RIDER Project 2008 presents

Contact: Susan Campbell
project.rider@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hurricane Katrina Photographs Featured at Times Center
Those Who Fell Through the Cracks – A Silent Auction

Top: Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR

Bottom right and left: Stanley Greene/NOOR

On Thursday, June 12th, 2008, The Times Center will host an Exhibition and Silent Auction of photographs by award-winning photo journalists Stanley Greene and Kadir van Lohuizen documenting the lives of New Orleans residents whose lives were irrevocably altered by the devastation—and aftermath--of Hurricane Katrina.  The photographs will be auctioned in both large and small sizes. 

This is an opportunity to preview these photographs before they begin their 5-city east coast journey as part of the mobile RIDER Project in the FALL of 2008. The RIDER Project is an itinerant exhibition space located in the back of a rented truck, opening a path to social change.  Funds raised from the sales of these photos will help raise awareness of the ongoing crisis in New Orleans, and support the upcoming traveling exhibition. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Common Ground Relief/New Orleans and various project services, which are located in the most neglected and disenfranchised communities of the city. These photographs were created as a result of the Open Society Institute Katrina Media Fellowships.

With Open Society Institute Media Fellowships, van Lohuizen and Greene documented Hurricane Katrina’s effects on Gulf Coast residents and the struggles they face in reestablishing their lives. In September and October 2008, Those Who Fell Through the Cracks, will exhibit in New York City, Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston and New Orleans. The Exhibit’s goal is to make a general audience and policy makers aware of the still-existing situation in New Orleans and the distressing fact that about 250,000 former residents are still scattered over the country and unable to return to their former homes.

The Project is sponsored by the Times Center, Kodak, FreeDimensional and NOOR.

What: Those Who Fell Through The Cracks  – A Silent Auction of photographs documenting the devastation and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

When:  Thursday, June 12, 2008  7:00pm – 11:00pm

Where:  The Times Center, part of The New York Times Building & headquarters. Located in the heart of the Times Square District adjacent to The New 42nd Street. The entrance is on 41st Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.

Times Center
242 West 41st Street
New York, NY 10018

The auction is open to the public but a suggested donation at the door is encouraged

Online tax-deductable donation:

The Katrina Rider Project 2008, is being fiscally sponsored
by freeDimensional, Inc. (fD) a platform of collaboration linking artistic communities to social justice movements globally. fD conducts advocacy on behalf of vulnerable groups and produces tactical media to illustrate critical, contemporary issues. fD is a registered 501c3 organization. All donations and sponsorship payments should be made payable to Free Dimensional/The Rider Project. You will receive a written acknowledgement of your contribution for tax purposes. To learn more about
FreeDimensional and the important projects they support, please visit their website at www.freedimensional.org

ARTISTS:

STANLEY GREENE was born in New York in 1949, and as a teenager was a member of the Black Panthers and an anti-Vietnam War activist. He founded SF Camerawork, an exhibition space for avant-garde photography and was awarded a Katrina Media Fellowship from the Open Society Institute. Greene has photographed wars and poverty in Africa, the former Soviet Union, Central America, Asia, and the Middle East. He won two World Press awards for his photographs inside the Russian Parliament building during the 1993 Moscow putsch. He has worked for the French daily Libération since 1993 and worked closely with The New York Times Magazine,Newsweek, and the San Francisco Examiner. He has been the Moscow correspondent for the Rolling Stone, Paris Match, Time, Stern, Fortune, and Le Nouvel Observateur. Stanley Greene published the photo book OpenWound: Chechnya 1994-2003 (Trolley), and won the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Award in 2004. He is the co-founder the NOOR Agency.

KADIR VAN LOHUIZEN is a professional freelance photojournalist who has covered stories about Africa, Asia,the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East, and has worked regularly for Medecins sans Frontieres since 1990. He has been awarded numerous grants and honors throughout his career, including a Katrina Media Fellowship from the Open Society Institute, two World Press Photo awards and ‘de Zilveren Camera’ 1997,the highest Dutch award in photojournalism, for his story in Zaire on Rwandan refugees. He also won a Visa D’Or annual award in the USA for his work in Chad. In 2000 (Sierra Leone) and 2005 (diamonds) he won the “Dick Scherpenzeel” prize in Holland for best reporting on the developing world. Van Lohuizen’s photographs have been published in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Le Monde, Liberation, The Guardian, The Observer, Independent Sunday Review, Paris Match, Vrij Nederland, de Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad, and GEO. His most recent book, Diamond Matters, was published by Mets and Schilt Publishers in 2005.Before van Lohuizen became a photographer he was a sailor and started a shelter for homeless and drug addicts in Holland. He was also an activist in the Dutch squatter movement. He is the co-founder the NOOR Agency.

MICHELE GAMBETTA is a sculptor and the founder of RIDER Projects, 2003-2008. She has exhibited at the Appleton Museum of Art, RIT, Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University, the Goodwin-Ternbach Museum, the PP Museum at Dresden Kunsthaus, MoCADA, Betty Rymer Gallery in Chicago, CONFLUX, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, and The London Biennale at Crystal Palace. She received Brooklyn Arts Council regrants through the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in 2005 and 2006.

Located in the back of rented trucks, RIDER exhibitions are mobile exhibition spaces. They are mobile content, and the material embodiment of mobile communication. Building upon the social sculpture ideas of Joseph Bueys and driven by a belief in the power of art and dialogue, each RIDER Project is a unique ephemeral event and cultural exchange.

Click here to download a copy of the Press Release
Click here to download the Showcard