Noorderlicht

The Pursuit of Happiness

Wim Melis

ancillary show / 6 sep 4 oct 2009

Johnny Amore

• LIFE OF G. (2005)

  Identity as a compromise between who you really are and what your environment expects of you.

  

Brigitte Bauer

• JEU DE FORÊT (2008)

  Paintball in the woods: amusement or glorification of war?

  

Peter Beek & Henri Brekveld

• DJELEM DJELEM (2005-2009)

  The struggle of the proud, much-tormented Roma to maintain their own identity.

  

Nina Berman

• MARINE WEDDING (2006)

  The wedding of a severely maimed Iraq veteran.

  

• MARINE WEDDING (2006)

  

Martin Bogren

• OCEAN (2008)

  A group of boys from Rajasthan, India, see the ocean for the first time.
  

  

Natalie Bothur

• PAUSE / INNEHALTEN (2008)

  A moment between just now and soon, between inside and outside.

  

Laura Boushnak

• SURVIVOR (2008)

  The Palestinian refugee Mohammed lives with prostheses since he lost both legs during the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

  

Susan Bozic

• THE DATING PORTFOLIO (2005)

  A look at the rituals of dating and the romantic dreams – and demands – of women in Western cultures.

  

Alejandro Chaskielberg

• THE HIGH TIDE (2008)

  The Paraná River is an important source of fresh water for more than a hundred million people.

  

Bertrand Cottet

• KOSOVO (2007-2009)

  A new country tries to find its way after the horrors of the war.

  

Chong Dai

• JOB MARKET (2009)

  The economic crisis makes it increasingly difficult to find a job.

  

Nathalie Daoust

• FROZEN IN TIME (Switzerland, 2007)

  A surreal feeling of timelessness, as experienced in the Swiss Alps.

  

Pedro David

• ROOT (2007)

  Photos taken during a solitary journey through the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, in search of the remains of his youth.

  

James Whitlow Delano

• GREAT WALL OF AMERICA (2007)

  A sign near the Mexican-American border cautions drivers about the danger of an ‘illegal crossing’.

  

Stephen Dupont

• FIGHT (2004-Ongoing)

  Wrestling in India, from a long-term project about traditional forms of wrestling from all over the world.

  

Kris van Exel

• ADDICTED TO THE STREET

  In Kathmandu, Nepal, about 1500 children live on the street. They are exposed to the most serious forms of exploitation and exclusion.

  

Jenny Gaulitz

• THE SWEET HEREAFTER (2009)

  From a series of 1825 daily self-portraits, taken shortly after waking up. In the inset, the view that morning.

  

Kevin German

• DEATH AT BUILDING D (2008)

  From the series In THE FOOTSTEPS OF GHOSTS (2008). In a fast-changing Vietnam many can not keep up.

  

Reinier Gerritsen

• INAUGURATION (2009)

  Watching the inauguration of Barack Obama on a gigantic video screen on Wall Street.

  

Brigitte Grignet

• PALESTINE, UNFORTUNATELY IT WAS PARADISE (2005-Ongoing)

  Palestinians seek to live with dignity in a territory which has been occupied for forty years now.

  

Emmanuel Guillaud

• UNTIL THE SUN RISES (2009)

  An installation about loneliness. About how ordinary locations in Tokio are transformed after sunset, and the men who go to them at night in search of intimacy or a brief kick.

  

Conny Habbel

• GO AND FIGHT (2003)

  Yesterday and today come together by placing the lead actors in situations that they only remember from photographs.

  

Katharina Hesse

• HUMAN NEGOTIATIONS (2007-2009)

  An ambiguous picture of the prostitution industry in Thailand, where women are not just victims.

  

Elis Hoffman

• TONIGHT (2006-2008)

  In Sweden people reveal their vulnerability and longings at dance band evenings – feelings that are hidden in everyday life.

  

Sohrab Hura

• LIFE IS ELSEWHERE (2008)

  When Hura’s mother became a paranoid schizophrenic, life began to disintegrate.

  

Mathilde Jansen

• TANZANIA UNLIMITED LTD (BUSINESS AS USUAL) (2008-2009)

  Picture of a safari, from a series on the Tanzanian economy and intercultural cooperation.

  

Yevgeny Kondakov

• RUSSIAN SEXUAL REVOLUTION (2008)

  A visitor to the Millionaire Fair in Moscow is buried under advertising in the form of copies of banknotes.

  

Thomas Lekfeldt

• A STAR IN THE SKY (2008-2009)

  Vibe, a young girl with a brain tumour, looks out the window of the hospital. Despite repeated chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she will die.

  

Tatiana Leshkina

• VOIDENTITY (2009)

  A metaphor for the feeling you’ve lost your self. The disengagement of the rudderless person.

  

Sebastien Loubatie

• VAMOS A LA PLAYA 2 (2008)

  People and their bath towels. Signboards for their personalities?

  

Benjamin Lowy

• IRAQ PERSPECTIVES (2003)

  Lowy discovered that an embedded photographer can’t possibly participate in everyday life, which goes on despite everything.

  

Stefano de Luigi

• TORTOISE COMMUNITY (2008)

  Former Liberian child soldiers form a community in the ruins of villas where torture once took place.

  

Rania Matar

• AFTERMATH OF WARS IN LEBANON (2006-2007)

  A sign of humanity where the media sees only terrorism and war.

  

Andreas Meichsner

• WELCOME TO THE CLUB (2007-2008)

  Secret desires lie behind the choice of a vacation destination, but, paradoxically, so does the longing for the security of structure in moments of freedom.

