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Shahidul Alam is a Bangladeshi photojournalist, teacher, and social activist. A TIME “Person of the Year”, he is celebrated for his commitment to using his craft to preserve democracy in his country–at all costs. He started early in his career creating opportunities for photographers from the “Majority World” (i.e. the Global South) to document events in their own countries as a means of fostering democracy and equity. He subsequently created two institutes of photography in Bangladesh and the world’s largest photography festival outside of Europe and North America. He has always taken risks to show the threats facing Bangladeshi society and human rights, but it all came to a head on August 5, 2018; when he was arrested by the government and held for some three months for speaking to Al Jazeera about the student protests. Shahidul Alam is now a free man but he, at the time of this
film’s release, is awaiting trial. He is being honored as the epitome of what Cornell Capa described as the concerned photographer.
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Jess T. Dugan uses photography to explore the grey areas in gender and sexuality; and to celebrate the lives of gender non conforming and trans people. Her work vacillates between highly personal portraiture of herself and people in her life; and intentionally political work that serves to insert imagery of people in the LGBTQ community into the mainstream. She’s being recognized for “To Survive on this Shore”; a series of photographs and interviews that tell the stories of transgender people over fifty all over the United States. Created in collaboration with her spouse Vanessa Fabbre, the project aims to give voice to the struggles and joys of getting older as a trans person.
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For Dawoud Bey, a successful portrait reveals a person’s interiority. Perhaps this is why his work has been called a “civic act of seeing”. In a career spanning forty years, he has used photographs to serve as a counternarrative to the pathologized portrayals of people on the margins. From series as diverse as “Harlem USA” to “Class Pictures”, Bey allows subjects to engage directly with the viewer, developing intimacy between the two. Bey’s recent work pays homage to black trauma and history. “The Birmingham Project”, which gained him a MacArthur Genius Grant, aims to evoke what was lost during the 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing in 1963 and its aftermath. “The Underground Railroad” and “Night Coming Tenderly, Black” take space and location as its subjects to explore how enslaved people moved under the cover of night to escape towards freedom. Dawoud says that his work–whether it is the
black subject, marginalized histories, or teenagers–is all about giving subjects their due value.
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Writer Zadie Smith pays homage to photographer Deana Lawson in the artist’s first Monograph for Aperture. In this essay, Smith describes how Deana Lawson’s work uniquely places individuals from the African Diaspora in a “kingdom of restored glory”. Despite the circumstances her subjects might find themselves in–poverty, overcriminalization, systemic racism–in a Lawson portrait, they radiate royalty. Smith describes Lawson’s subjects as queens; men and women who are celebrated in ways they so rarely are by our visual culture. “Deana Lawson’s Kingdom of Restored Glory” is a tribute to a photographer who captures her subjects as they hope to be seen “beautiful, imperious, unbroken, unfallen”.
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Rosalind Fox Solomon’s photographs are both about self-transformation and discovery; and a testament to some of the most important moments in history. She began to use photographs to explore the world around her, in Jim Crow South and Washington D.C. Internationally, her work has varied from documentation of shamanistic rituals in Latin America, to the struggles facing people in the West Bank. One of her most iconic works is about the lives of people living with AIDS at the height of the crisis in the 1980’s. Her work has shown at the Museum of Modern Art and around the world and she’s being honored by the ICP for her unwavering commitment to her art.
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MediaStorm provides intensive, master class educational experiences through our One Day, Methodology and Traveling Workshops. We are offering the following upcoming courses:
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MediaStorm is hiring! We’re looking for fierce, talented, and eager people to join our bi-coastal team. We’re seeking an Editor/Producer and Social Media and Operations Manager. Learn more and apply by April 20.
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Whether you’re an established photographer looking to transition to multimedia storytelling or a student wanting to expand your storytelling skills, MediaStorm’s online training provides a practical overview that will further your multimedia storytelling skills.
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Called an "essential book" for multimedia storytellers on iTunes, the MediaStorm Field Guide to Powerful Multimedia Storytelling is now available in 50 countries.
Featuring interactive guides, photo galleries and videos from the MediaStorm Online Training series, the new iBook is the most comprehensive field guide we’ve produced to date.
Available for iPad | $9.99
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We believe that quality storytelling can change the way you see the world. That’s why we help the world’s finest filmmakers and photographers tell stories that matter with the depth they deserve. These stories make up the MediaStorm Publication – a destination for long-form video journalism and cutting-edge film.
“Sub to the pub” with an annual subscription that gives you full-access to all the stories in our Publication, for just $23.95.
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