RIPPLES: NOOR Exhibition at Atelier Néerlandais in Paris during PhotoSaintGermain

Climate crisis, conflict, and social inequality through the great connector; water

November 3 - 13, 2022
Atelier Néerlandais
Rive gauche, 121 rue de Lille 75007, Paris

Ripples will be held at the Atelier Néerlandais, Paris. As part of PhotoSaintGermain, the exhibition will run from 3 November until 13 November, and is made possible by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

The Netherlands has a long-standing and deeply interwoven relationship with water. Its dykes, polders, boats, canals and reclaimed land are globally renowned, from international trade to urban infrastructure, the very culture of the Netherlands is based on and revolves around water.

NOOR, an Amsterdam-based collective of international, visual creators, has been at the forefront of global, ethical, and reliable visual journalism and storytelling for over 15 years. This proposal offers an extensive, innovative exhibition, curated from the prestigious NOOR archive, and an accompanying programme of public events on the overarching thematic of water, used to explore the nuanced and complex subjects of human life, socio-political inequality, migration and the climate crisis.

Water makes life on Earth possible, it covers over 70% of our planet, and makes up more than 60% of the human body. All living creatures, human, plant and animal are entirely dependent on it for survival. Throughout our agriculture and industry we make use and even abuse of this essential element, and yet water is not an infinite resource. It is a resource that will become increasingly valuable in the decades to come, and so will play an ever more central role in our future.

Ripples casts out deeper, nuanced, trans-national connections between the world through the overarching theme of water, to explore global issues of climate crisis, human life and social inequality. 

This multidisciplinary exhibition is developed by Stefano Carini (creative director, NOOR), and Samira Damato (Head of Exhibitions, NOOR) around the various aspects of water. Ripples is an exhibition that explores complex issues through the subject of water. At its core, the exhibition aims to be both a celebration of this crucial and mysterious element, and an accessible and educational review of its many roles in the socio-political inequalities of the contemporary world.

This exhibition offers a unique curated collection from the immense archive offered by NOOR, which features over two decades of high-calibre visual work from the 12 core members of the agency, among whom are Kadir van Lohuizen, Tanya Habjouqa, Francesco Zizola and Sanne de Wilde. Ripples aims to create an accessible space in which the complex connections between the many functions and interpretations of this essential element in human life, its role in varying cultures, its impacts on our lives and livelihoods, and its fragility in the face of the climate crisis will be laid bare. In keeping with its core mission, the exhibition is devised to be as radically future-forward and sustainable as possible.

In keeping with our ethos, this exhibition consists of exclusively upcycled materials and archival content. Everything that can be seen throughout this exhibition is salvaged or reused. In this way we hope to make a small difference in the culture of exhibition making.

© Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR

© Sebastian Liste / NOOR

© Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR

© Sanne De Wilde / NOOR

Programme 

November 3
Soft Opening

18:30 - 20:30
Ripples’ exhibition curator Samira Damato and 
NOOR author Olga Kravets present the soft opening of Ripples
Followed by drinks and bites

___

November 10
Official Opening Event: Vernissage

17:00 - 20:00
Guided exhibition tour at 18:00
Ripples’ exhibition curator Samira Damato and
NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini present the official opening of Ripples
With the presence of NOOR authors Kadir van Lohuizen, Tanya Habjouqa,
Olga Kravets, Sanne De Wilde and Benedicte Kurzen
Followed by drinks and bites

___

November 11

10:00 - 12:00
Breakfast with NOOR
Meet NOOR for a fresh start of the day with coffee and croissants 

Portfolio reviews
As part of Ripples, we hold portfolio reviews (20 minutes per session) with
NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini and NOOR author Kadir van Lohuizen

14:00 - 15:00
Panel talk + Q&A
with NOOR author Tanya Habjouqa and NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini on the role of water in the Israeli occupation of Palestine through the work of the author. Followed by a visual presentation of the artists’ body of work.

