Stuart Franklin is a worldwide known award winning photographer, a Magnum photographer since 1985 and president of Magnum Photos 2006 – 2009.
Stuart studied photography and film at West Surrey College of Art and Design and geography at the University of Oxford (BA and PhD). During the 1980s, he worked as a correspondent for Sygma Agence Presse in Paris before joining Magnum Photos in 1985.
Franklin’s coverage of the Sahel famine from 1984 to 1985 won him acclaim, but he is perhaps best known for his celebrated photograph of a man defying a tank in Tiananmen Square, China, in 1989, which won him a World Press Photo Award. Since 1990, Franklin has completed over twenty assignments for National Geographic. His documentary photography has taken him to Central and South America, China, Southeast Asia and Europe. Since 2004 he has focused on long-term projects concerned primarily with man and the environment. He worked on about twenty stories for National Geographic Magazine between 1991 and 2009. Franklin is currently working on a long-term project on Europe’s changing landscape, focusing in particular on the climate and on patterns of transformation.
Awards: Christian Aid Award for Humanitarian Photography, 1985, Tom Hopkinson Award, 1987 World Press Photo Award, 1989, World Press Photo award for spot news stories, third prize, 1991 Gibbs Prize for Geography, University of Oxford, 1997
Books: Footprint – Our landscape in Flux, London: Thames & Hudson, 2008. Hotel Afrique, Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2007. La Città Dinamica, Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2003. Sea Fever, Oxford: The Bardwell Press, 2005. The Time of Trees, Milan: Leonardo Arte, 1999. Tiananmen Square, London: Black Sun, 1989.
Tim Cole, Creative Director and Head of Photography, Saatchi and Saatchi Design (UK)
Tim Cole has been working in the design industry and commissioning photography for over sixteen years, working with leading brands from Mercedes, Nike, T-Mobile, Toyota and Proctor & Gamble to name a few. He is currently the Creative Director and Head of Photography at Saatchi & Saatchi Design and also for 2011 on the judging panel for LPA futures photographic competition.
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Dinesh Khanna, Photographer (India)
Dinesh Khanna is a renowned Indian fine art, editorial and commercial photographer best known for his books “Bazaar” and “Living Faith” – which were a result of over a decade of traveling through Indian urban landscapes and sacred places. He is currently working on books called “Benaras – Everyday in Eternity” and “Earning Dignity”.
His work has been exhibited worldwide from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Benaras to London, Edinburgh, Davos, San Francisco and New York. His most recent Exhibition “Tirtha – a Spiritual Journey” was in December 07 in New Delhi. He lives in Gurgaon, near Delhi, India and travels wherever his camera takes him.
Richard Hsu, Creative Director, h+5 (China)
Richard Hsu is one of the biggest names on the Bund – born in Shanghai but educated in France, Switzerland and the States. In the late seventies he worked as an assistant to Richard Avedon. Hsu returned to his roots in 2003 to head up the launch of Wieden+Kennedy in China. A Creative Director like no other, Richard is also principal of his own creative consultancy h+5, and co-founder of Shanghai streetwear brand, Eno. Richard is currently teaching at Tongji University in Shanghai and Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He is also the curator of Shanghai TEDx.
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Julia de Bierre Galerie Huit owner, writer, heritage conservationist and curator, (France, UK, Malaysia)
Julia de Bierre is an Anglo-French, Malaysian-born writer, heritage conservationist, curator and art-gallery owner. A graduate of Bristol University (Theatre and French), with a passion for interiors and antiques, she curated the Chateau de Lucens, one of Switzerland’s most prestigious Historic Monuments, for over a decade.
She has worked with major European art collectors and auctioneers, and created, within different castle settings, a series of workshops, focused on fine and decorative arts.
Her bestselling book ‘Restoration Recipes’ (Quadrille) has been translated into more than seven languages, and ‘Penang: Through Gilded Doors’ (Areca Books, English and French) is now in 2nd edition. She contributes to leading magazines (World of Interiors, House and Garden, Eyemazing).
Julia divides her time between Arles, Paris and Penang (Malaysia). She is also the founder of ‘Galerie Huit at Muntri Street’, which is in the heart of George Town, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Penang, Malaysia.
Vanja Karas, Photography Open Salon Founder, Photographer, Curator and Creative Director (UK, Serbia)
Vanja Karas is a Belgrade-born, London-based Artist, Curator and Art Director. She graduated from the University of Arts in Belgrade, followed by an MA from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Kings College London. She subsequently studied photography at Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design and the International College of Photography, New York.
Vanja began her creative career in theatre directing, and from there moved on to work in a range of other visual arts media including film, video, multimedia, graphic design and print. In 2000 she founded Magenta Grove London, an award-winning London based branding and design agency.
In recent years her work has been focused mainly on fine art and social documentary photography. Her photography has taken her from Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Malaysia to Africa and Eastern Europe. She has exhibited her work in Europe, Asia and North America has been commissioned for a number of private and corporate collections, her most recent commission being for 50 St Mary Axe, (The Gherkin, London).
In 2009 Vanja entered the competition for the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London and was selected to exhibit from among 13 000 entries which gave her the opportunity to exhibit her work alongside artists such as Nadav Kander, Gavin Turk, Tracy Emin, Louise Bourgeois and Damien Hirst. This experience has confirmed her strong belief in the power of prestigious open competitions to create significant opportunities for artists to raise their profiles and gain exposure and critical acclaim.
Vanja is the Founder and the Curator of the Arles Photography Open Salon at Galerie Huit. She curated the 2011 exhibition Trasience in Galerie Huit Arles and in China House and Alliance Francaise de Penang in Malaysa.