All around the world, the environment has been suffering. We recently saw the Amazon rainforest and Australia go up in flames, following countless other natural catastrophes that increasingly confirm our societies’ greatest fear and reinforce our biggest challenge: things need to change.

One of the most common suggestions is to lower the impacts of the farming industry. More specifically, beef, sheep and dairy farming, or livestock farming, which contributes to land degradation, a large percentage of global water usage and increasing pressure for deforestation.

Of course, there are counterarguments that claim that farming for a ‘vegan world’ would be almost equally as damaging.  Like it has always done, the debate continues…

For her project, ‘On the Farm,’ Chanel spent time with small farming families and communities in the northern parts of Iceland, whose practices make a strong case against the intensive and unsustainable present-day industrial model.

Their stories, like many others from around the world, reassert the importance of farming for regional communities who depend on it to preserve their heritage, identity and livelihood.

The people in these photographs shared with her their daily lives on the farm. They shared their stories and their passion, and a hope that there will always be a need for the work that they do.

Through the passing generations they have been forced to adapt to the changing demands for their products and the volatile economic and environmental climate they’re working in, ensuring their work is increasingly sustainable.

As these families and communities continue to adapt to our ever-changing socio-political environment, constantly adjusting what’s necessary to survive in their industry, we continue to rely on their products.

The spread of COVID-19 across the globe saw an increased demand for food, especially fresh produce from farms, reinforcing the need for farming communities like these.

Though change for our planet is both inevitable and necessary, and though we may not yet know what that change is going to look like, Chanel feels obliged to create a collective portrait of farmers today.

The story of the human race can be defined and categorized by its different ‘ages.’ Today, it is important to recognise those that have dedicated their lives to providing food for our current age, as we are likely to soon transition into the next.

About the author:

Chanel is a documentary photographer (born 1995) based in London and has recently completed an MA at the Spéos Photographic Institute following a Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

Her work has been published in Ain’t Bad, British Journal of Photography, WUNDER Journal, Musée Magazine, SUITCASE Magazine, Analog Magazine and Dodho among many others. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Paris, Haarlem, New York, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv.

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An editorial by Positive Magazine in Venice, Italy. We have been looking for some hidden places around one of the most visited city in the world. There are still some areas not known by tourists in general around the borough of Cannaregio, like S.Alvise Park.

– Model:
Marco Bozzato – D Management Milano
Photographer: Giacomo Cosua – Positive Magazine

Credits:
Shoes: Pollini
T-Shirt: Versace
Coat: Nicolao Atelier – Venice

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By Steve Hanratty

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For photographers everywhere, it’s important they find their unique style. That’s why light shaping tools can help them be more creative—and distinctive.

“Clean, bold, and graphic, presenting women with strength and elegance.” That’s how Lindsay Adler, New York-based fashion and beauty photographer, and in 2020 Rangefinder’s first-ever female Icon of the Year, defines her style.

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Cast your eye over the images she creates, and you’ll instantly recognize she couldn’t have provided a more accurate description. You’ll find a striking use of light to create mood and depth, and a passion for vibrant colors and high-contrast black and white.

Inspiration

When asked about the photographers who have influenced her throughout her career, she cites such luminaries as Albert Watson, Lillian Bassman, and Solve Sundsbo. Watson, for his keen sense of imagery,  Bassman for her uncompromising experimental style (revolutionary in the 1950’s) and Sundsbo for his creative, almost surreal approach to fashion. Interestingly, however, the red thread that seems to connect them all is a mastery of light. Each is set apart by the way they use and shape light.

Lindsay also credits many of the photographic educators who taught, inspired, and guided her in her early career, because as Lindsay is happy to point out, she wasn’t always a fashion photographer living and working in Manhattan.

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Early days

“I’m originally from upstate New York, a town so small, it was actually called ‘Hamlet.’ I started shooting when I was 15 years old, starting out as a portrait photographer shooting mostly maternity, family, and weddings. But I was keen to learn and develop my craft, and I was fortunate enough to meet many educators who helped me build a platform that would help me grow and ultimately realize my ambition to shoot fashion.”

Lindsay has been shooting fashion for the last decade, and her images have appeared on the pages of top magazines such as Marie Claire, Elle Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and L’Officiel.

