4 Continents 4 Change is the first collective Shoot4Change exhibition in the United States opening on July 5th 2012 at the SOHO Photo Gallery in NYC. The exhibit showcases images from the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, aiming to raise public awareness on social issues by shining a light on events occurring in forgotten regions of the world. Shoot4Change, the global network of volunteer photographers founded by Antonio Amendola whose notable work has been praised by the likes of NY Times, UK Daily Telegraph, Rolling Stone, Wired, Sky, la Repubblica, operates under the motto “Shoot local, Change global”. 4 Continents 4 Change explores all aspects of the human condition through the eyes of over thirty photographers including children, students, amateurs and National Geographic professionals. The collection demonstrates all methods of image capture ranging from high end professional equipment to use of an iPhone. Shoot4Change photographers from Asia tell the story of “Those Who Remained” with images from the streets of Fukushima after the 2011 Tsunami. Images from Myanmar show a world rich in color and texture, despite widespread poverty. With thousands fleeing this region, viewers begin to understand what life is like for the Muslim communities in Myanmar who are suffering persecution. From Africa, viewers will see “City of The Dead”, in Cairo, Egypt, with its haunting scenes of villagers who live in a monumental cemetery. And in Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, the natives are captured in gritty, mesmerizing images by a 15 year old photographer. In Europe, you find the story of “The Mud House”, where traces of the memory of the land and its history remain etched into a house and the family that inhabits it. Images from Ukraine provide an unflinching look at the cancer epidemic among children from Chernobyl. In the Americas, viewers will come face to face the griping topic of “Mental Illness in American Prisons”; poverty and violence in low income communities of NYC and life in the Amazon, where medical missionaries bring treatment to impoverished coastal communities. An installation of images from the Occupy Movement unites Europe and America with photos from both the Rome and NYC actions, and the work of Next Generation, the Shoot4Change international project to teach social photography to children around the world demonstrates the global alliance that unifies the organization. 4 Continents 4 Change opens July 5th 2012 in conjunction with SOHO Photo Gallery’s annual National Photography Competition winner’s exhibition. Workshops and other events, including a Shoot4Minutes portfolio review will take place during the month. All proceeds generated from sales of the 4 Continents 4 Change collection will be used to assist in funding local projects and/or other charitable causes.
August Bradley Angelo Merendino Jenn Ackerman Rodney A. Ferrer Yelena Futeran Ozzie Hoppe Bruce Giffin Kerry Payne
Alfons Rodriguez Guillermo Luna Matteo Bertolino Valerio Muscella
Vincenzo Dell’Aversano Beatrice Lencioni Davide Pizzardi Fabio Moscatelli Giovanni Barba Valerio Contini
Antonio Amendola Antonio Marcello Stefano Pesarelli Giulia Rossanigo Francesco Romeo Paolo Cardone David Kame
Alessandro Vannucci Arne de Knegt Grace Roth Isaak J. Liptzin Katsuo Takahashi Leo H. Santana Marco Giovanelli Paolo Quadrini Sheikh Rajibul Islam Thomas Cristofoletti Baha Souki
Jenn Ackerman – Mental Illness in American Prisons - The continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has turned prisons across the America into default mental health facilities. Jenn Ackerman is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work has focused on subcultures in the United States that are often misunderstood and overlooked including mental illness in prison, HIV in rural America, and families living in Appalachia. In 2012, she was named one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. Her photographs has been recognized by the Inge Morath Award, Magnum Expression Award, CENTER Project Competition, Photojournalism Competition on Human Rights, Emerging Photographer Fund, the PGB Photo Award, the Honickman First Book Prize and others. In 2009, she was published in the Communication Arts Photography Annual and named to Photolucida’s Critical Mass Top 50. Her multimedia and video have been recognized with an honorable mention for a Webby and a Telly and two of her short films have been screened at film festivals around the country. One of her most recent projects, Trapped, was named Non-Traditional Photojournalism Publishing Project of the Year and the project’s short film won an Emmy. “Mental Illness In America Prisons” is a project based on the continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has turned jails and prisons across the U.S. into the default mental health facilities. The system designed for security is now trapped with treating mental illness and the mentally ill are often trapped inside the system with nowhere else to go. www.jennackerman.com
