Book Signing: Annie Leibovitz’s Pilgrimage
ICP Store, 1133 Avenue of the Americas
Friday, December 9, 6:00pm–7:30pm

“Pilgrimage took Annie Leibovitz to places that she could explore with no agenda. She chose the subjects simply because they meant something to her. The first place was Emily Dickinson’s house in Amherst, Massachusetts. A few months later, she went with her three young children to Niagara Falls. “That’s when I started making lists,” she says.” International Center of Photography (ICP)

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November 13, 2011–May 14, 2012 (Second floor)

“Diego Rivera was the subject of MoMA’s second monographic exhibition (the first was Henri Matisse), which set new attendance records in its five-week run from December 22, 1931, to January 27, 1932. MoMA brought Rivera to New York six weeks before the exhibition’s opening and gave him studio space within the Museum, a strategy intended to solve the problem of how to present the work of this famous muralist when murals were by definition made and fixed on site. Working around the clock with two assistants, Rivera produced five “portable murals”—large blocks of frescoed plaster, slaked lime, and wood that feature bold images drawn from Mexican subject matter and address themes of revolution and class inequity.” MoMA

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The Aperture Foundation exhibits Bruce Davidson’s work.

Bruce Davidson: Subway

Subway is “a groundbreaking series documenting a unique moment in the cultural fabric of New York City, coinciding the highly anticipated re-release of the book published in 1986.”

Opening reception: Thursday, October 13, 6:00-8:00 pm
Exhibition on view: Monday, October 3-Saturday, October 29, 2011

Bruce Davidson:  Artist Talk and Book Signing: Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 pm

Find out more at www.aperture.org.

Bruce Davidson is a member of Magnum Photos and is considered one America’s most influential documentary photographers.  Find out more about Bruce Davidson’s Subway>>

Bruce Davidson Subway: Aperture Opening Reception (Oct. 13, 2011) by DoraLeticia ©

Bruce Davidson Subway: Aperture Opening Reception (Oct. 13, 2011) by DoraLeticia ©

Bruce Davidson Subway: Aperture Opening Reception (Oct. 13, 2011) by DoraLeticia ©

Bruce Davidson Subway: Aperture Opening Reception (Oct. 13, 2011) by DoraLeticia ©

September 28, 2011–January 16, 2012

Photography Gallery, third floor

“This year, MoMA’s annual New Photography series expands to feature the work of six artists, with the aim of capturing the diversity and international scope of contemporary photographic work. New Photography 2011: Moyra Davey, George Georgiou, Deana Lawson, Doug Rickard, Viviane Sassen, Zhang Dali. The artists in New Photography 2011 approach image-making from very different perspectives, making for a truly dynamic combination.” MoMA NYC

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September 18, 2011–January 9, 2012 (Sixth floor)

“This is the first major museum exhibition devoted to the full scope of the career of Willem de Kooning, widely considered to be among the most important and prolific artists of the 20th century. The exhibition, which will only be seen at MoMA, presents an unparalleled opportunity to study the artist’s development over nearly seven decades, beginning with his early academic works, made in Holland before he moved to the United States in 1926, and concluding with his final, sparely abstract paintings of the late 1980s.” MoMA (NYC)

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Article By Dora Leticia / Photos by Luis Hidalgo, Mauricio Vergara Seguel and Heia Kato

A special thanks to the Chilean photographers whose efforts to document this catastrophe and struggle help communicate what is going on in Chile, before and after the quake.

View more works from these photographers by clicking on their names here:

• Luis Hidalgo
• Heia Kato
• Mauricio Vergara

Earthquake in Chile: Chilean Photographers Communicate Through Their Work by Dora Leticia

On February 27, 2010, at 3:34 am local time, a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 struck Chile.  In the wake of this devastating destruction many struggled to reach their loved ones.

It is still difficult to get through to cell phones and land based lines and after the initial reaction of the international community, media coverage (TV) has been scarce in comparison to recent natural disasters.

Photo by Luis Hidalgo ©

Photo by Luis Hidalgo ©

Chilean authorities have confirmed over 700 people dead and countless more missing.  This number is expected to climb, but, with the news that comes out, mostly over the internet, the picture painted is much grimmer than has been reported on major TV networks.

