ZEKE Magazine: Fall/Winter 2025

ZEKE

THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL

FALL/WINTER 2025 VOL.11/NO.3 $15

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY

FEATURED ARTICLES

WOMEN ON THE TIDE

Photographs by Edward Boches

CHECKERED PRIDE

Photographs by Daniel Eugene Kaminski

HOW MANY DAUGHTERS,

HOW MANY SONS ?

Photographs by Bailey Elizabeth Rogers

MEETING THE MOMENT

Nine photographers address the current

political crisis in the U.S.

ZEKETHE MAGAZINE OF

GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY

PHOTOGRAPHY

Published by Social Documentary Network

Photo by Edward Boches

Photo by Daniel Eugene Kaminski

Photo by Bailey Elizabeth Rogers

Photo by Alvaro Diaz

02 | WOMEN ON THE TIDE

by Edward Boches

12 | CHECKERED PRIDE

by Daniel Eugene Kaminski

22 | HOW MANY DAUGHTERS, HOW MANY SONS?

by Bailey Elizabeth Rogers

32 | IS PHOTOGRAPHY MEETING THE MOMENT?

by Glenn Ruga

34 | MEETING THE MOMENT

Farm Workers and Deportees | David Bacon

One Day in the Deportation Machine | Julius Constantine Motal

The King vs The People | Héctor Adolfo Quintanar Pérez

DC’s Streets of Rage | Robin Fader

America vs. America | Kevin McKeon

Optics of a War Zone at the Border | Laurie Smith

The National Guard in Washington, DC | Probal Rashid

The Police State of Los Angeles | Alvaro Diaz

No Kings Protest, New Orleans | Charles Muir Lovell

52 | LOVE & WAR

A profile of two photojournalists as they

document the war in Ukraine as

partners and parents

By Alice Currey

Photo by Oksana Parafeniuk

56 | Book Reviews

Cover photograph

by Kevin McKeon

A protester reacts to an

emotional plea from

Maryland Representative

Jamie Raskin at a

“No Kings” rally in

Philadelphia, June 2025.

FALL/WINTER 2025 VOL.11/ NO.3

$15 US

Dear ZEKE Readers:

Greetings! I write this letter only a few days after the No Kings rallies across

the U.S., drawing more than 7,000,000 peaceful demonstrators in thousands of

locations. But as of today, nothing has changed. Trump and the MAGA wing of the

Republican Party are still in firm control of all levers of power except the federal

courts, which are repeatedly ruling against Trump and his authoritarian playbook.

While this issue of ZEKE is going to press and will be distributed (we hope), and

we will also continue to publish stories on the SDN and ZEKE websites, I recognize

that the time may come when we may be under the thumb of censors, the IRS, the

Treasury Department, and possibly the DOJ because of our commitment to telling

the truth—a truth that flies in the face of the lies we see every day coming out of the

White House.

In this issue of ZEKE we are proud to present stories by nine photographers who

have responded to Meeting the Moment, a call for entries seeking documentary

projects exploring the changed political, economic, and cultural landscape since a

new administration took over in Washington in January 2025. Submissions include

demonstrations against the Trump agenda, farm workers demanding their rights,

federal agents using force against demonstrators attempting to block deportations,

deportations proceedings in process, the militarization of the U.S./Mexico border,

and others.

We are also proud to present the core of work that SDN has been exhibiting

since our founding in 2008—issues large and small that affect everyday life in

the U.S. and abroad. Edward Boches presents Women on the Tide, a project

documenting women oyster farmers on Cape Cod. Daniel Eugene Kaminski presents

Checkered Pride about the two worlds that he inhabits—short track stock car racing

and drag bars and nightclubs. And Elizabeth Bailey Rogers presents How Many

Daughters, How Many Sons? exploring the death of young people across America

from gun violence.

As AI continues to erode the authority of the photographic image, SDN

stays strong in our commitment to present real stories about real people using

unmanipulated images and text. While the photographic image as we know it is not

yet 200 years old, storytelling has always been a core part of millennia of human

experience and we are proud to be part of this ageless tradition, now using tools of

the modern age to present it to our audiences across the globe.

SDN 2025 Curated Shed, Projections of

members work in Glenn and Barbara’s

backyard. Concord, MA. L to R: Marissa

Fiorucci, Barbara Ayotte, Glenn Ruga,

Matilde Simas. Photo by Sylvia Stagg-

Guiliano

Opening reception for SDN’s Window

Into Solitary exhibition at the Mutual Arts

Collective, Seattle, WA.

Glenn Ruga

Executive Editor

ZEKE FALL/WINTER 2025 / 1

Women on the Tide

by Edward Boches

In Wellfleet, Mass., arguably the oyster

capital of North America, shellfishing

and harvesting have been a way of life

for centuries. The earliest occupants, the

Wampanoags, settled here in part for

the rich abundance of oysters and shellfish.

As commercial shellfishing became

more and more popular in the mid-1800s,

the town set up a grant system to protect the

harbor and prevent over-harvesting.

With the weather harsh, the winds frigid,

and the work strenuous, it is understandable

that when most people picture the

traditional oyster farmer, they visualize a

man. In fact, for most of the 19th and 20th

centuries, most grants were licensed to men.

But by the 1970s more and more women

wanted in. Today over 30 percent of

Wellfleet’s shellfishermen and wild harvesters

are women.

This, however, wasn’t the case 70 years

ago when a curious and outgoing eightyear-old

named Peggy Jennings, on her

first visit to Wellfleet, dared to ask Tony

Oliver, the constable at that time, what the

men were doing in the water off Mayo

Beach. Oliver walked Peggy along the

shore and explained that the men were

oyster farming.

Back then virtually every oyster grower

was a man. But that didn’t deter Jennings

who went on to be Wellfleet’s first woman

grant holder.

“I decided then and there that’s what I

wanted to do,” recalls Jennings, who can

still be found working the grant she shares

with her daughter Nora. Now Nora and

her mother Peggy are part of the many

women on the tide.

2 / ZEKE FALL/WINTER 2025

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Despite the physical labor,

early mornings, and

sometimes brutal weather,

the women who shellfish

love what they do and

where they do it.

Elisabeth Salén working on

the grant she shares with

her husband on Loagy Bay.

ZEKE FALL/WINTER 2025/3

Women on the Tide

by Edward Boches

L to R: Clementine Malicoat

Valtz, Mimi Malicoat Bois,

Mayim Richman, and Adi

Richman are covered with mud

and sand after raking seaweed

off of a clam run on Fields Point.


ZEKE FALL/WINTER 2025/ 5

Women on the Tide

by Edward Boches

When a farmer plants clam

seeds they often lay down

hundreds of thousands of the

tiny shells. The eventual yield

might be somewhere between

50 and 70 percent of their initial

purchase. So doing everything

possible to protect the animals

and give them a chance to

grow is essential. Here Copper

Santiago stakes netting over

a clam run on her employer’s

grant.




Women on the Tide

by Edward Boches

Mayim Richman (left)

and Adi Richman (right)

working for the summer

on a grant. More and

more women are attracted

to working outdoors,

surrounded by natural

beauty, raising food, and

being purposeful. “Beats

working in a restaurant as

a waitress,” offered one.



Women on the Tide

by Edward Boches

Shellfishing, even on perfect days, is

hard work. Lots of bending over, lifting,

and hauling. Casey Semple culls

and measures market-ready oysters

on the Loagy Bay grant she shares

with her stepfather.


Checkered Pride

by

Daniel Eugene Kaminski

Stafford Motor Speedway - Stafford Springs, Connecticut, 2023.

Checkered Pride is a photo-documentary project

investigating short track stock car racing and drag

performance in the United States. I myself am both

a racecar driver and a drag queen. The janus-faced

reality of my experience from within both cultures

grants me the dual perspective of being an insider

and outsider to each world. With this point of view I have

discovered how much the animosity between these groups

is a manufactured thing generated by their caricature representation

in popular media and a near total absence of

direct experiential relationships between them.

Using photography, I cross-examine these environments

by highlighting what I experience as sympathetic overlaps,

just dressed differently—namely rebellion, flamboyance,

pride, identity, and freedom as characterizing essences

defining both realms. More importantly, I am documenting

each environment on its own terms, as its own phenomenon

of humans being.

The current scope of this project has been limited to

the northeastern United States. My vision for Checkered

Pride is to grow its geographical reach into a nationwide

document that captures contemporary American identity

through the lens of stock car racing and drag performance

cultures.

—Daniel Eugene Kaminski




Monster Bar - New York City, 2018.


Checkered Pride


Pride Pool Party - New Haven, Connecticut, 2019.


Oxford Plains Speedway - Oxford, Maine, 2023.


Checkered Pride


Stafford Motor Speedway - Stafford Springs, Connecticut, 2021.


Partners Café - New Haven, Connecticut, 2017.


