Category: Photo Stories

Photography and text by Cassiel Kanter

In Germany, people have been protesting against the corona measures of the federal government for more than a year. In terms of content, the spectrum ranges from citizens who want to point out the importance of the fundamental right of assembly to vaccination opponents, esoterics, general sceptics of the state and conspiracy theorists. Right-wing extremists and “Reichsbüger” can also be found at the demonstrations. The inner core of the “Querdenker” scene is monitored by the German domestic intelligence service, among other things because of overlaps with the extreme right-wing scene. The official goal of the in Germany called “Querdenker” is the unrestricted restoration of the currently partially restricted basic rights: “We insist on the first 20 articles of our constitution”, they say in a one-page manifesto. These are, in particular, the abolition of the restrictions on fundamental rights imposed by the “Corona Ordinance”. At moment, the situation in Germany is calming down, as more and more people are being vaccinated and the pandemic is hopefully moving towards its end.

Cassiel Kanter
Insta: cassielkanterphoto
twitter: MartinStopsel

All photos copyright ©Cassiel Kanter

By Flor Castaneda

It’s your turn, Doctor! These words written by some teenagers on the walls of a school under the euphoria that the Arab Springs unleashed, was the beginning of one of the greatest humanitarian crises in all of History.

 It is 10 years of a war in which foreign powers, terrorist groups and the government of Bashar Al-Ássad have systematically torn and destroyed the most valuable thing in millenary Syria, its people.  This war has already tainted half the term of Assad, who has been in power for 20 years.

 Until 2020, more than 387,118 people have died and 205,300 disappeared, 32 attacks with chemical weapons and more than 12 thousand dead children, this last decade sounds more like a genocide perpetrated by his own government.

 Surviving extremist groups such as ISIS, chemical attacks and growing poverty, has triggered that almost half of the country’s population has fled, 6.7 million are internally displaced and another 5.6 million are abroad, the latter  It has caused tensions in countries close to Syria such as Lebanon and Turkey and Islamophobia in Western countries.

 Beyond the coldness of the numbers, there is the harsh reality of those who could not leave Syria and survive among ruins waiting for the days of peace, of those who had to sell their possessions to save themselves, ending up stuck in nearby countries where they have to beg for money or food without receiving any kind of help as they do not have refugee status, of children walking the streets of Tripoli in Lebanon selling cookies and prostituting themselves to locals and travelers to earn a living, of women who give birth in the worst  conditions, of men who were not combatants but were wounded when trying to flee and cannot work to support their own.

 One thing is real and obvious, the Syrian people with the bleeding wound of a decade of war led by the only dictator who survived the Arab Spring, hope to return to their land and rebuild it.

 Syria sleeps scattered among tents while dying among ruins, famine and chemical weapons, Syria has a smile mixed with a lost look from longing for so much, from praying that perhaps one day the war will end.

Flor Castaneda
Insta: florc_84

All photos copyrighted ©Flor Castaneda

Revel & Revolt is a new photo book by Beau Patrick Coulon, a co-edition with Burn Barrel Press and Defend New Orleans’ imprint: DNO books. Coulon presents his straightforward-yet-personal visual documentation of protests, parades, and the punk scene in New Orleans from 2013 to 2020. 

‘Revel & Revolt’ photobook could not be materialised in such a powerful visual documentation if it wasn’t for the incredible talent and the lived experience that Beau holds. The photo book allows you to view the subjects’ s moments of anger, sadness, bliss with an openness, direct and unaffected manner that only a photographer with a real understanding and connection with the world that they inhabit may have. Beau’s journey to photography has been an interesting one. He was born in Hollywood and he spent much of his childhood between California, Florida, and Oklahoma. At 13, he moved out of his mom’s apartment to live on the streets with punks he met on Hollywood Blvd while skipping school.

Coulon travelled across the country by freight train and lived among a network of derelict squats, punk houses, collectives, and DIY art spaces. He first arrived in New Orleans in the mid-90s and found work that ranged from seasonal farming, doing demolition, pouring concrete to framing. These experiences gave him an unparalleled view of life and an understanding of class struggles and nomadic living.

Coulon’s life is different today however his photographs speak of the past, transitional living and of history that reminds us all of struggle and fortitude, beauty and despair.

Beau Patrick Coulon
https://www.beaupatrickcoulon.com/

Revel & Revolt photobook info:

Revel & Revolt

WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
TWITTER

All photos copyrighted ©Beau Patrick Coulon

Flaviana Frascogna

This is an ongoing work on adolescents who spared the physical consequences of Covid-19 but not its psychological fallout. Younger people are living in a constant state of alarm that is changing their way of approaching life, due to both the restrictions applied to contain the contagion and the continuous exposure to the fear of death and of disease which could lead to a worsening of anxiety and depression.

The quarantine and the containment measures denied to young people the opportunity to socialize, except through technological channels that cannot replace the real world, neglecting the fragility that is typical of this age.

The project consists of a series of portraits and pictures of places and details of the adolescents’ world. I am asking each subject to answer two questions:

– What do you need?

– What are you afraid of?

I am collecting these answers with audio files in order to in order to associate them to the pictures.

