I spent a few days there, it was very quiet, fine day, plenty of greens and spring wind blew gently. But there was no one. There used to be a lot of farmers, breeders, dairy farmers. It was such a bad dream in the planed evacuation area from radiation in Fukushima. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded in March. Radiation spread widely, especially in the area carried by the wind. The Japanese government had already designated 20Km in radius from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as an off-limit area. Iitate village, Namie town, katsurao village and other areas were designated as planed evacuation areas too. …
APWS Spotlight: Nishant Ratnakar, Fistful of Dreams
In this new APWS Spotlight bi-weekly series, Jessica Lim presents work from previous participants of the Angkor Photo Workshops and finds out what they have been up to. Fistful of Dreams Palguni lives with her mother Veena an elder sister Akila on the outskirts of Bangalore city. When anyone sees the two girls with their mother, this question follows them in whispers: “Are they adopted?” Yes, both girls were adopted by Veena. It is the colour of the girls’ skin that makes people ask this question — Veena is fair-skinned, whereas the two girls are dark-skinned. This is an ongoing project to foreground …
Photo Essay: TOP 20 Finalists Slideshow
IPA Street Photography Contest TOP 20 Finalists Invisible Ph t grapher Asia celebrated their 1st anniversary in April 2011. To mark this anniversary milestone, we are hosted our first Street Photography Contest. These are the TOP 20 Finalist images that were selected by our judges out of a total of 3,400 entries from across Asia. The finalist images come from Indonesia, Japan, India, Singapore, Israel, Taiwan and Thailand. We would like to thank all who participated, and wish the finalists luck in the final round of judging. Click to view individual picture with title & photographer’s credit. All photographs/art are the property …
Photo Essay: The Old City, by George Voulgaropoulos
The Old City It is claimed that Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, with traces going back as far as around 7,000 years ago. It has seen much of the world history of the past millennia, it has seen Persians, the Greeks and Alexander the Great, Romans, Muslims, Mongols, Ottomans, Mamluks and the French. Inside the souq of Damascus, as soon as you enter into the old town from any of the entrances from the modern city, you dive into a maze of alleys. A labyrinth of small streets with arches, shops, restaurants hidden behind small …
Invisible Interview: Veejay Villafranca – Faith Above Fate
Today, Filipinos still lift everything on the ‘divine’. May it be a result of an examination, daily grace, or resuscitation of life, it is all prayed upon.
Sequence of Drugs, by Hajime Kimura
In India, there is a population of more than 15 million people residing in slums, of which 1.5 million of them live in Kolkata.
Photo Essay: Apashka, by Pavel Prokopchik
Apa or Apashka in Kazakh language means – granny. That’s how people address a shaman woman who is living in Ungurtas village, Kazakhstan.
Video: Dark Clouds – The hidden side of China’s miracle economy, by Ian Teh
Produced by Panos Pictures, with photographs by Ian Teh, this is a journey into some of China’s most industrialised cities, a journey to the other side of the bright shiny facade that is the economy. It is a glimpse of another life and another world that is rarely seen. China’s economy is exploding and behind the scenes of this economic miracle is the industrial revolution powered by the cheap labour that is helping to build and sustain the economy. Coal for power, coal for steel, coal for cement. Coal and labour are the raw materials, the flip side and …
CHINA: PUNKS, by Katharina Hesse
In the spring of 1998, a handful of youngsters teamed up to unofficially rebel against conformist Chinese life in Beijing. They shaved their heads, and founded bands with names like Brain Failure, 69 and Anarchy Boys.
Photo Essay: Charak, a Hindu Ritual, by Anindya Chakraborty
Synopsis Charak puja is a traditional Bengali festival celebrated mainly in the rural areas. A festival dedicated strictly to penance, Charak puja stands unique in the scenario of Bengali festivals. The groups of men and women, who take up this Brata or the time bound ritual, have to go through a month long fasting from sunrise to sunset, live strictly on fruits & perform daily worship in order to get the blessings of the lord. On the day of the Charak or the Gajan, as it is also called, bamboo stages are made on bamboo poles, the height ranging from 10 to 15 …
Photo Essay: Stories behind the numbers – Bloody Sunday, by Kürşat Bayhan
Synopsis October 25th of 2009, there were bomb explosions in Bagdad – one at the Justice Department and the other at the city’s county council. 147 lives were lost and hundreds others were wounded. These were the most bloodiest attacks in Iraq since 2007. Newspapers referred to the explosions as “The Bloody Sunday”. Stories behind the numbers: daily reality for the victims of the Iraq War I met Abu Nasr on a narrow street in the Griad Seria district of central Baghdad. A year before, he had lost his fingers and left eye in a suicide attack targeting the Ministry …
WHO CARES? HIV/AIDS in Cambodia, by Masaru Goto
These images tells a story about the life of HIV/AIDS patients, their families, AIDS orphans, and the struggle of medical staff and how local NGOs work day by day for more HIV/AIDS educational programs in Cambodia. These images were taken mainly in Battambang, Banteay Mean Chey, Siem Reap and in Phnom Penh. The images are only a small window into the tremendous pain and suffering endured by patients and their families. There is no future for orphans whose parents died from AIDS. My greatest thanks is to those people living with HIV or AIDS, who welcomed me into their lives …
If I Had Wings… After The Tsunami, by Junku Nishimura
The old mother handed me home-made umeboshi (pickled plums) and nori-no-tsukudani (laver boiled down in soy) as mementos, and told me “You be sure to come back someday.”
Photo Essay: Possible Life, by Binh Dang
Cambodia is the most disabled country in the world. One out of every 236 people has stepped on a landmine.
Photo Essay: Family Ties, by Sonny Thakur
Family Ties is an ongoing project documenting the lives of my family in Manila and Ahmedabad. The images offer an intimate and heart-warming look at the filial bonds, simple joys and comfortable dynamics of my family. It is a family album. Family Ties was part of the open call submission of SIPF 2010 Human:Nature. Photographer: Sonny Thakur | Website: www.sonnythakur.com