Burn: Lisa Wiltse: The Mennonites of Bolivia

Photo © Lisa Wiltse-All Rights Reserved
In my view, one of the better photo journals on the web is Burn magazine, which is an online feature for emerging photographers, curated by Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey.

I've recently noticed a fantastic photo essay by Lisa Wiltse that documents The Mennonites of Bolivia who settled in eastern Bolivia’s farmlands more than 50 years ago.

Today, some 60,000 Mennonites call Bolivia their home, and they've come from Mennonite colonies in Canada, Russia, Mexico, Belize and Paraguay, to improve their lives, and live simply, dress plainly and refuse to use many modern conveniences. Similar in their lifestyle to the Amish, the Mennonites lead quiet, dedicated, religiously inspired lives.

Lisa Wiltse graduated from the Art Institute of Boston with a BFA in photography, and moved to Sydney, Australia in 2004 where she worked as a staff photographer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 2008, she started her freelance career and subsequently moved to La Paz, Bolivia. Her work has been recognized by POYI’s, the National Press Photographers Association, the Sony awards, and others. She has recently been awarded The PDN Emerging Photographer award, and her work was published in The Fader, TIME magazine, GEO, Internazionale, Private Photo Review, The Sun Magazine, Marie Claire, The Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is currently a contributor with Getty Reportage.

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Dani Salva: Tibet's Kham

Photo © Dani Salva-All Rights Reserved
I can only guess that Dani Salva is a Spanish (possibly Catalan) photographer from his website, but there's no biography that I could find. It's a pity because I am sure that photo editors would like his work (they probably do already) but, except through his blog, he doesn't make it easy to know a little bit of him.

He has quite a few galleries and projects on his website, and while all of them are visually interesting, I can strongly recommend the one on Tibet's Kham, and the one in Bolivia...the Potosi Mines is also another gallery you want to drop by and see how the miners work in this nightmarish environment.

As is evident from the above image from Dani's Tibet's gallery, he's enamored with shadows, and likes contrast. I also liked his Tibetan vertical portraits...simple and effective.

Dani also features a number of photo essays and projects on his website, dealing with wines, olives, pork slaughtering, rice and shepherds.

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Pablo Corral Vega: Andes

Pablo Corral Vega is a photojournalist from Ecuador whose work is published in National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, the Smithsonian Magazine, the New York Times Sunday magazine, Audubon, the French, German, Spanish, and Russian editions of Geo, and other international magazines.

His work has been exhibited in Perpignan, Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Tokyo, Seville, Washington, D.C., and Houston, and he has published six books of photography: Tierra Desnuda, Paisajes del Silencio, Ecuador: De la Magia al Espanto, Ecuador, Andes and Twenty Five. For the book Andes, published by the National Geographic Society, famed Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa wrote twenty short stories inspired by the photos.

It is Andes that I choose to feature today on the pages of TTP.

Kent Kobersteen, former Director of Photography for the National Geographic Magazine wrote the following text about Corral for his book "Twenty Five":

"Pablo Corral Vega brings to his photography great passion, an unparalleled aesthetic, and a high degree of concern for both his work and his subjects. (He) is a world-class photojournalist, and in my opinion one of the finest Latin American photographers working today." "

There's no question that Pablo Corral Vega's work is incredibly beautiful, and his imagery of the various cultures depicted in Andes is passionate, emphatic and in many cases, superb. The photograph of the man and the shadows is certainly one of those.

I also greatly enjoyed Pablo's video work showing the same places he photographed for the National Geographic. Yes, I recommend viewing Pablo's personal view of this musical genre and its associated sensuous dance form. But be careful...after viewing the video, you will want to book your flight to Buenos Aires, and spend the rest of your life in these cafes and restaurants, immersed in tango atmosphere.

My thanks to Eric Beecroft for the heads-up.

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Tom Wool: ONE

Photograph © Tom Wool-All Rights Reserved
Tom Wool is a British photographer currently living in NYC. I'd describe his work as "ethnographic photography" since the work he presents on his website ONE is of 160 portraits made during his travels to Bolivia, Irian Jaya, Kenya, Morocco, PNG, Suriname, Tanzania, Tibet and Venezuela.

His biography tells us that he worked in a number of fashion publications in the 1980s, and this background served him extremely well in photographing his subjects. Tom traveled to Tibet to work on a project, and with the sale of his photographs, he raised enough funds to build a school in Tzombuk, where some of his portraits were made.

We've been spoilt by the ever-increasing web's bandwidth, and are now used to much larger images than what Tom Wool's are. Perhaps an updated website is in the planning?

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