August is a commercial and fine art photographer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. As a Hasselblad Master, he has received numerous Graphis Gold Awards, has been chosen for the PDN Photo Annual and received several IPA “Photographer of the Year Awards”. “I pursued this project because the OWS movement seemed like this big mystery. There are no front people, there are no personalities widely identified with it. It’s as if the entire movement was behind a mask. Obviously there are specific people involved, and I was curious about who they were. I don’t ever remember seeing a movement that did not have clearly identifiable personalities associated with it, the mystery of it was intriguing to me. I’m also fascinated with faces, they are endlessly interesting to me. And the idea of telling a story through a series of faces is particularly exciting to me. Most of my work has been with models and actors that I have transformed to communicate ideas in my head. I have increasingly become excited about discovering unique people, and revealing aspects of people not typically seen. So I have committed to doing more portrait work, hopefully in a penetrating, revealing way a different kind of look into the eyes.” www.auguststudio.com
August Bradley - 99 Faces of Occupy Wall Street - Identifying the faces behind the masks of the Occupy Wall Street Movement in NYC
Angelo Merendino - The battle we didn’t choose, my wife’s fight with breast cancer - Shaving Jen’s head at the hospital Moved by the beauty and frailty of each passing second, Angelo’s camera is always by his side and he is equally inspired by Robert Capa, Eugene Richards and Robert Frank as by Jack Kerouac and any human who is aware of the simple magnificence of life. Based in Manhattan, he is represented by Corbis. “In September of 2007, I married the girl of my dreams. Five months later, Jennifer was diagnosed with Stage 3B Breast Cancer. When Jen’s cancer metastasized in 2010, I found that the most effective way to communicate and share our daily challenges was with my camera. Words can often fall short, but a photo of Jen receiving chemotherapy speaks volumes. Images of Jen giving herself her daily shots to boost her immune system or photographs of strangers staring at Jen, then only 39 years old, bald and walking with a walker, show just one of the many challenges that she faced every day. People often assume that cancer treatments makes you better, that things become OK, that life goes back to “normal.” However, there is no normal in cancer-land. Cancer survivors have to define a new sense of normal, often daily. My photographs show this daily life. They humanize the face of cancer, on the face of my wife. They detail the treatments forced into her body. They show the challenge, difficulty, fear, sadness, loneliness and also love that we faced, that Jennifer faced, as she battled this disease. These photographs do not define us, but they are us. Cancer is in the news daily, and maybe, through these photographs, the next time a cancer patient is asked how he or she is doing, along with listening, the answer will be met with more knowledge, kinder empathy, deeper understanding, sincere caring and heartfelt concern.” www.angelomerendino.com
Alfons Rodriguez - Guatemala - Peasants from the Polochic Valley in Guatemala fight against agrarian companies to keep their land. Alfons studied photography and photojournalism at the IDEP Abad Oliva, a renowned school in Barcelona. Taking several workshops and lectured he studied under the guidance of professionals around the world, such as Michael Nichols and Steve Mccurry. Alfons is an accomplished photographer with many exhibitions around Spain and others countries. Also, he teaches photojournalism and travel photography in Universities and schools around the world. He is member of Reporters sans Frontièrs and founded several projects such as GEA Photowords and Caja Azul Photography. The Polochic Valley, is in the deepest part of Guatemala. In the most condensed series of climatic, geographical and political microcosms, that summarize most of the country’ s history. The property and the use of the land, isolated physically from the rest of the territory, watered by dozens of tributaries of the river with the same name, and in permanent bloom due to the dampness, the heat and the rains that hills retain on its immense estates have turned it into the center of the agrarian Guatemalan conflict. The peasants fight to keep the land as it is the only source of life, meanwhile big agrarian companies try to crop just cane sugar and corn for the biofuel production and push them out of their lands using violence and fear. www.armphoto.com
Guillermo Luna was born in Funes, Argentina. He started his career as a photographer in Argentina, in the field of advertising and sales. In 1996 he shoot his first story on the Aboriginal Pilagas cotton harvest and from that moment on he devoted himself with increasing passion to photography and social reportage. In 2000 Guillermo moved to Rome where he currently resides. Today he works with various international magazines and is an active member of the non-profit photography network, Shoot4Change. Brazil - For nearly 40 years a boat plows tirelessly along the Amazon bringing health care and spiritual assistance to the coastal communities of this long river. This mission began in 1975 in MacapĂ , the capital of the State of AmapĂĄ, on the left bank of the North arm of the mouth of the Amazon. There the hospital ship of Father Raul Matte, a doctor and Camillian priest first arrived in 1975. www.guillermoluna.com
Guillermo Luna - The Mission - For 40 years a boat carrying Father Raul Matte travels the Amazon bringing medical and spiritual assistance to the coastal communities.
