A great article in the Dutch daily Tubantia, written by journalist Marjolein Rietman.
An opportunity to look back a little bit on my career and my exhibition in the Netherlands, which starts next week.
A new article in the Berkelland Nieuws, Netherlands, about my NEW exhibition and workshops.
If you live in the Netherlands and you are interested in photoworkshops, contact me by PM or email (gregoryherpephotographe@gmail.com)
and we discuss the posibilities.
Very happy to be awarded today at the Montanha Pico Festival in the Azores, Portugal.
Today, it’s the International Mountain Day.
This festival directed by Terry Costa and featuring the mountains and the urgency to take care of them,
awarded me one of the “Artistic Director Honorable Mention” 2019, for three of my photos,
taken in Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park, in Scotland.
Wonderful snowy mountains that I encourage you to discover.
The photos will be exhibited in a gallery in the Azores in early 2019.
Read more at DutchNews.nl:
Africa? No, the Netherlands …
Despite showers that have occurred since the end of September, drought is still prevalent in the Netherlands and the water level in the Rhine has reached its highest level.
Low never reached: at 6.61 meters above NAP at the Lobith measuring station on the German border.
This has created major problems for inland shipping companies that have been forced to reduce the amount of cargo carried by the barges so that they are not so low in the water.
The lakes are so dry that the pisces die. Last week, three ships went aground. NAP stands for Normaal Amsterdams Peil or the normal water level in Amsterdam, which is slightly below sea level.
(NAP is used as a basis for measuring high or low water levels).
A very nice article (page 3) & the cover in the dutch niewspaper “Berkelland Nieuws”…
Thanks to Franklin Veldhuis & Hans Assink.
Direct link here:
https://www.berkelnieuws.nl/reader/52656
This 1minute video shows the intricate mechanisms involved in the progression of creation’s in the brain of an artist.
Last June, I had a brain scan because of frequent headaches.
Looking at my brain, I wondered if the artists were different from others …
Take a look on youtube: https://youtu.be/xC4QXwO7H30
Participants’ brain scans revealed that artists had increased neural matter in areas relating to fine motor movements and visual imagery.
The research, published in NeuroImage, suggests that an artist’s talent could be innate.
But training and environmental upbringing also play crucial roles in their ability, the authors report.
As in many areas of science, the exact interplay of nature and nurture remains unclear.
Lead author Rebecca Chamberlain from KU Leuven, Belgium, said she was interested in finding out how artists saw the world differently.
“The people who are better at drawing really seem to have more developed structures in regions of the brain that control for fine motor performance and what we call procedural memory,” she explained.
In their small study, researchers peered into the brains of 21 art students and compared them to 23 non-artists using a scanning method called voxel-based morphometry.
These detailed scans revealed that the artist group had significantly more grey matter in an area of the brain called the precuneus in the parietal lobe.
“This region is involved in a range of functions but potentially in things that could be linked to creativity, like visual imagery – being able to manipulate visual images in your brain, combine them and deconstruct them,” Dr Chamberlain told the BBC’s Inside Science programme.
Participants also completed drawing tasks and the team looked at the relationship between their performance in this task and their grey and white matter.
Those better at drawing had increased grey and white matter in the cerebellum and also in the supplementary motor area – both areas that are involved with fine motor control and performance of routine actions.
Grey matter is largely composed of nerve cells, while white matter is responsible for communication between the grey matter regions.
But it is still not clear what this increase of neural matter might mean. From looking at related studies of other creative people, such as musicians, it suggests that these individuals have enhanced processing in these areas, Dr Chamberlain added.
“It falls into line with evidence that focus of expertise really does change the brain. The brain is incredibly flexible in response to training and there are huge individual differences that we are only beginning to tap into.”
Another author of the paper, Chris McManus from University College London, said it was difficult to distinguish what aspect of artistic talent was innate or learnt.
“We would need to do further studies where we look at teenagers and see how they develop in their drawing as they grow older – but I think [this study] has given us a handle on how we could begin to look at this.”
Commenting on the small sample size, Prof McManus said: “Since the results were statistically significant then clearly there was the power to find something, which almost by definition means it was large enough.
“And also of interest is that other people have also had hints at effects in similar locations. Obviously in an ideal world we’d like 1000 subjects, but that isn’t realistic. It’s always a compromise between cost, practicality and interest.”
