ZEKE Magazine: Spring 2024
Photography portfolios The Evenki People: Custodians of the Resources of Yakutia. by Natalya Saprunova Guardian of the Forest: Sarah Fretwell The Stateless: by William Daniels The Price of Patriotism: Ukraine at War by Małgorzata Smieszek Scenes from the Peruvian Post Conflict by Max Cabello Orcasitas Turkana's Resilience by Maurizio Di Pietro Other content Carbon, Cartels, and Corruption by Sarah Fretwell Women Changing the Face of Documentary Photography by J. Sybylla Smith A Photojournalist’s Work in Gaza Photos by Samar Abu Elouf. Text by Lauren Walsh The Impact of AI and the Future of Visual Storytelling by Barbara Ayotte
Photography portfolios
The Evenki People: Custodians of the Resources of Yakutia. by Natalya Saprunova
Guardian of the Forest: Sarah Fretwell
The Stateless: by William Daniels
The Price of Patriotism: Ukraine at War by Małgorzata Smieszek
Scenes from the Peruvian Post Conflict by Max Cabello Orcasitas
Turkana's Resilience by Maurizio Di Pietro
Other content
Carbon, Cartels, and Corruption by Sarah Fretwell
Women Changing the Face of Documentary Photography by J. Sybylla Smith
A Photojournalist’s Work in Gaza Photos by Samar Abu Elouf. Text by Lauren Walsh
The Impact of AI and the Future of Visual Storytelling by Barbara Ayotte
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ZEKE
THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL
SPRING 2024 VOL.10/NO.1 $15 US
DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Published by Social Documentary Network
SPRING 2024 VOL.10/ NO.1
$15 US
Photo by Natalya Saprunova from The Evenki
People
Photo by Sara Fretwell from Guardian of the
Forest
Photo by Małgorzata Smieszek from The Price
of Patriotism
Photo by Lola Flash from Women Changing the
Face of Documentary Photography
Photo by Samar Abu Elouf in Gaza
2 | THE EVENKI PEOPLE
Custodians of the Resources of Yakutia
By Natalya Saprunova
16 | GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST
Environmental Defenders Risk Their Lives to Protect
Ancestral Lands in the Peruvian Amazon
By Sarah Fretwell
40 | THE PRICE OF PATRIOTISM
Ukraine at War
By Małgorzata Smieszek
26 | Carbon, Cartels, and Corruption
by Sarah Fretwell
30 | ZEKE Awards: Honorable Mention Winners
William Daniels
Max Cabello Orcasitas
Maurizio Di Pietro
Isabella Franceschini
Rohingyatographer Collective
52 | Women Changing the Face of
Documentary Photography
J. Sybylla Smith
58 | Interview with Adriana Zehbrauskas
by Daniela Cohen
60 | A Photojournalist’s Work in Gaza
Photos by Samar Abu Elouf. Text by Lauren Walsh
62 | AI and the Future of Visual Storytelling
by Barbara Ayotte
64 | Book Reviews
On the Cover: Photograph
by William Daniels
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
A member of the Rohingya
refugee community who has
been living on this tree-lined
beach for about 15 years.
ZEKE
THE
MAGAZINE OF
GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY
PHOTOGRAPHY
Published by Social Documentary Network
Dear ZEKE Readers:
Writing this column is always the last thing to do before sending ZEKE to print. It is stream
of consciousness as I reflect on what is in this issue, what is going on in the world, and
what is going on with SDN and ZEKE. Hopefully all those are in sync and usually that
means that the world is full of challenges and ZEKE is providing insightful visual and
written stories to bring greater awareness to these issues.
The Spring issue gives us the opportunity to present the winners of the ZEKE Awards
and in this issue we have two extraordinary first-place winners—Natalya Saprunova’s
“The Evenki People” and Sarah Fretwell’s “Guardian of the Forest.” Each of these
projects focuses on Indigenous people struggling with the environmental wreckage
caused by unregulated industrialization and extraction compounded by the problems of
climate change caused by both.
The third featured photo story, “The Price of Patriotism” by Małgorzata Smieszek,
reminds us of the devasting toll in Ukraine caused by Putin’s unmitigated war of
aggression against this nation and, too frequently, against its civilian population and
infrastructure.
Who said AI? Not since the founding of the internet has a technology transformed
our assumptions about information, truth, authorship, and communications so rapidly.
Barbara Ayotte writes an insightful essay titled “Reflections on Michael Christopher
Brown’s 90 Miles.” Brown, a photojournalist, has produced a reporting illustration
experiment about the exodus from Cuba, except that all the images are AI-generated,
have no grounding in real people or places, and no lens or camera were used in
creating the images—just word prompts into an AI engine.
What began as the worst assault on Israel since its founding with 1,200 people
killed and hundreds taken hostage, the Israel/Hamas war has now become an Israeli
assault—some say a genocide—against the civilian population of Gaza with nearly
34,000 deaths, over a million people on the brink of starvation, and the massive
destruction of civilian infrastructure. This entire issue of ZEKE could be devoted to the
repercussions around the world resulting from these events, but we will leave it to this
paragraph and the sobering article by Lauren Walsh with photographs from Gaza by
Samar Abu Elouf titled “A Photojournalists Work in Gaza.”
This spring, SDN launched its first in-person and virtual Visual Storytelling Festival
and I am thrilled and excited about the amazing programming we have brought to
the documentary photography community including seven panel discussions, five
workshops, two exhibitions, and the SDN Portfolio Reviews! I want to thank everyone
who has participated in the festival.
Lastly, I want to thank all of our generous donors—you can see the full list on page 71.
None of what we do would be possible without your generous support.
Glenn Ruga
2024 ZEKE Award Jurors
Barbara Ayotte
Communications Director for Social
Documentary Network and Editor of ZEKE
Magazine, Senior Director of Strategic
Communications at GBH.
Dudley M. Brooks
Deputy Director of Photography for The
Washington Post
Greig Cranna
Professional photographer and the founder
and director of the BRIDGE Gallery in
Cambridge, MA.
Lisa DuBois
New York-based ethnographic
photojournalist and curator and Diversity
Advisor for the Social Documentary
Network.
John Heffernan
President of the Foundation for Systemic
Change.
Michael Itkoff
Publisher, creative consultant, and co-founder
of Daylight books.
Ed Kashi
Photojournalist, filmmaker, and educator
Maria Monteleone
Enterprise Assignment Photo Editor for
Bloomberg News
Maggie Soladay
Senior Photography Editor at the Open
Society Foundations, New York.
Barbara Ayotte
Best regards,
Glenn Ruga
Executive Editor
ZEKE SPRING 2024 / 1
The Evenki
People
Custodians of the
Resources of Yakutia
by Natalya Saprunova
The north of Russia conceals countless
riches such as gold and diamonds,
but also Indigenous cultures. The
Evenks, in Yakutia, survive as best
they can alongside mining companies
who exploit their lands, sacrificed
on the altar of economic growth.
An Indigenous people of reindeer
herders, they were the ones who guided
Russian explorers to the deposits, enabling
the industrial development of the Soviet
Union. Today, the taiga is massively felled,
river beds are ravaged, and groundwater
is polluted, threatening entire ecosystems.
Deforestation favors the appearance of
hot winds and subsequently more than
local climate change. Indeed, the permafrost
contained in Siberian soils is melting
more and more, releasing large quantities
of greenhouse gases amplifying global
warming. In addition, ancient bacteria and
viruses dangerous to humans and animals
may arise.
Today, the Evenki hope to bring their
culture to life and to interest a younger
generation who suffers from the problems
of sedentarization and difficulties in
carrying out traditional activities linked to
reindeer herding, hunting, gathering, and
crafts. The Evenki people regret it all the
more as they hoped for a better tomorrow
for their children by working for Russian
geologists.
2 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Galina Lazareva, 80, now lives
alone in her wooden house
in Iengra. In the late 1960s,
she worked with her husband
alongside the mining company
geologists in the taiga.
ZEKE SPRING 2024 3
Alla Kourbaltinova, 64, has spent her
entire life camping near the village
of Iengra, in the Neryungri region, in
the taiga of southern Yakutia. Despite
the death of her husband 3 years
ago, she continues to raise her herd
of 215 reindeer, with her son Aleksei
and 3 employees. This creates a
monthly salary of 35,000 rubles
(around 385 euros in 2023). Every
year, the reindeer are vaccinated
against brucellosis, piroplasmosis,
and anthrax, which risks resurfacing
with the melting of the permafrost.
4 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE Fall 2023/ 5
Three 14-year-old cousins spend their
vacation in the reindeer herd of their
grandmother Alla Kourbaltinova.
Young Evenks ask themselves a lot of
questions about their future. While
some people like to spend time in the
taiga at the family reindeer camp,
they still don’t see themselves devoting
their entire lives to it.
6 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024 7
Vladimir is of Yakut
origin, but he has lived
self-sufficiently for 30 years
in the forest 20 km from
Syuldyukar near the Evenks.
Diamond mining is happening
all around his cabin.
For several years, they have
been breeding horses which
even give him milk. Seasonal
workers come to his house to
buy manure before returning
home to the garden.
8 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024 9
In the courtyard of
Margarita, an Evenki
language teacher, a man
who participated in the construction
of the Baikal-Amur
Magistral (BAM) railway line
in the 1970s, left a wagon
behind as a legacy.
10 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024 11
12 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
On the Iengra fur farm, the
Evenks breed sables and
foxes. If a sable skin is sold
for 3000 rubles, then white
fox skin can fetch up to
8000 rubles.
ZEKE SPRING 2024 13
Eduard Romanov, a construction worker
and activist from Yakutsk, was the initiator
of the draft law ‘On the protection
of permafrost in the Republic of Sakha
(Yakutia)’, and is visiting Oymyakon, the
coldest village in the world. Considering
himself to have shamanic gifts, he
asks the spirits to keep this place cold,
because it is the anticyclones of Yakutia
that regulate the planet’s climate.
14 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024 15
Guardian
of the Forest
Environmental defenders risk
their lives to protect ancestral
lands in the Peruvian Amazon.
by Sarah Fretwell
Apu Quinto Inuma was a former
lumber trafficker turned park ranger
turned rogue Forest Guardian. He
became a tireless international advocate
for the environment and Native
rights and his community of Santa
Rosillo in the Amazon of Peru.
To prevent the devastation of land, logging,
and drug cartels operating in neighboring
communities, Quinto organized other
Natives to patrol the forest even after the
government denied their ancestral rights to
the territory. They worked to protect their children’s
future and “their brothers who could
not speak” — the trees of the forest.
With old guns, machetes, and rubber
boots, they volunteer beside their village in
San Martin. On patrols, they look for new
burn and grow areas, document it with cell
phones, and send the notes back to local
officials. Struggling to survive in this remote
region, many people here work for illegal
logging and drug cartels.
In November of 2023, Quinto was shot
and killed in retaliation for his environmental
work.
His spirit still lives on in the forest.
16 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
At the end of a sweltering
day, bathing and playtime
are a highlight for the children.
The community is still
applying for the title to all
of their ancestral forests and
fighting for their children’s
future. Santa Rosillo, San
Martin, Peru. December
2022.
ZEKE SPRING 2024 17
At the end of their patrol,
the Santa Rosillo Forest
Guardians strip down,
put on a few accents, and
excitedly ask for a portrait.
They are proud of what they
do and the status their work
is given in the community.
Since being recognized by
local officials, it has forced
the campesinos to treat them
and the land with more
respect but has upset the
land and lumber mafia working
with many people in this
region. With so much out
of the Native community’s
control, the patrol has been
an opportunity for empowerment
and self-determination.
This image was taken in the
buffer zone of Cordillera
Azul National Park outside
of Santa Rosillo, San Martin,
Peru. December 2022.
18 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024 19
20 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
The Forest Guardians of
Santa Rosillo inspect a
recently discovered burn
area in the Cordillera
Azul National Park buffer
zone. When you walk into
these areas, it always feels
like you are witnessing a
massacre. Quinto Inuma
Alvarado (left) estimated
this area had been burning
for over a month. Typically,
the high-value timber is
removed and sold, then
the area is burned, and
now crops will be planted
by settlers or coca will be
planted for sale to the drug
cartel. Santa Rosillo, San
Martin, Peru, December
2022.
