Charlotte-based photographer Peter Taylor started a project shooting southern food purveyors.

In an effort to explore where our food comes from and who supplies it, where it goes, and what it looks like when you get it,  I started looking for suppliers in my region . I was looking for Southern suppliers and suppliers who are doing it on the smaller scale. Terms like organic, free range, quality of life, local, family are what I was seeking out. I started this project last year by shooting a SC shrimper ( view it here ).

I am not sure where this project is going or even what to call it ( suggestions are welcome! ), but I am going to continue to shoot a few more of these stories and see where it takes me.

Continue reading and see more photos on Peter’s blog.

Dayton, OH-based photographer Ethan Klosterman is currently living and studying in Madrid, Spain for the semester and shot the general strike on March 29.

I’m taking a politics of Spain class, and when my professor mentioned a nationwide strike, I got excited. He explained in his broken English that it had happened a couple times before with varying levels of effectiveness. As an adrenaline-seeking photojournalist, I was hoping for big things.

As most of my friends were prepping for their departures from Madrid and Spain for Semana Santa (Spring Break), I was planning how I was going to get downtown to cover the biggest protest Madrid has seen in years. Public transport was putting out notices of reduced services, flights in and out of the country were being canceled, countless businesses were closed, and at least one television station was not broadcasting regular programming.

As clocks struck midnight in downtown Madrid, there were already reports of protesters taking to the street to kick off the 24-hour strike. There were some reports of minor damage and fires, but people were definitely getting rowdy. Twitter was lighting up with hashtags of #29m and #huelgageneral.

Continue reading and see more photos of the strike on Ethan’s blog.

Atlanta-based photographer and LUCEO Images co-founder David Walter Banks traveled to Venezuela and took photos of the Via Crucis in Petare, Caracas.

Given my obsession with The Fourth Wall, and our society’s interaction with altered theatrical realities, I was in heaven, so to speak, as I watched Jesus drag his cross through the barrio El Nazareno in Petare, Caracas, Venezuela.  I was on visual overload as I watched the passionate reenactment unfold through this small corner of the largest slum in Latin America.  It was like a perfect storm of culture and social interaction for my taste.

Normally I would have been in production mode, blocking out everything, and searching feverishly for a photograph.  But that is not why I was there.  I was there to teach, and not to produce.  This gave me the license to simply take in the scene, absorbing it in a way uncommon for me when in ‘work’ mode.  Without the pressure to produce, I was free to really see, and only shoot when the urge pulled the camera to my eye instinctively.  I was able to shoot in the way I document my personal life – without rush, without agenda, and merely on a guttural or instinctual level.

Continue reading and see more photos on the LUCEO blog.

Atlanta-based freelancer and LUCEO Images founding member Kendrick Brinson shares photos from her trip to Caracas, Venezuela.

Creativity comes and goes in waves. I try to be patient in the slow, dry times. I just wait for it to return.

David Banks and I recently went to Caracas, Venezuela to lead a workshop, give a talk and for a gallery exhibition of our work. The students in our workshop were a mix of teenagers and lawyers, doctors, dentists. I was excited to go, but didn’t have huge expectations from their photographic work because for most of them, photography isn’t their job.

That was a mistake.

The majority of my time is spent working. I don’t have a lot of friends where I live because I’m often traveling and often working. A lot of the people who I stay in touch with outside of close old friends and family are professional photographers, often they’re photographers who work for the same people I work for, who see and shoot similarly to the way I shoot. The conversations are about photography or some variation of it. All of this can be very limiting, though I hadn’t thought of it much.

Continue reading and see more photos on the LUCEO blog.

President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia greeted some of the 30,000 people who came from every state plus Washington, D.C. for the largest public event held at the White House.

DC-based photographer Mary F. Calvert shot the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

One beautiful spring day, the Easter Bunny came to Washington.

In early April, thousands of children and their parents were welcomed to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn.

See more of Mary’s work on her website.

President Obama appeared to don bunny ears as he surveyed youngsters rolling eggs with wooden spoons.

Sasha and Malia Obama giggled and waved as they walked with First Lady Michelle Obama to the Storytime Stage.

President Obama was all smiles as he prepared to blow the starting whistle for the traditional egg rolling race.

Freelance photojournalist Juan Carlos, based between San Francisco, CA and San Salvador, El Salvador, shares some photos from a story on his native country of El Salvador.

“In this country the young are like the sunrise, they don’t last long”
-Roque Dalton

El Salvador was at the center of international attention during the civil war in the1980’s and early 90’s, the war lasted for a twelve years, resulting in more than 80 thousand Salvadorans killed or disappeared, thousands forced into exile and many more continue to leave the country.  When the peace accords were signed in 1992, the people of El Salvador’s dreamed of a creating peaceful nation began.   That dream however was obstructed by the aftermath of the war. Since then it has not been able to gain social, political, or economic stability providing a fertile soil to harvest. Organized crime, drug trafficking, gang related violence, have made it impossible to achieve peace in the country. Now days it is considered to be one of the most dangerous countries around the world. In 2011 there were 4,374 murders, 370 more than the previous year a 9.3 percent increase, surpassing the 2009 record of 4,223 murders, making 2011 one of the deadliest, becoming one of the most dangerous countries for the young with the highest murder rate in the world for young adults ages15-24 and has some of the highest murder rates for people of all ages with a rate of 60% for every 100,000. Many of the murders go unsolved since the government’s prosecutor is only able to process a small amount of cases. Its police department and judicial system are corrupted, which makes it difficult to obtain justice, Impunity roams all over the country. Salvadorans have had to endure violent times, hoping that one day will be a peaceful nation.

See more photos of El Salvador on Juan’s website.

Israel-based photographer Ouria Tadmor documented the religious festivities of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem.

Hundreds of pilgrims, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians from different countries where they live, and from Ethiopia come to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter.  Young and old, Man and women stand in the court yard of the Church, keeping the private space of each other in an amazing quiet way that brings up the thought about Ultra Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem fighting over separation of man and women in many public spaces such as social religion events, public transport and more.

See more photos on Ouria’s blog.

San Francisco-based photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice shot a story on former NBA star Antoine Walker for Sports Illustrated.

I was in Idaho a few weeks back for Sports Illustrated, shooting a story on former NBA star Antoine Walker.  Walker made $100M during his time with the NBA, but due to financial problems, he is now $770,000 in debt and trying to make his way back.  He now plays in the NBA D-League with the Idaho Stampede.  Midway through the two day shoot, Antoine abruptly decided that he was done, even though I still had more work to do.  There were some holes in my story I needed to fill, after some negotiation we both met halfway and I was able to complete the story.You can read about Antoine’s plight in the March 19th issue of Sports Illustrated, as well as online here.

See more photos on Deanne’s blog.

Honolulu-based photographer Elyse Butler worked on a personal project shooting life underwater on Oahu for M-Le magazine du Monde.

I was honored being asked by M-Le magazine du Monde to work on my personal project photographing life underwater on Oahu for one day, to be showcased as visual commentary in the world for that week.

See more photos on Elyse’s blog.

LA-based photographer Dan Krauss shot a story on a new sport called “highlining” for the LA Times.

I spent my third weekend in a row in Joshua Tree, this time to shoot the highlining story for LA Times. Had a blast with the usual crew and some new guys I hadn’t met before. Louis Sahagun wrote a wonderful article on the crew and seemed like he had some fun scrambling up and down the rocks with us. He was a real trooper and great to work with.

See more photos on Dan’s blog.