Ellen Winner of Boston College, US, who was not involved with the study, commented that it was very interesting research.
She said it should help “put to rest the facile claims that artists use ‘the right side of their brain’ given that increased grey and white matter were found in the art group in both left and right structures of the brain”.
“Only a prospective study could get at the question of innate structural brain differences that predispose people to become visual artists, and this kind of study has not been done as it would be very difficult and very expensive to carry out.”
This is not the first time I’ve been abroad, and I’ve lived in a few countries already, but it’s still a new adventure that is a little scary and exciting at the same time.
It is in the Netherlands that I have just settled, with wife and children, and even if I know this kingdom rather well, I am struck by the calm and the cleanliness which reign there.
A country that soothes, at least in Gelderland, the largest province of the Netherlands, bordering Germany, and now my “new home” …
The creative inspiration is there, the desire for new challenges too.
I’ve seen many lions in Kenya & Tanzania, 20 years ago but things change…
The African lion faces the threat of extinction by the year 2050, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe warned today.
The sobering news came as part of the agency’s announcement that it has officially proposed that African lions receive much-needed protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The decision to list the big cats as threatened—one level below endangered—would allow the U.S. government to provide some level of training and assistance for on-the-ground conservation efforts and restrict the sale of lion parts or hunting trophies into the country or across state lines.
The total population of lions in Africa is currently estimated at about 34,000 animals, down by at least 50 percent from three decades ago.
Those numbers, however, tell only part of the story. As Ashe pointed out during a press conference today, about 70 percent of the remaining lions—24,000 cats—live in just 10 “stronghold” regions in southern and eastern Africa.
Lions in other regions, such as West Africa, have been almost completely wiped out.
FWS identified three main threats currently facing lions: habitat loss, loss of their prey base to the bushmeat trade, and human-lion conflict. All three threats are inexorably linked.
The human population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double by the year 2050, which will result in more conversion of habitat to agriculture, more hunting of the wild ungulates the lions depend upon for prey, and more instances of hungry lions attacking livestock and then being killed in retaliation.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), retaliatory or preemptive attacks against lions are the worst threats the species faces. The IUCN lists African lions as a whole as vulnerable to extinction.
Lions do face another major threat: sport hunting. The proposal to protect lions comes in response to a 2011 petition from five conservation groups, who revealed that hunting occurs in 16 of the 20 countries in which lions remain and that the number of lion trophies imported back into the U.S. by American hunters doubled between 1999 and 2008.
The official FWS position, however, iterated today by Ashe, is that sports hunting does not contribute to lions being endangered, especially when revenues from these hunts support lion conservation efforts. This is consistent with other hunting-as-conservation positions taken by FWS, including last year’s decision to allow a hunter to import a black rhino trophy into the U.S. for the first time in 33 years.
Still, Jeff Flocken, North American regional director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare—one of the groups backing the original petition—calls the FWS announcement “very significant.”
Although Endangered Species Act protection would not block American hunters from traveling to Africa to hunt lions, the proposal does establish a new permitting process that would require any hunters importing lion trophies back to the U.S. to apply for and receive a permit first.
These permits, Ashe said, would only be granted if the lion were taken from a scientifically proven hunting program that actually helps lion populations and if the number of lions taken by hunters is sustainable.
Flocken says the new permit process could “quickly and easily” help to minimize the threat that hunters pose to African lions by identifying trophies that come from areas where lions are more at risk—or from “canned hunts,” in which captive-raised lions are shot in controlled situations. “The permit system will allow the U.S. government to monitor and evaluate the trophies that are coming in,” Flocken says.
Ashe called today’s announcement an opportunity for awareness about the challenges that wildlife faces worldwide as human population dramatically increases. He added that this was a chance for optimism:
“We can be successful here,” he said. “We can change the course of events. The U.S. has great experience in wildlife management and hopefully we’ll be able to bring that to bear in working with our African partners.”
The proposal to list lions as threatened will be published in the Federal Register on October 29, after which the public will have 90 days to submit comments.
source: John R Platt & Scientific American
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of participating, as every week, in the show “Et si on en parlait”, hosted by Patrick Mas on France Bleu Roussillon, exceptionally live from the Fair Expo.
