British Journal of Photography Issue #7886: Journeys August 2019

Our August issue is dedicated to journeys, exploring photographic odysseys from across four continents

From Marcus Lyon’s 22,000 km trip through Brazil to Lisa Barnard’s global investigation into the history of gold and its role in the global economy, and Andy Sewell’s expedition back-and-forth across the Atlantic Ocean, our August issue is dedicated to journeys.

For her latest project, The Canary and the Hammer, Lisa Barnard crossed four continents for a four-year investigation into our ongoing obsession with gold. Barnard explores its enduring allure, links to politico-economic power, and the metal as “a potent symbol of value, beauty, purity, greed and political power”.

Elsewhere, we see work by Prasiit Sthapit, who visited a Nepalese village in limbo after a river shifted course, leaving its people adrift and at the centre of an international boundary dispute, and Andy Sewell, who journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean to explore the imperceptibility of what lies beneath.

2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the Marichjhapi Massacre – the forced eviction of around 1000 Bangladeshi Hindu refugees on Marichjhapi island in Sundarban, West Bengal. Where the Birds never sing by Soumya Sankar Bose combines real-life accounts from survivors with staged images, to keep the memory of those who were affected alive.

We also feature Marcus Lyon’s 22,000 km journey through Brazil. Lyon employs portraits and spoken testimonials to map the visual identity of 100 Brazilians, resulting in an innovative project that embraces new technology to celebrate the diversity of a country.

For this month’s Projects, we feature Lynda Laird’s Dans le Noir, created during a residency in Deauville, France. The series is based on the diary of Odette Brefort, a young French woman who worked for the French resistance during the Second World War. We also feature work by Juan Brenner, who explores colonial tropes in Latin America, and Pascal Vossen, who talks about his work-in-progress on Swedish rockers, and his encounter with a troubled young father named Tommy.

In Agenda, we preview this year’s Cortona On The Move festival in southern Tuscany, and speak to Ian Weldon, who is not a wedding photographer, but almost exclusively shoots weekend nuptials. Johny Pitts, whose Afropean book was recently published by Penguin, features in Any Answers.

This month’s Intelligence section includes Paul Kominek, founder of The Travel Almanac, plus Damien Demolder tests the Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R, the latest and possibly the best full-frame mirrorless camera available.