Newsletter “Shoot” – Oberg PhotoGraphics Blog

SPAR – The “Silk Peace Art Road” Project

Lund, Sweden –
March 8 to July 16, 2018. No longer updated here.
But all about the project on my photo homepage launched on September 1, 2018 here.

Jan Oberg, Oberg PhotoGraphics, has been invited by the Global Art Affairs (GAA) Foundation and the European Cultural Center to exhibit at Palazzo Mora in Venice in the context of the Biennale 2019.
This exciting opportunity stimulated the development of a bigger idea that combines Oberg’s work for peace and art photography with a focus on the Chinese-initiated Silk Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the largest and most visionary in today’s world in terms of linking people and cultures into cooperation rather than confrontation.
In various ways the project – with the Road as metaphor – stretches from China over Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran and Syria to Venice and seeks to promote cooperation and peace in the process.
The “Silk Peace Art Road” – SPAR – project is made public at this very early development stage where only little funding is secured to encourage you to share co-operative ideas, contacts you may have in China and along the Silk Road or to potential partners, artists, sponsors, art institutions, etc.

Summary in 7 elements

1. To stay in China for some time and then travel along the Silk Road.
2. Make use of selected existing archived materials such as photos I’ve taken in China 1983, Myanmar, Somalia and Somaliland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Aleppo in Syria and Venice which are all situated on the:
3. Old Silk Road and on the new Silk Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that China initiated and which my work will evolve around, and:
4. Combining some of the old photos with new ones and various other materials and artefacts into a completely new multimedia creation (one big or several smaller related to each other), and:
5. Exhibiting it all at Palazzo Mora, Venice, in 2019 in the context of the Biennale (May 11-Nov 24) and documenting the process on Instagram, my blog and perhaps also, later, in a book.
6. The project seeks to explore relations between art, the emerging new world order, and history in the future as well as the interactions of cultures, people and expressions, and finally:
7. It will build synergy between my two ‘lives’ as academic peace & future researcher and art photographer.

[175 words]

“shoot” newsletter # 63

NataliaAndGerhard Richter_PhSh

Welcome to shoot # 63
Summer months of silence only means that a lot of exciting things are in the pipeline.
I welcome all new recipients – and here is the preceding shoot.*
The photo above is my digital gift to you.
It's "Natalia And Gerhard Richter" – a "classic" from 2011 and one of the new-old works I've selected to be shown at:

Cultural Night in Lund, Sweden – September 16, 2017
A diverse show with three types:
• New-old works carefully selected, re-edited and re-printed.
• Photos from the December 2016 liberation of Aleppo, Syria – Hope And Suffering – shown for the first time.
• Small unique multi-media photo collages.
Hope to see you! Facebook event here. More info and photos to come.

Instagram
Art lovers largest and most handy platform! New photos or mini videos almost every day on @obergphotographics.
Close to 1000 real followers. Let's follow mutually.
Explore here !

Oberg PhotoGraphics' Blog – Photo and other art
– where I write about exhibitions, reviews, post photos and videos about art, events and links. Only positive stuff, no critique.
Browse here!

Homepage
A completely re-organised, re-designed home with fewer works in larger formats for perfect viewing.
Not ready yet but enough to see, the Art World section is ready.

GlobalArt Magazine
Art news, exhibitions, reviews. Inspiration guaranteed. Selected by Oberg PhotoGraphics for the searching and discerning art soul.
All at one place at your fingertips!

Credo
I believe in global networking, sharing and in positive energy.
Share with me if you have news or views about photo and other art which I may highlight somewhere.
After all, it's the arts more than anything else that keep us human.
And given the state of the world, the arts are needed today more than ever.

My best and live well!
Jan Oberg

Jan Oberg – Oberg PhotoGraphics

*) shoot is a free and broad e-newsletter which
• contains a photo gift to you, a moment of meditation;
• stimulates your art curiosity and shares positive stuff from the global art world;
• serves as a gateway to the online GlobalArt Magazine and Instagram – and also to
• the blog I write as an art recommender, not an art critic;
• wings into your mailbox freely and inspiringly but never too frequently;
• tells you too – but not primarily – what happens at Oberg PhotoGraphics.

