Photographer #280: Sylwana Zybura

Sylwana Zybura, 1979, Poland, is better known in the photographic community as Madame Peripetie. She works and lives in Germany. She received a B.A. in photography and an M.A. in applied linguistics. She was recently published in the book Geschossen+Gedruckt due to winning the Druckerei Seltmann Werbefotopreis. She won the prestigious advertisement photography prize in the category People / Emotion with images of her Dream Sequence series. Sylwana's images are surreal, fantastical and often bizarre and imaginative. Her fairy tale photographs are sometimes dark and moody, but others are bright in color and humerous. It is a mix of fashion photography and sculpture, using various fabrics and objects to achieve her end results. She is influenced by surrealism, dadaism, the new wave era of the 80's, the British post punk scene and the avantgarde theater of Robert Wilson. The following images come from the series Dream Sequence, Pugh-Atory and Warriors in the Dark.

Website: www.madameperipetie.com

Photographer #279: Claudio Edinger

Claudio Edinger, 1952, Brazil, is a photographer with a long history in the photographic world. He started with photography in the 1970's and hasn't stopped since then. Since 1983 he has released an amazing number of monographs covering images of the famous Chelsea Hotel (1983), Venice beach (1985), Brazil's Carnaval (1996) and São Paulo (2009) amongst others. Madness covers images of Latin America's largest insane asylum. It took him several years to find a publisher who was willing to publish it in 1997. Today Claudio works with a large format camera. He uses selective focus and an experimental use of color. With this technique he has focused on architecture, landscapes, cityscapes and portraiture. He has created impressive portraits of Paris, the Amazon region, Homeless people sleeping in the streets and recently on Downtown LA. Claudio has received the Leica Medal of Excellence twice amongst many other awards. The following images come from the series Downtown LA, Rio de Janeiro and Madness.

Website: www.claudioedinger.com
(Video in Portuguese)

Photographer #278: Denis Rouvre

Denis Rouvre, 1967, France, is a portrait photographer with a large and impressive portfolio. He has photographed an extensive amount of internationally known celebrities throughout the years, but works on many other series, personal and editorial. These numerous series have been exhibited extensively throughout the world. He has also released several books and monographs. The series Senegalese Wrestling won the second prize in the Sports features stories at World Press Photo in 2010. His series Ethnic is a collaboration between Denis and the painter and sculptor David Nal-Vad. The photographs of Denis are sharp, crystal clear and direct. The following images come from his Portraits portfolio and from the series Senegalese Wrestling and Ethnic.

Website: www.rouvre.com

Photographer #277: Daniel Sannwald

Daniel Sannwald, 1979, Germany, is a surreal and experimental fashion photographer. He studied at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. Daniel does not limit himself when making images, nor does he abide to the rules of photography. He might shoot digital or analogue, change his end results with photoshop or just plain scissors and glue, make a collage or add bizarre objects on the set. He might go over the top with an image and keep it simple and clean with the next. Daniel keeps all options open and decided to use all the options available. The images he produces are fantastical, often surreal and innovative. His cinematographic photographs have been published in magazines as Dazed & Confused, i-D and Vogue Homme. Recently his book Pluton & Charon was released covering fashion work from the last five years. The following images come from his portfolio.

Website: www.danielsannwald.com

Photographer #276: Damon Winter

Damon Winter, 1974, USA, is a photographer who is highly competent in various kinds of photography. He is based in New York City and works as a staff photographer for The New York Times. He focuses on photojournalism, documentary work, celebrity portraiture and travel photography. For his work he has traveled extensively to places as Iceland, Japan and Afghanistan. His photo essay on sexual abuse victims in Alaska in 2005 was nominated for a Pullitzer Prize, but it wasn't until 2009 that he won the Pullitzer Prize for feature photography with his images that captured the different facets of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The following images come from his portfolio Faces and from the stories Afghanistan and Haiti Earthquake.

Website: www.damonwinter.com

In a colony of egrets

Among the spectacular sights of southern Iberia in the spring is a colony of nesting egrets. Stewart went on a mission to capture the beauty and elegance of the Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis in full breeding plumage. He caught up with them in a colony on white poplars. The photographs speak for themselves...

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Photographer #275: Mariel Clayton

Mariel Clayton, 1980, South Africa, is a self-taught photographer who works and lives in Canada. She discovered the world of miniature items in a Tokyo toy shop. Since then she has been photographing dolls to tell her stories. Through the internet she buys and collects the miniature items she needs for her photography shoots. Her images are often brutal, full of sex and violence, yet display and reflect on the dark side of the western society. She calls herself a "Doll photographer with a subversive sense of humour." The first image she took with a barbie was a story in which she commited suicide because Ken had dumped her for another man. It was Mariel's wishful thinking of the end of what she believes to be "an evil influence". Over the course of several years she has taken an amazing amount of staged photographs involving the barbie dolls. The following images come from the series 25 Rooms, Fables and Hystoria.

Website: www.thephotographymarielclayton.com

Photographer #274: Sebastian Kim

Sebastian Kim, 1974, USA, is a fashion / editorial photographer based in New York City. He was born in Vietnam, raised in Iran, France and the USA. He started his career assisting Richard Avedon for four years and then moved on to assist Steven Meisel for another seven years. The lessons he learned while assisting both photography legends laid the basis for his current work. His work has appeared in numerous magazines, from Numéro to GQ Style and from Vogue to V Man. Amongst his clients are Calvin Klein, L'Oreal and Nina Ricci.  The following images come from his portfolios Womens, Mens and Portraits.

