On January 27th 2021, FOTODOK presented the second edition of Take Off — a digital gathering between recent BA & M(F)A graduates of photography and experts of the field. The first edition took place in June 2020, and offered a platform for more than 60 graduates of Dutch art academies to present their works. This time, FOTODOK spotlights upcoming international talents — the participants, finalists, and winners of Blurring the Lines.
Blurring the Lines is an international exchange programme for recent photography graduates. The project was founded in 2016 by Klaus Fruchtnis and Steve Bisson, and led by Paris College of Art, and partners Urbanautica, FOTODOK and the European Cultural Center. It selects more than 60 artists yearly to take part in this FOTODOK Take Off. Out of those 60 we select 30 finalists who will be featured in a catalogue and the tree winners will be exhibited in a group show at Paris College of Art during Paris Photo. Blurring the Lines also fosters the development of an international photographic network, and is a strong starting point for inter-academic dialogue to emerge.
151 photography graduates from 38 different academies worldwide submitted their projects for the Blurring the Lines 2020 Open Call. The Open Call asked for photography projects that addressed contemporary social issues under the theme of “Commitment.” 62 projects where selected in total including 33 finalists and 3 winners. They were chosen by the selection committee comprising of Lisanne van Happen (FOTODOK), Steve Bisson (Urbanautica), and John Fleetwood (Photo:).
During Take Off #2, 42 photographers have presented their graduation projects online to a vast array of experts from the field of photography. Every artist has given a short presentation of approximately three minutes.
Everyone is cordially invited to register for the future editions and be at the forefront of learning about the latest projects from the artists to watch! Send an email to takeoff@fotodok.org with your name and professional occupation. We would like to know our guests!
Image © Ragna Arndt-Maric
Schedule
| Time | Name | Title & Story | Academy | Country | Website |
| 13.10 | Marina Istomina | Suffocation. Istomina reframes the narrative around the 2019 wildfires that spread through Russia. The project brings together three women – a scientist, shama and wildfire witness – who take the attention back to the consequences of, and hidden reasons behind the wildfires. | DOCDOCDOC School of Modern Photography, Saint-Petersburg, Russia | Russia | www.istominamarina.com |
| 13.14 | Vamika Jain | I Travel Therefore I am. The project is a visual study into tourist photography. With constructed images, Jain questions the ways tourists continuously reproduce the same images in a search for validation of their vacation experience at various sites in India. | National Institute of Design, Ghandinagar, India | India | https://vamikajain.com |
| 13.18 | Siva Sai Jeevanantham | Om Sai! The new godman (working title). ‘To remember, is their resistance.’ Through archival research, and conversation, Jeevanantham documents the azadi (freedom) movement in Kashmir India, specifically focusing on keeping the memories alive of the many disappeared persons in the Valley of Kashmir. | National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar, India | India | – |
| 13.22 | Silvy Crespo | The Land of Elephants. Crespo tells a story of resistance and exploitation set in the mining area of the Barosso mountains in Portugal. In her black and white images she shows the empty promises of economic growth and the destructive remnants of the mining past. | Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, The Netherlands | France | www.silvycrespo.com |
| 13.26 | Lisbeth Luft | My Invisible Truth. Luft explores human identity through faith and trust in the supernatural. She researches the impact of faith on an individual and community level across the globe. | Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands | The Netherlands | www.lisbethluft.com |
| 13.30 | Leif Houllevique | Capharnaüm. Houllevigue explores the ways in which his fragmentary images evoke emotions in the viewer, forcing us to think about the ways in which we layer images with our own interpretations and feelings. | Luca School of Arts, Campus Sint Lukas, Brussels, Belgium | Belgium | – |