Checkered Pride


Racecar Driver, White Mountain Motorsports Park - North Woodstock, New Hampshire, 2020.


Drag Queen, Tazraks Bar & Grill - Naugatuck, Connecticut, 2018.


Checkered Pride


Self-portrait, Stafford Speedway - Stafford Springs, Connecticut, 2023.


Self-portrait, Bijou Theater - Bridgeport, Connecticut, 2023.


How Many Daughters, How


In St. Louis, Missouri, and every

major city in America, there is a

community of parents that every

member wishes did not exist—

parents who have lost a child

to gun violence. Inspired by a

memorial by Missouri Moms Demand

Action and a lyric from The Killers’

“Land of the Free”, this series steps

inside that community and introduces a

handful of parents who have faced the

unthinkable.

Combining photos and interviews,

Bailey Elizabeth Rogers tells the stories

of the children they have lost, and

the grief and life they have been left

behind with.

These personal stories are meant

to bring humanity to this epidemic, to

create awareness and inspire action

toward change. By highlighting the

individuality of each story and looking

at each victim as someone’s child, people

will feel this crisis on an emotional

level, not just see the statistics. With gun

violence now officially a public health

crisis, it is imperative that we use these

stories as a catalyst for change and

prevent even more parents from joining

this community.

Photo: Atif Mahr Sr. holds the portrait of

his daughter Isis, painted by the organization

Faces Not Forgotten, while wearing a

custom t-shirt made in her memory. Isis was

19 years-old when she was shot and killed

as an innocent bystander riding in a car.


Many Sons ?






How Many Daughters,

How Many Sons?


Connie and Keith Johnson

stand outside of the convenience

store where their son

Jay Pearson was shot and

killed at the age of 23. Many

parents that go through the

tragic loss of a child split

up as a result of the trauma.

Connie and Keith almost did,

but decided fairly early on

that they would not allow

Jay’s murder to break them.

Because of that, they have

done the hard work necessary

to stay together and

support one another.




How Many

Daughters,

How Many Sons?


Skyla Pawnell stands

outside of her home

holding a memory box

that honors her son,

Aaron Prayer. Aaron

was shot and killed

outside an apartment

complex when he was

21 years-old. Similar to

many other cases in the

St. Louis region, Aaron’s

killer is still walking the

streets as a free man.




Is Photography

Meeting the Moment ?

By Glenn Ruga

M

Meeting the Moment is a

phrase that has come to

mean responding to a current

challenge, opportunity,

or significant situation by

acting with courage, skill,

and presence. The moment right now is the

radically changed political, economic, and

cultural landscape since a new administration

took over in Washington in January 2025. In

the nearly 250 years since the founding of the

United States, we find ourselves in an unprecedented

situation where the world’s first

democracy is now an autocracy. Democratic

institutions have been laid to waste and the

First Amendment is under attack. In a stated

effort to abolish all programs advocating for

diversity, equity, and inclusion, the current

administration has now created a regime

where the only qualification for office is fealty

to the chief and often without any qualifications

required by the office.

Photographers have always been at the

front lines of documenting injustices and

calamities in the world, whether war, famine,

natural disasters, human rights abuses, and

abuses of power. Since the launch of ZEKE

magazine in 2015, photographers have

submitted projects on the wars and aftermath

in Rwanda, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza, the

migration crisis in Europe, the Rana Plaza

collapse in Bangladesh, the Rohingya crisis,

maternal health in Africa, gender oppression

in Iran, climate change, discrimination against

Roma and LGBTQ+, the pandemic, Black

Lives Matter, criminal justice, and so many

other issues.

There are limited situations where you can

draw a direct connection between a published

photograph and direct policy or action. But

some significant examples do exist—such as

photographs from Vietnam by Malcolm Brown,

Eddie Adams, and Nick Ut that changed public

opinion, and ultimately policy, about the war.

The 2015 photo of Alan Kurti, washed up on a

beach in Turkey by Nilüfer Demir that opened

Germany to accepting a million refugees

fleeing war in the Middle East. Photographs

by Lewis Hine of child labor in factories in the

U.S. in the early twentieth century contributed

significantly to the eventual passage of federal

child labor laws, culminating in the Fair Labor

Standards Act of 1938.

There is no greater example anywhere of

a government committed to supporting documentary

photographers to meet the moment

and record the plight of working people than

the Farm Security Administration. In 1935,

during the height of the Great Depression,

Franklin D. Roosevelt established the

Resettlement Administration, and two years

Laurie Smith Héctor Adolfo Quintanar Pérez




David Bacon

Kevin McKeon

Robin Fader

later, the Farm Security Administration (FSA),

to provide aid to rural Americans suffering

from the effects of acute unemployment.

The task of the Historical Division was to

document the hardship across rural America

caused by the Great Depression. Some of the

most renowned photographers of the 20th

century— including Walker Evans, Dorothea

Lange, and Gordon Parks, among others—

established their careers with U.S. government

support to work on one of the greatest

documentary efforts ever created.

In this case, the work of these photographers

was directed to both educate the

American public about the dire situations in

rural America but also to demonstrate what

the government was doing to alleviate the

problems of poverty and hunger through the

FSA. But it should not be glossed over that

after the U.S. entered WWII, the focus of the

FSA became government propaganda.

Sometimes, or perhaps too often in history,

no matter the extent of documentary

evidence, truth loses out and the abuses,

massacres, and famines continue. Hundreds

of photographers spent three years documenting

the genocide in Bosnia but could not

stop the slaughter of more than 8,000 mostly

men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995. Massive

demonstrations and documentation could

not stop the Chinese government takeover of

Hong Kong in 2020. Today, with the limited

video and photographic evidence that does

exist, the genocide and famine continue in

Gaza (not to mention the more than 270

journalists killed). And there is no greater

evidence of the limited power of photography

than the fact that after three and a half years

of Russian aggression against Ukraine, and

hundreds of photographers risking their lives,

the war still grinds on. None of this detracts

from the brave and Herculean task these

journalists and documentarians have done

and continue to do.

Today, the United States is watching while

a 250-year project in democracy that has

inspired the world overcomes to a grinding

halt with the onslaught by the Trump

Administration. We are not yet at the point of

complete failure as in Hong Kong in 2020, Nazi

Germany in the 1930s, and Bosnia in 1992.

But we are rapidly sliding in that direction.

On the following pages, we present nine

photographers who have submitted to a Call

Julius Constantine

for Entries on Meeting the Moment. I hope

these photographs do at least a little to move

the needle forward in gaining greater understanding

and recognition of the gravity of

the problem and the widespread sentiments

opposing the destruction of the American

experiment in democracy.

As I write these words, it is only days after

the assassination of conservative icon Charlie

Kirk and the Trump administration is now taking

aim at left-wing and liberal groups. I have

no doubt that SDN, ZEKE, (and me) will soon

be in their crosshairs.

One of the fundamental reasons we carry

on is our firm belief in freedom of the press,

freedom of expression, pursuit of the truth,

and a tangible historic record of the moment.

In 1970, musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron

famously said, “The revolution will not be

televised.” Today it is and we hope to record

it. Thank you to all the photographers who

bravely speak truth to power with their

camera.

Onward!


Farmworkers & Deportees

Survival is Resistance

David Bacon


Mt. Vernon, WA. Alfredo ‘Lelo’ Juarez with his

partner and niece in a march of migrant farmworkers

and their supporters, calling for unions and human

rights. Lelo is a leader of the farmworker union,

Familias Unidas por la Justicia. He was arrested in

March by ICE, and held in the notorious detention

center in Tacoma until July, when he agreed to return

to Mexico in order to get out of the prison.

These photographs document

the work and unique

culture of Indigenous

farmworkers from southern

Mexico who are now

employed in farms up

and down the West Coast. The

images also document a new

environment in the context of the

current wave of ICE raids and

anti-immigrant hysteria. People

arriving to work in U.S. fields

come from communities that

speak languages that long predate

European colonization, and

their dances, food, music, and

culture have deep historic roots.

As those farmworker communities

today resist the immigration

raids and anti-immigrant hysteria

spread by the Trump administration,

this culture has become a

means for survival.

Top. Delano, CA. Farmworkers

protested the wave of immigration

raids by the Trump administration.

Protesters linked the

hysteria against immigrants and

Indigenous people promoted by

the Trump administration to the

murder of Emily Pike, a 14-yearold

Apache girl in Arizona, one

of many missing and murdered

indigenous youth and women.

Bottom. Farmworkers and

supporters demonstrated in

Delano, CA, where the United

Farm Workers union was born,

to celebrate the birthday of

Cesar Chavez and protest the

wave of immigration raids by the

Trump administration. California

Attorney General Rob Bonta

marched with Lorena Gonzalez,

executive secretary of the

California Labor Federation, and

Yvonne Wheeler, President of the

Los Angeles Labor Federation.