Website: www.sebastiankim.com

Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros

Deeply shocked and saddened by the news of the loss of outstanding British photographer Tim Hetherington and amazing American photographer Chris Hondros. I have decided not to feature a photographer today, but to take a minute and remember Tim and Chris. I wish their families, friends and colleagues strength in these hard times.

Next to the loss of Tim and Chris, news arrived that both Michael Brown and Guy Martin have been injured. I also wish Michael and Guy, their families, friends and colleagues strength.

Photographer #273: Andrea Olivo

Andrea Olivo, 1980, South Africa, has been living and working in the fashion capital Milan since 2003. He started out assisting photographers in the fashion scene which took him all around the world carrying equipment and people's underwear. Two years ago he started on his own and got signed to Aura Photo Agency. He began working for various magazines as Italian Cosmopolitan and Gioia and got featured in C-Heads magazine amongst others. Andrea tries to place obscure references to movies, comics, music or poetry in his imagery. In 2009 he also started photographing girls on his couch who stopped by his place for go sees. These images are combined in his weblog Andy Olives Casting Couch. He describes his photography as "tongue-in-cheek, never taking itself too seriously but always trying to create a beautiful image." The following images come from various fashion shoots and from his personal portfolio Girls Girls Girls.

Website: www.andreaolivo.com

Photographer #272: Veejay Villafranca

Vicente Jaime Villafranca, 1982, better known as Veejay, is a photojournalist from the Republic of the Philippines. His work focuses primarily on youth culture and its progression and/or regression, on Filipino faith practices and fanaticism and on the concept of reserved space for ethnic tribes. With his story Marked he became the first Asian to receive the Ian Parry Scholarship grant in 2008. Marked tells the story of gang members in Manila who made a living with drugs, pickpocketing and theft. He follows the members in their attempt to find a life outside of crime, violence and drugs that have become a part of life in Baseco, one of the biggest slums in Manila. His work has been exhibited in various places in Europe and Asia. Veejay is represented by Getty Global Assignments. The following images come from the stories Marked, A Race Divided and Creatures of Habit.

Website: www.veejayvillafranca.com

Photographer #271: David Chancellor

David Chancellor, 1961, UK, works and lives in South Africa. He studied at Kent Institute of Art and Design. His work, for which he travels extensively, can be best described as documentary reportage. His series Hunters, which will be released as a monograph in 2011, explores the relationship between man and animal. South Africa currently has the largest hunting industry. His series Elephant Story won a World Press Photo award in 2010. We see local villagers in Zimbabwe that fall upon the body of a dead elephant. Within two hours they reduce the large animal to bones. Besides his documentary work David also focuses on landscape and portrait photography and also photographed his wife and son. His photography is very clean, sharp and bright and takes us deep into the subject of human behaviour. Chancellor was named Nikon photographer of the year three times. The following images come from the series Hunters, Cotton and Elephant Story.

Website: www.davidchancellor.com

Photographer #270: Danny Clinch

Danny Clinch, 1964, USA, is a music photographer and film maker. The list of musicians that have appeared in front of his camera is endless, from Tupac Shakur to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and from Katy Perry to Tony Bennett. His work has been published in numerous magazines and on hundreds of CD covers. As a director he made music videos, documentaries and concert DVD's which have earned him two Grammy Award nominations. Throughout the years he has photographed Bruce Springsteen extensively which resulted in an exhibition in 2009. Danny released two books, Discovery Inn in 1998 and When the Iron Bird Flies in 2000. The following images come from his portfolio's Bruce Springsteen, Grammys and Showcase 01.

Website: www.dannyclinch.com

Photographer #269: Carrie Levy

Carrie Levy, 1979, USA, studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and later received an MFA from the Royal College of Art in London. At a young age she released her book 51 Months. 51 months was the length of the prison sentence her father received when Carrie was sixteen, during this period she started photographing her life and the effects of her fathers incarceration. Her photography evolved and became more and more conceptual, however the experience of her father's incarceration keeps coming back in her projects. Her series Untitled was still based upon the stories of her father. In her latest series she has photographed men in submissive, vulnerable and passive role. She shows us that females can as well objectify the male body. Carrie has exhibited her work extensively troughout the world. The following images come from the series You Before All, Impaired and Untitled.

Website: www.carrielevy.com

An unexpected visitor

Last weekend saw an intense passage of raptors across the Strait of Gibraltar and over the Rock. More of that will follow in other posts. The local Peregrines patrolled the airspace by their nesting cliffs searching for tired migrants. Little did we know what would unfold...

From out over the Mediterranean Sea, in the east, came a strange falcon...It was larger than the local Peregrines, with a disticntive shape and plumage pattern. It was a Lanner Falcon, a North African species that occasionally strays onto the European shore at this time of year.

Venturing close to the Peregrine's cliff, it was a matter of time before an aerial combat would unfold, and it did...

the chases went on for over fifteen minutes, the intruder seemingly returning for more of the action. And it gave as good as it got (below)!

We sighted the bird later in the day so it didn't quite get the message instantly!

The bird was in its second spring of life, in other words it was born last spring. It was probably dispersing into new territory and stumbled upon an angry cousin!

We are grateful to Dick Forsman for providing a second opinion on the identification.