Photographer #443: Myriam Abdelaziz

Myriam Abdelaziz, 1976, is a French photographer of Egyptian origins and born in Cairo. Her career started in the marketing field in which she worked for seven years after having studied Political Science and Journalism. She decided to pursue a career in photography and graduated from the International Center of Photography in New York in 2006. Since then her work has been published in prestigious magazines as Newsweek, Time Magazine and Eyemazing. She is mainly working on documentary and portraiture stories in the Middle East and Africa. Her work often focuses on current matters as the hardships of the people from Darfur living in Egypt and the revolution in Egypt. She concentrated on the horrific effects of the Rwandan genocide on its survivors who were merely children at the time they were mutilated. She heard the upsetting stories of the victims but was equally shocked by the lack of response from the world community as they are still not getting surgery or psychiatric help. The following images come from the series Egyptian Revolt, Portrait of a Genocide and Darfuris in Cairo.

Website: www.myriamabdelaziz.com

In the Land of the Iberian Lynx

Two of us (Geraldine and Clive) spent a few days in the stronghold of the world's most endangered cat - the Iberian Lynx Lynx pardina. This animal was familiar to us from the fossils we have excavated in prehistoric and medieval sites in Gibraltar and we had had a couple of close encounters with them in Donana in the 1990s. So we decided to travel up into the Sierra Morena north of Andujar to see if we could find old friends.

The habitat of the lynx can be described as open Mediterranean forest though we prefer to call it wooded savannah, a habitat that was typical of the emerged coastal shelf off Gibraltar for thousands of years. Here in Andujar, there are tens of thousands of hectares of this wild country, home of Spanish Imperial Eagles Aquila adalberti, Black Vultures Aegypius monachus and Black Storks Ciconia nigra.

Among the smaller species, Hoopoes Upupa epops (above) and Dartford Warblers Sylvia undata (below) are abundant and widespread.

Red-legged Partridges Alectoris rufa abound here too and are potential prey of the lynxes.

But it is the Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus that is the favoured prey, and there are lots in these hills.

For two days the lynxes were proving elusive, only distant views down the valley confirming their presence. But other predators of the rabbit made themselves visible. Geraldine took time to focus on a large adult Ladder Snake Elaphe scalaris

...and the mating dance of the Iberian Wall Lizards Podarcis hispanica.

As the sun started to go down on our last evening we turned our attention to the herds of Red Deer Cervus elaphus, not wanting to admit defeat to ourselves but knowing that there would have to be another time for the lynx.

Then, driving back with a wonderful evening light a movement caught our eyes as two lynxes wandered into Cistus scrub to our left. We saw them for a split second and they were gone! Fifty metres down we paused by a firebreak in hope as the animals had been moving in that direction. Five minutes went by and nothing. The light would soon fade. Then, out of the Cistus emerged a female with a yellow collar, barely 50 metres away! She sat down and waited for her one-year old cub who promptly sat close to her. Cameras were clicking frantically by then as the lynxes seemed more interested in some Magpies Pica pica than in us. This is what we got...

Collared female (left) and one-year old cub (right) with Magpie (middle ground) and Red Deer (background)!

Female (above) and cub (below)

Now the sun could set!

During our stay in these hills we stayed at Villa Matilde which we thouroughly recommend. Our hosts - Merche and Roland - are committed and knowledgeable conservationists. They took wonderful care of us and the evening meals were wonderful! On our return to Gibraltar an email from them confirmed than the collared female had been born in 2008 and was known by the name Elam...





Peak Migration of Short-toed Eagle

For over a week now we have seen a most wonderful spectacle - the spring migration of raptors across the Strait of Gibraltar. Many species are now coming through but the star of the show has been the Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus. Many thousands have passed north and today's migration was spectacular. The birds coming through are all adults that are heading for their breeding grounds in Iberia and beyond.



Adults are easy to identify by their heavily barred plumage and dark heads.

Strong westerlies drifted many of these majestic birds towards the Rock of Gibraltar. Flying over the sea in these conditions is hazardous and the birds were visibly exhausted on arrival.

Soon, all the adults will be back in their breeding territories and the short-lived spectacle will be over for another year, but other species will come in instead. Spring raptor migration now continues until June!