| 13.34 | Thero Makepe | Music from My Good Eye. Makepe takes inspiration from his maternal grandfather – a jazz musician who performed in the 60s and 70s in Botswana – to narrate his family’s history of musicality and activism and engage in a spiritual and visual conversation with his ancestors. | University of Cape Town, South Africa | South-Africa | https://theromakepe.com/ |
| 13.38 | Marthe Buer | Venus. The project opens up a conversation about sexuality and pleasure in a playful and confident way. Inspired by her own journey into her sexuality, Buer makes a statement on the necessity of a liberated expression of female sexuality. | Bilder Nordic School of Photography, Oslo, Norway | Norway | www.marthebuer.no |
| 13.42 | Anna Betts | Love and Rage: The New Faces of Climate Activism. The project examines the relationship between social media and political activism. Betts portrayed young activists alongside their stories on how they became empowered to engage in the battle against the current climate crisis. | NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New York City, USA | United States of America |
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| 13.46 | Chris Lee | Faux Paris.Lee takes us through Paris. Documenting the city’s natural inhabitants he shows how they rebel against the constraints of human-imposed urban planning. Lee’s images allow us to reimagine our relationship to the city as we enter it through its natural world. | Paris College of Art, Paris, France | Frans | thisischrislee.co.uk |
| 13.50 | Daniel Szalai | Stadtluft. Szalai takes the changing perception of pigeons in urban space in the city of Vienna as a starting point to investigate the similarities between their political, scientific and technical treatment to the oppression of social groups. | Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, Hungary | Budapest | https://danielszalai.com/ |
| 13.54 | Kate Ngan Wa Ao | 半*(bàn), *meaning: semi-, incomplete, (after a number) and a half. The project brings together healing and destruction in a very personal project. Working with torn up family photographs, Ngan Wa restores the relationship with her mother and her missing father as well as photography as a medium. | University of Arts, Poznan, Poland | Poland | https://aonganwa8.wixsite.com/kateao |
| 13.58 | Michael Tzur | Looking for a Place. Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, the project searches for ways in which photographs can capture his desire for exploration whilst allowing the viewer to recreate the narrative. | Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jeruzalem, Israel | Israel | www.michaeltzur.com |
| 14.02 | Mieke Hessels | Song for ourselves and for everybody else. In this exploration of personal trauma, Hessels reconstructs her upbringing in a violent family setting where sexual, physical and emotional abuse were part of everyday life. Through drawings, old photographs and objects she reconstructs her experience. | Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, The Netherlands | The Netherlands | – |
| 14.06 | Natalia Davtyan | I dreamed about Walking in the Streets in Slippers. In a detailed study of every inch of a small terrace and its limited surroundings, Davtyan discovers the ways in which repetitive and close up photography can open up a new understanding of the inner self. | Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona, Spain | Spain | https://nataliadi.com/ |
| 14.10 | Michal Jaszkowski | Download the template, fold the carton and look inside. The project departs from a fascination with the Google Cardboard website – a budget version of VR glasses Through a close inspection of his own image and his surroundings, Jaszkowski blurs the lines between physical and virtual spheres. | University of Arts, Poznan, Poland | Poland | michaljaszkowski.com |
| 14.14 | Nadia Adler | Distant Voice of the Cuckoo. Born in Orenburg Russia in 1998, Adler migrated to Israel in 2008. The project explores what it means to carry the weight of another homeland with you, how time impacts memories and longing, and what it means to find home in absence. | Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Israel | Israel | adlernadia.com |
| 14.18 | Terna Jogo | B.A.D. Jogo created a brand to explore concepts related to black identity through the lens of the current Black British renaissance, whilst simultaneously questioning and critiquing its sustainability, and searching for her own role within it. | London College of Fashion, London, United-Kingdom | United Kingdom | https://ternajogo.myportfolio.com/ |
