All posts filed under: Cuba

Interview on National Geographic Weekend Radio about Azerbaijan and Eurovision

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Last month when I was in Washington for the Fulbright orientation, I stopped by National Geographic headquarters for a brief interview with Boyd Matson for his National Geographic Weekend radio show. While the clip is not quite yet available online, it did air yesterday on satellite radio and several AM and FM stations across America. You can have a listen here. Previously I was a guest of the show in early 2010 to discuss my work photographing everyday life and the economic reality facing Cubans in their country after a trip there resulted in several images being published in Foreign Policy.

In Memoriam: Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington

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I am still at a loss for the enormous quantity of injuries to photojournalism in recent months, beginning for this generation with Emilio Morenatti of The Associated Press on August 12, 2009. An Associated Press account of the bomb “planted in the open desert terrain,” according to the American military, left Morenatti without his foot as he traveled in southern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border with AP Television News videographer Andi Jatmiko and a unit of the 5th Stryker Brigade. Again in southern Afghanistan, Joao Silva one of the four founding members of the famous group of South African photographers covering the end of apartheid known as “the Bang Bang club,” was hit by a mine and lost both legs, as reported October 23, 2010 by his employer The New York Times. This spring came the awful and surreal detentions of well known and intrepid New York Times conflict photographers Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks alongside reporters Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell in Libya. Then obviously and most recently came the tragic deaths a whole …

From the Archive: The Beginning of a Post-Soviet Dream

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Yesterday, I won a Fulbright (!!!) student scholarship to Azerbaijan. Today I began to reflect on what this might mean and began to think of some images, among many other things, that united me to Azeris and other people in the region. Peculiarly, the first thing that came to mind was this quote from my U.S. passport that anyone who has seen it from Bratislava to Baku (if you were a “Seinfeld” fan you must surely remember, “It’s been a long journey from Milan to Minsk…”) cannot help but memorize, recite and possibly even begin to call me “young man”. One friend sent a note when I received the Fulbright, “Go east, young man,” no doubt a tribute to the Horace Greeley quote in the latest U.S. passport design: “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” – Horace Greeley Additionally, I combed through some old images to find a few that united east, and west in some interesting form: (It is the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs, celebrated as a …

The Year in Pictures 2010: United States, Cuba, Slovakia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Hungary

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The Year in Pictures 2010 by Amanda Rivkin available on PhotoShelter Archive. Images from the year include: Gitmo USA – the prison site designated for Guantanamo Bay detainees after the prison’s closure in rural Illinois that never quite opened because the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has not yet closed. Portrait of William Fiedler, Owner of the Gallery Bookstore, Chicago – My former boss at one of the North Side’s finest used book stores. Injured Veteran – Portrait of Michael Jernigan, injured in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004; photographed at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Baltasar Garzon – Former examining magistrate of Spain’s Criminal Court, extraordinarily controversial for execution of the practice of universal justice and far-reaching indictments of foreign leaders and terrorist organizations; photographed at the Instituto Cervantes in Chicago. Afghan Bowling Tournament (3 images) – Afghan-American bowling tournament in Annandale, Virginia. Cuba (8 images) – The Second Age of Castro, published on ForeignPolicy.com and The New York Times “Week in Review”. Spectacular Slovakia (13 images) – Weddings, floods, world cup, trains, planes, castles, …

Mayor Daley, Spectacular Slovakia, NYT Lens Turning Point, International Photography Awards + Blog

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Newsletter went out Friday: Greetings! Recently, Chicago Mayor Daley for life announced his resignation and said he would not be running for reelection next year. What happens when a “Mayor for Life” retires? A short retrospective of images from the last few years of his tenure in office looks at Mayor Richard M. Daley’s legacy on the city of Chicago, and more broadly national politics and the Obama administration. – Gallery available on the Amanda Rivkin PhotoShelter archive. I have also launched a blog as many people have recommended that they prefer to see news and updates easiest in blog format. Without further ado, you can sign up for alerts, peruse past stories and articles, see new tearsheets, find out about ongoing projects and receive releases about work as it is published, among other cool things. – Blog available at amandarivkin.wordpress.com. The New York Times Lens Blog “Turning Point” series continues in its sixth week with Iranian photographer Newsha Tavakolian on her own work and work by Shah Naser al-Din (1848-1896) that inspired her. Previous …

Lucie Foundation International Photo Awards Honorable Mention for “Cuba: Semper Fidel”

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Entry Title: ” Cuba: Semper Fidel” Name: Amanda Rivkin, United States Entry Description: Twenty-one years after official Washington declared communism dead with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unraveling of the Soviet Union, life in Fidel and Raúl Castro’s socialized Cuba chugs along, fifty-one years after Fidel first took power in the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Cuba’s current situation is not without economic and social absurdity however as Cubans receive rationed fruits, vegetables, legumes, meat and bread with government-issued ration cards at subsidized prices but must fend for themselves in most other respects, including clothing and with the notable exception of health care and medicine. Two currencies, the Cuban national peso is used to pay for many basic goods and services, but is challenged by the dominance of the Cuban convertible peso, are in wide circulation. About the Artist: Amanda Rivkin, 24, is a photojournalist currently based in her hometown, Chicago. She has photographed for Agence France Presse/Getty Images, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Newsweek, among others. Her work has appeared on …