  

Paula Muhr

• TATA (2006-2008)

  The illusion of an ideal life, modelled after the visual language of the mass media. The photographer’s father poses for the pictures.

  

Sofie Nagels

• HERE I STAND (ongoing project)

  Girls in their own gardens, a safe habitat in which they grow up. But now they are on the point of leaving that safe nest.

  

Sandy Nicholson

• 2ND, THE FACE OF DEFEAT (2008)

  An ode to everybody who hasn’t pulled it out in the end. Photos that were just shot after someone took second place.

  

Matthew Niederhauser

• SOUND KAPITAL - BEJING’S MUSIC UNDERGROUND (2007)

  Hedgehog, one of the bands that’s part of the explosion of a new Chinese music scene, gets ready for a performance.

  

Mads Nissen

• A CHINESE OLYMPIC DREAM (2008)

  There were worldwide protests against the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but for the Chinese they were a moment of pride and triumph.

  

Nick Nostitz

• RED VS. YELLOW (2009)

  A victim of the riots in Thailand, where ultraconservatives and supporters of more democracy collided with one another. The escalation of a deep-rooted conflict cost many lives, and more than a thousand people were injured.

  

Soon Hwa Oh

• GIRLS FROM MEKONG DELTA (2009)

  Young Vietnamese women marry South Korean farmers in hope of a better life.

  

Richard Pak

• PURSUIT (2003-2009)

  A semi-imaginary America, land of heroes and zeroes. The reality of daily life collides with the popular idea of a land of prosperity.

  

Irina Popova

• ANFISA'S FAMILY (2008)

  Anfisa, two years old, is the child of drug-addicted parents, who despite their shortcomings love her and try to care for her.

  

Philip Poupin

• THE DUMP (2008)

  Life on a garbage dump in Kenya.

  

Bruno Quinquet

• SALARYMAN (2008)

  Japanese office slaves in times of economic decline.

  

Katarina Radovic

• CHANCE ENCOUNTERS (2008)

  Photography as ironic wink, referring to the lunacy of consumerism, fetishism and marketing. Objects take on a new role as erotic toys.

  

Agnieszka Rayss

• BEAUTIFUL BODIES (2008)

  The hunt for the perfect body. Has the body become a costume or does it remain a part of the person? Is this perfection or parody?

  

Marc Renaud

• FUNDRAISING, OR HOW TO GATHER MONEY (2006-2008)

  The world of philanthropy, where you can build up your network and prestige by ‘doing good’.

  

Daniel Rosenthal

• BITTER CHOCOLATE (2008)

  Child labour in Africa, on behalf of the world’s big cocoa producers.

  

• THE BONE CRUSHER (2008)

  The suffering of Chinese labourers who go to the big city in hopes of a better life.

  

Denis Rouvre

• BROKEN FACES (2006)

  Portraits of rugby players soon after a match.

  

Ruth & Samsonoff

• PIPPO STORIES (2008)

  A modern Don Quixote takes on the asphalt with a watering can.

  

Bastienne Schmidt

• HOME STILL LIFE (2009)

  A project about the domestic gender roles and identity of the housewife, as seen through the mirror of popular culture.

  

Corinne Silva

• BADLANDS (2007-ongoing)

  A photo series on Almería, Spain, where a desert landscape is being radically transformed thanks to economic migration, agriculture and tourism.

  

Matej Sitar

• FAIRY TALES (2008-ongoing)

  Provocative narrative photos on the borderline between the casual snapshot and staged image.

  

Kerry Skarbakka

• LIFE GOES ON (2005)

  Human existence as a continual process of falling and getting up again.

  

Martin Specht

• IRAQ (2007)

  Sleeping commandos in Iraq, waiting for the moment when they have to go into action.

  

Andrea Stern

• KID'S PROJECT (2009-ongoing)

  In the middle of New York City lies St. Thomas Choir School, a music school where young children are trained in music in complete isolation.

  

Jens Sundheim & Kathryn Baingo

• 57005 (2008-2009)

  An investigation of the extreme game culture of the LAN party, where hundreds of players match themselves against one another.

  

Flore-Aël Surun

• THE KISS (1997-2000)

  A series of self-portraits of the photographer and her partner, and places they lived.

  

Paczai Tamas

• DREAM ABOUT MOTHERLAND I (2005)

  The feeling of astonishment that the simple country life once released in you when you were little is doomed to disappear – just as tradition itself. Daydreams about the balance sheet of life.

  

Wei Leng Tay

• WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (2009)

  A look behind the scenes into Japanese life, where social pressure has a decisive influence.

  

Andrew Testa

Amy Touchette

• THE WORLD FAMOUS *BOB* (2002-2006)

  The life of a burlesque dancer in New York.

  

David Trattles

• MUSLIM BOXING GIRLS OF CALCUTTA (2006-2008)

  Portrait of young girls who hope to earn respect in the boxing ring – and with it ultimately a job, too.

  

Jim Turbert

• EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY (2007-ongoing)

  The photographer ‘plays’ the expectations for the future that his friends and parents imagine when they think of him.

  

Sarah Van den Elsken

• NTOMBI (2009)

  As a result of the mass mortality from AIDS, in many African communities there is no longer anything like traditional family care. Ntombi’s father is dead, her sick mother is cared for by the children.

  

Valentina Zanobelli

• TRANCE (2007)

  Visitors to a great trance festival, withdrawn into their own little world for just a bit.