One Day in the Deportation

Machine

Julius Constantine Motal


A detained young man looks over his shoulder as

federal agents escort him to a stairwell following his

immigration hearing in the Jacob K. Javits Federal

Building in New York on July 16, 2025.

A

brother is torn from his sister. A

father arrives for his immigration

hearing with his family,

only to find that they will be

leaving without him. A woman,

seemingly relieved after emerging

from her hearing, finds that her life

is about to change when she is apprehended

by federal officials waiting just

outside the door.

This series takes a comprehensive

look at one day inside the deportation

machine at the Jacob K. Javits Federal

Building at 26 Federal Plaza in New

York City, the largest federal immigration

courthouse in Manhattan.

This photo essay originally appeared

in The Guardian.

Top: The last woman to

emerge from her hearing

holds a stack of documents

in her hand, and she smiles

briefly before a masked

agent whose T-shirt reads

“police” apprehends her.

Her smile fades to an

expression of fear as she

learns that she will not be

allowed to leave. Federal

agents then rush her to a

stairwell.

Bottom: Chaos breaks out

as multiple federal agents

grab a man as his sister

screams.


The King vs The People

Héctor Adolfo Quintanar Pérez


A mounted police officer raises his baton to

hit a protester who showed him an image of

Donald Trump with a Hitler mustache.

A girl waves an American flag

in front of a member of the

National Guard.

Native Americans lead the

march through the streets of

downtown.

A helicopter flies over the

protest, as if it were a combat

or disaster zone.

The No Kings Day march

was repressed by Los

Angeles security forces,

with dozens of attacks

against the press and

participants. The march

began peacefully, bringing

together families, young

people, and artists to protest

Trump’s immigration policies

with music, dancing, and peace

until the police decided to open

fire. They used tear gas, shot

people in the face, beat them

with clubs, and shot participants

and colleagues from the press

in the back. That day, a police

officer stabbed and fractured

Héctor’s knees while he was

doing his job, causing injuries

that have kept him out of work

for almost two months.


DC’s Streets of Rage

Robin Fader


U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)

speaks at the May Day Protest in

front of the Supreme Court.

On any given day in Washington,

DC, the streets are pulsing with

defiance—two, four, six protests

erupting all around the city.

Whether they draw 30 people or

3,000, every event features the

critical urgency to maintain democracy —

the freedom to speak out and protest.

These protests happen all around DC,

from the gates of the White House to the

shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, from the

towering Washington Monument to the

marble steps of the Supreme Court—anywhere

resistance takes root and refuses

to bow.

In an era of disinformation, Robin

Fader’s photographs cut through the fog

to show the world what resistance looks

like.

Activists Nadine Seiler

and Krepps at the May

Day Protest on Freedom

Plaza, May 1, 2025.

People’s March, Lincoln

Memorial, January 18,

2025.


America vs. America

Kevin McKeon


A crowd taking in speeches in Washington Square Park on

International Women’s Day. Protesters often direct their ire at

multiple targets – on this day, at the Trump administration, Elon

Musk, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, for capitulating

with Trump on immigrant deportations.

The rise of Donald Trump

has brought with it

profound changes in the

American political system

and what Americans can

expect from our leadership

and our place in the world.

Trump’s dismantling of the rule

of law at home includes mass

firings at government agencies,

arrests, and deportation of

immigrants, attacks on anything

deemed DEI, threats to education,

cuts or elimination of

social services and foreign aid

programs, embracing dictators

while demonizing allies, and

others.

However, the rise of Donald

Trump has also given rise to a

growing tide of resistance as

protests have spread across the

country. As a result, the United

States appears to be on a collision

course with itself and at a

pivotal moment in its history.

Top:The MAGA

faithful waiting

to join a Trump

rally in Madison

Square Garden,

New York, shortly

before the 2024

election.

Bottom: As the

suffering in Gaza

deepens, protesters

railed against

America’s military

and propaganda

support of Israel,

and the mounting

deaths and

starvation of

the Palestinian

people. New

York City, August

2025.


Optics of a War Zone

at the Border

Laurie Smith


Above: Mother and child loaded

into a Border Patrol van. Sunland

Park, NM, 2022.

Top Right: Stryker Armored

Vehicle pointed at Mexico.

Anapra, NM, 2025.

Bottom Right: Migrant detritus at

the wall. El Paso, TX, 2023.

Along the U.S. and

Mexico border, Trump

established designated

military zones to escalate

military presence

despite a significant

decline in crossings. The border

has become a theatre of power

with a 30-foot steel bollard wall

defended by reems of razor

wire, masked Customs and

Border Patrol officers, the Texas

National Guard, U.S. soldiers

carrying combat-grade weapons

in Stryker armored vehicles,

and surveillance technologies

scanning the terrain.

Since 2016, Laurie Smith

has driven along the newly

designated 55-mile “national

defense area,” where the line

between military and domestic

law enforcement blurs. By

declaring a national emergency,

Trump circumvented Congress to

expand military bases. Smith’s

The Optics of a War Zone at the

Border, urges us to confront how

humanitarian need is met with

the machinery of war.


The National Guard in

Washington, DC

Probal Rashid


Police officers arrest a homeless

woman at Navy Yard Metro

Station in Washington, DC

on August 22, 2025, following

President Donald Trump’s

announcement placing the DC

Metropolitan Police under federal

control to help prevent crime in

the capital.

In August 2025, Donald Trump

announced that the DC Metropolitan

Police Department would come under

federal control with the deployment of

federal officers and National Guard

troops.

The photographs also reflect how

residents have responded. Communities

have taken to the streets in protest, carrying

signs, chanting, and playing drums to

call for alternatives rooted in local voices

rather than federal command. To many,

the deployment signals a loss of autonomy

and freedom.

Together, these images trace a city

negotiating power, safety, and democracy

in its public spaces.

Activist Patricia Eguino

shouts slogans through a

megaphone as she stands

in front of a National

Guard vehicle on August

18, 2025 as protesters

gather at Columbus

Circle following President

Donald Trump’s announcement

to place the DC

Metropolitan Police under

federal control.

A DC resident joins the

rally with her cockatoo

parrot and listens to a

speech during a Labor

Day demonstration and

march at Dupont Circle

on August 28, 2025,

protesting the federal

law enforcement surge in

Washington, DC.


The Police State of

Los Angeles

Alvaro Diaz


Police in full riot gear stand in formation

during demonstrations against U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

in Los Angeles, June 12, 2025. The heavy

armor, shields, and weapons highlighted the

militarized response to community protests

demanding immigrant rights and denouncing

detention and deportation practices in

the United States.

This photographic series documents

the protests against ICE

held in downtown Los Angeles,

capturing the voices, faces, and

gestures of communities demanding

justice. From handmade

signs to powerful chants, from families

marching together to solitary acts

of defiance, the images reveal how

collective presence transforms public

space into a stage of resistance.

These photographs bear witness

to a pivotal moment in the ongoing

struggle for immigrant rights in the

United States, creating a visual archive

of resilience in the face of systemic

oppression.

Officers from the Los Angeles

Police Department stand

with less-lethal launchers and

protective gear during protests

against U.S. Immigration and

Customs Enforcement (ICE),

June 12, 2025. The heavy

police presence, alongside

the National Guard, reflected

the state’s militarized

response to immigrant rights

demonstrations in downtown

Los Angeles.

Members of the California

National Guard stand in

formation with riot shields and

batons during protests against

U.S. Immigration and Customs

Enforcement (ICE) in Los

Angeles, June 12, 2025.


No Kings Protest,

New Orleans

Charles Muir Lovell


The Movement, No Kings Protest,

New Orleans, June 14, 2025.

If Kamala Won, No Kings Protest,

New Orleans, June 14, 2025.

3rd Degree Brass Band, No

Kings Protest, New Orleans, June

14, 2025.

Smash the Fascist State, No

Kings Protest, New Orleans, June

14, 2025.

This series documents the

No Kings Protest in New

Orleans, Louisiana on June

14, 2025. Protestors took

to the streets to challenge

President Trump and his

administration in New Orleansstyle

with unique costumes and

signs. Chants, crowds, and collective

outrage filled the streets of the

Marigny neighborhood as protesters

joined thousands nationwide

in the “No Kings” marches. The

protest in New Orleans paralleled

the satire-fueled rejection of monarchy

found at the heart of Mardi

Gras. Drawing visual and cultural

parallels to the city’s second line

parades—traditions rooted in Black

resistance and celebration—this

portfolio focuses on how public

procession becomes a space of

both joy and defiance.


A profile of

two photojournalists

as they document the

war in Ukraine as

partners and parents

Love & War

A profile of Oksana Parafeniuk and Brendan Hoffman

By Alice Currey

As partners in both work

and life, photojournalists

Brendan Hoffman

and Oksana Parafeniuk

share a unique journey

marked by courage

and an incredible

devotion to documenting the ongoing

war in Ukraine and bearing witness to

history as it unfolds. However, away

from the front lines and behind the

camera, they take on more profound

challenges amid conflict: those of

the everyday realities and demanding

responsibilities of raising a child.

