2The ‘Hermit Kingdom’ of North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has long warned tourists of “arrest and long-term detention.” Despite the threat, around 100,000 people visit the hermit kingdom annually. In 2016, Photographer Raphael Olivier was one of those people. Here we showcase some of his most surreal photos from the trip.
Regardless of traveling independently or through an agent, tourists are allegedly supervised from the moment they arrive in North Korea. Things are so tense that the Trump administration is weighing new legislation that would ban U.S. citizens from being able to travel there. Olivier, however, has already made the trip, describing it as an “eerie” place.
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325 Years of Cinema behind the Camera
Although in-demand cinematographer Neil Daza has lighted several notable films like Yamashita: The Tiger’s Treasure (2001), Dekada ’70 (2002), Feng Shui (2004), Emir (2010), Bwaya (2014), and top-rating television shows Maalaala Mo Kaya, Princess and I, and Be Careful With My Heart, his first love is photojournalism.
As a photojournalist, he has covered the post-Edsa revolution while President Corazon Aquino was in power in Malacañang, the Mendiola massacre, and the NPA rebels in Sagada, Mountain Province.
“I have been doing documentary photography ever since, on my own,” says the 56-year-old Gawad Urian awardee for Bwaya. “I always bring my camera and shoot. Through the years, I collected them and realized that as a cinematographer, I am on my 25th year!”
4The Big Picture
Dramatic images from around the world make the shortlist for a top photography award, including an overcrowded jail in the Philippines and a snow-covered canyon in Utah
The photographs are among 100 selected from a total of more than 590,000 submissions battling it out for the top spot at the EyeEm Festival in Berlin, Germany, in September.
They include pictures of a packed prison cell in the Philippines as the government cracks down on the war on drugs, the snow-covered Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah and tents glowing in the dark on the side of a mountain in Japan.
Other awe-inspiring images include a lone fishing boat sailing off the coast of Mexico and women wearing protective coats while on a water-themed rollercoaster in Tokyo.
Prizes will be handed out for categories including photojournalism, portraits, street photography, the great outdoors and architecture.
5Photographer captivates the streets through his camera lens
The Art Alcove at the Freeport Recreation center can be overlooked by many walking through the main lobby, but this month, Freeporters are stopping by to take a look at various pieces of “Street Art.” Artist Joseph Constantino’s collection of modern day city photography is on display for all in an exhibit he calls “Ebbs and Flows”.
For over 50 years, Constantino has been photographing what interests him the most-people.
Born and raised in Manhattan, Constantino credits the borough for his inspiration throughout his career as a photographer. He said he looks forward to taking candid pictures of subjects in different situations, in order to capture a mood untouched by him.
“Street photography is usually when a photographer takes a picture of the subject, and the subject is not aware that the photo is being taken,” Constantino said. “In street photography, the pictures should tell a story; and in this particular case, all of them tell a story.”
6New York City Up and Down
Renowned documentary photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont, transplanted from Paris to New York City since 1965, has squarely focused his camera on his new hometown. Organized into three parts (the City Never Sleeps, the Movers and Shakers, and the Mean Streets), “New York City Up and Down“ is an elegant, incisive and unexpected review of 40 years of exploration by one of the most revered documentarians working today.
Just as he explored the explosive, the calm, the social and the environment in his prize-winning book “Photographer’s Paradise,” Laffont has filled “New York City Up and Down” with the highs and lows of New York City life. It’s not a commentary on high-end versus low-end of lifestyles, but instead is a commentary on the ups and downs socially, politically and visually in the city he loves so much over the past 40 years.
7Julien Chatelin’s break from the decisive moment
A successful photojournalist, Julien Chatelin grew frustrated with his work after being sent to cover the war in Libya in 2011; taking a step back, he started producing slower work
“What I found was that when you stepped out of the tumultuous Tahrir Square, you found a world that was at a stop – almost a negative of the revolution in a strange way,” says French American photographer Julien Chatelin of his time spent exploring the territories surrounding conflict zones in Egypt.
“I was playing with the idea that history was concentrated in time and space, and if you drive just two or three kilometres out, you’re confronted with a completely different reality. It’s interesting, the change of perspective.”
