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Richard Renaldi: “Think about our relationships to strangers”

Timo — Sat, 08 May 2010 09:34:46 +0000

He is one of the important emerging photographers in the USA: In our interview Richard Renaldi talks about his fascination for full body portraits, his current exhibition in Hamburg and the special challenge of photographing strangers with each other.

Flare: You’ve specialized in full body portraits – what fascinates you about it?

Renaldi: I was drawn to try to photograph people how I thought they actually appear to us upon an initial meeting. This led me to frame them in a way where they were not parts or fragments to be used as compositional elements in a photograph, but rather as a whole person, from head to toe. Often when we meet someone for the first time we look at the whole package, their height, weight, dress, feet, hair, etc. Photographing them as full bodies felt appropriate to me.

Flare: How do you take your pictures – do you make appointments with your models or do you just ask them on the street?

Renaldi: The majority of my subjects are photographed on the spot.

Flare: How do you get a muslim woman wearing a burqa to pose for you on the streets of New Jersey next to a fire hydrant (a photo from the book Figure and Ground)?

Renaldi: I just asked kindly. She was very nice. She was also a Black American Muslim, so I believe that she was coming from a different cultural point of view. By the way that is a chador she was wearing not a burqa.

Flare: For your project Touching Strangers you photograph strangers with each other. Is this a special challenge?

Renaldi: Very much so. It takes a lot of tenacity and patience to make those portraits happen. The reason why I started the project in the first place was because I found group portraiture to be a challenge and of great interest. I thought about how I could push that situation of photographing strangers together and that is when the idea of them touching each other came to me.

Flare: What ist the idea behind Touching Strangers, what is its special appeal?

Renaldi: I’d prefer the viewer to project onto the images what they see and feel about this situation. That said, at the heart of it I am making artwork that is trying to bring people together and get us to think about our relationships to strangers and our growing disconnection from each other due to technology and mobility.

Flare: In Figure and Ground every picture seems to be made in perfect light. How do you accomplish that?

Renaldi: I use all available light and shoot primarily in open shade.

Flare: For your book Fall River Boys you portraited the teenagers of the small town Fall River in Massachusetts in black an white. Please explain this project and why you did it.

Renaldi: Fall River feels cool and gray. I had been wanting to shoot a project in black and white and this seemed like the perfect fit. Black and White also subtly refers to days since past and in many respects Fall River had it’s day over a century ago (it had been the largest cotton milling town in the United States in the late 19th century.)

Flare: Starting May 8 your pictures from Figure an Ground und Fall River Boys will be exhibited in Robert Morat Galerie in Hamburg. Why should people visit the exhibition?

Renaldi: To experience the works from the vantage point of seeing prints on the wall in a gallery, which is a wholly unique, and different experience than looking at images in a book or online. Additionally, to see the beautiful chromogenic prints up close and in person.

Pulitzer Prize: An American teen soldier

Timo — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:34:54 +0000

It’s an intimate portrait of an American teen soldier: Photographer Craig F. Walker accompanied the young Ian Fisher. He watched his recruitment, his deployment to Iraq and his return from combat – for 27 months. For his work Walker was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Walker won with his project “Ian Fisher: American Solider” the Pulitzer Prize in the “Feature Photography” category. The photograph posted above is only one form his project. A detailed version of the project with 83 photographs and a multimedia project can be viewed on the homepage from the Denver Post, Walker’s newspaper. When they found about the prize, Walker and Fisher celebrated together.

With a photograph of an unusual rescue Mary Chind from the Des Moins Register won the Pulitzer Prize in the “Breaking News Photography” category. Her photograph shows construction worker Jason Oglesbee, reaching out for a women’s hand in foaming water. Firefighters failed in the attempt to save the woman from a river. So Oglesbee, who was
working at a bridge nearby, was let down on a rope from a tower crane and saved the woman. She and her husband had an accident with a boat, her husband died in the floods.

The Pulitzer Prize is one of the most prestigious US-awards for journalists, authors and artists. It was established in 1917. 2010 was the first year in which the jury awarded a prize to an online publication.

DSLR Music Video: Saturday Night

Timo — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:16:11 +0000

Nowadays you can shoot brilliant videos with digital SLR cameras. But often audio remains to be a huge challenge. Photographer and musician Sebastian Niehoff doesn’t have that kind of a problem. The 29 year old shoots music videos with his Canon 5d Mark II and imports the audio from a sound studio recording. His first video “Saturday Night” from the Band King Size Clan shows the result.

However, we at Flare cannot quiet agree on the video. Timo (friends with the photographer) says: “Great images, interesting change between color and black and white, funny guys – a great debut, especially for a self-taught person.” Ole disagrees: “Way too fixed, too heavy on photos, hardly any variety – and awful music.”

Chloé McLennan: Close proximity

Ole — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:14:55 +0000

→ Slideshow: 10 Pictures

“I have been taking photos for several years, it started as a hobby, but has turned into a way of capturing the people I love. Part of my technique is taking very close proximity photos. I adore the details of people and their expressions. It seems like the most wonderful thing to be able to show how unique and beautiful people are.”

Chloé McLennan is a student in the U.S about to finish her second degree in motion design at Cornish College of the Arts. She was born in 1983 and has spent most of her life traveling. She hopes to continue the trend and allow her life to stay open to more travel and doing what she loves.

Marco Fieber: Staircase portraits

Ole — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:48:46 +0000

→ Slideshow: 9 Photos

“These are editors from to4ka-treff, a Russian-German youth network. The photos were taken within ten minutes on a staircase during a coffee break – we wanted to put faces next to the arcticles on the website. There were many people around, and we had little time. At the same time, it was a very relaxed atmosphere. I like spontaneous, simple or improvised shootings, that is how I take most of my pictures. I specialize in street and documentary photography.”

Marco Fieber, born 1985, studies political science and Caucasian in Jena. He works for print and online media. On his website unblogbar.org you can see photos from Chernobyl and Russian room parties.

Lucas Wahl: Blind family

Timo — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:37:09 +0000

→ Slideshow: 10 Photos

„Saltu and his wife Parameswory became blind in their childhood. Parameswory’s mother tried to scratch an infection out of her eye using the prickly piece of a pumpkin skin when her eyeballs burst. Their parents set up an arranged marriage for both of them. They live in a squatter settlement in central Kathmandu, Nepal. Begging is their only income and is mostly done by Parameswory. She often carries her baby Manjila with her to gain more profit – less than a dollar a day. This money has to be enough to sustain the household.“

Lucas Wahl was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1984. He focuses on social issues and daily life stories that he photographs with his panoramic camera. Wahl is member of Kollektiv 25.

Iran protest picture wins World Press Photo Award

Timo — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:25:36 +0000

→ Slideshow: 20 Photos

The jury of the World Press Photo Contest has selected a photo by the Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo as the World Press Photo of the Year 2009. The picture depicts women shouting in protest from a rooftop in Tehran. Jury chair Ayperi Karabuda Ecer said: „The photo shows the beginning of something, the beginning of a huge story. It adds perspectives to news. It touches you both visually and emotionally, and my heart went out to it immediately.“

The winning photograph is part of a story showing the nights following the contested presidential elections in Iran, when people shouted their dissent from roofs and balconies, after daytime protests in the streets. The story as a whole was awarded first prize in the category People in the News. The jury gave prizes in ten themed categories to 63 photographers of 23 nationalities from.

Andy Spyra: Palestine in Panorama

Timo — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:15:10 +0000

→ Slideshow: 9 Photos

„Although it was my first time in Palestine I immediately felt familar with the prevailing situation: Soldiers, weapons, checkpoints, raids, oppression, frustration and the invisible presence of this thin layer of fear that hovers over everday life of the palestinian people – all this led to the same feeling of helplessness as in Kashmir. But still, the Westbank is a visually and emotionally interesting place full of diversity and energy where history is still being written.“

Andy Spyra, born 1984, works as a freelance photographer. His Kashmir series „Valley of Tears“ has been awarded multiple prizes. Flare already published his Report from a crisis region: A bloody day in Kashmir and the interview „Mut, an die eigenen Geschichten zu glauben“ (in German language). Watch more pictures on andyspyra.com.

