Adam Ferguson (photographer)

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For other people named Adam Ferguson, see Adam Ferguson (disambiguation).

Adam Ferguson
Born
Adam Ferguson

October 1978
Sydney, New South Wales
Nationality (legal)Australian
EducationGriffith University
Known forPhotography

Adam Ferguson, born in Australia in 1978, is an Australian freelance photojournalist currently working out of New Delhi, India.[1] His photographs have appeared in Newsweek, Time, International Herald Tribune, The New York Times and Chicago Tribune.[2]

Early life

Ferguson was born and grew up in New South Wales, Australia.

Career

In 2004, Ferguson graduated from Griffith University with a Bachelor of Photography. After graduating, he worked as a deckhand, sailing through the Caribbean, Central America and the Mediterranean to fund the beginning of his photographic career.

From 2007 to 2011, Ferguson lived in New Delhi, India, where he photographed social tensions within the world's largest democracy. He travelled to Pakistan to capture the country's constant struggle with poverty and political insecurity by embarking on his most in-depth photographic project: an exploration into the corners of the U.S.-led military occupation of Afghanistan.[3]

When in Pakistan, Ferguson was at a suicide bombing where he captured one of his best photos to date. While at the heart of the fire, he saw different explosions coming out from different buildings and different people being dragged out as well. Ferguson writes "It was one of those situations where you have to put fear aside and focus on the job at hand: to watch the situation and document it."[4] His photo of a woman being escorted out of a building was said[according to whom?] to have epitomised the whole mood. She was in the centre of the crime. Her facial expression and whole mood was captured in the shot. After winning an award for this photo, Ferguson said "I felt sad. People were congratulating me and there was a celebration over this intense tragedy that I had captured. I reconciled it by deciding that more people see a story when a photographer's work is decorated."[4]

In 2009 he was featured by Photo District News as one of thirty "new and emerging photographers to watch".[5] In August 2009, he accompanied the Apache company to establish a combat-operations post in the Tangi Valley near Kabul, Afghanistan.[6]

Ferguson twice in 2007 visited Churachandpur District in India's troubled north east, where media access for foreign journalists is usually restricted, as a HIV program officer with an NGO working with injecting drug users. Meeting young people battling heroin addiction on the streets and in rehabilitation centres, people living with HIV contracted through drug use, and families struggling with members using heroin, he documented the lives devastated by Manipur's heroin trade.[7] Ferguson exhibited "Heroin in Manipur" at FotoFreo (Fremantle) in 2008.[1]

Ferguson won the first prize in the spot news singles category of the World Press Photo Awards 2010 for a photograph taken after a suicide bombing in Kabul.[8]

In 2013, Ferguson was featured in the Sydney Morning Herald discussing his time in Iraq. Ferguson also exhibited his work at an outdoor installation exhibition under the Cahill Express Way at Circular Quay as a featured part of the Reportage Festival the same year. He was alongside photographer James Nachtwey in sharing their work in the exhibition.[9] In 2017, Ferguson returned to his native Australia for a project in partnership with The New York Times, photographing the Australian outback, particularly Aboriginal communities, in a series titled "Through the Outback".[10]

Awards and honours

  • 2009– Selected, Photo District News 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch
  • 2010– 1st Place Spot News, World Press Photo (Kabul Bombing, Afghanistan for The New York Times)
  • 2010– Professional Award, Australian Reportage Photo Festival (Afghanistan for Time)
  • 2010– Participant, 17th World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass
  • 2010– Photo District News Photo Annual (Afghanistan for Time)[11]
  • 2010– 1st Prize News Picture Story, Pictures of the Year International (Afghanistan)
  • 2010– 3rd Prize Spot News, Pictures of the Year International (Kabul Bombing, Afghanistan for The Times)
  • 2010– Award of Excellence, Pictures of the Year International (Afghanistan for Time)[11]
  • 2011– 1st Place News Story Multimedia, Pictures of the Year International (Witness to the Pity of War for Time)[11]
  • 2014– Shortlisted for the European Publishers Award for Photography[12]

Major exhibitions

Solo

  • 2013– Iraq's Legacy, Reportage Festival of Documentary Photography, Sydney

Group

Collections

References

  1. ^ a b "FotoFreo Photographic Festival: Projections (FotoFreo 2008 Projections (Details): Adam Ferguson)". FotoFreo Inc. 24 February 2008. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2012. Described as "Foto Freo Festival Guide"
  2. ^ "Biography of Adam Ferguson Archived 8 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine", VII. Accessed 9 February 2010.
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 June 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ a b Ferguson, Adam (18 June 2011). "The shot that nearly killed me: War photographers – a special report". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  5. ^ Risch, Conor. "PDN's 30 2009: Adam Ferguson", PDN Online, 2 March 2009. Accessed 9 February 2010.
  6. ^ Lacayo, Richard. "A Window on the War in Afghanistan", Time, 12 October 2009. Accessed 9 February 2010.
  7. ^ "Photojournalism is not so much a vocation as a way of life" (PDF). Griffith University. Retrieved 27 February 2010.
  8. ^ "World Press Photo Awards 2010", The Guardian, 12 February 2010. Accessed 12 February 2010.
  9. ^ Ferguson, Adam (27 April 2013). "Reportage Festival". Reportage Festival. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  10. ^ "Through the Outback". The New York Times. 13 July 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  11. ^ a b c Aryn, Baker (22 December 2011). "Fighting for Afghanistan's Future". time.com. Retrieved 9 October 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  12. ^ "European Publishers Award: Shortlist", Kehrer. Accessed 11 October 2014.
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