National Demonstration for Free Palestine and a Ceasefire Now in London, 25th November 2023.
At Photojournalism Hub we work for social justice and human rights through publishing, promoting and supporting the work of independent photojournalists and documentary photographers. It is our belief that no one should be killed for their faith, ethnicity, nationality. What we are witnessing every day in the past 7 weeks has hurt us immensely. It is wrong to tackle acts of terrorism by disproportionately or indiscriminately killing and injuring civilians, women and children. We hope for a Ceasefire and for Palestinians right to peace, security and to live in their own independent state, free from occupation. We stand for Peace and an end of war.
Below are some photographs from our team on pro Palestine marches in London.
Thousands rallied in London’s Trafalgar Square to advocate for a Free Palestine and to call for an immediate Ceasefire. Among the crowds, were Londoners, families with their children, and representatives from various organisations, all uniting in in central London Trafalgar Square to demand an end to the violent conflict. The vast majority of demonstrators conveyed their message peacefully, holding up placards, and posters with messages emphasising the urgency of a ceasefire, on a day marked by numerous protests across the capital.
A young girl holds up a Freedom for Palestine poster, London Trafalgar Square. @Cinzia D’Ambrosi
Demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine have seen thousands around the world march and voice their grief and anger at Israel’s deliberate killing of civilians, predominantly women and children, despite facing opposition, and even arrests. The ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel began on the 7th of October 2023, when Hamas breached the Gaza-Israel barrier and killed communities and attacked Israel Défense Forces. Over 200 civilians have been taken as hostages. Weeks after Israel cut water, electricity, fuel, and aid into the Gaza Strip, whilst continuing attacking with an enormous amount of indiscriminate strikes on residential areas, schools and hospitals and killing over 7,000 civilians, largely innocent children and women. the humanitarian crisis is only deepening. Ceasefire and a stop to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Delhi, India
Police detain people at a protest organised by different student left-wing organisations in support of Palestinians in Gaza , as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues , near the Embassy of Israel , in New Delhi India , October 23, 2023
On the 21st October, thousands marched in central London from Marble Arch to Whitehall chanting “Free, free Palestine” to demand the end of the siege and immediate ceasefire. The killings must end. The occupation must end.
Thousands descended in central London in support for Palestinians and to demand end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Rally began at Marble Arch and marched to Whitehall.
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In August, 2022, I travelled to Xwejni, a remote region of Gozo, Malta where I was granted the opportunity to interview fifth generation salt farmer, Josephine Xuereb, who is at the helm of a traditional salt harvesting practice that her family lineage has had stewardship over for more than one hundred years.
During our time together Xuereb and her family explained their history and trade practices and allowed me access to the family cave- a space near the salt pans that serves as the heart of family life.
The mediterranean has been an important salt producing region for several centuries, with coastal climates favorable for salt cultivation. Researchers have traced salt production in the Maltese Islands back as far as the medieval period, however the comprehensive history of the salt pans, including the area of Malsaforn where Leli Tal-Melh salt is produced by the Cini family, remain somewhat elusive.
According to historical records, the 16th and 17th centuries proved to be one of the most active for Maltese salinas after the Knights of Malta instituted price fixing monopolies mirroring Sicilian governance of salt, due to increased understanding of the value of the commodity, population increases and a desire to protect the asset from potential disruption from the Ottoman Turks. While there has been a continuous decline of family run salinas throughout Europe since the 1950’s, due to developmental projects, economic migration, tourism and fluctuations in demand for artisanal salt, there are still a few remaining families engaged in the multigenerational trade.n the area of Malsaforn, a centuries old tradition of stewardship over salt pans continues with Josephine Xuereb at the helm of the family practice formerly run by her father Emmanual Cini and his wife Rosa, who have since retired from working in the pans.
Salt pans, also referred to as salinas, salterns, salt gardens or salines in this region occur naturally, but in a symbiotic dance in which nature and humans work for mutual benefit, they are reinforced with man-made design to optimize utility and maintain the strength of the ecological framework. The Cini family work within what is described as “atypical” or “artisanal” salinas, which refer to salt pans that are maintained traditionally by individual salters as opposed to saltwork pans in which mechanization is instituted for large scale pan cultivation and harvest.
