“Evening Star, 2007,” Dou/pos Bushman Camp, Nyae Nyae, Namibia. From Eberhard Riedel’s “Cameras without Borders: Photography for Healing and Peace”

Rosy Paintbrush and Saxifrage at 12,500′, Yankee Boy Basin, Uncompahgre National Forest, San Juan Mountains, San Miguel County, Colorado & Scarlet Paintbrush and Grass at 11,000′, Yankee Boy Basin, Uncompahgre National Forest, San Juan Mountains, San Miguel County, Colorado, July. All flowers are photographed in the field still attached to the plant with a natural light studio. From Rob Badger and Nita Winter’s “Beauty and the Beast: Wildflowers and Climate Change”

These are the feet of Tigue, a indigenous Huaorani man hired by botanists assigned to a Smithsonian study of tree diversity in EcuadorÕs Yasun’ National Park.  Using a variety of vine (Paulinia sp.) that he knew to have the best tensile strength among the many vines around him, he straps the vine around his ankles before climbing over 100 feet into the rainforest canopy.   Tigue collects flowers and other voucher specimens for the botanists waiting below. In this way, more species can be identified by science and protected. The Huaorani use this technique Ð borrowed by todayÕs utility workers - to hunt monkeys and other arboreal rainforest mammals. Photographed in Yasun’ National Park and UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve, Amazonian Ecuador. From Bruce Farnsworth’s “Amazon Headwaters: Locals Working Toward the Global”

The Photographers Giving Back Photo Award
Deadline: January 31, 2012

The Photographers Giving Back Photo Award gives charity to the depicted people in the awarded pictures. Every year we give at least $5,000 to one or more charities. The first year the charity was given to a shelter for abused women in Kongo. The second year we helped the family of 7 year old Poonam in Bohpal. After seeing and hearing the story about her from awarded photographer Alex Masi we are happy to know that our charity changed her life. When competing for cash prizes in the Photographers Giving Back photo contest you are also making a change in the world. We invite both Professional and amateur photographers worldwide.

A large river boat lies trapped on a sand bank east of Barreirinha, Brazil, during one of the worst droughts ever recorded in the Amazon, Oct. 27, 2005.  From Daniel Beltrá’s “Amazon: Forest at Risk”

Eberhard Riedel is busy these days traveling, speaking, and presenting workshops about his Blue Earth project Cameras without Borders: Photography for Healing and Peace at Blue Earth. On February 24-25, 2012 Riedel will be speaking at the C. G. Jung Institute of Santa Fe and on March 9-10 for the C. G. Jung Society of Seattle.

The goal of my photographic work is to emotionally connect and sense the breadth and magni­tude of fundamentalist and tribal violence in the world and do something about it. I work with marginalized and traumatized populations in Congo, Kenya and Uganda where I help communi­ties working to address the psychological consequences of war and tribal violence. As a psychoana­lyst I know that the traumatized psyche is unable to reflect or imagine and thus experiences itself as isolated from the rest of humanity. I will explore how photography can transcend personal and cultural layers of reference and help rekindle the struggle of giving birth to one’s future. A victim of sexual violence in Eastern Congo participating in a Cameras without Borders workshop said, “The picture in the camera is like a pregnancy,” and curiously imagined what might be gestating in her camera. There cannot be freedom – absence of war – without a place of mutual curiosity and respect; and without attention to the emotional injuries of survivors of war and violence humanitarian assistance does not provide sufficient con­text for reconciliation and lasting peace.

Photographers can pay $15 membership discounted admission for the Seattle event on March 9th. Don’t miss these unique opportunities to hear about his work in the field in Riedel’s own words.

- Bart J. Cannon, Executive Director

San Geelboi moon dream. From Janis Miglavs “Africa’s Undiscovered Myths: Searching for Man’s Original Stories”

Alternate Flevoland. Wind turbines along the dike at Flevoland, Netherlands, which is both preparing for risiing sea levels and moving toward renewable energy, like its NW European neighbors. From Gary Braasch’s “World View of Global Warming”

The work never stops on Bill and Jackie Howard’s dairy farm as cattle are driven in from the field. January 2000, Bidwell, OH. From Jeffrey M. Sauger’s “Where Furrows Run Deep”

Blue Earth project photographer Garth Lenz recently spoke at TEDxVictoria and his address is now online.  Given the ongoing coverage of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, his message couldn’t be more timely and pressing.

