Anne Holmes Photography News, Projects & Multimedia Dispatches | The Lightbox » projects

Update on the Book

admin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:22:39 +0000

Here is a sneak preview of a dozen spreads from my book Color Me Night:

Color Me Night was born of four years of travel across four continents. From the U.S. to Europe to Thailand, China, Japan, India, Iran, Kenya, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the border between Sudan and Chad, I covered conflict and environmental issues as a documentary or press photographer. But I also just plain roved the earth. Many of the photographs I selected were grabbed at moments of ease, after all my pictures had been filed, or when a story ended and I had time to see life from a more casual perspective, or perhaps I was just on holiday somewhere or shooting daily life. After spending a few months putting some order in my archives last year, I decided to make a book from a thread that emerged – only photographs taken at night.

Some kind of magic happens when the sun goes down. Shadows play tricks on your eyes, colors take on a richness and depth, forms become blurred and abstract, more painterly. The obscurity lends itself to a kind of reverie, and I couldn’t resist running away with the idea of making a by night travel journal, if you will, as if I had lived my life as a dream. The book is a collection of images, words, memories, and rewritten glories; moments lived under the cover of night when the world goes to sleep, and another one awakens. The essays are not meant to tell the story of the persons pictured, but rather, they narrate the textural memory I formed of certain intervals or events around the time I made the photographs. This is a personal endeavour, and a big departure from my documentary reporting, though that work continues as well.

The Kurdish Question

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:50:03 +0000

In November 2008, I launched a long-term documentary project on the Kurds. A selection of images is now available, and interested parties may view the entire archive by requesting a password via email at info@thelightbox.net.

The Ilisu Dam Project

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:32:21 +0000

Turkey has plans to build a massive dam on the Tigris river that would displace an estimated 55,000 people, submerge a 10,000-year old city, and could reduce water flow to neighboring Iraq and Syria by approximately 50%. Water disputes have troubled relations between the riparian countries for years. Existing Turkish dams on the Euphrates have already reduced water flow, and Turkey has not always respected the output levels agreed upon, well aware that their upper hand on the issue is a powerful political leverage tool. The project is sited by concerned watchdog groups as one that has the potential to lead to a water war. Not since the Three Gorges Dam has there been a more controversial project. Several European countries were financing the project until last summer, when, under pressure from the public, due to Turkey’s failure to adhere to international standards, they pulled out. The state recently acquired the necessary credits from Turkish banks, and construction has resumed.

This is a work in progress. To see a selection of images, click to view My Archive.

Color Me Night

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:29:26 +0000

I am in the process of putting together a book born of several years of travel, in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It’s a collection of images, words, memories, and rewritten glories; moments lived under the cover of night, when the world goes to sleep, and another one awakens.

The texts are a composite of sensory recollections, imagined encounters and edited conversations. They are not meant to tell the story of the persons pictured, but rather, narrate the textural memory I formed of certain intervals or events around the time I made the photographs.

More information about purchasing the book will be posted as the project comes to fruition. To view the archive, please contact me at info@thelightbox.net for password keys.