invited guest: Mohammad Reza Shahroki Nejad

I am honoured to present you Brick Kilns project – series made by talented and sensible photographer from Iran: Mohammad Reza Shahroki Nejad

The 3 years old Kurdish little girl is standing between her family members. In the future she will be counted as a labor force and deprived of attending school.

The young man has cut his toe with broken glass during crushing the clay underfoot. The workers have no rubber boots and work bare foot.

Hossein has put his arm on his brother's shoulder while smoking a water pipe. He works with his two wives and eight little sons at the brick works.

The one year old girl has fallen asleep while her mother is working. Women don't have much time during the day for taking care of their children.

During the day at the brickyard, the children have nothing else to do than helping their parents by molding and making the bricks

Samira, the Kurdish woman works alongside her husband. They return to their province which is 600 kilometers west of Tehran as the rainy season begins.

Workers who transport mud-bricks to the kiln, have found time for a break during the day. They move 240 kilograms brick, around 50 times with their handcarts to the kiln.

The truck driver is waiting by the kiln for his brick load. The kiln's temperature rises to 1000º C. During transferring the bricks it is still 50 º C warm.

At sunset, the young man is sitting on the bricks, made by his own family during that day. They have to wait one more day for the bricks to dry completely.

Abbas who comes from Kurdistan, is going to his room after the working day. He makes 8000 mud-bricks a day together with his wife, two daughters and three sons.

The young man is embracing his little daughter. He comes 1000 kilometers, from Birjand (a city in east of Iran) to Tehran, in order to work at the brickyard.

By the end of the working day, the woman has cleaned and watered the front of her house and is resting while smoking water pipe.

Mohammad says about himself:

I was born on 1978 in Tehran / Iran.
At the time, I'm photographing for Hamshahri Newspaper which has the largest circulation in the country.
I studied painting at the university and i think it was important for me as i learned newer aspects of my mind.
And as far as photography is concerned:
I really like black & white photography, because I think that I'm facing my subject without any intermediates.
I wish I could place the camera between people's skin and heart, to be under their skin, so close, so delicate and unexpected. I want to be able to record their real feelings.
Sometimes I have to chat or smoke a cigarette with them, during those moments lots pictures pass in front of my eyes, but I prefer to communicate with them at first before taking the photos. It is my will to get to know their reality but after all I like the viewers to face this reality directly, when they look at my photos. That means to forget its being a photo. This is all my effort in photography.

A photo being artistic is not so important for me, although I always try to fix the best framing.

And for me the whole pleasure of photography is in these two points:
1-The human.
2- The reality.

thank you Mohammad for sharing your work with us, I am personally looking forward to see results of your ongoing projects.

invited by Marcin Górski

where the eternity begins

Where does eternity begins,

I mean, we know that it never ends

but has it a beginning?

I think it has,

it is right here, right now

nomatter where you are the eternity begins

right here, right now.

So photography is a way to preserve startingpoints of eternity.

And you don't have to collect'em all

as it is stated on the toypackages...

Just some of them.

(Some might argue, that the eternity has no end or beginning.

but that's just philosophical late-night-to-much-wine-talking).

hick....

...hick.

photos and thoughts: christofer grandin

Invited guest: Niklas Ehlén

Niklas sent me some excellent pictures. I will publish more later on.
-urbano

100 000 Fleeing Kurds

food delivery

refugee valley

a girl suffering from disease

three women

Gruppo F inbox: My Knight in Shining Armour

©Helena Nilsson

Gruppo F Caravan Holidays - Christmas

©T(omten)

invited guest: Jörg M Colberg

I am very glad to have the possibility to present Jörg M Colberg on The F Blog. Since I discovered his homepage and blog I am amazed by his inspiring photographs. Jörg was born in Wilhelmshaven in West Germany in 1968 and has since lived in Bonn, Munich, Paris, Boston. He currently resides in Pittsburgh. He holds a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics and is working as a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. I strongly recommend his homepage and blog Conscientious. Now I leave the word to Jörg and his serie Higher Education.

Higher Education
We live in a bit of a schizophrenic time. On the one hand, we realize how modern sciences have brought improvements that have greatly enhanced the quality (and actual durations) of our lives. On the other hand, we have become increasingly suspicious of science and, especially, academia - where it is not directly involved in the development of new weaponry. We
have seen deep cuts in funding, especially for sciences deemed not useful enough - in particular liberals arts or art itself. And we have come to call scientists 'eggheads' who are out of touch with reality, in particular if the results of their research clash with our political beliefs. But what does academia really look like? In what kind of environments do those people work who, it is assumed, are overly pampered 'liberals', out of touch with the common people? And if we do not want to dwell on the conditions of work of academics, let's not forget that those academics fulfill the role of educators. So by asking what the academic environment looks like we're also asking what the environment looks like that young students are subjected to when learning the skills that are supposed to help them in life. 'Higher Education' is an effort to portray academic environments. It is an ongoing project.

all pictures © Jörg M Colberg
Invited by Fredrik Skott

madeiro 2006

8.12. 2006, Proenca a Velha, Portugal 

Personal History

Cecilia and Diana

Closing Time

-2 3200 ASA 16 mm or rather dark and late.

a fox to cure marcins curiousity

Guest: Niklas Ehlén

A photographer I have wanted on this blogg for a long time is Niklas Ehlén, and I am proud to be able to show a picture of him here today. Niklas is a true photographer, showing the difficult world as it is. I have always admired Niklas uncompromising ability to get close to his subjects, and show their world in a compassionate way, although the conditions can be difficult sometimes. This is no-nonsense photography. Well, enough talking by me, (Hope to see more soon!)

