From Charles Darwin and John James Audubon to the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway, the most enlightened hunters have long viewed themselves as naturalists and conservationists, committed to sustainability among animal populations and the preservation of wild places where they stalk game. The linkage has become inextricable. Revenues of hundreds of millions in federal excise taxes levied on hunters go directly to wildlife management and related activities each year in the United States alone. And anyone who keeps a freezer full of venison is likely to tell you that the act of killing your own dinner in the wild is more humane than buying the plastic-wrapped meat of industrially raised livestock. Seen from the air, Africa can appear as an illusion with its rich velds and dramatic rifts, wide deserts, and thundering rivers. These seemingly vast stretches of unfettered, unpopulated wild ostensibly forgotten by time and people. At a glance, it could be a repository for all our ideas about wilderness at its wildest. And yet, today no patch here goes unclaimed, whether it’s marked, monetized, or fought over. The animals that roam the land have become commodified, part of a new consumerism, marketed and sold, their brands pitted against each other, their continued existence, now a question of human demand, whim, and calculation. As big game populations dwindle further under pressure from human encroachment such as shifting climate norms, and widespread criminal poaching, there are hunters who argue that thoughtfully regulated and expensive hunts, such as those for bull elephants in their waning days, makes a sustainable way to protect both species and habitat. Others argue that wild game is the continent’s version of crude oil, and it too will run out someday. What is clear, is that with more than half the planet’s population living in cities, our relationship with the wild has been increasingly divorced from our everyday reality. We’re now less a part of that wild world, from rainforest to veld, as we are more consumers than cohabitants. David Chancellor 2017 1. Huntress with buck, South Africa - A 13-year-old girl from the United States carries a bontebok, shot earlier in the day, back to camp in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Supporters of trophy hunting say hunt fees help conserve wildlife and benefit local communities, opponents say killing animals, such as elephants, lions, and rhinos for sport is unethical and does little to protect them. 2. Fallen giraffe, Somerset East, Eastern Cape, South Africa - A giraffe lies crumpled on a game farm in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, after falling prey to a hunter. Giraffes overall are vulnerable to extinction, but in South Africa, where their numbers are increasing, hunting them is legal. Some hunters want a giraffe-skin rug, others the animal itself, taxidermied upright for display in a room with a high ceiling. 3. Untitled leopard hunter # II with trophy leopard, Namibia - An American hunter stands with the trackers who guided him throughout the hunt, holding a leopard shot moments earlier. Leopards are elusive, and dogs helped track this one down. Namibia later banned the use of dogs because leopard numbers were falling dangerously. 4. Untitled professional hunter with trophy lion, Kalahari, Northern Cape, South Africa - There are now more captive Lions in South Africa than wild ones; approximately 8,000 compared to 2,000 living in the wild. Many of these animals are reared specifically to be shot and owned by wealthy tourists from Europe and North America. Between 2001 and 2006, 1830 Lion trophies were exported from South Africa and in the following five years, 4,062 trophies were exported from South Africa for an increase of 122%. 5. Lioness in a box, Eastern Cape, South Africa - The head and skin of a lion, prepared for display by a taxidermist in South Africa, are boxed for shipment to the American client who shot the animal. In response to dwindling numbers of lions in the wild and doubts about the conservation value of hunting them, the US has recently made it more difficult for hunters to import lion trophies. 6. Villagers prepare to skin an elephant, hunting elephant, Nyae Nyae Conservancy, Namibia - The San people, who inhabitant Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Namibia, limit the trophy hunting of elephant on their lands to 5 individuals per year. A portion of the hunter's fee is paid directly to community members and to fund conservation projects to protect the area’s wildlife and ecosystem. The hunter leaves with the elephant's tusks, skin, and feet. The San receive approximately 3 tons of meat derived from the animal. 7. Hunting Black Bear, Stockholm, Maine, USA - A pair of hunters lifts a black bear shot in Maine, USA in 2016 with a pulley. The bear had been baited, a practise that involves placing caches of food to draw the animals to a particular spot in the forest before the hunting season begins. In Maine, the number of bears, which are not endangered, has been rising. Mainers recently rejected a proposal to ban hunting with dogs and baiting. 8. Untitled hunter in his African Room, Wilmington, Delaware, USA - Surrounded by more than a hundred African game trophies in his home in Wilmington, Delaware, a hunter says that the pursuit of game has been a passion of his since he was 12 years old. "Hunting 'sort of got into my blood',” he says, adding, “I’d like to think I’m a conservationist and a collector.” 9. A hunter removes the skin from a trophy hunted mountain lion, Kanab, Utah, USA - Winter is hunting season for mountain lion because the elusive cats are easier to track on snowy ground. Each season the state sets a hunting quota, a number determined in part by how much livestock lions killed the previous year. Lions killed 416 sheep and other farm animals in 2016, and during the 2016-17 season, hunters took 399 mountain lions.