ZEKE SPRING 2024 21
22 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Breakfast time in the dining
area of Forest Guardian
founder Quinto Inuma
Alvarado’s home with his
wife Marlith Mandruma
Florès, daughter Raquel
Inuma Mandruma, and
neighbor. Quinto’s biggest
wish is for the community
to live in peace someday.
Santa Rosillo, San Martin,
Peru, December 2022.
ZEKE SPRING 2024 23
A burn scar deep in the
jungle of San Martin on
the border of the drug
cartel region of Loredo.
In the modern-day Wild
West, some land is sold
illegally without a proper
title, and some land is just
taken. There is rampant
corruption, with few officials
enforcing forest and land
laws. Attempts at Peruvian
government regulation have
fallen short, and Natives
point to the rampant corruption
of regional officials.
Native activists say the
forest is suffering and cannot
speak for itself. Although
the communities surrounding
Cordillera Azul National
Park have repeatedly been
denied the title to their land,
they believe it is their duty to
fight for the rights of nature.
They also believe that in
doing so, they are working
for the planet’s survival, an
obligation they take as a
sacred duty. Santa Rosillo,
San Martin, Peru, December
2022.
24 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024 25
On November 29, 2023,
I received a message
from my friend in Peru,
“Sarah, I have some
very sad and horrible
news…Today, they
killed Quinto Inuma.”
What you should know about
Apu Quinto Inuma (Quinto)
is that he was a husband and
father deeply loved by his wife,
his four- and sixteen-year-old
daughters, and his 21-year-old son.
He was a jovial visionary who worked
against all odds at all hours of the day.
He would spend the little money he had to
travel for hours, go without eating to make
it to an important meeting, and still have a
smile on his face. He worked to protect his
tribe’s home, their future—and yours.
CARBON, CARTELS,
& CORRUPTION
The real reason Peru’s Amazon is being lost &
the environmental defenders who can save it.
by Sarah Fretwell
Apu Quinto Inuma and Sarah Fretwell outside of his
home in the village of Santa Rosillo in the Amazon
region of San Martin, Peru, one year before his
assassination. He was a husband, father, the religious
leader of his community, and the 32nd environmental
defender murdered in Peru since 2013. Follow his
case by scanning the QR code at the end of this
article.
He was the founder of the Santa Rosillo
“Forest Guardians.” He was assassinated
in front of his wife Marlith and their son
Kevin while returning from a conference
on ancestrial knowledge and environmental
defense.
Quinto and his family lived in the village
of Santa Rosillo, along the banks
of the Yanayacu River and the northern
Amazon province of San Martin, Peru.
Santa Rosillo is about 12 hours from the
nearest police outpost. If they ever visit,
government officials come to this remote
region by helicopter. The community
struggled to survive amid settlers, illicit
logging, and land and drug cartels with
no rule of law.
A year earlier, I had traveled down the
Yanayacu with Quinto. It became a tumultuous
overnight journey after someone
sabotaged the boat engine in retaliation
for reporting lumber traffickers to the
Peruvian government.
While new “settlers” to the area could
purchase land and secure land titles,
Quinto’s tribe and family were denied these
rights. The one government official who
tried to help Quinto was fired right before
he was going to sign the title. Without the
title the community could do little to combat
the illicit activity in their area.
With hundreds of hectares of remote
land to monitor, even when an illegal
runway built for the drug cartel was
reported, it took over a year
for a government official to
visit and check the reports of
coca fields.
Although Natives’ ancestors
managed the land for
generations, Native groups I
met with told me they did not
receive “prior consultation”
as required by Peruvian law
in the creation of Cordillera
Azul National Park (2001), Cordillera
Escalera (2005), and the resulting $87
million carbon deal (2008). While the
Peruvian government and carbon developers
benefited from the multi millions
of dollars, the project essentially turned
Amazon Natives into trespassers
on their ancestral land,
making it bureaucratically
impossible for them to secure
land titles. Without the title, they
could not receive money from the carbon
deal.
Disregard for Legal Rights
The park and carbon project are being
shared globally as a conservation success
by REDD+, the voluntary mitigation frameworks
created by the UN to reduce carbon
emissions in developing countries through
forest conservation that includes funding
and technical assistance. The plan includes
a theoretical protocol for Indigenous
peoples and community-based monitoring.
All of this would be wonderful if those
conservation decisions and management
had included the first peoples of the
land that was being conserved. In Peru,
as in much of the Global South, the rush
for conservation dollars has been at the
expense of the Indigenous communities.
The Native communities have long
26 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Indigenous activist Marisol Garcia poses for a portrait on an early morning boat ride to the village Caserio Tupac
Amaru in December of 2022. She told me, “We firmly believe the whole Amazon is connected to our spirituality.
The waters of our territory are the blood that flows in our body. The air purified by our trees is our breath of life.
They are like our brothers—the trees, the animals, the water. The only difference is they have no voice.” Caserio
Tupac Amaru, San Martin, Peru. Photograph by Sarah Fretwell.
questioned whether the conservation
areas and offsets are being correctly managed.
They took the government to court
to get a list of which multinational companies
had purchased offsets.
Now, scientists are finding evidence
that the tribes’ concerns are well-founded.
Recent studies report many offset projects
are not achieving what they claim
(Alejandro Guizar-Coutiño et al. 2022),
and some offsets are accelerating carbon
emissions.
Activists here see the fallacy of multinational
corporations declaring themselves
“carbon neutral” simply because
they have purchased carbon offsets from
Cordillera Azul National Park.
I met Quinto when I joined him and
other Indigenous leaders at meetings with
the International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN). The officials did not
even try to hide their annoyance and contempt
as they sat in meetings with Native
federations that were rightfully upset over
this REDD+ endorsement.
A year before, Quinto had reported
the discovery of a coca field—the base
crop for cocaine—while on patrol. As
a result, he was brutally beaten by his
neighbors. Quinto and his family were
evacuated to a town several hours
away. They bravely returned to their
home in Santa Rosillo three months later.
According to his lawyer, Cristina Leon,
Quinto was guaranteed police protection
against three of the men who were eventually
implicated in his murder, but there
was no budget for it.
Meanwhile, the government had millions
of dollars from the the carbon deal
from Cordillera Azul National Park.
An investigation in Quinto’s assassination
linked a gang called “The Jackals of Santa
Rosillo” to his murder, with the accused
including the governor of his region.
Illegal Law Modification
Immediately after his murder, the Peruvian
government amended Peru’s wildlife and
forestry law. The amendment essentially
decriminalized logging and has primed
the Peruvian Amazon for a massive land
grab, more illicit activity, and catastrophic
deforestation.
The recent amendment ultimately
legitimized multinational businesses, illicit
industries, and landowners who have
already carried out illegal land clearing
and deforestation in conservation areas.
Marisol Garcia, President of the Native
federation FEPIKECA, noted the amendment
makes the death of environmental
defenders and everything they were fighting
for feel pointless.
Quinto’s attorney Cristina Leon, in
a statement released by Forest Peoples
Programme, noted, “It should also be
emphasized that local authorities, in this
case the lieutenant governor and municipal
agent, are allegedly implicated in the murder,
and this is highlighted by the fact that
they, together with Mr. Limber Ríos Ruiz,
have at all times led the opposition to the
recognition of the collective territorial rights
of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu, ...”
Native organizations in the Peruvian
Amazon responded in outrage, mobilizing
Indigenous citizens across the Amazon to
defend against deforestation by “invaders”
and to prevent the further killing of
Native people for the sake of taking more
of their land. They issued a joint statement:
“We call on the international community
to alert all donors and countries that
promote finance conservation activities in
Peru, in order to demand that the Peruvian
Government seriously commit to respecting
the nature and the intangibility of the
forests of the communal territories in order
to avoid the serious consequences that
will come from our Native communities.”
As Native activists work tirelessly to
actively build the future of Peru, they are
denied a legitimate seat at the table as
their ancestral land, their children’s future,
and one of the largest carbon sinks on
the planet is being clear cut for the sake
of profit. No Natives I met felt they had
experienced monetary benefit from the
carbon deal.
What I experienced during my time
with Quinto and other environmental
defenders in the Peruvian Amazon is
their determination to participate in the
conservation of their ancestral land and
their desire to build a sustainable future for
their country.
What I witnessed was them being
blocked at every turn by racism, bureaucracy,
corruption, and the mentality of
profit over people and the planet. Those
blocking them include the Peruvian government,
gangs, cartels, corrupt officials,
researchers, carbon developers, and
foreign organizations diligently working
towards UN climate goals.
Indigenous understanding of the situation
does not advance their success;
rather it is ignored by experts and politicians
with a Western paradigm, thinking
they know better than the people whose
families have managed the forests for
thousands of years.
In response to the law, Nelsith
Sangama from Interethnic Association
for the Development of the Peruvian
Rainforest (AIDESEP) was quoted by
forestpeople.org, “This amendment of
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 27
The Forest Guardians of Santa Rosillo take a break from the midday heat in a recently discovered burn area in the Cordillera Azul National Park buffer zone. The Forest
Guardians (Left to Right) Edgar Inuma Mandruma, Quinto Inuma Alvarado (deceased), Clodomiro Dias Olimares, and Manuel Inuma Alvarado. Santa Rosillo, San Martin,
Peru, December 9, 2022. Photograph by Sarah Fretwell.
the Forestry Law is worrying. Companies
are free to follow rules and remain free
from sanctions. And the State is legalizing
deforestation that would cause
terrible damage to our ecosystems. With
the approved law, the risk that property
titles and certificates of possession will be
issued in an irregular manner increases.
We Indigenous peoples and environmental
rights defenders will be affected,
because the risks of illegal activities that
invade our territories and cause deforestation
will increase.”
In standing by the forestry law amendment,
Peru’s government is failing their
people, mocking their international commitments,
and preventing a truly sustainable
future for Peru.
A Sustainable Way Forward
What the global community needs
to understand is that our money and
good intentions are getting lost in Peru’s
“comia” (bribery) system, illicit industries,
and carbon developer jargon. Peru’s
agriculture and forestry departments are
not keeping their commitment to Norway,
Germany, and the UK, and the REDD+
priority actions. It is time to release aid
money only when Peru’s government has
genuinely met its climate commitments.
Multinational corporations cannot simply
buy credits without changing business
practices and declare themselves “carbon
neutral.” As a consumer, the true cost of
ignoring this reality in the global economy
is that Quinto’s children are now growing
up without their father, and our climate
reality is being greenwashed. There is no
offsetting our way out of this. Our habits
have to change. As consumers in the
global market, we vote with our dollars
and habits.
Environmental defenders on the frontlines
are the last line of defense against
land traffickers, illegal loggers, and drug
cartels. What I have also come to understand
is that environmental defenders are
unstoppable because they are working for
an entity more powerful than any multinational
company or Peruvian politician.
They are working on behalf of Mother
Earth, and they will defend her at all costs.
As activist Marisol Garcia put it, “We
Indigenous people are paying a high
price for defending the Amazon. For a
long time, our land was called the lungs
of the world. It is more than that. It is the
heart of the planet.”
Environmental defenders here know
this so deeply that they are risking their
lives to protect it.
I have spent the last few months wondering
how Quinto’s daughters will finish
school, and what quality of life his family
will have in a city under police guard.
I have listened on the other end of the
phone as his wife cries from trauma. I’ve
lamented what will happen to the forest.
I have asked myself what desperation
drives another to kill a father for trying to
make a better future for his community.
Despite all my unanswered questions,
I have started to sense there may
be some cosmic justice at work here. On
November 29, 2023, Quinto’s assassins
illuminated the Forest Guardians’ cause
across the globe and ensured Quinto’s
vision will shape the future of the fight for
the Amazon.
For more information
about Quinto and
the Forest Defenders,
visit this QR code.
28 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Visual Stories About Global Themes
Photo by João Coelho from The Iron Quest
Social Documentary Network
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photography projects.
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and the ZEKE Award for Systemic
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Award winners are exhibited
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featured in ZEKE Magazine.
Join us!
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ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 29
ZEKE AWARD HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
Above: Central Dominican Republic. Haitian
descendant in a Batey (company-owned hostel)
owned by the Central Romana Corporation (the
biggest cane company in DR). Recently the U.S.
banned any sugar coming from Central Romana
for suspicion of forced labor.
Right top: Nepalgunj, Nepal. Sapana Badi (21) belongs to the Badis, a
subgroup of Nepalese untouchables (Dalits), once responsible for entertaining
members of the upper castes of the country with song and dance. The majority of
the women were also formerly involved in the sex trade and this is still the case
of a minority of them today. Without papers, Sapana, who is stateless, could not
escape this vicious circle and prostitutes herself in order to earn her life.