For many, the internet and social networks continues to be the only line of communication and websites like www.ustream.tv/channel/tv-de-chile make it easier to stay informed with the current situation in Chile because of it’s detailed and expansive local Chilean news coverage. 

Photos by Luis Hidalgo ©

In the day that followed the catastrophic quake, international media TV coverage dwindled and was reduced to a scrolling bar under regularly scheduled programs with sporadic updates here and there, leaving many frustrated.

How can this be when other recent natural disasters consumed local and international TV networks for weeks?

It makes one wonder – What are they waiting for?! Perhaps everyone is on hold until Chilean authorities publicly accept international help?  How long is a catastrophic event newsworthy?

Society teaches us that even if someone does not ask for help, but, could obviously use it, we don’t just stand idly by.  So, why doesn’t this apply here?

Photos by Luis Hidalgo ©

In the face of such a catastrophe, we must not forget that human beings are one race, and how we help each other as human beings, despite our place in this world, makes all the difference.

There are thousands of Chileans living outside of Chile, and as many scramble to learn about their loved ones, the details of International Aid and why Chile has taken so long to respond to the offers made from abroad leave many confused and bewildered.

Chile is a wonderful self-sustaining country and from what I personally know of Chileans, they do not want to be considered a Third World unprepared country.  Chileans are wonderful, proud and strong people.

However, considering the large task at hand and the immediate need for food, water and shelter…something seems amiss.  What is really going on?

Photos by Mauricio Vergara Seguel ©

In the end, people just want to know about their loved ones, they want to be able to care for themselves. Money is not the issue here.

As observed on UStream Live Video coverage, one Chilean woman screamed, “We have money! We want to buy food, water…”,  however, with fears that grocery stores can collapse causing further deaths, something as simple as shopping for food becomes the situation that is starting to unfold in front of us and leads to looting and other desperate acts.

In the future, social media networks and websites with live video streams may replace all major news channels as the first thing we look to when looking for current and up to date news.

Twitter and Facebook have proven to be not only social networks, but, vital communication tools.

As a matter of fact, the first news that my own family was doing okay came from a Facebook instant message that popped up on my screen as I scrambled to hear news, from anywhere, anyone.

Signs of life came through Facebook!

The epicenter of Saturday’s earthquake was just a few miles north of the largest earthquake ever recorded in the world.  This earthquake occurred on May 22, 1960, it was a magnitude 9.5 and killed 1,655 people.

Wherever you happen to be the next time an earthquake hits, be sure to take your smart phone with you – a WiFi internet signal may be your only life line.

Note: If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to submit them to info@lensethics.com.

If anyone would like to submit photographs for consideration, please email them to doraleticia@lensethics.com.

ABOUT THE EARTHQUAKE (From the U.S. Geological Survey)

Magnitude: 8.8
Date-Time: Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 03:34:14 AM (at epicenter); Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones (Click Here)
Location: 35.846°S, 72.719°W
Depth: 35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
Region: OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE
Distances: 100 km (60 miles) NNW of Chillan, Chile / 105 km (65 miles) WSW of Talca, Chile / 115 km (70 miles) NNE of Concepcion, Chile / 325 km (200 miles) SW of SANTIAGO, Chile
Location Uncertainty: horizontal +/- 7.2 km (4.5 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters: NST=255, Nph=255, Dmin=988 km, Rmss=1.12 sec, Gp= 36°, M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID: us2010tfan

The following series of photographs are by Heia Kato ©,  a freelance photographer located in Chile.

EARTHQUAKE SUMMARY

Tectonic Summary

“This earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. The two plates are converging at a rate of 80 mm per year. The earthquake occurred as thrust-faulting on the interface between the two plates, with the Nazca plate moving down and landward below the South American plate.

Coastal Chile has a history of very large earthquakes. Since 1973, there have been 13 events of magnitude 7.0 or greater. The February 27 shock originated about 230 km north of the source region of the magnitude 9.5 earthquake of May, 1960 – the largest earthquake worldwide in the last 200 years or more. This giant earthquake spawned a tsunami that engulfed the Pacific Ocean. An estimated 1600 lives were lost to the 1960 earthquake and tsunami in Chile, and the 1960 tsunami took another 200 lives among Japan, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Approximately 870 km to the north of the February 27 earthquake is the source region of the magnitude 8.5 earthquake of November, 1922. This great quake significantly impacted central Chile, killing several hundred people and causing severe property damage. The 1922 quake generated a 9-meter local tsunami that inundated the Chile coast near the town of Coquimbo; the tsunami also crossed the Pacific, washing away boats in Hilo harbor, Hawaii. The magnitude 8.8 earthquake of February 27, 2010 ruptured the portion of the South American subduction zone separating these two massive historical earthquakes. A large vigorous aftershock sequence can be expected from this earthquake.”

