Blue Earth Accepts Four New Projects
We are very pleased to announce the acceptance of four new projects.
- Choosing Hope: Reclaiming the Duwamish River - Tom Reese
- Cameras without Borders: Photography for Healing and Peace - Eberhard Riedel
- Sufis: Messengers Of Peace - Amit Mehra
- Toxic Water, Poisoned People: When Mountains Fall To Pay For Coal - Paul Corbit Brown
Everyone at Blue Earth wishes to congratulate our new project photographers! We very much look forward to working together to further their projects highlighting these important issues.
Please visit their new project pages to view a slideshow of photos and to learn more about the project.
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Blue Earth's 75 for $75 Program
Here's a chance to own a beautiful print taken by a renowned photographer for a great price and support Blue Earth projects at the same time.
Blue Earth is now offering a series of prints to the public. Each will be available for a $75 donation and be limited to 75 prints.
First up is the work of Subhankar Banerjee whose stunning work documenting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge played a crucial role in prohibiting oil drilling there.
The photo, "Buff-Breasted Sandpiper," comes from his book "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land." The loose, 11x14 digital archival pigment print will be signed on the reverse.
Subhankar's ground-breaking work would not have been possible if Blue Earth had not helped him leave his career at Boeing to photograph during all four seasons over two years in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In the coming months, Blue Earth will offer more "75 for $75" prints by photographers such as Natalie Fobes, the next artist in the series. All proceeds from donations will go back to Blue Earth so it can help nurture the career of the next Subhankar.
Blue Earth was founded in 1996 by Seattle photographers Natalie Fobes, Malcolm Edwards and Phil Borges. It has sponsored more than 100 documentary photography projects about endangered environments, threatened cultures and other social issues. This year its annual fundraising lottery will be September 30th. The Blue Earth Lecture Series will resume in the fall of 2010.
Make a donation, and reserve your signed print today!
Blue Earth Lottery - Sept. 30th, 2010
Blue Earth’s 2010 Lottery will be held Sept. 30th, 2010 at the beautiful University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture. Join us for an evening of great food, wine and music, and the opportunity to take home a piece of fine art photography donated by world-class photographers through a fun and exciting lottery system.
Tickets sales are now open! The official invitations are going out shortly, but this is an opportunity for our loyal fans to get their tickets early. Lottery tickets are always very limited and always sell very quickly, so act fast and get your tickets today!
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Gary Braasch Continues Reporting The Gulf Oil Disaster
Though the well may be capped (at least we hope it stays that way), the ongoing disaster in the Gulf created by BP’s deep water drilling continues today. Blue Earth project photographer Gary Braasch remains on the scene in the Gulf reporting on the crisis, even as the mainstream media turns its attention to the latest MTV music awards.
“It is my hope that these images and ideas will be useful to you not only in depicting this largest environmental disaster - but also in helping turn public and political opinion toward a positive change in our energy and climate policy. My work here will help illustrate the link between the warming atmosphere and the overuse of fossil fuels and risky drilling for more oil. I am reporting with Joan Rothlein, an environmental health scientist, and will be preparing reports and photos on many aspects of the oil spill that continues to heavily affect the Gulf waters. The coverage ranges from the 4.9 million barrels of oil that flowed out from the rig site for three months - to the broad effects on and reactions by the people of the Gulf and telling details along the way.”
It’s easy to forget how much we rely on the dedication and professionalism of photojournalists like Gary to keep the public’s eye pointing in the right direction. Follow his work, including his own posts from the field, and view more new images from his ongoing reporting at World View Of Global Warming.
SPILL: Crude Response
Blue Earth project photographer Daniel Beltrá is participating in a new exhibit in Aspen focusing on the ongoing Gulf oil spill disaster “SPILL - Crude Response: oil, plastics and perspective.” The exhibit coincides with the current Gulf oil and climate discussions at the Aspen Institute’s Environment Forum.
SPILL shows us how artists experience environmental issues, and how we are all in it together. The exhibition was created to give policy and industry leaders an artistic way of looking at the Gulf Oil Spill. SPILL artists bring us real life stories of tragedy and hope, from their eyes, and the idea that we need to continue to focus on how important and vital the ocean is to our collective daily existence.
