KOSOVO by George Georgiou

the 17th of February 2008, Kosovo auto-declares the independence from Serbia

George Georgiou documented the Kosovo conflict in Albania, when the Kosovan Albanians were refugees, and in Kosovo after the ceasefire.

the 17th of February 2008 Kosovo Independence Day

The 1st of April 2009 is the 10th anniversary of the NATO bombing.

The 10th of June 2009 is the anniversary of the end of the conflict with the NATO resolution 1244 "Determined to resolve the grave humanitarian situation in Kosovo and to provide for the safe and free return of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes".

Complete gallery on Prospekt website

Phillip Toledano - A new kind of beauty

I’m interested in what we define as beauty, when we choose to create it ourselves.

Beauty has always been a currency, and now that we finally have the
technological means to mint our own, what choices do we make?

Is beauty informed by contemporary culture? By history? Or is it defined by the surgeon’s hand? Can we identify physical trends that vary from decade to decade, or is beauty timeless?

When we re-make ourselves, are we revealing our true character, or are we stripping away our very identity?

Perhaps we are creating a new kind of beauty. An amalgam of surgery, art, and popular culture? And if so, are the results the vanguard of human induced evolution?

This is a unique time. While the technology exists to truly re-imagine ourselves, it’s not perfect. And until it is, a new species of human is being created. And not unlike the Neaderthal, they will co-exist with Homo Sapiens for a short while, before disappearing into history.

Gallery at Phillip Toledano's website

The lost souls of kabul - by James Nachtwey

We’re used to thinking of Afghanistan as the world’s drug problem: it is, after all, the leading producer of opium poppy, the raw ingredient of heroin. But lost amid U.S. and NATO efforts to halt drug exports—and remove a lucrative source of revenue for the Taliban— is the alarming growth of addiction within the country. According to a U.N. survey, from 2005 to 2009 the number of heroin addicts jumped 140%, and the number of opium users almost doubled. All told, there are close to a million Afghan drug users, or nearly a tenth of the population ages 15 to 64. The U.N. estimates there are 60,000 addicts in Kabul alone.

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