Contact News

Giorgia Fiorio’s “The Gift” at C/O Berlin

C/O Berlin presents an exhibition of Giorgia Fiorio’s highly acclaimed "The Gift." The exhibition has been touring Europe and was shown in 2009 in Paris at the Maison Européenne de la photographie and Rome at the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, amongst other venues.

In search of the perception of the sacred, Fiorio (born in 1967 in Turin, Italy) spent nine years travelling in 38 countries – along the banks of the Ganges river to cloisters in Poland, from ancient Cambodian temple complexes to meditation centers in Myanmar and waterfalls in Japan. With clarity and dignity, Fiorio’s images capture the point at which the rational dimension is transcended – through the medium of the body – to reach a spiritual plane. In so doing, she documents astonishing parallels among the cultures and religions.

2010 © Giorgia Fiorio
From March 20 - May 02, and for the first time in Germany, C/O Berlin presents approximately 80 black-and-white photographs of a work that has received numerous international awards.

Louie Psihoyos Wins Oscar

Contact Press Images congratulates former Contact contributing photographer Louie Psihoyos, who won an Oscar for Best Feature Documentary for his film "The Cove," about a secret dolphin cove in Taiji, Japan, which is the site of the largest slaughter of dolphins in the world.

Psihoyos assembled a team of activists and special ops experts to covertly film the documentary using cameras suspended by mini ballons, helicopters and hidden in fake rocks around the cove. The film makers conducted raids on the secret dolphin cove for two killing seasons in spite of being followed by the police who had 24-hour surveillance on the film.

2008 © Louie Psihoyos
This is the second Oscar won by a former Contact Press Images contributor for Best Feature Documentary. Zana Briski won in 2005 for her film Born into Brothels.

Paolo Pellizzari at the Vancouver Olympics

Belgian photographer Paolo Pellizzari was at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, using his signature panoramic style to create a unique perspective on the Games. Paolo first collaborated with Contact Press Images at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, where he also used a wide-format panoramic camera.

Click on the slideshow above to see the full gallery of panoramas in greater detail.

Burnett at Woodrow Wilson Center

David Burnett lectured and presented images from his book 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

The event was moderated by Robert Litwak, Vice President for Programs and Director of International Security Studies at the Wilson Center.

C-Span was there to capture the event. Click to watch the video.

Don McCullin - New Releases


Don McCullin’s Southern Frontiers: A Journey Across the Roman Empire (released March 4th, 2010, in the UK), is the result of numerous journeys to the fringes of the Roman Empire by McCullin over the past several years. Taken with large format cameras, these images from historic sites across the Middle East and Northern Africa are reminiscent of the works of nineteenth-century explorers and photographers, yet remain consistent in mood with McCullin’s earlier landscapes of his native England and his famed images of conflict. The book contains an introduction and texts by Barnaby Rogerson, an authority on the Roman empire, and an author’s note from McCullin.
Simultaneously, the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, presents the largest ever UK exhibition about the life and work of the famed war photographer.

The exhibition contains over 200 photographs, a number of which are on public display for the first time. The exhibition catalog "Shaped By War," produced in book-form by Jonathan Cape, accompanies the show and can be purchased on the museum’s website.

Stephen Dupont Awarded Robert Gardner Fellowship

Stephen Dupont has been named the 2010 Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography by Harvard University’s Peabody Museum. Dupont will be working on a project entitled “Guns and Arrows: The Detribalization of Papua New Guinea”.

Over the past six years, Dupont has traveled to Papua New Guinea, photographically documenting its changing face and the powerful impact of globalization on the fabric of its traditional Melanesian society. Guns and Arrows, the proposed project, will continue this work. From the recasting of tribal society into an urban proletariat and the effects of violence and lawlessness in Port Moresby to the westernization of traditional society in the Highlands, it will be an in-depth study of cultural erosion as well as a celebration of an ancient people.

He plans to use 35mm, 6×6, panoramic, and Polaroid formats for documentary street photography, landscapes, and portraiture; weaving single images, contact sheets, composites, and video grabs into multiple forms: a traditional exhibition at the Peabody Museum, a book with the Peabody Museum Press, and an interactive web presentation.

2010 © Stephen Dupont
“I think these modern approaches are needed to fully exploit photography’s still-untapped power to move, motivate, and change the world,” says Dupont. The project will be “a reflection and a meditation on a unique place, and it may also be seen as a warning for other, seemingly more ‘secure’ cultures.”