We should be back as usual in November and we’re hoping to have shows by people who have self published books of their work. More details nearer the time.

Lottie Davies was born in Guildford, UK, in 1971. She had a conventional childhood in Surrey with her parents and two brothers, and was educated in Alton and Godalming.  After a degree in philosophy at St Andrews University in Scotland, she moved back to England to learn the photographic trade as an assistant in London, where she has since been based. Davies has been working as a professional photographer since 2000.

Davies’ unique style has been employed in a variety of contexts, including newspapers, glossy magazines, books and advertising.  She has won recognition in numerous awards, including the Association of Photographers’ Awards, the International Color Awards, and the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Awards.  Her work garnered international acclaim with the image Quints, which won First Prize at the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Awards 2008 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

As a photojournalist, she focuses on lesser-known communities and on ethno-political issues, putting forward a sharply critical view of contemporary Western complacency, with a desire to illuminate the lives of those often overlooked.

Her travel and editorial work is wide-ranging, from highly-produced set-pieces to more journalistic imagery, and this breadth of experience in varying approaches informs the fine art work for which Davies is rapidly becoming known.

Her fine art work is concerned with stories and personal histories, the tales and myths we use to structure our lives: memories, life-stories, beliefs.  She takes inspiration from classical and modern painting, cinema and theatre as well as the imaginary worlds of literature. She employs a deliberate reworking of our visual vocabulary, playing on our notions of nostalgia, visual conventions and subconscious ‘looking habits’, with the intention of evoking a sense of narrative and movement.  Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, has described Davies’ work as “brilliantly imaginative”.

Jane Hilton, photographer and filmmaker lives in London. She started out as a classical musician, graduating in 1984 with a BA (Hons) in Music and Visual Art from Lancaster University. Her love of photography brought her to London, working as an assistant for numerous fashion and advertising photographers before going it alone in 1988. Early work included both fashion and editorial alongside her documentary projects which are the mainstay and passion of her work today.

“My work is about the extraordinary realities of ordinary people’s everyday lives, revealing their individual characteristics and ways of being that one so often overlooks”.

It was on her first trip to Arizona in 1988, that she discovered an obsession for America and American culture. The contradictions in American society and the American dream is a recurring theme. Her work in Las Vegas is an epitome of this, where the line between fantasy and reality is constantly blurred. The transient nature of Vegas mixed with the incessant gambling philosophy provides a unique breeding ground for characters who live out these contradictions. Her series “Forever Starts Now” on the McDonalds’ style wedding culture illustrates this.

From proclamations of everlasting happiness in Vegas, Jane hit the empty desert roads of Nevada ending up 350 miles away near Reno, where a roadside brothel called ‘Madam Kitty’s Cathouse’ caught her eye. This chance encounter became a two year project and resulted in a ten-part documentary series for the BBC, “The Brothel / Love For Sale”, as well as a series of exhibitions on desert landscapes, pimps and prostitutes.

Inspired by a commission in 2006 to photograph a 17 year old cowboy, Jeremiah Karsten, who travelled 4,000 miles on horseback from his native Alaska to Mexico, Jane set off on her own four year pilgrimage, criss-crossing the cowboy states of Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, New Mexico and Wyoming to capture America’s 21st century cowboys which has culminated in her recently published book – Dead Eagle Trail.

Jane’s work is regularly published in The Sunday Times Magazine and The Telegraph Magazine.

Fire regulations limit us to 100 people in Jacobs’ Pro Lounge. We rarely hit this limit but if you can come a few minutes early there’s less chance of being bounced if the evening proves more popular than usual.

Emily Ainsworth writes: I was born, and grew up, and studied English at Oxford. Before I started studying Anthropology at Cambridge, I joined the circus in Mexico. I began working as a dancer, and taking photographs. I was recording the time that I spent in and out of the ring for a BBC documentary and I started taking these photographs because I didn’t want to forget the vitality and vulnerability of the life that I had there. The pictures which I will be showing are all of people that I know and love, and have shared nits and cigarettes with.

I was made a National Geographic Explorer, and since then have had the chance to return and document this life of flesh and transcendence; of blood and sweat and sequins. Mexico has more circuses than any other country in the world – three hundred pitch in the capital. Mexican aerialists always win gold at the Monte Carlo Circus World Championships, and many performers have seven generations of circus blood running through their veins. The circus community’s existence from mainstream society is however, rigidly and ostentatiously separate, and there are very few media depictions of life behind the curtain. I will also be showing photographs from other projects in Mexico, of midget bullfighters, and of the Days of the Dead.

Born 1969, award winning photographer Andre Camara started work as a press photographer at the age of 15 for the Brazilian “Jornal do Brasil”. He juggled school and work until he went to read history in the PUC University of Rio. He covered the 1986 World Cup for that newspaper among other big assignments. At the age of 17 he was the only photographer to face a drug dealers’ war in a Rio slum and captured such an incredible set of images of the armed gangsters that they prompted a national outcry forcing the police to intervene, invade the slum and kill them all. Twenty years later it inspired the famous film “City of God”.