Participating artists include Daniel Beltrá, Aurora Robson, and Kenji Williams. The exhibit opens today, July 28 and runs through September 25, 2010 at the 212 Gallery.
Kenya’s Nubians: Then & Now
Blue Earth project photographer Greg Constantine has just opened a new exhibit at The Go Down Arts Centre in Nairobi, Kenya featuring new work from his project Nowhere People.
Kenya’s Nubians: Then & Now is the first exhibition in Africa for photographer Greg Constantine (USA, b. 1970). The Nubian community has lived in Kenya for over 100 years. Brought to Kenya by the British in the late 1800s, Nubians served for the British in the King’s African Rifles during WWI and WWII and were vital in the development of East Africa. Unable to return to their homeland, the British designated over 4000 acres of land for the Nubians and their families to settle on. The Nubians named the land, Kibra or ‘land of forest’. After Kenyan Independence, the Nubian community has historically been denied recognition and has been one of Kenya’s most invisible and under-represented communities. Over the past 40 years, hundreds of thousands of rural migrants have flooded into Nairobi in search of work and Kibra has been the land where they’ve been encouraged to settle. Eventually the Nubian settlement of Kibra would turn into Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa.
Kenya’s Nubians: Then & Now combines rare, historical photographs of the Nubian community in Kenya with Constantine’s own work on the community’s struggle for recognition. The exhibition aims to promote the dynamic and rich heritage of a community few in Kenya are aware of, and it intends to help tell the story of one of Kenya’s communities who, as one Nubian elder described is, “being squeezed into extinction.”
The exhibit runs through August 14, 2010 and will be accompanied by an outdoor exhibition/installation in the Kibera slum (outside Nairobi) from August 13-15. After Kenya, the exhibit will travel to London - keep an eye out for details.
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Blue Earth Chats With Daniel Beltrá, Just Back From The Gulf Oil Spill
The oil spill is an ecological tragedy of enormous proportions. It’s unclear how BP is going address the situation, and the long term consequences will obviously be severe. BP has not been forthcoming about the extent of the spill and what is being done to fix it. There have also been disturbing news reports about efforts to stop photographers and journalists from documenting the spill and its effect. We took a moment to chat with Daniel Beltrá who returned from photographing the oil spill.
Read the full interview on the Blue Earth blog...
Subhankar Banerjee On “BPing the Arctic?”
Great news for the environment! As you may have heard, the Obama administration finally acknowledged political reality and the scope of the ever growing disaster incurred by BP in the Gulf by suspending plans for experimental oil drilling by Shell Oil in the Arctic.
Blue Earth project photographer Subhankar Banerjee played his own key role again in building public pressure on the Interior Department with his essay on TomDispatch.com highlighting the dangers of deep water drilling. Banerjee’s article was a critical call to action and was picked up UPI, Salon, CBS News, The Nation, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Grist, Mother Jones, Alternate, ZNET, and many others.
If you haven’t already, be sure to read his article.
Florian Schulz On The Marc Silber Show
We could all use a few tips from an expert when it comes to wildlife photography! Florian Schulz recently appeared on The Marc Silber Show to discuss his ongoing work, his unique perspective on photography as an “adventure,” and to offer a few concise tips for shooting in the wild. Florian is not only a Blue Earth sponsored photographer with his extensive, ongoing project on wildlife migration corridors, but also an award winning conservation photographer recognized as one of the emerging stars.
It’s a rare opportunity to hear stories from the field first-hand, so be sure to check out the interview - and don’t forget your notebook!
Follow Asim Rafiqui’s Progress In India
Want to follow the day-to-day work in the field of an internationally famous photojournalist? Blue Earth project photographer Asim Rafiqui is providing regular updates on his latest trip to India. At his personal blog The Spinning Head, Asim is sharing details on all the situations, sites, spaces that he is exploring as part of his “Idea Of India” project along with maps of his travels though the country.
“Shooting From The Heart” Now Available On The Blue Earth Blog
We are continuing our series on the Blue Earth blog featuring selected articles from Shooting From The Heart: Photography That Makes A Difference, our highly regarded handbook for photographers developing documentary projects. Over time this series will include most of the articles from the handbook and will provide our readers with yet another means of accessing some of the many resources we offer they photographic community.
Want to keep up-to-date with this series, read about our project photographers, learn about special events? Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed!