandestine plan to eliminate political opposition, known as Operation Condor. Their machinations, which included rounding up political prisoners, drugging them, and pushing them en masse from airplanes into the ocean, resulted in the extrajudicial executions of at least 60,000 people, largely young leftist students, workers, and unionists, and many still unidentified.

João Pina has been documenting the effects of this dark time for years, and last July he was able to photograph the first segment of his important “Shadow of the Condor” project, thanks to the support of 83 Emphas.is backers. Joao visited five different states during his four-week trip through Brazil, talking to and photographing both the victims and perpetrators of Operation Condor (several stories are shared below). He is now asking for supporters to join him on the second leg of his project, with trips to Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.

Josias "Jonas" Gonçalves, a former guerrilla fighter in the early '70s in the Serra das Andorinhas region of Araguaia, Brazil. During an ambush he got lost in the jungle and managed to survive alone for six months, escaping death at the hands of the Brazilian army several times. He eventually turn himself in and was imprisoned for six months. He had to bury his commander, who was captures and executed. I spent a whole day traveling with Josias through the region, visiting landmarks from his exile, such as the waterfall behind him.

1. Tell us about your recent work in Brazil. What aspects of the story were you able to document?

I traveled trough five different states, started in Sao Paulo documenting former jails from the regime and speaking to former political prisoners. Afterwards I decided to go to the Amazon region, to the states of Pará and Tocantins, to investigate what had happened during the Araguaia guerrilla times. I found that people are still quite afraid of the subject. One day I was traveling with Dona Adalgisa, who was a main logistical support to the guerrilla, and we got stuck in the sand on a dirt road near her house. As we where asking for help, two men asked what we where doing there; when she explained, they ran away.

I also met and photographed victims from those times: a farmer who was arrested and tortured by the military, a former guerrilla fighter who was later arrested and had to bury  his own comrades after torture. There was also the incredible young boy (now an adult), who found an army grenade in the middle of the jungle. Not knowing what it was, he activated it, losing his arm and killing his brother. It was very sad to listen to all those stories and see that the Brazilian state still hasn’t done much to help people heal from these traumas.

Sebastião Curió, a retired Brazilian army Colonel responsible for the crackdown on the Araguaia guerrillas. He also participated in Operation Condor as part of the Brazilian military secret services on military missions in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Here photographed in Brasília, where he lives near the home of the former Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Strossner, who was brought to exile in Brazil with Curió's help.

I managed to interview Sebastião Curió, a former Brazilian army colonel that was the head of the counter-insurgency operations against the guerrillas in the early 1970s, in Brasil’s capital, Brasília. He was the one who caught most of the well-known guerrillas. It was a tough interview, but it helped me understand that the high ranks of the state were all involved in  killing guerrillas and keep it all a secret.

Mr. Curió explained that, in those years, Brazil was experiencing a great economical boom, and the Chinese were one of their main trading partners. Since the guerrillas had Maoist inclinations and had been trained in China, it would have had huge implications to publicly acknowledge that the Brazilians were killing them. So the President gave the order to Curió to do it quietly; more than 100 bodies are still missing.

At Emphas.is, we encourage photographers to reach out to NGOs, publications, and other organizations that align with their project’s goals. Often, mutually beneficial relationships can be built with these groups, which may choose to make a larger donation, to help spread the word about the project, or agree to publish the results of the project once it’s funded.

Return of the Black Turtle, a collaboration between photographer Neil Osborne and scientist Wallace J. Nichols to document the unlikely success of the nearly extinct black turtles, is in its final funding push this week. We wanted to highlight some of the impressive partnership building that Neil and J. have done to ensure their project has a strong impact if it reaches its funding goal.

Below, Neil describes the partnerships he and J. have established for Return of the Black Turtle. You’ll also find a short Q&A about the importance and potential impact of their work. You can click here to help make their plans into reality.

Laura El-Tantawy’s memories of growing up in Egypt include vibrant family gatherings and long discussions, usually about people’s feelings of helplessness under Mubarak’s reign. Laura studied outside of Egypt, but began returning to photograph the changes in the country, which she noticed as early as 2005. She was in Egypt again during the occupation of Tahrir square leading up to Mubarak’s February 11 resignation. Now Laura wants to return to Egypt for a road trip of personal discovery, to combine her insider and outsider perspectives into an important visual document about this period of historic change in the country. Click here to learn more about her project and to help fund her project.

Tell me about growing up in Egypt. What was so hard about life under Mubarak?