I was surrounded by three other talented columnists, André Bonet, President of the CML (Mediterranean Center of Literature), Frédérique Barriol-Montes, winery owner of Domaine la Casenove, and Jacky Loos, owner of the excellent restaurant Host & Vinum in Canet in Roussillon.
Some good moments, as always!
To see it again on my channel Youtube (register, it’s free!):
Femen leader in Sweden, Jenny A Wenhammar, wanted to meet me so that I realize, for her and her movement, the photo intended to deliver two strong messages related to the news:
- The first, intended for Vladimir Putin, on the occasion of the presidential election in Russia, March 18, 2018. She wishes through this photo denounce the absence of democracy in Russia, the lack of rights of women, and discrimination against LGTBs.
- The second, addressed to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey, condemning their attempted genocide against the Kurdish people in Afrin.
So she made the trip and we made this picture, with the only request to pose with “my clouds” and my style.
Femen became internationally famous by organizing actions, mostly topless with slogans written on the body, this in order to defend the rights of women, to engage in favor of democracy, and to fight against corruption or again against the influence of religions in society.
The unsensored picture:
You will find below the official statement of Femen accompanying this picture:
“FEMENISTS FIGHT ERDOGAN & PUTIN
On the 18th of March 2018 Putin sacrificed the Kurdish people in Afrin for his superpower wet dream, on the date of the 4th anniversary of his sneaky annexation of Crimea 2014 in Ukraine. On the 18th of March 2018, Putin arranged elections without a choice, and turned his blind eye to his fake democracy apprentice Erdogan in Turkey who early in the morning of this so called Russian election day, conveniently annexed Afrin in Rojava in northern Syria.
Let’s make it clear that Putin and Erdogan are eager to build their nationalist fascism based on fighting feminist values.
They fight by installing double fear, but Femen does not fear them. Femenists fight back!
Putin and Erdogan are evil twin brothers in their use of fascism to silence advocates of democracy and freedom of expression, extended
to all members of society.
They fight human rights through harassment, imprisonment and murder of free-thinking people. Hailing fear, and fearing opposition.
They extended fear to society through cultivation of conservative nationalism and religious pride, claiming that western values will
undermine Russia and Turkey.
And what frightens them the most is equality and LGBTQ-rights. Despots always fear feminism, throughout history.
On the 18th of March 1940 Hitler met his evil twin brother Mussolini in the Brenner Pass, and history does repeats itself over and over again
when psychopath authoritarian men recognize how they can use each other to expand their territory, grabbing whatever they want.
On the other side we have the opposite values; of feminism and care for living beings’ rights. Keep it clear that these are two systems at war.
The Kurdish freedom fighters with it’s brave women and men from YPJ and YPG together ending the Islamic Caliphate in the region, believe in the values of secularity and women’s rights, establishing inclusive direct democracy and a gender revolution, where ethnic minorities and the gay community are welcomed. The revolution of Rojava united socialism, feminism and even environmentalism.
When Erdogan cracked down at the uprise in Gezi Park 2013 it should have been clear to the world what was to come, from bad to worse.
Now after the coup Turkey’s regime locks up more journalists than any other government on Earth, and as Erdogan expands his sunni caliphate the relationship between Turkey and jihadism is undeniable.
The repeated Kurdish genocides, recently committed by ISIS, are continued by Erdogan, condoned by Putin.
Putin has betrayed the Kurds, and so has the world, as has the world neglected Russia waging a horrendous air campaign in Syria on behalf of Assad’s forces, since 2015. And Erdogan has thrived from his payed position stopping refugees from fleeing into Europe.
Both Putin and Erdogan gain power by a wavering West, and for Putin a Turkish conflict with NATO is a plus.
So when Turkey two months ago launched an air and ground offensive called “Olive Branch” against Kurdish controlled Afrin, even if US troops
have fought with the Kurds against ISIS, Putin withdrew the Russian air umbrella protecting Afrin, giving an obvious approval.
Putin condoned ethnical cleansing on the day of his electoral fake victory where voters were forced to choose him for six more years of dictatorship.
This destabilizes the relations with Assad and Rouhani, but is apparently preferred by Putin in order to harm stability in the European Union
and transatlantic relationships.
