Welcome! All ENQUIRIES about prints, commissions, or ordering a copy of 'Under Dark Roots/Colonia Dignidad' please use the CONTACT button. or email me: marellaoppenheim@me.com Represented by La Galerie Anne Clergue in France

Since 1990, the world has lost 420 million hectares. If forests are cleared, or even disturbed, they release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Forest loss and damage is the cause of around 10% of global warming. As much as 80% of the world's forests have been destroyed or irreparably degraded by human beings. The seas are overheating, the earth is scared and scorched, wildlife is disappearing...... Work in Progress.

CHEETAHS: The global cheetah population has plummeted over the last 100 years. In the early 1900s an estimated 100 000 roamed the earth. Now there are only 7,500, a decline of more than 90%.  This decline has been caused by the loss and fragmentation of their natural habitats, a decline in their prey base, the illegal trade in wildlife and conflict with humans for space. Source:  https://www.wildlifeofkenya.com/categories/carnivores/cheetah/# ELEPHANTS: The biggest threat to elephants is the loss of their habitat and the resulting human-elephant conflict. They are also facing a survival challenge with the illegal wildlife trade, especially ivory, which has led to enormous numbers of elephants being killed in recent years. Since 2007 it is believed that 25 percent of elephants alive at that time have since been killed for their ivory. RETICULATED GIRAFFES: Over just the past 30 years the population of these giraffes has declined by approximately 50%, from 36,000 to only 15,950 today. As a result of this decline, Reticulated giraffe were added to the IUCN Red List and listed as Endangered in 2018.Their biggest danger is mankind: Giraffe are relatively easy to kill with a bullet or a snare and yield a lot of meat. there is a growing belief that giraffe body parts can cure HIV/AIDS and all this has spurned an increase in illegal hunting. Former open spaces for giraffe are disappearing or fragmenting because of development, land-use switches to agriculture, and/or are uninhabitable due to over-grazing. Source: https://giraffeconservation.org/programmes/retics-in-kenya/

It was a magical time, that summer of 1984, when Peter and I journeyed across Provence, in search of the locations of Van Gogh's most famous paintings. We even managed to track down the infamous Yellow Vase, which i still can't believe I held in my hands. We were invited to see the hospital at which Vincent had been treated and the air tightened in our chests as we sat in silence in his cell. But it was also a time of fun, of far too much of everything and like children playing hooky, the excitement of each discovery was followed by a late night in the place du Forum, where plans were hatched for the following day's adventures. After this dear friend and mentor disappeared on the 1st of April 2020, and the subsequent discovery of his remains some 18 days later, I reached out to one of the illustrators employed by PB, in Kenya, and commissioned him to work on a few of my own photographs taken during our time in Paris, Arles, Cassis and St Rémy, that summer and autumn of 1984, as an homage to the man with Africa in his soul. "Peter Beard, Like a Bird on a Wire" will be exhibited in Arles at the Anne Clergue Gallerie 6th July - 26 September 2021 Hand made Silvergelatine prints are available as ltd editions of 16 and 2 APs, inclusive of both formats 30 x 40 and 40 x 50 cm. Each illustrated photograph is unique as silver gelatine print or Cprint . Please contact me for availability and prices.