Watch the OCF II Grids in action:

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Pay It Forward

Understanding where Lindsay started, it’s no surprise then that she is equally as passionate about passing on her knowledge to the next generation of image creators. As a result, she’s traveled the world, creating tutorials, giving lectures and demonstrations at photographic events, and generally giving advice to those who ask for it.

“It’s simple; I want to give to others what the creative photographic community has given to me.”

Lindsay Talks Light and Modifiers

Exciting then that Lindsay has created a series of videos for Profoto demonstrating how modifiers and gels can help image creators be creative and innovative with light.

“I thought it would be interesting to take the same ingredients; the same location, same model, same styling, and the same makeup; and then demonstrate how, with the introduction of color gels and different modifiers, you can create such different end-results.”

Using the Profoto B10 and B10 Plus, Profoto’s uniquely compact OCF lights, Lindsay shows across the four short films how the Profoto OCF II Barndoor can create a dramatic vignette effect, how Profoto OCF II Grids can control the spread and spill of light, how the OCF II Snoot focuses light, how OCF II Gels can transform an image, and so much more.

Watch the OCF II Snoot and Grids in action:

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“Ultimately, it’s about giving image creators the tools to create their unique style—to find their voice that’ll ultimately help them stand out from the crowd.”

To learn more about Profoto, visit www.profoto.com and follow @profotousa on Instagram.

You can see more from Lindsay Adler at lindsayadlerphotography.com and you can follow her @lindsayadler_photo on Instagram. 

Lindsay Adler Transforms Images On Location with OCF II Light Shaping Tools

Zahedan. A small city only an hour’s drive from the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. A university town with a number of modern-style cafes, it is also Iran’s opium capital. The drug flows through here largely unchecked from the nearby border, and onwards to Tehran, Turkey and Europe. 

Needless to say it is not a prime tourist destination. A predominantly Sunni region in the east of Shiia majority Iran, the province Zahedan is the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan.

This region is also one of the poorest in the country and has seen a number of recent terrorist attacks, including a mosque bombing and all-out gunfights between the Iranian Army and armed religious factions. 

Opium is available in open drug markets in the city, and sells for around US$1 for 3 grams. A kilo might cost as little as $330. In return, gasoline is smuggled back over the border into Pakistan and Afghanistan, where – because of its low price in Iran – can be sold at around ten times the amount. 

The penalty for possession of large quantities of opium – 50 kg and above, or more than 2 kg of heroin – is death by execution. And while the Iranian government conducts anti-narcotics operations to stem the flow of opium, the US government has simultaneously accused members of the government as being implicit in the lucrative drug trade.

Due to the poverty some people scavenge for useful rubbish which is then on-sold via dealers in the town. The opium trade has also seen a rise in addicts, some of whom are living in the city’s cemetery. 

Yet despite the illicit trade of the underground, the streets Zahedan – like any city in the world – are filled with people simply going about their daily business  Markets sell rugs, food, clothes, baskets and jewellery, and the central mosque attracts daily worshipers. Students attend class and the cafes are full of young people. 

While perhaps not an obvious tourist destination, Zahedan is still a fascinating and vibrant city.

About the author:

Ali MC is a freelance writer and photographer who holds a Masters in Human Rights Law. His work has featured in publications such as Al Jazeera, The Guardian, GQ and SBS, and his photography has appeared in galleries such as the Monash Gallery of Art. Previous projects have included Rohingya refugees, marginalised East Timorese groups and labouring conditions in north-east India. He also works extensively with Indigenous communities in Australia. Ali MC is also the author of the full-length ‘punk rock travel book’ The Eyeball End. 

This series of photographs were shot on a 35mm film camera and are part of an extended collection titled Analog Iran which can be viewed on Instagram.

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Is the periphery of suburbia an opportunity to build something new, like the myriad of lifeforms colonizing a dead tree – or is the dying countryside cementing a lost habitat that is left behind by urbanization?

Henrik Hellman follows the meandering creek through the surroundings of his hometown, finding comfort in decay, and glimpses of light through dreams of something else.

About the author of Habitat:
Henrik Hellman is based in the small town of Uddebo, located in the western highlands of Sweden. Devoted to film photography he is documenting life and death around the countryside as well as working on conceptual photo projects.

