ICP Alumni Print Sale

I’m happy to have a couple of prints available in the ICP Alumni Print Sale alongside the work of many talented photographers and artists. There’s a lot of great photos so check it out!

Tucson Gem Show for Quartz

I’m stoked to share some work from the past two years photographing the Tucson Gem Show on Quartz.

Recognized as the largest trade show for gems, minerals, and fossils, the month-long event attracts tens of thousands of people from around the world - united in their interest, love, and obsession with all things dug up out of the ground.

You can see the article here.

Scott Warren and No Mas Muertes for Huff Post

Scott Warren, a geographer and activist with the human rights group No Mas Muertes, an organization in Arizona that assists undocumented migrants, was arrested in 2018 and faces a handful of federal charges for aiding migrants. He faces felony charges that could carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. His second trial, for allegedly harboring undocumented migrants, began on May 1st.

I spent the day with Scott at his home in Ajo, Arizona last month along with journalist Jonathan Krohn, who wrote a wonderful profile on Warren for the Huffpost.

You can see the article here

Arivaca Fights Back in Mother Jones

I'm stoked to share some photographs I made for Mother Jones Magazine in Arivaca, Arizona - a small town with less than 700 people that sits ten miles from the border with Mexico. Last summer a bunch of anti-immigrant militias came to town so the locals banded together to kick them out.

Arivaca, which is unincorporated and has no local government or police force is a wild mix of cowboys and ranchers, ex-hippies, retirees, migrant-activists, and more than a few kooks. Whether liberal or conservative, most people express libertarian views and are fiercely independent - many of them have a strong affinity for guns, weed, and not much love for the Customs and Border Patrol who are constantly barreling through town and have a permanent checkpoint set up on the main road that connects to the freeway.

You can see the article here.

Chris Rush for VICE

Chris Rush has done more drugs than you. The artist and writer had his first hit of acid when he was 12 years old, many more would follow. As a young teenager, he left home to escape his homophobic father and travelled across the country slamming coke and heroin into his veins before ending up in #Tucson, #Arizona, holed up with his sister in a stash house full of weed. After many adventures, living in nature for two years, and surviving countless brushes with death, he got sober and became a successful painter.

Chris, 62 and still sharp as a cactus spine, wrote a memoir about his wild childhood, The Light Years, which was released this week. I had the pleasure of hanging out with him for an afternoon to make some photos for an article about the book in VICE.

You can see the article here.

Lucie Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship

I'm stoked to be on the shortlist for the Lucie Foundation's Emerging Artist Scholarship. The "short" list has about 45 talented photographers on it and it's an honor to be in their company, including one of the homies from below the border, Luis Antonio Rojas

Sara Hylton and Andrea Hernandez are on a slightly shorter-list for the photojournalism and documentary scholarship.

There's a small selection of photos from the project I submitted, looking at communties of Lost Tribe Jews in Northeast India and Burma, up on the foundation's website where you can also see the projects submitted by all the photographers.

Review Santa Fe

I'm excited  to be headed to New Mexico this fall for Review Santa Fe, it's an honor to be among so many talented photographers. Above Gaza, a project made in collaboration with Vittoria Mentasti, has some photos up on Center's website.

Drone projects published by British Journal of Photography

I’m really stoked that Above Gaza and The Third Eye, two projects made in collaboration with Italian photographer Vittoria Mentasti on Israel's drone industry and the effect of militarized drones on civilians in Gaza, were published on the British Journal of Photography’s website.

Since we were interviewed separately it was nice to read Vittoria’s powerful words about the work. Especially telling was this excerpt: “The use of drones ensures a state of fear that perpetuates war,” says Mentasti, who has been working with Tepper to document drones and their use in Gaza. “All people in Gaza now suffer from the traumatic experience of war and the lack of any illusion of safety makes it impossible to heal from trauma.”