Drawing from two separate interviews—one

with Hoffman and another

with Parafeniuk—this profile explores

what it means to live, love, and raise a

child, all while committed to documenting

war.

American photographer Brendan

Hoffman never figured he’d be a photojournalist,

let alone document one of

the most pivotal wars of the 21 st century.

Hoffman’s career began while based

in Washington, DC, covering protests

and high-profile events on Capitol Hill.

Over time, and as his work gained

momentum, Hoffman eventually secured

several assignments with major publications,

leading him to photograph global

events, including the aftermath of the

2010 Haiti earthquake.

The next major milestone in his career

saw Hoffman traveling to Ukraine during

the Maidan Revolution of 2014, a

popular uprising for democracy and

integration of Ukraine with the European

Union (EU). It began after the Ukrainian

President Viktor Yanukovych refused

to sign a political association and free

trade agreement with the EU, instead

choosing closer relations with Russia.

Like many, Hoffman initially viewed

the Maidan Revolution as just another

demonstration, unaware that later

on, Russia would invade Ukraine. As

tensions grew and the uprising shifted,

Hoffman began traveling to Eastern

Ukraine, unintentionally positioning

himself at the beginning of a turning

point in history: of what is not only a

geopolitical assault on Ukraine but a

direct provocation to national borders

worldwide and the very principle of

democratic sovereignty.

The Russian-Ukrainian War has

become one of the most widely covered

conflicts in contemporary politics, luring

journalists from around the world to

document its painful realities. Instead of

parachuting into the conflict—dropping


Oksana shelters in the subway

with her four-month-old son, Luka,

in Kyiv. That day, Russia attacked

Ukraine with a wave of 84 cruise

missiles and 24 suicide drones.

Russian missiles struck 14 regions of

Ukraine, with the capital Kyiv being

the most targeted. 10.10.2022.

into a hotspot only to leave shortly

after— Hoffman dedicated himself

to documenting the full arc of the

war, a dedication that has kept him

in Ukraine for the past 11 years.

It was while documenting the

Maidan Revolution in 2014 that

Hoffman met and fell in love

with Oksana Parafeniuk. Now

a Ukrainian photojournalist,

Parafeniuk began her career as

a fixer, coordinating between the

local communities and foreign

correspondents—one of whom

was Hoffman. Parafeniuk shifted

her career to photojournalism in

2017, but Russia’s full-scale invasion

of Ukraine in 2022 propelled

her work into a new urgency. She

began collaborating closely with

leading photojournalists, including

her now-husband, Hoffman, to

document the harrowing realities

of war in her country. Amid the

onslaught of Russia’s invasion and

bound by a shared passion for

photography, together Hoffman and

Parafeniuk learned to navigate the conflict

not just as photojournalists but as

partners and soon-to-be parents.

“The experience of war is unlike

anything else. There are a lot of contradictions

and complexities of war. In a

certain way, life can be completely normal,

and then in other ways, life is totally

different and absurd. This is an experience

that is so fundamental to war and

so hard to explain. My photography is a

way of communicating to people what

war really means,” said Hoffman.

moments of joy and enduring hope.

As photojournalists, they’ve grappled

with the emotional and moral weight of

documenting conflict, constantly questioning

their role as storytellers and the

responsibilities that come with bearing

witness to violence. However, what was

an already complex calculation, and

amid the turmoil of war, they welcomed

their first child, Luka, while stepping into

the demanding role of parenthood.

Now, as a mother covering the war,

Parafeniuk found herself balancing the

complexities of motherhood with the

challenges of working as a photojournalist

in Ukraine. Throughout most of her

pregnancy, Parafeniuk and Hoffman

remained in Ukraine, continuing their

work as photojournalists. While they

largely stayed away from the front lines,

their commitment to documenting the

war and its impact on everyday life

never wavered. Even when Parafeniuk

turned down numerous high-risk assignments

from major publications to prioritize

both her own safety and the safety

of her unborn child, she continued to

dedicate herself to documenting the

Ukrainian resilience and quiet realities



away from the front lines. When the time

came to give birth, the couple traveled

to Poland, only to return with their newborn

to Kyiv shortly after.

Motherhood, as Parafeniuk came

to understand, would occupy a complicated

space in her line of work,

demanding emotional resilience and a

constant balancing of her personal and

professional worlds. She came to realize

that motherhood provided her with

unique access to certain stories, even

as it limited her ability to pursue others.

Rather, Parafeniuk channeled this limitation,

now shifting her focus to long-term,

community-driven stories, documenting

the seemingly quieter but equally

profound experience of war away from

the front lines.

For Hoffman, parenthood and war

became so intertwined that he often

finds it difficult to separate the two.

“I don’t know what it would be like

to be living in this war without being a

parent, and I don’t know what it would

be like to be a parent without living in

this war,” he admits.

Being both a father and journalist

has proven to be demanding,

The Challenges and

Beauty of Parenthood

Since the outbreak of war in 2022, the

couple has experienced a whirlwind

of shifting realities, marked not only by

hardship and uncertainty but also by

Anti-government protesters guard the perimeter of Independence Square, known as

Maidan, on February 19, 2014, in Kyiv. After several weeks of calm, violence has again

flared between police and anti-government protesters, who are calling for the ouster of

President Viktor Yanukovych over corruption and an abandoned trade agreement with the

European Union. Photo by Brendan Hoffman.


Oksana Parafeniuk on assignment, documenting the aftermath of a bombed power plant in

Ukraine. Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka. 2024.

yet together, they have reshaped

Hoffman’s approach and priorities

while documenting the war in Ukraine.

Like Parafeniuk, Hoffman rarely takes

unnecessary risks, documenting at a distance

from the front lines and avoiding

extended periods away from home.

“I’m not worried about my career.

I’m doing the job I need to do. First and

foremost, I need to make sure that I’m

around for my family, both long-term

and on a day-to-day level.”

As both photojournalists and parents,

Hoffman and Parafeniuk have

had to navigate immense responsibilities.

The responsibility of parenthood,

uniquely challenging under normal

circumstances, takes on an even greater

weight in a country consumed by

conflict. Despite the significant challenges,

the birth of their son has become

a source of strength that drives their

commitment to documenting the war in

Ukraine, in the hopes that one of their

images will help to change the course of

the war and build some semblance of a

peaceful future.

Although their shared profession

appears challenging at times, it offers

a rare and intimate understanding

between them. The emotionally and

physically taxing demands of photojournalism

have forced Hoffman and

Parafeniuk to develop new systems of

navigating daily life as parents.

“One of us has to be there,” Oksana

explains. “For example, if he got an

assignment first, and then I got an

assignment, he would take the assignment.

It’s first-come, first-served.”

While Hoffman and Parafeniuk are

bound by their careers, their relationship,

their duty as parents, and the responsibilities

that come with all three, they also

face their own individual challenges.

Although they both seek to document the

war in Ukraine, they do so through two

distinct lenses: Hoffman, an American

who had come to the conflict initially as

an outsider, and Oksana, a Ukrainian

whose homeland is under siege.

When documenting a conflict as

an outsider, there is a general stigma

associated with it that is often rooted in

questions of authenticity and exploitation.

Hoffman believes that having lived

in Ukraine for over a decade, and now

with a Ukrainian wife and son, provides

him with a unique and more grounded

perspective compared to other non-

Ukrainian journalists. Despite his relation

to Ukraine, Hoffman often relies on

Parafeniuk to see the war through her

eyes, making her essential to confronting

and understanding his own prejudices

while covering the war.

Two photojournalists

documenting one

war through different

worlds

“But, at the same time. I use Oksana

as my check on whether I understand

what’s going on here. Am I internalizing

a Russian narrative? How do most

Ukrainians view this war? Am I missing

something? I don’t have my finger

exactly on the pulse the way that she

does.” Hoffman remarked.

Parafeniuk, on the other hand,

grapples with maintaining an objective

depiction of the war that aligns with

journalistic standards while simultaneously

pushing for an independent

Ukraine. Through her work with foreign

journalists as a fixer, she began to

notice the subtle yet significant difference

in how they perceived and

Brendan Hoffman with his son in Moldova for the first time. Photo by Oksana Parafeniuk, May

2023.


First-grade children walk out from the underground school

after the first day of classes for their parents to meet them in

Kharkiv on September 2, 2024. Schools in Kharkiv have been

mostly online since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion in

February of 2022. Photo by Oksana Parafeniuk.

narrated the war. Even in something

as small as word choice, she describes

how some people define the war as the

“conflict in Ukraine” versus the “Russian

invasion of Ukraine.” Reflecting on this,

she acknowledges the complexities of

navigating journalistic neutrality as a

Ukrainian herself:

“I don’t believe true objectivity

in journalism exists because we all

interpret events through the lens of our

own experiences and backgrounds. So

as a Ukrainian, I react more sensitively

to things. I believe in

accuracy and fairness.”

