outoffocusmag.com

The Long Neck people are an ethnic group famed for their tradition of women wearing brass rings around their necks. The people have become refugees from Myanmar (Burma), and the vast majority of the Long Necks live among 110,000 other refugees in camps on the Thai side of the border. The United Nations claim that the Long Necks are refugees for political reasons, while Thailand withholds that the reasons are economical. Regardless of cause, the Long Necks are bereft of their personal identification documents and in practice, they are prisoners without chains…

Acting as a “human zoo” for tourists, the Long Necks contribute considerably to the economy of Thailand. In return for being on display, they receive a monthly ration of rice and, given that the traditional rings are worn, also minor financial compensation.

It has been speculated that the rings were worn to protect against tigers striking for the throat, but this has subsequently been identified as a myth. According to their own history, women of the Long Necks have worn the rings since 1070 AD, mostly for decoration and to gain status.

The women start wearing the rings very early on, and this has a considerable effect on the bodies of the young women. The collarbones and ribs collapse from the pressure of the rings, weighing in at between six and seven kilograms for a grown woman. This collapse of the skeleton is what causes the impression of prolonged necks.

In the tourist villages you can see women weave and do handiwork, but the craft is only a way for the previous rice farmers to supplement the rations of rice.

Jonas Palm

After taking part in a military photography-training program in the early 70’s, I have been working professionally with photography. In 1976 I started running my own company, and the focus of the work has been documenting different tribes, cultures, and people. Since four years, my wife Kai and I also supports and is involved with one of the Long Neck families. You can contact me at: jonas.palm@edu.avesta.se

This story is about the members of the New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC), an independent-professional wrestling company based in Long Island, New York.

Although the Professional Wrestling boom of the 1980’s has subsided, the sport is still one of the most watched cable television programs in the United States. Despite it’s many avid fans both in the U.S. and abroad, many people do not understand wrestling at all. They don’t grasp why people would watch a sport that is not real. ]But as Jimmy “The Greek God” Papadoniou, a senior member of the New York Wrestling Connection, said, “the outcome is determined, but wrestling is not fake.”

Wrestling is about skill, technique, delivery, dedication, and character. You have to sell the part no matter what. These men hold themselves to a high standard. The truly dedicated ones train with the NYWC three times a week and work out constantly on their own. Improvement is always on their minds, with the ultimate goal of getting signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), or other mainstream wrestling companies where fame and money are guaranteed. The wrestlers of the NYWC see their diverse group as a family, one where respect for brothers and superiors is crucial.

At first, I decided to photograph pro wrestling because I thought it would be a visually interesting story about a culture that I did not know much about.  I thought I would photograph one match and that would be it. But instead, I started spending more time with the wrestlers and realized that, to them, this is much more than a fun pastime, it is a lifestyle. To them, wrestling is a chance to follow in the footsteps of their childhood idols, superheroes of their youth. It is a real opportunity to be a part of something.

Emily Berl was born in Washington, DC in 1985. She is currently a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, NY.

Contact me at:

202.549.6949

ejberl@gmail.com

emilyberlphoto.com

A country with a tumultuous past, present and future. At the same time, a place of unparalleled beauty. For outsiders, famine, war, poverty and drought are the things most synonymous with Ethiopia. Even now, it’s still one of the least developed countries in the world, so those preconceptions wouldn’t be entirely baseless.
During my month-long visit, I experienced extremes. Ethiopia’s diversity of terrain means there are wide variations in climate and settlement patterns. Within the space of two days, we drove from the wet season in the capital Addis Ababa, before being greeted by a thick blanket of heat and humidity in Logiya in the Afar region.
Based in the North-Eastern lowlands of Ethiopia, the Afar region is notorious for having the most fragile environment within the country and is also known as the hottest inhabited place on Earth. Within the past decade, the region has undergone four major droughts, wrecking environmental havoc that has almost decimated their pastoralist livelihood. Community elders spoke of the deterioration of pastures and consequent depletion of bred cattle and goats. As the majority of Afar live as nomads, their livestock represents the basis of their economic foundation and with this being threatened, so is their very livelihood.
The Afar have a deeply paternalistic attitude, which is obvious from birth to burial. At the birth of a baby boy, two celebratory gunshots are fired into the air while female births go unacknowledged. Seven-year-old girls are expected to assume a role of servitude within the household and conduct daily tasks alongside the women, while males are free to do as they please. At the end of their lives, male graves are more distinguishably marked and revered. The Afar have a traditional saying that seems to embody much of what I saw: ”One should give an ear to a woman but not take seriously what is said.”
In a lot of ways, the country still lingers behind the rest of the world, both practically and symbolically. According to the Ethiopian calendar, for instance, it’s the year 2001. When I boarded the plane out of the country, the millennium had only just passed over. By the time I flew out of the country, watching the land recede below, I had left eight years and countless life stories behind.

Tammy Law is a freelance photographer from Brisbane, Australia who pursues photo documentary stories. Her work has been referred to as, “evocative documentary… that includes social justice issues and the ostensibly mundane urban spaces in which we live”. She draws influence from the unearthly qualities of Edward Hopper’s paintings, Lynne Cohen’s tribute to space and Noor Photo Agency’s social commentary. With a strong community focus, she has produced bodies of work on ageing day-labourers homes in Japan, post- earthquake China, domestic living in Inner Mongolia and harmful traditional practices in Ethiopia.  Her photographs have appeared in publications like the Sydney Morning Herald, Frankie Magazine and The Big Issue.

Her website can be seen here.

Imaginaryplay är mitt sätt att skildra barndomen. Sett genom ett barns nyfikna ögon . Att leka, hitta på och utforska. Allt det magiska och förrvirrande som hör till att växa upp.

Anna Hurtig, uppvuxen och bosatt i Stockholm. Studerar för närvarande visuell kommunikation på högskolan i Jönköping samtidigt som hon arbetar med egna projekt.

Har blivit publicerad ibland annat SHOTS, F-Stop Magazine och Lightleaks Magazine i USA.  Medverkade på sommaren 2009 i utställningen ”The Minds eye”, på The center for fine art photography i CO, USA med två av bilderna från serien ”Imaginaryplay”

Hemsida: www.annahurtig.com

”Vår framtid beror på vår förmåga att kunna känna sorg över det som gått förlorat.”
-Bruno K. Öijer

Goro Bertz (1980), född och uppvuxen i Stockholms norra förorter men lever och fotograferar sedan 2006 i Tokyo, Japan. Jobbar enbart med egna projekt. Medlem i bildbyrån Folio.

Goro kan nås på: gorobertz@me.com