“Walking in the door has been easy,” says NY-based photographer Andrea Star Reese, whose ongoing documentary inside Indonesia’s mental facilities has taken her into the homes, schools, shelters and hospitals, where hundreds exist in appalling conditions b
“Walking in the door has been easy,” says NY-based photographer Andrea Star Reese, whose ongoing documentary inside Indonesia’s mental facilities has taken her into the homes, schools, shelters and hospitals, where hundreds exist in appalling conditions because they are believed to be mentally ill. “Leaving is what is difficult,” reflects Reese, “I cannot leave this story.” Her long-term series named Disorder, which she hopes will raise awareness and help generate positive change towards the current mental health care in Indonesia, serves as a reminder of just how much power can lie in a single image.
Andrea Star Reese is a documentary photographer based in New York. A selection from her series Disorder will be exhibited at the 2013 Visa Pour L’Image Photojournalism Festival held in Perpignan, France from August 31st to September 15th.
The Urban Cave is the powerful documentation of homeless men and women in West Harlem by Andrea Star Reese. Formerly a filmmaker, Reese began this project when she enrolled in the photojournalism documentary photo program at ICP. One of her assignments wa
The photographer Andrea Star Reese dealt obliquely with issues of mental illness in her first project, “The Urban Cave,” on homelessness in Harlem. She is dealing with it head on in her current project, set in Indonesia, where Ms. Start Reese has worked on and off since 2003.
The 5th annual Oslo Photo Festival, which took place from March 16 to 20 in Norway’s capital, hosted talks by photojournalists and documentary photographers Carolyn Drake, Stephanie Sinclair, Pieter Ten Hoopen, Thomas Lekfeldt, Andrea Star Reese, Justyna Mielnikiewicz and Eugene Richards. Speakers offered insights into how they win the trust of subjects, what it takes to develop a strong personal project, and advice on surviving under difficult conditions and in an increasingly demanding profession.
Andrea Star Reese was unknown to the photography world before “The Urban Cave”, but, with the work forming part of this year’s Visa Pour l’Image, the photographer is now enjoying a success she never found in her previous career as a filmmaker
For three years, Andrea Star Reese, a former filmmaker, has been photographing homeless people living in West Harlem. Her first project, “The Urban Cave,” will be exhibited at Visa pour l’Image, the international festival of photojournalism held in Perpignan, France, beginning Aug. 28. James Estrin met with Ms. Reese, 58, in New York, where she lives. Their conversation has been edited and condensed for space.