17:00-18:00
Panel talk + Q&A 
with NOOR author Kadir van Lohuizen, author of the project Rising Sea Levels, Arctic Frontier and several other large-scale projects on Climate Crisis in conversation with NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini. Followed by a visual presentation of the artists’ body of work

___

November 12

10:00 - 12:00
Breakfast with NOOR
Meet NOOR for a fresh start of the day with coffee and croissants 

Portfolio reviews
As part of Ripples, we hold portfolio reviews (20 minutes per session) with
NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini and NOOR author Tanya Habjouqa

17:00-18:00
Panel talk + Q&A 
NOOR authors Sanne De Wilde and Benedicte Kurzen in conversation with
NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini. The artists will present their work and discuss the importance of the water element as a fundamental part of their respective works. Benedicte Kurzen will share insider stories on her work around Lake Chad, while Sanne De Wilde will elaborate on the role of water in her project
Island of the Colour Blind 

Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop Participants Announced

Announcing the 2022 Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop participants. 12 visual storytellers will take part in the intensive workshops led by NOOR authors held in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The 2022 Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop consists of four all-day sessions directed by three NOOR authors and a facilitator from the NOOR team. The authors will work closely with the 12 participants, sharing experiences, working on portfolios, guiding editing skills, and offering advice on creating impactful visual stories. 

During the four days participants will work on one-on-one sessions with the tutors as well as develop their projects within a group. The workshop is centred around proactive and constructive feedback sessions and aims at providing the participants with new perspectives for the development of their projects and a deeper understanding of the state of visual storytelling for their professional development. 

The tutors of the NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop are: Andrea Bruce, Tanya Habjouqa and Olga Kravets.

Photo © Victoria Jung

Photo: © Eyad Abou Kasem

Photo © Leonard Mann

Photo © Katja Feldmeier

Photo © Katharina Kemme

Photo © Carlotta Steimkampf

Photo © Gerd Waliszewski

Photo © Marisya Myanovska

Photo © Tanya Sharapova

Photo © Tatsiana Tkachova

Photo © Daniel Chatard

Photo: © Magnus Terhorst

Participants

Carlotta Steinkamp
My name is Carlotta Steinkamp, I am 24 years old and currently studying photography and media in Bielefeld, Germany. After I finished my matura in Düsseldorf in 2016, I did a voluntary year in a local media centre where I mostly worked with documentary film. I began studying photography and media in 2018 and plan to finish my Bachelor of Arts in Hanover, Germany in 2023 or 2024. Over the past two years, I have turned mainly towards photojournalism after taking classes from documentary and war photographer Christoph Bangert at my university.
Instagram

Daniel Chatard
Daniel Chatard (*1996 in Heidelberg) is a Franco-German photographer. In his projects, Chatard investigates themes revolving around our environment, identity, and trauma. He is particularly interested in how these manifest themselves in the landscape. He describes his approach as involved documentary, making his own relations to his subjects part of the work and using collaboration to create new knowledge. Daniel holds a bachelor's degree in photojournalism and documentary photography from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover. In 2018, he studied for an exchange semester at Tomsk State University in Russia. He is currently studying in the MA Photography & Society at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Daniel has worked with various international media, such as The Washington Post, National Geographic, The British Journal of Photography, L‘OBS and Die ZEIT. He has been awarded the German Youth Photo Prize and shortlisted at the German Photobook Prize, was a finalist of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2018 and got nominated for the Prix Pictet 2019.
Instagram

Eyad Abou Kasem
A documentary photographer interested in telling the stories of the region by observing my surroundings, visually documenting my own life for extended periods of time to be produced as subjects of social significance. Graduated from the Faculty of Literature Arts in Damascus, Syria in 2013 and is currently studying Photojournalism and Documentary photography at the Hochschule Hannover.
Instagram

Gerd Waliszewski
Gerd Waliszewski, born in 1996 in the USA, grew up in Poland and Germany. He has been studying at the Ostkreuzschule fuer Fotografie in Berlin since spring 2021. In his photography he works with a documentary approach and is interested in its vague border to fiction.
Instagram

Katharina Kemme
Katharina Kemme (1991) is a documentary and portrait photographer from Essen, Germany. After her youth in a small Bavarian village, she first studied journalism with and worked for a news agency. Her freelance work is characterized by a sociological interest and is concerned with finding identity, as well as self-presentation and -staging of persons. With her photo essays, she wants to give an insight into how multi-faceted people's lives and passions can be, in order to enable greater acceptance and understanding of social coexistence. She is currently studying for a master's degree in photography in Dortmund.
Instagram

