Anne Holmes | The Lightbox

My Photo Nominated for Photography Masters Cup

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:30:46 +0000

PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERS CUP HONORS PHOTOGRAPHER ANNE HOLMES FROM FRANCE

LOS ANGELES February 20, 2013 – Professional photographer Anne Holmes of France was presented with the 6th Annual Photography Masters Cup Nominee title in the category of Americana at a prestigious Nomination & Winners Photoshow. The live online ceremony webcast Saturday, February 16, 2013 was attended by photography fans in 86 countries who logged on to see the climax of the industry’s most important event for color photography.

The awards international Jury included captains of the industry from Phillips de Pury & Company in New York; Kunst Licht Gallery, Shanghai; XPO Gallery, Paris; Tasveer Galleries, India; BFN, Netherlands; to BBH in London who honored Color Masters with 239 coveted title awards in 18 categories.

“It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 8,521 entries we received this year,” said Basil O’Brien, the awards Creative Director. “Anne’s “Spidey has a Beer with Kuwat,” an exceptional image entered in the Americana category, represents contemporary color photography at its finest, and we’re pleased to present her with the title of Nominee.”

INTERNATIONAL COLOR AWARDS, PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERS CUP is the leading international award honoring excellence in color photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers worldwide and honors the finest images with the highest achievements in color photography. www.photomasterscup.com

Kenya COOP at Angkor Photo Festival

admin — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 01:19:41 +0000

It’s a great pleasure to announce that my work Kenya COOP will be shown at the 8th edition of the Angkor Photo Festival in Siem Reap, Cambodia from December 1 to 8, 2012. This is the second time my work is selected for the projections. The first time was in 2008, when my mulitmedia piece on Kenya’s post-election crisis was shown, a tragically violent period I covered during which some 1,500 lives were lost and nearly half a million people were displaced. I am thrilled to be able to show another side of Kenya this year, and highlight the vibrant world of micro-financed businesses.

As always there is a really great line-up of artists, and I encourage you to make the trip if you can. Angkor Photo is one of the most inspiring events of the year, bringing together young developing Asian photographers for the free workshops, emerging and established talent from all around the world, and editors from the news and NGO sectors. I will be present at the festival also teaching the Canon-sponsored workshop. I hope to see you there!

November 4, 2011. Rift Valley Province, Kenya. Laborers pick tea leaves at a tea plantation near Kericho.

Angkor Photo Festival Canon Workshop 2012

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:03:55 +0000

It’s official! I’m heading back to Cambodia to lead this year’s Canon-sponsored workshop during the 8th edition of Angkor Photo Festival. This will be my second year teaching there, and I am really excited to meet my new students. Last year was a blast, and it has been a great pleasure to watch everyone’s work evolve over the last year.

The dates are set for December 2 and 3, and we’ll be meeting again at Art Deli Cafe in downtown Siem Reap. The theme of this year’s workshop is Taking Photography to the Next Level. 9 winners of the annual Photo Marathon contest sponsored by Canon will participate in the workshop. I will begin by showing a chronological progression of my work, and then I will look at each photographer’s portfolio, identifying strengths and weakness, with the aim of orienting each individual on a path towards achieving his or her goals for the future.

So here’s wishing good luck to all the participants, and I look forward to welcoming the winners at the opening night of projections.

And just to give you a taste of what’s to come, here is a shot from last year’s workshop:

Rock Your Art Part IV

admin — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:03:30 +0000

Shibari rope artist Fred Kyrel ties his signature lingerie onto a woman’s body at the Rock Your Art Festival in Beaucourt, France.

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The Kenyan Crisis

admin — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:18:46 +0000

In 2008, I spent three and a half months in Kenya, covering the ethnic violence that escalated after a contentious election. East Africa’s most stable and burgeoning democracy descended into chaos, exposing large cracks in the system – deep wounds historic inequalities have left untreated. Some called it political genocide, others said it teetered on ethnic cleansing. Either way, it’s a raw look at the face of street justice and the brutalities that accompany it in a society that largely lacks juridical recourse. Graphic Content

Crisis on the Border

admin — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 01:29:27 +0000

I spent a month wandering around the desert of Eastern Chad, where a quarter million Darfur refugees are sustained by international aid agencies. European troops had just arrived under UN mandate to mount a peace-keeping mission to protect aid workers, locals and refugees from bandits and violence spilling over the border with Sudan. Darfuris fled a conflict over basic resources in Sudan 6 years ago, to a country already struggling with its own limitations, ushering Eastern Chad into a conflict of its own. These photographs were taken in 2008, but the situation remains the same: critical.

Color Me Night

admin — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:19:58 +0000

Summer 2012, I am invited by my good friend Armando Ribeiro to collaborate with Portuguese musician Pedro Gomes Marques for a group show at Casa das Artes in Tavira, Portugal. It went like this: I sent about 100 photographs to Pedro who used these as inspiration to compose a soundtrack. I then provided Pedro with some sampled sounds, he added his own, and wove them into the music to create a loose narrative, which I used as a guide in putting the video together.

The body of work represents about 6 years of travel – sometimes on assignment, sometimes not, just photographing my immediate surroundings, always and only at night. It started two years ago as a book project while organizing my archives. It’s turned out to be an ongoing enterprise, taking on different forms, such as this video.

From North America to Europe to Asia and Africa, my journey took me from a sedentary lifestyle, working as a studio artist in Chicago, to a peripatetic one as a photojournalist covering conflicts and social upheaval in such places as Afghanistan, Southern Turkey, Kenya, Thailand or the border between Chad and Sudan.   In my work I encountered a great deal of death, destruction, destitution and oppression – in short, the darkest aspects of humanity. This prompted big questions about our nature as human beings and about my own motivation to bear witness to the suffering of others. I suppose you could say it took me to a very dark place, and it is only fitting that all the images were made after the sun had set. And yet these are a celebration of life, of decadence, freedom and love, things one often feels intensely when confronted with their counterparts.

A certain kind of magic happens when the sun goes down. Shadows play tricks on the imagination. Colours take on a new richness and depth. Forms become blurred, abstract, more painterly and mysterious. People simmer down and reveal themselves, angels becoming demons and demons becoming angels. Mythic creatures appear, and the line between what is safe and what you want, between madness and inspiration, becomes as nebulous as some of the resulting images.   Obscurity lends itself to a kind of reverie. A threshold presents itself, daring you to cross it, to dream and to live as in a dream. This journal by night is an expression of that space where the infinite and the finite seem to mingle with ease – a space I often find myself in, plotting my own destiny.

Click here for more information about the show. To view a larger selection of images please visit my archive.

Rock Your Art Part III

admin — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:52:52 +0000