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Dear Spotlight Readers:

In our last issue of Spotlight, I wrote about LiveZEKE as we were preparing to present it at Photoville in Brooklyn, NY. It was a great success! If you missed our email about it, click here to see photos and videos. Not only did we present a documentary exhibit with stunning photographs from the South Caucasus, but we did something that has never been done before! We had the subjects of the documentary photos, eight time zones away, on a live video conference with the viewers of the exhibit. Not only were you able to view the photos, but you could also walk up to a computer and talk live with the subjects. We spoke with Leila, the 14-year-old girl from the Republic of Georgia, who was featured on the cover of our last issue of ZEKE magazine. We also spoke with Shota and Kandit, two refugees from the war in Abkhazia, now living in a  remote village in Georgia. And lastly, we spoke with the Aghajanyan family in Nagorno-Karabakh. We are now setting our sights to do a LiveZEKE session from Syria. Stay tuned for more information about this.
 
I am also very excited to report that we just released the Fall issue of ZEKE magazine with features on Cuba, the stateless Rohingya, and mass incarceration. There is also an article on the future of the still image with interviews with Fred Ritchin, Kristen Lubben, and Lars Boering. Click here to find out more.
 
This month's featured photographer is Andrew Mangum for his very honest and beautifully photographed story about how one teen in West Baltimore pursues a dream through the motivation of basketball, allowing him to struggle, and hustle, for his family.


Glenn Ruga
SDN Founder & Director 




ZEKE


Documentary Matters
A free and open meeting for presenting, viewing, or discussing documentary photography.  
Wednesday, October 26 
6:30 pm 
Digital Silver Imaging 
Belmont, Massachusetts  
                   More Info>>   
Andrew Mangum

Photo by Andrew Mangum from Invictus.
Andrew Mangum
October 2016 Featured Photographer of the Month
Invictus        

Invictus is a story about the inspiration of family, and the pursuit of dreams through the motivation of basketball. Nate Barnes, a Baltimore teen, sheds light on what it's like to grow up in West Baltimore. From losing his older brother to street violence, to raising his younger sister, Nate is determined to hustle for his family.
  
View exhibit and complete text >>

Andrew Mangum is a freelance photographer. He shoots environmental portraits that are gritty, honest, and tell a story about his subjects. He works with organizations and communities to tell their stories through the visual image. Working with people from the streets of West Baltimore to the CEOs of corporations and the media has taught Mangum how to approach all people with respect and empathy. Everyone has a story.  

October 2016 Spotlight

Featured projects submitted to SDN in September 2016

Abhijit Chakraborty
The Forgotten Plateau>>
by Abhijit Chakraborty/ India

The Chhota Nagpur Plateau is one of the oldest physiographic divisions of India. This region is associated with a glorious past and is enriched with mineral deposits. Inhabitants of this area are mostly Kurmis, Santhals and others who might be the oldest settlers of this area...

Joshua Brown
Search for Sanctuary>>
by Joshua Brown/ Ethiopia

This set of images is part of a wider assignment for the NGO, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on life for Eritrean refugees inside Ethiopia. I lived with this community to make an intimate photographic essay. The core of the photographic project was themed around masks in an attempt to ...

Titus Brooks Heagins
China: The New Antiquity>>
by Titus Brooks Heagins/ China

China is a country where the old world coexists alongside the new world. That statement is only partly true, and may actually be more of a romantic notion than actual fact. China is perplexing, where super highways exist in places where no one owns a car. As you ...

Kevin Ferguson
Rwanda Genocide 19 Years On>>
by Kevin Ferguson/ Rwanda

Nineteen years after the Rwandan genocide in which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were butchered by their Hutu neighbors with machetes, clubs, and gunfire, the memorials remain crime scenes in perpetuity. Bloodstained clothes and skulls bearing machete grooves and bullet holes remain literally...

Incineration>>
by Debsuddha Banerjee/ India

In a slum near Dum Dum Park, Kolkata, a massive fire has broken out on Saturday evening. More than 350 people had to spend the night homeless braving the December chill. Within half an hour, more than nine fire fighters were sent to the spot to battle ...

Democracy Spring>>
by Taylor Benner/ United States

Democracy Spring protests taking place outside of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Protesters approaching the building were met by armed police every day for over a week to protest the injustices and corruption performed by the United States government. The movement has called for the ...

Albinos, don't let them alone. Part 2.>>
by Giacomo Mignani/ Tanzania

This reportage is the second part of a project that began last year relating to the conditions of people with albinism in Tanzania. The first part, available on socialdocumentary.net, focused on the reality inside a protectorate center managed by the government...

Journey to a Masai Land>>
by Andrea Calandra/ Kenya

This work is about a Masai community, where I lived for fifteen days to realize this story. To prepare this report, I spent two years. From the beginning to find a virgin community, through the end to realize the logistics of this self-produced report. This amazing tribal culture ...

A New Life in Germany>>
by Rebecca Soliman/ Germany

The refugee crisis, Germany, 2015. A political statement by Angela Merkel that refugees are welcome here and then people started coming. More and more. From Syria. From Afghanistan. From many African countries. But what will they do? What opportunities do they have? The Federal Employment ...

The Women's Hostel in Alex>>
by Heidi L. Augestad/ South Africa

Hostels in South Africa go back to the early years of Apartheid and are connected to stories about poor living conditions, crime, violence and broken families. Despite all the challenges and conflicts they still are, for many, the only possible accommodation. I came to Alex ...


Advisory Committee
Kristen Bernard
Lori Grinker
Steve Horn
Ed Kashi
Reza
Jeffrey D. Smith
Stephen Walker
Frank Ward
Jamie Wellford

Glenn Ruga
Founder & Director

Barbara Ayotte
Communications Director

Caterina Clerici

Special Issue Editor 


 
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About Social Documentary Network
Social Documentary Network is a website for photographers, NGOs, journalists, editors, and students to create and explore documentary exhibits investigating critical issues facing the world today. Recent exhibits have explored oil workers in the Niger River Delta, male sex workers in India, Central American immigrant women during their journey north, and Iraqi and Afghan refugees in Greece. Click here to view all of the exhibits.