LIFE
FORCE
The magazine of the photo-essay
June 2017 back issue
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Narciso Contreras
To commission him or to request prints of his work: narcisocontreras.photoshelter
Narciso Contreras is an award winning documentary photographer born in Mexico
City in 1975.
Since 2010 he has been covering a variety of issues and topics in Southern Asia and
the Middle East, leading him to focus his work on the humanitarian cost of conflicts,
economics and wars. His work aims to contribute to building a visual memory of the
world he sees.
His studies in philosophy, photography and visual anthropology led him to live and
study in a monastery in India while photographing religious communities. Since then,
Narciso has photographed under reported issues like the ethnic war in Myanmar and
the forgotten war in Yemen, as well as some of the major current events, such as the
political upheavals in Istanbul, the conflict in Gaza, the military coup in Egypt, the war
in Syria and the tribal conflict in Libya.
August Sander
August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and
documentary photographer.
Sander's first book Face of our Time (German: Antlitz der Zeit) was published in 1929.
Sander has been described as "the most important German portrait photographer of
the early twentieth century."
August Sander, 1876-1964
August Sander 1925, printed 1990
Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
258 x 195 mm
ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland. Presented
by Gerd Sander 2009
Mike Mandel
Mike Mandel (born 1950) is an artist who has been working primarily with photography
since the early 1970s. He is best known for his project The Baseball-Photographer
Trading Cards, as well as his collaborations with the late Larry Sultan including the
landmark publication Evidence.
He teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is a recent visiting
lecturer at the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard. A
retrospective of his work is scheduled for May 2017 at SFMOMA.
Dieter Blum
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.dieter-blum.de
Dieter Blum, born in Esslingen in 1936, was invited to a first test shoot for Marlboro in
the USA in 1992. The pictures from this shoot, which have never previously been
exhibited, provided the basis for Blum’s subsequent fame as the most internationally
famous photographer working in this context. Dieter Blum was a strong influence not
only on the Marlboro campaign, but on the product advertising and documentary
photography of the era in general.
Blum has been creating commercial and free artistic photography since the 1960s.
His photographic series are dedicated to themes such as Africa, Nippon, German
landmarks, Dance, Shell, and portraits of artists and musicians. His artwork has been
exhibited in numerous German and international galleries and museums. In 2015,
Blum received the Médaille Vermeil from the Societé Arts-Sciences-Lettres in Paris
for his life’s work—the first photographer, and one of only a very small number of
Germans, to do so in the society’s 100-year history.
Andrej Krementschouk
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.krementschouk.com
Andrej Krementschouk was born in 1973 in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), Russia.
His varied career includes a completed apprenticeship as a restorer of icons and metal
objets d’art, a diploma degree as chorus director, work as a freelance jeweller and
restorer of icons, and a diploma degreein Communication Design with a focus in
photography. No Direction Home was chosen as a winner of the competition “Good
Prospects – Young German Photography 2007/8,” and was subsequently published
as a monograph with the same name by Kehrer Verlag in 2009.
From 2009 to 2011, Krementschouk was a member of the Ostkreuz photographic
agency, Berlin. He currently lives and works on Leipzig, Germany, and has recently
completed a photographic project titled Chernobyl Zone.
His work has been included in numerous international exhibitions, in 2011 he had a
solo show at the renowned Blue Sky Gallery, Portland. Chernobyl Zone (II) is his
fourth book published at Kehrer Verlag, after disquieting photo series from the
Gaia Light and Alessandro Cosmelli
To commission them or to request prints of their work: Gaia
Alessandro
Alessandro Cosmelli is a documentary photographer and visual artist born in Livorno,
Italy. His work has taken him to travel throughout South America, West Africa, Middle
East, Asia, and across the United States of the Obama era.
His research is inspired by the fascinating dynamics and forces that contribute to
shape our contemporary society and it is focused on the interactions between the
individual and their community in a globalized world.
Alessandro has published four monographic books including Oltrenero (Contrasto,
2009) and Brooklyn Buzz (Damiani, 2012), both awarded by the Pictures Of the Year
International (POYi) among the best photography books of the year.