30 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
William Daniels
The Stateless | Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Nepal, Ivory Coast, Bangladesh
Right bottom: Western Dominican Republic. Francesca
(not her real name) and her three children, five, four and
eight months, are of Haitian descent but born in Dominican
Republic. Following the Constitutional court decision in
2013, they lost their Dominican citizenship and are now
stateless.
What happens when
a person’s identity
is negated to the
point that they are
deprived of any official existence?
This person becomes stateless:
they do not belong to any country
– not even the one they consider
their own. Most of the world’s
10 million stateless people do
not feature in any census. They
are seldom refugees: many have
never left the land on which their
ancestors were born.
The question of who belongs
and who does not, who has
access to resources and who
should be denied them, is a hot
topic in our times of pervasive
identity crises and populism fueled
by social media. The philosopher
Hannah Arendt wrote that citizenship
is “the right to have rights”;
in The Origins of Totalitarianism,
she described the process of
dehumanization of stateless
people: when “others” are created
and differences are exploited,
citizenship becomes an instrument
to deprive rights of those who
could threaten political, ethnic or
economic interests.
This exhibit explores stateless
communities, or “at risk of
statelessness,” in six countries.
Support for this project
provided by the National
Geographic Society.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 31
ZEKE AWARD HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
Above: A woman with her baby poses at the entrance to
the Oronccoy district, shortly before going to work on her
farmland. October 2015.
Right top: A relative of the Aspur Ccaicuri family removes stones
from the wall of an abandoned house in the village of Totora to use
in the construction of the tombs of Sabina Ccaicuri Castro and her
children Mario, Amelia, and Yolanda Azpur Ccaicuri.
32 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Max Cabello Orcasitas
Chungui and Oronccoy: Scenes from the Peruvian Post Conflict
Right bottom: Nelida Valenzuela during her wedding celebrations
in Chungui. The wedding celebrations usually take place
during the main celebrations of the Chungui district, which are
in homage to the Virgin of the Rosary, who is considered the
Patroness of the town.
The Peruvian territories of
Chungui and Oronccoy
were the scenes of
massacres caused by the
Maoist-inspired Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path) organization and
the Peruvian military and police
forces during the armed conflict
that devastated Peru between
1980 and 1995. Sixteen percent
of its inhabitants were murdered:
almost 1,300 victims; buried in
300 mass graves many of which
have already been exhumed.
These tragedies were not
isolated events. Ayacucho was the
region that had the highest number
of deaths and disappearances
reported to the national Truth and
Reconciliation Commission: of a
total of 69,000 victims throughout
Peru, 26,000 deaths (almost
40%) occurred in this region.
Forty years later, Chungui and
Oronccoy share extreme poverty
and the precariousness of basic
health and electrical services.
Although they have experienced
the restoration of their cultural
rituals, the slow process of exhumations
and search for the bodies
that disappeared during those
brutal years continues, waiting to
be recognized by their relatives,
most of whom are orphans and
survivors of the conflict.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 33
ZEKE AWARD HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
Maurizio Di Pietro
Turkana’s Resilience | Kenya
A fisherman on the shores of Turkana Lake rests after fishing. According
to Kenya’s National Climate Change Action Plan, more than 60% of
Turkana’s inhabitants are pastoralists, while only 10% engage in fishing
in the lake waters. The Turkana people have diversified their livelihood
strategies as a means of reducing vulnerability to endemic conflicts and
drought. May 2017.
Right top: A shepherd from Kakonk’u village, armed
with a rifle, leads the cattle to pasture. Desertification
brings drought and famine but also armed conflict over
grazing areas and water resources. According to a
United Nations report, more than 150 people are killed
annually in cattle raids in Turkana. March 2018.
34 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Right bottom: On the shores of Lake Turkana, a child is fishing.
About 90% of the inhabitants of the county live below the
poverty line and about 80% have never attended school. In Lake
Turkana, fishing is primarily done by individual fishermen on the
first few kilometers of the lake. There are no large fishing vessels
and very few with engines so the fishermen share hand-crafted
and hand-powered boats. March 2018.
Turkana, in northwest
Kenya, is the poorest and
least developed county
in the ASALs (Arid and
Semi-Arid Lands). Almost all of the
inhabitants of the Turkana district
are pastoralists, so their survival
depends entirely on livestock,
natural resources for food, and
daily activities.
In the last few decades, due to
climate change, the air temperature
increased by about three
degrees, while more frequent and
prolonged droughts have reduced
the natural resource base. Pasture
resources for livestock have been
dramatically reduced, encouraging
those closest to Lake Turkana
to turn to fish as an alternative
livelihood.
The area is the fuse of violent
conflict. Indeed the proliferation of
illegal arms from South Sudan and
the reduction of natural resources
has contributed to the escalation
of insecurity along the area’s
shared borders with Ethiopia,
Sudan, Uganda, and other counties
in Kenya such as Pokot and
Marsabit, causing the death of
hundreds of people every year.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 35
ZEKE AWARD HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
Above: Porto Tolle, June 2023. The interior
of the chimney of the decommissioned Enel
thermoelectric power plant located in Polesine
Camerini. A study commissioned by the
University of Padua is assessing whether to
preserve the structure, which could require
extensive maintenance and, above all, safety
issues for guests of the future tourist facility.
Right top: Rosolina, November 2023. Fishermen engage in the ‘Fraìma’: the traditional
fish harvest that occurs near the onset of winter. In autumn, as temperatures
drop, the fish instinctively seek their way back to the sea. However, the enclosed
basins of the valley make this migration virtually impossible. Following the introduction
of new saltwater, the fish are induced to swim into a specific channel where
they are captured and sorted. Fish raised in the valley grow under semi-natural
conditions and require meticulous management based on empirical knowledge
passed down orally by valley dwellers for generations.
36 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Isabella Franceschini
The Leap of Fish That Dream of Flying, Italy
Right bottom: Porto Tolle, April 2023. The third boiler tower
of the thermoelectric plant in Polesine Camerini is dismantled.
Following the concept of a circular economy, the
Futur-e project aims to transform 24 industrial sites in Italy
into eco-friendly places dedicated to science, art, culture,
and tourism.
Since 2021, the
UNESCO MaB (Man
and Biosphere) Reserve
in the Po Delta has
been undergoing a significant
transformation with the decommissioning
of the colossal Italian
thermal power plant in Polesine
Camerini. The plant is being
transformed into an innovative
and eco-sustainable tourist hotspot
geared towards environmental
conservation and local employment.
This redevelopment project
spans 300 hectares and it is part
of the Futur-e project, led by
the Enel Group, which aims to
repurpose 23 disused industrial
sites and a former mining area
that have completed their role
in the energy system. Between
2021 and 2023, the work
documented the economic and
social fabric of this fragile area,
historically threatened by hydraulic
dangers such as floods and
subsidence. Here, the complex
relationship between river, land,
and sea has influenced human
settlements, engaged in uncertain
adaptation to the morphology
of an ecosystem in continuous
evolution, further exacerbated by
sudden climate changes. We are
currently experiencing a historical
period of profound transformation
that urges us to reconsider our
way of life, placing increasing
emphasis on renewable energies
and prioritizing pathways towards
a zero-emission energy system.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 37
ZEKE AWARD HONORABLE MENTION WINNER
Saiful displays the bullet scar on his neck, a brutal reminder
of his escape from Myanmar. His physical wound healed,
but the trauma lingers. 2023 © Sahat Zia Hero
38 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Rohingyatographer Collective
Through Rohingya Eyes: A Journey of Resilience | Bangladesh
Rohingyatographer is
more than a photography
project, it is a
platform of narrative
justice for Rohingya refugees.
Through the photographic magazine
Rohingyatographer, refugees
recover parts of their lost identity,
sharing their stories of resilience
and hope amid despair.
Rohingyatographer is distinguished
by empowering Rohingya
people to become narrators, not
just subjects, promoting a level of
authenticity rarely seen. In doing
so, the project challenges existing
stereotypes, provokes meaningful
dialogue, and instills a new
respect for human resilience.
Top: Abdul Ali, aged 36,
captures the tragic fire that
broke out in Camp 5 in March,
2022 © Md Iddris
Bottom: Samiya Sultana Reya
is seven years old. She is looking
at her empty perfume spray
bottle. 2022 © Md Jamal
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 39
The Price of
Patriotism
Ukraine at War
by Małgorzata Smieszek
A
nna lives high in the mountains.
Her sons and relatives went to
the front after the war started in
February 2022. Following the
completion of his mandatory
military service, 21-year-old
Ivan decided to stay in the army. He
guards the Ukrainian border. 25-yearold
Jurij returned home after 15 months
of fighting in Bakhmut. He did not
expect that it would be so hard on the
front. While being extremely exhausted
for months, he would repel enemy
attacks and experience betrayal from
residents of the eastern part of Ukraine
while risking his own life. 47-year-old
Volodymyr has been fighting in Donbas
since the beginning of the war. His wife
and daughter are deeply affected by his
involvement. The daily life of stress and
uncertainty has caused serious health
problems for the women. Mykola, 38,
died in Bakhmut. He left behind two
daughters who are convinced that they
lost their father because they did not
manage to give him a hand-made cross
in time.
Right: Katia and Ania’s father died on the
front. The girls are struggling with the loss
and have redirected their anger towards
their mother.
40 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 41
Alexander completed his
mandatory military service
many years ago. His mother,
raised with respect for
tradition and love for the
homeland, still keeps her
sons’ uniforms.
42 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 43
Julia comes from a patriotic
family. From the first days
of the invasion, she has
been fully engaged in the
war efforts along with her
brother, Stefan, who died in
Zaporizhia.
44 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
46 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Since the war has
been going on the
villagers have given
up celebrating. They
believe that it is not
appropriate to rejoice
when soldiers are
risking their lives on
the front.
48 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Natalia bids farewell to her
husband. She was waiting for
this moment for a month. The
body of the fallen soldier was
only taken from the battlefield
after repelling the Russian
assault.
ZEKE SPRING 2024 49
Jurij did not expect the front
line to be so difficult. After
returning home, he is struggling
with war trauma and is
trying to rebuild his relationships
with his family.
50 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
ZEKE SPRING 2024 51
Photo by Lola Flash: Felli, 2022. From surmise series. Courtesy of Jenkins Johnson Gallery.
52 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
WOMEN ARE
CHANGING THE
FACE OF
DOCUMENTARY
PHOTOGRAPHY
by J. Sybylla Smith
“Look at us.
Take your time.
Listen to us.
It’s time.”
This clarion call
delivered by nineteen
international women
and female-identifying
photographers
from the stage of
Paris Photo in 2019
was a historical event I was grateful to
witness. La Part Des Femmes, a collective
dedicated to the visibility and recognition
of women photographers, repeated the
above refrain while reading their written
manifesto. It was a powerful beginning to
the day-long symposium on gender parity
hosted by Elles x Paris Photo. Inaugurated
in 2018 and partnering with the French
Ministry of Culture and Kering Women In
Motion, this initiative increased the exhibition
of women artists from 20% to 36%
at Paris Photo over the next five years.
Previous statistics on exhibition and acquisition
of work by women artists at major
art organizations are under 10% and as
low as 2% for women of color.
A convergence of scholarship, exhibitions,
and educational events addressing
the current and historical invisibility,
misrepresentation, and overlooked
contributions of women and non-binary
photographers has grown exponentially in
the past decade.
International collaborations dedicated
to research, coalition-building,
data collection, and a critical analysis
of contemporary and past practices
and methodologies in the field are
dismantling the ecosystems of patriarchy.
A global force for change has been
unleashed challenging the dominant
gaze, one informed by privilege and
elitism, offering monolithic perspectives
and reductive generalizations.
Contemporary women and
female-identifying photographers
are activating a new form of documenting
that is led by content and
context. Grounded in extensive
research, they construct a matrix
of intersectional ideas, histories,
realities, and considerations. A
powerful impact of their work is
their intentional approach to lead
with an awareness of power differentials,
to offer a presentation
predicated on inspiring dialogue,
the aim is one of illumination of
our complex and messy world in
pursuit of a deeper understanding
and a hope to provoke informed
change.
