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2018
October
30

Day: October 30, 2018

A CONVERSATION WITH STEVE MCCURRY IN INDIA

October 30, 2018September 25, 2019

A Liberatum conversation with Steve McCurry on his travels and love story with India

liberatum

Global Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Cultural Organization Empowering and Inspiring Minds to Promote Social Change and Raise Consciousness 🤍✨🐞

𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒

I believe that we are in an imagination battle, and almost everything about how we orient toward our bodies is shaped by fearful imaginations. Imaginations that fear Blackness, brownness, fatness, queerness, disability, difference. Our radical imagination is a tool for decolonization, for reclaiming our right to shape our lived reality.

People try to shame me for being fat. When I am walking down the street, men lean out of their car windows and shout vulgar things at me about my body, how they see it and how it upsets them that I am not catering to their gaze and their preferences and desires.

I try not to take these men seriously because what they are really saying is, ‘I am not attracted to you. I do not want to fuck you and this confuses my understanding of masculinity, entitlement, and place in this world.’ It is not my job to please them with my body. - Adrienne Maree Brown

Photographs 📸 @shooglet

𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Florence Rice, 86 (at the time the first photo was taken), was raised in the foster care system in NYC. She saw her mother only a handful of times throughout her childhood. When she got pregnant as a young single woman in the 1930’s she decided to have the baby.

A few years later as a working single mother, she found herself pregnant again and knew that she didn’t want to be like her mother, unable to take care of the child, so she had an abortion. She got a serious infection afterwards from her illegal, unclean abortion. In 1969 when feminists began speaking out about their abortions, Florence was one of the first to do so.

Her story underscored a class divide: richer women got safer abortions, poorer women were more likely to end up at a butcher. - Tara Todras-Whitehill @taratwphoto

Photographer 📸 @taratwphoto From her series I HAD AN ABORTION

𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐔𝐍𝐀

𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐘

When the Blackbird Sings (2016-2017) focuses on the female body and its links with nature.

The compelling works depict naked women of all ages as well as poetic shots of flowers in water. The subjects are family, friends and acquaintances of the artist, always posing outdoors and at twilight. Honey shot the fascinating images over the course of a whole year, exclusively on every full and new moon, starting at the October 2016 Supermoon. When the Blackbird Sings is named after the bird which signals twilight with a song; while shooting the series Honey was stricken by the song’s memento mori-undertones.

The resulting photographs unveil lyrical still lifes alongside delicate moments of tenderness and unashamed femininity, and celebrate the beauty of the female form at any age. While some of the sitters are smiling directly at the camera, others are looking away from it, almost blending into the surrounding setting of moss and trees. The colourful flowers, including daisies and passion flowers, are captured resting on the surface of Edinburgh’s Water of Leith. Honey shot across Scotland and Sweden to illustrate her attachment to both her adoptive and home countries. - @jannicahoney

Photographer 📸 @jannicahoney @whentheblackbirdsings_

𝐎 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐎 𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐀 / 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐒

Since colonization began in Brazil, Indigenous peoples have been silenced. Therefore, we have had to constantly speak up and make our voice heard—to share our stories, to highlight our lives and our struggles. Photography and film have both been fantastic tools to raise awareness amongst non-Indigenous peoples, and educate white people about our culture so we can work together to preserve our territories and sacred biomes.

This is why we get together every year during the first two weeks of April for the Acampamento Terra Livre (ATL) in Brasilia. Deemed the biggest Indigenous mobilization in the world, this year’s event saw more than 6,000 people from 160 Indigenous nations come together to discuss politics and strategize together, because our futures are connected by joint struggle.

All across the country, many Indigenous territories are locked in longstanding struggles to demarcate our lands and register titles; protect ourselves against illegal loggers, land-grabbers and wildcat miners; preserve the integrity of our territories; and reclaim stolen land for Indigenous peoples that have been displaced. Everything comes down to land rights—vast Indigenous territories across the country remain under litigation, and the processes for demarcation and registration of the land titles have been completely halted by the Brazilian justice system. We have to fight constantly against systemic racism and demeaning notions that infantilize us, framing us as incapable of sensible decision-making and self-determination.

Indigenous peoples are the stewards of the Earth’s most critical biodiversity. The world’s largest interconnected communities of species live in our ancestral territories, and it’s our job to protect them.