The oldest pans in this family lineage have been estimated by researchers to be approximately one hundred and sixty years old and have been communicated by oral tradition to have likely been dug by Josephine’s great grandfather. For the last forty years Emmanuel Cini and his family–in addition to the production of salt–have been responsible for the conservation, restoration and land management of the salt pans. While the government does not currently recognize the salinas as historical sites and they are not listed as legally protected heritage property of the Maltese Islands, the Cini family work tirelessly to protect their geo-heritage on this micro-landscape.
Like tempered steel, Josephine seemingly grows stronger the more that she is stressed and pressurized by the elements inherent in her life as a salt farmer. On a typical day that begins at 4:00 a.m, Josephine’s skin is brushed by saline and pummeled by an unrelenting Gozitan sun along with humidity that would bring a grown man to tears, while she sweeps piles and carries heavy bags of salt from the salinas to transportation vehicles. The glare reflecting from the salt pans is intense, bleaching the environment and rendering it unnavigable without wearing both sunglasses and a head covering. Rather than grow weary in an environment that might be described as unforgivable, Josephine is revitalized, rejuvenated–channeling her ancestors as she continues her tasks with honor and reverence, expressing that, “working with nature is a privilege.” Having dominion over these pans, her job is to shepherd these table diamonds–summer snow–to families near and far looking for the rare treat of Leli Tal-Melh artisanal salt.
“I remember when it was fuller.” Josephine points out the doorway of the cave in the direction of Xwejni rock (also known as Lunar Hill) in the distance. Then she grabbed a family photo album that has been tarnished by salt and sun, but features a noticeably fatter image of Xwejni rock taken a few decades ago. The rock is so much bigger in the image that it almost looks doctored, but it’s clearly an authentic image. We talk about the effects of erosion on the rock and the salt pans. Josephine explained that the salt pans are limestone geological compositions designed partly by nature and partly by man.The sedimentary structure of the coast lent itself intrinsically to shallow platforms inherent to salt production, probably from its earliest formations, however through time, the Cini family have further designed and reinforced the pans to maximize their strength and utility. In addition to compensating for erosion that is incurred by weathering, the Cini family–as stewards of their land–do their best to prevent erosion that occurs at the hands of humans. From time to time divers come within close proximity of a delicate seaside portion of the pans, while some instagram-eager tourists elect to cross the border walking directly onto the private property of the salt pans, disrupting aspects of cultivation and the ecosystem. While the family can’t prevent all of the meddling, they do what they can to protect the land and educate the public.
Further to the right of the Cini salt pans are echoes of an earlier time when more families were producing salt. The eerie remnants of abandoned salt pans and caves are visually stunning but also create a haunting tapestry of things left behind and stories left untold. Gozo has been influenced by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs and the British. To look at the abandoned salt pans and caves is like looking back in time at ancient ghosts of world history that helped to develop Gozo and its legacy of salt into the unique tapestry that it is today.
Naima Hall is a Brooklyn-based independently contracted photographer/writer with interests in the intersection of human society and the environment. Her images and written work have appeared most recently in Photojournalism Hub, GoNOMAD Travel Magazine, Wanderlust Travel Magazine and Corbeaux Magazine. A curated selection of her photos appear on the Smithsonian Magazine public archive. Naima holds master’s degrees in urban planning and education. She is a former United Nations employee currently serving as a tenured educator for the blind and Library of Congress certified Braille transcriber for the New York City Department of Education.
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Jonathan Alpeyrie’s career spans over two decades, has brought him to 35 countries, and has covered 14 conflict zone assignments, in the Middle East and North Africa, the South Caucasus, Europe, North America, and Central Asia.
Born in Paris in 1979, Jonathan Alpeyrie moved to the United States in 1993. He graduated from the Lycée Français de New York in 1998 and went on to study medieval history at the University of Chicago, from which he graduated in 2003. Alpeyrie started his career shooting for local Chicago newspapers during his undergraduate years. He spent a month driving across the country to create my first photo essay like a professional. The essay focused on the remnant of the Communist era heavy industry. His driver at the time took him to all the major industrial sites, visiting abandoned factories and taking photographs of what once was. The decaying infrastructure was a fascinating reminder of a collapsed system barely 10 years prior.
