Panos Pictures

© Yann Mingard & Alban Kalkulya / Panos Pictures

I´ve long been an avid admirer of Panos Pictures. Both the breadth and quality of the photography they champion, as well their steadfast commitment to the most important social issues of our times is unparalleled.

As part of their ambitious new development plans, Panos recently launched a new look agency, building on its reputation and commitment to global social photography and positioning itself as a leader in visual communications. As it prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2011, Panos has invested in a series of innovations aimed at securing the continued growth of the agency and providing a superior service to its photographers and clients.

A key development is the creation of Panos Profile, a fluid collective of around 20 photographers at any one time, allowing the agency to represent these photographers more comprehensively during key moments in their careers. Panos Network will represent the wider group of professional photographers working on assignments and stories around the world.

Joining the agency as director of Panos Profile is Francesca Sears, former director of Magnum Photos in London. She says, "Panos Profile represents some of the best of what the agency has to offer – a dedication to quality, independence and ingenuity. It is an opportunity to work more closely with our photographers, building their profiles as authors in their own right but at the same time communicating our strengths as a photographic brand to new and wider audiences."

Peruvian photographer Moises Saman, one of the first cohort of Profile photographers, writes "For me, being part of the Profile group will bring a sense of community and a positive influence to our creative process within the agency as a whole. I look forward to seeing current projects by other photographers and drawing inspiration from the diversity of their work."

Other changes at the agency are showcased in the newly launched website. As well as the archive, the site is a platform for the hundreds of photo stories, exhibitions, multimedia, video and long term documentary work produced by Panos photographers.

"With this new site we wish to clearly identify what Panos stands for and promote our full range of visual communications services," says agency director Adrian Evans. "It is designed to reinforce our commitment to our clients, providing them with the very best photography and production values, pursuing stories beyond the media agenda."

The revamped site has improved functionality, with easy to view photographer portfolios and story slideshows, news feeds, interactive multimedia, and a live location map allowing clients to keep track of the whereabouts of Panos photographers.

Take a quick tour of what the new website has to offer:

Cheryl Newman, Photography Director of the Telegraph Magazine is impressed with the changes at the agency. She remarks: "For many years I had respected Panos and the work their photographers’ were making but did not know them so much as individual authors. The new website feels a lot more personalised by photographer and their work. I’m looking forward to understanding what they are working on and developing a closer relationship."

Tomas van Houtryve, this year’s POYi photographer of the Year says "The site now provides me with new ways to make my subjects' voices heard, and it underscores the agency's very distinctive approach to global issues."

With 6 POYi awards and 4 NPPA Best of Photojournalism Awards this year alone, and over 20 World Press Photo Awards in recent years, the success of Panos photographers reflects the agency’s global reach and commitment to stories and ideas in many areas of the world that remain under-reported. On a daily basis, the Network photographers undertake assignments for a wide range of clients including international media, and NGOs working on both single issues and global campaigns, as well as selective corporate clients.

1000 Words wishes them continued success far into the future.

See You Soon by Maxwell Anderson

All images © Maxwell Anderson

We met during late spring.
She was sitting alone, smoking a cigarette and gazing at the sky.

I was immediately compelled to photograph her.


We had a few chance meetings.
She enjoyed wandering by the Thames at night.
I started to join her.



She came to live with me in my small flat in Peckham.
We didn't go out much, sometimes we would just read together.



At the end of summer she had to leave London when her visa expired.
After I watched her walk through the departures gate at Heathrow,
I drove home.


The sky was beautiful.


I imagined what a beautiful last view she would have of England.
I realised how much I would miss her.



I haven't seen her since.

-Maxwell Anderson

See You Soon is a photographic narrative, exploring the development of a relationship between the photographer and a woman from Tokyo. The book presents the progression of intimacy between the two, documenting the private journey from their first meeting through to her departure on the expiry of her visa.

As a photographic love letter, or diary, this book engages the reader in a highly emotive, affectionate, and personal period of time. Capturing these emotions with a snapshot camera, photographing everyday and sometimes mundane scenarios.

The book has been edited in such a way to form a full narrative, but within the pages, individual exchanges are present, revealing short passing stories and moments within the whole. Photographically, Anderson’s eye is compassionate, humourous, authentic and beautiful.

Published in a limited edition of 500 copies, this delicately produced, intimate and considerately designed book of photographs is the first publication by Maxwell Anderson.

Anderson studied photography at the London College of Communication, and is currently based in South East London. As an emerging artist, Anderson uses the photographic to explore authenticity and the everyday. His photographs operate as an expression of his personal experience of the world. His work most commonly manifests in the book form.

Forthcoming exhibtions and events include: The Photographer’s Gallery, London Group Show 14 May – 1 June, Book Launch of See You Soon in association with Tokyo de Janeiro at Life Bar 21 May, 8pm and Self Publish, Be Happy, signing and exhibition The Photographers’ Gallery 5-6 June.

