I am also happy to announce the March 26th presentation I will be giving called From Inside: Windows of the Soul & Photographing the Middle East for Magazines for The University of Arizona Tucson's Center for Middle Eastern Studies conference called Journalistic Representations of Islam: Print and Visual. 

Afterwards I will visit Paul Waldman at the Living American Master Photographers Project in Phoenix, where Paul is going to make my portrait for the project. Then I'll travel around Arizona and photograph that great state again. 

I loved teaching a workshop last month at the International Center of Photography called The Woman Photojournalist. It was deeply satisfying to share my experience in this life of photography, from 1982 when I was a student at ICP till now, with those amazing students. I also had some great guests in to share their exciting work and perspectives as well: the photographers Donna Ferrato and Yunghi Kim, the  editor/photographer/videographer/producer Mark Bussell and the photo editor Robert Stevens of Time Magazine, where he worked for over two decades, and where he supported the work of many of the best women photojournalists. I was very honored to have them speak in my class.

I have recently been working on deepening two projects, and starting a new one in which I explore new territory for me.

Till next time....

Published in: America, Books, Windows of the Soul, News, Photography, Travel, News and Events, Slide Shows, Speaking

Hello again from Visa pour L'image international photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France. Visa pour L'image is one of my photographic homes, and I am deeply pleased to be exhibiting here again. Terrific shows abound with the photojournalists such as Eugene Richards, the late Francois Demulder, Abbas, David Burnett, Massimo Berutti, Dominic Nahr, Walter Astrada, and more. Wednesday I was honored to be a judge on the Pierre and Alexandra Boulat Association grant. They were dear friends of mine.

Then we had a lovely, long luncheon given by Canon for the exhibiting photojournalists. I gave a gallery talk to about two hundred people from many countries and walks of life, that afternoon. The turnout for the festival has been just huge.

Thursday there was another wonderful luncheon given by ICP. Jean-Francois Leroy received the Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Literature Last night. Then, the National Geographic cocktail party was hosted by Susan Smith and Maura Mulvihill, in a slight breeze near the flying buttresses of an ancient church. Afterwards, as always, everyone went to the nightly projections.

Busy with lots of media interviews back to back. Yesterday I did a book signing of Windows of the Soul, and gallery talk in front of my exhibit as well. Sold the books out. ELLE gave a gorgeous little party at the Couvant des Minimes. Today there is a party on the beach given by Paris Match.

Professional Week at Visa pour L'image is ending this weekend and we'll all jet off in different directions. But first there will be a lovely dinner by the sea Sunday night. Next week the shows open to the general public.

Published in: Books, Windows of the Soul, Personal, Photography, Travel

Check out NPR's Picture Show today, featuring Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World by photojournalist Alexandra Avakian, published by Focal Point/National Geographic.

Published in: Books, Windows of the Soul, Photography, News and Events, News

Published in: Books, Windows of the Soul, Photography, News and Events, News

Dear Friends and Colleagues, Check out today's New York Times feature about Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World. Click here: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/

MULTIMEDIA | June 04, 2009
Lens: Showcase: Taking Risks By James Estrin

Alexandra Avakian takes chances. She faced down militias in Somalia and covered riots and conflict in Gaza, Lebanon and the Caucasus to make the photographs in her book, "Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World" (Focal Point/National Geographic, 2008).

Source: lens.blogs.nytimes.com

Published in: America, Books, Windows of the Soul, News, Photography

On Saturday, February 21 at 8 a.m. (EST) and Sunday, February 22 at 12 a.m. and 1 p.m. (EST), CSPAN2's Book TV featured Alexandra's NG Live! October 2008 slide show and book talk at the National Geographic Society.

On Thursday, February 19, Alexandra and Windows of the Soul were featured in an in-depth interview on "Worldview" with Jerome McDonnell on Chicago Public Radio, and at a slide show and book signing at FLATEFILEgalleries in Chicago.

Voice of America TV, Radio and website covered Avakian and Windows of the Soul last month, and again on February 21 & February. 22 on the V.O.A. program Conference USA.

For Avakian's blog, gallery, bio, book and more visit blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/photography/windowsofthesoul.

CONTACT:

Jeffrey D. Smith
jeffreysmith@contactpressimages.com
Contact Press Images, Inc.
341 West 38th Street -7th fl
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-695-7874 or 7875
Fax: 212-695-7768

Published in: America, Books, Windows of the Soul, News, Photography

News About Alexandra Avakian's Memoir

Hi Everybody,

Time for some updates on press coverage of Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World.

This month I'm featured in a full page article in Washingtonian magazine called "Art Among the Ruins" (Feb. 2009 issue, and on-line). The article notes that "She's been shot at and beaten. Through it all, this photojournalist captured amazing images of war—and peace."

