Sunday Preview. Three stories we feature next week

September 05, 2021

The 2nd week of stories will be available to all our visitors for free to give you a taste of what we create. As soon as you find our work meaningful and stories worth supporting, consider joining as a Member.

12 selected stories a month for $6/mo only

Every day we look for documentary projects by independent photographers to provide our Members with carefully selected stories that you won't likely find yourself. Sounds interesting? So why not join now?

Published — Monday, 06 Sept

© Valeria Mongelli / Hans Lucas | The Steel Plant Mothers

Wilfully ignoring the pleas of the local and national population, the Ilva plant, Europe’s largest steel plant located in Taranto, Southern Italy, is portrayed as prioritising profit over people's lives.

"Taranto's mothers wonder for how long they will still have to bury their sons."

Valeria Mongelli’s body of work The Steel Plant Mothers is timely and pertinent in the context of the sacrifices we have made and the suffering we have all recently endured, yet the angle of her story is different. These are not deaths caused by an unknown-until-now pathogen, one we are all helpless against, but they are instead caused by a corporation.

Published — Wednesday, 08 Sep

© Milda Vyšniauskaitė | Balaganza

Balaganza by Milda Vyšniauskaitė shines the spotlight on the drag queens in the only gay bar and the only drag queen show in Lithuania. Forcedly hidden from the public eye in the post-Soviet country, these performances seem too deliberately shocking for the part of the society.

The images are superbly lit and verge on the cinematic — some depict the stage and the performance, while other photographs make us privy to the experience of being backstage and witnessing the preparation.

The project documents a minority of people who perhaps feel repressed, silenced and avoided. It’s important that they are given a voice, or in this case, a lens pointed at them, to make their voices heard and if nothing else at least demonstrate loud and clear that they exist and they have no intentions of hiding.

Published — Friday, 10 Sep

© Max Zhiltsov | 100 days before conscription

The military service in the Cypriot National Guard is mandatory and inevitable for all male citizens from 18 to 50 years old. Or for those who are looking for citizenship in the Republic of Cyprus and fit the same age range. Citizens turn into reservists after 14 months of service who then called up several times a year, for 1 or 2 days at a time, each year until the age of 55.

Max Zhiltsov presents a reportage from the streets of Limassol where the youth is gathered to mark the date: 100 days before conscription.

Do they come to protest or celebrate? Hard to say, but it is likely both. When they face this unavoidable, so much influential and big event like leaving the normal way of life for 14 months, they're forced to accept it as a serious milestone and celebrate despite that it is far not their own choice.

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