This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round up – photographer and book editor Régina Monfort’s exhibition Beyond Grand Street, Brooklyn, New York, plus a new exhibition by Melbourne photographers Kip Scott and Craig Adams opens at Fox Darkroom & Gallery, and in Washington DC the impressive Pictures of the Year: 75 Years of the World’s Best Photography is on show.
Before turning to this week’s blog post, last night Melbourne’s Fox Darkroom and Gallery hosted a capacity crowd of around 100 for a fantastic presentation by photojournalists Paula Bronstein and Nancy Borowick.
Both women are highly accomplished and their talks were, as always, thought-provoking and insightful.
Bronstein presented work from her award-winning book, Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear, a 15 year survey of this war-ravaged country.
Borowick spoke from the heart about how she visually documented her parents simultaneous battle with stage four cancer. It was an intense, emotional journey that culminated in her book, The Family Imprint.
Both women generously stayed long into the night to sign books and talk with audience members.
Here’s a photo from gallery owner Tom Goldner in the last moments of the evening when all the pizza and wine was gone! Bravo to Tom and his team for putting on such a great event.
Exhibition: New York
Régina Monfort – Beyond Grand Street, Brooklyn, New York

*A few months after this photgraph was taken Monica died from a gunshot wound. Ten years later, Joel was shot to death. It must be noted that their deaths were unrelated and did not occur in their Brooklyn neighborhood,” says Monfort.
As a book editor for FotoEvidence, French-born, Brooklyn-based photographer Régina Monfort spends most of her time looking at other people’s images, so it is enormously gratifying to see her project Beyond Grand Street, Brooklyn as a long-term installation at LaGuardia Gallery of Photographic Arts.
Monfort talks about the project which she began more than twenty years ago. “In September 1994, when I first walked beyond Grand Street, in the tightly knit Puerto Rican and Dominican communities of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I began a nine-year journey photographing teenagers growing up fast, competing for love-respect, status, and finding ways to cope with life.
My photographs became collaborations born from trust as I met Ricky, Louie, Monica, Joel and their friends. Listening to their dreams, hopes and frustrations, I remained committed to expose the tenderness so often concealed by the necessity to be tough in order to survive. I followed my intuition, exploring social codes, sexuality, motherhood, love and loss through my lens. There were days spent in the neighborhood not photographing. Sometime the camera gets in the way of seeing.
Some of the children I grew to know have since died tragically. Despite the many hardships and losses along the way, there are those who went on to pursue their dreams.
I have been asked: Why are you here? Nothing is beautiful here.
These photographs are my answer.”
This exhibition comprising 20 gelatin silver prints was originally produced by the Open Society Foundation’s Documentary Project as part of their annual Moving Walls exhibitions series.
Venue: LaGuardia Gallery of Photographic Arts, First Floor Gallery, B Building, 30-20 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, New York.
Exhibition: Melbourne
Craig Adams & Kip Scott – Chittagong Steel and Mambo
This joint exhibition by Melbourne photographers Craig Adams and Kip Scott opens tomorrow. Both bodies of work address the way in which the West can influence the culture of other countries, in this instance Tanzania and Bangladesh.
12-27 May – Fox Darkroom & Gallery, 8 Elizabeth Street (via laneway), Kensington
Exhibition: Washington DC
Pictures of the Year: 75 Years of the World’s Best Photography

This impressive photography exhibition showcases a selection of winning photographs spanning seven decades from the archives of Pictures of the Year International (POYi), one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious photojournalism competitions.
The exhibition was curated from POYi’s archive of more than 40,000 photos, tracing the evolution of photojournalism from World War II to today.





Until January, 2019
Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC