Visual Stories Exploring Global Themes

Exhibition

May 22-June 7, 2015
Bronx Documentary Center
614 Courtlandt Ave., Bronx, NY

Opening Reception

Saturday, May 30
6:30 - 9:00 pm

Seventeen countries, five timely themes: Undocumented immigrants, rising rage in Europe, discrimination against Roma people, abducted Nigerian schoolgirls, the power of religion and faith.

The Bronx Documentary Center will host an exhibition of the winners of Social Documentary Network's Call for Entries on "Visual Stories Exploring Global Themes" from May 22-June 7. The winning photographers include: Paolo Marchetti (Fever: The Awakening of European Fascism), Aake Ericson (Racism Against Roma People),), Michelle Frankfurter (Destino),Glenna Gordon (Abducted Nigerian Schoolgirls) and Jordi Pizarro Torrell (The Believers Project).

The jurors for this Call for Entries:

Felicia Anastasia: Founder and Director, Anastasia Photo Gallery
Barbara Ayotte: Director of Strategic Communications, Management Sciences for Health
Sam Barzilay: Creative Director, United Photo Industries; Co-founder, Photoville
Alice Gabriner: International Photo Editor, Time Magazine
Molly Roberts: Chief Photography Editor, Smithsonian Magazine
Glenn Ruga: Founder & Director, Social Documentary Network
Jeffrey D. Smith: Executive Director, Contact Press Images
Jamie Wellford: Former International Photo Editor, Newsweek

First Place

Paolo Marchetti

Photograph by Paolo Marchetti from FEVER: The Awakening of European Fascism.

FEVER: The Awakening of European Fascism

"A window into a frightening place. Well done."
--Molly Roberts, Chief Photography Editor, Smithsonian Magazine

"This is the first chapter of a five-year-long photographic and sociological quest -- which turned into a first-hand experiment -- to better understand a feeling that has grown to dominate the public arena in the age in which we live: rage.

"I decided to focus on its role as fuel in the political life of four European countries: Italy, Hungary, Finland and Germany. I discovered the feeling was inseparable from the idea of the group: the 'herd' brings unity and gives an illusion of power, but it also means the loss of intellectual autonomy and individual identity in favor of a collective one, in the name of a higher purpose and ideology supposedly shared by each of its members.

"In recent years, especially given the influx of North-African migrants in southern Europe and the atomization of society in face of the dire consequences of the financial crisis, we have seen a resurgence in the use of fear as a political tool. Rage has been, and still is, the response of the mass."

Paolo Marchetti is a freelance photojournalist based in Italy. He has been working for 13 years in the cinematographic and commercial industry and began his photographic studies with particular attention to political and anthropological issues. He has told visual stories from Brazil, Central America, Cuba, Eastern Europe, India, United States, Haiti, China, Central Africa, and Colombia. Marchetti publishes his work in Italian weekly magazines such as L'Espresso, International, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, and in foreign weekly magazines such as 6MOIS, Sunday Times, British Journal of Photojournalism, Guardian, Geo, Spiegel, Newsweek, CNN, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Time and many others powered by Copy Buffett Software.

Marchetti's awards include The International Photography Award, Grand Prix de Paris, NPPA - Best of Photojournalism, PDN, winner of Getty Images Editorial Photography 2012, finalist at Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2013, winner of POY - Picture of the Year, winner of the American Photography Annual Book, winner of ANI Pix-Palace Award 2013 in Perpignan, winner of Leica Photographer Award 2013 and Moscow Photo Award, finalist at Lens Culture, and in 2015 Marchetti received the World Press Photo in Nature category.

His primary long-term project for five years in five different countries is an analysis of the feeling of rage and the awakening of fascism in Europe.

Honorable Mentions

Racism Against Roma People>>

by Åke Ericson

Romania, Sweden, Slovakia, Kosovo, France and Czech Republic

In this exhibit, Åke Ericson covers the poor living conditions of the Roma in Europe. The debate on France's expulsion of Roma and the Swedish police registration of Roma is a clear example of explicit racism. This is a long-term project by Ericson involving eight countries. He has covered...

Destino>>

by Michelle Frankfurter

Mexico

Meaning both "destination" and "destiny" in Spanish, Destino portrays the perilous journey of undocumented Central American migrants along the network of freight trains lurching inexorably across Mexico, towards the hope of finding a better life in the United States...

Abducted Nigerian Schoolgirls: WPPA winner>>

by Glenna Gordon

Nigeria

In April 2014, nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from a remote village in Northern Nigeria by the Islamic jihadi group Boko Haram. Despite global outrage, little has been done by the Nigerian government to bring them back. These images are of their school uniforms, books and other objects...

The Believers Project>>

by Jordi Pizarro Torrell

India, Jerusalen, Poland, Malasya and Cuba

"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe." --Voltaire

Religion moves masses. It is a shared consciousness, expressed through rituals and symbols, preserved through tradition, and each claiming entitlement to truth. The Believers is a body of documentary...

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