echophotojournalism.com

Global Religion

SjacPhoto — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 11:04:04 +0000

There are rules that regulate the movement of humans all around.
Internationally, the transfer of goods at the customs checkpoints can be limited.
But, there also exists an undefinable reality, which at the same time can be disruptive that no one can deny: Religion.
Migration, transfer, family reunions… this movement of a large number of people moving, bringing in new cultures and alien traditions, but above all cults, rituals, and beliefs from their points of origin.

In this manner, even in the EU, we can slowly find new cults and ceremonies coming from diverse geographical & cultural perspectives.
From the Brazilian Candomblé to the Benin Celestial Church of Christ, the Cuban Santeria to the Tibetian Buddhism, these cults not restricting themselves to the immigrant populations, always getting a step closer, with more and more Europeans exploring these new boundaries, with a possible hope of what they imagined God and religion to be.
It’s the spiritual globalization, because God, or better still, the Gods, are everywhere and in everything.

Der Beitrag Global Religion erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

Expound

SjacPhoto — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 11:02:51 +0000

Fifteen homeless people who have taken a course in photojournalism for three months with the photojournalists of Echo. An unexpected result of visual and narrative. A major exhibition in one of the most prestigious areas of Europe, the Pavilion of Contemporary Art Milan. This was Ri-Scatti. After the project Ri-Scatti, Echo decided to give life to a natural evolution of what the authors have shown that they can do. The city of Milan is in fact the focus of international media as the host city of Expo 2015. Echo decided to tell a different and alternative Milan, certainly not on the classic circuits of communication and information.

Four of the homeless who took part in the project will tell “their” city. Not a negative approach, but a look over the city without filters. “Feeding the Planet” is the theme of Expo 2015, will be the photographers homeless to remind us what this sentence means, for the duration of the event. EXPOUND is a great opportunity to decipher a city unknown to most people, and a great opportunity to work for the authors. Partners of EXPOUND is Canon, which will provide authors cameras, thanks to which they will do the first steps as professionals photographers The authors selected to expound are: Dino Bertoli, Sofiene Bouzayene, Karim Hamras and Massimo La Fauci. This project will be updated weekly.

Der Beitrag Expound erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

White Beaches

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:45:01 +0000

The “Spiagge Bianche” is a stretch of sand unrolling for about 4Km in the province of Livorno(Italy); it extends between the towns of Rosignano Solvay and Vada. The coast with its real tropical-like beach attracts, over the summer, many Italians and foreigner tourists. Although its beauty the white sand and clear water hide a huge environmental risk due to pollutions . The site in fact has been included, as described in a report published by United Nations Environment Programme, among the most polluted areas of the Mediterranean coasts. The history of Rosignano Solvay began in the early �?900 when the Belgian entrepreneur and politician Ernest Solvay decided to build a factory for the production of soda that has became at present one of the largest in Europe. In short time with the Solvay factory driving the development, a new city was born; quite soon streets, avenues, houses, recreation and after work centers were built to accomodate the factory’s manpower and the families. Although the positive economical impact of the Solvay a consistent pollution of the coast raised over the years. The so-called “Spiagge Bianche”(White Beaches in Italian) have been formed by the deposition of industrial water discharges(to date about 100 thousand tons per year) headed out to the sea, and made of limestone(about 90% of the total), bioaccumulative heavy metals(mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead), ammonia and organic solvents. The economical interests on the factory are various. The Solvay Group is among the biggest chemical companies in the world and the only site of Rosignano provides the biggest share of the italian’s soda ash requirements. Furthermore, over the years the local population has begun to exploit the pollution effect thanks to the great attraction guaranteed by the beautiful colors of the coast.

Der Beitrag White Beaches erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

Hayastan 1915-2015

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:43:48 +0000

On April 24th, 2015, Armenians celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, one of the most important events in the history of the country, which brought the world’s attention to the memory of the million and a half Armenians killed in 1915. In the capital Yerevan the entire population went to Dzidzernagapert, the memorial of Genocide, to leave a flower, and in Echmiadzin – considered the Armenian Vatican and the seat of the Catholicos Karekin II, head of the national church – the Armenian martyrs were canonized. Armenia, the oldest country to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301, is officially at war with Azerbaijan for the control of Nagorno-Karabakh, former Armenian enclave in Azerbaijani territory assigned to Baku by Stalin. And the Soviet past has still a very strong influence in the daily life of the country, Russian is commonly spoken and studied in schools; in Yerevan and in vacation destinations near the capital architecture is still very much influenced by the Soviet period. But Yerevan is also a living city, rich in art, culture and entertainment, despite a difficult economic situation and the arrival of Syrian refugees of Armenian descent, fleeing the war in Syria.

Der Beitrag Hayastan 1915-2015 erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

Ghosts from the past

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:38:55 +0000

Cambodia is a country in great development. where foreign investment, mostly Russians and French, have changed the habits and the lifestyle of many people. But, not very far from the tourist beach of Serendipity Sianoukville or the magnificent temples of Angkor, people are living in a desperate way. In particular, the country continues to be littered with landmines, sad legacy of the tragic history experienced in the last 25 years of the last century. The mines were used in mass by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. During these years, their leader Pol Pot was the architect of one of the most radical and bloody revolutions in human history. About 1.8 million people died in those years, thousands of people were killed in the countryside or in labor camps. Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese army and, later in the 80s the same Vietnamese who, using the local forced labor, built a minefield of 700km along the entire border between Cambodia and Thailand . After their retire, more mines were placed by cambodian government to prevent a new invasion and, again, by the Khmer Rouge in order to protect the areas where they had taken refuge, and from which they developed guerrilla actions until the death of Pol Pot took place on April 15 1998.