Katja Feldmeier
Katja Feldmeier was born in Odessa (Ukraine) and grew up in Berlin, Germany. She is currently completing a photography degree at Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in the class of Tobias Kruse. Katja graduated with a BA in Law from the University of Oxford in 2012 and an MA in Communications from Universität der Künste Berlin in 2018, but has since turned to more artistic projects in visual media. She is particularly interested in topics of gender, socio-economic inequality and structural discrimination.
Instagram

Leonard Mann
Leonard Mann studies and lives in Düsseldorf. He focuses his interest on social and political discourses. The translation into a visual language happens in images as well as in moving images.
Instagram

Magnus Terhorst
Magnus Terhorst was born in 1994 in Germany and graduated with a bachelor's degree from Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2022 and is currently enrolled in the master's program Photographic Studies there. He is the winner of the Otto Steinert Award 2021/22 and a member of Fotobus e.V. and DGPh. Since his early semesters, he is focusing on documentary long term projects about society and social problems.
Instagram

Marysia Myanovska
Ukrainian photographer born Feb 15 1990 in Kyiv. Currently based in Hamburg, Germany. Graduate Victor Marushchenko School of Contemporary Photography. Works on projects about Ukrainian youths.
Instagram

Tanya Sharapova
Tanya Sharapova is a Berlin-based artist working with documentary, archive, and art photography. Born in Moscow in 1984, Tanya began her career as a travel photographer and writer for travel magazines, such as National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, GQ Travel, Asian Geographic. Over time she expanded her interests from travel stories to stories, with a focus on the relation between individual and society, collective memory, and issues of territorial isolation. She works in Russia, Germany, and the Himalayas.
Instagram

Tatsiana Tkachova
Tatsiana Tkachova is an independent documentary photographer. Originally hailing from Mogilev region (Belarus), she is currently based in Hamburg. Tatsiana graduated from Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts with a Degree in Cultural Studies in 2014, and from the Academy of Documentary Photography and Photojournalism, Fotografika, in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2016. In 2022 Tatsiana took part in the International Class for Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of applied sciences and arts in Hannover. She teaches photojournalism at the Johannes Rau International Education Centre (Minsk, Belarus), The Belarusian Association of Journalists (Minsk, Belarus). The most important part of her professional activities is devoted to personal, long-term projects that are focused on the women’s rights, particularly the topics of gender violence, conflict and resistance. Also, Tatsiana Tkachova works with subjects of borders, identity and isolation. She has been a winner of various competitions. She is a recipient of World Press Photo 2020, and others awards. Tatsiana Tkachova works with Belarusian and foreign media, including Takie Dela, The Guardian, 6 MOIS, Der Spiegel, De Volkskrant, Meduza.io, Esquire.ru, Republic.
Instagram

Victoria Jung
Victoria Jung, 1991, is a german freelance documentary and portrait photographer. She completed two bachelor‘s degrees in communication design at the HTWG Konstanz and in photography at the FH Dortmund. She is currently studying for a Master‘s degree in photography in Dortmund parallel to her freelance work and independent projects. Since 2019, she has been photographing in the journalistic field for numerous magazines and newspapers. In the printed DIE ZEIT she photographed the weekly portrait column „Who are you?“ from October 2019 to January 2022. In her personal projects, she mainly focuses on social phenomena in sub- and youth cultures in relation to their local environment. She is interested in the political in everyday life, the struggle for one‘s own (free) spaces and the effects of systemic upheavals on a small scale.
Instagram

Header photo: © Tanya Habjouqa / NOOR

NOOR 15 Year Anniversary: Celebrating the Power of Visual Storytelling

In celebration of the 15 year anniversary of NOOR, we come together at Pakhuis de Zwijger for an evening filled with the groundbreaking agency’s iconic milestones in visual storytelling and take a peek into the future.