Here Putin and Erdogan stand hand in hand – happy twin homophobes united in preventing any drift westward.
For they are as horny for power as they are scared of feminism.
FEMINISM IS THE FUTURE, AND WE ARE READY TO FIGHT FOR IT!“
Canet en Roussillon, 1st March 2018
With the cold wave that hit France and Europe in general, the Catalan coast showed a poetic anger, at the beginning of the week …
A nice article from journalist and photographer Karine Sicard-Bouvatier, on the blog "The Pariser", the digital version of the eponymous magazine launched by two excellent journalists : Ulysse Gosset and Laetitia Monsacre. I'm proud that my name is mentioned in this article. http://www.jimlepariser.fr/fotofever-vive-la-jeunesse/
It was a nice fair in the prestigious setting of the Carrousel du Louvre. Fotofever 2017 is done and it was a lot of very good professional meetings. The Castang Art Project gallery presented my animal work in Africa, from Kenya to Ethiopia, through Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Congo, from November 10th to 12th. I invite you to contact Roger Castang, director of the gallery, to buy these works: http://www.castangalerie.com/With Cécile Schall, Fotofever director
Roger Castang, director of the Castang Art Project gallery
Fotofever
Fotofever
With my friend Olivier Pérouze, cartoon screenwriter
I’m very busy for the end of the year!
I will be represented by the gallery Castang Art Project at FOTOFEVER, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris.
FOTOFEVER is a prestigious international photo fair directed by Cécile Schall.
From the 10th to the 12th of November, we are waiting for you.
I will be physically present on Sunday 12, if you would like to meet me and buy directly one of the photographs that I will propose.
I can’t be there the first two days, held by the opening of my exhibition in Zurich, November 11, at the Art & Business Gallery.
I will also make a dedication of my last photo book, at 17:00.
I’m very happy to meet you soon at the Carrousel du Louvre!
It’s a huge plaisir to welcome you at the Castang Art Project Gallery, in Perpignan, France, for my new exhibition.
For a long time I had the wish to work together with Roger Castang, a great professionnal who had the excellent idea to propose to me this rendez-vous during the International Photojournalism Festival Visa pour l’Image, from 31th of August till 17th of September 2017.
This is an unique occasion to discover a selection of photographs taken in Asia, Africa, and Europe, during different photoreportage.
This will also be an encounter with the talentfull sculptor Alexandre Nicolas, whose exceptional work of synthetic crystal inclusions will marry wonderfully with my photographic prints on aluminium plates.
I hope to welcome you all.
CASTANG ART PROJECT
From Tuesday to Saturday from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm and from 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm, and on Sundays 3 and 10 September from 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm.
39 rue Rabelais – 66000 Perpignan
+33 (0)6 27 77 12 79
www.castangartproject.com
roger.castang@sfr.fr
On the Amsterdam Fashion Week an unique item will be introduced: an “I protect tigers” shirt designed by the dutch artist Bas Kosters (in which creative team my step-daugther Amber Huijskes takes part of; the beautiful blonde at the end of the video with Bas; I’m proud of her!) with a limited serie from 3900 pieces.
This is the number of tigers still living in the wild…
Bas Kosters & Amber Huijskes (click on the picture to see the video)
The first t-shirt will be shown on the 13 of july during the Amsardam Fashion Week.
From the 13th of july at 9pm, t-shirts ara available online on: http://www.wnf.nl/iprotecttigers
They are only 3900 tigers in the wild.
To save this iconic animal from disparation, the WNF started worldwide a rescue plan to double this number.
So support this rescue plan of WNF and give the tigers a future! Go to http://www.wnf.nl/tijger and watch what you can do to help!
Thank you Thierry Grillet for his kind word about my exhibition and my work on L’Indépendant, french newspaper)!