THE PROCESS It takes time to make traditional photographic prints in the darkroom. After processing the film, I hang the negatives up to dry in a dust proof environment and slot them into archival sleeves to protect them. The negatives are then laid out on a sheet of photographic paper and a panel of glass put on top. I then proceed to make a contact sheet, so as to be able to see all the negatives and choose which is the most suitable to printing. Once the negative is chosen, it is put in the enlarger and after some trial and error to determine the time of exposure, it is exposed on to the chosen paper. I work with fibre based paper for gallery and collector work, and resin based paper for trials and contact sheets. The final print will be developed with the use of three trays in which are measured the appropriate chemicals. I sometimes tone the print in either a selenium or a gold toner, depending on the subject matter, dry it flat on airing net overnight, and flattenit in a hot dry press the following morning, after which any marks that I might find, will be retouched with archival photographic inks. The finished print is then mounted on acid free board and framed. Each one of my prints is signed and stamped on the reverse and issued with a certificate of Authenticity. This process takes several days to complete but what you then have is a unique piece of art, which will last for a hundred years! These Silver-gelatine prints are available in various ltd editions depending on the image. ALL MY LTD EDITIONS ARE INCLUSIVE OF ALL FORMATS so that you will not find another print in another size that is NOT included in the number of prints made. This is to reassure collectors that there will not ever be more than the stated number of prints made ever again. . Please contact me for more details, availability and prices. Thank you for popping in! I can also be found in my darkroom/studio at KROWJI STUDIO 111 REDRUTH TR15 3GE CORNWALL Just email me to book an appointment via the contact form or at: marellaoppenheim@me.com Thank you.

In Chile, on September 11th, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte seized power in a military coup. According to Amnesty International, under Pinochet’s dictatorship some 40.000 people were incarcerated, tortured and interrogated, and over 3200 were executed, out of which 1400 were disappeared by the DINA, Pinochet’s secret police. During his dictatorship, Colonia Dignidad, a German farming community and religious sect led by convicted serial pedophile and ex-Nazi medic, Paul Schaefer, served as a clandestine detention and torture site for the DINA. Over 300 men and women are thought to have been incarcerated and tortured there, and some 100 to have been disappeared. In 1978, by order of Pinochet, Operacion Retiro de Televisores, was set in motion across Chile. The operation consisted of the illegal exhumation of the bodies of those executed by the military junta, the cremation of their remains and the disposal of the ashes in the sea or rivers across the country. Its objective was to prevent the surfacing of any forensic evidence which might help identify the victims. In Colonia Dignidad, the victims were exhumed and incinerated by the colony members, and their ashes tossed into the river Perquilauquen, which runs along the German compound’s southern border. The river retains the memory of those whose ashes were tossed in its waters, and remains a living memorial to all those executed and disappeared. Abuse of State Power and the grief it inflicts on those who have none, is not new and the ability of perpetrators of crimes against humanity to hide behind sluggish judicial systems is still prevalent today. Even after 45 years, with no clear answers as to the final destination of their loved ones, from either the Chilean or the German governments, the relatives of the disappeared stand firm in their quest for Truth, Justice and Remembrance. UNDER DARK ROOTS/ COLONIA DIGNIDAD is a photographic investigation into the disappeared linked to the German enclave known as Colonia Dignidad, and into the activities of the German colony during the Pinochet regime and beyond. Today, legal cases, in reference to child sexual abuse and slave labour, are still ongoing against the German and Chilean governments . The multi format project consists of a text/photobook containing portraits, landscapes, historical images, memorabilia, personal testimonies and official statements by leading experts associated with the ex-Colonia Dignidad and its role during the Pinochet regime. Video montages of testimonials are made accessible in the book through QR codes so as to offer the reader a more immersive experience. An exhibition is also planned to include an audio visual installation. UNDER DARK ROOTS will be published as a Special Edition of 50 hardback books, signed, and numbered, by Blue Orange Press in the Summer 2023. FOR ALL ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT the author through the contact page. Thank you.

