25 March - 21 May 2023 Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS 5 Rue Curial, 75019 Paris, France
Many thanks to the artistic committee of Collectif Fetart: Marie Guillemin, Clara Chalou, Mano Bourcart, Delphine Rodet, Carine Dolek, Jimmy Pihet, Laetitia Guillemin, Claire Pathé, Emmanuelle Halkin
Sharing happy news from another continent!! One of my pictures from the series A Zone to Defend got selected as a semi-finalist at the Head On Landscape Awards. The semi-finalist images will be projected on a screen throughout the Festival that this year presents 604 artists in multiple venues, launches in Sydney, Australia on November 4th, 2022. Winners will be announced at the opening!
This image is actually created by multiple shots of the beautiful 100 Noms dwelling before and after it’s destruction during the evictions that took place in the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes in April 2018. Some of the dreamy dwellings disappeared in the process, but nature won and the struggle of locals and activists that created a living utopia in West France remains an actual lighthouse of hope in our dark times.
Congratulations and a big thank you to the Women Photograph team for the super productive 12-hours online version of their Annual Workshop last week! Artist talks, portrait making, fundraising for photographers, agencies & collectives, safety… all of it has been so useful and inspiring. This was the first time I participated in the Women Photograph Annual Workshop and I feel amazed by the amount of knowledge and experience sharing, as well as by the kind, joyful and empowering way of sharing with more than a dozen of speakers and hundreds of participants from all around the world. For those who haven’t tried it, it’s highly recommendable.
The wildfires that took place between 3-11 of August 2021 in Evia, Greece, burnt a surface of forest and cultivations that equals 5 times Paris. Not only the landscape but also the lives of people living by what once was a green paradise have changed drastically and this will last for a long time. We travelled to North Evia with journalist Alexandre Duyck for Marie Claire France to meet with residents who decided to stay and try to rebuilt their homes, work and life, based on their own strength and despite the shock they are still in.
This year the main exhibition takes place at the Benaki Museum / Pireos 138, including 102 artists from 28 countries, covering over 3,000 square meters.
PLANYOURVISIT: Benaki Museum / Pireos 138, Athens, Greece 8 June – 24 July 2022 Thursday and Sunday: 10.00–18.00 Friday and Saturday: 10.00–22.00
Happy to share this 5 min. interview with you, with which we conclude a year of collaboration with the precious iMEdD incubator team. Amongst others we speak about trust in journalism and the experience during the different stages of development of Under Pressure.
Growing slowly, not scared of long draughts nor cold winters, the olive tree is famous for it’s longevity, for its fruits and most of all for the liquid gold we call olive oil. A sea of olive groves! This is what Messinia felt like to me back in November 2021 when we travelled there with journalist Elisa Perrigueur meeting producers, agronomists, oleologists, merchants and workers that were converting the precious fruit into extra virgin olive oil.
Discover the full story in GEO France April 2022 issue.
Part of Under Pressurephotographic and journalistic investigation has been printed in the form of a newspaper in 1000 copies with the support of iMEdD and is available free of charge. You can alsoview the online version here.
64 pages of photographs, archival material and texts bring together information on the legacy of a century of oil extraction in neighbouring Albania and the fragmented efforts to locate and exploit the “black gold” in Greece from the early 20th century to the present day. In a paradoxical reality, in the midst of a climate crisis and energy transition, we look into the past in order to imagine the future of these underdeveloped regions on the south-eastern border of the EU.
Hard copies distribution has been focused to the local communities that are affected by the either the history or the current development of the oil and gas exploration and exploitation both in Albania and Greece.
If you wish to receive a copy by mail, to distribute or to arrange a presentation in your area, please contact me at penelopethomaidi@gmail.com
The printed publication is bilingual (Greek and Albanian) and an English version will be available online soon. Stay tuned!
Contre-Vents documents the struggles of the countercultures of Bretagne and Loire Atlantique, in France, as they were chronicled by moviemakers, photographers and militants since 1968. It traces the intersections between the struggles of farmers and those of workers, as well as questions of identity and ecology and proposes a genealogy between the collective actions of reclaiming farming land in the 1970s and the occupation of the ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes in the 2000s.
In between collective action, history and representation, supported by great design, this book stands on fertile ground. I am honored I had the chance to contribute with some pictures in the chapter about the ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes.
Published by Paraguay Press & Le Grand Cafe Saint Nazaire in 2021 French, 296 pages, ISBN: 978-2-918252-69-6 Price: 30 € - Buy from the publisher Direction: Guillame Desanges, François Piron | Coordination: Clement Raveu | Design: Laure Giletti, Eurogroupe | Cover illustration: Emile Seto
Life Twists is part of Toponthropologies, a group exhibition, in the context of Thessaloniki Photobiennale 2021, presenting 17 photography projects that have been hosted at The Provinces online photography platform, which deals with the is the constant redefinition of the term “province” through photographic works that deal with the greek periphery.