TED: Kristen Ashburn

courtesy Ted

You can find out more about Kirsten & AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa by visiting: www.kristenashburn.com.
And please stay tuned for tomorrow's Nymhoto Conversation with photographer Ying Ang who has also worked to document the AIDS epidemic in Malawi.

Kristen Ashburn @ powerHouse Arena

from I AM BECAUSE WE ARE, photographs by Kristen Ashburn, published by powerHouse Books

Do not miss Kristen Ashburn's exhibit at powerHouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

THE POWERHOUSE ARENA
37 Main Street
Dumbo, Brooklyn
-through April 27, 2009

A Conversation with Tiana Markova-Gold

The first image by Tiana Markova-Gold I ever saw was from her Haiti series. And I was mesmerized. Without the caption I knew this was Haiti and I was captivated by this depiction of a country much overlooked & the poetic style of photography that brought paintings of Gauguin to mind.
Like in the work of Juliana Beasely, one can feel the empathy and respect Tiana has for her subjects.




© Tiana Markova-Gold


Nymphoto: Tell us a little about yourself.

Tiana Markova-Gold: I live in Brooklyn with my boyfriend, in a neighbourhood that I really love, but that’s changing a lot as it gets more and more gentrified. I’ve lived there longer than anywhere else in my life, but I’ve also lived in Vermont, in San Francisco and Oakland and briefly in the Caribbean. I’ve traveled a lot….I’ve spent time in Central America, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe… My life has been full of many adventures, a lot of struggle and a lot of incredible experiences.




© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: How did you discover photography?

TMG: I was always interested in photography, as far back as I can remember…my mother was always taking photographs and when I was a small child she made super 8 films. I took some photography classes when I was a teenager, but I was a dancer so I didn’t really think about pursuing photography in a serious way…it wasn’t until a few years after I stopped dancing that I started to focus on photography. I was traveling a lot and taking photographs, just snapshots for myself….a woman I knew was an editorial intern at a magazine and when she saw some pictures I had taken on one of my recent trips she asked if she could bring them in to show the picture editors at the magazine. It was the first time I had considered that photography might be something I could do professionally.




© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: Where do you find inspiration?

TMG: I think a lot of my work is, at least on some level, inspired by a need to understand or make sense of things I struggle with in my own life. It’s like I’m making a map to help me find my way through the world, through the web of experiences and relationships that is my life, and in doing that, maybe help illuminate the way for somebody else.

I am also deeply inspired by the innate beauty in the human spirit. I want to recognize and acknowledge that spirit, especially in situations where it is not always so obvious…as Karim Ainous said (when speaking about a film he co-wrote), “It is about a faith in the human being, no matter what. When he is an outlaw, when he is stealing, when he is making love.”

Sometimes I am inspired by my anger or frustration with things I see happening…I take photographs to try to make people look at what is going on; to expose things people are not aware of or not paying attention to.

I’m also just very curious about the world and the people living in it….




© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: How do your projects come about?

TMG: I began the sex workers project while I was in the full-time photojournalism program at ICP. I had to do a lot of footwork before I was able to actually begin taking pictures. I did a lot of research and contacted many people and organizations providing services to sex workers in New York City. I also spent a lot of time in neighbourhoods that were known for street prostitution. The first woman I photographed in Hunts Point was someone I just walked up to on the street one evening and started talking to.



© Tiana Markova-Gold


NP: What's next?

TMG: In January I’ll be in Asia for three weeks on a photography fellowship from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation.

I’ve just begun working on a new project about women and violence….Initially I’m focusing on women fighters…I don’t want to say much more because it’s just beginning and I’m not sure yet exactly where it will go.

NP: Thank you so much!

Please visit www.tianamarkova.com to see more of Tiana's work.

A Conversation with Nina Berman

from "Homeland" ©Nina Berman

Growing up in Europe in the early eighties I remember seeing amputees on the bus on my way to school or in town. Most of these men, who were probably by then in their sixties, were injured in World War II. A bombed-out church in the center of my hometown purposefully remains a ruin serving as a warning, as a memorial.
It takes generations for the effects of war to subside. When war is fought overseas by a volunteer army it is easy for the civilian population to be disconnected . But the 'Homeland' is nevertheless affected. Nina Berman has photographed worldwide, but focuses on the US, telling American stories and observing her home country in transition. Her work asks urgent questions and confronts us with the America (& the world) of today.


from "Homeland", "Megachurches", "Marine Wedding" & "Singles"©Nina Berman


Nymphoto: Tell us about yourself.