For more information on this book please contact Reuben on info(at)bemojake(dot)eu

Helen Sear @Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

All images © Helen Sear

To those of you who are heading to New York for the festival why not drop by Klompching Gallery and check out the exhibition of work by Helen Sear.

In this new series of work, Beyond The View, Helen Sear continues her investigation into the sublime — and an engagement with the retinal and digital —through her innovative use of image superimposition and erasure. The dialogue between the artwork and viewer, as well as the labor of the artist’s hand, is enhanced by a shift in scale that emphasizes the artist’s concern with the viewer’s habits of looking.

Beyond The View is an ongoing exploration, with the photographs originating in and around the agricultural lands south of Milan. The images are a response to the ‘hidden’ presence of women in this rural environment on the edge of the city. Within this series, Sear develops the notion of a visual subterfuge, both in the construction of the image itself, as well as positioning the presence of the female subjects within a precarious dichotomy of power/subordination, referencing the clichés of landscape and portraiture, particularly the Northern Romantic tradition of painting.

This exhibition follows Helen Sear’s highly successful first show with Klompching Gallery in January 2009. Later that same year, she was named as one of the UK’s 50 most significant artist photographers by Portfolio. The artwork of Helen Sear (b. 1955) has been published in Arts Review, Creative Camera, HotShoe, Art Newspaper and Art Monthly amongst others. Her photographic practice has developed from a Fine Art background of performance, film and installation work made in the 1980’s with her photographs becoming widely known in the 1991 British Council exhibition, De-Composition: Constructed Photography in Britain, which toured Latin America and Eastern Europe. Collections holding her work include Ernst & Young, Victoria & Albert Museum, British Council (Rome) and the Paul Wilson Collection. She lives and works in Wales (UK).

Artist reception: Thursday 13 May 6-8 pm

Highly recommended.

More Alec Soth

Something for all on this here Bank Holiday: Alec Soth from mn original on Vimeo. Let the video buffer, switch it to fullscreen and enjoy!

Grants for Arts Writers

Application Deadline:
Monday, June 7, 2010

The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program supports individual writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through grants ranging from 3,000 to 50,000 USD.

Writers who meet the program’s eligibility requirements are invited to apply in the following categories:

• Articles
• Blogs
• Books
• New and Alternative Media
• Short-Form Writing

Regrettably, due to legal constraints only U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and holders of O-1 visas are eligible for funding. For guidelines and additional eligibility requirements, please visit www.artswriters.org.

ART WRITING WORKSHOP:

In partnership with the International Association of Art Critics/USA Section, the Arts Writers Grant Program offers applicants consultations with leading art critics. For more information, please visit www.aicausa.org.

1000 WORDS WORKSHOP WITH ANTOINE D’AGATA IN MOROCCO, OCTOBER 2010

© Antoine d´Agata

1000 Words is proud to present its first workshop with the Magnum photographer, Antoine d’Agata, in Fez, Morocco (25-31 October 2010). We are making a call for photographers, professional and amateur alike, to submit entries for this unique creative experience.

“It isn’t the eye that photography poses on the world that interests me but its most intimate rapport with that world”
Antoine d’Agata

Please scroll down for more information and how to submit.

ANTOINE D’AGATA:

Antoine d’Agata is without doubt one of the most unique and important photographers of our age. His imagery is characterised by an intense and highly subjective experience that pushes the limits of social documentary photography. Born in Marseille, 1961, he left France in 1990 to study at The International Centre for Photography in New York alongside Nan Goldin and Larry Clark. His work has been published in the books Insomnia, Vortex, Stigma and Agonie amongst others, and he has been exhibited internationally at galleries and festivals including Rencontres d’Arles, Noorderlicht, FotoFreo and The Photographers Gallery, London.

He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 2004 and is represented by Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris.

ABOUT US:

1000 Words Photography is an artist-led organisation that has promoted the work of more than 280 art photographers through publishing and exhibiting opportunities. The organisation´s flagship is 1000 Words, an online magazine dedicated to highlighting the best work in contemporary art photography worldwide. The site attracts approximately 140,000 unique visitors from more than 75 countries every month. The 1000 Words Workshop is organised by Tim Clark, writer and editor-in-chief at 1000 Words and Michael Grieve, 1000 Words contributing editor and photographer represented by Agence Vu.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

The location for the 1000 Words Workshop will be the beautifully evocative city of Fez, Morocco. The salon will take place in an authentically restored riad in the heart of the medieval medina of Fez. The workshop will be an intense experience lasting six days between 25-31 October 2010 and will consist of 12 participants.

