"My work is bit true 

but like a fairy story about myself."

Images by Christo Viola (NSFW)

Rituparna Banerjee is a photographer based in New Delhi. Here is her story about the approximately 1,200 residents of what is essentially a two-square-mile slum at the Yamuna Bazaar in Delhi.

"A walk into these very spaces reveals a grim reality. Vials of familiar anti-allergic medication, syringes and needles lie littered about in the dirt; huddles of small groups of men, women and children with their backs to you; their decaying bodies and reddened eyes, are a clear giveaway. We approached one of them. "I have been using drugs since I was 12...it's been over 14 years now, my wife left me. I continue to live like this", says Siddharth. When asked how he can afford it, he narrates with interest how begging and picking pockets are popular sources of income. "Each packet of crack costs me about four hundred rupees ($7), it keeps me high for about two hours; I take it 2-3 times a day. I can't live without this," he adds. Siddharth is one of the hordes of homeless people in Yamuna Bazaar whose life, income and expenditure revolve around the intoxicating chemicals he consumes every day.    

Half the addicts encountered are children. Their days are spent in the nearby railway area of the Wazirabad cargo depot. Moreover, their addiction continues well into adulthood, as testified by Siddharth. The children often turn to violence in desperation to get their hands on chemicals to cause intoxication. Chintan, a minor barely thirteen, shows the slash marks of a razor blade on his friend's chest. They are both from Darbhanga in Bihar. Holding a the tube of rubber solution used by cobblers and packers as glue, a 10 year old says, "I inhale this all day," with most of his face concealed beneath a cloth towel doused in the substance.

 

Substance abuse has been reported in many instances to reach uncontrollable proportions, and these images essay the condition of occupants of the Yamuna Bazaar area. Their peculiar situation makes them unqualified for any government benefits and the societal life applicable to other underprivileged city occupants. With the authorities having a blasé attitude towards a huge responsibility, the addicts occupy a crack in society and governance and continue to waste away as prisoners to their own addiction."

'Respecting My Elders - Age and the Creative Spirit' is Ellen Wallenstein's self-published book  (print ($25) and digital ($5) of wonderful portraits of 30 people over 80 years old who have affected the American culture. I took the easy route and asked for the women. 

'Europe in the Fifties. Through a Soldier's Lens' is a book of photographs by Bill Perlmutter, a soldier with the US army who traveled through Europe beginning in 1954. The photographs were presented for the first time earlier this year by the German house of seltmann+söhne who are thrilled to announce that the book just won silver in the prestigious Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. You can buy a copy of 'Europe in the Fifties' directly from them, for 40 Euros. Nice Christmas present if anyone's thinking of getting me something. 

Many thanks to seltmann+söhne for providing such great images for press. Glück!

I was invited to judge the second Latin American Fotografía and Ilustración competition for AI-AP this year, and chose a selection from across both the 'Selected' and 'Chosen' winners to publish in the magazine. Winning images were exhibited at the annual AI-AP party earlier in November, and will be part of a traveling exhibit in 2014. There was an interesting variety of work as I expected, and I liked the simplicity of the judging process and the fact that so many images were given a nod.

View the full-screen magazine photo feature.

I am now on competition-judging hiatus until further notice.

Xiang-Yun Chen was born and raised in China, and is now living in New York. 'Package from Home' is a nicely-executed, easy-to-consume, perfectly-encapsulated photo project, to which many of us can relate - especially in NYC where about 1 in every 2 of us claims to be an ex-pat.

Chen tells the story: "In the summer of 2011, during my cousin's pregnancy, we got a package from home, which was filled with various necessities for her puerperal period. Not long after that, one night, I had a dream. I am not the type of person who dreams very often. In the dream, two of my front teeth fell out with the teeth in my hand, unceasing tears flying away,  I recalled the doctor told me a couple of months ago in reality that if I didn't do a full examination of my left eye, and know what the problem is, I might lose my vision forever. So I started running, running, until the tears washed me back into the reality."

"I would not have this project if I hadn't opened the package after I had the dream. When I was unsealing it, it wasn't the act of opening an almost smashed box, but the feeling that was unfolding my memories, all the emotions, happiness, past, sadness, all the connections that I had with my family and homeland. I wanted to break the geometry boundary between my small family in America and big family in my country. Adding the props from the house in the U.S. allows me to live in the imagination that we are still together, nothing can cut off the root, and we are tangled up as a family until it doesn't matter whether it is the transient moment or longer than that."

Thanks to Enri Canaj for this heartfelt story.

View the full-screen magazine photo feature.

We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year's Grand Prix de Découverte, International Fine Art Photography competition.

I was honoured to be invited to be a juror again for year two. This year I was in the company of photographer Hiroshi Watanabe; Director of Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, Didier Brousse; author, curator, and former Chair of the Department of Photography at The Art Institute of Chicago, David Travis; Anne Biroleau, Curator of Photography, Bibliothèque Nationale de France; and Alexandre Percy, Director of ACTE2 Galerie, Paris. The competition was sponsored by the Paris-based DeGroot Foundation. The Grand Prix de la Découverte winners' prizes included a trip to Paris for the opening of the exhibition; each won cash, are exhibited at Paris Salon de la Photo, and have been accepted into the prestigious collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. C'est magnifique!

Aglu make pocket photobooks - collectable little marvels, costing £5. One of their current releases, 'Ghost Ships,' features images made in artist Simon Jones' old house and "takes us on a voyage of discovery through frayed carpets and other domestic hazards." 

Jones makes "photographic artworks about memory, which usually involves the creation of small dioramas captured on location with a single exposure." 

Buy the pocket photobook.

David Zimmerman has been working in India for the past two years on a series of beautiful portraits of Tibetan refugees and nomads, large-scale prints from which are on show at Sous les Etoiles Gallery in Soho, New York, through November 30th, 2013.

David says: "Much of my work for the past fifteen years focuses on issues of human survival, and adaptation in the aftermath of catastrophic events. The causes of these events are varied - from economic hardship in the southwest US, to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, to northern India where 100,000 Tibetans have fled Chinese occupation."

"I have lived and worked in India for many years, and this past year, along with my wife, founded the Himalayan Art Centre - a free school teaching photography and visual storytelling to underserved regions of the southern Himalayas. The Art Centre in north India will also serve as a meeting and workshop space for visual artists and writers from around the world."

All images © David Zimmerman