Species Profile - The Eurasian Black Vulture

Today we start a new section of our blog, dedicated to species profiles. We start with the Eurasian Black Vulture Aegypius monachus.

This species is a solitary tree nester that survives in good numbers across large tracts of Central Spain, in Sierra Morena (Andalucia) and parts of Extremadura in particular.

In these remote forests and dehesas (parklands) they share the territory with another Iberian tree nesting jewel - the Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti.

The Black Vulture is a species that is typical of the forests of the mid-latitude belt, from Iberia eastwards into Central Asia. Its success has been the exploitation of trees as nest sites, keeping it well clear of the colonies of cliff-nesting Griffon Vultures, and allowing it to reach carcasses ahead of the Griffon.

This has given rise to the established, but false, idea that Griffon Vultures are subordinate to Black Vultures and must wait the arrival of the powerful Black Vulture to tear into the hide of dead animals. While a Black Vulture can oust a Griffon Vulture in a one-to-one contest, and it can even barge into a group, the reality is that it gets easily overwhelmed by a mass of Griffons and often stays along the edge of the activity picking up scraps.

Though considered sedentary, Black Vultures will disperse southwards in autumn and some regularly cross the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa.

The old territory of al-Andalus remains Europe's stronghold for this rare species, the largest of Palaearctic vultures



















Photographer #442: Vincent Fournier

Vincent Fournier, 1970, France, is an image-maker who combines documentary and staged photography. He studied photography at the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles. His ongoing series entitled Space Project reflects his fascination for the space age. His inspiration stems from various things in his youth and by watching movies as 2001: A Space Odessey and Solaris. His large scale images contain an aspect of humor, mainly due to carefully placing his subjects and objects. For this project, as well as his other personal works, he has traveled around the globe. Tour Operator is a body of work inspired by the book Around the world in 80 days by Jules Vernes. He has documented the transformation of landscapes and the interaction between mankind and the environment. In an intelligent and witty manner he directs our eyes to the bizarre and the usual. In his project The Man Machine he carefully staged robots in urban settings and the spaces where they are being developed. Both his projects Tour Operator and Space Project have been released as books. The following images come from the series Space Project, Tour Operator and The Man Machine.

Website: www.vincentfournier.co.uk

Photographer #441: Tereza Vlčková

Tereza Vlčková, 1983, Czech Republic, is a conceptual and fine-art photographer currently studying at the Silesian University in Opava, the Institute of Creative Photography. In 2007 she completed the series A Perfect Day, Elise... showing floating girls with a mountainous background. Since then she has been in numerous exhibitions amongst which are Paris Photo in 2010 and 2011 and the traveling reGeneration2 group show. Throughout her series we find deeper layers dealing with themes as fear, the self and dreams. In her series Two she photographed indentical twins in a scary forest setting. The project deals with the questions of the "I" and the psychology of how we perceive ourselves. She seeks a fine line between fiction and reality. Are all of the twins truly twins or have some been created merely showing an alter-ego of some of the girls? Her work has been featured in a large number of photography / art magazines and catalogs as Exit, Picnic and Photonews. The following images come from the series Mirrors Inside, Two and A Perfect Day, Elise...

Website: www.terezavlckova.com

Photographer #440: Claire Martin

Claire Martin, 1980, Australia, is a documentary photographer with a focus on marginalised communities. In 2007 and 2008 she concentrated on Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Even though Vancouver is a city that was twice voted "the worlds most liveable", the residents of this part live below the poverty line. The suburb has an estimated AIDS rate of 30% and the leading cause of death is overdose. In 2009 she visited Slab City where she focused on the permanent residents of this community in the Colorado desert. It "is a place for the broken and desperate and for the fierce defenders of freedom from tyranny." In 2010 and 2011 she went to Haiti to document the aftermath of the earthquake. "Every spare piece of land has turned into a tent city and whole suburbs and major infrastructure lay demolished, essentially turning and entire city into a slum." Claire has exhibited her work in solo shows in Australia and has been in various group exhibitions around the world. In 2010 she won the Magnum Foundation Inge Morath award for female photographers under the age of 30. She is a member of the prestigious Australian photo collective Oculi. The following images come from the series Petionville - Life in Haiti's Tent Cities, Slab City and Downtown East Side.

Website: www.clairemartinphotography.com