What We See
We are at an inflection point spearheaded
by the coordinated efforts of
historically excluded groups. A humanization
of photography is underway interrogating
photography’s role as a source of
harm and its potential as a positive force
for change. Its theory, practice and history
are being challenged to expand beyond
the idolization of sole practitioners and
the canonization of a mostly male visual
perspective.
At the forefront is Fast Forward Women
In Photography, founded in 2014 by Anna
Fox and Karen Knorr of the University for
the Creative Arts in Farnham, England.
Their value-driven manifesto and 2020
Report on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
set a foundation and a path. Their impressive
output has resulted in five international
convenings to dialogue and share
resources in Brazil, the U.S., India, Finland,
Nigeria, and the U.K. Mentorships have
been created in China and Africa. Topics
of investigation include: gender representation,
use of archives, political activism,
recognizing the framing of photographic
practice, conflict, and empowerment.
Putting Ourselves in the Picture, their
collaborative 2022 publication, is a
generous project-based book. It shares
the process and results of empowering
refugee women from Angola, Congo, El
Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Uganda, and Qatar.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 53
Aida Muluneh, “The Rain of Fire - Vietnam,” 2020, commissioned by Nobel Peace Center. courtesy of Jenkin
Johnson Gallery.
Autograph, Impressions Gallery, and
Women for Refugee Women, were active
in this coalition to teach photographic
skills as a means to tell personal stories. By
documenting their lived experiences these
courageous women increased representation,
created community, initiated healing
and restitution.
French photographer and activist
Marie Docher created a blog, Atlantes
et Cariatides, in 2014, aimed at critically
examining systems of representation in
photography. She then took her research
findings and boldly confronted the documentary-focused
festival Les Rencontres
d’Arles in 2018 on their lack of gender
representation. This led to the successful
increase of 51% of exhibitions being by
women in 2019.
I attended the groundbreaking
exhibition, “Who’s Afraid of Women
Photographers? 1839-1945” held concurrently
at Musée L’Orangerie and Musée
d’Orsay in 2016 in partnership with the
National Museum of Women in the Arts,
focusing on contributions by women
photographers in the U.K., Germany,
France, and the U.S. In a Zoom interview,
Paris-based curator and author Clara
Bouveresse shared she considers this
exhibition as a pivotal point in opening
dialogue and instigating data collection
on gender parity in Europe. Bouveresse
authored the three-volume set, Women
Photographers, highlighting 190 international
women photographers over three
centuries for the Photofile series.
New histories are being sourced that
enrich our knowledge of contributions by
women and female-identifying photographers
along with queer and women
of color. As Marie Robert notes in her
essay, A Long Tradition of Being Ignored,
“..women were everywhere and recorded
everything” (pg 21). She and Luce Lebart
prove this in their seminal book, A World
History of Women Photographers. The
500-page publication compiles images
by 300 women photographers from
five continents spanning two centuries,
accompanied by text by 160 female writers.
Photographer Joy Gregory’s recently
released, Shining Lights: Black Women
Photographers in 1980-90 s Britain, is
a critical anthology co-published with
Autograph and Mack Books.
Critical analysis of our field is led by
asking questions with an abiding awareness
of a photograph’s multiplicities. In
spotlighting work by women and substantiating
gender-based inequities, we
inform our current reality. Contemporary
theorist Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, writes
extensively on her concept of civil
imagination. By investigating the layered
dynamics between the image maker,
the viewer, and the subject, she illuminates
power differentials inherent in our
medium. Her hope for photography lies
in our ability to see beyond oppressive
systems, reject their siloing constructs, and
embrace our common humanity. Azoulay
worked with Wendy Ewald, Susan
Meiselas, Leigh Raiford, and Laura
Wexler, for a decade to collectively
reframe infrastructures of photography
to present clusters of vantage points from
which to consider its complexities, offering
a stunning pedagogical tool. Their findings
are offered in Collaborations: Toward
a Potential History of Photography.
Who We See
How has the mitigation of diverse visual
representation shaped our perception and
knowledge, our opinions and behaviors?
Author Sara Ahmed states; “If a world can
be what we learn not to notice, noticing
becomes a form of political labor. What do
we learn not to notice?” A concerted effort
to notice the specificities of who we do not
see represented is well under way and the
results of these observations are striking.
A Le Part Des Femmes study in 2021
found 94% of the French national press
images were made by men. An analysis
of how genders were photographed
54 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Photograph by Rehab Edalil. Embroidered photograph
of Nadia by her cousin Mariam. Up until the 1990s,
women were prohibited from being seen by men
from other tribes without their consent. As technology
evolved, the awareness that an image might be
circulated on the internet and accessed by people
beyond one’s control escalated this concern. This led
some women to refuse to ever be photographed for
fear of losing control of how and to whom they’re represented.
In this collaborative process with the female
Bedouins, every woman I photograph adds embroidery
to her portrait or to a photograph she chooses
printed on fabric. In the process, she freely reveals
or conceals the contents of the photograph using the
traditional medium of embroidery, taking full control
over her representation in the project. St. Catherine,
South Sinai, Egypt, 2019. From the series The Longing
of the Stranger Whose Path Has Been Broken.
found women, queer, and people of color
in submissive postures with gestures of less
agency as opposed to stances by men
reflecting authority and strength. Women
Photograph’s publication What We See,
states 85% of photojournalism is by men.
Positive change is being led by The San
Francisco Chronicle Director of Visuals,
Nicole Frugé who according to the 2023
Women Photograph study achieved 49%
lead photo bylines by women and nonbinary
photographers.
Catchlight’s State of Photography
2022 is an in-depth international study
that targets economic insecurity and
other risks for historically marginalized
imagemakers. It found solid agreement on
these current problems in our field; sexism
79%, socioeconomic disparity 78%, and
structural racism 75%.
In 2019, Getty Images, Dove, and
Girlgaze began Project Show Us resulting
in adding 5,000 images of diverse
female-identifying and non-binary
women to their stock photography
database — and notably they hired 119
women and female-identifying photographers
to make them. (Inc.com) The same
year, the British Journal of Photography
and 1854 Photograph found women
constitute 70-80% of photography students
globally yet account for 13-15% of
professional photographers.
Substantiating these identity-based
inequities is essential to address their
causal relationships. Stratification and
othering, flattens our human complexities
to be singularly categorized. This predominant
vertical power structure preferences
a good, better, best hierarchy, of both the
image maker and the subject. A horizontal
power structure, based on rhizomatic
theory, foundations a multiplicity of
perspectives and contributions, it thrives
on connectivity, recognizing our interdependence
as our greatest sustenance and
strength. A conscious shift towards this
community-focused and collective-based
image-making is being led by women,
genderqueer and people of color— those
previously unnoticed.
In 2020 the The Photo Bill of Rights
, authored by Authority Collective, Color
Positive, Diversify Photo, The Everyday
Projects, Juntos, the National Press
Photographers Association, Indigenous
Photograph, and Women Photograph,
called out harmful practices that marginalize
workers in visual journalism and
the editorial media industry. Focused on
challenging the dominant media gaze, in
addition to a shared manifesto, it offers
toolkits, programming, and resources
to individuals and institutions. It aims to
empower the most marginalized: “BIPOC,
women, and LGBTQIA+ lens-based workers”,
and it notes these visual storytellers
constitute “a genuine mirror to the world.”
Rethink Everything, is a women-initiated
investigation examining interconnectivity
with the intention to highlight causal
relationship. It began as an exhibition
Pensar Todo De Nuevo, curated by
Andrea Giunta, and produced by Rolf
Art of Argentina in March, 2020. During
the 52nd edition of Recontres d’Arles it
launched in book form and as an exhibition
titled, Puisqu’il fallait tout repenser.
The Eye Mama Project is a book,
exhibition, and educational platform that
began on Instagram during the pandemic.
Fifty thousand professional photographers
from fifty countries who are mothers
shared images of their lived experiences.
The founder Karni Arieli calls it a collective
mama gaze, authentically documenting
the light and dark side of motherhood. This
platform continues to address representation,
shared resourcing, community-building,
and advocacy for artists/mothers.
After washing clothes in a roadside puddle, a woman walks home through a parched field in drought-stricken Somaliland.
A changing, more extreme climate has upended millions of lives in the Horn of Africa. As cattle, goats,
and camels have died off, seminomadic pastoralists like her have had no choice but to move, often to displacement
camps or cities.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 55
“Save America” Rally. Miami, Florida (2022) © Debi Cornwall, courtesy of Prix Elysée. From Model Citizens
(Radius Books, forthcoming 2024)
How We See
Aida Muluneh, a recent Catchlight fellow,
is an accomplished artist and visionary
leader who advances African photography
within the continent and amplifies its
representation worldwide. She expanded
the Addis Foto Fest, supported the online
platform Africa Foto Fair, and founded
Africa Print House. Muluneh’s The Road of
Glory series begs the question: have our
human advancements lessened our mutual
compassion? These bold self-portraits are
layered with symbolism investigating how
hunger has been historically used as a
weapon globally.
Multimedia documentary artist Debi
Cornwall, a 2023 Prix Elysée and 2019
Leica Women Foto Awardee, investigates
and illuminates the systemic performances
of power within the complex roles and
dynamics of citizenship. Exhibited in
Europe, Asia, Canada, Australia and the
U.A.E., her work utilizes still and moving
images. Model Citizens, Cornwall’s
2023 exhibition at the Photo Elysée
Museum postulates; “How do staging,
performance, and role play inform ideas
about citizenship in a violent land whose
people no longer agree on what is true?“
The accompanying publication, her third
monograph, Model Citizens, will be
released this Spring.
Rehab Eldalil, based in Egypt, is a
2024 Foam Talent awardee who explores
the complexities of land, migration,
belonging and autonomy of Sinai’s
Bedouin community. Her book and field
guide, The Longing of the Stranger Whose
Path Has Been Broken, published with
Fotoevidence, is the result of a five-year
in-depth community engagement. Eldalil
grew her project in collaboration with the
community including encouraging women
to embroider their portraits as a means of
retaining agency over their shared image.
Lola Flash is an American Black lesbian
photographer on the forefront of genderqueer
visual politics for decades. Their
project surmise is an account of perception
and representation of queer people
focused on the effects on individual
psyches and the society at large. Syzygy,
the vision, is their Afrofuturist self-portrait
series. The retrospective book, Believable:
Traveling with My Ancestors, includes
their multiple projects and is published by
Diverse Humanity.
Marni Shindelmans hauntingly beautiful
nightscapes belie their light source
– U.S. ICE detention centers. Restore the
Night Sky, begins with the statement,
“Detention is everywhere. You just need
to know where to look.” Her ongoing
documentation of the 45 private detention
centers housing 45,000 mostly women
and children addresses immigration, rural
economies, and night pollution impacts.
It is one of several series in the 2024
Fotofest Biennial: Critical Geography
which “explores how space, place, and
communities are influenced by social,
economic, and political forces.” Also
exhibited at the Koslov Larsen gallery during
the Houston, Texas city-wide Biennial
is Paris-based photographer Delphine
Blast’s Mujeres: The Beat of a Wing.
Included are three bodies of documentary
work with Zapotec women, Bolivian cholitas,
and dancers of Queretaro, Mexico,
in a collaborative celebration of artistic
traditions by Indigenous women — enduring
proof of their resilience and independence.
The archive is being utilized as a living
entity, capable of constructing meaning,
and expanding understanding. New Yorkbased
photographer Marilyn Nance was
shortlisted for the Aperture Paris Photo
Book Awards in 2023 for her monograph,
Last Days in Lagos. This historic archive
of the FESTAC 77 convening of 15,000
artists from 55 countries in Lagos, Nigeria
in 1977 affords exceptional documentation
of Black history. Nance is regarded
as having amassed unprecedented visual
documentation of African American spiritual
culture and the African Diaspora.
Spanish photographer Marina Planas,
activates her familial archive in a collaborative
open-ended investigation into
tourism, gender stereotypes, and cultural
identity. Her grandfather’s three million
images of Majorca and the Balearic
Islands are the basis for a transdisciplinary
project questioning hegemonic narratives.
Her project, Warlike approaches to
Tourism: all inclusive, triggers reflections
on opaque forms of power, the gender
gap, sex tourism, class, urban planning,
and ecological abuses.
Photojournalist Nichole Sobecki, based
in Nairobi, is a member of VII Photo who
states; “To change the world, we have
to first understand it as it is.” Where Our
Land Was is her series documenting
Somalis facing drought, displacement,
and possible extinction. Climate crisis is
Sobecki’s perpetual lens and is the subject
of her feature film, Natura. It follows
five women across five continents from
the Arctic to the Sahara examining the
intersection of motherhood in relationship
to our unprecedented environmental
realities.