The Lost Tribe Awarded the CAPTA U35 Grant

I'm very grateful that my project on Lost Tribe Jews in Northeast India and Burma has been awarded the Under 35 Grant by the CAPTA photo cooperative. I started this work last year, interested in issues of identity, migration and faith and was quickly overwhelmed with the kindness and hospitality shown to me by members of the communities. Photographing their embodiment and expression of religion allowed me to look inwards and take stock of my own relationship with Judaism. It was a very special experience that I can’t wait to continue. You can see a selection of images from the ongoing project on their website.

Above Gaza recognized by LensCulture Exposure Awards

A short series from the project Above Gaza, that was made in collaboration with Italian photographer Vittoria Mentasti, on Israel's drone industry and the effect of militarized drones on civilians in Gaza was selected as a finalist in the the LensCulture exposure awards.

I'm happy for the recognition of this pressing issue and to be in the company of so much excellent photo work by the others finalists and winners...

Drone Projects Featured on LaCritique.org

LaCritique.org, an online French arts and criticism journal, published a feature about the projects Above Gaza and Infrared (Gaza), that I made in collaboration with Italian photographer Vittoria Mentasti. (The article is in French but auto-translate does a decent enough job.)

French writer, critic, and educator Christian Gatttinoni said of the work, "From a traditional reporting position Daniel Tepper and Vittoria Mentasti put together a powerful documentary fiction that crosses purely factual images and other visions of a new committed humanism..."

Above Gaza in Le Monde's M Magazine

I'm really stoked to have photographs from Above Gaza, a project made in collaboration with Vittoria Mentasti, featured in Le Monde's M Magazine. The magazine relaunched their now-expanded portfolio section with this issue and published 10 pages of our photos. You can see an online version of the article, in English, along with more photos here. 

THE FUTURE PERFECT at the ICP School

I'm stoked to be part of the upcoming alumni show at the International Center of Photography school, exhibiting a couple of video installations from a project I've been working on with Vittoria Mentasti - looking at of thermal imaging cameras used by aerial drones.️

RISC Training in Turin, Italy

RISC is an amazing organization that provides free medical training and first-aid equipment to journalists and photographers who work in conflict zones and war. They have been holding trainings all over the world and I was happy to catch one in Turin over the summer. I took the course in 2013 and still remember how demanding and exciting it was. It was great to see again and this time I didn't get covered in fake blood.

You can read my story about the training and see more photographs, here, on VICE.

Drone Nation in American Photography

I'm really stoked to have this photo from Drone Nation selected to be part of American Photography 32. Vittoria Mentasti and I made this photo inside the MALAT division factory at Israel Aerospace Industries.  IAI's unmanned aerial vehicles and their control stations are made and displayed in this large hangar which serves as both an assembly plant and showroom. 

You can see other photographers' work that is included in AP-32 here.

Drone Nation in Newsweek Japan

Some photographs from the Drone Nation, a collaborative project with Vittoria Mentasti, looking at Israel's UAV industry, were published recently in Newsweek Japan. Their edit and layout is really nice...

Drone Nation on Time LightBox

Some photographs from the Drone Nation project, a look at Israel's UAV industry that I'm working on with the Italian photographer Vittoria Mentasti, were published on Time LightBox today. 

You can see the post here.

(Scroll down for more)

Counter-Drone technology at ASU&R Conference

I attended a drone conference outside Tel Aviv last week to write about counter-drone technology and how troublesome UAVs have become for Israel, the country that pioneered the use of modern drones in combat.

You can see the article here, on VICE News. 

New World Passover with the Black Hebrews

I went to Dimona, in southern Israel, to visit the Black Hebrew Israelites during their New World Passover celebration. The community known as the Black Hebrews came from the United States and settled first in Africa before moving to Israel in 1970. 

Read more about the group and their annual celebration here, on VICE.

Jerusalem Day 2015

I covered Jerusalem Day for VICE News. The annual holiday is celebrated by nationalist-Israelis and celebrates the reunification of the city under Israeli control after the Six-Day War in 1967. Tensions run high as Palestinian demonstrate against Jewish revelers marching through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

You can see more here.