Umbrage would like to invite you to attend a book-signing event Thursday, April 4th, 2013, from 6 – 8pm with photography historian Carole Naggar, author of our most recent title, CHIM: Children of War. Please join us at our new location (Suite 220) for a glass of wine and a chance to purchase a copy of the book signed by the author.

The photographs in CHIM: Children of War are the result of hundreds of rolls of film taken by CHIM (a.k.a. David Seymour) while on assignment for UNICEF, the agency created by the United Nations after WWII to address the needs and rights of children in response to the human rights crisis in postwar Europe. Expertly compiled by noted photography historian Carole Naggar, the collection contains many never-before-seen images from Chim’s long-lost contact sheets, in addition to some of his more famous photographs. The images collectively reveal Chim’s unique capacity for engaging with his subjects, creating a style of photography that has influenced generations of artists.

“David Seymour (Chim) was a founder of Magnum Photos, along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and Robert Capa. They distinguished themselves with some of the greatest and most enduring photographic images of World War II. But no document of that war’s most vulnerable victims, the children, is more poignant than Chim’s assembled photographs. To see them all in one wonderful book is a deeply moving experience. Children of War is an overwhelming work.” ~Elliott Erwitt, Magnum Photos member, photographer & filmmaker, recipient of 2011 ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement

“The problems Chim pointed out in 1948 are still acute. Today, children are still the main casualties of war — maimed, orphaned, and homeless all over the planet, and in even larger numbers than in his time. Chim’s work is a sobering reminder of the plight of the most vulnerable. As his friend Henri Cartier-Bresson said: “At the time, we did not talk about photography: we talked about the world.” ~Carole Naggar, TIME LightBox, January 2013 – http://ti.me/13D1KBa

“At long last, the publication of Chim’s great work on the postwar children of Europe. May it live forever!”~John G. Morris, author, Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism

CAROLE NAGGAR is a poet and photography historian based in New York City. Born in Cairo, Naggar has authored many works on photographers and their medium. Among her recent books are George Rodger: An Adventure in Photography, 1908-1995 (Syracuse, 2003), the memoir Egypte Retour (Nahar Misraim, 2007), Werner Bischof: Carnets de Route (Delpire, 2008), and David Seymour Chim (Photopoche, 2011). She wrote the lead essay for Christer Stromholm: Post Scriptum (Max Strom, 2012) and is currently working on a biography of Chim. She has been a regular contributor to Aperture since 1988.

To view more images from the book, go here:

http://bit.ly/WmxB3t

We’ve moved our headquarters down the hall at 111 Front Street! We are now located in Suite 220. Come check out our new space, within the beautiful Giacobetti Paul Gallery.

The day has arrived: Stephen Ferry’s Violentology is officially out and available for purchase. This also means Ferry will kick off the corresponding book tour this week with a number of speaking engagements around New York City and the Northeast, so be sure to attend one of the events and pick up a copy of the book.

Things get started tonight at New York University, where Stephen will join Max Schoening and Sibylla Brodzinsky, editors of the oral history compilation Throwing Stones at the Moon, for a discussion of the Colombian conflict and its displacement of nearly 4 million civilians from their homes. Hosted by the Institute for Public Knowledge, the event begins at 6:30 pm and is free and open to the public.

Next up is a night of readings and discussion at McNally Jackson bookstore in Nolita with Ferry, Schoening, Brodzinsky, and former Representative in Colombia of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Christian Salazar, on Wednesday, September 19 at 7 pm. The event was put together by Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series focused on bringing contemporary social injustice to light, and promises to be an insightful and informative look at this often misunderstood conflict.

Ferry will then head to Brown University in Providence, RI to take part in “Depictions of Conflict: Documenting Violence in Colombia,” a conversation and book signing event that is part of the “New Security Challenges in The Americas” series put on by the Watson Institute for International Studies. Conversation begins at 3 pm on Monday, September 24.

Last up for September is a panel at Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in Cambridge, MA on Wednesday the 26th. Featuring Violentology and Throwing Stones at the Moon, the discussion will focus on the Colombian conflict’s impacts on the civilian population. Panel is free and open to the public and includes a reception following the event.

We hope to see you all there!

The New York Photo Awards 2012 competition recently announced its list of finalists, and we’re happy to report that the talented Rania Matar was selected in the Photobook category for A Girl and Her Room. Seventeen jurors affiliated with the likes of The New Yorker, Magnum Photos, Mother Jones, FotoVisura, and other notables in the photography and art world chose Rania as one of five finalists in the Photobook category, identifying her as an artist helping to define the future of photography. The competition began in 2008 as part of the The New York Photo Festival and has attracted submissions from over 20,000 talented photographers and artists from around the world since then.

Winners will be announced on September 28 at The powerHouse Arena as part of an opening exhibition featuring the work of all finalists, providing yet another incentive to head over to the DUMBO Arts Festival taking place from September 28 – 30. Additionally Rania’s work, along with that of the other finalists, will be featured in the 2013 issue of powerHouse Magazine: The Future of Contemporary Photography. Congratulations and good luck to Rania, and we hope to see everyone at the opening exhibition!