CSPAN2's Book TV will feature Alexandra's NG Live! slide show and book talk on Feb. 21 at 8 a.m. and Feb. 22 at 12 a.m. and 2 p.m.—for more information, click here.

This month V.O.A. TV, Radio, and website features Windows of the Soul in several languages. For more information, click here. In its January-February 2009 issue, American Photo magazine recognized Windows of the Soul as one of the top photo books of 2008. American Photo Editor in Chief David Schonauer has praised Avakian's photos as "visually adventurous" and her National Geographic blog as "important" and "intriguing". To read more, visit stateoftheart.popphoto.com/blog/2008/10/an-important-bo.html.

Next time I write to you will be after a new slide show/book signing I am doing next Thursday on February 19 at FLATFILEgalleries in Chicago, 6-9pm. Later on in the evening there will be great poetry readings as well, by poets of UniVerse. Welcome all. It promises to be a very exciting event…

Location

February 19, 6-9 pm
FLATFILEgalleries
217 N Carpenter
Chicago IL 60607 »See Map
312.491.1190
email: info@flatfilegalleries.com

Published in: America, Books, Windows of the Soul, News, Photography

The photo essay at the front of the book is a way of telling the reader that you are going to visit many places in the pages of my book. I couldn’t resist including Iraq, Egypt, and Morocco, although they would not fit into the book as chapters in and of themselves. In the next few blog entries I'll share some photos that did not make it into the book. Stay tuned! I traveled often with Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO. It started when the New York Times Magazine sent me to Tunis in the fall of 1988 to do a cover story on him, back when he was still a pariah. Over the years I flew with him on his little Iraqi-piloted plane lent to him by Saddam Hussein, to Libya to meet with Moammar Qaddafi, to Algeria for his declaration of independence, to Washington when he signed the Oslo Accords at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzakh Rabin and President Clinton, to Oslo when he accepted the Peace Prize, among other places. I got to know the advisors around him and his wife Suha, too.

There was a lot of waiting involved, and I would often find other things to photograph. Before and after the assignments I would take off on adventures with a couple of Arab friends. I especially enjoyed North Africa. This picture of a boy smoking in a Moroccan café in Ouzane is in the introduction to the book.

These other two pictures from Morocco are not. The first is in Ouzane, where I found a lot of people, including the very old, smoking hashish in the street. I was invited to a wedding in northern Morocco where I danced with the women, and another day to a hamaam (Turkish bath.) On another trip I got caught for three days in a Saharan sandstorm.

The second photo of a street dentist was taken in Djemma Square in Marrakesh. Morocco is beautiful and full of surprises but also very poor. After I finished a piece of chicken at an outdoor café one night in Marrakesh, a pregnant woman and her child came out of the shadows and grabbed my plate and ran off with the bones.

Published in: Books, Windows of the Soul, Photography

Windows of the Soul is about my journeys in the Muslim world during 17 years of my 25-year career. I’ve defined "the Muslim world" as anywhere I worked on Muslim-related stories, from Kyrgystan to California.

The book doesn't cover all the other parts of the world and types of stories I have done; it is not a retrospective of my career, but a record of one path within it. I am not an expert in Islam, and the book is not meant to be a catalogue of Muslim countries, just a memoir of these places and cultures I was attracted to and was honored to gain access to.

Many of the photos were originally made for National Geographic, the New York Times Magazine, and Time magazine. Many were published in those and other magazines; some of them were unpublished until now—indeed I rescued a few from reject boxes long forgotten.

It was time to bring it all together in a book reflecting this journey, which has been far-ranging and connected to my family roots and history. Part of my family hails from Iran. I am a third-generation American on one side and a fourth-generation American on the other side of my family. The fact that I was diagnosed, treated for, and survived breast cancer during the editing and writing of this book only galvanized me more to write it all down. (See my full bio.)

My journey also reflects some of the challenges that women face in all professions and walks of life.

The title of the book refers to eyes being windows of the soul: the truth or lies, happiness or sadness I find there as I connect to the people I photograph resulted in the pictures in this book. My eyes are windows too for them to see who I am, and the connection or disconnection that happens between photographer and subject on stories is profound, resulting in distilled moments that give the reader a feel of what it's like to be in my shoes looking out, and in the shoes of those people in the stories, feeling what they feel.

Those eyes on the book cover are from a truck driver's sign that I found in Iran—they are used in some countries to ward off bad luck. The mosque in the cover photo is near Cincinnati, and this picture was shot through a window at dawn during the holy month of Ramadan a couple of months after 9/11.

In this blog I will be adding information to what is covered in the book. There are many stories of life, danger, and adventure in the book, but so many were left out as well. So I will also try to cover some of those people, events, and countries that didn't make it in for various editorial reasons, and hope that they further broaden the journey as it is told in the book.

Ready? Let's go….

Published in: Books, Windows of the Soul, Photography, Travel