National Socialist Movement

• Prize
• Photographer
  Julie Platner, United States
• Date of Photograph
  online
• Website
  http://www.Julieplatner.com

Many of the members of the National Socialist Movementâ??s growing ranks come to the group directly from either war or prison. These days, major outreach and recruitment efforts are directed at white service men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and white convicts, some still incarcerated. The group attempts to show military style discipline in its activities, which range from banquet dinners, to anti-immigration protests and armed
patrols on the U.S. border with Mexico. In the new age of heightened immigration tensions, border â??securityâ?? issues, an ongoing disconnected war with the Middle East and a nation led by a black president, white supremacy transforms from a dance of men in hoods around a fire and violent skinheads on the street, to a comfortably distinct Americana Nazi â?? complete with potluck gatherings, road-trip caravans, trips to Vegas, Tea Party flags, militarized border patrols and the good old exercise of the second amendment â?? the right to bear arms.

• Biography
  Julie Platner is an American Photojournalist based in New York City. She has covered the Gaza War, the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th, 2010, and the ongoing Drug War in Mexico. She continues to work on several projects dealing with human rights. She works to tell other humans stories from behind different lenses around the world. She believes that perception is everything. Our vision and dreams become our reality and determine how we engage with the 'world'. The possibilities of creation, advancement, peace and understanding are all around each one of us, all of the time. Even in the dark places. Some of her long-term projects include; the extreme right wing in the USA, Iraqi Refugees, and the AIDS epidemic in Washington, DC. Her work for Haiti was published in the Wall Street Journal and she was awarded a Communication Arts 2010 editorial series award. PDN Annual 2010 awarded her work documenting a wind farm in Canada.