Ira Block is an internationally renowned photographer, teacher, and lecturer who has produced over 30 stories for the National Geographic Magazine. He has led National Geographic Photo Workshops, Expeditions, and private workshops to Mongolia, Bhutan, Cuba, and Tibet where students learn about the culture and photographic vision. His documentary photography work is balanced by a stable of commercial clients for whom he shoots portraits and corporate branding. Ira can best be described as a cultural documentary photographer. He uses his cameras and lights to document people around the world, recording the change in traditions and practices. The changes are most often gradual, which is why he returns to a location time after time after time, helping us see these changes and appreciate them through his eyes—and through social media. Over 335,000 people currently follow him on Instagram. For Ira, this has become the new media for documentary photography. He has had photographic exhibitions around the world. As a Sony Artisan of Imagery, Ira is often called upon to comment and give critical feedback on the Sony products he uses to create his work. His latest book Cuba Loves Baseball: A Photographic Journey documents the culture of Cuba through its love for baseball and sports.

 

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Oyako Photo Matsuri is a group exhibition on parents and children at FCCJ (Foreign Correspondences’ Club of Japan).

Lenka Klicperova is a journalist and photographer. She started as a reporter, from 2004 to 2018 she was the editor-in-chief of People and Earth magazine. She has worked in a number of African countries, from Angola to Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She has visited Afghanistan several times as a reporter. It also reached Somalia, plagued by several decades of war.

She has received eleven awards and nominations in the Czech Press Photo competition, both for photographs and video production.

The journalist and photographer Lenka Klicperová started her career as a news reporter. From 2004 till 2018 she worked as editor-in-chief of Lidé a Země magazine, one of the oldest periodicals in the Czech Republic which focuses on reportages from abroad.

Klicperová visited a number of African countries and worked in Angola, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, and DR Congo. She also traveled to Afghanistan several times as a journalist. Since 2014 she has covered the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Since 2016 she has regularly contributed stories and photographs to the Reflex weekly magazine. She is a co-author of several documentary films (Tears of Congo, Latim – Circumcised, Iraqi Women, Women in the Land of the Taliban, and Unbroken) and a number of television reportages. Her work appears in the various printed periodicals and on TV and the radio. She also gives talks on her work and experiences. She has received nine awards and nominations in the Czech Press Photo competition, both for photographs and video production.

In 2010, Mlada Fronta, a Czech publishing house, released a book called Africa Within Us which Klicperová wrote in collaboration with Olga and Václav Šilha and which became a prequel to Africa Within Us II. Her work in Syria resulted in two books entitled In Sight of the Islamic State I and In Sight of the Islamic State II, which were co-authored by Markéta Kutilová. After their first trip to Syria Klicperová and Kutilová started a public fundraiser called SOS to support schools and health care facilities in the northern Syrian town of Kobani.

In 2018 Klicperová and Kutilová published their third joint book In the War. It tells stories of people affected by the war in Iraq and Syria.

In 2018 Forbes magazine (Czech edition) rated Klicperová among the 18 most inspiring people of the year.

In 2019, a book called AK47 was published. It focuses on the dramatic life of the world-famous Czech war photographer Antonín Kratochvíl. Klicperová wrote the text of the book, which she processed from Antonín’s narra­tion. The other two books were published again with Markéta Kutilová in 2020 – War is my Fate (focused again on Syria) and Medics on the First Line. The book deals with the struggle of health professionals with the disease COVID –19 in the Czech Republic. In September 2020, war broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh. Lenka Klicperová and Markéta Kutilová quickly moved to the center of fightings. The war in the Caucasus was captured in many reports, but also in the book, The Last One sets the Village on Fire (Euromedia 2021).

Klicperová cooperates with a number of the Czech media, primarily with Reflex magazine and the Reporters of Czech Television. She also lectures at the University of Hradec Králové.

In 2020 she was included in the prestigious Women Photograph database, which includes the best photographers from around the world.

More info HERE

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Oyako Photo Matsuri is a group exhibition on parents and children at FCCJ (Foreign Correspondences’ Club of Japan).