Moscow’s “Pastoral” Suburbs, New Award Winners, London Calling, and More

Contemporary Photography Mark your calendars and plan to join us in London this spring for a gala exhibition of the prize-winning work of all winners and finalists of the LensCulture Exposure Awards 2013 at the London College of Communications Gallery, April 1-5, 2014. Full details below. This week in LensCulture, we take a deeper look into our award-winners' exhibition-worthy work. In addition to the top portfolios, we are featuring three other finalists' series in-depth. We also review some current exhibitions and photobooks, and highlight new portfolios in our Editor's Picks. Dig in, and enjoy!   Hopper Meditations  3rd Prize Portfolio Winner, LensCulture Exposure Awards 2013  Iconic lighting, mid-twentieth century settings, and themes of longing and alienation infuse these award-winning photographic responses to the work of the American painter, Edward Hopper. Exquisite photo compositions by Richard Tuschman.   Pastoral: Moscow Suburbs Latvian photographer Alexander Gronsky makes vast large-format landscape photographs of the outskirts of Moscow — desolate places where humanity tries to find a refuge far from the city, only to collide with the endless nature of urban expansion.   Behind Glass  Primates remind people of the undeniable connection between man and animal. The title refers to the glass of an enclosure and to the glass of the camera lens. Portraits by Anne Berry. Finalist - LensCulture Exposure Awards 2013   I Reminisce and Cry for Life Portraits of women veterans of World War II in Belarus — former teenage soldiers, now in their 90's.  Photographs and text by Agnieszka Rayss. Finalist - LensCulture Exposure Awards 2013   Fukushima: Emergency to "Normalcy" Photojournalist Kosuke Okahara has been visiting Fukushima regularly since the disaster in 2011. His series shows how an unchanging emergency can tragically come to seem like a "new normal".   Rise and Fall of Apartheid A comprehensive, dramatic exhibition of the visual record of Apartheid, focusing on South Africans' own perspective. Group show curated by Museum Africa in Newtown, Johannesburg.   Experimental Relationship Testing the boundaries of "normal" heterosexual relationships, Yijun Liao and her younger boyfriend pose in situations that explore ideas of power, sex and authority as well as cross-cultural love and hate. Winner - LensCulture Exposure Awards 2013   Men/Women Tom Wood spent three decades photographing his working-class neighbors in Liverpool, creating portraits with equal parts affection and grim reality. We also preview an exhibition of Wood's relatively unknown landscapes from Ireland and Wales.   Marginal Trades In India, many traditional professions are being abandoned for more lucrative business possibilities. Supranav Dash photographs these disappearing tradespeople, creating timeless portraits rich with dignity. Finalist - LensCulture Exposure Awards 2013 Hikari David Favrod, a photographer with a Japanese mother and a Swiss father tries to come to terms with his heritage through a series of factual, fictional and conceptual photographs. Winner - LensCulture Exposure Awards 2013   See over 70 photos from the 6 top winners and 25 excellent finalists. This exhibition represents some of the best in contemporary global photography by photographers living in 20 countries around the world. Exhibition prints provided by London's leading photographic print lab, Genesis Imaging. Exhibition hosted by London College of Communications, one of the best schools for fine art photography and photojournalism in the UK. So, mark your calendars, and plan to join us for a great international celebration of photography in London first week in April. Ta!