NOOR launches Green Shoots, a platform dedicated to documenting ongoing European green-led initiatives

Green Shoots is a transnational visual reportage of a selection of ten environmental initiatives supporting the implementation of the European Green Deal in ten European countries.

Photo © Kasia Strek

Right after the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak and the European Commission Recovery Plan was presented in 2019, NOOR understood the need to launch a long-term photography project documenting initiatives supporting the implementation of the EU Next Generation program.

While implementation of the program takes shape, this set of ten stories aims at providing a visual glimpse into the vast efforts and diverse green-led initiatives that are already taking place across Europe in the field of food production, distribution and consumption, protection of underwater ecosystems, boost for rail travel, energy transition and more.

With the support of the European Cultural Foundation

Candidates of the first Wacken Rock 'n Roll Photography Workshop announced!

Announcing the 2022 Wacken Rock ‘n Roll Photography workshop candidates. From August 4-6, six German-based photographers will take part in the intensive workshop led by NOOR author Pep Bonet.

© Charlotte Anna Rathmann

© Fabian Ritter / DOCKS Collective

© Patrick Junker

© Ronja Falkenbach

© Paula Hornickel

© Jonathan Mahlendorf

The selected candidates are:

Ronja Falkenbach

Paula Hornickel

Patrick Junker

Jonathan Mahlendorf

Charlotte Anna Rathmann

Fabian Ritter

ABOUT

The Wacken Rock ‘n Roll Photography Workshop is a new educational initiative launched as a collaboration between the Wacken Foundation and the NOOR Foundation. Led by NOOR author Pep Bonet, it will empower selected young photographers by facilitating the development of their visual mastery in music, event and festival photography.

OPEN CALL Rock 'n Roll Photography Workshop by Pep Bonet at WACKEN

The Rock ‘n Roll Photography Workshop is a new educational initiative launched as a collaboration between the Wacken Foundation and the NOOR Foundation. Led by NOOR author Pep Bonet, it will empower six selected young photographers based in Germany by facilitating the development of their visual mastery in music, event and festival photography.

© Pep Bonet / NOOR

Taking the opportunity of the 2022 edition of Wacken Open Air (WOA) Festival, the selected group will be mentored in a live setting by NOOR Author Pep Bonet. For three days, the mentor and candidates will be working as a group, dividing tasks, ccreating a variety of images with a fresh style - shooting, editing and post-producing new photography on the spot to be used on the official WOA communication channels.

Former photographer of Motörhead, official photographer of Wacken Open Air for various editions, Pep has been committed to the visual documentation of Rock ‘n Roll and Heavy Metal scenes across the globe.

His last personal project ‘Hellbangers’ is an audiovisual project and book documenting the unique underground metal music scene of Botswana.

NOOR x WACKEN Rock 'n Roll Photography Workshop

• When: 4-6 August 2022

• Where: Wacken Open Air

Supported by:

© Pep Bonet / NOOR

PIX.T LAUNCHES STRATEGIC PROJECT WITH FOUR LEADING PHOTO AGENCIES, SUPPORTED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

PIX.T, THE PLATFORM FOR THE FUTURE OF PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY, IS WORKING WITH CONTRASTO, CTK, NOOR, PAP AND WORLDCRUNCH TO FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE BLOCKCHAIN-POWERED SOLUTION TO MANAGE AND MONETIZE IMAGES ONLINE, WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION.

Never has photography (in general, and press photography in particular) occupied such a prominent place in our daily lives of on-the-move, informed citizens. Still, the value of the photography market has collapsed in recent years, severely affecting photojournalists, while fake news and piracy are on the rise.

The Pix.T project aims to create a solution that is capable of resolving that paradox, by collaborating with all relevant players in the field: from global press agencies and photographic agencies to freelance photojournalists, media and technology platforms.

