Photographer #130: Nelli Palomäki

Nelli Palomäki, 1981, Finland, released her book Elsa and Viola in 2009 in an edition of 300 copies. Nelli focuses in her black and white portraits on the gestures and the diversity of glances of her subjects. Her series I, Daughter is build in three stages. First she took close-up photographs, in the second stage she dressed her models in "historical looking" clothing and in the third stage the models have control when the shutter is released. For the full explanation see her website. Nelli's work has been exhibited throughout Europe. The following images come from Elsa and Viola, I, Daughter and Selected works 2004-2009.

Website: www.nellipalomaki.com

Photographer #129: J Bennett Fitts

John Bennett Fitts, 1977, USA, is a photographer with a focus on emptiness. In his series No Lifeguard On Duty he made large color photographs of empti, 1960's-era motel swimming pools. Most of the abandoned and cracked pools are shot at sundown. In his series Industrial Landscape[ing] Fitts focuses on strangely manicured and manifactured environments. The urban environments, although familiar, get an outer worldly quality. Fitts has exhibited around the world and received various awards. The following images come from the series No Lifeguard On Duty, Industrial Landscape[ing] and Images from the center of the contigious United States.

Website: www.jbennettfitts.com

Photographer #128: Christian Tagliavini

Swiss/Italian photographer Christian Tagliavini, 1971, presented his new series to the world only a few days ago. The series 1503 are nine still characters from a visionary renaissance. They are portrayed in solemn, die-cut costumes. In 2008 he made his the series Dame di Cartone (Cardboard Ladies). Costumes from different era's were made with cardboard and shot with live models. In the proces of making a photograph Christian is not merely the photographer, he is in fact the author, stage- and costume-designer, casting manager and director all at the same time. The following images come from the brand new series 1503, Dame di Cartone and Aspettando Freud (Waiting for Freud).

Website: www.christiantagliavini.com

Photographer #127: Li Wei

Li Wei, 1970, China, has exhibited his work all over the world and has been in an amazing number of publications. The photographs are a mix of performance arts and photography where we see people in bizarre and gravity-defying poses. Li achieves these awkward positions through the use of mirrors, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics and not through the use of computer manipulation. The following images come from his portfolio.

Website: www.liweiart.com

Photographer #126: Pieter Ten Hoopen

Pieter Ten Hoopen, 1974, Netherlands, left for Sweden in 1999 to study photojournalism at the Nordens Fotoskola, since then he has been living and working in Sweden. Pieter has been all over the world for his stories, from Iraq to Kenya and from Russia to Mallorca. In 2010 Ten Hoopen won two World Press Photo Awards, one of them for his series on Hungry Horse in Montana. Next to his outstanding work as a photojournalist he has been recognized for his portraiture and his commercial work as his campaign for SSU. The following images come from his series Stockholm, Balakot - Earthquake and Kitezh - The Invisible Town.

Website: www.pietertenhoopen.com
For more work: www.agencevu.com/

Photographer #125: Marcos López

Marcos López, 1958, is a photographer from Argentina. López is an expert is large, staged photographs. His images are bright in color and very narrative. He has been working on a long-term series called Sub Realismo Criollo. The pictures are iconic aswell as humorous and symbolise and critisize the Argentinian society. Marcos is a self-taught photographer who won several awards and has exhibited around the world. The first two rows of images come from Sub Realismo Criollo and the last two rows are from the series Pop Latino.

Website: www.marcoslopez.com
(Video in Spanish)

Photographer #124: Erica Shires

Erica Shires, USA, 1964, photographs girls. A project she has been working on are a series of photographs that show a girl with anorexia nervosa. Several of these pictures were published in the magazine Foto8. Erica started her career in photography when she was 34, since then she has worked for large clients and exhibited her personal work at various places. Her photographs have a cinematic quality. The following pictures come from various portfolio's of Erica.

Website: www.ericashires.com

Photographer #123: Sarah Small

Photographer Sarah Small, 1979, USA, is working on a long-term project called The Delirium Constructions. One of the keywords in this project must be 'disassociation'. She brings different subjects, objects or other things together in one image that at first seem to have nothing in common. "I bring models into improbable, close interactions to examine the social and graphic contrasts." Sarah also uses Tableaux Vivants to achieve her photography. She assembles models into a series of suspended interactions as a living and breathing image. In 2011 she will do so with 120 models with distinctive visual personalities. The following images come from her portfolio.

Website: www.sarahsmall.com & www.livingpictureprojects.com

Photographer #122: Michał Giedrojć

Michal Giedrojc, 1980, is an up and coming photographer from Poland. His work has recently been published in Eyemazing Magazine. His series Dreams are manipulated portraits in which Michal puts his subjects in unreal environments. The people become misplaced and alienated which thus creates a new dimension with new storylines. Michal let's his imagination and dreams inspire him. The following images come from the series Dreams, Visions and City.

Website: www.giedrojcmichal.com

September feeding frenzies in the Strait of Gibraltar

September is the month of the flying fish in the Strait of Gibraltar. If they turn up in good numbers they unleash a chain of spectacular events as all kinds of predators converge on this rich food resource. It is the dolphins that get things moving by chasing the fish near the surface where seabirds also get a chance to have a go at them. Yesterday morning was a calm easterly, ideal for a feeding frenzy. It was also the end of the Calpe Conference on the evolution of bird migration, so what better time than to go out on a boat and see what was happening.

Rafts of Cory's Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea at the entrance to the Bay of Gibraltar soon have a hint that the morning would be a good one...

Once round Europa Point and into the entrance to the Mediterranean, a wonderful spectacle unfolded which combined dolphins, breeding shearwaters and migratory seabirds. A migrating Loggerhead Turtle Caretta caretta was a promising sign...

Soon we found the pods of Common Dolphins Delphinus delphis that were frantically chasing the flying fish...

Cory's Shearwaters flew over the pods keeping an eye for shoals of fish

Several thousand Cory's Shearwaters were about, having flown down the Mediterranean coast some 400 kilometres to feed in these rich waters where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean. These are daily feeding movements as they have hungry chicks in their nests.

As soon as the dolphins have got going, the shearwaters get busy catching the fish that try to escape by gliding...

...and competition is severe among the shearwaters

but the shearwaters do not have it all to themselves as gulls try and steal the tasty meals...

but gulls are insignificant compared to the big bullies that, passing by on migration, get attracted by the concentrations  - Arctic Stercorarius parasiticus and Great Catharacta skua (below) skuas are more formidable opponents...

other migrants also joined in the fun. Among these were juvenile Gannets Morus bassanus, just arrived ftom the North Atlantic.

Black Chlidonias nigra, Common Sterna hirundo and Sandwich Thalasseus sandvicensis terns moving towards the Atlantic wintering grounds also got drawn in...

as were other locally breeding shearwaters - the smaller and browner Balearic Shearwaters Puffinus mauretanicus

but the day belonged to the larger shearwaters, adding plunge-diving to their hunting techniques until the food was gone...

My thanks to Tony and Angie Watkins of Dive Charters for taking us out on their boat