"Rubble and Delusion" A Journey Through Assad's Syria. With the fall of Aleppo, the regime of Bashar Assad once again controls the country's second-largest city. But is reconciliation possible? Follow me on a journey through the dictator's state in rubble. On an icy January evening in eastern Aleppo, a grotesque scene of destruction, five men are standing around a fire in a battered oil drum in a butcher's shop. Their trousers are dirty and their faces are covered with soot. There has been no running water for a long time. Every evening, the men come here to warm up, burning table legs and chairs from the ruins. In what is left of their apartments, there are no heating stoves. "The fear, though, is finally gone", says shop owner Ahmed Tubal. For over four years, various rebel groups have controlled the neighborhood of al-Shaar, but Syrian and Russian jets recently transformed half of the city into rubble to wipe them out. The rebels and their supporters have left the city, and following the regime's victory, only those who support Syrian President Bashar Assad have remained. "The bombing was necessary to drive out the Islamists," says Tubal, a short man with tired eyes. "Otherwise, they would never have left." The other men voice their approval. "We were so exhausted. We just wanted it to stop. And if that meant that everything had to be destroyed even further, then that was just the price we had to pay." A visit to Assad's Syria, a state in shambles, surrounding the largest cities in the West, over which the dictator has regained control thanks to Russian and Iranian support; it is like entering an apocalyptic world. Large Mercedes tractor-trailers drive water tanks through Aleppo's ruins while the streets are patrolled by armored vehicles manned by Russian soldiers. Assad can frequently be seen on television while fear can be seen in the eyes of many residents. Our journey leads us to the three largest cities in Northern and Western Syria: Aleppo; Latakia; Homs. Aleppo has become symbolic of the brutal bombing campaign. Latakia, the regime stronghold on the Mediterranean, was largely untouched by the war and is still a popular vacation spot in the summer. And Homs, once the center of the uprising, was destroyed and is now slated to become a model of reconstruction. When journalists travel through Syria, they are unable to move about freely. Officially, we are only allowed to visit places for which we have obtained written permits from Damascus. Furthermore, only people who are acceptable to the regime can be interviewed and any other meetings must take place in secret. Usually, journalists are accompanied by government minders. There is only one minder for international journalists in Aleppo, meaning that it is usually possible to speak to people without supervision. In Latakia, on the other hand, journalists have a military escort, while there are two minders in Homs. But even when minders aren't present, it isn't always easy to know if people are saying what they really think or if their words are guided by fear. It is clear what conclusion the regime would like visitors to reach: that Bashar Assad is the only one who can bring the country back together again. But what do people really think? What are the obstacles to reconciliation and reconstruction? And isn't Assad himself the greatest obstacle?" 1. Syria, January 2017 - Large parts of Homs are completely destroyed. Nevertheless, some residents come back and try to rebuild their homes. Three-quarters of Homs consists of ruins. A taxi drives through ruins. 2. Syria, January 2017 – Destroyed street alley in eastern Aleppo. Residents who have returned to the streets. A child and his mom search a beauty shop for nail polish and other unbroken things. 3. Syria, January 2017 – A chained dog and a boy in front of the coastal promenade in Latakia. 4. Syria, January 2017 – Roadblocks from broken vehicle wrecks were built in Homs and are still there. 5. Syria, January 2017 – A boy has caught a cat in East Aleppo. During the fighting, residents had hardly any food left. They paid up to 60 USD for cats to eat. 6. Syria, January 2017 – Destroyed street alley in eastern Aleppo. Sharp barrel bombs on the roadside. A cyclist appears. 7. Syria, January 2017 - East Aleppo A young man with Down syndrome poses with a Kalashnikov in front of a car with rear window stickers of Bashar al-Assad. 8. Syria, January 2017 – Destroyed street alley in eastern Aleppo. Rebels have piled up destroyed buses on a building for protection from mortar shells. 9. Syria, January 2017 – Destroyed street alley in eastern Aleppo. A Russian tank on the street.