Thursday 22 September 2022 19:30 - 21:00
Pakhuis De Zwijger, Piet Heinkade 181, Amsterdam
Followed by drinks and bites at the café

NOOR is elated to invite you to celebrate this milestone with us. We start off the evening with a journey  through 15 years of NOOR’s iconic moments in visual storytelling, where we will touch upon the unwavering passion for documenting and witnessing the human experience in all its facets which lies at the heart of NOOR.
The second part of the evening will consist of a roundtable panel discussion centred around the the future of visual storytelling with NOOR’s creative director Stefano Carini, NOOR members Kadir van Lohuizen, Pep Bonet, Andrea Bruce and Sanne De Wilde, moderated by Samira Damato. We conclude with an open Q&A in which we invite you, the audience, to imagine the future of visual storytelling together with us. 

Programme 

19:00 doors open  

19:30 NOOR anniversary presentation

20:00 break 

20:15 panel discussion 

20:45 Q&A 21:00 drinks and bites 

Admission: free 

15 Year Anniversary Event Video
Missed the event in real-time? Watch a full video recording of the event here:

Applications Open for the Visualising Climate Crisis Intensive Workshop in Bratislava

The tuition free Visualising Climate Crisis Intensive Workshop will take place in Bratislava, Slovakia between 21 and 24 of November 2022

The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges the world is currently facing: we strongly believe that impactful visual storytelling can inspire climate action. By shedding light on the facts through the power of photojournalism, the immediacy of visual communication has the potential to change history.

That is exactly the reason why NOOR, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Slovak Press Photo have joined forces to organise a tuition-free, advanced photography workshop for visual storytellers from the Visegrad countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) entirely dedicated to creating impactful visual stories on the climate crisis. 

The tuition-free workshop will take place in Bratislava, Slovakia between 21 and 24 of November 2022. 

The Visualising Climate Crisis Intensive Workshop will be led by NOOR mentor, multi-award winning photojournalist Kadir van Lohuizen, who has worked extensively on covering the effects of the climate crisis, and Esther Horvath, award winning Hungarian photographer and a Fellow at International League of Conservation Photographers. The workshop will empower a selected group of 12 participants from four Central European countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) by facilitating the development of their journalistic, investigative skills and visual mastery over the photographic medium. 

By creating stories that expose the impact of the climate crisis on a regional scale, the workshop facilitates long-term capacity building for local visual storytellers, and supports their professional development. This educational programme elevates the level of local communication around urgent climate issues, in order to raise awareness, spark discussion and inspire action. 

The workshop is divided in two phases: a physical 4-day intensive workshop, and an online mentoring program lasting for minimum 4 months during the production phase of the works. 

The projects will be edited and curated into an exhibition that will open in Bratislava in June 2023 and will travel between 2023 and 2024 to Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland. 

During the workshop, the candidates will learn theoretical and technical skills from the tutors, to boost the development of their own visual practices. Participants will discuss, share and learn about the development of a long-term photographic project. Esther and Kadir, who excel at creating compelling visual narratives  on the climate crisis, will support the candidates as they develop their stories. Together with the candidates, they will work on the (re)conceptualising, sequencing, and editing of the storytelling projects. 

After the completion of the 4-day workshop, the participants will be given a period of a minimum of 4 months to create new bodies of research-based climate photojournalism, based on the initial idea developed during the physical workshop, under the guidance of the tutors via online review, discussion and mentorship. This will allow for the creation of thorough, expansive and high-quality visual journalism.

© Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR

Application process

All prospective participants must apply with their portfolio, or a selection of images. The application process will be implemented through Picter, an accessible and easy-to-use online resource dedicated to easily navigate and fairly review photography and visual content for contests.

The prospective applicants will be required to send in a motivation letter outlining the project they would like to focus on during the workshop, accompanied by a portfolio of images. We highly encourage applicants to apply with coherent bodies of work, a series of images or visual stories as opposed to portfolios of single images. 

The jury, composed of the two tutors, NOOR’s education team, and local experts from V4 countries, will select the 12 candidates (3 from each of the 4 Visegrad countries) based on the quality of their work, factoring in critical aspects such as gender parity, inclusivity and equality, as well as the relevance and feasibility of the proposed projects.

