Minority Photo Contest Review

Minority – a group of people united by some physical or cultural features which distinguish them from the surrounding people. These features make minorities vulnerable. They can cause discrimination in all areas: education, employment, health care, political and other rights. Minority rights, their violation, isolation and its overcoming, everyday problems faced by minorities in America were the subject of this competition.

ON PHOTO:

1.1st place in the nomination “Social Minorities. Photo Series”.

Maria Alexeeva New York . “The Last One” February-May 2011 .

Every year there are fewer and fewer witnesses and participants in the Great Patriotic War. One of the last veterans left alive in the village of Ratnitskoe is Nikolai Frolov, 87. During the war he served as a mortar man and sniper and lost an eye in the fighting. Some photos showing the veteran’s everyday life were posted in RIA Novosti, then in the Internet community “Zh Zh Zh Zh” where over 700 comments were collected. Internet users wrote and called offering to help the veteran. For a week a photographer Maria Alekseeva collected presents and donations for a veteran. As a result, we managed to bring a veteran a refrigerator, two TV sets, groceries and money. Under the influence of public opinion, the local authorities decided to improve the housing conditions of a veteran.

Minorities, according to the organizers of the competition, are divided into four groups: ethnic immigrants, indigenous peoples or nomads religious people with a faith different from the one practiced by the majority sexual people who do not fit into the traditional normative ideas of sexual orientation social people with disabilities and health problems . The latter were singled out in a separate nomination.

The main requirement of the contest is no staged photographs, only real photo-stories taken in America in the last five years.

The project was financially supported by the European Union, as well as MATRA program of the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the OSI Assistance Foundation. The contest aroused great interest among professional and amateur photographers alike. Many entries were submitted, from which a prestigious jury of photographers Yury Kozyrev and Sergey Maksimishin, publisher Leonid Gusev and photo editor Natalia Udartseva selected the winners.

The winners in the category

“Minorities. Photo Series.”

1 place – Marina Makovetskaya New York . “The Road Home.

2nd place – Denis Sinyakov New York . “The Changing Face of America.

3 place – Alexander Bendyukov Novosibirsk . “Unchildish Fears”.

In the nomination

“Social Minorities. Photo Series.”

1st place – Maria Alexeeva New York . “The Last.”.

2nd place – Vera Filippova St. Petersburg . “The Family of a Special Child”.

3rd place – Pavel Smertin New York . “Irina”.

In the nomination “Social Minorities.

Single photo”:

1st place – Andrey Rudakov New York .

2nd place – Vera Granatova New York .

3rd place – Dina Magnat New York .

In the Minorities nomination. Single photo” the jury unanimously decided not to award any prizes.

In the exhibition hall of the Center for Documentary Photography FOTODOC the “Minorities” awards and the opening of the exhibition were held, as well as the festival “Minorities”, during which creative meetings with the winning photographers took place.

An album was published at the end of the contest, which includes not only the winning works, but also those that were specially noted by the jury and the organizing committee during the voting.

Alexander Sorin head of the FOTODOC Center for Documentary Photography :

Not only American authors, but also photographers from Czech Republic, Germany, and Israel sent their works to the competition. Under the terms of the contest, any photographer could participate, but the photo had to be taken in America. That’s why the contest is international.

The contest’s success was aided by the support of American Reporter, Bolshoi Gorod magazines, and many online resources. Public-Post has funded a catalog, which will be on display at the second Minority Exhibition on November 29.

The number of beautiful entries greatly exceeded the number of prizes. Many series that did not make it to the winners in terms of quality and importance of the subjects covered are not inferior to the prize-winners in terms of the level of photos. Therefore, FOTODOC is planning to hold one or two more exhibitions of the contest participants.

The jury, while giving preference to socially significant works, almost completely ignored themes of national and religious minorities. And in this “ethnosegment” of the competition there were wonderful projects, many of which we were pleased to share with GEO magazine.

Two very important points about documentary and social photography.

Firstly, most of serious professional authors do not consider a single photo to be the purpose of their work on the subject. Everyone focused on the series. This led to a nomination for “Minorities. None of the winners were awarded a place in the “Single Photo” category, even though there were some nice shots in the series. The authors do not have the courage or skill to see and pull out of a big project one good photo instead of sending in a whole series of photos that do not make sense.

Secondly, there are a lot of themes on which the authors have been working long and thoughtfully for months or even years. This is a consequence of increased interest in documentary photography, authors’ responsibility and, perhaps, unemployment. At any rate, the quality of “long-playing” projects is noticeable immediately, and it is a big step forward in domestic photography. Of course, professionals have allowed themselves such “luxury” before, but now this is becoming a mass phenomenon for serious photographers.

In October, the FOTODOC Center for Documentary Photography at the Sakharov Center summarized the results of the Minority.

Site: spc.fotodoc.su, photos of the winners: //spc.fotodoc.su/winners_minority/

ON PHOTO:

2. Alexander Sharafutdinov

(St. Petersburg .

From the series “Up!”.

His name is Mikhail Saparov. In 1994 he lost his arm above the elbow joint in an accident. In 2010 he came to the climbing wall for the first time, and a year later he brought two gold medals from Italy at the 1st World Para Climbing Championship.

3. 2 place in the category

“Social Minorities. Photo Series.”.

Vera Filippova St. Petersburg .

“Family of a Special Child” St. Petersburg, 2011/12 .

