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Location:Athens, Greece
About Alexander Strecker
Featured on LensCulture
We should all be aware that photography doesn’t always tell the truth—Andrés Orjuela’s pictures confront us with this stark reality by repurposing a remarkable recovered archive from Bogotá, Colombia.
Blending cinematic qualities with otherworldly lighting, photographer David Denil works to embody the surreal existence of Ukrainian citizens after the 2014 revolution.
DON’T MISS OUT: A fresh and selective early preview of the wide-ranging array of photography that will be on display at Photo London, running from May 17-20, 2018 at Somerset House.
Beginning with the residential real estate boom in his home, New York City, artist Daniel Shea turns his critical lens on the seductive forces of capitalism and, by the thinnest of margins, reveals what we might do to resist them.
Featuring the stage-like subterranean platforms of New York’s subway system, photographs that investigate the interactions (or lack thereof) between the city’s commuters.
“The day was neither bright nor gloomy, but a kind of blue-grey tint such as found only upon the uniforms of garrison soldiers…”
Curator Bisi Silva discusses the changing global perceptions of photographers from Africa, highlighting the importance of engaging with local perspectives to deepen our understanding of the rapidly-changing world.
“Art can catalyze empathy and respect.” Alasdair Foster, a curator, researcher, and writer who draws on an array of experiences from around the world, offers his fascinating perspective on photography—and where it’s going next.
The renowned publisher offers his advice to street photographers hoping to publish their first photobook—and reveals the questions that all photographers should ask themselves before they seek to publish a book.
Explore the mysteries and magic of the “Russian Atlantis”—the fabled city that sunk below the surface of Lake Svetloyar in the 12th century. Even today, locals swear the lake contributes to the area’s inexplicable, intangible power…
Photographer Carlos Spottorno portrays one of the most pressing issues of our time—the European migrant crisis—using an unexpected and fresh form of storytelling with the hope of reaching more people with his message. Learn more in this exclusive video interview.
In our hyper-connected, conformist world, the whimsical space of the circus is essential—spend some time with this family troupe in rural France, “The Fishermen of Dreams.”
Moving through rolling, pastoral landscapes under the cover of darkness, this photographer relies on the natural world—drops of rain, the winking lights of nearby fireflies—to create his uniquely revealing visions of our planet.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a ship full of Korean laborers landed in Yucatan, Mexico. Watch Michael Vince Kim speak about working with their Korean-Mayan descendants in a new video interview.
An intense, saturated, kaleidoscopic view of Athens today—a city that seems to be growing cooler, on the surface, while underneath, a hot, churning anger simmers, waiting to blow.
A new, retrospective book looks back at master photographer Joel Meyerowitz’s career: not just his greatest hits, not every photograph he’s ever taken—but the pictures that really matter.
We asked some of our favorite women in the photo community to name the female and female-identifying photographers who made a strong impression on them lately. See all their picks—as well as 35 powerful photos.
Secluded mountain shelters, known as bothies, are a familiar feature in the boundless landscape of the rural British Isles. A series that explores these unique structures—and pays homage to the breathtaking natural world that surrounds them.
Lagos, Nigeria, one of the world’s fastest-growing cities, is also the site of predatory real estate development. Learn more about unequal struggle through this photo documentary report.
Longtime Voies Off festival director Christophe Laloi reveals what it takes to pursue your passion, without compromise, while defining your own terms of success. A heartfelt interview, packed with precious insights on sustaining creativity—dig in!
A relentless drive combined with a thoughtfully cultivated humanness—according to the sought-after photographer Nadav Kander, that is what it takes to make your mark in our age of visual glut.
Two decorated photographers—Steve McCurry and Paula Bronstein—separately take on the immense challenge of representing Afghanistan in a pair of arresting, yet problematic, retrospective books.
A series depicting religious adherents in rural Haiti that is defined by its particular intensity and a hushed sense of quiet, ageless, spiritual devotion. Whether or not you believe, there is something here that brings you closer to the light.
A new book of Susan Meiselas’ work offers readers a glimpse into the mind of this renowned photographer—and picks apart her lifelong drive to push her work “beyond the frame.”
An enigmatic yet carefully told story that seems to take the form of a whodunnit, but in reality, allows us to ponder much deeper questions of how to live in our increasingly distraction-filled age.