56 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2024 AWARDEES
EN FOCO
PHOTOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIP
CALI M. BANKS
JORDANA BERMÚDEZ TORRES
AVIJIT HALDER
ANDREW KUNG
OJI HAYNES
SHINA PENG
SHARON MILLER
LIEH SUGAI
JENNIFER TERESA VILLANUEVA
CHEN XIANGYUN
EN FOCO MEDIA ARTS FUND
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
INITIATIVE
LAURA DUDU
DESHON LEEK
AMBIKA RAINA
POYEN WANG
TANSY XIAO
FOR MORE
INFORMATION VISIT
WWW.ENFOCO.ORG
The Foundation for Systemic Change
(FSC) is proud to support the
2024 ZEKE Award for Systemic Change.
Congratulations to this
year's winner, Sarah
Fretwell, for her powerful
exhibit highlighting
the Indigenous environmental
defenders of
the Peruvian Amazon
who risk their lives to
protect their ancestral
homelands.
foundationforsystemicchange.org
Photograph by 2024 ZEKE Award for Systemic Change winner Sarah Fretwell
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 57
Interview with
ADRIANA
ZEHBRAUSKAS
Adriana Zehbrauskas is a Brazilian documentary
photographer who has worked for over 20
years, showcasing the stories of seldom-heard
people in diverse places, including Haiti, Sudan,
and Mexico.
By Daniela Cohen
Daniela Cohen: How did your
journey into photography start?
Adriana Zehbrauskas: My father was a
journalist back in Brazil. He was a writer,
but he always had a camera with him.
When I was 10, he would send me to buy
the Sunday paper at the kiosk outside. I
would read the stories and was fascinated
by the possibility of knowing things happening
in places so far away from me that
had absolutely nothing to do with my life.
My parents gave me a little camera
when I was growing up but when I was
14, I wanted a nicer camera, and I was
really happy when my father gave me
one. I didn’t want to be a professional
photographer, nor did I know there was
such a thing as being a photojournalist.
In journalism school, I realized that my
path is photography. One of my friends
said this newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo
was hiring freelancers to help with the
election coverage. I put my portfolio
together and the editor was like, “Oh my
God, this is so bad.” He said, “Train a bit
more, get yourself a flash, and come back
in a few months.” I did just that, showed
him some work, and he started giving me
very soft assignments. After school, I went
to France and studied for another year.
I started freelancing with the Brazilian
newspaper as a correspondent. Then I
went back to Brazil and started working
at the same newspaper until I became a
staff photographer. My greatest education
was the newspaper.
How has your journey evolved
since then?
The newspaper would send us on international
and domestic trips. We would do a
lot of interesting stories. It was sometimes
very busy, and I had to do five assignments
a day, including business portraits
and other boring assignments. I had an
editor my age, she was more of an artist,
and she said, “I don’t want photos of
people sitting behind a desk. Think David
Lynch.” We had the time and incentive to
do something different and it was lifechanging.
At one point, I was working as an
editor, and we decided to bring an
important photographer to do a particular
story. I suggested my role model, James
Nachtwey.
When he called me back, I couldn’t
believe it. He couldn’t do the assignment,
but we stayed in contact as I went to New
York and he went to Brazil to work on
another story. It was then that he asked
me to work for him as his assistant and I
spent a month with him. When the story
was ready, he sent the story to be published
for free at La Folha de S. Paulo.
Afterward, he asked me to be his fulltime
assistant, but I wanted to work as a
photographer. He suggested I come for
a month while he found someone else.
And so I went to New York and started
meeting a lot of people at events with
Time magazine and Magnum. One thing
led to another and from there I went to
France for Perpignan, the big photography
festival.
All I wanted was to meet an editor
to show my work. But people would
walk around just looking at name tags,
and if you were nobody important, they
wouldn’t even look at you. I was sitting
at one of those cafés outside with my
portfolio feeling horrible when suddenly
another photographer walked by. I had
just met him in New York while working
with James. As he asked to see my portfolio,
a New York Times editor walked
past. She knew him because he’d just
won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for a
story for the New York Times Magazine.
He said, “This is Adriana, a Brazilian
photographer based in Brazil.” She’s
like, “Really? I’m looking for a photographer
in Brazil. Can I see your portfolio?”
I went back to Brazil, and two weeks
later, the phone rings and it’s her. That
was 20 years ago, and I’m still working
for The New York Times.
What an amazing story!
I live with a lot of serendipity. But at the
same time, photojournalism is something I
really wanted to do, and I’m always pushing
myself to be better, be brave enough
to carve out my own little place. I consider
myself very shy but at the same time, you
have to be a bit pushy and ambitious
in certain ways because this industry is
brutal. It’s been two years and I haven’t
taken a day off.
What’s the part you most enjoy and
what’s most challenging for you?
I enjoy it when I’m out there photographing
the stories and being with people.
When I was a kid, I was super curious.
I was walking on the street and would
see other houses and wonder what was
inside. And this job for me was like, “Oh
my God, I got into so many different
houses!”
For me, it was always about telling
the stories of anonymous people who
don’t have the opportunity to be heard
or be seen. I feel that that is my job. It’s a
privilege to be able to witness life in this
way and that people trust you to tell their
stories. I feel a great responsibility.
The hardest part of being a freelancer
is working in an industry where there are
no guarantees. It filters a lot of people
out – if I didn’t have a private car, for
example, I could not work, the geography
of the place makes it impossible.
58 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
and the dream, but you can’t promise
people there’s going to be change in their
lives. So then I said, “I can promise you a
photograph.”
Graduation day at Taffari Community School in the Taffari IDP camp, South Kordofan, Sudan. Learners enrolled
under the Accelerated Learning Programme supported by UNICEF under the Educate A Child program will receive
certificates before transitioning to formal schools. Photo by Adriana Zehbrauskas for Unicef.
Your website states your work is
aimed at moving, challenging, and
connecting people. I’d love to hear
more about those aspects and specific
assignments focused on those
areas.
The connection part is the core of why I
decided to be a photojournalist. We are
so busy, and people don’t really know
what’s happening, sometimes even with
their own neighbor. Susan Meiselas says
we are the ones who perceive the bridge
that will connect people to situations
which in turn will create some impact.
Maybe it’s just someone waking up and
saying, “Oh my God, I didn’t even know
this existed,” and feeling empathy or
maybe it’s a politician who will see what’s
going on and change a policy.
A concrete example is the Family
Matters project. It was born out of a story
I covered for two years on the disappearance
of the 43 students in Mexico in
2014. I was approached by the bureau
chief of Buzzfeed News in Mexico City
to partner on a project to follow the life of
one of the families.
You have to put a face to the news
because it’s really hard for people to
connect with an abstract concept or a
number. We spent six months going there
once a month to spend time with them.
I was asking for photos of the students.
And they kept saying, “No, I don’t have it.
I had it on my phone and I lost my phone.
I changed my phone.” I kept thinking that
the students were not just missing from life,
they were going to be missing also from
the memory of their families because they
didn’t have photos or anything to remember
them by. I kept thinking about the
importance of photography just to prove
someone’s existence.
When we finished the project, I went
back and gave them a lot of prints. The
one Adán Abraján de la Cruz’s family
liked the most was the portrait I took after
the first communion of one of his sons.
It made me decide to start a project on
portraits of families living on the brink of
disappearance in Guerrero, one of the
poorest states in Mexico where people
are forced to work for the drug cartels.
I used my iPhone, the same instrument
responsible for them not having photos in
the first place.
It was also a way of giving back
because we go to places and photograph
people when they’re at the most
horrible and vulnerable moments of their
lives and we can never promise them
anything. They ask, “Will this impact my
life personally?” That is always the hope
Your photos are very visually
compelling. For example, the use of
color in this photo of young girls in
Sudan. I’d love to hear more about
how you’re playing with colors.
Something that I learned working for the
newspaper is you have to be very fast
and creative. My editor would say, “You
don’t publish excuses.” That photo was
taken before the graduation ceremony, the
students were already in the school and I
had arrived early. It was around midday
and the light outside was brutal, so I was
walking around and looking for a different
place to photograph and I saw that
classroom. This is the blackboard, and this
wall also tells a lot about the condition of
education because that was part of the
story. There were some students there and
as I started to photograph, others kept
coming and soon enough there was a long
line of them wanting to have their portraits
taken. The fact that they were all dressed
up for the graduation made it more special,
as they were feeling so proud!
I understand you recently joined
the VII photo agency. I’m curious
if that has had any effect on your
work?
It’s really recent, the last week of
December. It’s great to be with this community
because it can be lonely out there.
I’ve known some of the photographers
from VII for a long time and some I’ve
never met, but I feel it’s a new home for
me, that we’re in sync about how we see
photojournalism education.
What would you say is the unique
aspect of your work compared to
other photographers who might be
focusing on similar issues?
I don’t like to compare myself with other
photographers, but for me, what is first
and foremost is to portray people with
dignity even in the most horrible situations.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 59
A Photojournalist’s Work in Gaza
Photos by Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times Text by Lauren Walsh
The headlines have captured the
world’s attention. The photographs
are starkly painful to view. But view
them we must; they are important
to see. Such images belong to a
long history of terrible yet historically
significant photographs—images of
atrocity and devastation. In short, these
are images that force the world to grapple
with human suffering, even when politics
and ideologies may get in the way. Such
imagery provides a visual, evidentiary
record, in this case of the ongoing destruction
of the Israel-Hamas war.
Now, four months into the war,
well over 25,000 people have been
killed (primarily civilians), two million
Palestinians are internally displaced in
Gaza, a genocide case against Israel
is underway at the International Court
of Justice at The Hague, and attacks in
nearby countries pose the risk of escalating
wider regional warfare.
While the future remains uncertain, the
searing images compiled here bear witness
to what has already occurred. Samar
Abu Elouf, a freelance photojournalist,
documented the war’s effects in Gaza
in the months after the October 7, 2023
Hamas attack. Her images were viewed
globally, published in The New York
Times and picked up elsewhere. She holds
multiple journalism awards and the above
photographs display what she witnessed
and recorded in late 2023. As she said
in November of that year: “There are
constant strikes around me. There is fear,
horror, anxiety.”
The dangers of reporting on, including
photographing, conflict have been
well documented. Yet Sherif Mansour, the
Middle East program coordinator at the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has
characterized the Israel-Hamas war as
“the most dangerous” for journalists that
the organization has ever seen. Such risks
affect not only the local journalist population
but carry impact for a broader global
audience. As Mansour notes, “With every
journalist killed, we lose our ability to
document and understand the war.”
Samar Abu Elouf has done that work
– documenting in order to increase our
understanding. She recently escaped
Gaza. She has survived physically; she
carries wounds internally. Her photographs,
seen here, provide necessary if
painful records, in hopes of a better, more
just, more peaceful tomorrow.
60 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Left:
The funeral of the bodies of the
children who were killed the
previous night in the raids on the
city of Khan Younis, south of Gaza.
October 19, 2023.
Below clockwise:
Doctor fills out paperwork on top
of a patient on the floor at Nasser
Medical Hospital in Khan Younis,
in the southern Gaza Strip, on
October 24, 2023.
Premature babies were prepared
to be transported across the border
to Egypt for medical care. Some
had been born to mothers who
had been killed in airstrikes or who
had died shortly after giving birth,
doctors said. January 20, 2024.
Injured people at Al-Shifa Hospital
in Gaza City after Israeli planes
bombed a nearby camp. January
2024.
Editor’s Note: The photos presented here in ZEKE by Samar Abu Elouf
were taken while on assignment for The New York Times. Each of these
images has already been seen by a global audience in numerous publications.
We are very grateful to Samar for giving ZEKE permission to
present them here.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 61
.I. and the Future of
REFLECTIONS ON MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER BROWN’S 90 MILES
By Barbara Ayotte
With the rapid onset of artificial
intelligence (A.I.), photography
seems to be at a pivotal
crossroads. Is documentary
photography as we know it
dying or is something else
emerging alongside it?
Michael Christopher Brown calls his
A.I.-driven work post-photography, A.I.
reportage illustration, photorealistic reportage,
and photographic-looking imagery.
In short, it is not photography, and it is
certainly not documentary photography.