Stefano Pesarelli, lives in Malawi with his wife Francesca. They started up Africa Wildtrick a safari and ecotourism company that adds photography in the mix. Stefano, an experienced and talented photographer, is touring Africa shooting photos with an iPhone. A simple yet powerful tool to reduce in simple terms an extremely complex Continent. Stefano’s images such high levels as the international contest of the Black and White Professional Awards on PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris and the Photo Contest 2011 U.S. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. He has exhibited in several Italian cities and abroad and has published his repors on major magazines as Witness Journal, Africa, Repubblica.it Lastampa.it. “Maybe it’s just a small illusion, maybe we should investigate in depth, but it sure is emerging a new photographic language that has made things so” communicating “in contemporary photography today Africa through the iPhone is a large photographic project that aims to blend reality and the stories of a continent with this new language of photography to create images of very palpable and communicating.” www.stefanopesarelli.com
Stefano Pesarelli - Africa Through iPhone - Africa through iPhone is a wide photographic project tending to combine the reality and the stories of a continent with a new photographic language in order to create tangible and communicative images.
Antonio Amendola - Those Who Live Amonf the Dead Antonio Amendola is the Founder and President of Shoot4Change (S4C). Living two lives at the same time. Works as a jurist specialized in tlc and new technologies Law, and he was a contract professor of Media Law at Rome University. Traveller, blogger and photographer. Antonio merged his passion for photography and his entrepreneurial expertise into creating S4C. Forming a social photography movement and gathering an incredible high number of creative minds around the World with a common goal: bringing back public awareness of the ignored or forgotten stories. The City of the Dead is the monumental cemetery of Cairo currently inhabited by almost 800,000 people who have occupied the funerary chappels were the dead are burried, making them their permanent home. Although ranking 18th position in the list of the largest slums in the world (of wich as many as four are in Cairo). What is amazing there, is the overlapping of concept such as life and death, old and new. People live among the tombs and kids play on them. But always with a total respect for those burried underground. In 90% of the cases, the burried ones do not belong to the family living “upstairs�. But they care about them like they were their beloved departed ones. www.antonioamendola.com
Freelance Photographer, member of the the Shoot4Change NGO, also collaborating with GEA PHOTOWORDS and África Sin Fronteras. He studied both documentary photography and studio photography in Milan and Barcelona, at schools like Ruido and Barcelona Photographer. David Kame had his work published in Italian and Spanish magazines and travel guides. Since 2006 he is member of the Casa del Tibet Foundation in Barcelona, supporting the financing of the projects through photography exhibitions. In Spain he is represented by the Agency Photoaisa. The history of the Himba, a nomadic ethnic group located in northern Namibia, known for the distinctive red ocher of their body, is a story of human tragedy. Periods of severe drought took turns to armed attack with other neighboring tribes, particularly during the period of struggle to win the independence of Namibia and as a result of civil war with the neighboring Angola. Nowadays the Himba live in very poor sanitary conditions, facing long periods of drought alternated by heavy floods. In addition to that, alcohol abuse and other western “vices” are also becoming predominant threatens to their culture and traditions. But above all, the final blow to the Himba people might come as a consequence of an eventual hydroelectric dam to be constructed in the Baynes Mountains area. David Kame started in 2007 a 10-years work to tell the story of these people living the most crucial period of their history. www.davidkame.com
David Kame - Himba - A hydroelectric dam threatens ancient traditions of the nomadic ethnic group located in northern Namibia.
