New Photojournalism Site

No new posts here for a year! Guess IPN is dead. But don't worry. It has reincarnated into something new and better: GAIA PHOTOS, a new online home for global photojournalism - gaia-photos.com! Quite an improvement, sprawling with activity from new and old photojournalists around the world.

Just for the record, there's no formal connection between IPN and Gaia Photos. Just me thinking there was too many good ideas to forget about in the old IPN. So took matters into my own hands!

Best wishes for our future!
Morten Svenningsen
Photographer, Denmark / Nepal

Inner City

A baby sleeps in a corner of a home in a squatters village in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The alleyway where the home is located is inhabited by approximately 55 people, including many school aged children too poor to attend classes. Each family pays roughly $20 per month for these shacks to various landowners in return for squatting rights. The slum is located less than a block from Phnom Penh's main tourist strip.

www.lightstalkers.org/john_brown

A worker walks alone under a streetlight as he returns to work more hours at The Stung Meanchey Landfill in Phnom Penh Cambodia. The landfill, called "Smokey Mountain" by local Khmers, is the workplace of 2000 workers, including 600 children, who collect recyclable material to earn their livings. Over 700 tons of waste is delivered to the site each day.

Photo © John Brown

www.lightstalkers.org/john_brown

Moving At Stung Meanchey

People move about at the Stung Meanchey landfill in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Over 2000 workers, including 600 children, sustain themselves by collecting recyclable material on a daily basis.

Photo Copyright John Brown
www.lightstalkers.org/john_brown

Anti-Chinese demonstrations, Nepal

Tibetan girls being detained with force during an anti-Chinese demonstration outside the Chinese consulate in Kathmandu, Nepal, 31. March 2008.

Tibetan demonstrations have become a daily event in the streets of Kathmandu during the last 3 weeks. Today Tibetan support groups have called for an “International action day” against Chinese oppression and to push for a UN investigation of the recent crackdown on Tibetan-Chinese dissidents in Lhasa.

More photos here of Tibetan protests in Nepal. © Morten Svenningsen.

Year of the earth rat

The celebration of Losar, Tibetan new year, sets in by throwing flour up in the thin air of the Himalayas - here in Langtang, Nepal in 4000 meters altitude.

The upper Nepal is home to many ethnic Tibetans, who’s families migrated here several hundred years ago. And down in the capital Kathmandu, thousands of more recent Tibetan refugees are living or passing through on their escape route from Chinese occupation. Tonight, with the full moon, two weeks of new year celebrations are now over and we are all officially in the Tibetan year 2135, the year of the earth rat. Happy new year!

Photographed on February 7th 2008 (Gregorian) © Morten Svenningsen, Photojournalist, Nepal

The famous Eight Grand Hutongs

Here it is-The ShiTou (stone) Hutong, one of the famous Eight Grand Hutongs. Since the demolition began in south Beijing, the appearances of the old style coutyards there are not so easy to keep up as they used to be. Hutong refers to long and narrow alleyways with an enclosed courtyard residence in Beijing. Usually a Hutong becomes famous for its association with historical figures. The most famous ones are Eight Grand Hutong, and they did not house any historical VIPs, but were homes to hookers.
In the old days, the area outside the Front Gate of south Beijing around the Great Fence was scattered with hundreds of brothels. Hookers at the Eight Grand Hutongs were reputed as the best, not in terms of attractiveness, but their ability to sing and play musical instruments.
Photographed on June 5, 2007 © Mingfang Huang.