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from Photographers Blog:
Last days in a Siberian prison
Outside Krasnoyarsk, Russia
By Ilya Naymushin
Boris Kovalyov is not my hero – not at all. I have never understood such people, the way they think, the way they live. But journalists work with all kinds of people, and to me, people in extreme circumstances have always been of particular interest. And so Kovalyov, a non-hero, became the hero of my photo story, which might be called “The Last Ten Days in a Siberian Prison Camp.”
Boris is 32 years old. He was first jailed for theft, and was sent to a prison camp near Krasnoyarsk. After a few years he was granted early release, with the understanding that he had learned his lesson. Under Russian law, a relapse into crime means the convict serves the time he was spared by early release, and is often sent to a higher-security prison.
Boris was not out long before he was arrested again, for drug trafficking, and sentenced to eight years in a high-security prison camp. He was sent to a prison near the village of Ariysk where most of the inmates are recidivists. After two and a half years he was moved to an even stricter camp north of Krasnoyarsk.
Prisoners here live, work, study and learn new professions. They go to church, do sports, music and theater. The camp even has its own TV station. Boris adapted to this environment well, finding a common language with prisoners and personnel.
from Photographers Blog:
Poolside floods
Germany
By Thomas Peter
It was a sunny and calm Monday afternoon when I flew in a German army transport helicopter above a flooded region north of Magdeburg, the capital of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. The Elbe river had swollen to over seven meters (yards) above its normal levels and broken its banks and a dyke near the village of Fischbeck. Farmlands, forests and whole villages were inundated by its waters. Hundreds of people had to flee their homes.
Strapped to a bucket seat I sat beside the helicopter's open sliding door and surveyed the water landscape below me: sunken buildings, tree tops and the tops of abandoned cars dotted the glistening, caramel-colored surface of the deluge. Here and there a street or a pristinely groomed hedge rose above the water as a reminder of the human order that had been submerged by the force of nature.
from Photographers Blog:
Scraping by as a French pensioner
Nice, France
By Eric Gaillard
One evening while returning home I came upon a scene that I had never imagined in a country as rich as France - people rummaging through supermarket trash bins looking for food.
In spite of the difficulties I would encounter, I decided to go ahead and meet these people head-on. That day I saw an elderly man waiting on a public bench. Quickly I understood that he was waiting for the trash container from a nearby neighborhood supermarket. I approached him, with my camera on my shoulder, and started a conversation, which stopped abruptly with a curt, "Leave me alone, don’t take my photo".
from Photographers Blog:
Meeting Pakistan’s female Top Gun
Sargodha, Pakistan
By Zohra Bensemra
I first came up with the idea of covering Pakistani female pilots after reading an article online that ranked four of them among the country’s 100 most powerful women. But I could not approach any of the 19 female pilots without getting permission from the military, which ended up taking six months. After nearly giving up hope on the story, the spokesman for the air force approved our request with one of the pilots. It turned out to be Ayesha Farooq, the first war-ready female fighter pilot for the nuclear-armed nation.
A month later, the day finally came to meet Farooq. I left Islamabad at 5:30 a.m., impatient to arrive after waiting so long for the approval and anxious to meet her. A few hours later, I arrived at the Mushaf Air Base in Sargodha in northern Pakistan.
from Photographers Blog:
From Madrid to heaven
By Sergio Perez
There is a local proverb which goes, “De Madrid al Cielo” (From Madrid to heaven). Coinciding with efforts to illustrate a story on energy reform, I thought I’d try to show the phrase is actually quite true. For weeks we solicited access to four of the Spanish capital’s tallest skyscrapers at a business complex known as “Four Towers” (“Cuatro Torres”) which includes the the PwC (Price Waterhouse Coopers) Tower.
The PwC Tower, named after the company that rents most of the office space in a building owned by Spanish construction company Sacyr, is the third tallest skyscraper in Madrid and it is the sixth tallest in Europe with 58 floors soaring to 236 meters (774 feet) high.
from Photographers Blog:
That sinking feeling
Kiribati, In the middle of the Pacific
By David Gray
The first sign you see of the equator-hugging central Pacific island nation of Kiribati (pronounced Kir-i-bas), is a small patch of green that breaks the seemingly endless monotony of blue that is the Pacific Ocean. Tropical storm clouds fill the sky, rising so high you feel uncomfortably small. Descending, the tiny atolls that reach just a few meters above sea-level at their highest point and make up this small island nation, come into focus, and even from this height, it is obvious that land is an extremely precious commodity out here in the vastness of an ocean that is cut by the International Date Line.
The immigration check once you are inside the quaint arrival hall is made up of just two small palm-leaf stands marked "Visitors" and "Residents." The rental car, which should be called a "borrow" car, is waiting for me in the dusty car lot out the front, with the key handover no more than an acknowledgment that I am staying at the motel I have named. Showing some identification, let alone a driver’s license, is not even a thought - just a welcoming smile and a handshake will suffice. I think it best to ask how to find the motel and I am told: "Well, just keep heading down the one road we have on the island, and you won’t miss it."
from Full Focus:
Kiribati: Gone in 60 years
Photographer David Gray spent time documenting life in the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, a chain of 33 islands that stand just a few feet above sea level, spread over a huge expanse of otherwise empty ocean. Studies show surrounding sea levels are rising, and Kiribati President Anote Tong has predicted his country will likely become uninhabitable in 30-60 years because of inundation and contamination of its fresh water supplies. Nevertheless, while climate change poses a serious longer-term threat, many people now recognise that breakneck population growth is a more immediate problem, particularly for those crowded onto Kiribati's main island of South Tarawa. Read David's personal account here.
from Photographers Blog:
Taksim Square: One woman’s protest
Istanbul, Turkey
By Murad Sezer
Anti-government protests have gripped Turkey for almost two weeks, and Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square and adjoining Gezi Park have become a center of the demonstrations, with thousands flocking there to voice their opposition to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK party.
Ayse Diskaya is one of them. She is a 48-year-old housewife, an active member of the left-wing cultural organisation Halkevleri, a women’s rights activist – and now a Gezi Park protester. Riot police cleared the square early on Wednesday but Ayse says she will return to Gezi Park later in the day.
from Photographers Blog:
Closing the chapter on the space shuttle
Cape Canaveral, Florida
By Joe Skipper
The decades-long assignment started with covering the first space shuttle launch, Columbia, on April 12, 1981. A recent visit to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A wrapped up the story for me. Often we cover assignments not knowing how long it will take, and my part in coverage of NASA’s space shuttle program seemed as if it would last forever. With the landing of the shuttle Atlantis on July 21, 2011, however, we thought the assignment was over.
But it wasn't complete yet. With the shuttles headed for public display, the assignment continued a bit longer in order to cover the preparation and their ultimate departure from the space center.
from Photographers Blog:
Switzerland’s next King?
Geneva, Switzerland
By Denis Balibouse
Prince Willem-Alexander was crowned King of the Netherlands in April, following the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix.
You might be wondering which country will be next to install a new monarch: England, Denmark or perhaps Sweden? I'll give you a tip: it will probably be Switzerland, a country better known for its direct democracy, banks and chocolate than for having 'royals'.