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On 23 March, the evening the lockdown was announced in the UK, Jan Enkelmann was on his bike, cycling through the streets of an already deserted London, astonished to experience the city like he had never seen it in the 20 years he had been living here.

A few days later, Jan decided that taking the camera on his nightly cycling excursions – his chosen form of permitted daily exercise – was a safe way to document different areas of the city without endangering himself or others in the process.

Like many others around the world, Jan felt compelled to document the lack of crowds in usually crowded locations. But looking at the set of images he had made over the weeks, he feels this project has taken on a life of its own. Maybe these photos are less about the lack of human presence and rather about the stillness of a city being allowed a breather to reveal a beauty that would usually go unnoticed.

At first glance, this series is quite different from Jan’s usual work, which is very much about people and humanity in a more general sense. But somehow a human presence can be felt in all of these images.

The stillness conveyed in the photos is reminiscent of Enkelmann’s Smoking Chefs project. With that series, he captured chefs of restaurants in London’s Chinatown taking a cigarette break from their exhausting work in the kitchen. The project was featured on this website last year.

As with Smoking Chefs, Jan was photographing the lockdown images at night, around dusk, which adds to the eeriness conveyed in these photos and sets them apart form a lot of other photos of empty city streets we have seen recently.

About the author:
Jan Enkelmann is a London-based documentary and travel photographer, dividing his time between commercial commissions and personal projects. Most of his projects are observations of people in public spaces.

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With streets clouded in smoke and gas, the message and intent has never been so clear. This week Los Angeles was set in flames, and the city began to see the silver lining of what change could look like, yet still long strides away from the solution.

Saturday may 30th, was a day meant for peace, unity and progression. Pan Pacific park in the center of Los Angeles was filled with people of all ages, sizes and ethnicities gathered together for the first time in months amid the global pandemic to march for one purpose, that purpose being to bring justice to the unthinkable and inconceivable amount of black lives lost due to police brutality.

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The symbol of this march and tipping point of the new revolution is that of George Floyd, a 46 year old man who was killed by police in Minneapolis on May 25th 2020 for allegedly using a counterfeit 20 dollar bill to buy a pack of cigarettes.

For eight minutes and forty six seconds, Floyd begged for his life, for his mother for just another breathe using the words heard around the world “I Can’t Breathe” while an officer used excessive and unnecessary force holding his knee on Floyds neck where he then died on the street.

The entire interaction was filmed and spread like wildfire. George Floyd, a son, a brother, a father, a husband and of all else, a human being quickly became the symbol for a change that has been of desperate need for our deeply rooted systematic racist justice system and history.

Police cruisers burned on the intersection of Fairfax and 3rd. Police cars and armoured vehicles with personnel stormed down the street driving erratically, almost hitting civilians. Thousands of protesters resurrected George Floyds last words, their hands up in the air as they fell to their knees and screamed in unison, ‘Please, I can’t breathe’.

The words rang loud and clear. Smoke drifted between riot police and protesters. Police sirens screamed in the background. The Protesters were feet away from the line of riot shields and the police that moved them steadily closer. As tension reached its breaking point flashbangs, paintballs, tear gas and rubber bullets were shot into the crowd. Young teenagers, kids, parents, residents were hit and injured. Everybody scattered into side alleys and further down the street.

I was personally hit in the back of the head by a rubber bullet and immediately fell to the ground. The pain felt similar to being struck by a baseball. I could clearly see the large rubber bullets bouncing and scattering around me. As the sound of explosives, screaming and fleeing subsided, the protesters once again gained the courage to group together and approach the police, chanting as they walked.

This continually happened, over and over again. The entire scene felt powerful and symbolic. It felt important and significant and it was emotional to be there and hear the chants. To hear the names of unarmed black people that have been killed by the police, cried over and over again”.

Videos & photography by Toby Wallace

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The Black Lives Matter demonstrations have been taking place all over Italy, in several cities like Milan, Turin and Rome. Yesterday we have been in Mestre (Venice), documenting the protest of around 1000 young people walking from the Donatori di Sangue Square till the Mestre City Hall not far from Piazza Ferretto. The requests are the same all over the world: asking to stop racism, to stop to discriminate black people and asking to stop Police brutality.

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