Chris Burkard: The California Surf Project

Timo — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:31:03 +0000

→ Slideshow: 22 Photos

More than 1300 kilometers coastline and dozens of waves: Photographer Chris Burkhard and surf pro Erik Sonderquist traveled along the California Pacific coastline in an old Volkswagen bus. The result is the book The California Surf Project – a surf-road-trip-diary and an impressive portrait of California’s coastline.

California adjoins Oregon in the north and Mexico in the south. In between Highway 1 runs along much of the Pacific coast. Along that legendary route surf pro Eric Soderquist surfed California’s waves – always on his side, photographer Chris Burkhard. In an old Volkswagen T2 bus they traveled the highway and brought home a stunning photographic travelogue.

Their book The California Surf Project contains more than 200 photographs. They show surfer on the waves, fog over wooded coastline, trucks on the highway, details in the spindrift. The photographs’ atmosphere is consistent and harmonious. They never get boring because of the composition of surf-, road trip-, landscape- and detail shoots. As a little foretaste Flare shows 22 photographs (just click on the picture above),

Aside to the photographs The California Surf Project contains little texts about each station of the trip. Not a must-have, but fascinating nevertheless. In addition the book contains a DVD that is, compared to the book, disappointing. It shows that the focus of the trip was surfing and photography, not filming. The California Surf Project is available in Germany at Amazon for approximately 24 Euros and in the US for 35 $.

Links:
Hompage of The California Surf Project
Review of The California Surf Project on surfline.com

Camping in Kabul, Part V: Milker, golf ball and kalashnikov

Timo — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:21:47 +0000

A guest in Absurdistan: In the fith and final part of “Camping in Kabul” travel journalist Michael Obert learns three things: First, aid organizations are like cows drinking their own milk. Second, Afghans are the world’s best golfer. And third, having a German passport you even get served a Pepsi from a guy carrying a kalashnikov.

Establishments like the Latmo count among the many refined venues for the absurd, with actors who play their own audiences: employees of the countless registered aid organizations in Kabul, consultants with daily fees of a thousand dollars, bodyguards and other trigger happy security ninjas with perfect six packs. There are supposedly as many as 15.000 foreign civilians currently in Kabul, more than the US Army has stationed in the whole of Afghanistan, and three times as many as the 4800 Nato led troops, who are supposed to provide order and security in the capital.

Sitting by the pool, I get to talking to Rahraw. He is half Afghani with an Italian passport and works in radio. He says it’s a sad fact that most of the foreigners who live and work in Kabul don’t come any closer to the city than armored limousines, security services, and barbed wire allow. “But how are you going to help someone you never meet?” Rahraw asks, frowning. “How are you going to do something for someone you don’t know – or when you don’t know anything about the way they live or what they think or how they feel. Someone whose fears and joys are foreign to you?” Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanis´ expectations of the international community have been high. But many fail to find visible results. They characterize the aid organizations as “cows that drink their own milk.”

Also the lifestyle of many foreigners in Kabul arouses the anger of the people: freely available alcohol, brothels disguised as Chinese restaurants, parties. Later that evening, Rahraw invites me to such a celebration. The music is loud – house, techno – the bar has a wide selection: South African Shiraz, French Bordeaux, cans of beer cooled in a barrel of ice water. And Johnny Walker Red Label, the same bottles that the merchants in the bazaar will later fill with cooking oil.

Forty, maybe fifty people dance on the well-lit terrace, as devout Muslims in the surrounding houses try to sleep. Their neighborhood is pitch-black. Only the spire of a minaret floats in the night sky – a luminous eye, admonishing. Somehow threatening. “Not safe here,” says Rahraw and points to the wall around the garden that’s barely three meters high. “For a rocket, no problem.” He’s right. The dance floor is an easy target for terrorists. It’s probably the most dangerous spot in all of Afghanistan.