Stateless, Stranded and Unwanted: For years Buddhist majority Myanmar has struggled to deal with a deeply rooted hatred towards the Rohingya in western Rakhine state. The Muslim ethnic minority was always considered as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denied the rights of citizenship. According to Human Rights Watch, the 1982 laws "effectively deny the Rohingya the possibility of acquiring citizenship”. Myanmar’s government also enforced severe restrictions on freedom of movement, state education, civil service jobs and healthcare. The Rohingya maintain that they are indigenous to western Myanmar with a heritage of over a millennium and influence from the Arabs, Mughals and Portuguese. The refugee emergency unfolded in late August after an attack on state security forces by Rohingya insurgents, triggering a brutal military crackdown that has forced more than half of the country’s 1.1 million population to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, creating the fastest cross-border exodus ever witnessed with over 700,000 new arrivals. Thousands of children who are traveling alone are at serious risk of trafficking and exploitation. Many traumatized refugees arrived telling stories of horror alleging rape, killings and the burning of hundreds of villages which have been well documented by the media, along with the U.N and various human rights groups. The government of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, still refuses to address any of these atrocities, while globally, human rights organizations, including a recent visit by three Nobel women laureates, state that she cannot avoid responsibility calling the violence 'genocide.' This further clarifies the discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya community as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing and are clear crimes against humanity. 1. A drone shot of the largest refugee camp housing the Rohingya, Kutupalong camp. 2. Palong Khali, Bangladesh - October 9 Thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar walk along a muddy rice field after crossing the border. 3. Palong Khali, Bangladesh - October 16 A Rohingya girl cries, traumatized after days of walking with little sleep, as refugees fleeing from Myanmar wait in the hot sun on a muddy rice field. 4. Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh - September 27 Sona Banu gets carried by Nobi Hossain through the shores of the Naf river as hundreds of Rohingya arrive by boat in the safety of darkness, on Shah Porir Dwip Island. 5. Tankhali, Bangladesh- September 15 Desperate Rohingya grab for aid handouts of clothing and food. 6. Azida Begum, age 11, was shot twice, once under her arm and once on her leg, by Burmese military, who killed her mother as she was fleeing her small village in Myanmar. Azida now lives with her grandmother as her father died several years back. 7. Shah Porir Dwip Island, Bangladesh - October 9 Madia Khatun, a relative, grieves next to the bodies of 5 children after an overcrowded boat carrying Rohingya fleeing Myanmar capsized overnight and killed around 12 people. 8. Thainkhali camp, Cox's Bazar - September 25 Sajida Begum, 18, sits in her makeshift tent washing rice for dinner as smoke catches the late afternoon light. 9. Kutupalong camp, Cox’s Bazar – October 13 Rohingya cross a bamboo bridge over a stream as the sun sets inside the sprawling Kutupalong refugee camp.
When I discovered these twins at a gymnastics school, I decided to capture their telepathic coordination, mutual assistance and dependence on each other in daily training. I also focused on capturing their individual differences performed in training, particularly in simple mandatory movements. I worked hard to find and capture their differences in the hope of unveiling the characteristics and forms of twins in competitive sports. The photos were mainly taken at a gymnastics school in Jining City, China. The two children were born in 2007. Their names are Liu Bingqing and Liu Yujie. 1ã€Before training, Liu Bingqing and Liu Yujie were running along the corridor. 2ã€The twins were training in simple movements on the horizontal bar. 3ã€Liu Yujie was training and her face was full of sweat. 4ã€The sisters were listening to the coach. 5ã€The twins were training for gymnastics. 6ã€Liu Bingqing was doing gymnastics with the help of the coach and was clearly suffering. 7ã€The sisters were watching the training of others. 8ã€After a long time training, the twins' hands were full of blisters. 9ã€Every noon, the children sleep on the gymnastics training floor.