After graduating from the University of Chicago in the spring of 2003, Jonathan was sent off to start his first dangerous photo essay which he hoped at the time would help me further to launch his career as a photojournalist. He spent over a month covering gang activity in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa. With the photo essay completed, he returned home and was quickly picked up by Getty images for the reportage section after it was noticed by some editors at the NYC office. 2004, was a watermark year for Jonathan as he started covering wars that very same year, from West Africa to the Caucasus, all for Getty Images.
I became a war photographer in order to immerse myself into historical situations to then report them back to the public. Cut and dry
Jonathan Alpeyrie
With almost a decade of experience behind him and half a dozen wars under my belt, Jonathan decided to go on his own and leave the agency business partially behind. Dealing directly with his own clients while still working for various photo agencies, he started covering wars in the Middle East and Central Asia, furthering his resume as a war photographer. A year later, the Arab Spring launched a new phase in his career. With the various conflicts erupting all around the Middle East, Syria started to attract war reporters from all over the world interested in covering this new hot conflict. After two trips to the war-torn country in 2012, Jonathan decided to return in 2013. It happened after he was kidnapped for three months by Islamic rebels.
By 2014, right after his release from Syria, he embarked on another voyage, this time into Slavic land to start covering the new hot war: Ukraine. After almost 14 months of coverage, he was injured during a gun battle in Mariupol.
That year his career took another turn as he almost permanently stopped working for agencies and focused on some of his big clients like Vanity Fair, CNN, and others, which, interestingly was a reminiscence of the earlier part of his career when he was solely doing photo essays and almost no news. He focused on personal projects which took him closer to a region a new from his previous travels like Mexico and Central America while keeping an eye on South America.
After a hiatus from covering wars, he went to Iraq to cover the battle of Mosul in 2017, and took another break from war in 2018, except for some time spent on the front lines in Ukraine, he decided to focus on the drug wars in South America, and more specifically in Brazil. Covid19 cut short his project and focused on the pandemic with an exception: the war in Armenia at the end of 2020.
The War in Ukraine since 2014 never ended but rather was in a state of hiatus with more upsurge of fighting once in a while. February 2022, with the Russian invasion of its neighbor, has had everyone surprised by the scale of its aggression. When the fighting erupted he was in Mexico shooting a story on the drug war, as soon as his assignment ended he departed for the front in Central Ukraine. He spent a month covering the war between the two Slavic nations. Once more, he was drawn back into a conflict.
Alpeyrie has worked as a freelancer for various publications and websites, such as the Sunday Times, Le Figaro Magazine, ELLE, American Photo, GLAMOUR, Aftenposten, Le Monde, & bbc among others. Jonathan Alpeyrie’s career spans over a decade, and has brought him to over 36 countries, covered 14 conflict zones assignments, in the Middle East and North Africa, the South Caucasus, Europe, North America and Central Asia. A future photography book about wwii. Veterans with verve editions are in the works.
Alpeyrie has been published in magazines such as: Paris Match, aftenposten, times (Europe), Newsweek, Wine Spectator, Boston Globe, glamour, bbc, vsd, Le Monde, newsweek, Popular Photography, Vanity Fair, La Stampa, cnn, and Bild Zeit, elle Magazine, Der Spiegel, Le Figaro, marie claire, The Guardian, The Atlantic.
Jonathan Alpeyrie www.jonathanalpeyrie.com E: peloponnessian@hotmail.com @Jonalpeyrie
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This year, for The End of Year Instagram Showcase, we invited photo editor and photography consultant Will Carleton from Photo Archive News to select a number of photographs submitted by photographers that have been involved with the PJ Hub in 2022. In anticipation to Will Carleton’s curation, we would like to share some of the photographs submitted demonstrating the commitment, talent, exploration of unseen or forgotten areas of society to advocate and advance social justice. An example of the work submitted are stories from the Democratic Republic of Congo by Justin Makangara and Arsene Mpiana, the work by Richard Zubelzu capturing the powerful sentiment for the liberation of women in Iran, the protests in Bolivia by Josue Cortez, the work by Encarni Pindado on the Search for Disappeared Persons allegedly killed by the cartel near Los Mochis, Mexico, the work of Sebastian Ambrossio documenting the various layers of Argentinian society, the impact of waste on the Guatemalan coastline with a focus on Livingston by @Maria Tomas Rodriguez and the coverage of one of the rallies in solidarity of Child Q, the fifteen-year-old strip-searched black girl, and all the black girls that are daily adultified and dehumanised in England by Sabrina Merolla. The Photojournalism Hub End of Year Instagram Showcase starts on the 21st December 2022. To view the entries and lean more join us HERE .
