Tomorrow evening, Friday, April 19, at the International Center for Photography in New York, Erika Larsen will sign her book, Sámi: Walking with Reindeer, which captures the three year journey she took following the reindeer herders of Scandinavia.
Larsen’s in-depth project on Scandinavia’s Sami reindeer herders was published in the November issue of National Geographic magazine and we have published the book at emphas.is this spring.
Her intimate portrayal of the Sami families, their traditions and relationship with nature reveals a unique glimpse into a little known culture. Erika, who learned the Sami language, has long been interested in how people interact with their natural environment:
“I was looking for culture that really could interpret nature’s language,” she said, “and I definitely found that with the Sami.”
Book Signing: Erika Larsen’s Sami
ICP Store, 1133 Avenue of the Americas
Friday, April 19, 6:00pm–7:30pm
Join Erika Larsen for a signing of her book Sámi: Walking with Reindeer.
Amnesty International is an organization we have admired for a long time. Given their strong human rights campaigns and track record of pressing for changes on the ground it is a logical fit for emphas.is. We – as a journalistic organization that sheds light on human rights abuses such as the abuse of Saharawi women in North Africa, the treatment of the mentally ill in East Africa, or the rights of Native Americans in the US – embrace the crossroads of journalism and advocacy work and are finding new ways to collaborate with NGOs and media organizations to raise awareness and bring about change.
These kinds of collaborations on emphas.is take many forms with NGO and other non-profit organizations financially backing a project, providing logistical support to the photographer or by them spreading the word about a project and sharing their networks. Amnesty International in Portugal for instance recently endorsed Joao Pina‘s project “Shadow of the Condor” and started a joint poster campaign with Pina.
Amnesty International is now organizing its Media Awards 2013 in the UK and we would like to help them spread the word. They are inviting entries from exceptional human rights journalists, film makers and photographers whose work has been broadcast or published in the UK between March 2012 and February 2013.
Entries to the Photojournalism categories are free before FEBRUARY 1st.
IMAGE © Mary Turner, Amnesty Media Awards Winner, 2012
Ismene: Non è una questione di principi: semplicemente, non ho la forza di agire sfidando la città.
Antigone: Cerca pure dei pretesti: io andrò a cospargere di terra il fratello che amo.
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| foto di Simona Ghizzoni / Contrasto |
Antigone è figlia di Edipo, re di Tebe. Il suo mito compare per la prima volta nell’omonima tragedia di Sofocle, nel 442 avanti Cristo, ed è così potente e moderno da essere ripreso e adattato da altri drammaturghi nel corso dei secoli: Vittorio Alfieri, Jean Anouilh, Bertolt Brecht. Perché Antigone non è una donna: è l’incarnazione dell’etica allo stato puro, del principio morale che si scopre talmente granitico da non poter mai, per sua stessa essenza, piegarsi ad alcun compromesso. A costo della stessa vita.
Antigone è una personificazione ante litteram dell’imperativo categorico di Kant, quella “legge morale dentro di me” che diventa autorità, obbligo, dovere supremo da assolvere. E che mai si può contravvenire.
La figlia di Edipo si trova a un bivio. I suoi fratelli, Eteocle e Polinice, si sono ammazzati a vicenda nella guerra per la riconquista della città greca di Tebe. E il nuovo sovrano Creonte accorda sepoltura soltanto al primo: Polinice è considerato un traditore della patria, e il suo cadavere lasciato sul terreno, in pasto a cani e avvoltoi. Nell’estremo sfregio.
Antigone dice no. Disubbidisce all’editto del re, si avvicina di nascosto al corpo del fratello e gli getta sopra, con pietà e profondo amore, un po’ di sabbia. Una sepoltura simbolica. Ma sufficiente affinché l’animo di Polinice possa entrare nell’Ade, l’aldilà, e trovare la pace.
La giovane segue il suo imperativo morale infrangendo la legge dello Stato: è il conflitto tra leggi divine e umane, tra ciò che deve essere e ciò che è. Antigone non si fa tentare dalla timorosa debolezza della sorella Ismene, che cerca di fermarla. E infine Creonte la fa portare via in catene, sostenendo che le questioni di Stato prevalgono sempre sugli affetti.
Antigone non fa marcia indietro. Ciò che è realmente giusto, lei lo ha compiuto fino in fondo. E per questo sarà condannata dal tiranno a essere murata viva.
