The Annenberg Space for Photography Announces Programming for 'WATER: OUR THIRSTY WORLD' in Association With April 2010 Issue of National Geographic Magazine and Coinciding With First Anniversary of Photography Space

April 1

Daniel Beltra "The State of Tropical Rainforests"

Daniel Beltra is a conservation photographer based in Seattle. Originally from Madrid, Daniel began shooting for Greenpeace in 1990. His work has been recognized by the World Press Photo awards, Pictures of the Year International and the National Press Photographers Association.

In 2009, Daniel Beltra won the Prince's Rainforests Project Award (PRP) for his work photographing rainforests in the Brazilian Amazon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia. The photos that Daniel produced during this time, along with some from his archive from previous years, were edited together to produce a book, online multimedia presentations, pamphlets and print exhibitions around the world aimed at helping people make the connection between tropical deforestation and global warming and how their own consumption habits impact these processes.

April 8

Balazs Gardi "Facing Water Crisis"

Independent photographer Balazs Gardi works to capture stories about marginalized communities in desperate situations. He spends time with people struck by the harshest conditions as events unfold in overpopulated slums, refugee camps, natural disasters, war zones, and other crisis areas, which are often under-represented in the mainstream media.

In recent years, his attention has gradually turned to reporting the local harbingers of the global water crisis. This has evolved into "Facing Water Crisis," his most ambitious photography project to date. It features an expanding series of individual stories about the most life-threatening environmental crisis mankind has ever faced, covering numerous heavily affected regions around the world.

April 15

Lynn Johnson "The Burden of Thirst"

Lynn Johnson has traveled from Siberia to Zambia with her Leica cameras. Though she has photographed notables from Tiger Woods to the justices of the Supreme Court, her favorite assignments are emotionally demanding stories about ordinary people.  She has received awards from World Press Photo and POYi, among others. Her work for National Geographic has covered everything from zoonotic diseases to illiterate women from India's Untouchable caste training to become village health workers.

April 22

Slide Show Night / MOPLA : WATER

April 29

Ken Light "40 Years Focusing on Social Issues Facing America"

Ken Light has worked as a documentary photographer for over 40 years focusing on social issues facing America. Light's work has been shown internationally in over 200 exhibitions including one-person shows at the International Center for Photography, Smith College Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Modern Art, Track 16, and the Southeast Museum of Photography.  He has received 4 NEA Fellowships, the Dorothea Lange Fellowship, and  numerous foundation grants, including one from the Soros' Open Society Institute.

May 6

Camille Seaman "Connection and Purposes"

Camille Seaman has traveled between both the North and South Polar Regions for the last ten years documenting the fragile environment and its otherworldly beauty. Her work captures the essence of awe and beauty of indigenous cultures and environments in a sophisticated documentary/fine art tradition. People often wonder what one person can do to help save this planet we call home; Seaman will discuss this question from the perspective of being part of both an indigenous culture and a modern world.

May 13

Dennis Dimick "Environmental Photojournalism at National Geographic"

Dennis Dimick, Executive Editor for environment at National Geographic magazine, helped guide the creation of the April 2010 issue on global freshwater on display at The Annenberg Space for Photography.

His lecture will focus on outstanding examples of environmental photojournalism, including behind-the-scenes details on the creation of the April 2010 NGM freshwater issue. A picture editor with nearly 30 years experience at National Geographic and 14 years as a faculty member at the Missouri Photo Workshop, Dimick will show recent environmental photography from the pages of the magazine and discuss how photographers interested in the environment can produce insightful images.

May 20

David Maisel "Black Maps"

For more than twenty years, David Maisel has been making aerial photographs of sites of environmental impact. This extended series, called Black Maps, shows the undoing of the natural world by wide-scale human intervention in the landscape.  His images of zones where the natural order has been eradicated are both spectacular and horrifying. Although Maisel's photographs provide evidence of the devastation of these locations, they also transcribe interior, psychic landscapes -- for, as otherworldly and surreal as these images appear, they depict shattered realities of our own making. The forms of environmental disquiet and degradation function on a metaphorical level, and the aerial perspective enables one to experience the landscape like a vast map of its undoing.

May 27

David Griffin "Inside National Geographic Magazine"

David Griffin is the Director of Photography of National Geographic magazine headquartered in Washington, DC. He helps shape the photographic direction of the magazine, working with staff editors and contributing photographers from around the globe.

During his "Inside National Geographic Magazine" lecture, Griffin will explain what the traits are that he looks for in the photographers who work on assignments for the magazine. In addition he will take attendees on a behind-the-scenes tour of how photographic stories are nurtured, shaped and presented to the magazine's global audience of 40 million readers.

June 3

Christian Cravo "In the Gardens of Eden"

Christian Cravo was brought up in an artistic environment in the Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia. His photographs have been exhibited at the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, the Throckmorton Fine Arts  Gallery in New York, the Leica Gallery, and in group shows at SF Camera Works, the Witkin Gallery and the Houston Foto Fest. He has received awards from the Mother Jones Photo Fund for Documentary Photography, a scholarship from the Vitae Foundation and a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship for his research on the Brazilian northeast. His first book "Irredentos" was published in 2000 and in 2005 his second book "Roma noire, ville metisse" was published in Paris by Autrement.

June 10

TBD

The Annenberg Space for Photography

2000 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, CA. 90067

Tel: 213.403.3000  

http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org

Open Wednesday through Sunday: 11am-6pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

General admission is free.