Ekvilib

• JAMES CHANCE (USA)
• RODRIGO CRUZ (Mexico)
• PETER DICAMPO (USA)
• ÅKE ERIC ERICSON (Sweden)
• RICARDO GARCIA VILANOVA (Spain)
• FLORIANA GAVRIEL (Germany)
• BRENNAN O'CONNOR (Canada)
• QAMRUZZAMAN (Bangladesh)
• SUDIPTO DAS (India)

The selected photos can be seen in our web gallery.

The exhibition will be on display until 23. March 2010 in the gallery of KUD France Prešeren in Ljubljana, and then in some other towns in Slovenia.

The contest winner, GIULIO DI STURCO, is a 30-year old Italian photographer. He studied photography at the European Institute of Design and Visual Arts in Rome, and has covered North-American issues for many Italian magazines such as D (La Repubblica delle Donne), Internazionale, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Anna, Amica, Geo, lEspresso and others. For his work he received numerous awards, among others he won the first edition of the Reporters Without Borders contest in 2007, in February 2009 he won a World Press Photo award, in March 2009 he won the Sony award and in October 2009 he won the BJP international Photography Award.

In addition to his photo story, 9 other finalists were selected, including:

JAMES CHANCE: Living With The Dead: Manila’s North Cemetery

Photographs show life of the poorest Filipinos who are forced, in search of accommodation, to live in Manilla's Cemetery.

James Chance is an award-winning British freelance photographer and multimedia producer. His work regularly features in the US and international media. Recent publications include: Newsweek, Time, Businessweek, The Wall St Journal, Stern, The Guardian, The Observer and NBC. He received a nomination for the Anthropographia Human Rights Photojournalism Award 2009 and has been selected for Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism 2010 in Hannover, Germany.

RODRIGO CRUZ: Photo from the series The Promised Land

The photos show migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, who illegally enter Mexico via the southern border. The journey is long and full of dangers, travelling for days atop a train that takes them to Mexico's northern border.

Rodrigo Cruz is a freelance photographer, whose interest in photography goes hand in hand with his interest in current events. He has been shortlisted in the 2010Antropographia Award for Photography and Human Rights. Publications which feature his work, include Wall Street Journal, National Geographic - Latin America, Washington Post, Enjeux Internationaux, The Cronicle of the Higher Education, Calgary Herald, International Amensty – Mexico, Burn Magazine, 100 Eyes Photo Magazine and others.

PETER DICAMPO: Photo from the series The Fiery Serpent – Guinea worm disease and the right to clean water

The photo story shows the Guinea worm - a disease still present in Ghana and some other African countries. The disease, caused by a worm, is transmitted through contaminated water sources.

Peter DiCampo is an American photographer who divides his time between Africa and the Americas. He launched his freelance career in 2007 while also serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Ghana. Before living in Ghana, he was a Staff Photographer at The Telegraph in Nashua, New Hampshire, and interned at VII Photo in Paris, Newsday in New York, and the Harvard University News Office. He holds a B.S. in Photojournalism from Boston University. Peter has received awards from Lens Culture, Editor & Publisher, New England Press Association and Boston University.

ÅKE ERIC ERICSON: Racism against Gypsies

Ake Ericson is a Swedish photographer from Stockholm, who has been working as a freelance photojournalist from the year 2000. He has been working and travelling in many Eastern European countries. He has won several international photo awards  and in 2008 he was the photojournalist of the year in Sweden. He is affiliated with World Picture News in New York and his work was published in Newsweek, Paris match, Le Figaro, Le Monde and other publications.

RICARDO GARCIA VILANOVA: War Casualties Children in Afghanistan

Photo story represents children – victims of war in Afghanistan, which is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. Approximately half of the mine victims are children.

Ricardo Garcia Vilanova is a graduate in photography (University Politécnic of Cataluña). He is a member of International Federation Journalist and of Reporters without Borders. He worked on projects with Icrc, Msf, Médicins du Monde and UN and ISAF. He was nominated in The New York Photo Festival 2009 Awards (Editorial Series) and selected in Festival of the photograph LOOK3 in 2009, and was selected in the International Humanitarian Photography Award Luis Valtueña. He exhibited in Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Taiwan and Taipei.

FLORIANA GAVRIEL: Photo from the series The Vidarbha Cotton Widows

The photographs are part of the project Vidarbha showing the social consequences of unsustainable practices in cultivation of genetically modified (GM) cotton in central India and implications thereof for the local community.

In February 2009 Floriana Gavriel, together with Verena Hanschke, explored and documented the effects of growing genetically modified cotton in Vidarbha region in India. The result is a book designed on the basis of journalism and narative photography. The aim of the project was to explore and show the situation and raise public awareness on the increasing number of suicides among Indian farmers.

BRENNAN O'CONNOR: Photo from the series On the Run

Photos, taken on the Thai – Burmese border represent Burmese minorities, whose human rights are grossly violated.

Brennan O'Connor, a Toronto based photographer, began taking pictures in his early twenties as a way to document his frequent travels through Europe and Central America. In 1998 he graduated from Loyalist College Photojournalism program. Since then his work has been widely published in various national and international publications including The Globe and Mail and Saturday Night. Brennan's photo projects tend to focus on people or movements existing on the fringes of society.

RODRIGO CRUZ: Photo from the series The Promised Land

The photos show migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, who illegally enter Mexico via the southern border. The journey is long and full of dangers, travelling for days atop a train that takes them to Mexico's northern border.

Rodrigo Cruz is a freelance photographer, whose interest in photography goes hand in hand with his interest in current events. He has been shortlisted in the 2010Antropographia Award for Photography and Human Rights. Publications which feature his work, include Wall Street Journal, National Geographic - Latin America, Washington Post, Enjeux Internationaux, The Cronicle of the Higher Education, Calgary Herald, International Amensty – Mexico, Burn Magazine, 100 Eyes Photo Magazine and others.

 

QAMRUZZAMAN: Photo from the series How the green turns gray

The photo story shows tobacco farmers, who don’t have a chance to leave this business due to poverty, even thought tobacco production has negative social, environmental and health effects.

Qamruzzaman is a photojournalist working in Xinhua News Agency, Dhaka Bureau. Previously he worked in bdnews24.com, a Dhaka-based news agency and the first online newspaper in Bangladesh. He is a Journalism graduate from Dhaka University.

SUDIPTO DAS: Reminiscence

The photo shows an elderly woman (74) in an elderly home, selebrating her 60th wedding annyversary. The number of people living in retiremnent homes in India is steadily increasing.

Sudipto Das is a self-taught Indian photographer. He lives in India and works for The Times of India. In 2007 he received the Environmental Photographer of the Year award from the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management.