Bieke Depoorter: Oe menia - With me

by heartbeat

«For three periods of one month, I have let the Trans-Siberian train guide me alongside forgotten villages, from living room to living room. Some Russian words, scribbled on a little piece of paper, allowed me to be welcomed and absorbed in the warm chaos of a family. Accidental encounters led me to the places where I could sleep. The living room, the epicentre of their life, establishes an intimate contact between the Russian inhabitants. In this room, they sleep, eat and drink as well as cry. For a brief moment, I was part of this. Their couch became my bed for one night. This way, I experienced transient, but very powerful, shared moments. We communicated without words, we understood eachother somehow».

Bieke Depoorter was born in Kortrijk, 1986. She graduated at KASK in 2009 with a series on Russia, "Oe menia - With me" which won her the Hp Magnum expression award 2009. 

You should all take a look at the whole series at her web!

A safe place

by Marte Vike Arnesen

Being gay in Belarus can get you arrested, being gay in Palestine can get you killed. Being Gay in Norway for a week is a new world for most of the participants in the Mr. GayEurope contest. For a whole day I followed them backstage. The room was cold and dark, a bunker of steel and concrete, but the mood was electric. The guys never got dressed after their first rehersal, for 12 hours they walked around in their shorts. They were too caught up in the moment of finally being a part of a group, not sticking out, and finally being able to be themselves.

Andrea on assignment in Congo

by Andrea Gjestvang

For more than two weeks now, I am in Congo (DRC) covering the trial against two Norwegians sentenced to death. They were convicted of spying DRC and murdering their driver. Right now, we are awaiting the judgement of the appeal, which is constantly being prosponded. 

As many here see us as «brothers and sisters» of our natives in jail, people are very suspicious towards us, and whatever we do we are under some kind of surveillance. So, I have to admit it is challenging; right outside mye hotel port there are stories to tell and pictures to take. But we are not really allowed by the Congolese government to do anything not related to the trail, and whenever we try we, get in to some kind of trouble. 

This is a new experience for me. As a photographer you normally know what you need for the story and how to get it. Whereas here, it feels like my intuition fails and I have difficulties calculating the situations.