Thomas Cristofoletti - Burned, Cambodia - The Pnong are the aboriginal people in Cambodia. They are burning their forests to make space for plantations of rubber and sweet potatoes, in the process are burning their traditions, their language, their history and their beloved spirits. Thomas Cristofoletti is an Italian freelance photographer & videographer currently living and working in Madrid (Spain). For the past two years he has been working in the field of several social video & photography projects in South East Asia for different international NGOs. His photographs have been featured in several international travel magazines. “They belong, or rather, belonged to the ethnic population Pnong, an aboriginal ethnic group that speaks a Mon-Khmer language. The Pnong population are normally not members of any organized religion, but instead are animists and worship nature spirits. Unfortunately, nowadays they seem to have lost almost many of their ancient traditions, opening up completely to Western culture, both in the manner of dress and, especially, beginning to burn the forests that surround the village to plant potatoes and rubber trees. Driving off-road to reach the village, it seemed almost to go to hell‌ with fire, smoke and burning trees everywhere. Unfortunately, with the forest, the Pnong are burning their traditions, their language, their history, and their beloved spirits.â€? http://www.jeriko1kenobi.net/public/web2011
Grace Roth - Myanmar - As the sun rises in the harbor of Yangon, Myanmar, a young sailor washes before starting his day.
Equity researcher by day, culinary school student by night, never without her camera or iPad, Grace Roth lives her personal passions-photo journalism and gastronomy. She attended Parsons School of Design where she holds a BFA in photography and has had her work exhibited in Paris and NYC as well as featured in several online news publications. An active member of the global photography network, Shoot4Change, Grace assists by coordinating support efforts for all NY based activities. Through this work she hopes to help create social awareness and change through photojournalism. “On May 2nd 2008, Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar, crossing the south of the country over two days, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Nearly 85,000 people were killed and 50,000 more went missing. A total of 37 townships were significantly altered, it was estimated that as many as 2.4 million people were affected. The cyclone was one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. It blew away 700,000 homes in the delta, killed threefourths of the livestock, sank half the fishing fleet and salted a million acres of rice paddies with its seawater surge. I traveled to Myanmar two months later preparing for the worst, expecting to see a country in total devastation. The primary regions affected by the Nargis were closed off to the public, still too unstable to travel through. When I arrived in Yangon, the former capital was beginning to rebuild. While the city had few human casualties, three quarters of the industrial infrastructure was damaged. Countless people had lost their homes, their jobs, friends and family and despite these tragedies remained optimistic and hopeful. I watched as people literally picked up pieces of their lives and started over, rebuilding homes, replanting farms and learning to cope with losses. I traveled through the cities of Yangon, Mandalay, and into the township near Inle Lake observing the people. In every region, I was invited into homes, I was offered tea, I was allowed to document intimate moments without question. In the face of everything the Burmese had endured, they remained stoic and showed pride in what they still had left.� www.gracerothphotography.com
Sheikh Rajibul Islam - Waiting to be registered, Bangladesh - Thousands of Muslim ethnic minority refugees originating from Myanmar have nowhere to go and no way to meet their basic needs. Sheikh Rajibul Islam is a Freelance Cinematographer with a background in Architecture who lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority originating from Myanmar, are denied citizenship and suffer persecution and discrimination in Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh. Thousands of unregistered Rohingya refugees are living in the Kutupalong makeshift camp, Bangladesh, are being forcibly displaced from their homes, in an act of intimidation and abuse by the local authorities. To date, an estimated 25,000 people have flocked to the Kutupalong makeshift camp hoping for recognition and assistance. Instead of finding help, they have been told that they cannot live next to the official camp, supported by the Bangladesh Government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Nor can they legally live on adjacent Forestry Department land. They have nowhere to go and no way to meet their basic needs. Denied citizenship in Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes to seek refuge abroad. Few have been granted refugee status. The majority struggle to survive, unrecognized and unassisted in Bangladesh. www.lightstalkers.org/rajib