| 14.22 | Hrafn Jónsson | Skrölt III. Jónsson documents the extraordinary normality of the everyday as a way to anchor himself. This project – part of an ongoing series of photographs spanning three years – took a new turn as part of the pandemic, when Jónsson noticed how his surroundings turned foreign and days lost its colour. | Ljósmyndaskólinn – The School of Photography, Reykjavík, Iceland | Iceland | krummijons.com |
| 14.26 | Lucas Pandolfo | Waiting to Wait Some More. If no one can draw the act of waiting, why do so many places in the world have rooms dedicated to it? In the installation Waiting To Wait Some More, Pandolfo articulates a visual language and embodied experience of the act of waiting. | Paris College of Art, Paris, France | France | https://lucaspandolfo.persona.co |
| 14.30 | Nastya Vinogradova | Look, I am here. Vinogradova explores her experience of claiming a space in a city that is not your own. After relocating from Moscow to The Hague, she started using photography to document the flaws in the cityscape and create a new order in a place that is not her own. | DOCDOCDOC School of Modern Photography, Saint-Petersburg, Russia | The Netherlands and Russia | cargocollective.com/vinogradovanastya |
| 14.45 | Svanhildur Gréta Kristjánsdóttir | Thread. Using the pantsuit as a symbol for the marginalization of women struggling to obtain ‘masculine power, the project explores contentious feelings towards the relation between clothing and equality, stripped down minority identities, and social issues. | The School of Photography, Reykjavìk, Iceland | Iceland | – |
| 14.49 | Daan Russcher | A Threefold Experience of Spaces. The project is an exploration of the material conditions of the industrial area on the periphery of Utrecht. By combining found material – such a concrete – and creating his own material, Russcher searches for the tension between reality and non-reality. | HKU University of the Arts, Utrecht, The Netherlands | The Netherlands | www.daanrusscher.com |
| 14.53 | Lars Martin Hunstad | Bondetamp. Hunstad explores the position of the farmer in society. Considering population growth, climate change, the depletion of natural resources, the ongoing pandemic and the persistent demand for ‘more,’ he asks; ‘is it the farmer or the society that should feel guilty?’ | Bilder Nordic School of Photography, Oslo, Norway | Norway | http://lmh.photos |
| 14.57 | Ragna Arndt-Marić | Fall, rising. Taking a personal fear of failure as a vantage point, Arndt-Marić’s ‘fall, rising’ explores what it means to understand failing as a human condition, a part of the circle of life and a place of vulnerability and courage to be recognized rather than feared. | University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany | Germany | www.ragnaarndtmaric.com |
| 15.01 | Marco Loi | The noise of an invisible land. Loi investigates the space occupied by the military bases of Sardinia. Breaking the silence around these invisible areas, Loi works against censorship to expose the irreversible damage their presence has on local ecosystems. | Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche di Urbino, Italy | Italy | www.marcoloi.it |
| 15.05 | Zoë Sluijs | (What happened when) I stopped pretending to know. In a three-part series Sluijs searches for ways in which we relate to uncertainty and a universal lack of understanding. The project stems from her own relationship to knowledge, and presents an open research into the experience of not knowing. | AKV|St. Joost, Breda, The Netherlands | The Netherlands | www.zoesluijs.nl |
| 15.09 | Juliette Alhmah | Modern Ghosts. Alhmah dives into the technical process of making salt paper. Taking this research to the here and now, she connects the ephemeral nature of the image to the phenomenon of ‘ghosting’ and uses it to recreate the sensation of the post-breakup void. | National School Supérieure Louis-Lumière, Saint-Denis, France | France | – |
| 15.13 | Volkan Kiziltunc | Pellicle. Through a series of digitally manipulated photographs of volcanic landscapes, mining areas and marble quarries, Kızıltunç asks us to consider how ‘objective’ landscape photography relates to reality, whilst also allowing us to imagine what these non-existent landscapes could be as they enter into the universe of the physical gallery space. | Mimar Sinan Fine Art University, Istanbul, Turkey | Turkey | www.volkankiziltunc.com |
