Bronx Documentary Center photo auction benefit

Come celebrate the past, present and the future of the Bronx Documentary Center at its Oct. 29 auction benefit featuring works by more than 40 world-class photographers.

The center is a community-oriented gallery and educational space in the heart of the South Bronx that believes in the documentary tradition and the power of photography and film to help build community, expose injustices and create positive social change. The auction includes the work of over 40 internationally renowned and emerging photographers. Proceeds will fund exhibitions, screenings and public programs.

All proceeds from the auction will directly support the center's education programs and exhibitions. View the photos in the auction and start bidding here: http://paddle8.com/auction/bronxdoc/, Oct. 16 through Oct. 29. Buy event tickets here.

Photographers featured in the auction include:

John Conn, who was born in the Bronx and trained as a photographer in the Marine Corps. Once discharged, he received a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. After serving over a year as senior photographer for Citibank, he has worked continuously as a freelance photographer and writer. His work is widely published.

David Gonzalez, co-editor of the New York Times Lens blog and creator of the biweekly “Side Street” photo-essay feature for the paper’s metro section. He is a founding member of los Seis del Sur, a collective of Nuyorican photographers who documented the South Bronx in the 1980s. He lives in the Bronx.

Tim Hetherington, who died in 2011, a British filmmaker, activist and photojournalist who received international recognition for his work. His documentary film "Restrepo" (2010) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2011, and he received several awards for his humanitarian and photojournalistic work before his untimely death in Libya.

Chris Hondros, who died in 2011, an American Pulitzer Prize-nominated photojournalist. Born in New York City to Greek and German immigrants, both survivors of World War II, he moved to Fayetteville, N.C., as a child. After studying English literature at North Carolina State University and receiving a master's degree from Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, Hondros returned to New York to concentrate on international reporting. Hondros covered most of the world's major conflicts and disasters since the late 1990s, working in Kosovo, Afghanistan, the West Bank, Iraq, Liberia, Egypt and Libya. Hondros was also a frequent lecturer and published essayist on issues of war, and he regularly wrote for the Virginia Quarterly Review, Editor & Publisher, the Digital Journalist and other news publications. Hondros, a staff photographer for Getty Images since 2000, was a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography: in 2004, for his work in Liberia, and posthumously in 2012, for his coverage of the Arab Spring. During his career, he received dozens of awards, among them honors from World Press Photo, the Pictures of the Year International competition, Visa pour l'Image and the Overseas Press Club, including the John Faber Award for his work in Liberia and the Robert Capa Gold Medal, war photography's highest honor, for his work covering the conflict in Iraq.

Michael Kamber, who has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. Between 2002 and 2012 he covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, the Sudan, Somalia, the Congo and other countries for the New York Times. His photos have been published in nearly every major news magazine in the United States and Europe, as well as in many newspapers. In 2011, Kamber founded the Bronx Documentary Center, an educational space dedicated to positive social change through photography and film. Kamber is an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Jean-Pierre Laffont, who attended the School of Graphic Art in Vevey, Switzerland, prior to serving in the French army during the Algerian War (he was awarded for his humanitarian actions). He is a founding member of the Gamma USA and Sygma Photo News agencies. For more than four decades, Laffont traveled the globe for the world's leading news magazines. Among the numerous awards Laffont received are the Overseas Press Club of America's Madeline Dane Ross Award, the World Press Photo General Picture Award, the University of MIssouri's World Understanding Award and an award from the New York Newspaper Guild.

Diàna Markosia, an Armenian-American photographer whose images explore the relationship between memory and place. Her work has since taken her to some of the most remote corners of the world, where she has worked on both personal and editorial work. Her images can be found in publications like the New York Times, the New Yorker and Time magazine.

Émilie Régnier, who was born in Montreal, Canada. She spent most of her childhood in Africa, mainly in Gabon. After studying photography in Montreal, she decided to take the road back to Africa. Based in Quebec, she has spent a significant amount of time in West Africa since 2008. As a freelance photographer, she also worked in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and South Africa.

Francisco Molina Reyes II, a Nuyorican street photographer, born in the Bronx and raised in East Harlem (El Barrio). His work has been associated with the Latin music scene, as a freelancer and as a staff member of the former Latin NY Magazine. Reyes is the founder of photo archive Mamboso Nuyotopia. He also built and manages the Mamboso.net website where he continues to document New York street scenes and various cultural events within the Puerto Rican, Nuyorican, Latino and hip-hop communities.

Nina Robinson, a documentary influenced portrait photographer. Her work is a mixture of all of her past experiences, bridging documentary, personal and fine art. The past year, Robinson has been examining issues of underrepresented communities, these stories have been featured in Time magazine and the New York Times and exhibited at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

Gabriele Stabile, an Italian photographer based in New York and Rome. A proud graduate of the ICP, and CESURA member, Gabriele has worked extensively on displacement issues. His work on "Refugee Hotels," in collaboration with Juliet Linderman, was published in book form in 2012.

Maggie Steber, a documentary photographer known for her humanistic stories of people and cultures. She is a National Geographic Woman of Vision and has worked in 66 countries, producing cultural stories as well as significant work on Haiti, Native Americans and the sciences of sleep and memory loss. She has photographed for 30 years in Haiti. Aperture published her monograph entitled "DANCING ON FIRE: Photographs from Haiti."

Peter van Agtmael, who graduated from Yale University in 2003 with a degree in history. Following graduation, he spent a year in China photographing the effects of the Three Gorges Dam. He became a freelance photographer at the end of 2004. Since the beginning of 2006, he has documented the consequences of America's wars, at home and abroad. A monograph of the work "2nd Tour Hope I Don't Die" was published in 2009. In 2008, he helped organize the exhibition and book "Battlespace," a retrospective of unseen work from 22 photographers covering Iraq and Afghanistan. He is represented by Magnum Photos.

Find more news-related pictures in our photo galleries and follow us on Tumblr.