Phu Tran: Patea, New Zealand

Phu Tran was born in Southeast Asia and raised in Northern California. He now lives and works in Patea, New Zealand. With graphic design being a primary profession, photography has always been an accompanying tool and continues to be a growing practice.

Life in Patea is quiet with the occasional strong coastal winds and the rumbling of milk trucks passing through. This small town was once a major boom town with all the essential businesses driven mainly by a thriving Freezing Works. Today, 25 years after the closing of the Works, only a handful of shops and clinics support less than 2000 remaining residents.

The Albion Hotel and Bar accommodates
farming contractors, traveling workers and tourists.

Patea locals get up at dawn to commemorate Anzac Day, 25th of April. It is a remembrance day for those who died in the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

Highway 3 Food bar is one of the busiest shops in town
serving typical Kiwi fish and chips.

The Freezing Works Display created by artist Nigel Ogle is reminiscent of
the days of success and wealth.

All images ©Phu M. Tran

Delmi Alvarez: Riga, Latvia

Delmi Alvarez is a freelance photojournalist currently living in Riga, Latvia. Originally from the port city of Vigo, in the autonomous region of Galicia, in Northwest Spain, Delmi began his career photographing social conflict in the streets of Vigo.

Delmi has completed long term documentary projects, the most notable of which are his year long documentation of daily life in Cuba, and his twenty year documentation of the Galician Diaspora around the world.

Galegos na Diaspora 1989-2009 took Delmi on journeys through Europe, Russia, Africa and the Americas culminating in an edited work of 576 black and white duotone images.

Today Delmi lives among the Galician Diaspora in Riga.


In Latvia women clean the streets all year round starting very early each morning. In winter, as snow accumulates, the heavy work takes many hours.

March 16th is Latvian Legion Day when soldiers of the Latvian Legion, part of the Waffen SS, are commemorated. It was made an official day of remembrance in 1998 and has since sparked much controversy. Many Red Army veterans and leftist activists see the Legion as an arm of the Nazi regime and consider Legion Day a Nazi festival. In 2000, the Latvian government abolished the holiday.

Jurmala beach is a resort near Riga where the rich and diplomats live.

Freedom Monument Guard, Riga, Latvia.

Old car with advertisement: Moving?

All photos © Delmi Alvarez

Alan Dejecacion

Alan Dejecacion is a photojournalist and documentary photographer living and working in San Francisco.

"I worked as a photojournalist for eight years while living in Los Angeles doing mostly editorial assignments for magazines and as contract photographer for the Gamma-Liaison photographic agency (acquired by Getty Images in 1997). I value the experienced gained from those times, but my approach to making a photograph has changed –partly from being inspired by friends, colleagues, and others. Those days of running around trying to meet deadlines are pretty much over for me. I prefer a much slower pace now, working mostly on long-term documentary projects some of which are posted on my Flickr site. In between these personal projects, the stunning light that we're so blessed here in San Francisco (my home for the last 15 years) is enough to keep me busy. "

Waitress at Rain Tree Cafe watching television on a slow evening.
Irving Street, San Francisco © Alan Dejecacion

Above Jones Street on a morning stroll with my Holga. San Francisco
© Alan Dejecacion

Early morning in December. Broadway Street, San Francisco
© Alan Dejecacion

Waiting for my breakfast at Peter D's. Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco
© Alan Dejecacion

Tony Remington

Tony Remington is a photographer of considerable accomplishment. He has recently been dividing his time between the Philippines and the San Francisco Bay Area.

"My father a Bataan Veteran POW was offered US citzenship. Thus, I was born a hypehnenated American Citizen in Manila, at doon ako pinananak. I grew up in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury in the postwar fifties and reached adolescence when the country was reinventing itself through the colateral damage of Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. I'm the diaspora of one country and the metamorphosis of another, and a contradiction to both. In 2006 I was consumed in the flaming embrace of Shiva and was briefly reincarnated in a prank called 'Death By Stork.' "



Pasig City, San Nicolas, Philippines. I caught three schoolgirls waiting for a tricycle after it had rained. The streets were still wet, lit up like sheets of glass flickering under passing headlights. I can still smell the Jeepney exhaust in the hot humid air as the girls laughed and talked without a care. © Tony Remington



Pasig City, San Nicolas, Philippines. I managed to isolate this tricycle as the rain returned. From among the hoards of tricycles found in Pasig City proper, malipit sa palenke, they come out in droves to ferry the children to and from school. I love the streets when they are wet like this. It is etched into my mind, I can still taste it. © Tony Remington



Pasig City, San Nicolas, Philippines. The "Eggman." A man crossing the street with a bag of eggs. My house is in the unmodernized part of Pasig City, free of pretense, Where I could get a clear understanding. © Tony Remington

Pasig City, San Nicolas, Philippines. The world truly is a bizarre composite of contradictions. It wasn't till I lost everything that I realized what i had found, and in doing so revealed an almost unbearable truth about being an American. © Tony Remington