Parafeniuk stated.

Rather than seeing

her identity as a

limitation, Parafeniuk

has come to embrace

it—using her perspective

and sensitivities as a

Ukrainian to inform and

strengthen her storytelling.

That confidence, in

part, fueled her to overcome

barriers within

photojournalism that once

felt insurmountable.

Raised in Ukraine

and then working as a fixer among

leading journalists, Parafeniuk found

herself surrounded by the notion that

photojournalism was mostly a maledominated

field. Whether among

colleagues or soldiers, it seemed to her

that no one took her seriously, making

the path towards photojournalism more

daunting. However, as Oksana took

on more assignments and documented

more stories, she learned to navigate

the complexities of a male-dominated

industry.

Selfie of Brendan Hoffman and Oksana

Parafeniuk in Ukraine. 9.12.2022.

“Most of the time, I was just a girl

with a camera, but sometimes it helped

me get better access, not because I was

abusing the fact that I’m a woman, but

because of the way people perceive

you as a woman.” Parafeniuk shared.

Through war, love, and parenthood,

Hoffman and Parafeniuk have learned to

balance personal sacrifice with professional

duty, knowing that neither can

come at the complete expense of the

other. Though it may be difficult to realize,

their son has illuminated the delicacies of

life, moments of joy and love that war so

often disrupts. With determination and a

commitment to journalistic duty, Hoffman

and Parafeniuk are also shaping a life of

their own—one that, despite all odds, is

filled with love and hope.


BOOK

REVIEWS

BLOOD BONDS:

RECONCILIATION IN

POST-GENOCIDE RWANDA

By Jan Banning and Dick

Wittenberg with an essay on

forgiveness by Marjan Slob

Lecturis, Eindhoven, 2025

160 pages, 35€

A

man and woman sit on a wooden

bench. She puts his hand on his,

but her gaze trails off frame. They

are Marianna and Marc, who both

live in the same village in the Karongi

district of Rwanda. This is the cover of

Jan Banning and Dick Wittenberg’s new

book Blood Bonds: Reconciliation in

Post-Genocide Rwanda. Later on, we

will learn that Marianna lost her entire

extended family in the 1994 genocide

in Rwanda, and that Marc was involved

in the murder of her sister. Turning back

to her hand on his and to her gaze

somewhere else, one wonders – could

she ever forgive?

At the heart of Blood Bonds is the

question of whether real reconciliation

can follow the darkest moments

of humanity. To answer this question in

Rwanda would mean hope for many

other places, as the specific unspeakable

horrors of this genocide in 1994

leave forgiveness as unimaginable. Jan

Banning’s photographs and journalist

Dick Wittenberg’s interviews, writing,

and reporting, form together a broadspanning

dossier of mutual life after

devastation.

The photographs in Blood Bonds are

portraits of survivors and perpetrators,

pairs who through community-based

sociotherapy, have, to one degree or

another, reconciled. They are neighbors

who have seemingly repaired trust

in the aftermath of one of humanity’s

darkest chapters. The photographs

themselves are powerful, in their lighting

and composition, but even more

striking is the act itself, of survivor and

perpetrator posing together. It knocks

the wind out of you.

The question of forgiveness informs

the framing of the portraits. In nearly all

of the photographs, Banning positions

his camera in a manner that centers

the subjects, which, given the book’s

format, means that the gutter separates

pairs into two opposite pages.

A shared frame on individual pages –

this illustrates the central contradiction

of the book: that reconciliation does

exist and that some things are unforgivable.

None represent this contradiction

photographically quite like the

image of Solange and Elie. Solange,

the 23-year-old daughter of the man

who killed Elie’s family, was born after

the genocide, while Elie survived it at

only ten years old. In the photograph,

Solange stands behind a sitting Elie.

She holds on to her cardigan, fingers

at her chest, as though exposing for

the camera what she holds in her

heart. She stands behind Elie, but not

exactly, as their faces are separated

onto opposing sides of the gutter. And

at the same time, Solange’s face is

reflected in the gloss of the opposite

page, creating a ghostly second image

right above Elie. She is simultaneously

with him and in opposition, reconciled

and apart.

The only two images in Blood Bonds

that are not portraits of pairs are the

first two in the book, separated from

each other by only a few pages. The

second one is the only image in the

book not of people at all: piles and

piles of clothes, fabrics of different

colors, covered by a reddish-brown

tone, like blood coppered by time. This

image of fabrics rather than of people

stands for those who did not survive the

genocide, the ones whose testimonies

we will never hear. On the other hand,

the first image in the book focuses on

life. On one half of the frame, young

kids look into the camera; the only

people in the whole book not identified

as Tutsi or Hutu, but as Rwandan.

Simultaneously they represent the

age of some the survivors during the

genocide, and, as well, a hope for the

future. On the other side of the frame,

printed on the opposite page, is a path.

To where it leads, we don’t know.

While Banning’s photographs are

able to capture incredible moments

which speak to longer journeys, they

highlight as well the imperfections of the

photographic document. The camera

can speak only certain truths: in this

instance, that pairs of survivors and

perpetrators were in the same room

together. By knowing the methodology

of the project, thanks to Wittenberg’s

writing, we know as well that they chose

to be there and to position themselves

as they saw fit. What the camera cannot

reveal is their internal worlds. We will

never be able to know whether real

reconciliation was achieved, but the

book is enough to give us hope – which

in these times is necessary.

—Dana Melaver




TARRAFAL

João Pina

GOST Books |2024 | 284 pages

$80.00

João Pina’s new book, Tarrafal, joins

a lineage of documentary projects

that mine archives and family history

to challenge the silence of past atrocities.

It bears witness to the horrific years of

António de Oliveira Salazar’s fascist rule

in Portugal and its colonies, focusing on

the infamous concentration camp established

in 1936 on the island of Santiago,

in Cape Verde. Known as Tarrafal, it was

where Portuguese political and social

rebels and dissidents were sent. Inspired

by the Nazi camps, its intent was to

annihilate Portuguese and African

opponents of the Salazar dictatorship.

Prisoners were tortured, starved, and

forced to perform intense physical labor

under the hot West African sun until they

were released or died.

Pina’s grandfather, Guilherme da

Costa Carvalho, was one of those political

prisoners sent to Tarrafal in 1949.

Pina, a Portuguese documentary

photographer known for his work on

war, conflict, and human rights began

working on this personal project in 2019

after opening a shoebox of family relics:

photographs, negatives, contact sheets,

and letters exchanged between his

grandfather and great grandfather, Luiz

Alves de Carvalho. Among the photographs

were ones taken by his great

grandparents, when in 1949 they were

inexplicitly allowed to visit their son in

Tarrafal. They brought their camera to

photograph their son and his fellow

prisoners, with the intent to share those

images with fellow family members,

unknowingly creating an extraordinary

historical record.

These straightforward portraits of the

prisoners anchor the book. They are the

first images we see: strong, unbowed,

defiant men willing to risk freedom to

fight fascism. Their presence and their

political voices resonate throughout the

book.

Tarrafal is less a conventional photobook

than a dialogue with the past, a

reckoning with the afterlife of colonialism

and fascism. It is both intensely personal

and rigorously political. The story

of Tarrafal remains relatively unknown—

Google it and the images that pop up

are of beautiful beaches and clear blue

water—so the book functions as witness,

evidence, and memory. Pina interweaves

letters and telegrams between

his grandfather and great grandfather,

other written artifacts and historical

images with his current photographs of

tourist Tarrafal and relics of the camp’s

site, now the Resistance Museum.

This layered structure—interlacing the

familial and the national, the intimate

and the systemic—works because Pina

exercises restraint. He allows history to

reveal itself through the letters and other

written documents. His present-day

photographs are quiet and contemplative

with a subdued color palette and

deliberate compositions. His mages of

ferry passengers, beautiful beaches,

gorgeous light, and serene landscapes

stand in stark contrast to his photographs,

rendered with forensic precision, of the

place itself with its crumbling walls, rusted

locks, and the traces of human suffering.

Still life images of prisoner artifacts such

as a carved elephant, a violin, and chess

pieces the prisoners made from bread,

extend the emotional range of his work.

Pina shows us how images of absence

can speak as powerfully as images of

presence.

One of the most remarkable and

haunting sequences lies at its center.

Double gatefolds open to panoramic

spreads of Herculana Carvalhjo (Pina’s

great grandmother) placing flowers on

the graves of the 32 political prisoners

who died in the camp between 1936

and 1948. Her dance-like gestures and

occasional sly glances at the camera

read as contemporary performance art,

an improvised collaboration between

photographer and performer that transforms

mourning into resistance.