Sit down with the photo editor of the beloved Italian magazine Internazionale and learn what it takes to launch a print publication—and keep it running for 25 years and counting.
A comparative review of two very different collections of street photographs—the contemporary “Humans of New York” and the classic work of Helen Levitt—reveals an important distinction in the way we relate to all kinds of pictures.
Street photographer Jonathan Higbee offers his thoughts on the unspoken rules of the genre and the insecurity that we can all leverage to make great work.
How does the jury for the world’s top prize for visual journalism makes its decision? Jury chair Magdalena Herrera spoke to LensCulture about the process of choosing the “best” photos (and what “best” really means).
Today, the radical act is not to hit the road and travel—but rather to stay put and lay down roots. An English photographer shares 13 years of careful, deliberate meditations on his surrounding landscapes.
In the depths of winter, Norway experiences only a few hours of daylight. These dark days were once celebrated—but now they are grim reminders of the world’s ceaseless addiction to fossil fuels.
“Once I feel myself observed by the lens, everything changes.” Drawing on the beloved book “Camera Lucida,” a meditation on the discomforts caused by being photographed, made all the more acute in our image-saturated age.
23 curators and photography experts name some of their favorite publications from the past year—an unusual and eclectic list chock full of revelations.
What photobooks stood out to fellow photographers, book publishers and editors over the past year? We’ve gathered a diverse, eclectic list of 25 “personal favorites” from 2017—filled with inspiration and discovery for the new year!
How does the ordinary become art? Packed with photographs from over fifty years of Shore’s varied (and storied) career, MoMA’s landmark retrospective offers a poignant reflection on the revolutionary import of his pioneering vision.
“Magazines end up wrapping French fries—books remain.” After canvassing the world’s photography experts for their favorite publications of the past year, we have come up with a list of 11 publications that will remain on our shelves and in our minds.
Who defines the margins—and why do we accept these boundaries? A wide-ranging dialogue between two photographers about their journeys to the edges of society, as well as to their own personal limits.
The acclaimed photography magazine’s managing editor speaks with LensCulture about the value of confronting work that is vastly different from your own—and how that broadens your perspective, teaches you new visual languages and offers fresh ways of seeing the world.
In this exclusive feature, a photo editor at one of the great Sunday magazines reveals the process behind assigning, designing, and shooting two recent covers for the publication.
“This, I thought, is the allure. I have always loved water, both salt and fresh, and boats, for me, are made as much of magic as steel. But there is something deeper in the way water calls…”
Over the past 20 years, Michael Mack has helped some of the great photographic artists publish their work in book form. In this down-to-earth conversation, he shares expert insight on the past, present and future of publishing.
Journalists are often told to answer the 5 W’s in their work (who, what, when, where…)—but according to this award-winning Greek photographer, it is “the why” that is most important.
Drawing on decades of experience in the fine art world, renowned gallerist Anna Walker Skillman offers her perspective on what’s shifted and what remains unchanged at the core of great photography.
The second in a series of deeply personal interviews with some of our favorite street photographers—this one touching on identity, ethics, and the open mindset needed to make great photographs.
“The photographs that appear in cookbooks are rarely just about food. They are rich documents that illustrate the lives and times in which they were published. They raise questions which cut to the core of the most human of activities…feeding others and ourselves.”
In the far north of France, a curious community has formed around the creative destruction of cars—”not for a trophy but a good crash.” Learn more through this multi-disciplinary investigation.
One of Paris’ great fashion photographers offers his words of wisdom while helping to anoint the next generation of creative image-makers.
A look back at Ernest Cole, one of the most important anti-Apartheid photographers, whose subversive work affirms the image’s capacity to question authority and continues to resonate in the contemporary moment.
Two award-winning street photographers engage in a conversation that reveals their deep attraction to this intoxicating, almost addictive genre.
For nearly two centuries, we have thought about photography as an enterprise undertaken by humans, for humans. But what happens when machines start to photograph? What happens when machines start to see?
While art fairs around the world grow increasingly insular and difficult to penetrate, Amsterdam’s Unseen is dedicating itself to showing fresh faces, new work and creating a platform to examine the next trends in photography.