"It’s painful walking for three consecutive days without food and water, but it's even more heart-wrenching when I think of my home and my belongings left behind."- Gulping a mug of water, an old Rohingya woman who fled from Myanmar, was talking about her agony after having reached Lomba Bill - Teknaf - Bangladesh. She is not the only one who fled as tens of thousands of Rohingya people have made and are still making their way to Bangladesh because of the brutal situation in Myanmar. “Rohingya”: the word itself is a taboo in Myanmar. Even the country leaders avoid using it and some have asked the international community not to use it. Buddhist leaders instead refer to Rohingya as “Bengali” to root them out as immigrants and foreigners from Bangladesh. They are not included among the 135 ethnic minorities officially recognized by the state. Many reports on Rohingya persecution and marginalization began with Myanmar’s 1982 citizenship law, which stripped the country’s 1 million Rohingya off citizenship, leaving them without access to healthcare or education. Waves of violence soon followed. The military calls the campaign a clearance operation against an insurgent terrorist military group. They claim the crackdown is in response to a series of armed attacks on border police by Rohingya militants which happened on August 25 that left 12 officers dead, and it is the second attack in a 12 month period. Following the incident, Myanmar authorities have reportedly cracked down on the Rohingya community, which the United Nations believes may amount to the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority group. Observers say that though armed Rohingya insurgents exist, their overall numbers are small, and they are poorly equipped. And the crackdown has affected the entire ethnic group in what has quickly disintegrated into a humanitarian disaster of historic proportions, a staggering 500,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh in just a few weeks. At least 340,000 of them are children. Really dreadful stories are told by an enormous number of very young and very traumatized Rohingya refugees who have survived somehow. Among those fleeing Myanmar, there are many pregnant women who have been walking for three, four or even five days to find safety. Many tell stories of systematic rape, murder and arson at the hands of Myanmar soldiers. Entire villages have been burnt to the ground. Rohingya refugees report that soldiers shot at them as they fled. Also along the border of Bangladesh, there are reports that the military has laid landmines to ensure those fleeing will not return. The Rohingya, a Muslim minority, do not qualify for Myanmar citizenship even though many have lived there for generations. The army insists that they are interlopers from across the border of Bangladesh. But Rohingyas say they have lived there for generation after generation and they have never been in Bangladesh. They surely are not the people from No Man's Land. Then who are they? Where can they call home?
The Swahili Coast is a unique physical, historic and cultural entity. For centuries now, dhows have sailed these shores, using the monsoon winds to help traders move goods between continents, while fishermen have plowed the seas for their bounty of fish, all contributing to the emergence of rich city-ports like Lamu and Stone Town. But all of this is changing now. Overfishing by local and foreign ships, an increase in population, changes in weather patterns, as well as the recent discovery of huge gas fields are threatening this fragile equilibrium. We might be witnessing the last fishing and sailing traditions which had remained largely unchanged for thousands of years. With this work, I have tried to testify to the unique beauty of the Swahili Coast and to record it for the generations to come.
The great migration of the wildebeests and zebras is hazardous. Apart from the toll taken by predators, exhaustion, disease and poaching, the biggest threat comes from crossing the Mara River. Here lie crocodiles. The river bed is uneven and panic crossings resulting in pile-ups on rocks can cause broken legs. Many die courtesy of crocodiles, currents, tramplings, exhaustion and separation of calves from mothers. But it's not over. Predators lie in wait for the survivors of the river crossing, yet nothing deters the migratory urge. Animals move on.
About 1,500 men, mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, were living in disused warehouses next to Belgrade’s Central Station in January 2017. Despite the low temperatures of the city, reaching as low as -16ºC, this group of migrants continued to live in these barracks for fear of being deported if they went to official camps of the Serbian Government. As a result of the closure of European borders in March 2016, thousands of migrants are blocked in countries of the Balkan Route waiting to continue their journey.