But nobody thinks about it. We’re the international community, the world as guest in Absurdistan. We work for the United Nations, for governments, for editors, for aid organizations. We come from Europe and America as well as from Ethiopia, Columbia, India, and Turkey. We drink. We dance. We laugh. Should we be sad instead?

“We’re happy about everyone who comes to help us,” an Afghani art professor tells me a few days later. “But everyone should behave according to the customs in our land.” Integration. We attach a great deal of importance to it in Europe.

When the beer is empty, I leave. I wheeze the entire night. The Kabul-cough. I have to get out. Out of the city. Breathe. See a little nature: trees, water. The next morning, I take a taxi to a place that one would hardly expect to exist beyond the ravaged edges of this city: the Kabul Golf Club. “We get golfers from absolutely every country,” explains Afzal Abdul, my golf instructor, in traditional Afghani garb. “Just none from China, Russia, Pakistan. No French, or Greeks, or Koreans. We also don’t get any…”

Who are the best? “We Afghanis,” Abdul says in all earnestness.

The golf course belongs to a former warlord. It’s the only one in Afghanistan. The landmines were removed, three soviet tanks and a rocket launcher taken away. The only thing missing now is grass. The nine holes are barely distinguishable from the surrounding, dusty, sunburned hills; the greens are not green but black, designed with a mixture of sand and motor oil. The highlight has to be the bombed-out army bunker after the first hole. Two rounds cost ten dollars. One year’s membership, sixty. I leave it – much to the amusement of my instructor – at a couple of amateurish hits and wander up to Qargha Lake.

On the shores of this immense reservoir, a surprisingly idyllic landscape awaits. Afghani families have made themselves at home on platforms in the water. Protected from the wind by billowing curtains, they sit on rugs and smoke water pipes. Pakistani music drifts out of loudspeakers. Colorful paddleboats lie on the shore.

There comes a point when I can’t accept every invitation to have tea anymore, so I walk a little further along the shore and sit down on a lonely bench. I enjoy the clear lake air. Breathe. Without this scratching in my throat and lungs. Off in the distance, a motorboat draws a line of spray across the silver gray surface of the lake. Behind it rises the jagged ridge of the Hindu Kush. Its silhouette dissolves into a reddish haze. Moments of peace, of beauty. For the first time on this journey, I have the feeling that I’ve arrived, that I want to stay. Ah, Afghanistan!

I only notice the men after they’ve crowded around the bench I’m sitting on: six long bearded Pashtuns with AK-47s. They wear traditional Afghani garb and are scowling at me. Are they bandits? Some warlord’s soldiers? Taliban? “Passport! Passport!” barks their spokesman, a giant with a scar slashed across his right eye. I give him what he wants. The Pashtuns crowd around my passport to study it. Almost 200 countries produce passports. My life now seems to depend on whether I have one of the right ones.

All at once, the Pashtun slaps the passport shut, calls to a man walking along the shore with a vendor’s tray and orders Pepsi. A can for everybody. Even for me. He gives me my passport back and says, “Germany good! Germany very, very good!” They take me over to the street and insist on calling me a taxi. Because there are bandits here. Finally, a car comes. The Pashtuns stroke their guns and shake my hand. I get in and the taxi takes off – back to Kabul.

Camping in Kabul, Part IV: Osama bin Laden of the Bird Bazaar
Camping in Kabul, Part III: „Watch out, dude!“
Camping in Kabul, Part II: „Every hippie loved my super Payan Camping“
Camping in Kabul, Part I: Afghanistan – hot off the presses from Lonely Planet

Michael Obert, born in 1966, is a German book author and journalist who writes for Geo, Stern and other periodicals in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, as well for Courrier International (Paris), The Journal (New York) and Himal Southasian (Katmandu). He reports mainly from Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia, and has written books on the Islamic world. Obert currently lives in Berlin. „Camping in Kabul” was also published in his book „Die Ränder der Welt“.