His images have been extensively exhibited internationally, featured in leading
international newspapers and magazines, and broadcasted across major multimedia
platforms, receiving awards from the Pictures Of the Year International, Photo España
Anatol Kotte
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.anatolkotte.com
Francesco Mastalia has traveled the world photographing tribal, religious, spiritual,
and indigenous people. His book Dreads, published by Workman Artisan, is a photo
documentary on the history of dreadlocks. Now in its eighth printing, it includes an
introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker.
His second book Organic: Farmers & Chefs of the Hudson Valley, published by
powerHouse Books, is a documentary of the Hudson Valley’s organic sustainable food
movement. The portraits of the farmers and chefs were photographed using the wet
plate collodion process, a photographic technique developed in the 1850’s. Works from
Organic are included in the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress.
The forthcoming book, Yoga: The Secret of Life, is a collection of photographs and text
that explores the personal experiences of 108 of today’s leading yoga practitioners
and how this ancient practice has transformed their mind, body, and spirit. The book is
scheduled for release in the fall of 2017.
Steve Evans
To commission him or to request prints of his work: babasteve.blogspot.co.uk
Steve Evans is a cultural researcher, photojournalist, and social documentary
photographer and travels the globe extensively. He is affiliated with the International
Center for Ethnographic Studies - Atlanta, USA. Steve’s work has been featured in
exhibits in Nicosia-Cyprus, Brasilia-Brazil, Johannesburg-South Africa, and Dhahran-
Saudi Arabia. In addition, his photos have been used in hundreds of print and online
publications of various non-profits, humanitarian, educational, and religious
organizations. Steve’s work has taken him to over 90 countries.
Stephen Shames
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.stephenshames.com
Steve creates award winning photo essays on social issues for foundations, advocacy
organizations, the media, and museums. His photographs are in the permanent
collections of major museums.
Steve is author of nine monographs: Power to the People: The World of the Black
Panthers (Abrams, Oct, 2016), Bronx Boys (University of Texas Press), Outside the
Dream, Pursuing the Dream, The Black Panthers (Aperture), Bronx Boys e-book
(FotoEvidence) Facing Race (Moravian College), Transforming Lives (Star Bright
Books), and Free to Grow (Columbia University).
American Photo named Steve one of the 15 Most Underrated Photographers. PBS
named Hine, Wolcott, and Shames as photographers whose work promotes social
change. He received the Kodak Crystal Eagle Award for Impact in Photojournalism
for Outside the Dream.
Helena de Braganca
To commission her or to request prints of her work: www.helenaimage.com
Helena Kubicka de Bragança was born in 1978 to Polish and Portuguese immigrants in
London, England. Her attention to detail, colors, shapes and simply her introspective
nature developed at an early age. At the age of fifteen, a close friend compelled
Helena to begin photographing and modeling. They put together a darkroom in her
basement and experienced the magic of developing a print, the slow process of
witnessing the black and white image appear on a silver gelatin print while the acrid
smells of developer, stop and fixer baths clung to her skin and clothes. Helena painted
and created mosaic murals in high school and university but her strong desire to feel
the camera and sense the darkroom pulled her back into photography.
At age twenty, Helena was greatly influenced by the movie “I Am Cuba.” The surreal
imagery mixed with the ability to channel intense human emotions inspires the way
she photographs today. After receiving an honors degree in Photography, Spanish
Literature and French Literature from Rutgers University, Helena began freelancing in
New York City for various publications such as The New York Times and The New York
Damian Bird
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.damianbirdphotography.com
Damian Bird, is a photographer and photojournalist with many years of experience,
working in war zones and trouble spots around the globe. He was educated in
Photography at the Surrey College of Art and Design and at the London College of
Communication where he studied for a post graduate degree in Photojournalism.
In 2011 he founded Life Force magazine with his business partner and wife of 14 years,
Alice. As well as Editing Life Force magazine, he is currently engaged in photographing
a series of photo-essays on English culture and has recently returned to Afghanistan.
He continues to have his work published in national and international newspapers and
magazines including The Times, the Telegraph, the Express, the Observer, GQ, Esquire,
Dazed & Confused,The Face, Country Life and Geographical magazine.
He lives with his wife and four children in Devon, England.
deserted urban zone around the Chernobyl reactor No Direction Home (2009, winner of PDN Photo Annual 2010), Come
Bury Me (2010) and Chernobyl Zone (I) (2011).