Quando ho incontrato Leila Dambar a Laayoune, in Sahara Occidentale, mi è venuto in mente il mito di Antigone. Anche Leila persegue il suo imperativo categorico contro le leggi dello Stato. Anche lei, piccola donna a testa alta di fronte al gigante, non ha paura di nulla perché la sua tensione morale e affettiva la irradia di una forza superiore.
Suo fratello Said aveva 21 anni quando è stato ucciso dalla polizia marocchina. Era il 21 dicembre del 2010. Laayoune era stata scossa dalla protesta popolare più massiccia degli ultimi vent’anni, nell’ex colonia spagnola occupata dal Marocco: il campo tendato di Gdeim Izik, allestito fuori città da decine di migliaia di saharawi, gli abitanti originari del territorio che dal 1975 reclamano il referendum per la loro indipendenza. Era il loro modo, pacifico e a tratti festoso, di chiedere al governo marocchino più diritti e democrazia per loro che qui ormai sono una minoranza sebbene il diritto internazionale abbia sancito che il Sahara Occidentale non è legittimamente marocchino, bensì un lembo d’Africa ancora da decolonizzare.
Said era fuori con gli amici, quella sera, a seguire alla televisione una partita della sua squadra del cuore, il Barcellona. Alle 20 ha telefonato a casa chiedendo a una delle sorelle di tenergli in caldo la cena, perché avrebbe fatto tardi. “Se avessimo saputo che era l’ultima volta che sentivamo la sua voce…” mi ha sussurrato Leila fra le lacrime.
Alle tre di notte qualcuno ha bussato con violenza alla porta di casa Dambar. E non era Said. La polizia che veniva a riferire che il ragazzo aveva aggredito un agente, restando ferito nello scontro: soltanto una lussazione al braccio.
Tutta la famiglia s’è recata in ospedale, ma fino alle 11 del mattino nessuno ha portato loro notizie di Said. Finché un infermiere capace di pietà ha riferito loro, di nascosto dai medici: “Said ha una pallottola in mezzo agli occhi, e una benda stretta attorno al petto. E’ morto”.
Come e perché Said Dambar abbia perso la vita, resta un mistero. Dal 21 dicembre del 2010 la famiglia chiede alle autorità marocchine di eseguire l’autopsia sul corpo del ragazzo, per poterlo finalmente seppellire. Ma finora non è arrivata alcuna risposta, e Said giace all’obitorio di Laayoune da allora.
Leila continua a piangere: il pensiero che suo fratello non possa trovare pace dentro la terra la dilania, ma senza la verità non potrà mai esserci, per lei e per la sua famiglia, un autentico rito funebre. E questa donna non ha potuto nemmeno, come l’Antigone del mito, gettare una manciata di sabbia a coprire simbolicamente il corpo del suo caro.
“Nell’Islam, dare sepoltura ai morti è un dovere. Ma la morte di mio fratello non è normale: riposerà in pace solo quando si saprà il perché della sua morte”.
Durante una delle tante manifestazioni di solidarietà che i saharawi di Laayoune portano periodicamente ai Dambar, riunendosi nella loro casa e condividendo in silenzio il loro strazio, la polizia marocchina ha fatto irruzione. Leila mi mostra i segni delle pietre sui muri, scagliate dagli agenti attraverso la finestra. Sua madre è stata ferita a un occhio. Sullo sfondo, una parete della sala è coperta dal primo piano di Said: un ragazzo sorridente, pulito, che aveva partecipato al campo di Gdeim Izik e forse per questo era sospettato di attività sovversive.
Elghalia Djimi, la vicepresidente dell’Associazione Saharawi delle vittime di gravi violazioni dei diritti umani (ASVDH), mi ha appena riferito l’ultima tappa di questa cupa vicenda: lo scorso giugno, alcuni funzionari del governo marocchino hanno informato la famiglia Dambar che Said stava per essere sepolto per decisione delle autorità. Li hanno invitati ad assistere alla sepoltura, ma sull’autopsia nemmeno una parola. I Dambar si sono opposti. E ancora oggi non sanno se il cadavere del ragazzo, alla fine, sia stato o no seppellito.
Il 21 di ogni mese organizzano con altri saharawi di Laayoune un sit-in davanti alla loro casa, diffondendo un comunicato in cui reiterano, con compostezza, perseveranza e nessuna traccia di disperazione, la loro richiesta di autopsia.
Quando l’ho incontrata in casa sua, Leila versava caffè e latte per me e Simona, raccontando la sua storia tra i singhiozzi in un francese perfetto. Ripeteva: “Perché? Solo questo vogliamo sapere: perché Said è morto? E’ una richiesta di giustizia. E di pietà”. Sua madre era muta, gli occhi bassi, nessuna lacrima.