An independent and invaluable voice in the world of photography, The Guardian’s Sean O’Hagan offers his wide-ranging views on words, images and the increasingly overlooked key to creativity.
Despite everything that has happened in this city over the past decade, music never, ever left—instead it permeates all the aspects of local culture, blending into every facet of urban life and into the very streets themselves.
Urban non-events; quiet minutiae; delicate juxtapositions—with a literary eye, the celebrated writer turned photo critic turned photographer Teju Cole takes us around the world with his camera and pen, transforming passing moments into gem-like vignettes you won’t soon forget.
How does the idea of Power, prevalent everywhere in this tumultous moment, manifest itself in photography? Judy Walgren—Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, photographer, and activist—curates our third exhibition featuring members of the LensCulture Network.
A poetic and pensive tribute to the new publication from photographers and partners Rebecca Norris Webb and Alex Webb.
From fashion in the depths of Stasi Germany to the hidden portraits of Taliban fighters, this eclectic exhibition reminds us how the camera’s capacity to reveal our identity lies at the heart of the medium’s fundamental expressive power.
The resplendent quetzal, the Sumatran tiger, the ethereal sea angel—this long-running award presents its latest shortlist, which reminds us of the beauty of our surrounding world and its astonishingly varied denizens.
The European migrant crisis has receded from the public eye but continues to evolve. A veteran photojournalist offers us a wider lens on the topic, connecting the Mediterranean to the western reaches of Africa.
In the farthest reaches of northern Alaska, aboriginal hunters carry on ancient traditions of kayak-building, fishing, and subsistence hunting, all of which are under threat from rapid changes to our climate.
Tapping into an outdated, almost mythical image of the USA, a French photographer captures a mood and a moment that he believes may be the final, dramatic act of the American Dream.
Over the past year, South Korea was rocked by political scandal, resulting in the ousting of disgraced president Park Geun-hye. A Korean-American photographer takes us inside this historic moment with his stirring, visually distinctive images.
Relying exclusively on the transformative power of the analog camera, this series shuffles nature, geography, and physics into familiar yet fantastical environments.
What is it like to photograph in one of the world’s most exclusive and PR-conscious cities? A former photojournalist speaks about using a slower documentary approach to pierce into the “parallel world” that is Dubai.
Gathering together a wide variety of photographic practices, this group exhibition showcases the extraordinary power of the image to change our view of the world.
Who are the next great street photographers? Where will we find them? Photo editor Olivier Laurent shares his insights.
“After years of absence, an immigrant’s homecoming is an exercise in spectral doubleness. Returning to a city where one grew up, one understands the new order of things but fails to belong to it. Immersed in the here and now, one holds allegiances only to the past…”
By imagining himself in the positions of other people, a photographer engages with his surroundings and continually finds new reasons to see the world with fresh eyes.
A senior photo editor reveals what it takes to land an assignment for the iconic magazine—passion, dedication, research, a sense of history, an eye for poetry, and more.
There are no landscapes—there is only light. Poetic responses to the unique beauty of the Rio de Janeiro coast made using a 4x5 film camera.
“I am drawn to the mystical dimension of the manifest world: light, silence, abstracted forms and shapes, stripped-down elements in nature—all of these lie at the heart of my attention…”
Fresh, inspiring, insightful, thought-provoking: LensCulture is proud to present its first major book publication, which offers an overview and introduction to 160 of the most exciting contemporary photographers working today.
A reflection on the work of Russian photographer Emil Gataullin—beginning with his childhood in a small town beyond Moscow and running through his arresting, contemplative street photography.
Seeking to present a “sincere” narrative of everyday life in Detroit—a city that has experienced dizzying ups and downs in the past 50 years—these photographs illuminate stories and neighborhoods that are slowly being swept out of sight.
Whether made with an analog camera, a digital device or even a phone, this publication gathers 100 inspiring street photographs from around the world and places them together in one neat, easily readable volume.
After photographing the implosion of film-photography institutions across the world, Robert Burley turned his lens to a new subject and a new question of impermanence: the disappearing wild spaces around us.
As Ukraine struggles to establish its national identity, there is no more potent symbol through which to understand this process than the disappearance of Lenin statues all over the country.
Combining aerial views with street-level scenes, the dichotomies of Detroit are revealed: a city that contains young people (and young money) alongside many neighborhoods which are struggling to survive.