Garth’s project with Blue Earth Energy and Ecology continues his work on the threat presented by unsustainable energy development, particularly unconventional fossil fuels. This work comprises both the photographic documentation of these issues, as well as the effective outreach needed to ensure that the resulting images make a positive contribution. He will be returning this fall to the Alberta Tar Sands to create new work as well as to give a tour of the area to environmental journalists. He will also be touring and photographing the shale gas region of northeastern B.C. on the same trip.

- Bart J. Cannon, Executive Director

From Stephen Harrison’s “Visualizing Earth”

John, Treece, 2010.  From Dina Kantor’s “Treece”, a series documenting the residents and landscape of a fading American town.  A former mining community, Treece is now economically and environmentally devastated. The residents are in the midst of a government-funded relocation program, so they can escape living on unstable land that is contaminated with lead.

The Fund for Investigative Journalism
Deadline: February 15th, 2012

The Fund for Investigative Journalism is putting out a special call for proposals taking a sharply focused, investigative approach to the important public policy issues of economic inequities in America, and climate change. These special grant opportunities have been made possible with a $50,000 grant from the Green Park Foundation. Grant proposals will be reviewed and voted upon by the board of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. The board is interested in funding projects that break new ground. If a proposal incorporates angles that have received some attention in the media, applicants are asked to acknowledge the work already done, and explain how the proposed reporting project will dig more deeply and/or significantly advance the story.

The next deadline for proposals is Wednesday February 15 at 5pm Eastern time. Grants will be awarded in March. Grant deadlines for April and September will be announced later in the year.

Mountains in Appalachia are systematically dismantled in order to extract coal more cheaply.  This is in the beginning phase of a Mountain Top Removal site. Hundreds of feet of elevation will ultimately be blasted from each mountain.  Over 500 mountains have been destroyed to this point. From Paul Corbit Brown’s “Toxic Water, Poisoned People: When Mountains Fall To Pay For Coal”

A devotee is wating for his turn to offer a rose at the shrine of Sufi saint Bakhtiyar Kaki. From Amit Mehra’s “Sufis: Messengers Of Peace”

Female patients help each other walk the grounds at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in the South Kivu area of eastern Congo. The hospital was started in 1999 to aid civilian war casualties, including the hundreds of thousands of women and girls who have been raped by Congolese soldiers or militiamen. Panzi does not charge for its services, and some women stay there for months, recuperating from surgery. From Mary F. Calvert’s “Scarred For Life: PTSD In Rwanda”

From Greg Constantine’s “Nowhere People: Discarded and Stateless in Africa”

Villagers of Phuwa load bags of fertilizer onto horses to be taken to the fields.  From Taylor Weidman’s “Nomads No More”

Project Competition
The annual Project Competition honors committed photographers working on documentary projects and fine-art series. Jurors: Greg Hobson, Curator of Photographs, National Media Museum, UK; Paul Moakley, Deputy Photo Editor, TIME magazine; Christopher Steighner, Senior Editor, Rizzoli Publications Inc.

Project Launch
The annual Project Launch Award was initiated to help a photographer complete a work in progress. Jurors: Virginia Heckert, Associate Curator, J. Paul Getty Museum. Prizes: $5,000 cash, exhibition, publication in Fraction magazine, admission to Review Santa Fe and more.

Choice Awards
CENTER’s Choice Awards recognize outstanding photographers working in all processes and subject matter.  The winners receive recognition via exhibition, publication and more. Curator’s Choice, Ashley Givens, Assistant Curator of the, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK. Editor’s Choice, Jamie Wellford, Senior Photo Editor, Newsweek Magazine. Gallerist’s Choice, Stephanie Braun, Senior Curator, The Photographer’s Gallery, UK

Review Santa Fe
May 31-June 3, 2012, Santa Fe, NM

Review Santa Fe is the premier juried portfolio review event in the world. Designed to facilitate relationships between photographers and industry professionals eager to discuss your work. Receive a minimum of 9 one-on-one portfolio reviews, evening receptions, a night of Portfolio viewing and more. Affordable housing, many scholarships and payment plans are available.