Now based in London, Andre worked for Associated Press, being the only photographer in Baghdad for months during the first Gulf War and having his pictures published all over the world. Then at Reuters, where he won his first awards for coverage of the IRA bombing in the City of London, used in all main newspapers around the world. For Reuters Andre worked through the setting-up of their UK pictures service and for years was the news agency photographer with the most publications in England and worldwide.

In 1994 Andre covered the USA World Cup for Reuters and then moved to The Times, where he won another 5 Awards in Britain. For The Times Andre has covered 8 Cannes Film Festivals, Venice film festivals and Biennales, Fashion Weeks , Royal trips, and has been in dozens of countries on different assignments. In the London 7th July terrorist attack Andre produced the iconic picture of a woman leaving a station with her burnt face in a mask which was displayed as the whole front page of The Times and other newspapers worldwide

Fire regulations limit us to 100 people in Jacobs’ Pro Lounge. We rarely hit this limit but if you can come a few minutes early there’s less chance of being bounced if the evening proves more popular than usual.

As always we’ll raffle prints from the photographers showing their work to help fund Photo-Forum. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over.

The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.

If you’d like to show your work at Photo-Forum or would like to suggest a photographer for a show please email us at photoforumuk@gmail.com.

Hazel Thompson is a British multi award winning photojournalist based in London. After beginning her photographic career in 1997 with a local newspaper in South London, Hazel now works freelance on assignments worldwide for leading international publications such as the New York Times, the Observer Magazine, Le Monde 2, Politiken, and many others. She is Director and Chief Photographer for True Image Media in London and a founding member of Scarlet, a creative change media agency based in Los Angeles. Hazel is also a speaker and workshop facilitator for international conferences and festivals and has been chosen as a participant of the Photojournalism Think Tank at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Hazel’s passion is to photograph social and humanitarian subjects with injustice towards women and children, as well as identity within religion, being amongst her central themes.

Working closely with NGOs she tackles sensitive and often controversial subjects. In 2005 Hazel was a key part of the Global campaign & report on ‘Kids Behind Bars’ (as seen on ITN & CNN) where, posing undercover as an aid worker, she was able to capture exclusive images of children illegally imprisoned inside Filipino jails. More recently her essay on the UK’s teenage runaways- ‘Home & Away’ evolved from a piece for the Observer Magazine into a three part news series for Channel FIVE, where Hazel reported and presented the story on camera with her still images being used to illustrate the issue.

Hazel was selected by The British Council to represent the best of British Photojournalism as an arts ambassador to Uzbekistan. This relationship evolved into a more recent commission for her to document the role of women in Qatar and Bahrain as part of a international project called “My Father’s House”, an exhibition that will tour the region for the next three years.

Adam Hinton began his photographic career at the age of 12 when his dad bought him a basic SLR camera. At the age of 15, Adam received compensation from a knife attack (his attacker had a thing against punks) and quickly spent the money on professional cameras and lenses.

Studying photojournalism in the ‘80s enabled him to articulate his feelings, beliefs and values through photography. Covering anti-apartheid and anti-nuclear demonstrations, the miners’ strike and the picket lines at Wapping. Adam’s images portray something of the way we live today, how each action has a reaction, that nothing is without cause or response.

Adam Hinton writes: I believe in the good of people. Wherever I have travelled the people have been welcoming and open. Even in the most dire situations, when almost everything seems negative, I find myself photographing the positives. When I stayed with a family in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro I found that in spite of the level of violence surrounding people living there, it was outweighed by the community’s cohesion. They had, without any external help, organised football and ballet classes for the children and adults, art clubs, after-school care and had built their own library. Families supported each other and the community had a strong sense of social solidarity. This is what I wanted to photograph, not the violence and danger. When I first started taking pictures I found that the social documentary style of B&W suited my work brilliantly (things were more black & white to me then). However, as time has gone by, I have moved away from the more traditional image to something I think is more fluid and spontaneous.

As always we’ll raffle prints from the photographers showing their work to help fund Photo-Forum. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over. The raffle after the Tim Hetherington show last month raised £200 for Tim’s favoured charity, the Milton Margai School for the Blind in Sierra Leone. Our thanks to you all for your generosity!

The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.

Fire regulations limit us to 100 people in Jacobs’ Pro Lounge. We rarely hit this limit but if you can come a few minutes early there’s less chance of being bounced if the evening proves more popular than usual.

We’d like to apologise for the late notice of the next Photo-Forum. We were keen to put on a show of Tim Hetherington’s work and it’s taken longer than we’d hoped to organise.

