https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/in-the-picture-brave-new-burma

This event is organised in partnership with the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature.

Twenty years in the making, Nic Dunlop‘s new book Brave New Burma is an intimate portrait of Burma through pictures and words. It takes the reader from the front lines of the ongoing civil war to its deceptively tranquil cities; from the home of Aung San Suu Kyi to the lives of ordinary people and their struggle to survive.

In a talk chaired by BBC foreign correspondent and writer Fergal Keane, Dunlop will present images from Brave New Burma and speak about the changes he has witnessed in the two decades he has covered Myanmar as it opens up to the outside world.

Nic Dunlop is a Bangkok-based photographer and writer represented by Panos Pictures in London. In 1999, he received an award for his discovery and exposure of Pol Pot’s chief executioner Comrade Duch, a story told in his book, The Lost Executioner. Dunlop also co-directed Burma Soldier, an HBO film which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the United Nations Association Film Festival and nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing.

Picture credit: Burma’s Army © Nic Dunlop/Panos Pictures

Panos Pictures, Reportage by Getty Images and VII Photo all hosted events at the Club and a half-day seminar with VII Photo took place at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. A short video with a selection of clips from Photo Week can be viewed below.

Freelance photographers contributed images for a slideshow which was on display in the Club throughout the week. You can view their contributions in the following video- enjoy!

For 25 years photo agency Panos Pictures has been covering stories the mainstream media won’t. The commercial arm of the development NGO the Panos Institute (now Panos London) has had photographers documenting history as it unfolds, with a focus on social and development stories globally.

“We like to poke around in corners other people don’t go,” said Adrian Evans, Director of Panos Pictures.

“Photography is the idea of ‘don’t look over there, look over here’, and we’re not afraid to take a stand. 

 

“We step aside from the main news and can pursue stories when they are not under the media spotlight. We cover stories we think are important.”

“In media terms, there is this attitude that once the UN goes in, everything finishes. I think staying longer in a place and covering the aftermath [is important].

 

"After the war in Kosovo there was an orgy of violence.”

“It shows the passing of time, and how things are not being resolved in a quick way,” Testa explained. 

 

“In Kosovo everything has moved on, but for these mothers they are frozen. For the soldiers who killed [the missing] it only took a second, for the mothers, time has stopped.”

 

“With ideas of oil companies being corrupt and evil, to see it as a health remedy… well, a photograph can make you reassess your views.”

 

“Photographers are like little NGOs themselves, they have to be able to write proposals and go out there,” he said, adding that many photographers now look to displaying their work in galleries for a fee. 

“Nowadays it’s not just about the photographs. It’s about who you’re working with and why. 

 

“We communicate to the world our interest, our passions, our desires. I’d like to think Panos does this.”

For 25 years photo agency Panos Pictures has been operating as the commercial arm of the development NGO the Panos Institute (now Panos London). Over that period Panos Pictures’ photographers have covered events at the epicentre of history and on the peripheries of the world, focusing on social and development stories globally.

This event will bring together key voices in Panos Pictures to discuss the developments at Panos and in the photojournalism industry over the past 25 years, and what the future holds.

Award-winning photographer and Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of the Arts, London, Paul Lowe, will be in conversation with the Director of Panos Pictures, Adrian Evans, and two Panos photojournalists, Andrew Testa and Chloe Dewe Mathews.

Freelance documentary photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews joined Panos Pictures in 2011. She has worked all over the world, and her most recent project Caspian won her the 2011 British Journal of Photography International Photography Award.

Andrew Testa began his career freelancing for the Guardian and Observer in the early 90s. Covering a wide range of topics, from the emerging environmental protest movement, to the war in Kosovo, he quickly made a name for himself. Since then has accumulated an array of prestigious awards, including three World Press Photo Awards, and has twice been named Amnesty International’s Photojournalist of the Year.

 

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Over the past century, in common with many capital cities, Cairo’s population has increased exponentially. In recent years luxury private developments have popped up in the desert surrounding Cairo, making room for Egypt’s business elite with backing from the Mubarak regime. The boom in the construction of wealthy suburbs away from the chaos of the over-crowded city is sharply underlining the vast gap between rich and poor in Egypt.