For more details and to apply, visit the CENTER.

A family visits the grave of a relative during the holiday of the Day of the Dead on November 2, 2006 in the town of San Pablo Huixtepec. During the holiday, families decorate the cemetery and keep their deceased relatives company. Many of the graves are of relatives that died in the U.S..  Families of migrants fear that they will never see their relatives again and that they will die on foreign soil. Caskets are shipped daily from the U.S. to Mexico. From Dana Romanoff’s “No Man’s Land: The Women of Mexico”

This is Joseph Sinda. With passion, he says that he lives to empower albinos. True to his word Joseph volunteers as a Youth Leader in Dar es Salaam reaching all youth and spreading the message that albinos are people with minds and hearts like everyone else. He believes that  albino people have a responsibility to educate the community by integrating - not staying in the shadows of society. As we talked, news came on the radio of yet another albino killing in the northern part of the country. Very upsetting news that galvanized Joseph’s resolve - he volunteered to work with me as guide and interpreter to ensure success raising awareness for the plight of all albinos. From Rozarii Lynch’s “Life in Peril: Tanzanian Albino People”

Setting up camp before the storm. From Heidi Bradner’s “Land of the Second Sun: Arctic Nomads of Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula”

K., a young homeless transwoman, was asked to dress up as Dorothy (from “The Wizard of Oz”) by her boss at the party-bike company that employed her in order to bring in more business.  With only a high-school education, jobs like this were one of the few that K. could get.  May 2006.  From Samantha Box’s “Invisible”

Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. From Asim Rafiqui’s “The Idea of India: Religious and Cultural Pluralism as Resistance to Sectarian Conflict”

The number 18 is spay-painted onto a rock near Vantage, Washington, in November, 2010. 18 represents 18th Street gang, a rival gang to many area Sureo gangs, and the ones responsible for a recent slaying of a Grant County Sureo gang member. From Mike Kane’s “Gangland, USA: The proliferation of Latino gangs in rural America”

Environmental Justice Now. From Tammy Cromer-Campbell’s “Fruit of the Orchard to Dying for Profit”

A wild gray wolf howls a lone song on a rainy day in the Tundra.  From Florian Schulz’s “Freedom To Roam: Wildlife Corridors”

Catch of haddock, Siglufjörður, Iceland. From Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele’s “Facing Climate Change: Illustrating Global Change through Local People”

In the Anambas Islands, an archipelago of nearly 250 small islands in Indonesia, turtle eggs are considered a delicacy. Served either raw or boiled, the eggs sell for between 25 and 50 cents each at local bars and restaurants and can fetch higher prices when exported to cities like Singapore and Penang. For the five beach-front property owners of Durai Island - an important nesting site for both green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles in Anambas - this means egg harvesting is big business. Over the past 40 years, however, the turtle population on Durai has declined by more than 75 percent as a result of the egg collecting. Green sea turtle eggs for sale at a fish market. Chelonia mydas. Terempa, Anambas Islands, Indonesia. From Neil Ever Osborne’s “Faces of Chelonia”

Blue Earth invites amateur and professional photographers to engage the power of photographic storytelling in our Spring 2012 Blue Earth Photo Contest.

Our work at Blue Earth is based on the belief that a dramatic image can change our perception and alter our understanding of a subject. This idea defines our mission to raise awareness about endangered cultures, threatened environments, and critical social concerns through photography. Blue Earth helps photographers educate the public and motivate society to make positive change - we invite contest entries that exemplify our mission and the power of photographic storytelling.

Entries will be judged by a panel of jurors, all professionals in the photographic field, on the criteria of quality, creativity, and visual narrative. The 1st place winner will receive $500, gear donated by Think Tank Photo, admission to our 2-day, 2012 photo workshop, and inclusion in the Blue Earth “Honors” gallery.

The entry period opens January 1, 2012 and closes at midnight Pacific Time on March 31, 2012. The entry fee is $25 for one photo, $5 per additional photo. Proceeds from this contest benefit Blue Earth’s mission and help support our sponsored documentary projects.

Photo from Frans Lanting’s recent Blue Earth project LIFE: A Journey Through Time