Portfolio Review 2019

Arnis Balcus is based in Riga, Latvia. He has BA in Communication Studies from University of Latvia and MA in Photographic Studies from University of Westminster. In most of his photographic work he examines Latvian identity, historical taboos and social-political agendas. Has had exhibitions in UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and eslewhere. In 2016 Victory Park has been published as photobook by Brave Books, Berlin. Balcus is also the editor-in-chief of FK Magazine and the director of Riga Photomonth.

Jhoane Baterna-Pateña

Photographer & Research Editor, European Photography, Berlin, Germany

Jhoane Baterna-Pateña is a Philippine-born photographer based in Berlin. Her book “The Art of the Selfie” was published in 2016 in Hong Kong and Berlin. She is the Research and Documentation Editor at European Photography magazine, for which she reviews together with Andreas Müller-Pohle. 

Maira Dudareva, the head of the Latvian Museum of Photography has a long running experience in photography. She worked as head of photo archive of the main Latvian daily newspaper “Diena” (1999 – 2008), head of “Diena” photo department (1998 – 1999) and as photoreporter for several Latvian newspapers (1992 – 1998). She did her MA research on digital photography indexation at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia, where she is currently enrolled in the doctoral program (from 2006). She is  a curator, lecturer  in Latvia Culture College and portfolio reviewer   at Kaunas Photo Star festival in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014,2016 in Bratislava Photo Month 2012, in ISSP 2012, 2013, 2014  , Riga Photo Month 2014, and Lodz  Fotofestiwal , Photolux Festival 2015.

April Gertler (US) received her BFA (1997) at the California College of the Arts, Oakland, CA and her MFA (2002) at Bard College, New York. After studying at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 2003, she moved to Berlin where she has been based since 2005. April is the Founding Director of PICTURE BERLIN which she started in 2009. PICTURE BERLIN is a hybrid residency / art academy based in Berlin which engages the international residents in an ongoing dialogue on photography and contemporary art through walks, exhibitions, one on one meetings, and discussions. April has done photographic portfolios in Lódz, Poland, Syracuse, New York, Aerø, Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark and San Francisco, California. April has run numerous programs in Berlin with a variety of American institutions including University Southern California, LA; California College of Art, San Francisco Art Institute, Memphis College of Art, and Parsons New School, New York. She is currently a guest faculty member in the Humanities, the Arts and Social Thought department at Bard Berlin College in Berlin, Germany. In addition, April is a working artist herself.

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas is a curator, consultant, publisher of photography.

In 2004 he founded KAUNAS PHOTO festival, that he has been directing ever since. KAUNAS PHOTO is the longest-running art photography festival in the Baltic states. It focuses on works of emerging photographers and great underexposed photography from all over the world. Mindaugas Kavaliauskas was studying photography and art history in Kaunas Vytautas Magnus Universty, Ecole Nationale de la Photographie in Arles, ENSB-A Paris and UNIL Lausanne. He was interning at the Rencontres d’Arles and Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne. Consequently, he has been teaching photography in different universities, schools and consulting artists. He has curated a number of exhibitions in photographic festivals, galleries, museums in Europe and Asia – Pacific region: FotoGrafia (Rome), Fotohonap (Budapest), Photaumnales (Beauvais, France), Photodemer (Vannes, France), Backlight (Tampere, Finland), Pingyao and Lishui festivals (China), Auckland festival of photography (New Zealand) etc. He reviews portfolios in festivals, such as Fotofest (Houston), Atlanta Celebrates Photography (USA), Photo Espana (Madrid), Eyes-On (Vienna), numerous others, including the domestic portfolio review competition KAUNAS PHOTO STAR.

Andrei Liankevich is the founder and managing director of “Month of Photography in Minsk” photo-festival (Belarus), publisher and one of most influential artists of Belarus. 

He has presented his photographic oeuvre in more than 60 exhibitions in Europe, Asia, and the USA: in Noorderlicht Gallery,  at MOMA in Vienna or National gallery in Warsaw.

Thomas Licek – born 1963 in Vienna/Austria. Working as an Art Manager since 1991, he is organizing the Month of Photography in Vienna since its first edition in 2004. Since 2008 Managing Director of Eyes On – Month of Photography Vienna, he is currently also Associate of the European Month of Photography (EMOP), an international network including festivals in Athens, Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Paris, and Vienna.