HISTORIC EARTHQUAKES IN CHILE

• 1730 07 08 – Valparasio, Chile – M 8.7
• 1835 02 20 – Concepcion, Chile – M 8.2 Fatalities 500
• 1868 08 13 – Arica, Peru (now Chile) – M 9.0 Fatalities 25,000
• 1877 05 10 – Offshore Tarapaca, Chile – M 8.3 Fatalities 34
• 1906 08 17 – Valparaiso, Chile – M 8.2 Fatalities 3,882
• 1922 11 11 – Chile-Argentina Border – M 8.5
• 1928 12 01 – Talca, Chile – M 7.6 Fatalities 225
• 1939 01 25 – Chillan, Chile – M 7.8 Fatalities 28,000
• 1943 04 06 – Illapel – Salamanca, Chile – M 8.2 Fatalities 25
• 1960 05 21 – Arauco Peninsula, Chile – M 7.9
• 1960 05 22 – Chile – M 9.5 Fatalities 1,655
• 1965 02 23 – Taltal, Chile – M 7.0 Fatalities 1
• 1965 03 28 – La Ligua, Chile – M 7.4 Fatalities 400
• 1971 07 09 – Valparaiso region, Chile – M 7.5 Fatalities 90
• 1985 03 03 – offshore Valparaiso, Chile – M 7.8 Fatalities 177
• 1998 01 30 – Near Coast of Northern Chile – M 7.1
• 2002 06 18 – Chile-Argentina Border Region – M 6.6
• 2003 06 20 – Near the Coast of Central Chile – M 6.8
• 2004 05 03 – Bio-Bio, Chile – M 6.6
• 2005 06 13 – Tarapaca, Chile – M 7.8 Fatalities 11
• 2007 11 14 – Antofagasta, Chile – M 7.7 Fatalities 2
• 2007 12 16 – Antofagasta, Chile – M 6.7
• 2008 02 04 – Tarapaca, Chile – M 6.3
• 2009 11 13 – Offshore Tarapaca, Chile – M 6.5

Email: mauriciovergara@vtr.net

Mauricio is a Chilean Freelance Photographer who documents life in Chile.  These photographs were taken in Santiago, Chile and Southern Chile before the earthquake.

Send Mauricio your comments using the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Email: haciaelinfinito@gmail.com

These photographs were taken in Santiago, Chile after the quake.

Send Heia Kato your comments using the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Email: luishidalgo91@gmail.com

Luis is a Chilean Freelance Photographer.  These images were taken in Santiago, Chile after the quake.

I last spoke to Luis before he headed out to Concepcion, Chile, where he plans to photograph the events unfolding in that region.

Send Luis your comments using the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Interview with Nicholas Bruckman, Director of La Americana (A Documentary) by Dora Leticia (Lens Ethics)

People’s Television Studio
Washington Heights, New York (Upper Manhattan)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Director of the Documentary, La Americana for allowing me to interview him for Lens Ethics.

LE: Aside from what we already know from the brief bio on the People’s Television website, what can you tell us about yourself?

NB: Um, okay, what, what can I tell you about myself…? Well, I live in Washington Heights, in upper Manhattan, New York. I’ve lived here for eight years. I grew up when I was very young in Los Angeles, but, I’ve lived in New York City for 12 years now. I’m 23 and went to high school here and consider myself a real New Yorker. But, I’m also a real internationalist and I consider myself a citizen of the world. I don’t believe in the borders that divide us, either the physical, cultural, sexual, gender, orientation wise, that divide different people.

LE: You directed the documentary, La Americana, at a time when the current immigration crisis in the United States is a big debate. What inspired you to take on this project?

NB: I really think that my interest in technology, international news, journalism and my interest in film-making comes from my belief in the power that images and stories have to connect people. I think that now that we’re entering well into the 21st century, which we all imagined to be a brighter, peaceful, global community future – we are seeing that it hasn’t turned out that way yet.

