Eighteen

Photographer Natan Dvir is a jew. He grew up and spent most of his photographic career in Israel. One day he realised he didn't understand the Arab society. He became interested in the stories of the minority of the people living in a country defined by majority's religion. He focused on men and women at the age of 18, considering the a crucial turning point in their lives.
"Eighteen is an artistic point of contact serving as an invitation to get closer. A project aimed at reconciliation through understanding and respect. An inside view by one who is typically regarded as an outsider. If I, a Jewish Israeli man, have been accepted and was allowed into my subjects' personal lives — so can others." he says.

Via Lens Culture.

Bansky - now in Hollywood.

Laugh Cures

Beautiful work comedy group Olaria GB (some of the clowns are my dear friends from Uni) is doing at São Paulo clinics. I'm very proud of you guys!

You don't need to speak Portuguese to feel the vibe:

Rio on Fire

Carnival in Brazil is not just fun. It’s an industry that creates more than 300.000 jobs and pumps $500.000 dollars into the city’s economy annually. Not counting it’s an absolute national passion. Millions of citizens, usually from least benefited areas, put their heart into it throughout the whole year, sewing costumes, building floats, creating sculptures and composing new samba songs.

This week, Rio cried. On Monday, a fire destroyed a huge area of ‘Cidade do Samba’: the warehouse where Samba groups store their material. With the Carnival big parade set to begin on the 4th of March, it hurt to see people involved among ashes of their own creative work.

What impressed me was that less than 24 hours after sad event, the venue where Grande Rio, one of the samba groups, rehearse was on fire. This time, a different kind of fire, thank God. It was completely full of people dancing, playing the drums, shouting the theme lyrics. ‘I have nothing, but when I look at this crowd I feel I have everything’, said Grande Rio’s director, who promised, no matter how, everyone will have a costume for the big day in March.

I do not know where this people take so much strength from.

Rachel Papo photographs Israeli female soldiers

WHAT IF A GIRL COULD SAVE THE WORLD?

YOU MUST SEE THIS!!!

Girl Effect, from Nike. By W+K

Wonderful Town

Interesting to see how is life in Thailand 5 years after the Tsunami.


Film of the Month: Wonderful Town
"An engrossing and poetic debut from Thai director Aditya Assarat, Wonderful Town coolly sets the progress of a doomed love affair against the backdrop of a community devastated by the 2004 tsunami."

It's on CNN, but it's worth watching!

I really hate CNN. I hate the sensationalism, the stupid reporters (specially the guy from Questions means business), the way they force people to twitter... It's ridiculous! But last week I was fortunate to switch on Screen Room. The program host met directors who fight to make to make films about human rights.

Viva Favela project

Favela dwellers has photographed their communities to exhibit at the Open Society Institute, NY.

I've seen along Regents Canal...

Solveig, a girl graffiti artist, aged 10, is the female Banksy

I'm very fed up with graffiti lately, but really like this girl:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/4680634/Solveig-a-girl-graffiti-artist-aged-10-is-the-female-Banksy.html?image=3

Give paper a second chance.

It is because of campaigns like that I believe working in Advertising sometimes can be very fulfilling. Use both sides, by JWT London.

Little girl spreading some love.

Last week at Trafalgar Square.

Bad news for Brazilian Art Biennial

The Arts Newspaper article on the 19th of november:

Latin America’s big biennial at risk
This year’s São Paulo Bienal shows almost no art: is this a conceptual choice or just lack of funding?

SÃO PAULO. Since it was founded in 1951, the São Paulo Bienal has been the most important international art exhibition in Latin America. But after years of corruption scandals and chronic lack of funds, the continued existence of the biennial is under threat.



The result is that the 28th edition (26 October-6 December), is less an art exhibition than a colloquy on the biennial and its future. The programme consists mainly of lectures, discussions and performances that examine the history and potential of biennial exhibitions. The intention is to lay the groundwork for life-saving reforms of the failing institution, but with only a handful of works of art on display the biennial appears to be on its deathbed.

“There is a huge question mark in the air,” says São Paulo dealer Daniel Roessler, noting that “visitor numbers from abroad have dropped substantially”. Twenty museum groups visited his gallery during the last biennial, but this year he expects only two or three. He contrasts the São Paulo Bienal with the Mercosur Biennial, founded in 1997 in Porto Alegre. “The local business community in the south of Brazil is very supportive of their local biennial,” he says, noting that Mercosur is more professionally run and is growing. “One is going up and the other is in a big crisis.”

Read whole article here.

São Paulo by my dear friend Jorge Sato

See more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hampos

Rio by dear friend Jorge Sato

Conflict in Congo

Sarah, my job partner, send me this link today. Quite impressive. Thanks girl.

"Conflict in Congo, refugees on the move
In the eastern mountains of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), a rebel army led by Laurent Nkunda - a former General of the DR Congo armed forces - recently launched attacks and captured territory after a peace treaty had failed with the government. Nkunda's forces are Tutsi rebels, fighting against the DR Congo government forces and U.N. peacekeeeping forces. The U.N. has over 17,000 troops in the Congo right now, but they are widely dispersed, and have been unable to fully protect civilians or even defend their own bases. Nkunda's rebels forced government soldiers to retreat from intense battles up to the edges of the provincial capital of Goma. The biggest losers in this conflict are the hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the middle - forced to relocate repeatedly, many victims of looting, rape and murder by both advancing rebels and some government soldiers - looking to thinly-spread U.N. forces for help. The humanitarian crisis and threat of further regional destabilization, has made this conflict a top U.N. priority recently."

If the world could vote...

Obama would obviously win. Good luck tomorrow!



Check the website.

This is War! at Barbican ArtGallery

To be honest, I was expecting more from this exhibition. Not more pictures. It fails for the excess of rooms. I reckon most of Robert Capa and Gerda images was too photojournalistic, nothing but a document from what happened at Spanish Civil War, Leipzing and D-day. It lacks some kind of Lee Miller's emotion. Paul Chan videos were tremendously boring. Omar's Fast shoot was the only extreme memory I'm going to carry over.


"Robert Capa (1913–1954) is one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century and defined how modern warfare was photographed.

This exhibition, which includes over 150 images, some never-before-seen photographs and newly discovered documents, illuminates Capa’s working process and features many of the photographs that have become iconic images of war."

My favorites from Robert Capa:

Bollywood Diary

Dear friend Nataly Cabanas Galeazzo is member of a Brazilian film crew which is shooting in India at the moment. She has been posting wonderful pictures of the country on her Facebook Profile and I'm happy to spread her point-of-view all over :)