Mixing text and photographs can

enhance both and this book does that

extremely well, particularly in the current

day letters that Pina writes to both

his grandfather and great grandfather,

mirroring the letters they wrote to each

other. He introduces himself and his

life, inquires about their activities and

wonders what their opinions would be

about current political events. He writes

that he started this project “…in the hope

of getting to know you a bit better and

learning something from what you teach

us through your fight.”

Pina even tracks down some of the

living prisoners from Tarrafal. These

interviews and photographs complete

the time axis and reminds us again of

what photography does well. It reaches

back into history and forces us to confront

realities that we would prefer to

forget. These memories of Tarrafal have

a particularly urgent feel today as rightwing

politics and fascist tendencies are

on the ascendency across the Western

world. Tarrafal stands as both a testament

and a warning that what was

buried can still speak, and that silence,

once broken, carries the force of truth.

—Michelle Bogre


OCCUPIED TERRITORIES:

Stories From the West Bank,

Gaza, and Lebanon

by Fabio Bucciarelli

Dario Cimorelli Editore, 2025

45€ | 180 pages

A

burdened sigh of relief exhaled

across the Middle East on October

13. Following two years of relentless

conflict, Hamas and Israel brokered

a ceasefire deal, offering a precarious

moment of respite amid Palestinian suffering.

However, the cessation of current

violence, while welcome, feels tenuous

given the weight of history, as ceasefires

and promises have proven untenable since

1948. Peace has long remained elusive.

Italian photographer Fabio Bucciarelli

is one of many voices who remind us of

the years of unimaginable loss– the lives

that were sacrificed, children murdered,

elders starved, hospitals bombed, activists

detained, olive trees excavated, families

displaced, and homes reduced to mere

rubble. It is in this light that Bucciarelli’s

Occupied Territories provides an insight

into the recurrence of Israeli incursions

and occupations, offering an understanding

of the precariousness of this current

flurry of diplomatic success.

Few have captured Israel’s longstanding

occupation and the profound

human cost it continues to exact, with the

depth and persistence of photojournalist

Bucciarelli. For over a decade, Bucciarelli

followed Israel’s occupation across Gaza,

the West Bank, and Lebanon. While his

culminating photobook attempts to avoid

politicizing suffering or cast accusation,

it is difficult to make such restraint given

Israel’s relentless conduct of war in Gaza.

The photobook stands as a testament to

the recurring violence, displacement, and

loss, offering a profoundly human lens

through which to understand and empathize

with the consequences of occupation.

Bucciarelli’s book comprehensively

tracks the history of Israeli occupation,

exposing that the current conflict is not

an isolated war but rather a continuation

of decades of systematic oppression.

Published in 2025, Occupied Territories


bridges the past and

present, reminding viewers

that today’s grief is

rooted in a long and

deliberate history.

Occupied Territories

is divided into three

sections, each with a

distinct identity, guided

by color and geographical

focus. The use of

color, or rather the lack

thereof, appoints each

section with a visual identity, reflecting

the experiences of occupation within their

given region. Following an introduction

by Fabio Tonacci and an interview with

Andrea Tinterri, the first section examines

the occupation in the West Bank and is

presented in black-and-white. The monochrome

imbues a profound stillness and

gravity to the images: resistance fighters

assembling, women mourning, people

returning to prayer, and elders, who have

long witnessed the enduring occupation,

tending to the olive tree gardens.

The subsequent section, documenting the

occupation of Gaza, alternates between

black-and-white and color images, creating

visual pauses while amplifying the emotional

intensity and spirit of Palestinian resistance.

To create distinction beyond color,

Bucciarelli incorporates pinhole photographs:

a characteristic of his work, serving

as a visual transition and break within the

immediacy of the surrounding images. The

images in this section capture clashes at the

Israel-Gaza border, commemorations honoring

the murder of journalists, and the raw

grief of families recovering loved ones from

beneath the rubble. They are charged with

resistance, their intimacy laid bare, literally

to the bones.

In the final section on

Lebanon, color dominates,

creating a visual

climax that mirrors the

intensity and dissonance

of occupation– explosions,

bombardment,

death, and devastation– all documented

in vivid, unrelenting detail. The images

are explosive, their hues amplifying the

intensity of grief and emotion. You can

almost hear the weeping mothers and the

shifting of rubble, you can feel the crowds

congregating, and smell the ash and dust.

As a young Lebanese woman raises her

hand to cover her nose, you too cover

yours–an example of how images forge

genuine connections and encourage natural

empathy.

Dedicated “to those who never stop

fighting for freedom, [and] to those who

lost their lives pursuing it,” this book transcends

a mere photographic account; it

becomes an archive of memory and resistance,

documenting humanitarian crimes

and disproportionate violence while

honoring the enduring resilience and defiance

of Palestinians. The images alone are

intimate, provocative, tender, heartbreaking,

and beautiful, and together form a

profound and comprehensive portrait of

occupation– not only in its historical and

geographical dimensions but in its deep

and lasting impact on the lives, identities,

and future of a Palestine free from further

Israeli occupation.

—Alice Currey

Clashes between Muslim

worshippers and Israeli army

soldiers outside the Al-Aqsa

Mosque in Jerusalem, ahead

of the prayer on the last

Friday of Ramadan.

Content Contributors

Barbara Ayotte is the senior

editor of ZEKE magazine and the

Communications Director of the Social

Documentary Network. She has served

as a senior strategic communications

strategist, writer, and activist for leading

global health, human rights, and media

nonprofit organizations, including the

Nobel Peace Prize- winning Physicians

for Human Rights and International

Campaign to Ban Landmines.

David Bacon is a photographer based

in Oakland and Berkeley, California.

David Bacon was a factory worker and

union organizer for two decades with

the United Farm Workers, the International

Ladies Garment Workers, and

other unions. Today he documents the

changing conditions in the workforce,

the impact of the global economy, war

and migration, and the struggle for human

rights. He is the author of several

books about migration and his work has

been published and exhibited internationally.

As a photojournalist, David

Bacon has been documenting the lives

of farm workers since 1988.

Edward Boches is a Boston and

Cape Cod-based documentary photographer

whose work explores diverse

communities including inner-city boxers,

former gang members, BLM activists,

transgender men and women, pro-life

and pro-choice advocates, women

shellfishers, and homeless writers. His

work has been exhibited in museums

and galleries, distributed internationally

by the Associated Press, and published

widely. In 2021–22, Boches received

multiple grants for public art projects

supporting small businesses, local arts

initiatives, and communities impacted by

gentrification.

Michelle Bogre, Professor Emerita,

Parsons School of Design, is a teacher,

copyright lawyer, documentary photographer

and author of four books: Photography

As Activism: Images for Social

Change, Photography 4.0: A Teaching

Guide for the 21st Century, Documentary

Photography Reconsidered: History,

Theory and Practice, and The Routledge

Companion to Copyright and Creativity

in the 21st Century. She regularly lectures,

writes and teaches workshops on copyright

and photography. Her photographs

and/or writings have been published in

books, including the Time-Life Annual Photography

series, The Family of Women,

Beauty Bound, The Design Dictionary and

photographer Trey Ratcliffe’s monograph,

Light Falls like Bits. She is currently trying

to finish a long term documentary project

on family farms, published on Instagram

as @thefarmstories.

Alice Currey recently graduated from

New York University with an individualized

major in photojournalism,

specifically its use in conflict resolution

and collective security. Having spent

her childhood in Kenya and her teen

years in Uzbekistan, she has adopted a

cultural insight and empathy that uniquely

understand the power of visual storytelling

in implementing global change. As

both a writer, photographer, and editor,

she hopes to contribute to preserving the

practice and integrity of photojournalism.

Álvaro Diaz is a photographer and

sound artist, who earned a PhD in

Musicology in Buenos Aires, and is currently

a professor and researcher at the

Autonomous University of Baja California.

With a background in music, Diaz’s

documentary photography captures raw

emotions, spontaneous gestures, rhythm,

detail, those in-between moments that

say more than posed ones. Diaz currently

contributes to two international

photo agencies, SOPA Images (Hong

Kong) and ZUMA Press (USA).

Robin Fader is a Washington, DCbased,

multi-Emmy award-winning

commercial producer and photographer.

Her career has allowed her to split

her time among corporate portraiture,

advertising and documentary photography

projects. Currently her documentary

focus is on activism, protests, social

justice and pro-democracy themed

photography, particularly as it relates to

reproductive freedoms. Robin’s photos

have been featured in several publications

and media outlets and have

been exhibited internationally. She has

also co-authored the award-winning

documentary photography book 2020

Unmasked.

Daniel Eugene Kaminski is a photographer,

poet, visual artist, and drag

performer from Bethany, CT, now based

in Ridgewood, Queens. A recent graduate

of the Documentary Practices and

Visual Journalism program at the International

Center of Photography, Eugene

embraces photography as a personal

anthropology of a lifetime. His work

emphasizes themes of future history, human

beings, as-is-ness, and an inside-out

point of view, using a documentary style

to reflect on the phenomenon of everyday

life.