L’Odyssée
Photo exhibition by Grégory Herpe
from march 18th to may 31th
Collections François Desnoyer
Rue Emile Zola, St-Cyprien (village)
Tel: +33 (0)4 68 21 06 96
5 rooms and more than 90 prints, to travel with me on 3 continents and 20 countries, from the great animals of Africa to Catalonia, from the minimalist landscapes of Scotland and the Netherlands to the children of Cambodia, IRA in Belfast, Street Art in Northern Europe …
A great catalog is published for the occasion in which you will find my photos as well as texts on my work written by personalities of the arts, media, and politics … Thanks to them:
Yoyo Maeght – Exhibition curator at the Pompidou Center & Royal Academy of London; Editor, gallery owner
Tina Kieffer – Founding President of french NGO Toutes à l’école
Olivier Dassault – french Deputy & photographer
Myriam Seurat – Journalist on french TV France 2 & Arte
Petra Lossen – Director of Petra Lossen Fine Art Gallery, Zurich
Sylvia Gobbel – International Top Model & Helmut Newton’s muse, Vienna
Fabrice Gaignault – Editor-in-chief of Marie-Claire magazine & writer
Laurent Bouhnik – Director, screenwriter, producer
Nathalie Garçon – Fashion designer
Isabella Russ – Managing Editor of Terra Mater, Austria
Peap Tarr – Street Artist, Phnom Pehn
Elsa Lunghini – Singer, Actress & Photographer
René Manzor – Director & Screenwriter
Ylva-Maria Thompson – Artist & tv host, Sweden
Sam Zniber – Vice President & Strategic Consultant, Radio Intelligence World, USA
Hervé Lancelin – Dir. Of the Galerie Lancelin, Luxembourg, & Luxembourg Art Price
Paul Godfrey – Leader of the Morcheeba, England
Véronique de Villèle – TV host & Writer
Ariana Kah – Actress
And Wayne Anthony – Editor-in-Chief of the London Street Art & Design Magazine, London
Thanks also to Thierry Del Poso, Mayor of St-Cyprien for his invitation in his museum, and to Stéphanie Misme, exhibition curator, for his professionalism.
And thank you for sharing the info…
September 10th & 11th 2016, les Ateliers du Graff & the city of Puteaux, France, organized the 6th festival of street art.
A big succes where the diversity of the used techniques offered to the visitors a nice show.
It is dynamics Arnaud Eveille (alias Anje) who was the big boss of this unique event.
Bravo Arnaud and thank you for letting me the photoreportage of the festival.
On the menu, anamorphic murals, vegetal graffiti, kinetic & pixel art, the photograffée, and jip-hop, with Kamel Archach’s exceptional presence (alias B.BOY BOSS K), 4 times choreography world champion & 6 times batle world champion with the famous VAGABONDS CREW…Big reference…
The artists:
Anje, Flow, Zag & Sia, Emoy, Smoe, Zosh, SNSA, Adked, Lop6, Ydoz, Biate, Collectif photograffée, Djalouz, Caligr, Pesca, Doudou Style, San One, Dino, MO2…
With Amélie & Emmanuel Stern, ownersof Villa Duflot, and art collectors, we have chosen a series of photographs from my book " Catalogne" on both sides of the border , from Barcelona to Perpignan, Ebro Delta or Lerida's design. I 'm glad to see you there! PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION - GREGORY HERPE - CATALONIA Opening september 16th, at 18h00 Exhibition : september 16th to october 31th 2016 Rond Point Albert Donnezan , 66000 Perpignan, France +33 4 68 56 67 67
I am very proud to invite you to the opening of the group photo exhibition that I have coached for almost a year within the Unapei66.
Unapei 66 a parenting movement born in 1959, is an association of Parents and Friends, who welcomes and accompanies throughout live People with Mental and/ or Psychic Disability , in its establishments or in the mainstream.
People familiar with intellectual disabilities: Down syndrome, autism, mental, multiple disabilities …
I have proposed to accompany them around a photographic project for a year.
Driven, engaged, and extremely talented for arts, my new friends worked very well !
Thursday, July 7, at 18:30, you can see their work. Starting from paintings seen at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. Before and behind the objective, they have given their whole heart and we expect many of you at the Library St Esteve, France.
I promise you, you will not see disabled people but_ fully fledged artists …
Back from Cambodia, where I had the great pleasure of photographing the schools established by journalist Tina Kieffer, I received the pleasant surprise by email that I am awarded at MIFA Moscow (Moscow International Foto Awards), a very beautiful international award.
The Moscow jury awarded me with a price and the Honorable Mention in the category People-Culture, for my photographic work about the Gypsies of Perpignan.
Spasiba!