His recent project, 90 Miles, is an A.I.
experiment that explores historic events
of Cuban life that have motivated Cubans
to cross the 90 miles of ocean separating
Havana from Florida. Since the time
of Fidel Castro and the Bay of Pigs in the
1960s, thousands of Cubans have fled
across the ocean to the United States. But
what has this passage looked like? By
using the A.I. tool Midjourney, Brown, an
award-winning Magnum, New York Times
Magazine and National Geographic
documentary photographer (his seminal
documentary photography work on the
Libyan war, Libyan Sugar, was reviewed in
the Spring 2017 issue of ZEKE), is using text
prompts while collaborating with a historical
database of photographic images to
illustrate a vision of what was, is, or can be.
No lenses or cameras are involved to make
his pictures. Using A.I, Brown assembles a
body of photo-like illustrations to give us a
sense of that journey. But did these scenes
really happen? Did these people really
exist? Can it be believed as truth?
Seeing is Believing?
At a recent panel discussion as part of
SDN’s Visual Storytelling Festival 2024,
Brown talked about this work with Fred
Ritchin, dean emeritus of the Schools of
the International Center of Photography;
62 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Stephen Hart of Adobe; and Lauren
Walsh, professor at New York University.
As Ritchin pointed out, manipulated imagery
is not new and the practice of creating
“synthetic images” has been going on for
decades, well before the arrival of A.I. But
today in this social media age of photo
saturation, dis- and misinformation, he
says, “we don’t know if any photos are
real, and should be skeptical of all images
we see.” Ritchin has concerns about what
this means for history when synthetic
images get fed into the A.I. database of
images and the lie is perpetuated. Hart
said, “the evil is not A.I., it is the lack of
education and assumption by many that it
is OK to manipulate images and present
them as reality.” Princess Kate’s family
photograph is a case in point. Many
people didn’t see what the problem was
with the palace releasing a manipulated
image, even though it was passed off as
“news” until Associated Press pulled the
image after recognizing it was fake.
What if There is No Light?
The generally understood definition of photography
is the art, application, and practice
of creating images by recording light, either
electronically by means of an image sensor,
or chemically by means of a light-sensitive
material such as photographic film.
Noted Southern Gothic author Eudora
Welty, who was also an accomplished
photographer, described photography
Visual Storytelling
as “trying to portray what you saw, and
truthfully. A camera catches that fleeting
moment.” But is it photography when a
camera isn’t even used at all to generate
the image? What if there is no light involved
at all? As Brown says, “reportage illustration”
is visual journalism that has been used
for 150 years. Other more appropriate
words that come to mind are history paintings,
visual fiction, or visual novels.
Looking at 90 Miles, the photos all
have a certain lighting quality to them,
almost like a Renaissance painting. There
are no captions since there are no details
about each composited image. Something
about them looks off yet familiar at the
same time. Some of the faces and scenes
clearly look fake, while others are believable.
But these built images defy the definition
of photography. As the writer Susan
Sontag said, “The painter constructs, the
photographer discloses.”
Who has Agency?
“When it overlaps with reality, it gets
more complex. How does an A.I.-created
image appeal to the people being
depicted?” asks Ritchin. People who are
victims of violence are the ones who are
most affected—often they need the photo
of their situation to be believed, especially
if the photo is being used as evidence.
More importantly, it is well-known that
there is an inherent bias in A.I. But Brown
says, “People generally don’t want to be
voiceless but often desire to be faceless.”
Could A.I. be a tool for NGOs to “document”
what is impossible to photograph
due to the danger the images might
cause for the victims? There is an ongoing
debate about whether using real images
of real people who are victims is ethical.
What if A.I. is the only way to tell the
story? The problem with A.I., however, is
that it is unclear if a real person is being
presented at all.
Whose Truth?
We know that traditional documentary
photography has contended with biases.
For decades these images have been from
the perspective of the White, male gaze
(that is changing now, see page 52 for J.
Sybylla Smith’s article on women changing
the face of documentary). A.I. as a result,
has the same inherent biases in the images
it finds. It would be interesting if the subjects
themselves could take part in producing
A.I. images to have more control over their
own storytelling and their own truth. But
even that gets fraught as people are keen
now more than ever to curate and manipulate
images of themselves to create an
identity that they want people to see.
Brown doesn’t know how he feels about
these images. He is happy he made them
since he couldn’t get access to take these
pictures in real life. “I am not trying to
destroy the field of photography; I really
care about these projects. You can criticize
this new medium, but, first, learn how it
works.” Clearly there are more questions
than answers. SDN and ZEKE will continue
to explore this important topic.
To view a video of the
panel discussion, visit
here.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 63
BOOK
REVIEWS
ATACAMA: RENEWABLE
ENERGY AND MINING IN THE
HIGH DESERT OF CHILE
Jamey Stillings
Steidl, 2023
175 pages / 28 €
Atacama:
Renewable
Energy and
Mining in the
High Desert of
Chile by Jamey
Stillings brings
our eyes to the
forefront of an
ongoing wave of
development in
the driest place on
Earth. This book was my first glimpse into
this seemingly uninhabitable landscape
that has become blemished with patterns
and grids of human creation.
Stillings’ images show humankind forging
ahead, away from a fossil fuel era,
in an untapped landscape with promise
to power the globe. It is not until we pull
back and take an 1800-meter view that
we can see the scale of such a revolution.
Massive scars stencil the landscape as
we tap into the largest lithium and copper
deposits in the world. At a distance, it
seems lifeless and impossibly man-made.
How could these craters be decades in
the making? What will Atacama look like
decades from now? Stillings challenges
our perspective on the lesser seen side of
a new energy era.
This collection of aerials reveals the
very raw and captivating essence of our
rapidly advancing technological era. In
the introduction, best-selling author Mark
Sloan wittily states that Stillings’ work
“documents humankind’s attempt to save
itself from itself.” It is worth noting these
are not just drone snapshots from above,
but carefully coordinated windows in
time from a plane or helicopter.
Stillings’ careful attention to detail
is apparent throughout this book. The
El Romero Solar, Atacama, Chile, 14 July 2017, #19207. This 246-megawatt photovoltaic plant supplies the
Google Data Center in Santiago with 100% of its energy needs. Photo by Jamey Stillings
wraparound cover on metallic paper is
striking and showcases his fine art training.
His photographs exhibit a careful use of
shadows, adding depth to an otherwise flat
land. The tonal consistency ties the images
together into a cohesive array with notes of
bright blue from lithium evaporation ponds
in contrast to bronze earth.
One thing that surprised me about this
book was the unconventional layout. The
portrait orientation requires you to rotate
horizontally in order to move through the
photographs, then back to portrait to read
the text that follows with small captions
above the book spine on a blank white
page. I originally had to pause and flip
back, thinking I completely missed the introductory
text and statement. Initially, I found
it confusing to have the foreword and introduction
come after the images, but when I
asked Stillings about this, he revealed his
intent to challenge our expectations on layout
and allow the images to speak before
the words that follow. He says “by starting
with the images, only you, the viewer, are
allowed the respect of encountering the
photographs first on your own terms. No
one is telling you what they are or what
to think.” The hidden cleverness in this
approach is that it forces you to go back
through the images once again with new,
informed context to see if your paradigm
has shifted after reading the text.
Once you make it through the 60+
full-page images, you’re offered text in
English and Spanish, for further consideration
on what you viewed. The one thing
this doesn’t leave you with is a closing
image for reflection. I also think Stillings
missed an opportunity to pull us further
into his world by not including a picture of
himself. I would have loved to see what
making this body of work from the side of
a small Cessna looked like. Additionally,
I appreciate Stillings’ inclusion of a map,
pinning where these constructions exist in
the high desert of Chile. Though, I personally
would prefer to see this referenced at
the beginning of the book to help establish
our sense of place in the world.
Stillings’ work in Atacama leaves me
with a few unanswered questions: What
does this window into an advancing
renewable energy world look like from
the ground? Who are the people behind
these large-scale operations working to
meet global demands? While this documentation
is undoubtedly human, what’s
missing for me is some emotional connection.
I can imagine working in such
an unfavorable environment comes with
very human challenges. Instead, he holds
our sights from above for this particular
project. I would love to see a few closer
detail shots or portraits from the ground to
give us the full picture of what’s going on
in the desert. Perhaps this paves way for
Atacama’s sequel to come?
—Justin Dalaba
64 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
UKRAINE: A WAR CRIME
Edited by Sarah Leen
FotoEvidence, 2023
540 pages / $80
An individual,
centered in
the frame,
kneels and holds
a Ukrainian flag.
We can’t see their
face, which is fully
obscured by the
blue and yellow.
The caption
explains this is a
young woman.
This is the first photograph in Ukraine:
A War Crime, a massive book that brings
together 366 images documenting the
first year of Russia’s 2022 invasion of its
neighbor. The compilation, published by
FotoEvidence, reflects the work of 93 photojournalists
from 29 countries; provides
text in English and Ukrainian; and was
edited by Sarah Leen with assistance from
Irynka Hromotska, with overall artistic
direction led by Svetlana Bachevanova.
The opening photograph visually
announces that this is a book about
Ukraine: it is an image highlighting a
national symbol, not the individual “hidden”
in the center. But from there, the
book brilliantly, sensitively and, at times,
graphically reminds us again and again
that, in the end, war is about individual
lives. Trauma, destruction, crimes and
resilience can occur on a collective level;
but each and every person is impacted by
the war that engulfs their country.
Ukraine: A War Crime is organized
into sections that highlight specific
moments, atrocities or aspects of the war,
and selected photographers have written
statements that pair with their photographs.
The introduction, by Volodymyr
Demchenko, a journalist and soldier, is
less a preview of what is to come and
more a plea to the reader to grasp the significance
of this compilation: “With visual
documentation it is much more difficult, if
at all possible, to hide crimes and social
catastrophes.” It is no accident that a
majority of the images are by professional
photojournalists, because we accord them
a special status in the documentation of
history. They are not just creating images,
but doing so with an ethic that protects
and, hopefully, ensures the integrity of the
work.
The short statements by photographers
provide powerful glimpses into
the thoughts and experiences of the
documentarians, and deepen the reaction
to what we see in the static images
throughout the book. They also demonstrate
that photographers do far more than
simply “take pictures.” They risk their own
physical safety and mental health. This
line of work is an embodied praxis. And
the camera isn’t their only tool; reading
the quotes they transcribe from civilians,
for instance, simultaneously enriches the
visual documentation and reminds the
reader that the photojournalist actually
operates across multiple mediums.
“We had to walk for 36 kilometers to
reach the Polish border,” says Aline (10)
to photographer Espen Rasmussen, whose
images depict the intensity of the refugee
experience.
The style of photography and writing
is expansive. Essays range from matterof-fact
to poetic. Images, likewise, reflect
a breadth of approaches, some are
highly artistic while many others are more
traditionally journalistic. Certain photographs
feel like echoes from wars past, for
instance, an eerie revisualization of WWII
in John Stanmeyer’s photo from a Lviv
train station. All told, the book shows us
civilians, fighters, pets, children, refugees,
political leadership, volunteers, the war
effort, destruction, death, grief, resilience,
recovery, rehabilitation, perseverance,
and myriad aspects of daily life. War
spares no facet of society.
As photographer Carol Guzy writes,
“Civilian things. Not the stuff of combatants.
Humanity’s hopes, dreams, loves –
in war, merely termed ‘collateral damage’.”
The staccato style of her statement
emphasizes the fractures of war and the
ways that small moments of life become
frozen, interrupted forever. She adds,
“broken glass becomes a metaphor for
shattered lives.” Guzy’s photographs
carry the same lyrical tone as her words,
depicting small details of life forever
upended by war.
Yet it is perhaps the essays by
Ukrainian photographers that feel most
weighted. As Oksana Parafeniuk writes,
“It is one thing when your home and your
Photo by Oleksii Furman. Bila Krynytsia. 27.6.2022 A young woman kneels while holding a Ukrainian national
flag as she takes part in a “living corridor” of people that lined the road to pay tribute to Oleksandr Hrynchuk as
a bus carrying his coffin passes. Oleksandr Hrynchuk, 33, was killed on June 21 in the Luhansk Region.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 65
loved ones are safe…and it is absolutely
another situation when they are not,
when you need to make a decision on
how to stay safe, how to keep your future
child safe.” Or as Myklhaylo Palinchak
says, “I never thought of being a war
photographer.” He goes on to explain
that many Ukrainians began to train for
combat or volunteered to help the war
effort, “but I knew only how to make
photographs, so for me the only option
was to take my camera in hand.”