Uno stereo nel salotto al piano di sopra diffondeva canti coranici ipnotici e cullanti, che impregnavano la casa di una dissonante atmosfera di pace e di riposo. Come se, sotto il sedimento del dolore e del grido contro l’ingiustizia, non ribollisse in fondo alcun odio, alcun desiderio di vendetta. Soltanto un afflato morale intatto e lucido, superiore a qualsiasi autorità costituita dall’uomo.
Uno stereo nel salotto al piano di sopra diffondeva canti coranici ipnotici e cullanti, che impregnavano la casa di una dissonante atmosfera di pace e di riposo. Come se, sotto il sedimento del dolore e del grido contro l’ingiustizia, non ribollisse in fondo alcun odio, alcun desiderio di vendetta. Soltanto un afflato morale intatto e lucido, superiore a qualsiasi autorità costituita dall’uomo.
L’intervista a Leila Dambar è tra le più intense di JUST TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I’M ALIVE, il progetto di documentario mio e di Simona Ghizzoni, ancora in cerca di fondi.
Per chiunque volesse aiutarci – con una donazione a partire da 10 dollari – a portare a compimento questo documento sulle donne saharawi, la campagna continua fino al 22 novembre al sito di Emphasis.
Emphas.is will be present at this month’s photojournalism festival Visa pour l’image in Perpignan, France, from Monday, the 3rd until the 9th of September.
Several photographers who produced their stories through emphas.is will have exhibitions and screenings. Erika Larsen who is currently raising funds for her book “Sami – Walking with reindeers” will be exhibited, Robin Hammond‘s ongoing body of work “Condemned” will also be shown as an exhibition, Remi Ochlik‘s work “Revolutions”, and William Daniel‘s work on Syria will be screened at the evening projections.
In addition, on Friday the 7th of September at 5pm William Daniels, Peter Dench and Rian Dundon will be signing their books at Visa’s official bookshop Chapitre in the courtyard of La Poudriere. And on Saturday the 8th at 5pm Peter Dench and Rian Dundon will hold another signing session.
In the spirit of bringing photographer and their audience together, we are inviting backers of Remi Ochlik’s “Revolutions” and Rian Dundon’s “Changsha” to pick up their copy of the book during both days’ sessions.
Should you be present at this year’s festival and would like to show us your ongoing project or book project, please drop us an email at: [email protected] or [email protected] to arrange an appointment. Please, attach a PDF of your work.
We are proud to announce our second major win this week! Emphas.is has been selected as Finalist of the TWiST Ireland Meetup in Dublin.
‘This Week in Startups‘ (TWiST) with Jason Calacanis is an influential podcast that is downloaded over 200,000 times a week and reaches many of the most prominent investors and entrepreneurs in the world.
ThousandSeeds present a TWiST Ireland Meetup in Dublin at the Telefonica-O2 Wayra Office on Friday September 7th from 16.00 – 21.00 where 10 great startups will have the opportunity to pitch their company to a panel of judges led by Brian Caulfield. They will then select the top 3 to take part in the live show and compete for the ‘Best Start-up’ with 3 startups from Belfast.
For an example of how a meetup episode works check out the videos below.
Time & Place
Friday, September 7th, 2012 at Telefonica-O2 Building, 28-29 John Roggerson Quay Docklands, Dublin 2
16.00 – 17.00 Food, Drinks, Networking
17:00 – 19:00 10 Companies Pitch – 3 min pitch, 5 min Q&A
19:00 – 19:55 Food, Drinks and networking
20.00 – 21.00 Top 3 Companies Pitch Live to TWiST in Los Angeles – 1 min pitch & 10 min Q&A.
Amnesty International has become a partner for Joao Pina’s “Shadow of the Condor”.
Amnesty recognizes the importance of Joao’s ongoing photographic project about the legacy of Operation Condor – a secret plan by the military regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay to eliminate their political opposition in the late 70′s.
Amnesty International teamed up with two creatives from Lisbon, Pedro Bexiga and Marcelo Lourenço from FUEL LISBOA, who approached Pina about his Operation Condor work. The team had already done an Amnesty International awareness campaign with Pina’s work on former Portuguese political prisoners, which won the Lion d’Or in Cannes and is now one of the most awarded campaigns in Portugal ever. Their new campaign below is raising awareness about Pina’s efforts to complete the first comprehensive visual documentation of human rights abuses under Operation Condor.
