Interviews

World Press Photo of the Year nominee Brent Stirton

Petronella Chigumbura is a member of Akashinga, an all female anti-poaching unit that operates in Zimbabwe’s Lower Zambezi ecosystem. In Shona – the native language of Zimbabwe – Akashinga means the brave ones. Many of the members are victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse, recruited by the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF), and trained rigorously to serve on Africa’s frontline against poaching.

10 April 2019

World Press Photo of the Year nominee Catalina Martin-Chico

In Catalina Martin-Chico’s World Press Photo of the Year-nominated image, former guerilla fighter Yolanda is photographed with her husband Michael in their home in the Colombian jungle. It is their sixth pregnancy, but for the first time, Yolanda will be delivering a baby.

Until three years ago, when a peace deal was signed with the Colombian government, Yolanda was a member of the country’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Pregnancy was forbidden, so many female members underwent abortions. Yolanda has had five abortions – her last pregnancy terminated at six months. “She feels that now, she deserves this baby,” says Martin-Chico.

10 April 2019

Beyond Arles: Cosmos goes offspace

“The language of photography and books is evolving rapidly,” comments Sebastian Hau, as the major book fair he co-founded, Cosmos, separates from the main programme at Les Rencontres d’Arles to return offspace

29 March 2019

Lucas Blalock’s An Enormous Oar

Shooting meticulously set-up still lifes on film with a large format camera, Lucas Blalock scans his images and digitally manipulates them, creating tricksy, mind-bending work that plays with the boundary between reality and fiction. Now it’s fashionable to talk about fake news, but Blalock got in early, poking holes in our trust in images. 

It’s earned him an enviable career, with books published by respected outfits such as Morel Books and Self Publish, Be Happy, and solo exhibitions at private galleries such as the White Cube. Now he’s got his first solo show at a public gallery in the US, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Los Angeles, where he’s showing images made since 2014. Initially he might have seemed part of a movement, but Blalock has carved out a career on his own. 

26 March 2019