When I was five, my parents moved back to Egypt from England, so I identify with my Egyptian heritage. I remember a lot of family events and gatherings when I was young. We lived in large apartment building where my aunt and grandparents lived too. There was lots of cooking together and my parents would spend the whole night with my grandparents, discussing politics and the situation in country. The discussion was always the same: We’re stuck, something needs to happen.

What was it about life in Egypt that was so hard, that led to this uprising finally?

It’s a whole accumulation of things. When you think about it, for Egyptians, everything was hard to reach: education, health care. From the moment they’re born, there are so many obstacles in their way; everything was a machine. Just to get a birth certificate or a driver’s license, you had to bribe people and have connections. You grow up in that class not having any hope for life.

The cycle of corruption also became much worse in the last ten years. The people causing the corruption seemed to think, “OK this population just doesn’t care any more.” So the extent of the corruption was multiplied by 100. For instance, whenever a new community was being built on the seaside, every government minister would have to be given a free home.

We had this sense that Egypt was not ours anymore. There was no one people could turn to, because we were so isolated, so they had to turn to each other.

When did you see the tide start to shift toward the revolution?

I first started to see people coming together to express displeasure with the government in 2005. I had just returned to Egypt after studying in the U.S. for years. People were protesting, insulting the president; the level of anger was totally shocking. From then there was a build up until 2011.

Photojournalist Andri Tambunan was recently notified that he is a finalist for The Asian Photographers Grant for his project, Against All Odds, which documents unusually high AIDS/HIV rates and low awareness in Papuan indigenous populations. To help support Andri’s important work, click here.

To be considered for the Asian Photographers Grant, a project must be an in-depth photographic documentation in Asia that explores a critical issue that is unknown or under-reported. It must also make a positive impact on the local community and help vocalize the issues at the grassroots, local community or NGO level. Out of over 100 proposals from all over Asia, Andri and four other finalists will be showcased at this year’s 7th Ankor Photo Festival, from November 19-26 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The winner will be chosen during the festival.

We thought this would be a great time to talk more with Andri about his project and how your support through Emphas.is will allow him to help the community he is documenting.

From Against All Odds, by Andri Tambunan

Why did you start documenting AIDS/HIV in the indigenous populations of Papua? How long have you been photographing in that community and what is their response to you?

Andri: This project started as simply a need to find answers. In 2009 I was in Jakarta, Indonesia, visiting family when I read a sentence in a news article that caught my attention: “ I would say 75% of Papuans don’t believe there is HIV.” The article focused on Juliana Yarisetou, a housewife who contracted HIV from her husband. HIV/AIDS awareness was low at the time, and she was told to go home and rest by a doctor when she came for treatment. At one point she weighed 22kg (48.5lbs). Her husband and youngest children died from AIDS, and, after discovering her illness, her community ostracized her.

I was shocked by this article and wanted to know more, but I could find very few facts or images. I emailed the reporter who wrote the article, and he referred me to a local NGO in Jayapura, capital of Papua. I decided go to Papua, not really knowing what I would find. A week later I met Juliana in person. She had become an AIDS advocacy officer for an NGO and was healthy again.

I ended staying in Papua for a little over a month. In Jayapura, I worked together with Yayasan Harapan Ibu (YHI) or Mother’s Hope Foundation, a local NGO that has been very successful raising awareness of HIV/AIDS and educating the use of condom to help prevent infection. YHI helped me gain access and referred me to their colleagues in other cities in Papua.

During my stay in Papua, I met young girls with HIV who had to sell their bodies in order to survive; a housewife who was abandoned by her husband after contracting HIV; young men and women living in isolation because they were rejected by their family,; and doctors, nurses, and social workers who are on the frontline of this epidemic. I saw that this epidemic affects everyone and I realized the importance of documenting it.

Even now Papua is a restricted area, especially to foreigners and journalist, so my Indonesian background and fluency in Bahasa is definitely an advantage. I made a promise to myself that I would go back to continue this project partly because I am one of the few who can do it — it’s my duty to tell their stories.

From Against All Odds, by Andri Tambunan

Tell us a little bit about your Emphas.is project, Against All Odds. How do you plan to use your photography to help the people you photograph?

An informative post by Canadian photographer Donald Weber with tips for writing grant applications has been getting a lot of attention recently on Facebook and Twitter. That got us thinking about grants — which photographers are turning to more and more as traditional funding has declined — and how they compare to crowdfunding like Emphas.is.

To start, I looked up the number of applicants in 2010 for several big photographic grants (plus the Guggenheim, for good measure) to determine what your odds were of being awarded one.