Born in Chicago, Charles Lovell lives

and works in New Orleans. He holds

an MFA and a BS in photography, from

Central Washington University and East

Texas State University. Upon moving to

New Orleans he began documenting the

city’s second line parades, social aid and

pleasure clubs, and jazz funerals, capturing

and preserving for posterity a unique

and vibrant part of Louisiana’s rich

cultural heritage. His photographs have

been exhibited nationally and internationally,

are in several permanent collections

and have won numerous awards.

Kevin McKeon is a documentary

photographer and writer focused on

stories that enlighten, inspire, and challenge

our world view. After 30 years

as a highly awarded advertising writer,

creative director, and ad agency leader,

Kevin turned his creative eye to photography

in 2019. Since then, his work has

been chosen for the permanent collection

of the New York Historical Society,

has been represented at the International

Center of Photography, featured

in ZEKE Magazine, published by SDN,

and is the subject of a book entitled Life,

According to Rodeo.

Dana Melaver is a writer and artist.

Her work is rooted in the belief that

everything is interesting, and often acts

as a bridge among art, thought, and the

sciences. Dana’s most recent projects

include an experimental documentary

about sustainable aquaculture, and an

ode to the mischievous qualities of light.

Continued on page 64.


BRIEFLY

NOTED

EDITED BY ALICE CURREY

THE WAY BACK

By Bruce Davidson

Steidl, 2025

144 pages | 48€

Consisting solely of previously

unpublished photographs, The

Way Back examines Bruce

Davidson’s 60-year career. The book

chronologically presents photos made

between 1957 and 1992, showcasing

Davidson’s exceptional versatility—from

his earliest assignments to later seminal

works including his year-long study of

teenage members of a Brooklyn Gang

(1959), his extensive coverage of the

American Civil Rights Movement in

Time of Change (1961–65), and his

breakthrough portraits of the residents

of a single block in Harlem in East

100th Street (1966–68). Series such

as Subway (1980) and Central Park

(1992) furthermore confirm Davidson as

a quintessential chronicler of New York

City. What emerges through this retrospective

is Davidson’s sensibility and

empathy, his commitment to documenting

his subjects in depth over time, and

capturing their beliefs, communities, and

subcultures. While many photographed

events that constituted history, Davidson

focused on the people within these histories.

Drawing near the end of his long

career, Davidson offers this book as a

parting look at his artistic passage, an

elegiac goodbye as well as a requiem:

evidence of how his vision shaped our

understanding of the world.




WONDERLAND:

Brooklyn 2007 - 2023

By Valery Rizzo

Kehrer, 2025 | 128 pages | 48€

Valery Rizzo began her personal

series on Brooklyn after an illness

that limited her mobility, which

inspired her to work with toy cameras.

This simple and accessible technique

allowed her to spontaneously capture

unique moments and people in the city.

Wonderland: Brooklyn 2007–2023

also documents the transformation

of Brooklyn, where the new coexists

harmoniously with the old. With photographs

spanning nearly twenty years

and a foreword by the award-winning

photographer Claudio Edinger, the

project embodies Rizzo’s deep-rooted

connection to her hometown. Rizzo

is a Brooklyn-based photographer.

Her work has been exhibited worldwide,

including at the Museum of the

City of New York, Photoville, and the

Powerhouse Arena. She was a finalist in

the 2021 Urban Book Awards and the

Urban Photo Awards in Trieste, Italy.

CUBA. ON A GIVEN DAY

By Anneke Wambaugh /Claire

Garoutte

Kehrer, 2025 | 112 pages | 45€

Claire Garoutte and Anneke

Wambaugh, acclaimed documentary

and street photographers living

in Seattle, Washington, have worked

together in Cuba since 1996 to document

the daily lives of the Cuban people,

their traditions, and the changes the

country has undergone over the years.

Candid, unadorned black-and-white

images reveal humorous, enigmatic, and

often surreal moments of everyday life

in Cuba, opening our eyes to the many

different realities of this multifaceted

country. By eschewing technical gimmicks

and concentrating on the essentials,

the two photographers manage

to authentically capture the fascinating

soul of Cuba. This collection dwells in a

space between familiarity and foreignness.

The images, taken both during and

long after an intensive research project

about Afro-Cuban religion, eventually

coalesced into a narrative about the

people and places the photographers

had come to know. Their long-term

commitment allowed Garoutte and

Wambaugh to build profound connections,

resulting in images of unparalleled

authenticity.

THE HUNTER FROM

ITTOQQORTOOMIIT:

Tradition and Survival in

Greenland

By Ragnar Axelsson

Kehrer, 2025

240 pages | 80€

In his fourth publication at Kehrer

Verlag, Icelandic photographer

Ragnar Axelsson presents a poignant

visual narrative of a vanishing way of

life in one of the world’s most remote

settlements. Over a span of thirty-five

years, Axelsson has documented the

life of Hjelmer Hammeken, a hunter

from Ittoqqortoormiit, a village nestled

by the vast Kangertittivaq fjord in East

Greenland. Through evocative blackand-white

photographs, Axelsson

captures the enduring traditions of Arctic

hunters, their deep connection to the

land, and the stark realities they face

amid changing times. The images reflect

the resilience of a community where

hunting is not just a livelihood but a way

of life, now challenged by isolation,

climate change, and socio-economic

shifts. Axelsson’s work has been internationally

recognized, including honors

from the Leica Oskar Barnack Award

and the Prix Pictet.

UNYIELDING FLOODS

By Peter Caton

Dewi Lewis, 2025

120 pages | 40€

In Unyielding Floods, Peter Caton

photographs villagers protecting

their homes and livelihoods against

the ongoing catastrophic floods in

South Sudan. Over five years, Peter

captured the struggles of the villagers,

their resilience, and their heartache.

The rise of flooding emerged in South

Sudan during a time of extreme tension

as the country struggled to heal from

a recent civil war. Villagers became

trapped by new water borders, unable

to flee outbreaks of civil unrest. Other

villages were destroyed by the floods,

creating massive displacement. Refugee

camps became cut off by water. Crops

failed as livestock perished, increasing

widespread famine, but the hearts of

the people remained resilient as they

transformed their riverside villages into

proficient canoe-commuting communities.

The work also documents a new

hope, capturing innovative programs

such as introducing rice farming. There

is sadly no sign of the water receding.

The images that Peter has captured are

a heartbreaking reality for the people

in South Sudan, a heartbreaking reality

that deserves public awareness. The

work followed on from an assignment

commissioned by the non-profit Action

Against Hunger and has continued to

raise crucial awareness and funding.

FLASHPOINT: Protest

Photography in Print 1950-

Present

by Russet Lederman and Olga

Yatskevich

10x10 Photobooks | 576 pages | 80€

The past seventy-five years have

been a time of extreme social and

cultural transformations. Political

and social upheaval, often contentious,

disorienting, and polarizing, is now a

daily reality—migration crises, territorial

disputes, gender inequity, class divisions,

racism, war, gun violence, or environmental

concerns—we live in a world rife

with ideological and tribal conflicts.

Since its inception, photography has

captured defining historical moments,

serving as a tool and a document of protest.

Flashpoint! explores the diverse roles

and varying aesthetics that photography

in print undertakes in its support of protest

and resistance. Whether outright rage or

a more subtle artist-driven commentary,

protest photography in print transcends

rigid media definitions, as it blurs the lines

between what constitutes a book, zine,

journal, poster, or newspaper.


BRIEFLYNOTED

CONTINUED

AUSCHWITZ BIRKENAU

By Juergen Teller

Steidl, 2025

448 pages | 36€

Before the 80th anniversary of the

liberation of the Nazi concentration

and extermination camp

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Juergen Teller,

Dovile Drizyte, and Gerhard Steidl travelled

there at the invitation of Christoph

Heubner, writer and Executive Vice

President of the International Auschwitz

Committee. They spent days walking

through the memorial sites. Teller photographed

what he saw: barracks and

tracks, gas chambers and latrines, electric

fences, drawings, photos, and messages

documenting the lives and deaths

of the prisoners, but also mundane

things like parking signs and souvenir

stores, visitors and buses. Everything in

these images lost its innocence, even the

grass, birch trees, berries, and winter

sunlight streaming through windows.

Each detail captured is a trace of the

world of the victims and their perpetrators,

part of the horror and reality of this

190-hectare factory in which more than

1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were

murdered. Teller’s photographs preserve

what is there, past and present. Heubner

adds memories, quotes, and impressions

from his decades of encounters and

conversations with survivors.

PASTORALIST HOMES

By Winfried Bullinger

Steidl, 2025

232 pages | 54€

Winfried Bullinger’s extensive photographic

archive of vernacular

architecture from Eastern and

Central Africa is a long-term project

Bullinger has dedicated himself to since

2008. His portraits of African pastoralists’

diverse homes—including tents,

open dwellings, and huts—preserve

Indigenous architectural traditions

that have been largely overlooked in

the post-colonial era and are today

threatened by changing ways of life.