| 15.17 | Kincső Bede | Three Colours I Know in This World. The project is the start of the Romanian communist anthem. Here, it signifies the chasm between generations who grew up under communism, and those who followed. Working through inherited trauma, Bede comes closer to understanding her parents and their generation. | Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, Hungary | Romania | www.instagram.com/bedekincsohilda/ |
| 15.21 | Weronika Perłowska | Anger Detracts from Her Beauty.‘Anger detracts from her beauty’ is a well-known polish saying, heard over and over by Perłowska throughout her childhood. In this project, she analyses the symbolism and stereotypes associated with female anger through the lens of her own suppressed rage. | University of Arts, Poznan, Poland | Poland | www.weronikaperlowska.com |
| 15.25 | Ekaterina Balaban | Fairy tale about the Perm Sea. Through her personal experience of living next to a landfill – seeing it grow, mined, and eventually shut down. Balaban explores the ongoing conflict between nature and humans, with overconsumption on one side and an urge for human survival on the other. | Rodchenko Art School, Moscow, Russia | Russia | www.katyabalaban.com |
| 15.29 | Nina Dietz | New York Climate: 2020. Dietz documents the current impact of climate change on the coastline of New York. With this body of work, Dietz wants us to recognize the full scope of the climate crisis through rising sea levels, king tide events and storm surges. | NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New York City, USA | United States of America | https://ninadietz.com/about |
| 15.33 | Laura Nathalia Vega | Panoptic Collection of Education for Peace. The photographer’s gaze holds educational power and shapes our understanding of public debate. In this video installation, Vega selects uncirculated images from the Colombian peace process to demonstrate the manipulative use of images in political processes. | Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá, Colombia | Colombia | lauravegal.wixsite.com/vegaphotovideoart/proyecto |
| 15.37 | Bianca Salvo | The Contact Zone. The project investigates the ways in which technologies of power – including photography – have been used to mediate the experience of ‘the Other,’ reinforcing colonial violence, asymmetrical power relations and the western gaze. | Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia | Colombia | – |
| 15.41 | Michelle Piergoelam | The untangled tales. Piergoelam weaves together the secret languages that existed amongst those who were forced into slavery. Through objects, myths and stories she shows the importance of these languages for strength, communication and subversion. | Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, The Netherlands | The Netherlands | |
| 15.45 | Alexandra Maldonado | Inhabit – Migrate. The project is a conversation between Erika Garcia, a migrant woman in Ecuador, and Alexandra Maldonado. In images and text, they construct “The Theory of Grey Spaces,” places left out of urban planning, where migration is criminalized, communication does not reach, and dignity is not an option. | SHIFTA, Barcelona, Spain | Ecuador | www.alexandramaldonado.work |
| 15.49 | Gabriela Elena Suárez | Velo. Suárez exposes the overwhelming amount of – often unreported – gender violence in Mexico. By marking buildings, objects and spaces hiding in plain sight with the color red she shows the omnipresence of such violence. | Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, México | Mexico | https://www.gabielephoto.com/ |
| 15.53 | Katerina Vo | Fatherland. In her ongoing series, Vo explores her own military family through the interrelated notions of father and nation. Her work unveils the myth of the American Dream and its roots in U.S. nationalism and militarism. | New York University, New York, United States | Spain | https://www.katerinavo.com/ |
| 15.57 | Max Arens | Independencia. The German settlement Independencia in Paraguay stands at the heart of the eponymous series by Arens, in which he explores the persistence of German culture and the wish to be free in a globalized world. | University of Applied Sciences Europe, Berlin/Hamburg, Germany | Germany | www.maxarens.com |
| 16.01 | Lee Anne Braka | My one eye is eaten by the other. Braka shows us an image of the world in the process of ageing. The photographic narrative is filled with tiny cracks, endless cycles, and temporality, as the material around us moves from living to dead – crumbling, eroding and dissolving. | Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Israel | Isreal | www.leeanneb.com |