Photojournalist Jason Larkin chose these desert construction sites as the subject for his latest project, Cairo Divided. His two-year collaboration with journalist Jack Shenker has produced a long-form essay, accompanied by Larkin’s pictures, which has challenged traditional publication methods. Larkin will be speaking at the Frontline Club about photographing Cairo Divided and the means through which it was published.

Released just before the much-anticipated November elections in Egypt, the publication is a free paper supported by academic institutions, cultural centres, architectural organisations and Panos PICTURES. Its production is a novel attempt to bring long-form journalism and photojournalism to a wider audience.

The talk will be moderated by Max Houghton, Course Leader of the MA in Photojournalism at the University of Westminster and co-editor of 8 magazine. Larkin was one of Houghton‘s first students at the University of Westminster and she takes a particular interest in photographic projects that combine images with the written word.

Jason Larkin is a British photojournalist who specialises in under-reported issues in the Middle East and Africa. He was recently awarded the Arnold Newman New Portraiture Award.

Government will reveal names of those Sri Lankan journalists in about a fortnight, he said naming them as "pro-LTTE journalists" link

Yesterday, the media and communicatons NGO Panos was accused by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence as a supporter of terrorism,

According to the minister, evidence have been surfaced that [Panos] has bought number of unscrupulous journalists to write articles supportive of tribalism and aimed at tarnishing the good image of the country and its armed forces. He said that, majority of these so- called journalists engaged in this sordid project are Sri Lankans , who have been writing under fake names to several local and international journals. The authorities have identified them and legal actions would be initiated against them, he added. link

A number of journalists have fled the island nation since the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge, Sunday Leader editor in January, 2009. Journalists have been targetted and the media has been banned from entering the conflict zone. On March 25, the headquarters of the Tamil daily newspaper Uthayan in Jaffna was attacked. Yesterday evening, on April 1, a Tamil journalist was reportedly attacked in Batticaloa.

An unidentified gang has stab M.I Rahumathulla, the editor of the "Warauregal" weekly newspaper. Several journalists were attacked and killed during last few months in SriLanka. link

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists 16 journalists have been killed in Sri Lanka since 1992 making it one of the deadliest countries for reporters.

A sobering and substantial piece of work by London-based photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith seems to have made an instant impression in the city this week.

An exhibition of her stark images of rejected asylum seekers still living in the UK has opened in the capital’s Host Gallery, winning both publicity and acclaim for the photographer. Among the highest-profile showcases, the BBC featured a selection of her images in an online gallery.

A high-quality video to accompany the show, featuring the still photographs and testimonies from the subjects, has also been released on Vimeo and elsewhere.

Still Human Still Here; Refused asylum seekers in the UK. from Anna Stevens on Vimeo.

As Kate Day writes in her photography blog for the Telegraph:

The exhibition exposes the hidden lives of those who are trapped in an impossible no-man’s-land, unable to return home but prevented from working to support themselves. They can only wait and hope their lengthy appeals are successful.

Abbie spent many months volunteering at a drop-in centre for asylum seekers before she started taking pictures. She explained that building a relationship with each individual she photographed was vital, not least because she did not want to "be a vulture" and exploit their vulnerability.

The trust she clearly developed with those she photographed has enabled her to shine a light on the drudgery of daily existence for these people. Cheap canned food heated directly on a gas stove in a squat in Leeds, the blackened feet of a figure lying on a shabby mattress, footprints in the snow in North London. Abbie’s pictures take us right to the heart of these immigrants’ lives and sensitively expose the hopelessness of their predicament.

The photographs are availalabe through Panos, which represents Trayler-Smith (a former Telegraph photographer of some repute), and are notable for their lighting and colours, with the overall look and feel of each frame complementing the often truly saddening tales they tell.

What also strikes me as interesting is the sheer depth and intensity of the project. As noted above, the photographer spent "many months" in research and, doubtless, many more actually shooting.

In today’s world of quick deadlines and shrinking opportunities, it’s heartening to see that those at the top of their game still find the backing to work on projects like this.

Dominick Tyler, a close friend of Trayler-Smith’s who blogs at photojournalism.co.uk (good address!) has asked her to blog about her experiences working on the project and putting on the show. It should be an interesting read.

Photograph: Abbie Trayler-Smith/Panos