Adam Jahiel
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.adamjahiel.com
American photographer. Born April 27, 1956 in Ann Arbor Michigan. Raised in Urbana
Illinois. Educated At Brooks Institute of Photography (BS), majoring in commercial
photography and University of Missouri Columbia (BJ) majoring in photojournalism.
Apprenticed with Douglas Kirkland in Los Angeles, CA. Began freelance career in Los
Angeles doing editorial, motion picture and corporate photography. Now lives in Story,
Wyoming pop. 840.
Adam Jahiel, has had a varied professional career. He has worked for a number of
industries, including, motion picture, editorial, advertising, and adventure projects,
most notably as the photographer for the landmark French-American 1987 Titanic
expedition. His work has appeared many major publications, including Time,
Newsweek, The New York Times, National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, and a
multitude of photography and fine-art magazines. Jahiel’s work also has appeared in
literally dozens of books.
The Project:
For years, Jahiel has been photographing the cowboys of the Great Basin, perhaps one of the most inhospitable regions
of the already rugged West. These people represent one of the last authentic American subcultures, one that is
disappearing at a rapid rate.
Cowboying as an art form is almost obsolete; still, the cowboys hang on, with a ferocious tenacity. Respect there doesn’t
come from the trappings of modern life. Talent, knowledge and skill are valued above all else. And the cowboy tradition
has its roots in the oldest of human conflicts: man against nature and man against himself.
Jahiel tries to reflect those sentiments in these photographs. These cowboys aren’t “remade” into a Hollywood image.
Instead, they are “found” images, in keeping with the spirit of authenticity that permeates the best keepers of this tradition.
Award for Human Values, Prix del la Photographie Paris. Instagram
Alessandro and Gaia Light are the creators of The Buzz Project, a multi-city photo-reconnaissance project, inaugurated in
2010, which represents a symbolic portrait of the contemporary metropolis and its inhabitants, as seen through the moving
frame of the public bus window. He is currently based in Miami.
Born and raised in Rome, Italy, Gaia Light received a degree in Law from La Sapienza
University, Rome, and subsequently chose to pursue an artistic career devoting her
professional efforts to the visual arts and documentary photography, depicting and
researching the interactions between the singular human psyche and the world-at-l
arge with socially driven photo-reportages and personal researches and investigations.
She works primarily as a visual artist and, since 2010, with the birth of the Light TV
project, as a filmmaker. Gaia Light’s photographs and artworks have been extensively
published and exhibited internationally.
Along with Alessandro Cosmelli, is the creator of The Buzz Project, a multi-city photo-
reconnaissance project, inaugurated in 2010, which represents a symbolic portrait of
the contemporary metropolis and its inhabitants, as seen through the moving frame of
the public bus window.
She lives and works between New York and Miami.
Instagram
Narciso’s work in Syria was awarded one of the Pulitzer Prizes in 2013, and received recognition in Pictures of the Year
International. He has contributed to magazines and media outlets around the globe including TIME magazine, The
Guardian, The New York Times, Paris Match, RT TV, MSNBC News, AP Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Foreign
Policy, Der Spiegel, Newsweek, Al Jazeera, The Daily Beast, National Geographic, The Sunday Times magazine, The
Telegraph, The Washington Post, CNN, Wall Street Journal, L’Espresso, Expressen, Knack, dS Standaard and Wirtschafts
Woche, among others. He also has contributed to non-governmental organizations like MSF (Doctors Without Borders).
He is currently photographing the migrants’ crisis in North Africa as part of a long-term project of documentation based on
the worldwide conceived phenomenon of a “massive human displacement”.
Post. She was granted the honor to work alongside a number of legendary photographers, becoming a studio manager for
the late Arnold Newman and assisting Ralph Gibson, a mentor and close friend.
Eight years after seeing “I Am Cuba” and armed with a Leica camera, Helena visited Cuba to photograph local hip hop
artists who were profiled in the documentary “East of Havana”. Helena was captivated by Cuba, the people she met there
and the relative undocumented life of ordinary Cuban citizens. On her second trip she spent over two months traveling,
meeting artists, musicians, prostitutes, farmers and revolutionaries. Eventually through the network of people she
cultivated, she was able to penetrate deeper into the lives of her subjects than she could have ever imagined. Helena
believes that the photographs exude the trust and intimacy that she built with her subjects and that they express through
poetic colors the mysterious lives and struggles of Cubans today. Her book “I Am Cuban” is published by Damiani and is
available at bookstores worldwide.
