Rollfilm

The Roma Journeys

Between 2000 and 2006 I together with writer Cia Rinne undertook travels in seven different countries with a view to gaining an insight into the life of the Roma and the conditions they face. We always tried to spend a considerable length of time among the people whom we wanted to learn about and, if possible, to live with them for a while.

It was our own interest that initially took us to the Roma streets in Hevesaranyos in northeast Hungary, where we spent four months at the home of Magda, an elderly Roma. The other journeys to Romania, India and our travels in Finland came about through personal contact, while in Greece and Russia we were initially assisted by human rights organizations and in France by the Centre de recherches tsiganes in Paris.

These Roma journeys were by no means meticulously planned, and instead the product of a number of coincidences that enabled us to come into contact with the Roma. We endeavored to communicate directly with them. In most countries this was possible, and while in Russia and India we were accompanied on our travels, and thus had willing assistance.

We have frequently been asked what had triggered our interest in the Roma, but we were unable to provide a definitive, let alone exhaustive answer. What is certain is that once we hard started we were unable to simply stop continuing with the project. The more we found out about the Roma and got to know them, the more our interest in and liking for them grew.

In keeping with the different countries traveled, the photographic body of work is divided into seven series, the sequence of which roughly corresponds to the chronology of our journeys.

[via official site: Joakim Eskildson]

Hungary

India

Greece

Romania

France

Russia

Finland

See more images at Joakim Eskildson’s website. The project has been published as a book as well.

Being lazy and not having much more to add i am quoting the recent post of Andrew who is pointing out a photo project by Gail Albert Haliban.

© Gail Albert Halaban

following text via Andrews Blog

So those of you on tender hooks today awaiting the results of my ‘A Room with a View’ competition will have to wait. Sorry but the day job has got in the way so no time to put all the entrants in a hat and compile a winners post. Will get to it over the weekend and all will be revealed on Monday morning first thing, I promise.

In the meantime though I would like to share a project on a similar tack by the marvelously talented Gail Albert Haliban. ‘Out my window NYC’ is a documentary photography project Gail is working on in collaboration with the Design Trust for Public Space about people and their views in New York City and beyond. Best of all Gail is in the midst of this epic journey and is looking for volunteers, here’s the skinny in her own words:

DO YOU HAVE A VIEW INTO SOMEONE ELSE’S APARTMENT? CURIOUS TO MEET THEM?

I am a photographer working on a documentary project about New Yorkers and their views with a specific interest in connecting neighbors who would otherwise never meet. If you look into someone else’s apartment, I would like to photograph you looking into their place and them looking back at you.

If you live in any of the 5 boroughs or nearby New Jersey, please contact me at newyorkviews@gmail.com with a jpg of you and your view today.

You will receive 1 FREE 8×10 photograph if your view is photographed for the project.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Gail is writing a blog as she goes here. Be sure to spread the good word.

Unfortunately there isnt much information given about Jan Sochor on his website or elsewhere in the net. He is describing himself as a:

[f]reelance photographer & webdesigner, born in Czech Republic, changing his base between South America and Europe.

At the moment 13 essays are published in his website www.jansochor.com. The topics cover a topical range

from

Amazon River: People living on the Amazon river banks, the largest river system in the world. Indigenous people pushed to the edge, Brazilians caught in the jungle towns with no hope to escape.

over

Jesus Combat: A slum called Calvario shows everydays effort made to survive in a ghetto. Collecting rubbish, get high by sniffing glue and watch out for not to get shot dead by El Sheriff.

to

Women Gold Miners: Women miners working in goldbearing mud, searching for gold and platine in the jungle rivers of Chocó, the western lowlands of Colombia.

The following photographs are taken from the essay Cockfight

Go to www.jansochor.com and check out all essays.

To add to the line of referrers: Here is an Interview with Martin Parr which i found via 2point8

Go to Michael’s site for an interview-extract and a link to a mp3-file of the interview.

There is also a not-so-recent (16-03-2007) post by M. Parr on the magnum-blog, where he talks about his trip to Dubai.

[photo: magnum-blog]

WANG JINSONG was born
in Heilongjiang Province, China, in 1963. He graduated from what is now the Chinese Academy of Fine Art in 1987 with a degree in Chinese Painting. As a core member of the Cenozoic School, his works have been widely exhibited in China, Japan, Australia, Europe, and the United States. He currently teaches in the Fine Arts Department at Beijing Education University. [source]

Social phenomena have been a subject of concern in my work-I try to present people’s attitudes and experiences through the details of their surroundings. I began my career as a painter, often using the camera as a tool to study ideas for projects. In my first photographic series, “Standard Family,” I explored the results of the Chinese government’s one-child policy as it affected the younger generation, and in the process I observed the situations of old-age couples living by themselves. These people belong to the generation of my own parents and by photographing retired couples living in Beijing who are representative of different social classes, from workers to university professors, I began to better understand the past. Today’s Chinese families are quite different from those of the old days, when members of several generations lived together and shared the household duties. Among the people I photographed for the “Parents” series, the children had moved away and the couples seemed to enjoy their independence. In these pictures you see nothing of youth culture, such as posters of movie stars or pop singers, and rarely did I find portraits of political figures as you commonly see in earlier photographs (two couples I visited had hung portraits of Zhou En-lai). Today the old folks prefer to display scrolls of calligraphy, flowers they have grown, or their pet birds. By presenting them among their possessions, I hope to show not only differences of taste and social status but also the ways in which government policies have marked their lives. I try not to emphasize that point but those [in China] who see the work understand the meaning of these surface details. Wang Jinsong [source]

[photographs]