Marco Giovanelli - Jakarta Slums - A sparkle of life even in the worst of scenarios Marco Giovanelli is from Tabatinga, Amazonas, Brazil and currently live in Leticia, Amazonas. “Taking pictures while travelling. Discovering the beauties of the planet, making them immortal. Representing the spirit of every magical corner of the world and every culture. This is my life. This is what I want to be.� Marco likes telling stories about people and places through images: the faces and the looks, now smiling, now anxious, express more than simple words. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. An urban hell one of the most inhospitable in the world, a concentration of degradation and poverty, growing desperate in the slums of the suburbs the limit of human dignity. A population that seeks a better future for their children, a population for which the world and Western society seems to have closed doors in his face, a population that continues to fight and smile. www.marcogiovanelli.com
Fabio Moscatelli - Musulmanità - Exploring the culture of the Muslims in Rome Fabio Moscatelli is an accomplished photographer and attentive observer of life, through his shots he captures the details of the world being able to give conflicting emotions. With a unique sensitivity in telling human stories, he reveals the magic and mystery of existence. “My project is divided into three phases: religion, work, family. This is the first phase, which focuses on the religious culture of storytelling through images taken during parties, first of Ramadan, and study times, passing the hours before Iftar, the feast day that celebrates the breaking of the fast, and that gives extraordinary moments of everyday life. “ http://www.wix.com/fabiomoscatelli/fmp#
Born in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Giovanni is a self taught photographer who won such prestigious awards as Premio Ischia Fotografia 2009 and Premio National Geographic Italia 2007. He now lives in Naples where he teaches photography at GiuBox Gallery and leads workshops. Terra di Lavoro, meaning literally “Land of Work”, was the name given to one of the largest provinces in Italy, comprising, on until well after Italian unification, the majority of the territory in the present-day regions of Lazio and Campania. The exploitation of the land and its population, and the fight between landless and landowner have characterized this place from time immemorial. Despite the fact that the majority of its population had gone elsewhere in search of a better standard of living, it still retained its agricutural character up into the 1900’s. In the fields of Teano, in the heartland of Terra di Lavoro, traces of the memory of the land and its history remain etched into a house and the family that inhabits it, who have managed to resist untold time and domination. Cristina and Salvatore live far into the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but stretches of land, in rooms long since overcome by mold. They have tilled land their entire lives, for the landowners. “We set out when it was dark and got home when it was even darker. We put in twelve, thirteen hours a day just to earn enough to eat”. Now, too old and worn out to work, they spend their remaining days in the company of alcohol, waiting for the occasional visit from their children or relatives. www.giovannibarba.com
Giovanni Barba - The Mud House - In the fields of Teano, in the heartland of Terra di Lavoro, traces of the memory of the land and its history remain etched into a house and the family that inhabits it, who have managed to resist untold time and domination.
grace roth
antonio amendola
davide pizzardi
yelena futeran
beatrice lencioni
Rome
Brooklyn
Costa Rica
Barcelona
Shoot4Change exhibit 4continents4change curated by: Shoot4Change NYC Yelena Futeran, Grace Roth showcased at Soho Photo Gallery 15 White Street - New York July 5th - July 31st 2012 For further Information: www.shoot4change.net Founder/President: Antonio Amendola a.amendola@shoot4change.net Press Office: Serafino Rescina press@shoot4change.net Matteo Minasi m.minasi@shoot4change.net Curated By: Grace Roth g.roth@shoot4change.net Yelena Futeran y.futeran@shoot4change.net Visual Design: Carla Ciatto c.ciatto@shoot4change.net All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means of electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writting from the publisher.