When our bodies are under threat, so too is the collective body of the Earth and, consequently, the future of both humanity and the rest of the Earth’s community. -
Eric Terena @ericterena

Photographers 📸 @ericterena @aliceaedy From their series ‘The Future is Indigenous’ presented by @wetransfer @wepresent To support please visit donate.chooseearth.co

𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐎

𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐔𝐒 𝐀𝐋𝐋

It all happened so fast........one minute I have liver cancer....the next, we have cleared the cancer...and now.....a transplant is possible. Zap....my organs start to fail, my lungs....my kidneys......chest tube, vent....delirium from pain medication.......all within a year..the doors opened , the path was clear.......I had to stay in the light, my body was dying.......I felt this. Never once did I feel my spirit dying, only strength, and light. My family needed me.......wanted me alive........did I ? Ultimately it was my path......they needed to be on it with me......death comes to us all, I was not afraid....I felt it near at times, waiting for a liver to come......some one dies, is not a easy wait. The warmth I laid in was a godly warmth, hard to explain, facing mortality sums up life quite quickly. Close to 3 months in UCSF ICU........air lifted once ...vented 3 times. Delirious 3 times...dialysis...... heart failure .....oh my ......emotional, yet feeling light and love constantly..........

We are firecrackers.......We are! We light each other up. We come into each others life and ignite one another. We are powerful ...I insisted we stayed on the path.......in the light.......At time things and everyone glowed......it's hard but it's real, face our destiny, listen to your heart, let the messages come.....

"Nothing but light", actually gave me light strength last year when I sat for Anastasia for the project. It made me light strong. I opened a door with Anastasia which helped me heal and love the planet more...

July 9th will be 3 months since my transplant.....I am thankful and bathing in the compassionate gift I received.....I am healthy at 65 with energy I haven't felt in many years. I feel new to life and in awe of the power we have stored in the human body, and the life of the soul....I was immersed in prayer and love from many......my family was with me at all times .....I felt God everywhere and in everyone that touched me. - Wendy

Photographer 📸 Anastasia Kuba @anastasiakuba ‘NOTHING BUT LIGHT’ series

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐈𝐍

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄

Can you accept the notion that once you change your internal state, you don’t need the external world to provide you with a reason to feel joy, gratitude, appreciation, or any other elevated emotion?
- Joe Dispenza

Photographer 📸 @saneseven

👩🏾 @kyrajaye Kyra is a singer, a dancer, a performer, a model and my friend. When I first met her she seemed shy, but when she stood in front of the camera, I could tell she was a true performer. Her beautiful skin patches are created by vitiligo. They remind me of a starry sky, predicting that she was born to be a star herself. - @saneseven

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐌

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐌 𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐁𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐘

“Liberatum stands apart for its hip quotient and boundary-crossing ambition. Liberatum seeks not only to bring together the local creative community, but also to connect them with other international artists. All events are free; dialogue is encouraged. ” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Culture King” – GQ

“The G-20 of culture” – VOGUE

“Legendary” – THE GUARDIAN

“Manages to persuade the great and the good of the arts to turn up and perform.” – WALLPAPER

“Some of the world’s biggest names in culture will be landing in Hong Kong next month.” – THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“It’s fascinating to hear such a broad range of creative luminaries break down the nature of creativity and inspiration and hear common themes emerge from the divergent perspectives.” – FAST COMPANY

“In a world of conferences, festivals, summits and symposiums, it can be difficult—and time-consuming—to sort through the masses. Liberatum has worked to change that, by creating multidisciplinary cultural moments that wrap diverse artistic endeavors into one.” – ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST

📸 Photos from Liberatum festivals, collaborations, documentaries and summits from all over the world. Carmen Dell’Orefice with Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. Pelé with Will Smith. Michael Nyman. Adwoa Aboah with Ali Monterrosas and Julia Hecht. Naomi Campbell and Rose McGowan with Barack Obama. Zaha Hadid. Gore Vidal with the Bartholomew I of Constantinople. Cher. Alice Walker. Hilary Swank.

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐎

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒

Love enjoys knowing everything about you; desire needs mystery. Love likes to shrink the distance that exists between me and you, while desire is energized by it. If intimacy grows through repetition and familiarity, eroticism is numbed by repetition.

It thrives on the mysterious, the novel, and the unexpected. Love is about having; desire is about wanting. An expression of longing, desire requires ongoing elusiveness. It is less concerned with where it has already been than passionate about where it can still go.