• Getty Grants for Editorial Photography, $20,000: (5/260) 2%
• W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, $30,000: (1/182) 0.5%
• Alexia Foundation Grant $15,000: (1/233) 0.4%
• John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, $43,200 (avg.): (30/500) 6%

Compare that to your odds on Emphas.is: Of the ten projects that have completed their 60-day funding period, five have been fully funded at an average of $13,695. While crowdfunding for photojournalism projects has so far brought in smaller sums than these top grants, at 50% odds, we think it holds it own, even against these large grants.

We believe photographers have an interest in experimenting with crowdfunding because it gives them a chance to get more feedback about their project in a shorter period of time than most grants. Feedback comes first from Emphas.is staff when we help photographers craft their pitches and connect them with potential funders such as non-profits and editorial outlets. Because of the social, shareable nature of online crowdfunding, Emphas.is photographers receive real-time information about how important their project is to the community, what way of describing it people connect with, and who they can rely on to help spread the word.

Most grant processes require you to wait months to hear if a proposal was accepted and, if it’s not, feedback is often minimal. One photographic grant that goes against that trend is the Open Society Institute’s Audience Engagement Grant, which “supports photographers to take an existing body of work on a social justice or human rights issue and devise an innovative way of using that work as a catalyst for social change.” The OSI staff has spent a lot of time and resources creating case studies of successful funded projects, helping photographers understand what makes a good proposal and how to make sure their project is successful once it’s funded.

Don’s post also suggests that crowdfunding could set a photographer on the path to further funding, including larger grants. He explains that getting small grants first gives you a better chance at larger grants later. This lends credence to your work, demonstrates your long-term dedication to a project, and shows the application committee that there is interest and support for it.

If the advantage of receiving smaller grants first is to show dedication and interest, a funded Emphas.is project might do that even more than a grant. As Emphas.is photographers such as Tomas van Houtryve, Carolyn Drake, and Matt Eich can tell you, getting crowdfunded requires a serious commitment: putting together a thoughtful pitch, regularly promoting to your network, and updating funders with your progress. Plus, showing a grant committee that your work is supported but by hundreds of community members, not just by a handful of industry insiders, is a strong statement about its relevance.

And if you run your crowdfunding campaign right, you might not even need a grant at a later stage, as you are building up a group of backers who like and understand your work and will support your endeavors in the long run in exchange for a glimpse at the making-of your project.

With a one-in-two chance of succeeding we recommend you take the plunge and enjoy the ride. The odds don’t get much better than this.

One of the most important, but possibly least understood, aspects of crowdfunding is what makes a person decide to support a specific project? Understanding this will help more projects reach their goals, help organizations like Emphas.is focus their energies, and possibly give us a glimpse into the kind of journalism that audiences will be willing to pay for in the future.

To help answer this, several backers of Tomas van Houtryve’s project graciously agreed to answer a few questions. We asked them:

• How they found out about the project
• Why they decided to support it
• What the experience of being a backer has been like
• If they would recommend Emphas.is to friends or suggest any improvements

We were happy to hear that everyone would (and did) recommend Emphas.is to friends, and that their suggestions were mostly for technical improvements to the site (which we’re working on). Their input gives us an important glimpse into the mind of a backer, but this is obviously a small sample, so we will continue to do more interviews. If you have any input, whether you’re a backer or not, please share it in the comments!

Ethnic Hmong relatives of CIA Secret War veterans walk through the jungle in the Vientiane province of Laos. Photo by Tomas van Houtryve.

Kimo Quaintance, 36, is an American living in Munich, Germany, and a  lecturer in International Relations at the University of the German Federal Armed Forces. He’s been involved in photography for nearly 20 years, mostly as an amateur.

Last summer he and a social anthropologist colleague organized a photo elicitation/photo repatriation project reuniting archival photographs with their source communities in the Marsabit area of northern Kenya. This summer they’ll be using photography as part of their research exploring Somali diaspora trade and trust networks throughout Kenya.

“This was the first project of its kind I’ve funded. I heard about it through Tomas’ Facebook page and I encouraged my friends to support it through my Facebook page, which I know a few people responded to.

Last summer I had an exchange with Tomas over the idea of crowdfunding. At the time he was experimenting with the micropayment service Flattr, which I was skeptical about for numerous reasons.

I kept an eye on his work, however, and felt like he’d hit upon a good approach with Emphas.is. He’d obviously thought a lot about the relationship of the photographer to their audience/supporters, and was smart with the way he was adding value for his supporters. With the larger concept of crowdfunding, these questions of engagement and added value are essential.