Bosnia February 2011

Clare Cook from WHA (www.webster-humanitarian-association.org) and myself visited Bosnia again this February. We visited Hajra Catic and Noura Beganovic from the association "Mothers of Srebrenica" who survived the genocide that took place in Srebrenica in 1995 (1), the Imam of Srebrenica (2),  as well as Medica Zenica "Big buddy project"(7), the Identification Centre in Tuzla (8, Photo shows self made tobacco box) and the Potocari Memorial Center outside Srebrenica (5, photo shows the first Croat/ Christian grave at the cemetery). We also stopped at (6) a warehouse, which was scene of a large execution on the 11th or 12th of July 2005. About 1500 peopled were murdered there.

Synthon

Barcelona

Synthon (www.synthon.com) is a pharmaceutical company that does research and produces generic medicines with research and production world wide. Synthon is turning 20 years in 2011 and my job has been to make a portrait of the company. To do this, I visited seven of their main locations; Nijmegen in Holland where the head office is, Barcelona in Spain, North Carolina in the USA, Guadalajara in Mexico, Blansko in the Czech Republic, Santiago in Chile and San Lorenzo and Buenos Aires in Argentina. I have met a lot of very interesting people and it has been an extraordinary experience getting to know this very special company.

Barcelona

USA

Barcelona

Holland

Czech Republic

Mexico

Holland

Chile

Chile

Chile

Argenitina

#pharma #storytelling #photojournalism #documentary #synthon #nikon #d4 #d810 #nikon #nikonpro #reportage #education #photography #santiago #sb910 #holland #chile #spain #mexico #usa #argentina #czechrepublic #20years 

Paris Photo 2010

I visited Paris Photo this weekend- and it was, as expected, as busy as ever, with plenty of excellent photography and a book signing session with Martin Parr! Here are some flavours of Paris.. 

Louvre at night

The Eiffel Tower

Jardin des Tuileries

Allminds workshop in London.

Magician Christopher Howell (http://www.christopherhowell.net)

Portrait shoot of Christopher Howell

I gave a workshop in London last week with the school Allminds (www.allminds.ch). We had a great day, visited Photofusion in Brixton and got the opportunity to photograph Magician Christopher Howell! (www.projectillusions.com)

Emma & James in Zermatt.

The other weekend, Emma and James got married in Zermatt. What a setting, the weather was fantastic and the location was perfect with a beautiful view of the Swiss Alps and Matterhorn as a backdrop. 

Eterna Watch Factory

The other day I worked with Keith Strandberg (www.keithstrandberg.com) who is a Senior Editor of Watch Journal. We visited Eterna Watch Factory (www.eterna.com) in Grenchen Switzerland. It was a really nice experience to see how some very exclusive watches are being made. It takes two months to put together some of these watches!

Bosnia, Srebrenica visit

WHA (www.webster-humanitarian-association.org) is an NGO created by students at Webster University in Geneva. I teach at Webster and was invited to come along on a trip to visit Srebrenica. The Srebrenica Genocide left more then 8500 people dead in July 1995. We went to visit several people who survived this dreadful period and experienced how people are dealing with living in this deeply divided community. 
Picture description:
1. A boy sitting in the shade (it was hot, around 40C) outside the "Trauma Center" in Sarajevo. 2.  Names of the dead at the Potocari Memorial Center outside Srebrenicia. 3. Hajra Catic has bought a small pasta factory that she hopes can generate an opportunity to some young people in Srebrenicia. Hopefully, they can get the funds necessary to start production. 4. Kiyoko, one of our students, in the gymnasium at the local primary school. 5. a local stray dog that I met several times...(!). The last three pictures shows residential houses with their various marks from the war and some of the surrounding burial sites. The last picture also shows the local orthodox church as well as the two mosque's.

Prisons..

Last week I went to Oslo and visited several prisons together with Keith Strandberg (www.keithstrandberg.com) who is a senior editor of Corrections Forum, a US prison magazine. It was a very interesting visit coordinated by the Norwegian justice Department. Amongst the prisons we visited were Halden Prison and Bastoy prison. Norway practises a philosophy of education in order to improve the chances of people not recommitting crimes, a philosophy that proves to work pretty well when reading the statistics..

Keith Strandberg talking to the Prison Director studying the plan of Halden Prison

High Security cell

Prisoner music studio

The wall

Vegetation is used to create a nice atmosphere

Prisoners can have family staying over for weekends. Particularly families living far away uses this possibility

The entrance of the prison

Bastoy prison is a farm like facility on an island in the Oslo fjord

The prison has got no walls and public access via a ferry

High court in Oslo

National Geographic Workshop, New York City

Brooklyn Bridge

Highline park

New York, on Top of the Rock

China Town

I participated in a workshop in New York with David Alan Harvey last weekend. This was certainly a great experience with plenty of useful hints on "working a photograph". To start with, let the picture come to you...

Nestlé AGM 2010

I photographed Nestlé's AGM the other day and some unexpected visitors entered.. For a photographer, it was a pretty "colourful" event..