But too often, as couples settle into the comforts of love, they cease to fan the flame of desire. They forget that fire needs air. - Esther Perel

Photographer 📸 @edfreemanphoto Underwater is one of the most demanding, yet rewarding environments for fine art figure photography. Bodies, attitudes and relationships transform in a gravity-free environment, creating new options for images that would be difficult or impossible to achieve on dry land.

These images are photographed in swimming pools in and around Los Angeles, using only natural light. Each one requires many hours of computer retouching and enhancement to bring out the color and detail that underwater photography often lacks. Limited edition prints are made on heavy fine art paper and have a greater life expectancy than archival wet process prints. - @edfreemanphoto

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐒 𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

The father and daughter lie face down in the muddy water along the banks of the Rio Grande, her tiny head tucked inside his T-shirt, an arm draped over his neck.

The portrait of desperation was captured on Monday by the journalist Julia Le Duc, in the hours after Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez died with his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, as they tried to cross from Mexico to the United States.

The image represents a poignant distillation of the perilous journey migrants face on their passage north to the United States, and the tragic consequences that often go unseen in the loud and caustic debate over border policy. - The New York Times, June 2019

Photographer 📸 Julia Le Duc

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐄

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘

Photograph One: Hiding the Unwanted. My body does not match the gender that I feel I am. The shape of my face is already changing, and so is my body, but I am still stuck carrying these breasts on my chest. Breasts are a natural part of the female body, but they should not be a part of the body of a male. Not like this. I am deeply longing for the moment I can finally see the true reflection of myself in the mirror, to really recognize myself and be able to see the person I feel I am meant to be.

Second and Third Photographs: Connecting. A year ago, I started to recognize the person I have always been. Right now, I am finally able to see him in the mirror. - @marvelharris

These excerpts are diary entries from their book ‘MARVEL’ published by MACK @mack_books

Photographer 📸 @marvelharris

𝐁𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆

𝐁𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒

Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.

Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.

Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.
- Roy T. Bennett

Photography 📸 @rankinarchive

𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐁𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒

I think that all women are witches, in the sense that a witch is a magical being. And a wizard, which is a male version of a witch, is kind of revered, and people respect wizards.

But a witch, my god, we have to burn them. It’s the male chauvinistic society that we’re living in for the longest time, 3,000 years or whatever. And so I just wanted to point out the fact that men and women are magical beings. We are very blessed that way, so I’m just bringing that out.

Don’t be scared of witches, because we are good witches, and you should appreciate our magical power. - Yoko Ono @yokoono

Photographer 📸 @annieleibovitz Yoko Ono with John Lennon @johnlennon

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄

The tragedy of life is linked inescapably with its splendor; you could tear civilization down and rebuild it from scratch, and the same dualities would rise again.

Yet to fully inhabit these dualities—the dark as well as the light—is, paradoxically, the only way to transcend them. And transcending them is the ultimate point. The bittersweet is about the desire for communion, the wish to go home.

We think we long for eternal life, but maybe what we’re really longing for is perfect and unconditional love; a world in which lions actually do lay down with lambs; a world free of famines and floods, concentration camps and Gulag archipelagos; a world in which we grow up to love others in the same helplessly exuberant way we once loved our parents; a world in which we’re forever adored like a precious baby; a world built on an entirely different logic from our own, one in which life needn’t eat life in order to survive.
- Susan Cain

Photographer 📸 @blakelittlephoto

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐃𝐎

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊 𝐎𝐔𝐓

Try to go a whole seven days without having to control everything, without stressing when things don't work out as you thought they would or should. As you do this, any time you feel the need to take charge, try to relax out of it, just to see what happens.

Look for the good that happened precisely because things didn't work out the way you thought they would or should.

And take your time. There really is no desperate hurry. When we constantly pursue perfection, our life speeds up. We make hasty decisions and snap judgments. Wabi sabi offers an opportunity to pause, reflect, check in with yourself and move from there. You'll likely feel relived, and make better choices. - Beth Kempton

Photographer 📸 @estalocavida 👦🏾 @lorenzoedwards__

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐎

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒

A child laborer's typical question to me is: “Could you exchange a day with me in my place with your own child? Could you deposit your child to labor in such a place for a day to get $1? If you can't, can you please do something else for us?”

Frequently faced with these questions from young children who are forced into unimaginable working conditions in Bangladesh from very early ages, I was compelled to document this child labor situation in a photographic series called Born to Work. I started documenting these working children's lives 15 years ago as a photojournalist.

