Danish identity

Nicolai Howalt ©

Nicolai Howalt works was recently shown to me and fascinates for his ability to document with different work some of the social aspects of danish society, tackling with different projects the concept of identity.

In his work Boxer Nicolai Howalt followed young Danish boys boxing in Denmark and abroad. The project portrays a series of young boxers before and after the match. Another interesting body of work is 3x1 a series of images about the evolution of a relationship between a young danish couple living in a surburban council flat. More recently he focused on the series How to Hunt

Nicolai Howalt ©

Nicolai Howalt ©

A trip with Simon Hoegsberg

Simon Hoegsberg ©

Sometime ago I saw Simon Hoegsberg work and i was very interested in particular in his project " The Thought Project " about the thoughts we have when we walk alone in the street.

In most of Simon Hoegsberg work there seems to be an element of research to support and sometime combined the visual project A statement of the artist about The Thought Project:

Simon Hoegsberg ©

"Over a period of 3 months I stopped 150 strangers on the street and asked them what they where thinking about the second before I stoppedthem. Using a mic and a dictaphone I recorded what they told me, then took a picture of them. 55 of the 150 thoughts are presented on this website as quotes. All quotes state exactly what I was told during the interviews. The interviews took place in Copenhagen, Denmark and New York City."

Simon Hoegsberg projects are a real snapshot of ordinary life, making stories about who we are and what we think. Other projects includes Copenhagen Istanbul, Private and Public, Faces of New York .

A child view

Marina Ballo Charmet ©

A few days ago I was at a conference that presented the work of Marina Ballo Charmet, a photographer, an artist and a children’s psychotherapist by training.

The artist was there and she presented her works which include photograph and video installation. In most of her projects MBC observes things from below, taking her eye view to a child level. With her project Con la coda dell`occhio (in Eng. With the Corner of the Eye) the artist looks at pheriferal situation within the everydaylife, photographs are about our perceptive experience.

Marina Ballo Charmet ©

Her work also includes a series of project on video, one in particular was displayed on the night that was made in collaboration with Walter Niedermayr at Milan main prison. Agente apri (in Eng. Open up officer) is the title of this project, is about a children daily journey from the prison nursery to the outside world with volunteers all shots at child height.

Parco is the artist latest project and research is focused on a phenomenon taking place in green area of the city, the parks.

Marina Ballo Charmet ©

Photography from the Italian Riviera

Andrea Dapueto ©

Andrea Botto is the Artistic Director of "On the road, again" title of the current Rapallo Fotografia Contemporanea on the italian riviera. For the third year running this small festival will be hosting the young talents of contemporary photography and the theme of this festival is "street photography".

For this year event RFC also invited Mark Cohen as guest artist with the exhibition "Italian Riviera" curated by Francesco Zanot with the intent " to bring to the public’s attention the work of a photographer who can convey all the emotions generated by that strip of land trapped between sky and sea, which is known on the other side of the ocean as the Italian Riviera”.

The author who stayed few weeks on the Riviera in 2008, has moved freely and with curiosity between Genoa and the Cinque Terre producing a contemporary photographic series of real and emotional impact.

Mark Cohen ©

In the young talents section you can see work by Martina Bacigalupo, which exposes the story a refugee burandese who returns to his country after more than forty years of exile, Andrea Dapueto with "Camere con vista" a work around Italian roads in places for low cost sex, Alessandro Cirillo with his reportage in black and white on the north-east of Brazil, Camilla Micheli with a series of portrait on the road around Japan and Nanda Gonzague with her work in Armenia. Francesca Cirilli presents an amusing video installation about social behavior of tourists in Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa. Open until December 2, more here

Bratislava, Photography from the East

Symon Kliman ©

A few days ago Bratislava Month of Photography was taking place with a number of exhibition around town. Here is some of the interesting work that we found during during the Sittcomm Award and the Portfolio Review Slideshow.

Grzegorz Klatka with his car project, Symon Kliman with his Gypsies Made Nice, Maros Krivy with Green Dessert project and Mikolaj Dlugosz with the Real Foto series.

Filip Berendt was the winner of the Sittcomm Award.

Grzegorz Klatka ©

Filip Berendt ©

Mikolaj Dlugosz ©

Oliviero Toscani was also showing an installtion of 50 life size pictures of donkeys in the main square. Apparently Toscani did not show up for the presentation conference and later when we walked by the square a loud sound of donkey braying was organized in the square by the people waiting.