All posts tagged: Slovakia

For Slovak daily Sme: Hafízova cesta: Príbeh jedného sýrskeho utečenca

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Hafízova cesta: Príbeh jedného sýrskeho utečenca September 25, 2015 Sýrčan Hafíz sa z Turecka až do Nemecka dostal pomerne jednoducho. Mal šťastie, dostatok peňazí a nevyzeral celkom ako Sýrčan. TEXT: Amanda Rivkin Hafíz pricestoval do nemeckého Norimbergu minulú jeseň predtým, ako sa v meste približne štyritisíc utečencov nasťahovalo do miestnych kempov a hotelov v meste a jeho okolí. V Damasku, odkiaľ je Hafíz, si predtým užíval život plný komfortu – pracoval ako mladý marketingový manažér a mal vlastný byt. Občianska vojna v Sýrii, ktorá prebieha už piaty rok, si vyžiadala životy asi 240-tisíc civilistov. Prevrátila na ruby aj Hafízov život. Nebezpečná Líbya Nemecko nebolo Hafízovou pôvodnou destináciou. Predtým, ako tam odišiel, zostal krátko v Istanbule. Neskôr dostal od svojho bývalého sýrskeho šéfa prácu v líbyjskom hlavnom meste Tripolis. Polovicu mesiaca strávil v kacenlárii v Tripolise a zvyšnú polovicu cestoval po krajine. Do bytu v Tripolise sa mu dvakrát vlámali ozbrojení lupiči. Pri prvom vlámaní prišiel o život jeho spolubývajúci. Pri tom druhom vtrhlo do Hafízovho domu niekoľko mužov vyzbrojených kalašnikovovmi. Hafíz prišiel o väčšinu cenností …

Aerial Photographs

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The question of aerial photography came up in a meeting today, so I went looking through my archives for a few samples. They are a few years old but from such interesting and/or beautiful places, I felt like sharing them here. Post-script, February 5: Coincidentally, yesterday was all about helicopters. Who hasn’t misremembered that time they flew in a helicopter that wasn’t hit by an RPG? I certainly don’t misremember anything of the sort happening in any of these helicopter journeys. I did refuse a helicopter elsewhere in Slovakia though due to wind conditions and the fact that I detected the smell of slivovitz on the pilot. No picture is worth a life and no lie is worth a lifetime of credibility-building within your field and among the greater public.

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 …

Holiday Print Sale: THANK YOU to Everyone Who Has Ordered Prints So Far

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THANK YOU to everyone who has ordered prints so far. In just 3 days, 25% of estimated expenses for upcoming trip to Hungary to cover aftermath of toxic alumina sludge industrial accident have been met! Thanks for the support and please continue to. *** holiday print sale ! *** includes images from Azerbaijan, Chicago and Illinois, Cuba, Ethiopia, Israel, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey. (if you see something on my archive site you like more, as always drop me a note.) 17 prints for $75 each student discount: $50 print: digital 6″x10″ file / 8″x10″ paper to order, send a request to: amanda.rivkin@gmail.com

Holiday Print Sale, FotoWeek DC, Fortnight Journal, Turning Point Concludes

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Newsletter went out yesterday afternoon: Greetings! I would like to announce a holiday print sale of a select series of 17 prints for $75 each. Every print is from a 6 x 10 inch file and is printed on 8 x 10 inch paper and students who order from a .edu e-mail account receive a discounted price of $50. The holiday print sale is to fundraise for my upcoming trip to Hungary to cover the aftermath of the alumina industrial accident in Ajka that sent toxic red sludge pouring into neighboring villages when an industrial reservoir ruptured. VIEW THE 17 PRINTS FOR $75 to order: send a request that specifies which print and includes your name and mailing address to amanda.rivkin@gmail.com. — Two of my fellow Sarah Lawrence alums, Samantha Hinds and Adam Whitney Nichols, launched Fortnight Journal an online literary journal of art, prose and contemporary culture. VIEW SLOVENSKO FOR FORTNIGHT JOURNAL to see my first of six contributions. — The New York Times Lens Blog “Turning Point” series concluded last week after showcasing …

Fortnight Journal: Slovensko

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Slovensko October 29, 2010 “Careful shots of civil society reveal small truths to an intent spectator… documenting the debris of transition.” — AND FOR THE ESSAY: SLOVENSKO The election roster at the voting booth on election day in Turcianske Teplice, Slovakia on June 12, 2010. Young visitors to Bojnice castle play with guns they just purchased outside the castle in Bojnice, Slovakia on June 22, 2010. The V1 generating station at the Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power plant in Jaslovske Bohunice, Slovakia on June 25, 2010. Teenagers sneak a cigarette by the outhouse at a celebration for International Children’s Day in Jablonov nad Turnou, Slovkia on June 5, 2010. Passengers on the number 71 trolley bus in Kosice, Slovakia on June 1, 2010. A man hangs a French flag outside the main ethnographic museum in Brezno, Slovakia on May 24, 2010 in preparation for a visiting French delegation. A fisherman under the bridge to the thermal spa island in Piestany, Slovakia on June 25, 2010.

Update to Website: Romathan Gypsy Theater Gallery

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With the release of The Spectacular Slovakia guide I have been able to return to my personal portfolio website and update it with a gallery of images from my travel with the Romathan Gypsy Theater by bus from Kosice, Slovakia to the remote village of Banske in eastern Slovakia to perform for a primarily Roma student attended elementary school. Previously this work appeared as an audio slide show on The Slovak Spectator’s website in a joint project with SmeTV, the digital arm of the largest Slovak national daily, “Romathan.”

Slovakia in 42 days (and several audio slideshows): Travel in the Nitra Region

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Slovakia in 42 days: Travel in the Nitra Region A TV programme in English covering the travels of American journalist and photographer Amanda Rivkin (video included) 2 Sep 2010 Regional News Corgoň in Nitra has a new manicure, the remains from the Russian invasion in Komárno would be better mothballed, and Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the Albanian Queen Geraldine were neighbours during summers from time to time, as Oponice and Topoľčianky are only about 20 kilometres from each other across the hill. Worth seeing! A TV programme in English covering the travels of American journalist and photographer Amanda Rivkin, who is discovering Slovakia for the 15th edition of the guide Spectacular Slovakia. – For the complete PhotoShelter gallery of “Slovakia: Nitra Region.”