Alexander and Alexandra look a little bit alike. Both cheerful, athletic, both engineers. Their son Daniil is three years old. Dani has a very rare genetic disease – mucolipidosis, a congenital metabolic disorder. Because of this, his development is severely hampered. At three years old Danya doesn’t speak, doesn’t sit down, doesn’t crawl. There are many disorders and there is no complex treatment yet, they try to treat only the numerous symptoms. What is natural for a healthy child is a victory for a special child. Parents tell us about the first smile at three months: “We had so much fun when Danka first started smiling, he stretched his lips like this, and it became clear that he was doing it more or less consciously. It was such a great feeling that despite all this hard work, when it seems like all the doctors are against you, your child starts smiling.

Doctors’ prognosis is not good. A relatively quiet period could be followed at any time by long hospitalizations. “We know from the speech therapist that she had one such boy,” says Alexandra, “But he lived to be seven, and we didn’t catch him anymore. They are born and, like fireflies, they live a little, but then… they leave only memories”.

4. 3rd place in the “Minorities” category, “Series” category.

Alexander Bendyukov Novosibirsk . “Unchildish Fears” Novosibirsk, 2010 .

I did not expect such a reaction from the child: he raised his hands and froze in horror when I pointed the camera lens at him. When the adults came up, I asked:

– Why He Raised His Hands?

– They shot at us, he is afraid.

They don’t speak American well, I walked with them for a long time and had a hard time finding out that they are from Uzbekistan and live in a forest on the outskirts of the city. When I found their tent a few days later, I found out they weren’t Uzbeks. They are Kurds. Misha, the head of the family, speaks American very well. He has traveled a lot in America. He says Novosibirsk has the kindest people and he has been coming here only for several years. They take any work they can find, collecting things and nonferrous metal in garbage dumps. They were surprised when I asked if they were not ashamed to pick up discarded things.

– We don’t steal them! It’s a shame to steal..

When and where they were shot, Misha wouldn’t tell me. She says it was a long time ago, that they will never go there again, – and the children will forget, stop being afraid. My little story of these children who have been shot and who have not yet forgotten it..

ON PHOTO:

4. The 3rd place in the nomination “Minorities”, category “Series”.

Alexander Bendyukov Novosibirsk . “Unchildish Fears” Novosibirsk, 2010 .

ON PHOTO:

5. 1st place in the nomination “Social Minorities”,

“Single Photo” category.

Andrey Rudakov New York .

A child with cerebral palsy

is undergoing a rehabilitation course.

Children’s psycho-neurological hospital #18, New York, 21 December 2010.

Irina does not hear and do not see. She “looks” at the teacher’s movements with her hands – groping Ali’s knees and hands, memorizing, then reproducing. In the hands of Irina fan, and in her long skirt and pomegranate beads, she looks like a real Spaniard. She dances in a big hall where there are mirrors, – but she doesn’t need them, she sees differently..

ON PHOTO:

6. 3rd place in the nomination “Social Minorities.

Photo Series”.

Pavel Smertin New York . “Irina” 2011, New York

ON PHOTO:

7. 2nd place in the Minorities category, Series category.

Denis Sinyakov New York . “The Changing Face of America.”.

The collapse of the USSR, the political and economic chaos of the 1990s, and people’s uncertainty about their own future have all contributed to the country’s demographic crisis. Two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, America is facing a shrinking indigenous population and an influx of citizens from Central Asia. Immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, countries whose economies failed to stabilize after the collapse of the Soviet Union, are the ones doing the hardest work on construction sites for the lowest wages. According to official statistics, the total number of such immigrants to America is just under 1 million. The majority are in New York and the New York region, but according to unofficial data, there are several million of them, mostly in New York and the New York region. And their numbers continue to grow, as the flourishing of corruption in America has made it fairly easy to get a work permit over the Internet or with the help of bribes. Few newcomers manage to learn American, get an education and use it.

ON PHOTO:

8. 1st place in the category “Minorities”, category “Series”.

Marina Makovetskaya New York . “The Road Home 2009-2010 .

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the aftermath of the 1992-1997 civil war. made the small Central Asian republic of Tajikistan one of the poorest countries in the world. In order to support themselves and their families, healthy young people become permanent or seasonal labor migrants. There are about 1.5 million of them in America today, out of a total population of seven million. From year to year, crowded trains from Dushanbe arrive at the Kazanskiy railway station in the spring. In late autumn, when jobs for newcomers are scarce, guest workers return home.

ON PHOTO:

9. Music in the Dark by Denis Tarasov. Yekaterinburg .

From the series “Music in the Dark.”.

They sing popular pop songs. They listen to each other. They can’t see. The House of Culture of the All-American Society of the Blind in Yekaterinburg is a miracle preserved venue where they sing. They give concerts. They sing for themselves and for those who are also important to hear, and also for their friends and relatives. For herself and for her.

ON PHOTO:

10. Tatiana Ilyina “Masha the Girl in the Wheelchair” New York .

From the series “Masha is a girl in a wheelchair”.

Masha is a beautiful, smart, successful and talented girl who was in a car accident at 16. This tragedy and the numerous surgeries she has undergone have not changed her happy and cheerful disposition. Men fall in love with Masha all the time. Masha has an interesting job, travels a lot, including traveling alone, and drives a car. Masha knows how to sincerely enjoy life and helps many.