© Jamie Johnson

Three years ago Jamie Johnson took a trip to Ireland to photograph a community of travellers.  "It is not an easy community to penetrate, they have faced such discrimination and racism they are very skeptical of outsiders. It was an amazing journey and I made connections with so many kind and generous families. They allowed me to photograph their lives and cultures. The children followed me around and took turning using my cameras.  I learned their traditions of being sharply dressed young boys and overly dressed young girls yet still very catholic, their goals of falling in love, getting married young and producing many children. and a strong sense of taking care of each other and family values and always respecting God."

She returned to photograph them in Limerick in 2015/2016, and I am thrilled that she submitted these photos along with her story (it's four years since we met at a portfolio review... It's important to stay in touch!) You can see there was an intimacy in these dynamics that makes all the difference in the resulting photographs.

"I returned to Ireland last year and I felt a deeper connection with the wonderful people I met. They brought me up to date with family gossip and life events and welcomed me into their extended families where I spent time with Travellers of all ages. A group of family matriarchs invited me in each day, gave me a beer and told me all the stories since I had last visited. Who got engaged, married, who got arrested, who lost their caravan, who got a bigger caravan, a really genuine group of women happy to have a new American friend. They told me how sorry they felt for me that I only had two children, and my goals should be to have many. They were as interested in my strange Los Angeles life as I was of theirs. I was struck by the timeless quality of their faces and the deep connection to family. As when I photograph anywhere, it is always the children who draw me in.  

"I love listening to their stories and thoughts on life. Growing up in this nomadic life style is all they know and they are quite proud people. The prejudice is hard to believe until you see it with your own eyes. An 11 year old friend wanted to look at new clothes and asked me to come with her to the shop on the high street as they most likely would not let her in. We went in together and looked at cute trendy clothes and the lady followed us around the store so closely I could feel her breath on my neck. I watch the police harass many of my young friends for just walking around. I heard well-dressed Irish women call them "trash" loudly as they walked by. These kids are sweet but tough as this is the only lifestyle they know. This warm generous family orientated community seeks good lives for their children, great hopes for their community and works to carry on their family culture and traditions through many generations by telling all the wonderful stories of their grandparents and great grandparents travels. They seek equality and hope to rid for the next generation the extreme prejudice that has faced theirs."

Powerful images from a photo newbie. Leif Sandberg uses photography to examine life after a cancer scare. 

"The Ending project is my first major photo project, with its roots in panic, anxiety and the fear of growing old. After surgery for possible pancreas cancer in 2007, followed by a year's convalescence, I was faced with the inevitable question of what to do with the rest of my life. A second chance. An interest in art and photography has followed me since my teens, although that was not my choice in life. Until now."

"This project aims to publish a hardcover book of social documentary photographs taken on Broadway, not the theater district but the 13 mile long street that runs through the entirety of Manhattan. The collection is a meditation on the city's diversity and the tolerance that holds it together. 

"I'm launching this in this moment because I want to be proactive and push back against the intolerant voices that are overpowering the conversation and sowing the seeds of division by presenting a celebration of the great strength that comes from embracing diversity. New York's success over the years, it's growth into one of the worlds capital cities is proof of this. 

"In a desire to spread the word beyond the 'bubble' of Manhattan and other urban centers I'll going to match every backer by donating a copy to free to a school or college."

Evy tells me it took about 30 hours to create one image. She's a fantastic food stylist. "The canvas was large, 30 x 35 inches, and it was filled with real food and then photographed." 

© Martin Adolfsson 

This series and story from Martin Adolfsson had me sitting up straight! I know Martin through having worked on the "Photography and Architecture" blog a couple of years ago, and he keeps in touch with fab new work. 

 

Here he talks about this project. "In the middle of the Utah desert, lays America's largest nation for American natives (Navajo Nation). During the last decade in this otherwise windblown and red-stoned area there has been a total change. Out of the sand, silhouettes of beautiful architect-designed houses will undoubtedly catch your eye in the wild sunsets."

"Every year a team of architectural students from the University of Utah take their pencils and move down to the nearby village Bluff, where they choose a family of four, or maybe a married couple or a single poet, native Americans who will receive an environmentally friendly house of their dreams."