This is a lovely Christmas tale, which makes me happy!

Invited by Christian Wettergren

revelling

from a zebra's back . . .
© Jeanne Wells

Invited guest: John Strazza

I am truly glad to present pictures by John Strazza. I love his style
and his thinking about photography. And I would be delighted to see
his pictures exhibited in Sweden. This will happen, I am sure of that!
John was kind enough to send me a great deal of pictures so I will
publish the rest in two or three postings around Christmas. Thanks
John - you have many friends over here!
invited by ulf fågelhammar

"These are from a series of pinhole images done in NYC .. It's an
oddity, to say the least, to be doing street photography with a pinhole ..
but in the end the experience is similar to that of walking with the
Leica or Nikon ..it's becoming involved with the life of that day and
place that matters most ..

Time, in terms of exposure, is of course an issue .. exposures are
very long and that changes things .. and, for me, color is a part of
these images unlike most of my other street work ..

I must say, these are great fun for me .. and I have a deep satisfaction
when seeing this way .. Pinhole imagery does have some traps .. that
being the novelty of the "pinhole look" and the possible lack of content
beyond it within an image .. when working this way though, I really
forget about the camera and just get into the seeing part .. everything
else is secondary.."

-john strazza

all pictures ©John Strazza

Gruppo F inbox: A bored passenger

©Benny Persson

When I saw Markus Anderssons excellent picture of the sad passenger,
I was thinking of another picture captured by Benny Persson - so I wrote
him an email. And I was happy to hear that he has already found the
F Blog and come to visit us every day. So here - more excellent stuff
concerning passengers! -urbano

the passenger

this is indeed a disturbing world....

Ad#8 (Christmas Special)

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A-Dalina-Ad

Gruppo F inbox: Örjan Fredriksson

_

The first time I came to Madrid was 1989 I only stayed one night but still I really loved the city. A lovestory that would bring me back so many times. So many places to see and during one of my walk around the City I stumbled across cementerio de la Almudena de Madrid one of Europes biggest cemeterys. So peacefull and beautiful though I didn`t take any photos there for a lot of time and when I finally did I found it hard to catch the athsophere there. But during my last visits there I brought along my Diana and some B/W rolls and the angel pic is one of the result.

_

© Örjan Fredriksson

Portraits - Eleanor

Harry Callahan
Eleanor
Chicago
1947
© Estate of Harry Callahan
courtesy of masters of photography

This is another of my favourite portraits. Harry Callahan photographed his own
life and not least his wife - one of his main subjects from the late 1940s until 1960.

Invited guest: Manuel Arístides Garrido

I am glad to present a photographer from Chile. And I will explain briefly
in English what Manuel tells us about the pictures. La trilla is a tradition
seen in southern Chile, now disappearing in many regions due to intense
cultivation of pines resulting in vast forests. It´s a harvest "fiesta" where
you see the "huasos chilenos" (called gauchos in Argentina) on their
horses. All people of the pueblo (village) join in this fiesta and as you
can see horses are used to separate the wheat kernel from the straw.

This serie of pictures won the "Salón nacional de Fotografía de
Prensa 2004" (the National Salon of Press Photography in 2004)

Manuel is a member of the Photographers Association in Chile and
works as an independent photographer.
invited by ulf fågelhammar





La Trilla

Es un tema que aborde hace algunos años atrás, para dar a conocer
la desaparición de esta tradición costumbrista de Chile. En algunos
campos del Sur de Chile ya no existe, los campos se han convertido
en extensos bosques de madera de Pino, cuyos dueños a los cuales
anteriormente les tenían pasado en comodato los campos a pequeños
agricultores o campesinos para su cuidado.

Por años estos agricultores sembraban trigo durante el año para
luego cosecharlo a fin de temporaday hacer una gran fiesta de la
TRILLA a yeguas, mediante el pisoteoconstante de estas bestias
arreadas por huasos Chilenos recorrían encírculos hasta quedar
separado la semilla de la paja que le cubría.

Me acuerdo que eran fiestas en la cual se reunía toda la familia
y amigos de los alrededores que iban a ayudar a esta tarea a la cual
llamaban "mingaco", porque era en ayuda de mano de obra sin
remuneración de dinero a cambio de un buen asado de cordero y
un vino de la zona producido por ellos.

Posteriormente los dueños de estos fundos les fuero pidiendo
los terrenos a los campesinos para la plantación de bosques de
pino cuyo beneficio económico les ha sido muy rentable por la alta
demanda nacional e internacional de este producto para la elaboración
de la celulosa de pino.

Actualmente esta actividad se ve solamente en pequeños rincones
del sur de Chile y que dura solamente un par de horas para la vista
de algún turista pasajero por el lugar. Los campos grandes que han
quedado las han reemplazado las maquinas trilladoras muy distante
de las grandes fiestas y celebraciones que existieron hasta hace
algunos años atrás.

Este reportaje fue ganador del Salón nacional de Fotografía de
Prensa 2004 en la categoría, reportajes de la vida diaria.

Estudie Fotografía en la escuela de Foto Arte de Chile durante
los años 1998 – 2001.Estoy agrupado a la Unión de Reporteros
Gráficos y camarógrafos de Chile.

Manuel Arístides Garrido

Kopalnia Wujek, bleeding heart of Silesia

To memory of Jan Stawisiński, Joachim Gnida, Józef Czekalski,
Krzysztof Giza, Ryszard Gzik, Bogusław Kopczak, Andrzej Pełka,
Zbigniew Wilk and Zenon Zając who were killed in Katowice’s
coal mine “Kopalnia Wujek” 25 years ago on 16th December 1981.

Pictures of unknown photographer

/Marcin Górski