Shoot # 61

Abisko6E_PP_PhSh

Lund, Sweden, April 15, 2017

Jan Oberg
Oberg PhotoGraphics – Click

Dear Photo And Other Art Friend

Welcome to shoot* # 61
The photo above is a digital gift – a moment for reflection – to you from Oberg PhotoGraphics.
Welcome to new recipients. Here is the preceding shoot.
The image above was shot in Abisko, Sweden about 250 kilometres inside the Polar Circle where “Aurora” or Northern Lights can be seen.

Content

• A blog and video about Oberg PhotoGraphics
• Syria a priority
• No Easter Art Round exhibit
• Changes to the concept
• New editions
• Photo stories
• New studio video
• The little girl from Aleppo
• GlobalArt Magazine
• Instagram – let’s follow each other!
• Until next – remember…

A blog and video about Oberg PhotoGraphics
A French student at Lund University, Héloïse Dumont, has spent half a year creating a blog devoted to my work as photographer and peace researcher – images and interviews and a video in which I explain various aspects of my work.

It’s just been launched and we hope you’ll visit and comment.

Syria a priority
Since I visited Syria in December last year, I’ve spent 90% of my time learning, writing and building opinion. My photographic work has been suffering, but the choice is clear for me. And I’m going there again in May. Continue reading Shoot # 61

shoot # 59

Damascus-Beirut, December 19, 2016

Content

• Welcome to shoot – a gateway to the art world
• Syria – documenting incomprehensible violence and suffering
• New editions, including photo paintings
• GlobalArt Magazine
• Instagram – let’s follow each other!

Jan Oberg – Oberg PhotoGraphics – Click

Dear friend of art photography and other art

Welcome to shoot # 59
The photo above is a digital gift – a moment for reflection – to you from Oberg PhotoGraphics.
Welcome to new recipients. Here is the preceding shoot.

shoot aims to stimulate art curiosity and share positive stuff. It’s a gateway to the online “flip” GlobalArt Magazine and the blog I write as an art recommender, not an art critic.

shoot wings into your mailbox now and then. Sometimes I shoot just a single image your way. Exclusively for shoot recipients.

I believe in global networking, sharing and in positive energy. Please share with me if you have photo and other art news and views.

Syria
This shoot is very different from what I normally send you. I can hold no Christmas exhibition or send you Christmas offers this year.

I went to Damascus, Syria, as peace and conflict researcher, to do fact-finding, interviews, gathering impressions and think about roads to peace.

As you may know that is the other side of my life. I have just come out, writing to you from Beirut.

I was in Aleppo, bombs falling day and night, when you heard that it was liberated or fell depending on media and perspective. The photo above is from the Jibrin Reception Centre in Western Aleppo where about 100.000 people from Eastern Aleppo get humanitarian assistance by the Syrian government.

They have come out after four years of hell under the occupation of the Western-supported fighters/rebels/opposition/terrorists – again variable terminology.

It’s all extremely complicated. But what is not complicated is to feel deep sympathy with the real victims in every war: the innocent civilians who are always hit by those who speak the language of weapons.

As a peace and conflict researcher having worked in Yugoslavia, Georgia, Abkhazia, Iraq and Burundi, I have never ever seen anything like the destruction of Aleppo.

It’s a wasteland of dozens upon dozens of square kilometres. Endless, systematic destruction of culture, history, mosques, basars, industrial areas etc. Human suffering beyond words. And how many dead?

Look at the footwear of those on this photo. Aleppo will not be rebuilt before these children are 30 or 40. It used to be one of the biggest industrial centres in the Middle East.

Eastern Aleppo, Syria © Jan Oberg 2016

These photos are unique. I was among the first ten to get there.

I’m no war photographer or reporter. But my work compels me to share a bit of what I have seen. I’m afraid most of us in Europe have been misinformed by media to such an extent that we do not comprehend the death and destruction. I was reminded of images from World War II.