Nina Berman: I'm a photographer and sometime writer and mother to a 4 year old girl, Carla, with my partner Carmine, also a photographer.
I ride a bicycle and live in Manhattan on the 9th floor of an old building which faces east.

from "Under Taliban" ©Nina Berman


NP: How did you discover photography?

NB: I discovered photography as a young teenager through Diane Arbus. I was at summer camp in Connecticut and some older kids were passing her book around in this very excited and secret almost illicit way. Well it blew my mind. I was struck by how the conventional people looked terrifying and how the so-called freaks looked so nice and friendly.
Then at 17 my dad got me a Petri Racer rangefinder and I discovered a dark room, and from there, I was kind of hooked.

from "Homeland", "Megachuches" & "Times Square" ©Nina Berman


NP: What inspires/drives you?

NB: Curiosity about the world outside myself is the number one inspiration. Anger can be another. I'm interested in how ideology manifests itself physically and visually. Some of my work has a politically subversive element to it, in that I photograph subjects or topics that our part of our political discourse, but in ways not conventionally seen. And sometimes, I'm just trying to work out questions in my own mind. For example, years ago, I spent a lot of time photographing Times Square because of memories I had of the place when I was a child, and the ambivalence I felt when it started to change into what it is today. I was struck by simultaneous feelings of revulsion and attraction. So I photographed it to try and explore my own responses.

From "Purple Heart"©Nina Berman


NP: How do you cope with what you see/experience?

NB: At times, I'm not sure I cope very well. When I can get away from my pictures, I'm fine. But when I'm talking about them, or I'm in the midst of photographing a project, like the Purple Hearts project on wounded soldiers, I'm obsessed and dark, and extremely serious which is why my partner calls me DandG which doesn't stand for Dolce Gabbana but Doom and Gloom. I think what I've seen and what I think about, and all that I read, which is a lot, has made me not as fun or free a person as I would like to be. One reason - and it may sound selfish - I wanted to raise a child so much, was so I could be part of a child's universe and have the opportunity to play and exist on that level.



from "Homeland" & "Nuclear Play" ©Nina Berman


NP: What's next?

NB: I have a new book, Homeland, so I need to work on getting that seen. As for the next photography project, I have some ideas, but they're complicated and I need to test them out to see if they're really interesting, or just interesting in my head.

NP: Thank you so much.

"Homeland" is now available in bookstores and online. See more of Nina Berman's work at www.ninaberman.com, or if you are in New York see her work at Jen Bekman Gallery - through November 15, 2008.

Nina Berman's G.I. Goat on 20x200

G.I. Goat © Nina Berman

Head over to 20x200 for the opportunity to own this Nina Berman print (tx my love for you is a stampede of horses). "G.I. Goat" can also been seen in Nina's latest Monogram "Homeland" and at Jen Bekman Gallery in New York through November 15, 2008.
Also stayed tuned for this week's Nymphoto Conversation with Nina Berman. The interview will publish as usual Thursday morning.

Nina Berman

There are lots of great opportunities to see the affecting work of Nina Berman currently:

"Purple Hearts & Marine Wedding"
Cicero Galerie
Rosenthaler Strasse 28
Berlin, Germany
through November 15, 2008

"Homeland"
Exhibition & Book Launch
Jen Bekman Gallery
6 Spring Street
New York, NY
Opening Reception October 24 6-8 pm

"Witness: Casualties of War"
7358 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
through October 25, 2008

Her monogram "Homeland" is now available for pre-order.

Shell, Ingram: Obama

If you missed the opening for the Deborah Willis/ Jeanne Moutoussamy- Ashe curated show Obama: A Historic Campaign in Photographs at Leica Gallery in New York below are two snapshots from the reception.



images by Jessica Ingram & Callie Shell

The show and book features work by photographer Jessica Ingram (who we had the recent pleasure of interviewing for the Conversations series) and Callie Shell, who followed Senator Obama on the campaign trail for 18 months. The Guardian has an excellent article about Callie Shell by Rhoda Buchanan from June 26, 2008 , that you can find here.