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Nicolas Silberfaden: Superheroes

Due to the current economic, social and cultural crisis in The United States of America today, I have decided to do a photographic project consisting of a series of studio portraits of superhero and celebrity impersonators that live and work in the city of Los Angeles. Most of them unemployed Americans, they decided to suit up with their costumes and hit the streets, animate parties and events in efforts to make ends meet. Making them pose in their costumes against a colorful backdrop, I ask them to manifest feelings of genuine sadness – honest emotions that are a consequence of our current times. The result is a somber, striking visual image that contradicts the iconic nature of strength and moral righteousness typical in American superhero and celebrity imagery. Creating the illusion that Superman does exist – that he too was fallible and affected by America’s downturn.

Nicolas Silberfaden
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06 Dec 2012 12:13:00
A wounded Syrian girl looks on at a make shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, following shelling and air raids by Syrian government forces on August 22, 2015. (Photo by Abd Doumany/AFP Photo)

A wounded Syrian girl looks on at a make shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, following shelling and air raids by Syrian government forces on August 22, 2015. At least 20 civilians and wounded or trapped 200 in Douma, a monitoring group said, just six days after regime air strikes killed more than 100 people and sparked international condemnation of one of the bloodiest government attacks in Syria's war. (Photo by Abd Doumany/AFP Photo)
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25 Aug 2015 10:52:00
A vendor sells fruits and nuts at the Green Bazaar in Almaty January 23, 2015. Kazakhstan is spending billions of dollars of its reserves to keep devaluation of its currency gradual and reduce inflationary risks of the sort thrown up in Russia by the rouble's slide, analysts and former central bank officials say. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

A vendor sells fruits and nuts at the Green Bazaar in Almaty January 23, 2015. Kazakhstan is spending billions of dollars of its reserves to keep devaluation of its currency gradual and reduce inflationary risks of the sort thrown up in Russia by the rouble's slide, analysts and former central bank officials say. Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy, is closely tied to Russia through trade and, like other ex-Soviet states, has been feeling the pain of the crisis which has driven the rouble down 50 percent against the dollar since the start of 2014. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
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28 Jan 2015 11:57:00
A masked man in military fatigues brings a blindfolded Irma Krat, arrested and held by pro-Russian protestors before her meeting with journalists near of occupied police station in Slaviansk, Ukraine, 21 April 2014. Pro-Russian activists are demanding broader autonomy from Kiev and closer ties to Russia. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA)

A masked man in military fatigues brings a blindfolded Irma Krat, arrested and held by pro-Russian protestors before her meeting with journalists near of occupied police station in Slaviansk, Ukraine, 21 April 2014. Pro-Russian activists are demanding broader autonomy from Kiev and closer ties to Russia. Pro-Russian activists continued occupying government, police and other administrative buildings in eastern Ukrainian cities, in defiance of an ultimatum by the Ukrainian government to lay down their weapons. Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine on 17 April had agreed on steps to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine during talks in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA)
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26 Apr 2014 12:00:00
A year after hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees snaked their way across southeastern Europe and onto television screens worldwide, the roads through the Balkans are now clear, depriving an arguably worsening tragedy of its poignant visibility. Europe's migrant crisis is at the very least numerically worse than it was last year. More people are arriving and more are dying. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

A year after hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees snaked their way across southeastern Europe and onto television screens worldwide, the roads through the Balkans are now clear, depriving an arguably worsening tragedy of its poignant visibility. Reuters photographer, Antonio Bronic revisiting the people-packed locations where he and his colleagues captured last year's diaspora, found empty roads, unencumbered railway tracks and bucolic countryside. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)



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12 Aug 2016 12:10:00
A pigeon, known as Siyah Kinifirli, with an approximate market value of 1000 Turkish Lira ($263), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek, is pictured in Sanliurfa, Turkey, December 23, 2016. As night-time approaches in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey, most of the alleyways of the city's old bazaar are emptying out of buyers and vendors, except for one. The bustle of daytime trading has died down, but on this little street, a stream of men carry cardboard boxes filled with pigeons to a cluster of three teahouses. Here, they sell the birds at Sanliurfa's famed auctions to a dedicated band of pigeon keepers and breeders, a pastime that has been thriving for hundreds of years across the region and over the nearby border into war-torn Syria. In a country where the minimum wage is about 1,400 Liras ($367) a month, enthusiasts regularly easily spend hundreds of dollars for one bird. “I once sold a pair of pigeons for 35,000 Turkish Lira”, says auctioneer Imam Dildas. “This is a passion, a hobby you cannot quit. I've been known to sell the fridge and my wife's gold bracelets to pay for pigeons”. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)

A pigeon, known as Siyah Kinifirli, with an approximate market value of 1000 Turkish Lira ($263), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek, is pictured in Sanliurfa, Turkey, December 23, 2016. As night-time approaches in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey, most of the alleyways of the city's old bazaar are emptying out of buyers and vendors, except for one. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)
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17 Jan 2017 12:05:00
A woman loyal to the Houthi movement holds a rifle as she takes part in a parade to show support to the movement in Sanaa, Yemen September 6, 2016. Dressed in the head to toe garments which obscured their faces, the female fighters brandished machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades. The women also wore hats as they showed support for the Shiite Houthi rebels. The Saudi-led Arab coalition launched a military campaign against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015. It was after the rebels closed in on Gulf-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in his southern refuge of Aden, forcing him into exile. The female protesters have pledged to remain supportive and do whatever they can to back the ongoing resistance against the kingdom. Yemen is in the grip of its most severe crisis in years, and is on the brink of civil war. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

A woman loyal to the Houthi movement holds a rifle as she takes part in a parade to show support to the movement in Sanaa, Yemen September 6, 2016. The Saudi-led Arab coalition launched a military campaign against the Huthis and their allies in March 2015, after the rebels closed in on Gulf-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in his southern refuge of Aden, forcing him into exile. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)
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07 Sep 2016 10:24:00
In this handout image provided by Ogilvy, a burger made from cultured beef, which has been developed by Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands (pictured) is shown to the media during a press conference on August 5, 2013 in London, England. Cultured Beef could help solve the coming food crisis and combat climate change with commercial production of Cultured Beef beginning within ten to twenty years. (Photo by David Parry via Getty Images)

In this handout image provided by Ogilvy, a burger made from cultured beef, which has been developed by Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands (pictured) is shown to the media during a press conference on August 5, 2013 in London, England. The in-vitro burger, cultured from cattle stem cells, the first example of what its creator says could provide an answer to global food shortages and help combat climate change, was fried in a pan and tasted by two volunteers. The burger is the result of years of research by Dutch scientist Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht, who is working to show how meat grown in petri dishes might one day be a true alternative to meat from livestock.The meat in the burger has been made by knitting together around 20,000 strands of protein that has been cultured from cattle stem cells in Post's lab. (Photo by David Parry)
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06 Aug 2013 08:48:00