We believe that the .JPEG format has undermined the value of images, both in terms of economics and traceability – much like the .MP3 format was detrimental to the music sector, or the .MPEG4 format for the cinema and video sectors, until user-friendly legal offers were designed.

© Jon Lowenstein / NOOR

With the support of the European Commission, the consortium is now able to continue developing:

• an end-to-end solution for photo agencies and freelance photographers, allowing them to host and monetize their photo archives, as well as their daily production in a transparent and secure environment, while exploring new markets and new sources of revenue such as NFT and micro-payments;

• an API system for generalist news agencies, allowing them to access and use Pix.T's blockchain authentication system and automate their contracts and revenue sharing processes with their partners.

© Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR

Finally, readers and platform users will be just one click away from being able to trace the origin of an image, verify whether a photo is an original or if it has been modified.

With the support of the European Commission

Header photo:

© Yuri Kozyrev / NOOR

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ABOUT PIX.T

Pix.T is a blockchain-backed technology to drive a new digital economy for professional photography and visual storytelling. Bringing together leading technologists with photojournalists, visual creatives, international media and art market leaders, Pix.T aims to maximize the value of photographic work, ensure control and ethical practices for creators and find new market opportunities for the industry.

Guided by values of transparency and widening of access, the Pix.T project is part of a dynamic of raising awareness around the issues faced by the world of online professional photography. In that spirit, Pix.T's mission is to provide the online information ecosystem with the necessary tools to restore and strengthen the trust between media outlets and the general public.

https://pixt.cloud/

FOLLOW PIX.T ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

Olga Kravets' films showcased at the Martin Ennals Awards Ceremony 2022

NOOR Filmmaker Olga Kravets has directed one more year a series of three short films for the 2022 Martin Ennals Awards edition, celebrated on June 2nd 2022 in Geneva.

The film portraits are part of the communication campaign of the Martin Ennals Foundation to present the 2022 nominees’ struggle and life commitment to defending human rights during the yearly ceremony awards.

January 2022, Burkina Faso / Dr. Daouda Diallo, 2022 nominee to the Martin Ennals Awards

Photo © Olga Kravets / NOOR

The laureates of this year are Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja (imprisoned), a Bahraini-Danish leader of freedom and democracy, Dr. Daouda Diallo, a Burkinabe pharmacist by training and a committed human rights defender documenting human rights violations by both government factions and Islamist groups, and Pham Doan Trang (imprisoned), a leading journalist and an advocate for democracy, raising awareness on a broad human rights agenda in Vietnam.

Header illustration © Julie de Halleux

#IdentityDialoguesEurope Call | Winner Announcement

© Ana Amado

The photo 'Fraternal socialist kiss between Lyudmila Brezhnev and Erica Honecker. 1979’ by Ana Amado has been the favourite of the audience of the EU co-funded project 'Reconstruction of Identities'.

The photo was pre-selected among other 3 finalists of the open call by the jury for its powerful recreation of a historical moment to point out the yet present imbalance between men and women when we speak of leadership positions.

The image will be exhibited in Copenhagen Photo Festival and SIFEST 2020. Until then, we encourage you to follow her work ‘Lideresas (Female Leaders)’ series, to which the winner image belongs to.

About Ana Amado

Ana Amado. Ferrol (Spain)

Photographer, architect and visual artist. Currently, she combines her work as a photographer with the teaching of photography in Madrid. Her work explores the interconnections between the various artistic manifestations, always seeking the approach of contemporary art to society. Recently, her photographic projects focus on topics of social content where architecture acts as a scenic background in the construction of identities and also on feminism and gender equality.

Her work has been awarded internationally and exhibited at the Venice Biennale, PhotoLondon, the Sony World Photography Awards, PhotoEspaña, the London Royal Academy of Arts, the International Festival Eme3 and Picasso Museum (Barcelona), the International Arts Prize “Obra Abierta”, the IV Viphoto Fair or the Granada Photo Festival, among others. More info: http://anaamado.com/