Contact Archives

Robert Pledge Curates Lianzhou 2009

Robert Pledge will be curating the headline show at the 2009 Lianzhou International Photography Festival (LIPF) with a special ode to documentary photography entitled "Windows on Western Journalistic and Documentary Traditions and Styles in Photography, Photo-editing, and Curating."

Here is Pledge’s introduction to the show: Since its inception, dedicated documentary photography as presented in the West has primarily fallen into three major categories: war, revolution, and social ills. This section of the 2009 Lianzhou International Photography Festival draws upon the work of some of the form’s greatest practitioners to illuminate these three strains and the ways in which the Western world has utilized documentary photography as a means of understanding and coping with human conflict and suffering twenty years after the end of World War II and onwards.

Pictures of the Year International 2009

The work of two Contact photographers was recognized at this year’s 66th annual Pictures of the Year International awards, organized by the Missouri School of Journalism.

Sean Hemmerle was awarded 1st place in the Magazine Feature Picture Story category for his story “Rust Belt.”

“Left to rot, the cathedrals of Industrialism, and the American Century dot the landscape from Pennsylvania to Illinois,” writes Hemmerle. “Gone are the days of Carnegie and Ford and American exceptionalism. An examination of the landscape of American hyper-productivity and past glory contained within an oxidized palette.”

Rust Belt
Detroit, Michigan, March 19, 2008 2009 © Sean Hemmerle

Contact’s co-founder, David Burnett, received an award of excellence in the Presidential General Election category for his image of Barack Obama backstage at the Roanoke Civic Center in the final days of the campaign. He also placed third in one of the competition’s most prestigious categories: Magazine Photographer of the Year.

Barack Obama
Roanoke, Virginia, October 17, 2008 2009 © David Burnett

Contact/s at DC Fotoweek

 
Contact/s at DC FotoWeek All Photographs © Dustin Ross
Opening night in D.C.
Appearing in its first US venue, “Contact/s: The Art of Photojournalism” opened in Washington D.C. on November 15th, 2008, as part of the inaugural FotoWeek DC festival. Drawing a large enthusiastic crowd to the FotoWeek Central Gallery in Georgetown, including photography-lover, Tipper Gore, the exhibition, which will be on view until November 22, features 25 giant contact sheets made by Contact photographers since 1976, as well as 67 single images drawn from the contact sheets and the agency’s archives.

The exhibition has previously toured in China, Bangladesh, Australia, and France.

Also, on November 19 Contact photographer David Burnett will speak with Eugene Richards as part of a special presentation and discussion about their work and photojournalism. The event is at US Navy Memorial, Burke Theater, 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.

Contact in Beijing

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics underway, Contact is engaged in it’s seventh coverage of the quadrennial summer event through August 24.

Since 1984 in Los Angeles the agency’s co-founder David Burnett has anchored the coverage establishing for himself the reputation of being one of the best “sports photographer” in the world. He is teamed up in China with expert veteran Olympic shooter, Ken Jarecke who is attending his fifth summer games. Belgian-based Italian photographer Paolo Pellizzari has joined the small Contact team in Beijing bringing his distinctive style of panoramic photography.

David Burnett, National Stadium, 2008 Beijing Olympics © Kenneth Jarecke
Paolo Pellizzari, Shunyi Rowing Park, 2008 Beijing Olympics © David Burnett
Kenneth Jarecke (center) shooting Michael Phelps, 2008 Beijing Olympics © David Burnett

Contact has been invited to set up offices at the headquarters of China Daily, the largest English-language newspaper in the country, that was chosen to produce “The Olympian,” the official English-language publication for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Operating independently, the agency supplies the paper’s two-part special supplement everyday with unique photo stories and individual images.

Contact in China, L to R: Robert Pledge, Tim Mapp, David Burnett, Kenneth Jarecke © Li Shi

To coordinate and edit the coverage in the Chinese capital is also Olympiad veteran Robert Pledge, the agency’s other co-founder and editorial director, who gathered a small and energetic staff which includes editor and digital director Tim Mapp from Contact’s Paris office, researcher and translator Li Shi, and logistics-assistant Eric Powell.

A selection of the work by the three photographers can be seen here as well as tear-sheets from China Daily carrying their published imagery.



All published photos by David Burnett & Kenneth Jarecke

Faster, Higher, Farther

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art All Photographs © David Burnett
This summer’s historic Olympic Games in Beijing (August 8-25) is the handy pretext for Faster, Higher, Farther, an exhibition that takes a fond look back over the last quarter century’s worth of indelible Olympic-related images made by four unique photographers associated with Contact Press Images: David Burnett, Kenneth Jarecke, Annie Leibovitz, Dilip Mehta.

On the occasion of the selection in Eugene, OR, of the US track and field team attending the 2008 Summer Games in China, Lawrence Fong, the Curator of American and Regional Art at the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, asked the Agency to assemble a show reflecting the spirit of the athletic disciplines present at these trials. Spanning the last six Olympiads — Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, and Athens 2004 — the selected pictures, shot in black and white and color and in diverse formats, all train their focus on the events that define the Olympics par excellence.

Curated by Robert Pledge and produced by Jeffrey D. Smith, the exhibition runs through August 31st, 2008.

LEIBOVITZ IN PARIS

Maison Européenne de la Photographie © Ronald Pledge
“A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005″ opened on June 18th at the Maison Euopéenne de la Photographie in Paris, France. It is the first European stop for Annie Leibovitz’s exhibition, which has been touring the US for the past two years. Under the same name, Les Editions de La Martinière published the French Version of the original 2006 book published by Random House in the US.

On the occasion of the exhibition and in recognition of her career, the prestigious “Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres” was bestowed upon Annie in a formal ceremony at the Hotel de Ville — Paris’ city hall — followed by a reception at the US Ambassador’s residence.

© Tim Mapp (3)
The Exhibition is on view through September 14, 2008 and then will travel to The National Portrait gallery in London, UK.