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David Schonauer

DFLA Spotlight: Meet Emerging Photographers at "Indivisual"

We Are Indivisual   Wednesday April 8, 2015

We were recently contacted by one of the talented photographers named a winner of the Latin American Fotografia 3 competition, Estefany Molina, who told us about a web project she has been rolling out over the past few months. Called “We Are Indivisual,” the online space features  video interviews shot and edited by Molina, in which emerging photographers talk about their work, their processes, and their experiences. The series includes interviews with other LAF-winning photographers, including Star Montana  and Antonio Pulgarin, as well as Supranav Dash, whose work was included in the American Photography 30 annual. Stay tuned to DFLA for more in the series.   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Ilustracion: Aldo Crusher

By David Schonauer   Wednesday April 8, 2015

Mexico City-based Illustrator Aldo Crusher spends his days working as a motion designer for HBO Latin America. But some time ago he found himself a little bored at the office. "I was tired of pure vector artworks," he says. "I wanted to try a new technique to give texture to my illustrations." So he started daydreaming, and that led to thoughts of carefree childhood, …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Ivan Kashinsky

By David Schonauer   Sunday March 29, 2015

Born in Los Angeles, Ivan Kashinsky was working toward a Masters degree in mass communications at San Jose State University in California when he met his future wife, Karla Gachet, who is Ecuadoran. For the past 10 years Kashinsky has been based in Quito, freelancing for publications like National Geographic and the New York Times. His ongoing project documenting the city's evolution from countryside …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Ricardo Nagaoka

By David Schonauer   Monday March 23, 2015

Ricardo Nagaoka's grandparents were part of a diaspora that led many from World War II-era Japan to South America. Born in Asuncion, Paraguay, he later moved to Ontario, Canada, and then to Providence, Rhode Island, to study photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2013 he returned to Paraguay to create what he calls some "simple sketches" of his homeland. That work …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Ilustracion: Paulo Campos

By David Schonauer   Wednesday March 18, 2015

Perhaps the earliest of Brazilian folklore to be documented are tales of the Curupira, a fantastic entity that lived in the forest and fiercely protected its plants and animals. The Curupira had many powers and distinctive attributes, including red hair and feet turned backward to confuse hunters who might be tracking it. For Paulo Campos, the Curupira proved an irresistible subject when he set …   Read the full Story >>

Exhibitions: Alfredo Blasquez Turns Coastal Litter Into Art

Traeger & Pinto Arte Contemporáneo   Wednesday March 11, 2015

Mexican photographer Alfredo Blasquez  has spent three years exploring the Guerrero coastline and documenting the many and varied types of litter he finds. His work, part of Limpia Guerrero, an environmental initiative that implements education, scientific research, and community action to clean the beaches of Guerrero, was named a winner of the Latin American Fotgrafia 3  competition, and today it goes on exhibit at Mexico City’s Traeger & Pinto Arte Contemporáneo gallery. See more here.   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Luiz Maximiano

By David Schonauer   Monday March 2, 2015

Sao Paulo, Brazil-based photographer Luiz Maximiano arrived in the town of in Jos Pedro Varela, Uruguay, on on Saturday, October 12, 2013, one day prior to the running of the yearly horse race called El Raid -- an endurance event in which the animals run 90 kilometers, or about 55 miles. Maximiano had been assigned by Playboy magazine to photograph the race, though he …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Ilustracion: Javier Martinez

By David Schonauer   Monday February 23, 2015

Having an allergic reaction to a food can turn an ordinary day into a nightmare. And getting food poisoning is no fun, either. Chilean illustrator Javier Martinez captures the horror in a poster that he created as part of a series for the California-based company Spellbound Development. "I choose to make use of the "deformed view" of a fish-eye camera lens to match the …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Yunior Yanes Torres

By David Schonauer   Monday February 16, 2015

"I am fascinated by the signs and symbols found in Havana's public spaces," says photographer Yunior Yanes Torres, whose personal project "Ciudad Occulta" ("Havana: Hidden City") earned him a spot among the winners of the Latin American Fotografia 3 competition. Unlike many other portraits of Havana, Yanes's images focus on the colors, shapes, and symbols that define life there. Born in Sagua la Grande, …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Ilustracion: Kako

By David Schonauer   Monday February 9, 2015

As a guitar player and music lover, Brazilian freelance illustrator Kako was delighted when he was approached to create an epic series of complex posters as part of an ad campaign for Guitar Player magazine. The posters were to depict the lives of three gods of the guitar -- Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. But the life of a freelancer swings between …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Ilustracion: Enrique Moreiro

