Circle 24 Member Profiles, part 1

SÁNDOR BENKÖ - Hungary

"What interests me most in photography are humans as personalities and social beings. I see the camera as a replacement for brush or pencil. Looking for new techniques and the related new ways of seeing also interest me, as much as the involvement of creativity and aesthetics. Just to make nice pictures, the creative demands suffice."

website: artfoto.hu

PER-ERIK BERGLUND - Sweden

45 years old. Digital photography since 3 1/2 years. Studio area 220 square mtrs. Member of The Image Bank Inc. stock photo Boardmember GSR - Gruppen Svenska Reklamfotografer and Reklamsektionen SFF - Swedish Photographers Association.

website: znapshot.se

TIM BESSERER - Germany

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Producer of digital AV-shows, Lecturer Kassel School of Fine Arts, General Manager of Tourism Promotion Agency "F&R", Yoga Teacher, Imagery Guide

Tim Besserer«s work is always in demand. He is very busy shooting around the world for his agency, specializing in tourism promotion, producing everything from advertising to multi-media events and video productions. In just two months he visited Canada, Australia and the US. He organized a summary exhibition of Indian photography, and published books on South African and Indian photographers including: ´My Passage Through Indian Photography´,´The Eternal Wheel´,´Nothing Will Separate Us´. His work has been exhibited in Europe and Asia.

website: imagine-net.de

JYOTI BHATT - India

Teacher of Fine Art and Photography, Artist

For the last 20 years he has been documenting the living art traditions and art forms of tribal and village India.

PAUL BIDDLE - UK

On the threshold of reality

Some pictures are simple and complete inside my head from the beginning, but most of my images start with the inspiration of the objects. It may be something found in a junk shop, washed up on the beach near where I live or something from my past -wooden letters from a childhood game, my palette from my art school days. I often assemble a collection of things and then have "play-time" to find the right composition, juxtaposition and colours. Colour, of course, is very important. I love saturated colour and often use pure pigment on objects and backgrounds. Sometimes a meaning will evolve that was not originally intended, but mostly I prefer people to read what they like into the pictures or hopefully just enjoy them for their visual stimulation. Almost all these images were shot completely in camera, although I am using the computer more and more and am very excited by its limitless possibilities. I am keen to have the same technical excellence in anything computer generated as I hopefully attain with conventional photography.
Paul Biddle

website: http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/biddle
website: paulbiddle.com

KUNAL BHENDE - India.

Designer. Conducts workshops on Digital Imaging and bridges
the gap between the photographer and the computer.

Kunal has his own studio in Bombay where he handles various multi-media and digital imaging projects for the advertising industry. Photography is his main hobby and he loves to use his photographs in digital imaging projects. He designs for various media like Print, CD-ROM, Video and the Internet. He has setup and computerized creative departments and trained art directors in leading advertising agencies across India. Kunal has been involved with computer technology from the age of six, he works across various computer platforms, operating systems and design applications mastering and understanding the use of these systems for creative people. He is always open to new ideas and technology and is willing to share his knowledge with everybody.

website: lensmen.com
website: edesign.in

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MANUEL DA COSTA - Brazil

Still-life and nature photography

Studied drawing, engraving and sculpture in marble. Graduated in graphic and audiovisual journalism from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1982). Became a professional photographer in the late 1970s, opening a studio and focusing on advertising work. Since 1991, has lived in a rain forest reserve in the extreme South of Brazil, researching and developing an interactive discourse between nature, observed in its becoming, and himself.

website: manueldacosta.net

VINOD DAVE - New York / India

Artist, Mixed media

Vinod Dave now lives in New York, USA. He gained MA in mixed media (painting and photography) with Highest Honors from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, India and the University of South Carolina, USA. His exhibitions have included six solo shows in Bombay and New Delhi and he has been represented in museums and art CENTERs in USA, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and China.
Vinod Dave has been recognized as one of the leading photographers working with mixed media and his works can be found in the collections of the Indian National Academy of Art, Gujarat State Academy of Art, Punjab University Museum, Max Mueller CENTER and many private collections. Vinod has taught Art and Art History at universities in India and USA.

Awards:
Vinod Dave has received fellowships and awards in recognition of outstanding work in painting, drawing and photography from institutions such as the Asian Cultural Council in New York, the Indian National Academy of Art and the Cultural Fellowship of the government of India. Most recently he was awarded the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship for 1994-95.

website: www.visionsarts.com

JOSEPH FUNG, Hong Kong

Studied at the National Taiwan University, Taipei. From 1979 to 1981 he was the coordinator and lecturer, Certificate Course of Commercial Photography at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 1981 he founded ´Photo CENTER´ and continued there until 1988 as coordinator and lecturer. In 1987 Joseph was awarded MFA (Photography) from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. He was appointed as a member of the Selection Panel ´Artists of the Year Awards, 1992´ by the Hong Kong Artists´ Guild and the Urban Council.

His exhibitions have included several solo shows in Hong Kong and Taiwan and his works have been part of touring exhibitions in USA and Japan.

EMMO ITALIAANDER - Indonesia

Corporate design and photography,

Originating in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nu-Age understands and reveres the artistic and cultural traditions of the Asia-Pacific region, and is totally in tune with the needs and priorities of regional clients.
Nu-Age´s creative focus has now expanded to embrace both sides of the Pacific, making Nu-Age the ideal partner in communications for companies based within the region, or looking to reach targeted audiences around the world.

website: www.nuageinteractive.com

ANGELIKA JASKOLLA - Germany / the Netherlands

Circle-24 board member

Angelika L. Jaskolla, born 1945 in Erfurt / Germany, started out as a photographer and soon turned to journalism. A large part of her professional life she spent working for a German foundation in projects of intercultural dialogue and exchange in Egypt, Italy and the United States. Her last such posting was in New York as the resident representative of said foundation at the UN. She now works in Germany as Head of Department for an organisation that again has intercultural dialogue on a European level as a central point of work. She lives in Germany and the Netherlands.

website: to be added

SABINE KORTH - Italy

art photography, classes and workshops,

Sabine Korth is conducting workshops in beautiful Tuscany for photography enthousiasts. In travel-photography (her expertise) as well as darkroom techniques.

website: fotokorth.de

GUNNAR MERRILD - Denmark

Fashion-photographer:

Gunnar says of himself: "I have two photo-studios in different locations in Denmark. Primarily I work with fashion photography but my main interest lies with new techniques and how to develop them."

Gunnar set up his own studio in Denmark 15 years ago and now has a successful company specializing in fashion photos and special effects.

website: merrild-photo.dk

T. S. NAGARAJAN - India

Widely acclaimed photo-journalist, consultant photographer to UNICEF

T. S. Nagarajan is one of the foremost chroniclers of social change in India. His work encompasses a great variety of themes, places and moods and is marked by strength and directness. Apart from their high craftsmanship, his pictures have intellectual depth; they make one think. The interaction of tradition and modernityfascinates him. His photographs on the induction of technology into rural life and on themes such as family planning and the spread of education have been internationally published.

He has carried out photographic essays on Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi and has edited a number of picture books including ´India: Portrait of a People´.

He has held numerous one-man shows and received many national and international awards in photography. He latest book of photography is focussing on ancestral and turn-of-the-century homes in various parts of India.