Picturing War: Ashley Gilbertson, Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini and Jungeun Lee
Sunday, December 11, 6-8pm
Free and open to the public
Contemporary Arts Center
900 Camp Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
While many photographers cover conflict by showing scenes of action and carnage, the three photographers featured on this panel choose to focus on other ways that war can be interpreted through photography. Award winning photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson, 2010 PhotoNOLA Review Prize winner Jungeun Lee and emerging conflict photographer Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini will each present individual slideshows of their work. A group discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize winning photo editor Stella Kramer will follow. The juxtaposition between three unique viewpoints will provide an insightful conversation into war, humanity, and the role of photography in documenting and communicating the effects of conflicts and their aftermath.
Panelists’ Bios
Ashley Gilbertson is a photographer with the VII Network photo agency, and a principal at Shell Shock Pictures. Gilbertson’s photographs from Iraq where he worked from 2002 until 2008, gained him recognition from the Overseas Press Club who awarded Gilbertson the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal. His first book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, was released in 2007. Since then, Gilbertson has been examining veterans issues including Post Traumatic Stress and suicide for Time Magazine, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Times. In 2007, he began working on Bedrooms Of The Fallen, a collection of photographs depicting the intact bedrooms of service members who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. That series was published by The New York Times Magazine, and went on to win the documentary photography National Magazine Award. It will be published in book form in 2012. He lives with his wife and child in New York City.
Jungeun Lee was born in South Korea and received a B.E. from Hoseo University in Korea and a MFA in Photography from University of North Texas. During her study at the University of North Texas, Jungeun discovered a piece of Korean history that she previously had not learned. This discovery led to the research and development of “Silenced Suffering: The Comfort Women Project”. She spent her entire 3 years of her graduate career researching and making work about this unknown history. This year, she completed her MFA exhibition, “Silenced Suffering”, at 500X Gallery in Dallas, Texas. Recently, Jungeun was awarded first place at the PhotoNOLA event in New Orleans, Louisiana. Currently, Jungeun lives and works in Dallas, Texas.
Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini was born in Manhattan in 1986, and moved to Italy when he was four years old, where he lived between Udine and Florence, returning to New York after completing his Italian high school classical studies. In 2009 he graduated with a double major in Media Studies and Photography at the New School (Eugene Lang and Parsons) in New York City. Following his passion for documentary, Sebastiano has traveled extensively on assignment in some of today’s most volatile countries, including Afghanistan, Libya and Pakistan, as well as working on commercial, fashion and editorial projects. A young photographer, based between Manhattan, Italy, Los Angeles and the Middle East, Sebastiano has worked for Paris Match, The Atlantic Magazine, Vogue, TIME, LIFE, The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and many others.
Moderator Stella Kramer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo editor who has worked in the New York publishing industry for more than 15 years, for such major publications as The New York Times, People magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and Brill’s Content. Ms. Kramer worked on some of the major news events in recent history, serving as the photo editor for The New York Times series “Portraits of Grief” memorializing those who lost their lives in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. She was a photo editor for LIFE magazine’s special issue series on the 1990 Gulf War, “LIFE In Time Of War”.
Ms. Kramer has a B.A. in journalism/political science from The Evergreen State College in Washington State. Her awards include the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (both at The New York Times), and the 2002 Infinity Award for Public Service from the International Center of Photography. She regularly lectures, reviews portfolios and is the creator of In The Loupe, a web TV show showcasing photography, as well as consulting photographers on their portfolios, websites and careers.