Andrée Moser Morel is a member of the comitee for “l’Enquête Photographique Neuchâteloise” the bisanuel photographic  artistic investigation about the Canton. She is co-founder of la Nuit de la Photo of La Chaux-de-Fonds. She is in charge of the programming and contact with the selected photographers.

Claude-André Moser is a physician. He is busy in the cultural life, specially in the museum of fine art and is its representative to the culture department. He is co-founder and president of la Nuit de la Photo of La Chaux-de-Fonds, in charge of the programming. 

Andreas Müller-Pohle – Artist & Publisher, European Photography, Berlin, Germany 

Andreas Müller-Pohle is a Berlin-based media artist and the founder, publisher and editor of European Photography, the independent art magazine for international contemporary photography celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. He has published the major works by media philosopher Vilém Flusser, including the seminal Philosophy of Photography, which has been translated into 25 languages, and has been a visiting professor and lecturer at numerous institutions in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Andreas is interested in all types of projects dealing with our contemporary condition in a fresh and innovative way, regardless of theme, subject or style. He will review together with Jhoane Baterna-Pateña, photographer and Research & Documentation Editor at European Photography. 

Naima Savioli was born in Naples in 1989.

She studied photography in London, Barcelona and completed her studies in photography at the three year course at Fondazione Studio Marangoni in Florence.

She then studied curatorship and social art in two short courses at the Node Center of Berlin.

She is a founding member of the cultural association Sedici, born in Prato in 2016 with headquarters in the Cultural Court of Via Genova 17 in Prato.

Since 2014 she has collaborated with Fondazione Studio Marangoni in various fields (communication, curatorship) and recently as a tutor for teaching video.

She collaborates with Photolux Festival for the edition 2019.

She works as a freelance photographer and video maker.

Olivier SPILLEBOUT – 2017 Born in Tourcoing, Olivier Spillebout decided in 1997 to transform an old abandoned factory in Lille, in the popular district of Fives, into a museum space dedicated to photography. In this way, it creates the Maison de la Photographie, which for 20 years: He has focused on supporting the creation, the production, the promotion and the dissemination of artists and, beyond the borders, of regional creation. At the same time, in 2000, he initiated the Transphotographiques Festival, where he directed the program every year, focused on young European photography and exchanges with international galleries and festivals. Over the years, the participation of the greatest photographers, such as Ronis, Klein, Lindbergh, Lagerfeld, Roversi … confirms the international reputation of his achievements, in the projects of Olivier Spillebout.

Gabriella Uhl, PhD (1970), art historian, curator, she is currently the docent of Art History and Theory department Kaposvár University and Metropolitan University, Budapest. Graduated first history and literature (MA) at the Eötvös Lóránd University (Budapest), writing her PhD thesis about the Central-European baroque literature. She studied economic at the Corvinus (Economical and Technical) University (Budapest) and graduated art history (MA) at Eötvös Lóránd University (Budapest). She worked as a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Science afterwards as a chief curator of the Ernst Museum. She spent four years in Baltic States working as a correspondent of the leading Hungarian art magazines and research fellow of the Contemporary Art Center (Tallinn, Riga).  She was the curator  of the Hungarian Pavilion at Venice Biennale, 2013.  She is working as an art critic and free-lance curator as well. She was the curator of Month of Photography (Budapest, Hungary) in 2012 and 2014, and the member of the curatorial board of European Month of Photography.  As a researcher she specialized on the marginal and gypsy art. She is the author of many publications on the contemporary Hungarian and Central-European art scene.

Jesús Vilamajó (Tàrrega, Catalonia, 1963) has a degree in Photography by IDEP (Barcelona, 1986); and works as a director and curator in the following festivals: Executive director of SCAN Tarragona, International Festival of Photography (Tarragona, Spain); curator of FULL CONTACT activity in SCAN Festival; curator and director in the art contemporary festival Embarrat (Tàrrega, Catalonia); Curator ot the LA TERMICA LAB exhibition, in Panoramic Granollers Festival (Granollers, Barcelona). His work as a curator in these festivals is focused to promote new artists.