And there is the statement by Evgeniy
Maloletka, whose photograph of an
injured pregnant woman being evacuated
from a maternity ward that was hit
during a Russian airstrike was published
globally. It is one of the most iconic
photographs to come out of this war.
And yet in the context of this book, where
words and many images come together,
any habituated sense of “I have seen this
photo already” vanishes. Maloletka’s
haunting descriptions provide a vivid,
utterly harrowing foundation for his visuals
over the next many pages.
At times the imagery is unrelenting.
But that is the point. War doesn’t offer
“time off” for those trapped within. Even
so, the book has a cadence that allows
the reader to move in and out of the most
grievous imagery, picturing war from a
variety of perspectives, not all of them
violent.
But toward the end, in an homage
written by Stas Kozlyuk, we learn of the
death of Ukrainian photographer Maks
Levin. This was a powerful and wise
decision by the editors to remind the
reader of what is at stake in creating such
documentation.
This book is a record of the many
aspects of this ongoing war, and as the
title suggests, of the variety of crimes that
remain to be investigated if not prosecuted
in courts. The concluding image of
Ukraine: A War Crime ends on a note that
beautifully echoes the opening—but with
a small twist. Again, we see the blue and
yellow flag, yet this time we are privy to
the face of a woman who wraps the flag
around her, gracefully enveloped in all its
literal and metaphorical meanings. She
looks sad, but also stoic and resolute.
—Lauren Walsh
Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka/AP. Mariupol, March 9, 2022. First responders and volunteers carry an injured
pregnant woman from a maternity hospital that was damaged by Russian shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, March
9, 2022. The woman and her baby later died.
THE MENNONITES
Larry Towell
GOST Books, 2022
288 pages | $80.00
The opening black and white image in
the second edition from GOST Books
of Larry Towell’s iconic book, The
Mennonites, is quietly subversive. Three
boys wearing old ill-fitting clothes stare at
the camera. The foregrounded boy’s face is
slightly obscured by cigarette smoke haze.
The boys flanking him smirk. They know
they are breaking the rules of their Old
Colony Mennonite family.
The image also suggests a familiarity
with these camera-phobic people
that few photographers achieve. This
10-year project photographing Old
Colony Mennonites who travel between
Towell’s home in Ontario and Mexico is
the best of slow, long-form documentary
photography. Through the 115 black and
white photographs, 40 of which are newly
published, Towell gives us an intimate yet
oddly detached portrayal of this Protestant
religious sect which has lived apart from
modern society since the 1800s. They reject
public schooling and modern technology,
including electricity and rubber tires. Most
only speak Low German. By now, almost
all of them have lost their land from lack of
education, the economy, and exploitation
so they live as migrant workers or sharecroppers
earning almost no money at the
end of the year.
66 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
Towell, a renowned documentary
photographer and member of Magnum,
known for photographing the dispossessed
and landless, first met Mennonite
David Redekkop and his family in 1989,
“landhungry and dirt poor,” almost literally
in Towell’s backyard. They allowed
Towell to photograph them because, he
writes: “I liked them a lot because they
seemed otherworldly and therefore completely
vulnerable in a society in which
they did not belong and for which they
were not prepared. Because I liked them,
they liked me, and although photography
was forbidden, they let me photograph
them. That’s all there was to it.”
The book nestles in a plain cloth black
slip case, the title embossed in a lighter
matte black on the book’s spine. Holding
it conjures a hymnal, complete with a ribbon
marker. The pages are not numbered.
The captions consisting only of the colony
name, its location, and the date appear in
the back of the book next to image thumbnails.
The text, divided as preface and
Towell’s notes, is isolated in the front of the
book. This part of the book design is odd;
the factual preface is printed on the same
thick luscious paper as the images, while
the remaining 58 pages of text are printed
on very thin paper.
Written by Towell from journal notes
and memory, this text vacillates between
being overwrought metaphors or similes
(“The sun was like a big fat woman with
sharp daggers for teeth.” ) to the brilliant
pithy observations of a great photographer
(“He was a non-conformist to the
core, living in a world in which he knew
he did not belong. He pondered how
much air was left in it for him to breathe.”)
None of the text references specific
images; Towell wants us to experience the
images unmediated.
Theorist John Berger suggests that,
when paired with photographs, words
provide meaning and interpretation. That’s
true here. If you read the text first, it hovers
as you page through the extraordinary
photographs, falling into the rhythm of
Towell’s relationship with these people as
it unfolds over time. He often traveled with
Photo by Larry Towell. From The Mennonites. El Cuervo (Casas Grandes Colonies), Chihuahua, Mexico, 1992
them—once accompanying a Mennonite
family of 10 on a harrowing journey from
Canada to Mexico, where, over several
days and many car breakdowns, the family
subsisted on little more than Coke and
mayonnaise sandwiches.
Towell doesn’t seem to have a point
of view, and his photographs might more
accurately be described as the indecisive
moment, improvisational vérité, yet
hauntingly beautiful because he understands
the value of natural light, soft
mid-tones, and how to make the most
effective use of the edge of a frame. His
compositions are loose and many lack
an obvious main “subject,” allowing the
viewer to meander through the frame
and its internal narrative.
Most of the images are unsettling—
think Farm Security Administration, Walker
Evans or John Steinbeck’s Grapes of
Wrath. They also are as raw and unvarnished
as the lives of the Mennonites. One
stunning double page image screams of
poverty so palpable it’s shocking that it
was taken at the end of the 20th century.
A couple, with their three young blond
children, stands so close to the foreground
that they are almost falling out of
the frame. Behind them sits their decrepit
adobe house, the dirt yard littered with
nothing but debris. Or a woman in bare
feet sweeps dirt into a dustpan in a room
devoid of furniture except for a few chairs
against the wall. In one of most touching
images, a young blond boy stares
deadpan at himself in a small handheld
mirror, with no apparent recognition of his
individuality or joy in seeing his face.
Ultimately, the photographs reveal
a life ruled (and destroyed) by a strict
adherence to belief and rejection of
modernity. Time passes the way time has
always passed on the land. Birth and
death. Crops planted and harvested.
Cows milked. Animals slaughtered.
Over and over. Day by day in the face
of drought, abusive and exploitive farm
bosses, and dust storms. This is a life of
pure survival in the face of overwhelming
odds. When you reach the end of the
book, you realize that what’s missing is
laughter, joy, or childhood play. Towell
does not pass judgement; he leaves that
up to the viewer.
—Michelle Bogre
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 67
BRIEFLY
NOTED
EDITED BY ALICE CURREY
WE SORT OF PEOPLE
By Henry Horenstein
Kehrer Verlag, 2023
136 pages | $50
Journalist and writer Leslie Tucker
and photographer Henry Horenstein
began working together in 1997
when she invited him to Maryland to
shoot a mysterious multiethnic family,
the little-known Wesort clan: “We sorts
are different from you sorts.” The project
started as a genealogical search for a
family whose roots stretched back to
the founding of Maryland as the first
Catholic colony, it grew into a mystery
about the multiethnic origins of America,
then became a race against time as the
Wesorts and their descendants disappeared
and their stories died. While
Horenstein photographed the last generation
of Proctors and their disappearing
world, Tucker recorded the conversations
she had with the wise women of the family.
A living archive emerges, with voices
that portray the complex realities of their
lives in their own words, as seen through
their eyes.
SHADOWS OF EMMETT TILL
By Bob Newman
Kehrer Verlag, 2022
268 pages | $90
The Mississippi Delta has been called
“The Most Southern Place on Earth,”
a region of layered histories that collide
with each other daily. It is a place that
defines America like no other part of the
country – a culture entwined with slavery,
poverty, and political and economic
oppression. It is the land that gave birth to
the creative genius of B. B. King and the
murder of young Emmett Till. Shadows of
Emmett Till seeks to probe that complex
past by observing the many ways the
shadow of Till’s murder still hangs over
the Delta. This work breathes the Delta
air and seeks to frame the region and its
people in a 21st-century context, at a time
when White America may be starting to
finally come to terms with the sins of its
past. Along the way, the past spills into the
present, with parallels to George Floyd
and so many others.
DEEP INSIDE THE BLUES
By Margo Cooper
University Press of Mississippi, 2023
384 pages | $45
Deep Inside the Blues collects thirtyfour
of Margo Cooper’s interviews
with blues artists and is illustrated
with over 160 of her photographs, many
published here for the first time. For thirty
years, Cooper has been documenting
the lives of blues musicians, their families
and homes, neighborhoods, festivals,
and gigs. In 1993, Cooper began
photographing in the clubs around New
England, then in Chicago, and before
long in Mississippi and Helena, Arkansas.
On her very first trips to Mississippi in
1997 and 1998, Cooper had the good
fortune to photograph Sam Carr, Frank
Frost, Bobby Rush, and Otha Turner,
among others. “The blues come out of
the field,” blues musician LC Ulmer told
Cooper. Seeing those fields, as well as
the old juke joints, country churches, and
people’s homes, inspired her. She began
recording interviews with the musicians,
sometimes over years, listening and asking
questions as their narratives unfolded.
Many of the key blues players of the
period have already passed, making their
stories and Cooper’s photographs of them
all the more poignant and valuable.
68 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
JOSEF KOUDELKA: NEXT
By Melissa Harris
Aperture and Magnum Foundation,
2023
352 pages | $50
An intimate portrait of the life and
work of one of photography’s most
renowned and celebrated artists.
Throughout his more than sixty-yearlong
obsession with the medium, Josef
Koudelka considers a remarkable range
of photographic subjects—from his early
theater work to his seminal project on the
Roma and his legendary coverage of the
1968 Soviet invasion of Prague, to the
solitariness of exile and the often-devastating
impact of humans on the natural
landscape. Based on hundreds of hours
of interviews conducted over almost a
decade as well as conversations with his
friends, family, colleagues, and collaborators
worldwide—this deftly told, richly
illustrated biography offers an unprecedented
glimpse into the mind of this
notoriously private photographer. Writer,
editor, and curator Melissa Harris crafts a
unique, in-depth, and personal history of
both the man and his photography. Richly
illustrated with hundreds of photographs,
Josef Koudelka’s Next includes many biographical
and behind-the-scenes images
from Koudelka’s life, as well as iconic
images from his work, from the 1950s to
the present.
DAMMED: BIRTH TO DEATH
OF THE COLORADO RIVER
By Debbie Bentley
Daylight Books, 2024
192 pages | $50
Dammed follows the roughly 1,450-
mile main stem of the Colorado
River, from birth in the Rocky
Mountain National Park to its end at the
border of Mexico, and the 16 dams and
diversions along its course. The multi-year
photographic project documents the river,
dams, reservoirs, and people interacting
with the river along this route. This environmental
photography project intends
to bring attention to the increasingly arid
condition of the Colorado River basin,
and prompt discussion and learning about
not only the Colorado River watershed but
of water supply in general.
AMERICAN PROSPECTS
By Joel Sternfeld
Steidl Books, 2023
108 pages | $50
Born of a desire to follow the seasons
up and down America, and equally
to find lyricism in contemporary
American life despite all its dark histories,
American Prospects has enjoyed a
life of acclaim. Its pages are filled with
unexpected excitement, despair, tenderness,
and hope. Its fears are expressed
in beauty, its sadnesses in irony. Oddly
enough, the society it seems to presage
has now come to be; oddly enough, the
ideas of this book bespeak our present
moment. Often out of print, this new
edition of Joel Sternfeld’s seminal book
returns to the format of the original 1987
edition. All of the now classic images
within it—alongside a group of neverpublished
photographs—examine a once
pristine land stewarded by Indigenous
peoples who needed no lessons in
stewardship, and a land now occupied
by a mix of peoples hoping for salvation
within the fraught paths of late capitalism.
The result suggests a vast nation whose
prospects have much to do with global
prospects, a “teenager of the world”
unaware of its strengths, filled with idealism
and frequent failings. These pictures
see all but judge not.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 69
Content Contributors
Samar Abu Elouf is a Palestinian photographer
who has worked extensively in the
Gaza Strip covering stories around gender,
women’s and children’s lives, and the consequences
of war. Her images, both intimate
and shocking, capture and convey the dignity
of her subjects. Since the October 7, 2023
attacks by Hamas on Israel, Samar continued
to work in Gaza for The New York Times
covering the destruction and human casualties
caused by Israeli bombs, artillery, and
ground forces.