Der Beitrag Ghosts from the past erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

Once we were soldiers

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:37:11 +0000

(Vietnam, 2015). Fifty years ago it began the war against USA. Forty years ago, with the conquest of Saigon the North, Vietnamese Army won the war and thousands of veterans came back to their villages trying to start a new life. Today, just in Huè (Central Vietnam) which was one of the more hit part of the country by the fighting, close to the DMZ zone, there were settled 25.000 veterans, 4.000 of them are invalid and 2.000 victims of the Agent Orange. They have a lot of problems to solve, as how to build a new life with their families. In fact, many Veterans didn’t get married at that time. But the entire community welcomed them as heroes, in particular North Vietnamese, while in the south the situation was different because of the long presence of the American Army there. South Veteran’s Families were scared of the revenges but after some years the situation was changed and the harmony was established again. Today, after 40 years, there are no longer distances and they live all together. Another issue was how to solve the social consequences of the war (destruction of the territory, villages, structures), both mental and economic because after the war, the government stopped to help them so, they’ll start to gain money by themselves. They are grouped in Vietnam Veterans Associations (VVA) divided in many levels of importance: Provincial level, City/district level, Ward/commune level that includes Veterans of the French war, the oldest who are more than 80 years old which fought in both the wars and lived the aftermath and the rebuilt period, veterans of the American War (a larger group) and those who served after the reunification of 1975.
During their service, the veterans had a code of life: “FIGHT FOR PEOPLE, DIE FOR PEOPLE”.

Der Beitrag Once we were soldiers erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

Ethiopa Drought

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:33:48 +0000

Millions of people in Ethiopia require “immediate life-saving intervention” after a severe drought and major flash floods have devastated livestock and crops, the United Nations has warned.

At least 7.8 million people have been receiving emergency food aid since April, up from 5.6 million at the start of the year, but a further 700,000 people in the country’s Somali region did not receive supplies “due to resource constraints” and they are now feared to be on the brink of starvation.

In July, there were 376,000 severely malnourished children under five and 3.6 million moderately malnourished children and women who were either pregnant or breastfeeding a child.

Der Beitrag Ethiopa Drought erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

Cuba On Line

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:30:11 +0000

“I never connected to the Internet, the first day I arrived they explained each step and the characteristics of the service, and although at first it was hard, they helped me a lot. The connection is fast. but time flies away in a hurry. We always have a thousand doubts while we browse, imagine that for us it is the first time … We are like children and often time of the connection goes away just to figure out how to do certain operations. ”
A few months ago, the Ministry of Communications of Cuba has instructed the State-owned company, ETECSA, to install a wifi network in the most important squares of the town. A real revolution in a country where, until then, the network was a luxury for tourists. Now prices are rapidly dropping, 2CUC for an hour, about 2 euros, and Cubans use the network mostly to talk to relatives in Miami, use Facebook and manage blogs. Not having private spaces, the squares become a great place for communication, creating a more intimate and personal communications areas and areas where instead, as per the Latin culture, discussion becomes public, in the euphoria of a new frontier of their personal relationships.

Der Beitrag Cuba On Line erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

African Voodoo: Benin the cradle of voodoo

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:26:47 +0000

Voodoo dolls and zombies? In reality, the oldest religion in the world has very little to do with all that.The voodoo cult ́s roots lay in Benin, a small country in Western Africa, from where it spread over the whole world due to slave trade, to Northern and Southern America and the Caribbeans where it has found its own interpretations. In collaboration with the journalist Laura Salm‐Reifferscheidt I tried to portray and understand it’s reality and myth. The cult’s numerous ritualistic acts are still an inherent part of everyday life in Benin, they provide healing and maintain the balance in society. It is a the mystic world of priests, healers and magicians, explaining the cult of ancestors and sacrificial rituals . As modernization is shifting the values of the people in Benin, creating new needs and thurst for personal enrichment, Voodoo and its rituals and ceremonies remain an anchor of hope to a more prosperous and fullfilled life, the people moving between faith and superstition, rituals and witchcraft. A religion and culture which is incorporated and lived naturally and farming part of the daily life. Voodoo remains for those who are not initiated a lasting secret, often described as “that, what we will never understand“.

The Story has been shot with a Mirrorless Camera that cost less than $1.000

Der Beitrag African Voodoo: Benin the cradle of voodoo erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.

Blooming in The Black Garden

SjacPhoto — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:25:02 +0000

The University of Stepanakert is where, in 1988, the independence movement leading to the Karabakh’s declaration of independence began after a long-lasting war. Karabakh (black garden in Persian) is an independent but unrecognized state, at war with Azerbaijan over territorial claims. Blooming in the Black Garden is a project that, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of independence, portrays the stories of young people born after the de facto independence, who search for a national identity, torn between a sense of pride of Karabakh and Armenian belonging. A country where the wounds of war in the territory and in the spirit are still visible, where people still fall victim to the countless landmines hidden in the ground, where in the capital city, Stepanakert, which is only a few kilometers from the front line, sons, brothers and husbands are still fighting for sovereignty and where mothers, sisters and wives live suspended between hope, fear and longing for a normal future. From schools to sports fields, from military academies to art institutions, the youth of Karabakh dream of a different future, aware that their generation will build the foundation for international recognition.

Der Beitrag Blooming in The Black Garden erschien zuerst auf echophotojournalism.com.