CLIENTS: The New York Times, The New York Post, Glamour Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, Zink Magazine, Time Out
New York, Frank 151, Costume, Mamma.
EXHIBITIONS: Solo show at BAM, June 2011, Group show at Strychnin Gallery in Berlin, August 2011
COLLECTION: Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Nicky Hamilton
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.nickyhamilton.com
Nicky Hamilton (British, born 1982), is a photographer and former Head of Art at
leading advertising agency M&C Saatchi. His method is highly filmic, designing and
building elaborate sets to create pictures of extraordinary detail and narrative. His
work explores characters’ emotional states by playing with performance and
symbolism in order to produce deeply evocative moods.
Charles H Traub
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.charlestraub.com
Charles H. Traub was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1945. He studied English
literature at the University of Illinois, and joined the Peace Corps after graduation in
1967. An accident in Ethiopia forced him home to Kentucky where he met Ralph
Eugene Meatyard, who became an important inspiration and friend. After service in
the United States Army in 1969, he decided to pursue photography at the Institute of
Design in Chicago. There he studied with Aaron Siskind, Arthur Siegel and Garry
Winogrand. His thesis of abstracted black-and-white landscapes "Edge to Edge" was
widely exhibited, and featured in a solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago. Following
his landscape work he made three well-known series of black-and-white photographs:
Street and Parties (from The Chicago Period), and his first monograph, Beach, all used
an innovative vignette on a Rolleiflex SL66.
In 1971 Traub began teaching full time at Columbia College, Chicago, and was
responsible of developing new curriculum for the growing public interest in the medium.
Traub was instrumental in developing the school’s Contemporary Trends Lecture
Series that celebrated renowned international photographers and image-makers. Subsequently, he became chairperson of
the department and founded the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography, which became the Museum of
Contemporary Photography (MOCP). In 1973, along with his colleague Douglas Baz, Traub went on a sabbatical to make
the Cajun Document, extensive look at the culture of the Louisiana bayous.
Traub’s first major body of work in color, Street Portraits, began in 1976, continued after his move to New York City shortly
thereafter, and culminated in the book Lunchtime. His move to New York was followed by his first solo exhibition of
photographs at the Light Gallery. Its owner, Tennyson Schad, then hired Traub to become director of this prestigious gallery.
Traub curated numerous exhibitions there, including The New Vision: Forty Years of Photography at the Institute of Design;
Aaron Siskind’s Harlem Document; Designed for Photography; and The Color Work of the FSA. Traub also showcased
major photographers new to the gallery: William Klein, Luigi Ghirri, Ray Metzker, Mario Giacomelli and Louis Faurer among
others.
After leaving the gallery in 1980 Traub continued his personal work and formed the Wayfarer partnership with Jerry Gordon
—a specialized editorial and corporate photography agency. Their work was featured in many magazines, including Life,
Time, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, New York and Avenue as well as annual reports for Fortune 500 companies.
Throughout the 1980s Traub traveled to Italy, Brazil, Haiti, Morocco and the Far East for his personal work. Dolce Via and
In the Still Life are compendiums of photographs from that period.
In 1987 Traub was asked to design a graduate studies program for the School of Visual Arts, which became the MFA
Photography, Video and Related Media Department. Since its inception, the program has been distinguished for its
innovative use of digital technology, the inclusion of all aspects of the lens and screen arts and its internationally
celebrated faculty. As an early advocate of the power of digital photography, Traub adapted it to his own practice. His
philosophy about the importance of digital thinking is reflected in the manifesto "Creative Interlocutor" and the textbook In
the Realm of the Circuit. Creative projects that highlight Traub's integration of new technologies include the interactive
website Still Life in America and the iBook No Perfect Heroes: Photographing Grant.
here is new york: a democracy of photographs was co-founded by Traub. This living memorial to the tragedy of 9/11
received the Brendan Gill Award as well as the ICP Cornell Capa Infinity Award. It is considered one of the seminal
examples of crowdsourcing, digital production and online distribution of universally produced imagery. The exhibition
traveled to 42 venues worldwide, and with its Web presence is considered to be one of the most widely viewed exhibitions
of all time.