About the Tutors

Kadir van Lohuizen 

(NL) has covered conflicts in Africa and elsewhere, but is probably best known for his long-term projects on the seven rivers of the world, the rising of sea levels, the diamond industry and migration in the Americas. His most recent project ‘Arctic: New Frontier’, created in collaboration with Yuri Kozyrev for the Fondation Carmignac was exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London. 

Esther Horvath 

(HU) is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, iLCP, a member of The Explorers Club, and a photographer for the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. A recipient of the Infinity Award from the International Centre of Photography in New York for her work in raising awareness of conservation, environmental justice, and climate change, Esther has dedicated herself to photography in the polar regions, in the Arctic and Antarctic where she has photographed fifteen scientific expeditions, and behind the scenes stories of climate science. 

Dates: 21-24 november 2022

Time: 9:00-18:00

Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Application deadline: 26/10/2022 23:59 CET

OPEN CALL Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop in Düsseldorf

The 2022 Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop will be held in Düsseldorf, Germany between 26 and 29 September 2022.

PHOTO © Olga Kravets

Applications are now open for the tuition-free Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop which will be held in Düsseldorf, Germany. 

The 2022 Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop is open to 12 participants and consists of four all-day sessions directed by three NOOR authors and a facilitator from the NOOR team. The authors will work closely with participants, sharing experiences, working on portfolios, guiding editing skills, and offering advice on creating impactful visual stories. 

During the four days participants will work on one-on-one sessions with the tutors as well as develop their projects within a group. The workshop is centred around proactive and constructive feedback sessions and aims at providing the participants with new perspectives for the development of their projects and a deeper understanding of the state of visual storytelling for their professional development. 

The tutors of the NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop are: Andrea Bruce, Tanya Habjouqa and Olga Kravets.

THE APPLICATION PROCESS

The 2022 Nikon-NOOR Advanced Storytelling Workshop is tuition-free for participants and open to emerging visual storytellers currently living in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Applicants are encouraged to include in their portfolio a personal project they would like to engage with during the workshop and indicate in their motivation statement what they want to explore concerning that work. Jurors are looking for compelling visuals and stories.

Participants will be chosen by a panel of industry professionals. The deadline to apply is Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 11.59PM CET. 

For more information contact: Xiang Yu Yeung | xiang@noorimages.com

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

NOOR x Pix.T presents an online panel discussion on image ownership and theft in the digital age

NOOR x Pix.T present an online panel discussion on image ownership and theft in the digital age. With NOOR members Andrea Bruce, Francesco Zizola, Olga Kravets, joined by NOOR Creative Director Stefano Carini, Pix.T chief of design & UX Allison Crank and Worldcrunch editor Jeff Israely.

© Andrea Bruce / NOOR Images.

The Details

DIGITAL EVENT | image ownership and theft in the digital age: a new protocol for digital photography. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022.

7 PM CET | 1 PM ET

REGISTER HERE

On the week of NOOR’s first ever NFT drop in collaboration with Pix.T, we ask how we can create new protocols and systems to protect digital ownership? What does authenticity and ownership mean in regards to digital, perfectly reproducible, images? And what steps can be taken to ensure the protection and fair-use of images on the internet? 

To address the urgency of this development in digital image culture, the conversation will touch on the NOOR authors’ personal experiences with the theft and misuse of their work by third parties online. The discussion will further expand on the unique manifesto and ethos around the newly developed Pix.T blockchain-backed technology, which aims to promote a new set of professional protocols and a healthier digital economy for professional photographers and visual storytellers. 

© Olga Kravets / NOOR Images

MODERATOR

JEFF ISRAELY

Jeff Israely is the co-founder and editor of Worldcrunch. A former Time magazine bureau chief in Rome and Paris, he has also been a correspondent for the Associated Press, Boston Globe and Oakland Tribune. He teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism of the Institut d'Etudes politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

PANELLISTS

ANDREA BRUCE

Andrea Bruce is a documentary photographer whose work brings attention to people living in the aftermath of war. She concentrates on the social issues that are sometimes ignored and often ignited in war's wake. 