Let me end with this little girl whose eyes and gesture touched me so deeply.

She is the victim of international politics, the weapons of the Syrian side, the terrorist side, the US and NATO side and Russian side. A piece of bread made her feel hope.

When will we ever learn?

Child from Eastern Aleppo, Syria
© Jan Oberg 2016

New editions
Oberg PhotoGraphics’ homepage has become more easy to navigate.
Several new works uploaded before I left, see Recent Editions.

GlobalArt Magazine
Inspiration guaranteed – quality works, articles and video.
Selected by Oberg PhotoGraphics for the searching and discerning art soul.
At one place. At your fingertips!

Instagram – let’s follow each other!
On Instagram – @obergphotographics is now a business account. Great diversity and a new photo almost every day, can be spontaneous but always carefully processed. Let’s follow each other!

Until next: Remember
– that it is the arts more than anything else that keep us human and, given the state of the world right now, therefore more needed than ever.

And during the coming holidays I try to understand what Aleppo is and what it will mean in world history. In the best of cases we may see yet another example of that enigmatic human will to survive and move on.

Time will tell.

My best – and Merry Christmas to those among my recipients who celebrate Christmas
Jan Oberg

shoot # 57

betweenthebedtwoclocks — *Between Two Clocks And The Bed* – Photo Collage 2011 – Click on the image for info

Lund, November 6, 2016
Click on images for info, links or prices

Content

• Welcome to shoot – a gateway to the art world
• On Edvard Munch, Jasper Johns and crosshatching
• New editions, including photo paintings
• Collages from Iran
• GlobalArt Magazine
• Instagram – let’s follow each other!

Jan Oberg – Oberg PhotoGraphics – Click

Dear photo-and-other-art friend!

Welcome to shoot # 57
The photo above is a digital gift – a moment of joy or reflection – to you from Oberg PhotoGraphics.

A special welcome to many new subscribers and social media and other friends – here is the preceding shoot.

shoot aims to stimulate art curiosity and share positive stuff. It’s a gateway to the online “flip” GlobalArt Magazine, the blog I write as an art recommender, not an art critic.

shoot wings into your mailbox now and then. Sometimes I also shoot just a single image your way – exclusively for shoot recipients.

I believe in global networking, sharing and in positive energy. Please share with me if you have news and views.

Edvard Munch and Jasper Johns
Want to alert you to the fascinating “Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch: Love, Loss, and the Cycle of Life” exhibition (incl video) to open in a few days at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art (VMFA): 130 works by Munch and Johns and how they connect and how Munch may have inspired Johns. Curated by John B. Ravenal.

There is a new blog post here on the Munch-Johns connection with reference to two works in which I connected them in 2011, one of which is shown on the top.

Little did I know that five years later Continue reading shoot # 57

shoot # 56 – Art photo gift and gateway for you

Lund, October 12, 2016
Click on images for info, links or prices

Content

• Welcome to shoot – a gateway to the art world
• New editions, including Mark Rothko
• Art Evening in Lund: the “photolution”
• Collages from Iran
• Instagram – let’s follow each other!
• Abstract photography video
• Venice: Can it still be saved?

Jan Oberg – Oberg PhotoGraphics – Click

Dear Art Friend

Welcome to shoot # 56 – A gateway
The photo above is a digital gift – a moment of joy or reflection – to you from Oberg PhotoGraphics.

A special welcome to many new subscribers and social media and other friends – here is the preceding shoot.

shoot aims to stimulate art curiosity and share positive stuff. It’s a gateway to the online “flip” GlobalArt Magazine, the blog I write as an art recommender, not art critic.

shoot wings into your mailbox now and then. Sometimes I also shoot just a single image your way – exclusively for shoot recipients.

I believe in global networking, sharing and in positive energy. Please share with me if you have news and views.

New editions including one of Mark Rothko
Oberg PhotoGraphics’ homepage has changed to become more easy to navigate. Several new works uploaded, see Recent Editions. I’m proud of them all.

Perhaps especially the one above Continue reading shoot # 56 – Art photo gift and gateway for you