Traub has dedicated himself to photographic education, and has been a chairperson at the School of Visual Arts for 30
years. He has served on a number of non-profit educational boards, and is the former president of the Aaron Siskind
Foundation. He has had more than 60 major exhibitions in in galleries and museums throughout the world, including one-
person shows at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Speed Museum, Hudson River Museum and Historic New Orleans
Collection. Traub's work is in the permanent collections of more than two dozen major museums worldwide.
Karsten Thormaehlen
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.karstenthormaehlen.com
Karsten Thormaehlen (born 1965) has worked, since 2003, as a freelance photographer
in the fields of people & portraiture, still life and architecture with international companies
in a wide range of industries.
For several years, his photographs have addressed the socioeconomic problems
associated with demographic change. The photo project and exhibition titled Happy at
Hundred, published by Kehrer Verlag in 2011, shows 36 portraits of centenarians. His
projects have gathered multiple, international awards and garnered significant
media attention worldwide. Aging Gracefully – Portraits of People Over 100
Thormaehlen’s new book which has just been published (Chronicle & Abrams Books).
His work has appeared in magazines such as Stern, Focus, brandeins, Guardian /
Guardian Weekend magazine and Independent on Sunday, and has been shown in
multiple exhibitions both in Germany and abroad, including at Fotomuseum
Winterthur, Museo Fotografia Contemporanea Mailand, National Portrait Gallery
London, Kunsthaus Hamburg and Zollamt MMK, Frankfurt a. M..“
Jorg Glascher
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.glaescher.de
23.5.1966 born in Osnabrück/Germany 1986/87 Military service in Pinneberg und
Diepholz 1996 Studies of fine Arts at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
2000 Member of Laif, Agentur für Reportagen 2003 Diploma Fachklasse Prof. Timm
Rautert. Titel „Bild usw.“ Diploma Philosophie Prof. Christoph Türcke Titel: „Über die
spontane Ordnung der Dinge“
2015 Lectureship Photography Hochschule HTW Berlin
2016 Lectureship Photography Fachhochschule Hannover
Lives and work in Hamburg and Leipzig, Germany
Iva Zimova
To commission her or to request prints of her work: www.ivazimova.com
Iva Zimova was born in the former Czechoslovakia. In 1982 she immigrated to Canada
and studied at both the Dawson College Institute of Photography and Concordia
University. Iva contributes to the Czech NGO People in Need Foundation and exhibits
her photographs internationally. She is represented by Panos Pictures.
Michael Kerstgens
To commission him or to request prints of his work: www.kerstgens.de
Michael Kerstgens was born in Llanelli, South Wales, in 1960. In 1965, he moved with
his parents back to Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, where he grew up and went to
school. After giving up a traineeship as a shipping agent, he studied Design and
Photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts (GHS) in Essen, Germany. He has
worked as a freelance photographer since 1988 for the international media and for
companies. From 1988 to 1991, he was also a partner of the Essen-based photo
agency Antrazit. He received the Imke Folkerts Prize for Fine Art in 2005. The following
year, he was awarded a working grant by VG Bild-Kunst and appointed to the German
Photographic Association (DGPh). In 2007, Michael Kerstgens became Professor of
Photography at the Faculty of Design, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.
His work Neues Leben. Russen Juden Deutsche (New Life. Russians Jews Germans)
on contemporary Jewish life in Germany was published by the Kehrer Verlag,
Heidelberg, in 2012. His next book, Coal not Dole –The Miners’ Strike 84/85, was
published by Peperoni Books, Berlin, in 2014. In the same year Michael Kerstgens
was awarded the Ruhrpreis für Kunst und Wissenschaft (Ruhr Prize for Art and Science) by the City of Mülheim an der
Ruhr. His photo volume Hartes Leben auf der Höh’ was published by Athesia Verlag, Bolzano, in 2015. Aufruhrgebiet
(Uproar Area) was published at Peperoni Books, Berlin in 2016. With his wife Mariele Wirth and their three children Paul,
Robert and Klara he lives in Oberhausen/Rhineland in Germany.