Barbara Ayotte is the editor of ZEKE magazine
and the Communications Director of the
Social Documentary Network. She has served
as a senior strategic communications strategist,
writer and activist for leading global health,
human rights and media nonprofit organizations,
including the Nobel Peace Prize- winning
Physicians for Human Rights and International
Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Daniela Cohen is a freelance journalist and
non-fiction writer of South African origin based
in Vancouver, Canada. Her work has been
published in New Canadian Media, Canadian
Immigrant, eJewish Philanthropy, The Source
Newspaper, and Living Hyphen. Daniela’s
work focuses on themes of displacement
and belonging, justice, equity, diversity and
inclusion. She is also the co-founder of Identity
Pages, a youth writing mentorship program.
Alice Currey is currently a student at
New York University with an individualized
major in photojournalism. Having spent
her childhood in Kenya and her teen years
in Uzbekistan, she has adopted a cultural
insight and empathy that uniquely understands
the power of visual storytelling in
implementing global change. As both a writer
and photographer she hopes to contribute to
the reconfiguration of photojournalism as a
method of advocacy.
Justin Dalaba is a photographer based in
Upstate New York, dedicated to documenting
the natural world and our relationship with
it. Originally trained as a conversation biologist,
he embraced photography as a means
to share human stories of climate, culture,
and the environment. His work aims to inspire
change through visual narratives that are as
hopeful as they are informative.
William Daniels is a French photographer
working on long-term documentary projects,
with a particular interest in people’s quest
for a sense of identity and territories prone
to chronic instability. His personal projects
include documenting conflict-ridden places
including the Indian Kashmir, the Central
African Republic, Kyrgyzstan, and the
Bangladesh-Myanmar border as well as documenting
life along the railway of the Russian
Far East.
Maurizio Di Pietro is an Italian freelance
photographer focusing on social
and environmental issues. After graduating
in Computer Science in 2001, Maurizio
obtained a master’s degree in photography
at WSP Photography School in Rome. He has
collaborated with various NGOs in Morocco,
Sri Lanka, Guatemala, and the West Bank,
and later worked for several years in Kenya
on the topic of climate change.
Isabella Franceschini is an Italian freelance
photographer, Lowepro Ambassador,
and member of the Parallelozera agency.
She holds a degree in Economics from the
University of Bologna. Isabella is currently
developing long-term projects primarily
inspired by what influences human beings
and their relationships. Her long-term project
“Becoming a Citizen” won the 2022 “World
Report Award Documenting Humanity” and
was later exhibited at the Ethical Photography
Festival in Lodi which in 2023 won the 21st
Julia Margaret Cameron Award.
Journalist, climate activist, and political scientist,
Sarah Fretwell, works as a multimedia
storyteller. Her work focuses on the intersection
of the environment, people, and business
with one question: What if the new bottom line
was love? Her award-winning photojournalism
explores the lives of everyday people with
extraordinary stories and creates a human
connection that engages people on a personal
level. Her work offers individuals a voice for
justice, insight for solutions, and the human connection
needed for international engagement.
Max Cabello Orcasitas has been working
since December 2009 on a project about the
consequences of Peru’s civil war in Chungui
and other sites in Ayacucho, an Andean region
that was fiercely struck by political violence.
He has also been developing a series on how
people of the middle class, mostly comprised
of migrants from the Andes and the Amazon,
celebrate on the outskirts of Lima and other
Peruvian cities, demonstrating how modernity
and tradition mingle in urban settings.
Rohingyatographer is more than a photography
project, it is a platform of narrative
justice for Rohingya refugees. Through the
photographic magazine Rohingyatographer,
refugees recover parts of their lost identity,
sharing their stories of resistance and hope
amid despair. Rohingyatographer is distinguished
by empowering Rohingya people to
become narrators, not just subjects, promoting
a level of authenticity rarely seen. In
doing so, the project challenges existing stereotypes,
provokes meaningful dialogue, and
instills a new respect for human resistance.
Glenn Ruga is a photographer, graphic
designer, and curator. He founded the Social
Documentary Network (SDN) in 2008 and
in 2015 launched ZEKE: The Magazine of
Global Documentary. As a photographer, he
has created traveling and online documentary
exhibits on the struggle for a multicultural
future in Bosnia, the war and aftermath in
Kosovo, and an immigrant community in
Holyoke, Mass.
Natalya Saprunova, born in Murmansk in
the Arctic region of Russia, is a documentary
photographer now based in Paris and a member
of the Zeppelin agency. She continues to
explore the issues of modern society related
to identity, integration, climate change, youth,
femininity, and spirituality. Passionate about
the transmission of knowledge, she has been
teaching photography at the Graine de
Photographe School in Paris since 2016.
Małgorzata Smieszek is a photographer
and documentarian, a graduate of the
Warsaw School of Photography and photography
workshops at the Pix.house Foundation
in Pozna. She has received numerous awards
for her photographic documentary “The Price
of Patriotism.” She is the author of the series
“Red Zone” (about loneliness in COVID
wards) and “It Happens” (about the work of
rescue teams). Currently, she is photographing
in Ukraine.
J. Sybylla Smith brings a concept development
lens to her work as an independent
curator, podcaster, and consultant. Smith
is on a mission to illuminate, elevate, and
amplify the work of women photographers
and other marginalized, underrepresented
narratives. Her approach to visual storytelling
is with an intersectional lens and a focus on
equity and inclusion. Smith guest lectures and
teaches workshops, writes for publications on
contemporary photography, and jurys global
photo exhibitions and awards.
Dr. Lauren Walsh, Professor at New
York University and Founder and Director
of the Gallatin Photojournalism Intensive, is
the author of numerous books on the visual
coverage of conflict and crisis, and peace
journalism. Walsh heads media and visual
literacy educational initiatives globally, with
an emphasis on ethics as well as safety and
mental health concerns for journalists. She is
the lead educator who oversaw the development
of media/visual literacy curricula,
including a focus on generative AI, for the
Content Authenticity Initiative.
70 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
2023 SDN/ZEKE Donors
January 1, 2023– January 15, 2024
SDN thanks the following individuals, foundations,
and businesses who have contributed to
SDN in 2023, making possible everything that
we do.
Leadership Circle
Anonymous
Bob & Judy Ayotte
Barbara Ayotte
Peter & Martha Goldman-
Kongsgaard
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Ogden United Church
of Christ
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Benefactor
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WINNER:
REVIEWERS CHOICE
AWARD
SDN presented two
Reviewers Choice
Awards at the SDN
2024 Portfolio
Reviews held on
April 20, 2024.
Pictured at left:
Héctor Adolfo
Quintanar Pérez
Male Survivors of
Sexual Abuse
Veracruz, Mexico
The other winner,
Emily Whitney, can
be found on the
following page.
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 71
SPRING 2024 VOL.10/NO.1
$15 US
ZEKE
THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY
PHOTOGRAPHY
Published by Social Documentary Network
ZEKE is published by Social Documentary Network (SDN),
a nonprofit organization promoting visual storytelling about
global themes. Started as a website in 2008, today SDN
works with thousands of photographers around the world to
tell important stories through the visual medium of photography.
Since 2008, SDN has featured more than 4,000 exhibits
on its website and has had gallery exhibitions in major cities
around the world.
ZEKE
Executive Editor: Glenn Ruga
Editor: Barbara Ayotte
Intern: Alice Currey
SDN and ZEKE magazine
are projects of Reportage
International, Inc., a nonprofit
organization founded in 2020.
ZEKE does not accept unsolicited
submissions. To be considered for
publication in ZEKE, submit your
work to the SDN website either
as a standard exhibit or a submission
to a Call for Entries.
Reportage
International, Inc.
Board of Directors
Glenn Ruga, President
Eric Luden, Treasurer
Barbara Ayotte, Secretary
Dudley Brooks
John Heffernan
Maggie Soladay
Documentary Advisory
Group
Bill Aguado, Bronx, NY
Cathy Edelman, Chicago, IL
Jill Foley, Silver Springs, MD
Lori Grinker, New York, NY
Michael Itkoff, Bronx, NY
Lou Jones, Boston, MA
Ed Kashi, Montclair, NJ
Lekgetho Makola, Johanesburg
Mary Beth Meehan, Providence, RI
Marie Monteleone, New York, NY
Molly Roberts, Washington, DC
Joseph Rodriguez, Brooklyn, NY
Jamel Shabazz, Hempstead, NY
Nichole Sobecki, Kenya
Jamey Stillings, Sante Fe, NM
Steve Walker, Danbury, CT
Lauren Walsh, New York, NY
Frank Ward, Williamsburg, MA
Amy Yenkin, New York, NY
ZEKE is published twice a
year by Social Documentary
Network, a project of Reportage
International, Inc.
Copyright © 2024
Social Documentary Network
ISSN 2381-1390
61 Potter Street
Concord, MA 01742 USA
617-417-5981
info@socialdocumentary.net
www.socialdocumentary.net
www.zekemagazine.com
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To Subscribe:
www.zekemagazine.com
WINNER:
REVIEWERS CHOICE
AWARD
SDN presented two
Reviewers Choice
Awards at the SDN
2024 Portfolio
Reviews held on
April 20, 2024.
Pictured at left:
Emily Whitney
A Migrant Teen
Mom Three Thousand
Miles From Home
The other winner,
Héctor Adolfo
Quintanar Pérez,
can be found on the
previous page.
72 / ZEKE SPRING 2024
PROFILE: COVER PHOTOGRAPHER
William Daniels
Advocating for the Recognition
of Stateless People
By Daniela Cohen
At the age of 20, William Daniels
quit his Physics studies in Paris and
went travelling for five months in
Latin America, where he started
taking photos. He then went to the
Philippines to teach photography for an
NGO supporting girls who had experienced
abandonment and homelessness.
Through this experience, he realized the
important relationsWhip between human
stories and photography and was inspired
to become a reporter on social issues.
Daniels was attracted to places of instability.
“I realized that I really liked to go
back again and again to see places, to better
understand and to take different pictures,”
he said. One of his first long-term
documentary projects was on Kyrgyzstan,
which he visited six times in two years.
This culminated in a book, Faded Tulips
about the aftermath of the Tulips revolution.
He then went to the Central African
Republic, where he travelled 10 times
between 2013 and 2016, publishing the
book RCA in 2017.
Daniels usually tries to get a newsfocused
assignment in a particular location
and then looks for a grant to return.
“Then I can work quietly, slowly and
take my time and develop a more personal
visual language than with the more
newsy pictures,” he said.
After realizing his projects were connected
by histories of colonization, he
decided to pursue an investigation of
colonization’s impact on different societies.
“I’m very interested in how colonization
has shaped some special identities and
fragile societies,” he said. His family on
his mother’s side were settlers in Tunisia,
so for Daniels, “it’s my duty to understand
colonization and its long-term influences
and consequences.”
His project “The Stateless” started with
an assignment for National Geographic in
Bangladesh in 2016, when a new wave of
Rohingya refugees fled from Myanmar into
the country. The story was only published
eight months later, and by then, the photos
did not reflect the extent of the crisis.
Daniels returned to Bangladesh and started
to investigate its history. “The Rohingya
arrived with a different religion brought by
the [British] colonizer, which didn’t help
build peace between communities,” he said.
In the cover photo, a Rohingya refugee
who arrived in Bangladesh 20 years earlier
is walking through white sand towards
William Daniels in New Delhi at the main mosque
in 2020.
the sea. “There was very light fog, which
made some crazy light. I love it. This is
what they would consider winter,” said
Daniels. “The sun was about to set, and
all these trees were planted to stop the
progression of the sea in case of a storm
because this part of Bangladesh is very low
and very affected by rising sea levels.”
Subsequently, Daniels decided to do a
larger investigation of stateless populations
and was awarded a National Geographic
Society grant. “Statelessness says a lot
about the world today and what could be
the future – about populism, racism, and
the way there are more and more fractures
between communities,” he said.
He hopes that through the “Stateless”
project, “people understand that to live in
peace, every ethnic group must have their
identity recognized and acknowledged.”
ZEKE SPRING 2024/ 73
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Photo by Natalya Saprunova from “The Evenki People: Custodians of the Resources of Yakutia.” Aliona, 11 years old, of Russian origin,
was born in Lengra village in Southern Yukutia. She wears an exemplary Evenki costume decorated with white fox fur and simple geometric
patterns on the occasion of singing competitions in the Evenki language.
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