Artist: Damaso Reyes – United States

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Damaso has worked for institutions and his work has appeared in publications including: The United Nations Development Program, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair Germany, Der Spiegel and Time Asia. Previous assignments and projects have taken him to countries including Rwanda, Iraq, Indonesia, Tanzania and throughout the United States.

He is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including a Fulbright and Arthur F. Burns Fellowship and two first place awards for international reporting from the New York Association of Black Journalists.

Damaso is also the principal photographer on The Europeans, a long term photographic documentary project examining the changes that Europe and its people are experiencing as the European Union expands and continues to integrate.

Artist: Ernest Hasse – Germany

My life is a journey with many different paths…..when I look closely into my path I have different emotions that increase my curiosity , sometimes I forget through my self discovery and the best when I find myself again and the journey continues…

Artist: Fassih Keiso – Syria , Australia

The life in 21st century explores the impact of 21st century politics and culture on humanity and art production. Technically, the work explores the impact of digital tools on current art photography production, highlighting the transition that occurs in photography from analogue to digital by adopting and mixing the two techniques.

The life in 21st century presents a series of large digitally manipulated photographic prints comprise beautifully composed photographs, scanned, digitally treated and manipulated. At their heart, the images are classic portrait photography, but with a montage of extra objects in a surrealistic twist on the digital retouching techniques of modern marketing and advertising.

Kids dream represent my view of the current Western politics, media and society on non-Westerners, training boys for violence and war, and Sexualizing girls at a much younger age. iPod nano influenced by the obsession of my wife, the filmmaker, in collecting empty jars and in making pickle and olive juxtaposed with elements from our contemporary culture.

The Option of Last Resort

Artist: Gabriela Bulisova – United States

After six years of war in Iraq, the number of Iraqis displaced either internally or forced to flee across borders to neighboring countries is estimated at close to 5 million. This is the statistical equivalent of nearly 50 million Americans, making it one of the greatest refugee crises in modern history. These masses of displaced victims of war have become unnamed, anonymous non-entities, statistically relevant yet individually insignificant. Hiding amongst the displaced is a group of Iraqis who have been forced from their homes because they helped the United States. They signed up to serve as interpreters for the American Armed Forces or as experts with the U.S. Government, NGOs, and American companies working in Iraq. Now, they are the most hunted class in Iraq. The lethal stigma they bear as “collaborators” transcends sect or tribe, and they are being systematically targeted for assassination. Resettlement is considered by the United States government as the “option of last resort” for the most vulnerable refugees. In this project, a sequel to my series on Iraqi refugees living in Damascus, Syria, I interview and portray Iraqi refugees who have been resettled to the United States and are living in the Washington D.C. area. This project focuses on these refugees as they encounter the intricate, challenging, and often frustrating and disillusioning process of transitioning to life in America.

Still fearful for their own safety and the safety of family members in Iraq, many refugees have asked that I not reveal their faces or names.

Artist: George Haddad – Lebanon

George Haddad is a freelance photographer based in Beirut, Lebanon.

He specializes in feature and documentary photography but also works in the commercial side of things. In his spare time he enjoys photographing more artistic types of images from abstracts to still life.

George loves symmetry, lines, curves, and dimension. He tries to concentrate on these in his images.