I think that it’s essential…I’ve always felt like my calling was to try to use images and story-telling to bring people together. On the one hand we have this incredible technology and we have free international calling…we have everything you could imagine that would make people stop hating, or, not caring about people across the world from them.

I think that we really need to employ that technology and use it to help people to start thinking of each other as human beings first, before we think of each other as Jewish, Christian, Muslim, American, French, Guatemalan, Nigerian, or Mexican.

That’s what inspires my work in general. It’s the idea of creating a more global community and through that a more peaceful and just world.

LE: How does La Americana tie into your idea of a global community?

NB: La American is a story of an undocumented immigrant from Bolivia who faces this incredible dilemma of being with her daughter who is sick in Bolivia , or , supporting her from New York, where she can earn enough to take care of her daughters crippling medical condition.

The story is illustrative of, I think, millions of peoples stories and not only in the United States, but, a kind of migrant dilemma in many places, where laws forbid for families to travel together, and, danger of border crossing and restrictive legislation against immigrants forces these family divisions.

I thought by examining the kind of injustice and the hardships that are caused by these immigration policies, that I could really cast an even bigger question.

One, not just about immigration, which is of course a very difficult dilemma to solve, and not one that I propose a specific answer to in the film. But, I wanted to address the issues of – who deserves to be where?

What does it mean to be from somewhere when you need to be somewhere else? What does it mean that this woman is Bolivian and I’m an American?

Is being born somewhere make you that thing? Is it who we are intrinsically that’s more important, or, is it our personalities? Is it the values that we share that bind a community as opposed to the place of birth?

I hope that “through the lens of the immigration crisis”, we could explore some of these bigger issues of our natural rights as human beings.

LE: How has the community responded to La Americana? The people who have actually been to the advanced screenings…

NB: Yeah, we’ve had two previous screenings before our actual premiere, so only a few select communities have had a chance to see the film so far, in it’s final state. The reaction has so far been overwhelmingly positive.

We screened it for an entirely packed audience at the Diversity Center in Jackson Heights, which is the heart of the Bolivian community in New York.

One of the protagonist in the film, Jorge, the main character’s boyfriend, was there in the audience. Him and I spoke to an audience of at least 150 people, who really came forward and told us afterwards that they felt like this was their story as well.

And, it wasn’t just immigrants from Bolivia who said that, but, immigrants from Central America, from all over the Americas who said you know, this is what we went through, this is what my brother went through, this is what my cousin, my wife, my daughter, my mother…

People were really positive. They felt that not only did La American portray their story, but, that it was a chance for them to show their kids, who were born here, what a privilege it is to be born here…what their ancestors, or what their fathers had done, what their parents had done, coming illegally, what sacrifices they’ve made….

They also thought that it was really important that their story be articulated to non-immigrant communities, who they feel don’t necessarily know all of the hardships that immigrants have to go through.

LE: It is a great documentary. I know what you mean, I attended that screening, and can also relate to the experiences depicted in the film. Not because I am an undocumented immigrant, I am not, I was born in the United States. But, my parents had similar hardships, the stories…they all seem to be connected in a universal way…

You guys did a great job of capturing the true essence of what it is like for many, the stories may not be exactly the same, but, the true nature of that experience, the struggle…it feels we are all pulling on that same string…trying to make a better life…as human beings.

Do you have any new projects aside from promoting the film? What is your vision for the future?

NB: I run, along with John M, a documentary film production company called People’s Television, we’re basically in Upper Manhattan, in Inwood.

We just finished our first documentary feature called La Americana, which of course, we’ve just been discussing. We are also in the process of a documentary short called The Grey Movie, which tells the story of four revolutionaries in New York City, who in response to the outbreak of war in Iraq, try everything possible to stop it.

We also have two other projects in the conception phase. One is another immigration story, which is about people fighting to help immigrants. The other, is another border story, about the border between India and Pakistan, over Kashmere.

We are also currently seeking ways to really get La Americana out to the world and make as much of an impact as we can, this can help get financing for our future projects.

LE: Well, on behalf of Lens Ethics – Thank you for bringing this story to the screen! I along with many others I am sure, hope the very best for Carmen, her daughter and her family!

It is an honor to speak with you. We look forward the the release of the film and more work from you!