We are looking for a diverse range of participants who understand the work of Antoine d’Agata and feel that their own work will benefit from his guidance. Each participant will be asked to examine the ultimate goal of his approach, to play an active part in his own images and to work on the texture of reality. Since images, like words, only take on meaning when brought together, the workshop will focus on finding the most relevant form for each individual stance. Working with Antoine d’Agata, participants must be ready to photograph intensively throughout the workshop and to extend the limits of their approach. They will have to confront their obsessions and contradictions as they shape a series of images conveying in real or fictional terms their private relationship with the world.

Depending on individual needs the daily structure begins with lunch at the riad and during the afternoon Antoine will encourage group participation in looking, critiquing and developing ideas and image making. In the late afternoon participants will begin to photograph. The week will end with a display of the work created. All participants work will be shown in a special feature on 1000 Words Photography magazine. The purpose of the workshop is to concentrate on a very personal approach to photography and certainly this will be a richly rewarding week for those who wish to push themselves.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

The cost of the workshop will be £1250 for 6 days. Once participants have been selected they will be expected to pay a non-refundable deposit of £350 within two weeks. Participants can then pay the rest of the fee in two instalments according to deadlines (see below). Participants are encouraged to arrive the day before the workshop begins for a welcome dinner. The price includes tuition from Antoine d’Agata, a welcome and farewell dinner, lunch everyday and snacks during the afternoon, 24 hour help from the 1000 Words team and an assistant with local knowledge. Participants will be expected to make their own travel arrangements and find accommodation, which in Fez can range from £150 upwards for the week. We can advise on finding the accommodation that best suits you. Remember that most of your time will be spent either at the riad or shooting. For photographers using film we will provide the means for processing and a scanner. Photographers shooting digital will be expected to bring all necessary equipment. All participants should also bring a laptop if they have one. Every effort will be made to accommodate individual technical needs.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

We require that you send 10 images as low res jpegs and/or a link to your website, as well as a short biography and statement about why you think it will be relevant for you to work with Antoine (approx 200 words total). Submissions are to be sent to workshops(a)1000wordsmag(dot)com with the following subject header: SUBMISSION FOR 1000 WORDS WORKSHOP IN FEZ OCTOBER 2010. Tim Clark and Michael Grieve will produce a shortlist from the entries (all those shortlisted will be contacted) and then Antoine will select the final 12.

14 June 2010: Deadline for applications
30 June 2010: Successful candidates contacted
14 July 2010: Deposit due (£350)
16 August 2010: Second instalment due (£350)
31 August 2010: Third instalment due (£550)
24 October 2010: Arrive in Morocco
25 October 2010: Workshop begins
31 October 2010: Workshop ends

Bonne chance!

First UK solo show for Sally Mann at The Photographers´ Gallery

© Sally Mann

Sally Mann, The Family and the Land
The Photographers´ Gallery
18 June – 19 September 2010

This exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery will be the American photographer Sally Mann’s first solo exhibition in the UK. Combining several series from her long photographic career, The Family and the Land: Sally Mann will reflect Mann’s artistic impulse to draw on the world around her as subject matter.

The ‘family’ element of the title will comprise Mann’s early series Immediate Family and the newer series Faces, both of which depict her children at various ages. The two series Motherland: Virginia and Deep South represent the landscape, portraying images made across the south of the United States. The more recent body of work, What Remains brings together both strands of the exhibition, through its examination of how bodies, as they decompose, merge into the land itself.

Sally Mann (b.1951, USA) first gained prominence for Immediate Family (1984–94) a series of intimate and revealing portraits of her three young children, Emmet, Jesse and Virginia. Taken over a ten-year period, Mann depicts them playing, swimming and acting to the camera in and around their homestead in Lexington, Virginia. Born out of a collaborative process between mother and child, the work encapsulates their childhood in all its rawness and innocence.

Mann followed Immediate Family by focusing on the land itself in her series Motherland: Virginia (1993–94) and Deep South (1996–98). Here she is drawn to locations steeped in historical significance from the American Civil War, which left both literal and metaphoric scars on the trees and the land itself. Using antique cameras and processes throughout, Mann accentuates the sense of age in the subject while embracing the imperfect effects created by her printing process.

The most recent series in the exhibition, What Remains (2000–04) seeks to further connect human contact to the land and how the body eventually returns to and becomes a part of the land itself. This concept led Mann to photograph decomposing cadavers at the University of Tennesse Anthropological Research Facility, Knoxville, where human decomposition is studied in a variety of, mainly outdoor, settings. What Remains deals directly with the subject of death, still a social taboo. As with her other work, Mann’s subjects are sensitively handled and beautifully realised, encouraging us to reflect upon our own mortality and place within nature’s order.

The Family and the Land: Sally Mann at The Photographers’ Gallery is an edited version of a touring exhibition, conceived by Sally Mann in collaboration with Hasse Persson, Director, Borås Museum of Modern Art, Sweden. It has been presented at Fotomuseum Den Hague and the Musée de l‘Elysée, Lausanne as well as in Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Helsingborg, and Copenhagen.