For our latest installment, we were taken with some recent contest winners, including a documentary about a group of adult men with autism and their 65-year-old caretaker, who wants to retire. Veterans step out of society, the married elderly struggle with dementia, at-risk teens strike out on their own, and a photographer returns to Calcutta during a Hindu religious festival -- Durga Puja -- to see what has changed in 13 years.
"For better or for worse" by Rachel Mummey (click on image to see more of Mummey's work)
“A Life Pretty Full of Love,” from Kevin Wellenius, winner of first place for audio slideshow at the Best of Photojournalism 2010. This 3-part short documentary tells the story of Curt Brown, who has cared for a group of adult men with autism for more than 25 years but begins to think of retiring.
“Apart from War,” a haunting look at the community of war veterans who have found refuge or retreat in rural northeastern Washington state. A group of students from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University (and one “visiting fellow” from the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin) spent six weeks on site to gather material for the project. “Here you can travel for miles without ever seeing another person,” says one veteran. “You can hide for years, if you want. Nobody bothers you. You don’t bother nobody.”
“65th College Photographer of the Year,” with some unbelievable images of car wrecks, flood victims, Buddhist monks, underwater hockey (yes, underwater hockey) and more. Lots of winners, with the biggest prize going to Ohio University’s Rachel Mummey (via @mckennaewen).
“Calcutta,” a post and photo essay over at The Online Photographer. Photojournalist Peter Turnley writes about covering the back-to-back funerals of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, and offers 50 new images of Calcutta.
“Postcard from Paradise,” a documentary by Poul Madsen and Henrik Kastenskov. The audio for the project is in French, but the visuals depicting the way in which tourism has lured those hoping for jobs into terrible positions and transformed parts of an ecological paradise into “trashcan islands” speak for themselves.
If you’re craving even more video, check out Vimeo’s couch mode, which allows you to use Safari or Chrome to run a series of videos of your choosing (or Vimeo’s) like your own personal TV channel (via @MacDivaONA).