Our first speaker is still to be confirmed but we’re pleased to be able to announce that the 9th June Photo-Forum will have David Arnott, a multimedia editor at msnbc.com, presenting photographs by Tim. David writes that he was privileged to be a friend of Tim Hetherington for the last ten years, having worked with him as the editor at Panos Pictures for most of that time. He will present samples of Tim’s outstanding work and talk about his career.

As always we’ll raffle prints from the photographers showing their work to help fund Photo-Forum. We’ll also have a copy of Tim’s book to raffle. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over. The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.

And two dates for your diary:

Following on from his dslr-on-assignment training DVD Dan Chung is giving an exclusive small group workshop aimed at photographers and videographers who want to improve the way they shoot real world events.

Dan has 20 years experience as a news photographer and has been shooting video for the past five. If you shoot news, features, documentary, events, parties or just enjoy walking around filming the world pass by then this workshop is for you.

The workshop will be £150 for the day (10am-5.30pm) and will take place on Wednesday 8th June in the Jacobs Pro lounge, 74 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1EU. To book a place please contact Henrietta or Donal on 0207 436 6996.

PHNAT have produced a pamphlet that celebrates the history of the I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! campaign. Its launch party will be at the AoP Gallery at 7pm on the 14th June with free refreshments kindly sponsored by ING Media. All welcome.

Karel Prinsloo was born 1971 in Windhoek, Namibia and has South African and Namibian nationality. He is currently working as a picture editor for Associated Press in London

Prinsloo began his career in 1991 as a photographer for The Republikein newspaper, Windhoek, Namibia. In 1994 he moved on to Beeld newspaper in South Africa and in 1998 he took up a post as picture editor and photographer for the South African Sunday Times while also working as a stringer for the Associated Press.

From 2001 until last year Karel was chief photographer and picture editor for AP based in Nairobi, Kenya covering the region extensively as well as events in the Middle East and Iraq.

Awards

• Second prize World Press Photo: news story 2001.
• South African Press Photographer 2001.
• South African News Picture of the year 1996.
• Namibian Sports Photographer of the year 1992.

Facundo Arrizabalaga was born in Concordia, Argentina in 1972 and now works in London doing editorial work. His pictures have been published in the national and international press such as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Times, The Daily Mail, The International Herald Tribune, The National, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Haaretz, Time, Northern and Shell publications, The Daily Telegraph,The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, among others.

Facundo works regularly for The Independent on Sunday, Photoshot and the European Press Photo Agency where his work is published all around the world.

Facundo Arrizabalaga will show examples of his day to day work in London.

As always we’ll raffle prints from the photographers showing their work to help fund Photo-Forum. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over. The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.

And a note for your diary:

Slide Show Slam – Contact Editions vs Photofusion

Thursday 19 May, 7.00 – 9.30pm

Photofusion Studio, 14b Market Row (next to The Good Bench cafe)

The evening will feature a simultaneous projection of work on two screens; one slideshow curated by Contact Editions, and another featuring work from 10 Photofusion Members. The slideshows will run on a loop throughout the evening, and will be accompanied by music and a cheap bar. The event is an informal gathering of photographers and photography enthusiasts; a perfect opportunity for lively discussion, debate, and networking.

For April we have shows from Brian Rasic and David Bebber.

Brian Rasic was born in former Yugoslavia, the same time as Rock ‘n Roll was born in Memphis Tennessee, Brian began his career photographing local and touring bands in his home town of Belgrade in the early seventies. He moved to London in 1979.

One of the most in-demand live music photographers he has worked with musicians from Muddy Waters to Justin Bieber, Sinatra to Lady Gaga, Kate Bush to Rihanna and from Chuck Berry to Coldplay. Brian is equally well known for his work off-stage in the studio or on location.

A dedicated fan of The Rolling Stones, Brian has covered their shows since the early 80′s. In February 2006 he was the Stones’ official photographer at their (and his) biggest-ever gig, in front of 2 million people on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Last year, Keith Richards used Brian’s photography to promote his autobiography.

Brian is also very proud of being appointed the official photographer for his personal heroes David Bowie and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

Brian’s pictures are distributed exclusively by Rex Features.

David Bebber was born in Germany in 1978 and has been a UK resident since 1980. He started working for South West News Service in Bristol aged 19. David Bebber moved to London in 2003 working as a stringer for Reuters and EPA along with various commercial clients.

In 2005 he became a full time contract photographer for The Times covering national and international news and features. In the past five years he has worked in more than 30 countries around the world and has won the Press Photographers Year ‘Photo essay’, ‘News’ and ‘Photograph of the Year’ awards.

David will show a selection of his work from the last few years.

As always we’ll raffle prints from the photographers showing their work to help fund Photo-Forum. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over. The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.

For March we have shows from Isabelle Merminod and Andrew Testa.

Isabelle Merminod is a freelance photojournalist who has photographed prisons across the world.

