Contact News

AIDS in New York: The First Five Years

Memorial for AIDS victims, Central Park, New York City, June 1983 © Alon Reininger
The New York Historical Society presents AIDS in New York: The First Five Years an exhibition that chronicles the years 1981 to 1985. Detailing the devastation and fear that the HIV virus wrought in the years leading up to the identification of the virus and early efforts to educate and contain the spread of AIDS in NYC’s high risk populations. The exhibition includes photographs from this time period by Contact photographers David Binder, Frank Fournier and Alon Reininger. All three have documented the early years of the AIDS crisis and it’s impact across the globe. In New York, Reininger was one of the first photojournalists to work in-depth on the subject and who’s portrait of AIDS victim Ken Meeks was selected by World Press Photo in 1986 as the picture of the year. On view from June 7 – September 15, 2013.

Parents protesting Board of Education allowing students with AIDS in schools, 1985 © Frank Fournier

Gilles Caron – Picturing Derry

Aftermath of riots, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, August 1969 © Fondation Gilles Caron
Gilles Caron’s iconic photographs of the Battle of the Bogside from August 1969, Londonderry, forms a major part of the new exhibition Picturing Derry. Produced in partnership between Nerve Center and Culture Company’s BT Portrait of a City project the exhibition brings together for the first time the work of over a dozen photographers and organizations who documented the Troubles in Derry~Londonderry from 1969 to the late 1980’s. The exhibition held at the City Factory Gallery has been organized as part of the Derry~Londonderry UK City of Culture, 2013. May 31 – July 7, 2013

Annie Leibovitz – Prince of Asturias Award 2013

Niagara Falls from the book Pilgrimage, 2011 © Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz has been bestowed with the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities by the Fundación Príncipe de Asturias in Oviedo, Spain. The awards have been given annually since 1981 to recognize individuals or organizations in eight categories who have made outstanding contributions in promoting the scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of mankind’s universal heritage. Past recipients of the awards include; Al Gore – International Cooperation (2007), UNICEF – Concord (2006), Susan Sontag – Literature (2003), Umberto Eco – Communication and Humanities (2000) and Sebastião Salgado – Arts (1998), who is the only other photographer to have received this distinction.

Reportage Festival – Australia

Since it’s founding in 1999 the Reportage Festival has become Australia’s leading showcase for documentary photography. The 2013 edition presents two exhibitions by Contact co-founder David Burnett; Soul Rebel: An Intimate Portrait of Bob Marley at the Blender Gallery from May 23 to June 22, 2013 and The Presidents: from JFK to Obama at The Australian Center for Photography from June 1 to August 18, 2013.

Australian Center of Photography, May 2013 © David Burnett
Burnett is in Sydney during the festival and gives a talk on his over four decades of work as a photojournalist on June 2nd. His exhibition on Bob Marley was featured on Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ABC News.

Contact photographer Stephen Dupont, one of the original founders of Reportage, is this years director and curator. Dupont is also leading a week long masterclass with photographers James Natchwey and Ed Giles.

Sean Hemmerle – 2013 Graham Foundation Grant

Southwest Elevation, Orange County Government Center, Goshen, NY, 2012 © Sean Hemmerle
Photographer Sean Hemmerle collaborating with designer William Watson have been awarded a 2013 Graham Foundation grant for their project, Brutal Legacy: Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Government Center. The project aims to understand the Government Center through the materials and disposition that will bring about either its preservation or demise, and to illuminate the moment at which an architectural style and building teetered on the edge of ruin.

Sebastião Salgado – Genesis

 

Iceberg, Antarctica Canal © Sebasião Salgado
Sebastião Salgado’s massive eight year project Genesis has now culminated in a touring exhibition and book. Working in the manner of his two previous long term projects; Workers (1993) which documented manual labor across the globe and Migrations (2000) which examined the world population shifts in the last part of the 20th century, Genesis documents the land and life of the still pristine parts of our plant, unspoiled by modern society. After years of photographing man made suffering and destruction Salgado has now focused on the earth to show it’s fragile beauty and as a call to action to stop environmental destruction and preserve the planet for the future.
Salgado (L) with former Brazilian president, Lula at opening Genesis, Taschen, 2013
From over 32 trips across the globe to mountains, forests, deserts and oceans, Salgado has created a collection of images showing us nature, animals, and indigenous peoples in breathtaking beauty. The project that Salgado calls his “love letter to the planet” is now viewable as an exhibition that will tour internationally and as a book published by Tachen. Both exhibition and book are designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado.
Exhibition opening, Museum of National History, London, April 2013 (2) © Dominique Deschavanne
The exhibition, composed of 245 images taken in 32 places around the globe, premiered on April 9 at the Museum of National History in London, UK, where it will be on view until September 8, 2013.
Concurrent exhibition locations include:
Royal Ontario Museum, Canada – May 1st – August 2013
Ara Pacis Museum, Rome, Italy – May 15 – September 15, 2013
Jardim Botanico, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – May 28 – August 25, 2013
Future locations include:
Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
September 21, 2013 – January 12, 2014
La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris, France
September 25, 2013 – January 5, 2014
SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
September 9 – November 2013
In addition to the Genesis project the Salgados activism for the environment can be seen in the Instituto Terra which they formed in 1999 to help re-forest the Atlantic Forrest of the Rio Doce Valley in Brazil.