By David Schonauer   Sunday January 25, 2015

"I think that it's good that Spaniards get closer to the Latin American art-and-culture scene, so I am grateful for this opportunity," says Spain-based illustrator Enrique Moreiro, a winner of the Latin American Ilustracion 3 competition for artwork bringing emotional life to a charged social issue--the juvenile justice system in America. Moreiro's illustration for American Educator magazine accompanied an article looking at how the …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Santiago Sabogal

By David Schonauer   Monday January 19, 2015

One night a couple of years ago, Santiago Sabogal was on a date, and after seeing a movie he and his girlfriend strolled along the marina in Coconut Grove, FL, where they sat and enjoyed the evening. "It was a typical romantic-comedy scene," he says. But for Sabogal, a budding photographer who always carried his Canon Rebel XS with him, there was another attraction--the …   Read the full Story >>

DFLA Spotlight: Kike Arnal Shoots Mexico's Danza Voladores

Kike Arnal   Wednesday January 14, 2015

The ritual ceremony of the Voladores (‘flying men’) is a fertility dance performed by several ethnic groups in Mexico and Central America, especially the Totonac people in the eastern state of Veracruz, as an expression of respect for and harmony with the natural and spiritual worlds. Over the past four years, photographer Kike Arnal, a winner of the Latin America Fotografîa 1 and Latin America Fotografîa 2 competitions, has been documenting the ritual, and the result is a new book, Voladores. “Although the danza is still celebrated in many towns and remote villages during religious festivals like the patron saint’s week, it has been adapted and traditionalized, and it is currently performed for tourism purposes in several places of Mexico,” notes Arnal at his blog.   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Ilustracion: Vlad Alvarez

By David Schonauer   Monday January 12, 2015

Vlad Alvarez is a graphic designer based in West Chester, PA. But he grew up in El Salvador, where, he notes, religion played an important role in the life of his family and friends. "After moving to the United States and attending art school, I found myself looking back at the fascinating religious imagery and traditions that I used to see as a kid," …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Coco Martin

By David Schonauer   Monday January 5, 2015

As the photographic world plunged headlong into the digital era, Coco Martin, a fine-art photographer based in Lima, Peru, and New York City, decided to step back and contemplate his art. "I wanted to go back in time in order to slow down the process, to reflect about the image and to dig in my practice," he says. The result was his portrait series …   Read the full Story >>

Cuban Revolution, 3: DFLA Reader Marlon Krieger Looks Back

Marlon Krieger   Wednesday December 31, 2014

Over the past two years DFLA has spotlighted a number of Cuban portfolios and book projects from our readers. After the news broke of President Obama’s move, documentary photographer Marlon Krieger, who is also a Latin American Fotografía 3-winner, let us know about his own body of work shot in Cuba. “I have been traveling to Cuba in discord with the United States embargo, documenting an island in the stream of politics, ideologies and imaginations,” he notes. But that was the past.   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Brunel Galhego Ricci

By David Schonauer   Monday December 29, 2014

Sao Paulo, Brazil-based photographer Brunel Galhego has an eye for out-of-way places that pique his interest. Previously, we featured his Latin American Fotografia 2-winning image of a spot near his home where antique-car collectors gather to stage exhibitions of their treasured vehicles. He is also an LAF 3-winner for images he made in Paranapiacaba, a village near Sao Paulo built by the British in …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Ilustracion: Rebecca Jimenez Pintos

By David Schonauer   Monday December 22, 2014

When Rebecca Jimenez moved from her native Spain to the Dominican Republic in 2010, she discovered a vibrant natural world she'd never known--a place filled with flowers heavier than her own head and hummingbirds that greeted her every morning. Her experience led the freelance illustrator to begin thinking about man's place in nature, and she later began her series of art centered on the …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Thomas Baccaro

By David Schonauer   Sunday December 14, 2014

You never know what you'll find in New York City. Perhaps, if you're a lucky photographer, you may even run into a man in a red suit. That's what happened when Thomas Baccaro was wandering along 14th Street in the East Village neighborhood with his vintage Rolliflex 6x6 camera. At first, the man declined to be photographed, but then changed his mind. The image …   Read the full Story >>

Latin American Fotografia: Adrian Ohrn Johansen

By David Schonauer   Tuesday December 9, 2014

In Norway, where freelance photojournalist Adrian hrn Johansen is from, there were 48 homicides in 2013. That year in Honduras, a country with less than half the population of Norway, there were 7,100 homicides. "The contrast between my home country, one of the most peaceful countries in the world, and Honduras couldn't be greater," Johansen says. It was that stark difference that he wanted …   Read the full Story >>

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