La Sape, Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Ambient Makers & Elegant People) is a fashion subculture in the cities of Kinshasa (DRC) & Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo). Someone who follows La Sape is known as a Sapeur. Most have ordinary day jobs as taxi-drivers, tailors and gardeners, but as soon as they clock out they transform themselves into debonair dandies. Sashaying through the streets, they are treated like rock stars-turning heads, bringing ‘joie de vivre’ to their communities and defying their circumstances.
The entire country of DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) is shrouded in myth and secrecy making it one of the most mysterious places in the world. Not many outsiders get a chance to visit North Korea. For those who make it inside North Korea's borders, photography is highly restricted and controlled. I traveled across the country hoping to pierce this secretive country’s mysterious shroud searching for what lies behind the rhetoric and what life is really like.
The number of dirt roads is amazingly high in Hungary. Many people live habitually and inevitably along dirt roads in the rural areas of many counties. While in Western Europe 96% of public roads are paved, this ratio in Hungary is only 38%. The difference is even greater in rural areas. The village of Csanytelek in Csongrád county is situated by the river Tisza. More than one-third of the population lives along dirt roads. In rainy weather, the ground alongside the river becomes completely impassable. Like many other settlements similar to Csanytelek, not only is it impossible for an ambulance to reach a patient in the event of an emergency, but it is even more impossible to find a wrecker that could tow the ambulance. Depopulated farmlands, emigration and the spreading of poverty also characterize the “Mud Country”. Millions living in the deepest poverty, an extremely small middle class and more and more people who cannot provide for their family, despite having a job – these are the features of Hungary. One in every three Hungarians, that is 3.3 million people live in poverty and 1.2 million of them must endure extreme poverty, which is an extraordinarily high number for a country with a population of 9.9 million. Almost every second Hungarian is living in cramped conditions, every fourth flat is not properly protected against rain and almost one million households do not have electricity, heating or gas. A significant proportion of youth and middle-aged Hungarians desire to leave the country and have already started planning their emigration. Currently, more than 600,000 Hungarians live abroad in the European Union.
The European astronaut Paolo Nespoli went to space on the 28th of July, 2017 for the third time. He came back 4 and a half months later becoming the first 60-year-old man in history who took part in a long-term mission. In the 60s, astronauts could train in centres of their own nationality, while nowadays, they have to travel from one to the other, having experiences in all of them to be admitted to the ISS. That is why I traveled to the European Space Agency in Germany, Roscosmos in Star City, Russia and to the NASA in Houston, USA in order to make a reportage of Nespoli’s experience during his last year on Earth... how a man becomes an astronaut.
The violence of Kashmir’s armed conflict has given rise to a category of women known as “half-widows.” These are women whose husbands have ‘disappeared’ during the decade-long conflict and who are often presumed dead. Half-widows live their lives in limbo, oscillating between grief and hope. Socially ostracized, they live with economic insecurity because the loss of their husband often coincides with the loss of their only source of family income. Since there is no proof of their husband's death, 'half-widows' are often deprived of any monetary compensation or benefit; they are not helped by in-laws and relatives and generally do not remarry because a new marriage is seen as socially and religiously taboo. (The violence of Kashmir’s armed conflict has given rise to a category of women known as “half-widows.” These are women whose husbands have ‘disappeared’ during the decades-long conflict or who have gone missing and are often presumed dead. Half-widows live their lives in limbo, oscillating between grief and hope. Even though there are no official records, it is estimated by the Association of Disappeared Persons (APDP) there are nearly 2500 half-widows in the Kashmir region. Half-widows live economically insecure and socially ostracized lives. The loss of their husband often times means losing the main breadwinner of the household, which leads to a life with an uncertain future. In-laws and relatives often refuse to support them, and they bear the responsibility of raising children alone. They are often illiterate, living in remote villages, and have little knowledge of their rights and entitlements. Remarriage is extremely rare as it is seen as socially and religiously taboo. Since there is no proof of the husband’s death, half-widows are often deprived of any monetary compensation or benefits. Many times the share in the husband’s property is denied to the half-widow and her children. Government compensation for her family are also obscure and complex. Most cases that are brought to the authorities are dismissed on the grounds that the missing husband became a militant and/or crossed the border into Pakistan. The half-widows cannot claim pensions and widow relief until after a period of seven years. All of this combined makes the struggle for justice painful, endless and hopeless.)