Andrea’s work started in 2003, Iraq, where she focussed on the obstacles of the conflict experienced by Iraqis and the US military. Over the last decade, she has chronicled some of the world’s most troubled areas. She has worked within various agencies and institutions, including the Washington Post, where she authored the column Unseen Iraq. Andrea went on to join the VII Network before becoming a member of the NOOR agency and foundation. 

She has been named Photographer of the Year on four occasions by the White House News Photographers Association, and has been awarded 2nd prize in the category Daily Life by the World Press Photo Foundation. Andrea is the recipient of multiple awards, grants and fellowships, including; the International Pictures of the Year contest, the prestigious John Faber Award from the Overseas Press Club, NY.

FRANCESCO ZIZOLA

Francesco Zizola (IT) has documented some of the world's major conflicts and the social and humanitarian issues that define human life, keeping intact his strong ethical commitment and signature aesthetic sensibility. In 2008, Zizola founded 10b Photography, Rome, a centre for contemporary digital photography and visual culture. 

Through his many assignments and projects, he has travelled around the world to carefully portray forgotten crises often disregarded in the mainstream media cycle. His work has been awarded on several occasions over the years, including four Picture of the Year International awards, and ten awards from the World Press Photo Foundation. His work has been published in seven books, among which Uno Sguardo Inadeguato (Collana Grandi Autori, FIAF, 2013), Iraq (Ega/Amnesty International, 2007) and Born Somewhere (Delpire/Fusi Orari, 2004), an extensive work on the living conditions of children from 27 different countries.

In 2018 he was awarded the SIAE Prize for Creative Talent at the Venice Film Festival for his movie 'As if we were tuna', selected for 'Giornate degli autori', the autonomous review inside the Festival'

OLGA KRAVETS

Olga Kravets is a journalist by education. She started to take photographs as an alternative means of expression in Russia, where press freedom continues to be a struggle. Filmmaking came naturally after that, a love at first sight. She decided not to choose among the three mediums but combine them all for the sake of the story, be it a week-long reportage or a long-term project.

She is fluent in English, Russian and French. She has working knowledge of Serbo-Croatian and Ukrainian, but she also enjoys working in countries where she does not speak the language.   

In 2018, she accomplished her longest project up to date, Grozny: Nine Cities. Since 2009 she has been exploring the complexity of the aftermath of the two gruesome wars in the tiny North Caucasian republic of Chechnya. Together with Maria Morina and Oksana Yushko, they produced a three-screen installation, a web-documentary that won the 2014 Prix-Bayeux Calvados for war correspondents and a book that launched at Les Rencontres de la Photographie, in Arles, accompanied by an exhibition of the project during the festival.

Currently she is working on a documentary feature set across Europe, taking pictures, filming and directing for media, institutions and companies, as well as teaching documentary storytelling. She works principally in ex-USSR, Europe and Middle East and she is always happy to expand her geography. 

ALLISON CRANK

With a Master's from EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) in Advanced Studies, Design Research in Digital Innovation, Crank works at the intersection of art, technology, and digital user experience. She helped conceive and design the Pix.T platform.

STEFANO CARINI

Born in Torino, Italy in 1985, Carini is the Creative Director of NOOR Images and the NOOR Foundation. 

An independent thinker, visual artist, photographer, curator, book designer, writer and filmmaker Carini’s core interest lays in visual education, visual literacy and indigenous production of visual work. After studying photography and photojournalism in London, UK and Arhus, Denmark, he briefly worked as photo editor for NOOR Images in Amsterdam before moving to Iraq where he lead Metrography, the first Iraqi photo agency through the war with ISIS and until October 2015 producing several bodies of work which were exhibited across Europe. In 2016 he co-founded DARST Projects, an independent cultural hub for the research, production and publishing of documentary projects that produced ground breaking projects ever since. Carini trains photographers and visual storytellers in Europe and The Middle East and has given lectures at different institutions across the world. He has led visual laboratories with children in the Roma community, with refugees and IDPs in Iraq and with students across Europe.

He is based in Torino Italy where he lives with his two children. 

Photo © Francesco Zizola/ NOOR

For more information contact:

Stefano Carini | Creative Director

stefano@noorimages.com

#THEFT

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/

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