“I am a very rational person and I have had so many difficulties during my growth to try to get rid of all the emotions I feel and that I always tend to hide. I believe that although in some people the virus doesn’t physically settle, it is as if we were all having it and this brought me moods. Often I feel like crying, I feel sad in some moments. I’m aware that these things derive from an anxiety that the virus created in me and that it isn’t something true. The need I have is to regain possession of those true emotions that I felt before and I was able to manifest that now I don’t feel to be part of me. I‘m afraid of getting used to this new reality that in some ways I could define “more comfortable” for me. It is important not to forget that a video call with a friend can never replace a walk and a four-eyed chat. The pace of life that we have assumed is poor in commitments, comparisons and I am afraid of being trapped in this reality. We must remember that this is an extraordinary situation and it scares me to think that I will not be able to face life anymore”.

Francesca, 22 years old

“The thing I fear most is perhaps the distrust and the state of insecurity in which we find ourselves. I don’t know what is really going on around us and I find myself suddenly disconnected from the rest of the world. We find ourselves in a situation in which we are no longer given the opportunity to think of anything other than the contagion of Covid-19. The thing I need most is the contact with people already known and new people. I need to know and explore the world and meet new people. This is what I miss most about life before Covid -19″.

Ines, 19 years old

“With the quarantine I solved a lot of problems I had with myself. I was afraid of loneliness, now not anymore. But I’m starting to be colder and more apathetic in good relationships with people. I don’t want to talk to anyone, to face serious conversations with people except with those few that I want to hear every day. I am afraid that these sensations could mark my future ”.

Viola, 18 years old

“I have never been a model student but the school marked my days. Now I feel lost. Following the online lessons I think my life is much more chaotic. I’m afraid of the quarantine. The thought of not being able to go out when I want makes me feel very bad.”

Saya, 16 years old

“The thing I need is certainty. I have only anxieties and anguish. I don’t know what job I will be able to do when I finish my studies. I am always in the same place and my life has become very monotonous. I need to go to new places, to do different activities, to meet new people.”

Dafne, 20 years old

“My biggest concern is knowing nothing about when we will return to normal life, to the life I knew. And if everything will be the same. I need to get out of the house, to see my friends, to go to school. In short, I need to live.”

Fabrizio, 16 years old

Flaviana Frascogna
http://www.flavianafrascogna.com/
https://www.instagram.com/flavianafrascogna/

Una Skandro

Belgrade is the capital of Serbia, located in the Western Balkans. As everywhere in the world, it is prescribed to wear a mask. This, to me as a photographer, is an historical film moment. And so I decided to make a photo film story for him in which the main actor is a mask. The photos were taken after 45 days of quarantine. On my instagram page whose link I put in the email you can see the whole story about Covid -19 in Belgrade.

The biggest social injustice during the quarantine was that we were closed for four days every week for 24 hours. After 45 days of such a life, I can freely say that people were lost when their right to free movement was finally restored. On the other hand, everyone tried in their own way to adhere to social distances and protection measures. Freedom of movement was restored to us, but again we were all alone. – Una Skandro

Una Skandro
https://tismaskandro.wixsite.com/tismaskandro
#tismaskandrophotography
@SkandroTisma

Avishkar Chhetri

After an arbitrary census was held in Bhutan (1989), the government of Bhutan displaced approximately 100,000 Southern Bhutanese (Lhotshampas) out of Bhutan. There are several explanations for the expulsion/displacement as well as the conflict between the Lhotshampa and the Northern government, which a series of protests in the late 80s were held within the country against the government’s repressive ‘One Nation One People’ policy; illegalising Nepali/Lhotshampa cultural practices under the social code of conduct: Driglam Namzha.
After the initial civil unrest in 1991, thousands of Lhotshampa Bhutanese arrived at the border of in Eastern Nepal from West Bengal, India by foot and trucks. By the mid-1990s these Bhutanese refugees had increased to the rough estimates of 100,000 individuals. As a response to the crisis after conflict with the continuously collapsing Nepali government, Bhutanese officials stated the Bhutanese refugees were, in fact, opportunistic economic-migrants rather than vulnerable refugees they self-claim to be. Thus the Bhutanese government has not repatriated the refugees.
Since their exodus, individuals have reports of torture, murder, arrests and rapes during the late 80s to early 90s in Bhutan. Furthermore, many of the individuals have remained as refugees within Eastern Nepal or India for over two decades to either look for repatriation or simply to find peaceful residency in their refuge. Whereas many refugees have resettled into third-nations to find a better life from their traumatic experiences.
As of today the Bhutanese government has not repatriate the displaced group in totality and continues to deny the legitimacy of their vulnerability and refugee status. As a consequence of lack of pictorial evidence, caused by the unavailability of video, photo or audio records, there is little evidence of the events that lead to the exodus other than personal accounts, and it remains a serious question of Bhutan’s dark past in isolation from the rest of the world.
All information here is based on the accounts of the government of Bhutan, the international communities, third-party witnesses, refugees and scholars. Any misinformation presented on this website will be removed as appropriate.

Avishkar Chhetri
http://theperipheralpeople.com/