In 1990 in Chile she was able to photograph at Carcel Pûblica (male political prisoners) and the Santo Domingo prison (female political prisoners). In Peru Isabelle was given access to the health department of the notorious Lurigancho prison. Built for fewer than 2,000 prisoners there were 8,500 inmates held there in 2004. On her return 3 years later there were 10,000 prisoners. In 2004 Isabelle also photographed the women’s prison in Santa Monica, Lima, Peru and in 2007 after the earthquake she obtained access to the Chincha prison.

Isabelle Merminod has also photographed around the issues of imprisonment in the UK producing an exhibition documenting issues such as suicide, child detention, the incarceration of pregnant women and the damaging effects of detention on mental health.

Last year Isabelle photographed women health workers detained in the Bagong Diwa prison, in the Manila district of the Philippines.

Isabelle is currently working on long-term projects on Chernobyl, migration and conflict resolution.

Award winning photographer Andrew Testa was born in London, England in 1965. He began his photographic career in the early 1990s working as a freelance for the Guardian and Observer newspapers. Throughout the decade he documented the growing environmental protest and animal rights movements. In 1999 he shifted his attention to the Balkans covering the war in Kosovo. At the end of 1999 he moved to Kosovo, which he used as a base to cover events throughout Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. In 2005 he moved to New York where he was based for five years.

Andrew will present a selection ranging from hunt sabs and road protesters in the early ‘90s through wars in Kosovo, Macedonia and Afghanistan, to swimming with sea gypsies off the coast of Thailand, acid attack victims in Bangladesh, Mafia fighting dockers and death row rodeo before finishing with a bit of UK late night mayhem.

Andrew Testa now lives in London with his wife and two children. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times and his work has been widely published in magazines such as Newsweek, Time, Stern, Geo, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent Magazine, Mother Jones and Mare.

As always we’ll raffle prints from the photographers showing their work to help fund Photo-Forum. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over. The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.

Tom Stoddart began his photographic career on a local newspaper in his native North East of England. In 1978 he moved to London and began working freelance for publications such as the Sunday Times and Time Magazine.

A pragmatic and talented journalist, Tom Stoddart has photographed many of the world’s major events. He covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fighting around the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut during the 1980s, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the siege of Sarajevo (1992 – 1995) and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

In 1997 Tony Blair gave Stoddart exclusive behind the scenes access to his election campaign as Labour swept to victory after 18 years of Conservative government. More recently his astonishing images of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa have consistently taken magazine and newspaper readers that much closer to the heart of the matter.

Now established as one of the worlds most respected photo journalists, Stoddart is represented by, and works closely with Getty Images to produce powerful photo essays on the serious world issues of our time.

Tom’s modesty, humility and compassion for his fellow man have helped him produce images that speak for those with little voice. The campaigning nature of his long-term projects, books and exhibitions – like Edge of Madness (photography from Sarajevo, 1991-95), iWITNESS (worldwide observations, 1980-2004) and “AIDS in Africa” (1995 to
today) – confirm his status as one of the most respected international photojournalists working today.

Tom’s commitment to showing serious world issues continues to be the bedrock of his professional life. In 2006 he was presented with the prestigious Honorary Fellowship Award by the Royal Photographic Society in recognition of his achievements and contributions to photography.

There may just be a ten minute slot still available. If you have a short presentation that you’d like to make next week please email us right away.

As always we’ll raffle prints from Photo-Forum photographers to help fund Photo-Forum. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over. The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.

Carl de Souza is a staff press photographer working for AFP news agency. He has been working as a press photographer for 10 years, starting off at a regional news agency in Bristol and then in London for AFP. Recently Carl was posted in Pakistan for three months. He was afforded a phenomenal amount of freedom during this time to shoot features and cover the tragic and devastating floods which ravaged the country. He will be featuring some of this work at Photoforum.

Working for Britain’s leading newspaper The Sun, Lee Thompson has been at the heart of many of the world’s top breaking stories. Whether it is covering the disappearance of Madeline McCann or the Josef Fritzl case, Lee’s photos have continuously graced the front pages. Always rising to the challenge, his work has taken him across the world to areas as diverse as war-torn Congo and the slums of India. His talent, dedication and passion for photography shines through his work which has appeared in numerous national newspapers and magazines. He started working as a photographer at 17 for the Chester Chronicle and moved to South West News Service in 2002.

Lee has been based in London and working for The Sun on a freelance basis since 2006 and will show us a range of his newspaper work.

As always we’ll raffle prints from the photographers showing their work to help fund Photo-Forum. The raffle pays for food in the pub after the show (so please come along to share a plate and a glass!) with donations to good causes when there’s any left over. The Photo-Forum raffle is the cheapest ever way to own a print from one of today’s leading photographers, please support it and you could win some great work for just a few pounds.