Operation Condor officially started in late 1975, when the secret services had a meeting in Santiago, Chile, to define a strategy to use common resources and exchange information, manpower and techniques to execute their plan to eliminate the opposition in their countries. Thousands of people, mostly left wing workers and students, were arrested, tortured and executed. Most of the ones who managed to survive sought exile.
The operation resulted in the deaths of at least 60,000 people. A final number could never be confirmed because of the number of mass executions.
“Shadow of the Condor”, on which Joao Pina has been working for 7 years, aims to create a visual memory of these events and this particularly dark period in the history of the region.
Important work is currently being done by the EAAF, The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, to recover and identify bodies of disappeared people in Argentina and elsewhere. Trials are taking place in Argentina against perpetrators that are convicting hundreds of people for crimes against humanity. In early July two of Argentina’s former Presidents and military junta chiefs Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone were convicted to 50 and 15 years in jail for having stolen babies from killed dissidents. These court cases have sparked a movement in the region and are inspiring other countries to do the same.
In Brazil, left-wing president Dilma Rousseff recently nominated a Truth commission to investigate the abuses committed during the military dictatorship. In Uruguay this past March the state has officially apologized for the first time to the victims of the state violence that was inflicted during the iron-fist years of the 60’s and 70’s.
Joao is now in his final phase of his documentation of the Operation Condor. He has already successfully funded part 1 and 2 in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay on Emphas.is. The third and final phase will allow Pina to complete the work in Paraguay and Bolivia.
Amnesty recommends this project. If you want to help raise awareness, please, check the campaign, share and contribute if you can:
http://www.emphas.is/web/guest/discoverprojects?projectID=707
Due to unforeseen professional obligations at the start of his crowdfunding campaign, Jocelyn Bain Hogg from VII has not been able to dedicate sufficient time to his book campaign. Therefore, we have decided to extend the funding period for ‘Tired of London, Tired of Life’ on Emphas.is by 30 days.
Jocelyn is confident that he can reach his goal and so are we. Since he started communicating about his book funding campaign a few days ago, when he got back from his assignment, the project has gained significant momentum.
‘Tired of London, Tired of Life’ is an artist collaboration between Jocelyn, the artist Paul Davis and the designer Henrietta Molinaro, which gives a more gritty, real and humorous view of the Olympic city to be. Visit the project here.
A few people have recently reported problems making their pledge towards a project with their credit card using PayPal. There are many possible causes that can result in such credit card errors, and PayPal doesn’t give specific explanations on how to make the payment go through processing again, with the same or different credit card.
Here are some causes for credit card rejections and possible solutions:
The Credit Card Is Linked or Associated with a PayPal Account
Mostly the reason a credit card is not accepted by PayPal when using it without signing into a PayPal account is that the credit card is already linked to a specific PayPal account. If you’re using a credit card that is linked or assigned to a PayPal account, try login to PayPal during the payment process. You can change the source of funding to make the payment with after you are logged in. You can opt to use your credit card instead of your PayPal balance.
The Credit Card Is Previously Used in PayPal Account or Assigned in Closed PayPal Account
PayPal remembers a credit card’s details even when it’s already been removed from the account. The information will also be remembered even if the PayPal account which linked to the credit card is closed and deleted. In this case, try another credit card, or assign the credit card to a PayPal account, and pay with the account by logging in.
PayPal Limit on Non-Member Credit Card Usage
According to PayPal, there is a limit based on the number of times, the amount of the transactions, the type of merchandise being bought, that a credit card can be used within the system without having to verify ownership by opening an account. The restriction is for security and fraud protection reasons. There is no workaround to this limitation, but you should be able to use another credit card. If there is problem, try using another email address. Or else, register a PayPal account.
Credit Card or Email Address Raises Flag in the Transaction
Closely linked to reasons above, some part of the transaction raises a flag on the server that stops the payment. Two possible flags are on credit card or email address. Try changing either the credit card or e-mail address or both when attempting to pay again.
Cookies Problem
Try using another web browser and/or delete cookies and attempt to pay with the PayPal gateway using your credit card again.
Credit Card Is Not Confirmed in Account
Contrary to some of the reasons above, if the credit card has been linked to an account, but not yet confirmed, try to complete all credit card information such as Card Verification Number or Security Code, and confirm the card by entering the PayPal code shown on the credit card statement on special refundable charge by PayPal.
In all cases, the problem won’t arise if you add the credit card to PayPal account, and use it as funding source to pay the transaction through your PayPal account.
A Country is not supported
Paypal regularly expands the countries it serves. However, lately also a few countries have been removed from the supported lists. In this case backers should use a card issued in a supported country or contact us for a wire transfer.
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.
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