The "Eyes" Have It

June 28, 2006 - DANA POINT, CA - ZUMA's reportage division is growing daily by leaps and bounds. The production, the diversity, the quality, as well as the usages and sales are soaring to new heights. At the heart of the division's success is each story's search for truth, be they about today's big or little issues. Seeing these issues through the photographers' eyes. Amazing photojournalism coupled with insightful text bring the stories to life.

zReportage was created as an independent division of ZUMA Press three years ago to empower photographer's vision and enable their work to be published around the globe in any and all mediums. New voices and talents are continuing this ongoing multimedia experiment.

I write you today to proudly introduce three of our newest reportage photographers: Stephen Digges, Sarah Hoskins and Matthew Williams. Check out what they saw, recorded and the final images they made to tell us their stories. Each photographer is truly unique and committed to his or her craft. Yet what they have in common is their eye for peeling the layers off the staged reality of today's world. Look out for their work as more is on the way.

Every Tuesday zReportage delivers. Reportage RULES!

Scott Mc Kiernan
ZUMA Press founder and director

Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Stephen Digges is a reportage photographer whose work is in high demand among non-profit and aid organizations.

On assignment, Stephen has documented prisoner abuse in the southern Colombia, where inmates are used for drug experimentation. He's also covered crisis and conflict in Iraq, Liberia, Chechnya, Somalia, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Stephen is currently working on three long-term photo essays: mental institutions and orphanages in rural Kenya; children orphaned by the 1994 Rwandan genocide in Kayonza, Rwanda; and issues surrounding mineral exploitation, and child/slave labor in the civil war-ravaged DRC.

His work has exhibited around the world including at the 2002 World Conference on Racism in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is founder World Information Resources (W I R), a multimedia collective that focuses on publishing documentary stories.

To view Stephen's zReportage essay Congo: Election of Death, click here.

Sarah Hoskins

Based in Libertyville, Illinois, veteran documentary photographer Sarah Hoskins has built a successful career around shooting stories she's passionate about and sharing them with the public via galleries, museums and editorial publication.

Her work is included in several permanent collections, including the Library of Congress; the Center for Photography at Woodstock; CITY 2000, and the Lubbock Fine Arts Center. She is also the recipient of numerous prestigious grants.

Since 2001, Sarah has worked extensively in the inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, documenting communities founded by freed slaves. Through her reportage she shows that despite encroaching development that threatens the communities, local traditions and ways of life continue to survive.

The first photo essay to come out of this long-term project is High on the Hog, a look at the dying ritual of hog killing--once popular community event. In her essay, Sarah captures some of the techniques used to slaughter and butcher hogs that have become akin to an art form passed on between generations.

High on the Hog debuted this week on zReportage. (Click headline to view more.) This work is also on display in the Print Room of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Photography. Click here to find out more.

Editors can look forward to additional chapters in this series becoming available via ZUMA Press as and when Sarah completes them.