Down in these deadly factories, the word “childhood” disappears as early as the age of five. Rapid maturity is all that will keep them alive. Their silent cries echo from wall to wall in this hell, which is considered a blessed place for them in order to earn bread. Their compact workstations in these factories or even on the dusty brick-making lands are the places where they are growing up independently.

The danger and hardships are the same in textile factories, brick factories, tanneries, balloon factories, rickshaw factories, motor parts factories, mirror making factories, coal factories, cigarette factories, and dump yards. There is no single risky job where a child laborer cannot be found. For many of them, jeans with a torn shirt is their everyday wear and a banana with bread is a delicious meal.

Escape from an unfathomable situation where 7.8 million children are working in hell, [these children] are looking to you for a solution, which is a terrifying impossibility. I attached my life to them and thus the story began. - @gmbakash

Photographer 📸 @gmbakash

𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀

𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄

Every human being needs a bond of love and support to develop healthily. However, society has often shown that stigma, prejudice and forgetting are often the most common forms for a person with a disability. Jorge is 37 years old and since birth he has been looked down on and opinions towards his body that stigmatize, reject and even condemn to death.

With only a few weeks of life both the doctor who brought him to the world and his own family, they told his mother that it was better if he let the child die because he would still be unable to survive in this world by himself given his condition. Jorge was born with congenital malformation affecting both his upper and lower limbs. One year before his birth, her mother had whooping cough and was treated with a thalidomide-based drug. In the mid-1950s, the same drug caused thousands of babies being born with congenital malformations around the world. It was prescribed by medical specialists as anti-nausea and over-the-counter sedative for pregnant women. It was mistakenly considered harmless.

These regrettable events highlighted the teratogenic effect of the drug and, despite thousands of complaints, thalidomide continued to circulate for several decades and was applied for different diseases and treatments without any type of pharmacovigilance sanitary control of the patient. My project seeks to highlight the reparative force of desire and the bonds of love between a disabled father and his little daughter, beyond the social and aberrant injustices that threaten life itself. - @constanzaportnoy

Photographer 📸 @constanzaportnoy

𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓

Perhaps the most "spiritual" thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and kindness.

Life on earth is a whole, yet it expresses itself in unique time-bound bodies, microscopic or visible, plant or animal, extinct or living. So there can be no one place to be. There can be no one way to be, no one way to practice, no one way to learn, no one way to love, no one way to grow or to heal, no one way to live, no one way to feel, no one thing to know or be known. The particulars count.

Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Photographer 📸 @ron_amato

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

I’ve been portraying pregnancies for over a decade and sadly it’s been more frequent the stories I’ve heard of frustrated women because they are super sexual but their partners don’t want to. I’ve been wanting to grab the phone and call the guy and say: hey! Don’t you see the goddess in front of you! Carrying a part of you! Juicy, whole, taking all the space, re-creating herself! Hot and wow! Please make love to her!!

I know this can be an issue on both sides, as one might not feel super confident and the body becomes more and more awkward to handle. But if we leave all that Madonna/Whore complex behind… oh! Pregnancy is a full bloom of our sexuality! The hormones, the sensations, the need of get in contact with all the oxytocin possible to prepare for the birth, the openness of the heart, and how much baby needs to feel that energy, the same that created baby!

On the other hand, there’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing pregnant couples connecting LIKE THIS! Aaaaa what an honor to be shoot @vulverine_lovemark They can’t leave their hands off each other, they are pure dynamite, passion blended in softness, deep and playful, ageless, oneness! - @marianrrea

Photographer 📸 @marianrrea

𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆

𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐀

India is the nation where the highest number of burns victims are found. People live in close proximity to each other and the primary source of light in many villages is paraffin lamps. These are easily knocked over, especially by children, and the building materials are easily set alight.

Despite over six million people being burnt every year, India has very few burns facilities at clinics and hospitals and the best of those are very expensive, especially for the complex and multi-layered surgeries that burn victims require as well as the plastic surgery afterwards. This is particularly tragic for impoverished women and girls. The ability to marry is very important in India, in large part because of the dowry price that is attached to the marriage and how that can uplift the bride’s family.

Dr Subodh Singh is a very talented plastic surgeon who made a deliberate decision to build a clinic for the most impoverished burns victims. He offers free surgery to them and runs camps where he can locate those most in need and provide transport so they may come for surgery. In many cases, the amount of money required to travel to a hospital is beyond the means of many rural families, let alone the cost of surgery. - @brentstirton

Photographer 📸 @brentstirton

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