In our second last episode of our year in review series, we’re continuing a featured category which was new to the list last year, photographers. While we lauded the efforts of Michael Hughes, Jing Quek and Shannon Taggart in 2009, this year we’ve got a new trio of noteworthy photogs.
Imagine if every cook book was like the work produced by Marina Aurora. Her creative photographic series incorporates ingredients as they appear at every step in the cooking and preparation process. From eggs and flour to a roll of dough and the final cinnamon bun. We think there’s no photographic trickery at work here, but we could be wrong. Looks to be all one shot. The only thing missing is the actual ingredients, and names of dishes. In some cases, it’s a bit hard to determine what exactly we’re looking at.
Take a good look at photographer Andrew McConnell’s latest series on E-Waste. The series focuses on the suburb of Agbogbloshie in Ghana’s capital, Accra, which has become a dumping ground for computers and electronic waste from Europe and the US. Hundreds of tons of e-waste end up here every month as countries in the West attempt to unload their ever increasing stockpiles of toxic junk. Of the 20 to 50 million tons of electronics discarded each year 70% will end up in poor nations, and in the EU alone 6.6 million tons of e-waste are unaccounted for every year.
Our final shutterbug worth mentioning is Zoe Strauss, an installation artist and photographer from Philadelphia. The primary subjects in her photos are the people, buildings and street scenes in the less than posh neighbourhoods of south Philly. Zoe’s photos are real, gritty, and oftentimes depressing depictions of life in America. That said, there are also traces of hope, as her photos involve real people dealing with real situations.