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Finbarr O’Reilly is a multi award winning photojournalist and the 11th Laureate of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award. He has covered conflicts and combat situations in Congo, Chad, Sudan, Afghanistan, Libya and Gaza. His awards include the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize exhibition photographer and the World Press Photo of The Year in 2020.
‘Congo, A Sublime Struggle’ is evocatively titled after a quote from Patrice Lumumba’s Independence Speech. It is a sequel of ‘Congo in Conversation’ by Congolese photographers and journalists, and produced by the Carmignac Photojournalism Award team and Finbarr.
The monograph explores the Eastern DRC and how it connects with the environmental and climate crisis, the country’s colonial history, and on-going extractive practices. in collaboration with the International Criminal Court.
This monograph is a striking and meaningful endeavour that documents and presents the many facets that are part of Congo today, including struggles and efforts in bringing the country as a whole. It includes work on the reparation programme with victims of violence in collaboration with the International Criminal Court.
On Friday 1st July, Finbarr O’Reilly joined Cinzia D’Ambrosi and Safeena Chaudhry in a conversation about The Congo, Photography, reparation and trauma.
During the interview, Finbarr answers questions on his latest work and monograph ‘Congo, A Sublime Struggle’, which contains powerful photographs and writings on Congo of the last two years.
MONOGRAPH – FINBARR O’REILLY CONGO, A SUBLIME STRUGGLE Carmignac Photojournalism Award – 11th Edition Democratic Republic of Congo
Co-published by: Reliefs / Fondation Carmignac Release date: June 17, 2022 Bilingual: French/English Size: 24 × 28 cm, 128 pages Texts : Finbarr O’Reilly, Comfort Ero and Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua Photographs : Finbarr O’Reilly Price: 35 euros, 45 USD, 58 CAD, 35 GBP Distributed by: Harmonia Mundi
BECOME A PJH MEMBER Consider becoming a member of the Photojournalism Hub and receive the benefits of free access to events, Photojournalism Hub resources, editorial content, portfolio reviews and photography exhibitions, and lots more! whilst supporting our work advocating, advancing social justice and human rights through promoting, engaging the public and stakeholders to committed, courageous independent photojournalism, and journalism. If there were ever a time to join us, it is now.Support the Photojournalism Hub from as little as £1 every month. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you.JOIN US HERE
Hundreds protest outside Home Office against Rwanda deportation plan and they shout ‘Refugees are welcome here’. This is the message voiced by demonstrators opposing the government policies which sees deportation of some refugees to Rwanda.
The government claims the policy, belonging to the Nationality and Borders Act, of removing migrants who arrive in the UK illegally will deter people from making dangerous channel crossings, however many including bishops of England have condemned the move as being uncompassionate and intricately divisive and racist.
Among the huge numbers of protesters, many MPs voiced their anger at the policy, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who spoke out: “It is an utter disgrace that the British government and other European governments are proposing to outsource refugee processing as Australia. We have to say, ‘Absolutely no!”
Campaign groups such as Care4Calais , activists from various campaign groups gave speeches and chanted: “say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here”.
The effort of these groups, PCS Union and Stand Up to Racism organisations, and all those that have opposed the policy, have mounted a forceful legal challenge to stop the first scheduled flight to Rwanda as part of the offshore detention plan. Solidarity is uniting people as more protests are organised to challenge the government plans.
BECOME A PJH MEMBER Consider becoming a member of the Photojournalism Hub and receive the benefits of free access to events, PJHub resources, editorial content, annual portfolio reviews and photography exhibitions, and lots more! whilst supporting our work advocating, advancing social justice and human rights through engaging the public to independent photojournalism and documentary photography. How to join HERE
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.
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.