His images, made with a large-format

camera and the silver-gelatin technique,

are born from a dialogue with the

inhabitants and reveal architecture as a

direct response, refined over centuries,

to a people’s specific environment and

culture. Bullinger’s vision echoes Bernd

and Hilla Becher’s systematic approach

to photographing architectural types,

yet his focus is solely on architecture as

dwelling. Although barely any inhabitants

are visible in his images, Bullinger

records their many traces; his perspective

is shaped by how they use and view

their homes, and he rejects ideal lighting

for the unpredictable changing light of

day. The result is a valuable record of

rapidly disappearing African architectural

heritage.

BALTIMORE

By Devin Allen

Steidl, 2025

176 pages | 45€

Devin Allen rose to fame in 2015

when his photograph of the

Baltimore uprising following the

death of Freddie Gray at the hands of

police was published on the cover of

Time Magazine. Since then, Allen continued

to photograph the fight for social

justice in Baltimore, creating work that

is not only a tribute to Black resistance

but also a celebration of his community.

Demonstrating his deep commitment

and unwavering pride, his decade-long

project confronts myths and illuminates

what has been made invisible. Central

to much of Allen’s work is a reconsideration

of Black representation. His photographs

are collaborative and serve

as a call for self-realization that allows

for complexity, tension, and contradiction.

Conceived as a personal narrative

about what Allen has called “the texture

of us,” the book encompasses formal

portraits, protests, and street scenes.

These images include texts by Darnell

L. Moore, Salamishah Tillet, and D.

Watkins that provide insight into Allen’s

process and situate his work within the

history of Baltimore.


MUTINY

By Merlin Daleman

Gost, 2025

180 pages | $60

In 2017, photographer Merlin

Daleman embarked on a journey

through the economic North of the

UK. Originally from the West Midlands,

Daleman has lived in the Netherlands

for most of his adult life. Driven by

curiosity to understand the divisions in

the UK made evident in the 2016 Brexit

referendum, he returned to photograph.

Daleman visited over 60 towns and cities

from Aberdeen to Bangor, Blackpool

to Belfast, and from Fife to Skegness. The

images show the urban infrastructure of

boarded-up shopfronts and rainy streets,

canals, and bright seafront businesses.

The people captured as Daleman

passes through are often shown demonstrating

their humor, warmth, fortitude,

and community. The book’s essay by

journalist Niels Posthumus draws upon

an interview with Philip McCann, an

economic geographer at the University

of Manchester, stating that hardly

any other European country experiences

such a stark geographical divide

between rich and poor as the UK. It is

against this backdrop that the Leave

[Brexit] campaign thrived and many

staged a ‘mutiny’.

NEAR DARK

By Chris Dorley-Brown

Dewi Lewis, 2025

96 pages | 40€

Photographed in London, Near

Dark ventures into a mysterious territory,

reflecting a less harmonious

city mood, a fever dream of anxiety and

unpredictability. London is just as alluring

as ever, but now everyone is taking

shelter, keeping out of sight.

Photographed in the hours just before

sunrise or just after sundown and shot in

super high resolution composite format,

the photos explore decaying modernism,

post-industrial landscapes, council

estates in a fugue state of sleep and

serenity, monumental London landmarks

wreathed in a painterly haze.

The images have been made over the

last ten years, during which London has

experienced Olympic euphoria through

the pandemic and chaotic government

policies. The emphasis is on mood and

an attitude amassed over 40 years of

picturing London.

THE CLOUD FACTORY

By Chris Donovan

Gost, 2025

180 pages | 75$

In 2014, photographer Chris Donovan

began documenting his hometown

of Saint John, New Brunswick, on

Canada’s east coast. Saint John is a

small, heavily industrialized city that is

home to Canada’s largest oil refinery,

one of the country’s wealthiest families,

and one of its highest rates of child poverty.

As Donovan began to photograph

the city and its residents—driven to

explore the proximity of extreme wealth

and poverty— he became increasingly

aware of the realities of environmental

classism and ecological injustices in the

city. The photographs in his forthcoming

book show the vibrant neighborhoods

and their inhabitants living in close

proximity to and in the shadows of polluted

industrial sites, and ‘the cloud factory’—an

undefined industrial site which

references both the refinery and a large

pulp mill in the city.


FALL/WINTER 2025 VOL.11/NO.3 $15 US

ZEKE

THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY

PHOTOGRAPHY

Published by Social Documentary Network

ZEKE is published by Social Documentary Network (SDN),

a nonprofit organization promoting visual storytelling about

global themes. Started as a website in 2008, today SDN

works with thousands of photographers around the world to

tell important stories through the visual medium of photography.

Since 2008, SDN has featured more than 4,000 exhibits

on its website and has had gallery exhibitions in major cities

around the world.

Executive Editor: Glenn Ruga

Senior Editor: Barbara Ayotte

Editorial Assistant: Alice Currey

SDN and ZEKE magazine

are projects of Reportage

International, Inc., a nonprofit

organization founded in 2020.

ZEKE does not accept unsolicited

submissions. To be considered for

publication in ZEKE, submit your

work to the SDN website either

as a standard exhibit or a submission

to a Call for Entries.

Reportage

International, Inc.

Board of Directors

Glenn Ruga, President

Eric Luden, Treasurer

Barbara Ayotte, Secretary

Dudley Brooks

Michael Robinson Chavez

John Heffernan

Maggie Soladay

Documentary Advisory

Group

Cathy Edelman, Chicago, IL

Jill Foley, Silver Springs, MD

Lori Grinker, New York, NY

Michael Itkoff, Bronx, NY

Lou Jones, Boston, MA

Ed Kashi, Montclair, NJ

Lekgetho Makola, Johanesburg

Mary Beth Meehan, Providence, RI

Marie Monteleone, New York, NY

Molly Roberts, Washington, DC

Joseph Rodriguez, Brooklyn, NY

Jamel Shabazz, Hempstead, NY

Nichole Sobecki, Kenya

Jamey Stillings, Sante Fe, NM

Steve Walker, Hull, MA

Lauren Walsh, New York, NY

ZEKE is published twice a

year by Social Documentary

Network, a project of Reportage

International, Inc.

Copyright © 2025

Social Documentary Network

ISSN 2381-1390

61 Potter Street

Concord, MA 01742 USA

617- 417- 5981

info@socialdocumentary.net

www.socialdocumentary.net

www.zekemagazine.com

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To Subscribe:

www.zekemagazine.com

Contributors

Continued from page 59.

Julius Constantine Motal is a

photographer, writer, and photo editor,

whose work is primarily in photojournalism.

His photographs have appeared

in the Associated Press, The New

York Times, New York magazine, The

Guardian, and NBC News, among

many others. He attended Eddie Adams

Workshop XXXI in 2018. He works as a

photo editor for The Guardian in New

York, and is available for assignments.

Héctor Adolfo Quintanar Pérez

was born in Mexico City in 1990. He is

a freelance archaeologist and documentary

photographer dedicated to covering

stories about cultural identity and conflict

for national and international media.

His work has been exhibited in more

than 10 countries and is represented by

Getty Images. As a photographer, he

has covered Latin America, the United

States, Peru, Ukraine, and Ethiopia,

among others.

Probal Rashid is a Bangladeshi

documentary photographer and photojournalist

based in Washington DC,

passionate about human rights, social

justice and environmental issues and believes

responsible visual storytelling can

raise critical questions and awareness.

His works have been published in many

prominent national and international

newspapers and magazines, have been

exhibited worldwide and have won

numerous awards globally.

Bailey Elizabeth Rogers is a native

New Yorker and photographer who

captures the world in singular moments:

Moments that raise questions and tell

stories. With a heart that beats for

music, Bailey’s work is inspired by the

melodies that surround her — the visual

music & lyrics of the stage and streets.

Her style blends elements of documentary,

street, macro, architecture, music,

and portrait photography as her work

celebrates the simple beauty in life’s

ordinary and often overlooked subjects

and moments.

Glenn Ruga is a photographer, graphic

designer, and curator. He founded the

Social Documentary Network (SDN) in

2008 and in 2015 launched ZEKE: The

Magazine of Global Documentary. As

a photographer, he has created traveling

and online documentary exhibits

on the struggle for a multicultural future

in Bosnia, the war and aftermath in

Kosovo, and an immigrant community in

Holyoke, Mass.

Photographer and art activist Laurie

Smith explores the complexities of

culture through photography. For over

30 years, she has photographed food,

culture, and travel. She has shot over

35 cookbooks and photographed for

regional and national publications. For

the past five years, she has turned her

eye to something close to her heart. Laurie’s

roots in West Texas pull her to the

U.S.–Mexico border to document what

is unfolding at the border wall.


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ZEKE Magazine: Fall/Winter 2025

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