Lyle Owerko photojournalist

Lyle Owerko is a photojournalist and commercial photographer based in New York City. He travels the world shooting for many NGO's and human rights groups.

His work is an effort to unveil unknown cultures and bridge the gap between human groups. It involves themes related to his profession, such as politics, industrialisation and technology. However, Lyle focuses on the humanistic aspect presentation a different point of view. It could be said his work is a critique to globalisation.
Through a quite critical- evocative- shocking perspective, he stimulates the audience and makes us re-evaluate values and taxonomies.

His work "Africa" is mainly a series of portraits. Lyle was fascinated by the people of East Africa and they were a great source of inspiration for him. His trips in Kenya and the interaction with the inhabitants influenced an unknown aspect of the African culture.
Guided by his passion for photography and his motivation, he tries through his work to contribute for a better living. As he claims, " this is a lifetime commitment for me".

Lyle Owerko has also a blog where he publishes projects, ideas and introduces new artists and their work.

Olia Psarrou

Not to be missed

Manifesto: a means of expression

Photography by Pieter Hugo, Nollywood

Cape Town born Pieter Hugo powerful photographs engages with african people with a sheer determination to unveil, understand and depict Nollywood.

"In Africa, Nollywood movies are a rare instance of self-representation in the mass media.

The continent has a rich tradition of story-telling that has been expressed abundantly through oral and written fiction, but has never been conveyed through the mass media before.

Movies tell stories that appeal to and reflect the lives of its public: stars are local actors; plots confront the viewer with familiar situations of romance, comedy, witchcraft, bribery, prostitution. The narrative is overdramatic, deprived of happy endings, tragic. The aesthetic is loud, violent, excessive; nothing is said, everything is shouted.

In his travels through West Africa, Hugo has been intrigued by this distinct style in constructing a fictional world where everyday and unreal elements intertwine.

By asking a team of actors and assistants to recreate Nollywood myths and symbols as if they were on movie sets, Hugo initiated the creation of a verisimilar reality.

His vision of the film industry’s interpretation of the world results in a gallery of hallucinatory and unsettling images.

The tableaux of the series depict situations clearly surreal but that could be real on a set; furthermore, they are rooted in the local symbolic imaginary. The boundaries between documentary and fiction become very fluid, and we are left wondering whether our perceptions of the real world are indeed real."

Also the series The Hyena & Other Men are not to be missed.

www.pieterhugo.com

Manifesto: a means of expression

Eileen Perrier, photographer

This work is a vibrant and gutsy African mastery that i would like to share with you.

"My work has drawn upon the long tradition of African portraiture since my first visit to Ghana in 1996. My objective was to communicate a less preconceived impression of what it is to be a person of African descent. Colour Photography was my gateway into showing a vibrancy and realness not readily found in the media's reportage, black and white imagery at this time."

"Coming from a mixed cultural background of Ghanaian and Dominican descent and this has presented me with questions about, placement, cultural identity and diversity."

Eileen Perrier will be showing is work at the Whitechapel Gallery from the 4th of August till 20th of September.

77-82

Whitechapel High st

London

E1 7QX

Not to be missed

Manifesto: a means expression

Portraits from Africa

Pictures of reclusive tribesmen in remote African hideaways.

Jonh Kenny, who took up photography when he started snapping shoppers in Portobello Road, west London tracked down members of the most isolated rural communities on the continent and persuaded them to pose for a series of striking portrait shots.

The Images capture their traditions dress, piercings, facial scarring and they nomad way of living.

Jonh Kenny is showing is work at the 3 Bedfordbury Gallery in Covent Garden,central London,
until Saturday.

Not to be missed

Manifesto: a means of expression

Viviane Sassen, photographer

"I was really taken with Amsterdam-based photographer Viviane Saasen and i would like to share with you her work.

Her photographs, taken in Uganda, Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania, tease fashion conventions but with really witty and unexpected results, partly because her subjects are all young Africans who seem to have enjoyed collaborating with her.

She tends to treat the body as a sculptural element- a malleable shape that combines blocks of shadow and bright colours in arrangements that sometimes read like cut-paper collages, bold and abstract but full of vibrant life".

Manifesto: a means of expression