Foto8 Summershow

Foto8 is my go-to gallery for documentary and photojournalism. Whatever they have up, i go and see it. Right now, the gallery is presenting the 159 photo works selected for its fifth annual Summershow. There are portraits of homeless people, of Palestinian girls dreaming of peace, documentation of the Libyan civil war, stories from the war, stories from some of the coldest parts of the globe, disorder in the streets of London. Mundane moments and dramas.

The public is invited to vote for their favourite image. My favourite is the lion behind bars from Felicity Crawshaw’s Captivity and Rescue series. But i can’t bear to watch the image again nor read the story associated to it.

So no photo of the lion in this post, just this quick selection:

Angus Fraser, Kryziu Kalnas (Hill of Crosses) Scene Two

Kryziu Kalnas (Hill of Crosses): Set in Northern Lithuania, the Hill of Crosses has become a site of national pilgrimage. Hundreds of thousands of crosses have been planted on the site.

Jean-Marc Caimi, Nicola, from the series Place Less

3 years have passed since the economic crisis in Italy forced Nicola to sleep at the train station in Rome. “I was a musician, a composer. I have been working for years on a project about Christmas songs. The record company was happy about it. Then my mother suddenly died. Our house was from a social housing project. The government took it back. I was confused and depressed and my record company dropped me. I eventually couldn’t find any other opportunity to integrate. I live on the street. I sleep here, on the floor just outside the big train terminal of Rome”.

Toby Smith, Maunsell 929

6 miles North of Whitstable, 5 derelict Maunsell Sea Forts lie on a sand bank called Shovering Sands. The Thames Estuary Army Forts were constructed in 1942 to provide anti-aircraft fire within the Thames Estuary area. Each fort consisted of a group of seven towers with a walkway connecting them all to the central control tower.

Beat Schweizer, Teriberka, Murmansk Oblast, Russia, 3.2012

Early in the morning, after a 12-hour nightshift, Vladimir Vladimirovich Paltyshev cleans out the stove of the local community heating system. From a project about Teriberka – the dying out village could soon become the natural gas capital of Europe.

Tommasso Protti, Yeni Halfeti, Sanliurfa Province, Turkey, July 2011. From the series Turkish Blue Gold

A flooded building in the city of Yeni Halfeti on the Euphrates river. The city was partially submerged by the Birecik Dam in 1999 and the majority of its inhabitants were relocated in a new nearby city. The Birecik Dam is part of the 22 dams of the GAP project (Guneydoglu Anadolu Projesi), a development plan launched in the 80s by the Turkish government that aims to enhance a social stability and economic growth in the Southeastern Anatolia, the poorest region in Turkey.

Turkish Blue Gold represents the consequences of the exploitation of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by Turkey, such as the flooding of villages and the reduction of water supplies for Syria and Iraq.

Gratiane de Moustier, Two future Afghan policemen receive a investigation training, June 11th, 2011 in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. From the series Afghanistan in Transition

Jonathon Beattie, Untitled, from the series ‘4,480 KwH’. Ferrybridge power station, West Yorkshire

Steve Dierkens, Tuxedo Pee Break. Toilet break during a formal student initiation in the garden of a student flat in Dunedin, New Zealand

Timothy Allen, Exploring Buzludzha, Bulgaria

No photo competition would be complete without some images of socialist buildings in various states of preservation. Tim Allen’s photos from his visit to the abandoned Buzludzha Monument are nevertheless stunning. The structure was designed by architect Guéorguy Stoilov and opened in 1981 by the Bulgarian communist regime to commemorate the events in 1891 when the socialists assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement.

Greg Funnell and Adam Patterson, Mack Moore brothel owner

Mack Moore, in his 80’s, started off his working career in funeral homes and cemeteries. But both he and his wife had a desire to move to Las Vegas and in 1997 he bought 80 acres of land outside Beatty, Nevada. The land came with a 100 year old brothel, called Angel’s Ladies. Mack ended up running the brothel and currently has eight girls working there. Prostitution in Las Vegas itself is illegal, but many visitors on the convention circuit will head into the desert and across county lines to find the legal brothels. In 2005 his brothel had 4,500 customers. (via)

Yusuke Harada, Freedom Seekers