Little Haiti In 2010, an earthquake shook Haiti to rubble, killing over 200.000, and displacing over one million people. The Brazilian government reached out, offering work and the USA declared a stay of execution on deportations. But in 2014, the Brazilian economy slowed dramatically and the migrants found themselves homeless once more. They took to the road, making their way to the US border in the hope of being granted temporary refugee status. They travelled on foot and by bus, across 10 countries: Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala Mexico. A journey fraught with danger, hunger, misery and fear that would take over 3 months. Some 60.000 migrants have reached the Tijuana/San Diego border in the past two years, only to learn that the US Homeland Security Department had changed its policy: Immigrants found without papers would be detained and deported back to Haiti. Pastor Gustavo Banda’s church, Templo Embajadores de Jesus, stands some 40 mn drive from Tijuana, off a dirt track road where pigs roam freely. To its flank runs a canal where broken sewage pipes give off putrid smells day and night. It is called El Canon del Alacran (Scorpion Canyon) and for hundreds of refugees: it is home. Pastor Banda welcomes over 500 Haitian migrants a week to his church. It’s halls are lined from wall to wall with mattresses. “They are very proud and resilient people. Most of the men find work quickly, in construction, or in the service industries, but only for a few dollars a day. Forty-five dollars a week. Not enough to pay for the rent of a room.” Pastor Banda offered the migrants land on which he plans to build them small houses, but the work has been halted. The permission to build these small huts has been refused on the grounds that the land is too poor, that the rains will create landslides and wash them all away. Tyres are hammered into the sides of the land by the side of the road, to help hold back the mudslides. Each hut will provide a home, some privacy, for one migrant family. Each home costs 2500 dollars to build. The local government’s excuses have not stopped Pastor Banda from challenging the decision and erecting the first five houses, in an area that locals now refer to as: Little Haiti. In November 2017, Eline gave birth to a baby boy, named Giovanni. They hope that soon, a little house will be made available for them to move into, in Little Haiti.

Photography has the language of evidence embedded in its data. If it took to the witness stand, it would speak of the witness as well as of the witnessed. It has been used to record everything from crime scenes to lunar exploration, as proof of existence, of place, of time. The photographs, memorabilia and testimonies which I have assembled in This Divided Land form a dislocated skeleton on which hangs the evidential role division plays on those who live in Belfast. Ireland is divided by bridges, rivers and unmarked fields: a blurred demarkation unclear to all but the map makers. In contrast, sections of Belfast are walled in like ghettos. Houses support windows protected with steel mesh to prevent them being smashed by the disaffected youth. It is a divided land where allegiances are tribal, where pavements are painted with the colours of a flag to forewarn those not of your faith, to stay away or beware; where the Union Jack is twinned with the Israeli flag and the Irish republican colours paired with the emblem of Palestine.

1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime.  A PHOTOMONTAGE of the full series is viewable on VIMEO: https://vimeo.com/242212189 Carlo, a dear friend, suggested that I document his journey, in the hope that it might help others manage the reality of living with prostate cancer.    Without my camera, I don't think that I would have been able to handle the maelstrom of emotions that engulfed me. In this gallery are a selection of images from a photoessay of 60 photographs, which will form a book through which I hope to share the emotional and physical changes Carlo went through: The sense of weakness, of inevitability, of loss of self; the anxiety of being tethered to never ending treatments, of never being well again, of impotence; and ultimately of hope.

In San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, approximately 60.8% of the population over 15 years old has not completed elementary school. - 28.5% of those living in San Miguel do not have enough food to eat. - 37.7% do not have the work skills to lift themselves out of poverty. - 62.3% do not have adequate resources like money, clothing and shelter. - There are two million orphans in Mexico. This information was sourced from an orphanage: Santa Julia Casa Hogar's website - November 2015.

Myanmar 2016. A medley.

Portraits. Jeremy Irons - Actor / Peter Beard - Photographer, Diarist / Carlo Corsi/ Cancer survivor Olga Weisfeiler - whose brother Boris is Missing presumed Disapeared in Colonia Dignidad Berni Shaw/ Peter Beard with Two Glasses Fipsy Seilern - Artist / Ashin Wirathu - Nationalist Myanmar, Buddhist Monk / Trevor Greer/ ex UDA, Northern Ireland/ Patricio S - Colonia Dignidad/ Horst and Helga - Colonia Dignidad, Chile/ Juergen S - Colonia Dignidad/

Editorial content as published in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/12/only-takes-one-terrorist-buddhist-monk-reviles-myanmar-muslims-rohingya-refugees-ashin-wirathu and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/02/chile-disappeared-excavations-colonia-dignidad