“For me, street photography is like poetry to literature; jazz to music. I get high from the freedom. Street images are direct proof of the existence of harmony in our world…”
A globally-minded “struggle photographer” takes on the most pressing issue of our day—climate change—in this stirring installation of portraits, landscapes and found photographs.
After a long day shooting in the cold London streets, light, balloons, and a celebration emerge from the darkness. A reminder that hope—and a great shot—can appear at any moment.
When is documenting a crisis not enough? Stymied by the volume of digital images produced by photojournalists, this photographer returned to the material medium in order to literally give something back to her subjects.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”—using a conceptual visual approach, this series examines the ominous flurry of activity at old Soviet military bases, which point to the growing drumbeat of war that is echoing through Europe.
A photographer’s visual (and auditory) exploration of the Arctic has resulted in a multi-faceted media experience that mixes images and music, confronting us with the impermanence of the natural world.
“As I read passages by photographers talking about their work, what I heard was a conversation…a multi-voiced guide on how to see the world, how to pull meaning from the elusive, how to think about the work we do…”
Continuing its bold reinvention, the photography world’s flagship festival pushes further into new territory this year, with a wide range of inspiring exhibitions and events—discover our editors’ highlights from the program.
To be young and black in America means facing a warped set of preconceptions and judgements—confront your own prejudices in this poignant portrait series.
A striking and comprehensive exhibition that recognized the efforts of 62 Iranian photographers, artists, and filmmakers who have bravely portrayed their country’s many changes since its historic 1979 revolution.
The phrase “street photography” comes loaded with expectations—which is what makes Michael Wolf’s always-original bodies of work an important reminder of why the world’s streets continue to captivate our attention.
For this photographer, 15 years of doggedly pursuing personal projects resulted in one of photography’s most esteemed awards. Discover the tenacity it takes to produce meaningful work.
A longtime news cameraman for Reuters sifted through years of his own footage to find still moments—surviving frames—that transcend their immediate context and instead speak to “universal lessons about life and the human condition.”
A deep, personal look into the mind of a celebrated conflict photographer, one that takes us beyond the cover photos and into the great risks and costs that such a dedicated life entails.
A master of light, color, geometry and complex mise-en-scène, Magnum photographer Alex Webb plunges us into the vibrant streets, alleys and unseen corners of Mexico’s human landspaces.
Legendary Magnum photographer talks about instilling freshness into photography, the terrible importance of ambiguity and how to navigate the contemporary media landscape.
A leading expert in the field shares her thoughts on the “golden age” of photobooks and offers advice to aspiring authors.
What else can photography uncover besides what is physically present in front of the lens? This 16-year project has criss-crossed the globe exploring the mystical, otherwordly beliefs of the Spiritualist community.
One of the recent Magnum nominees, Diana Markosian brings a fresh, sensitive approach to documentary photography—learn more about this dynamic image-maker.
In the long photographic tradition of trying to understand America comes this urgent new work, which looks head-on into the country’s deepening fractures.
For well over a decade, the distinctive voice and eye of Alec Soth have inspired photographers all over the world—discover his spare, poetic wisdom in this enlightening interview.
An exhibition in Paris includes 12 never-before-seen self-portraits by the great Josef Koudelka—as well as a reflection on the strength and vulnerability that marked his personal vision.
Masterfully shot and printed landscape photographs pose important questions about our relationship to the earth and silently ask of us—”what’s next?”
How are rapid changes in technology, politics and culture shaping the way we live? Free-ranging artist Wolfgang Tillmans explores this concept in his blockbuster exhibition.
The five photographers shortlisted for this year’s Deutsche Börse award tackle a wide range of emotional, personal, and cultural histories in this inspiring showcase of contemporary photography.
Striking portraits of petrified animals in the landscapes they once inhabited draw our attention to crucial issues of conservation in Africa and around the globe.
“I’m trying to put the chapters in order—to piece together the puzzle of my life which I can never seem to figure out…” Experience one woman’s intense nocturnal encounters with 11 men across the Madrid cityscape in this idiosyncratic, award-winning series.
A personal glimpse at the devastating legacy of Stalin’s “Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature”—which, in the span of a lifetime, turned the world’s fourth largest lake into a dried up, distant memory.
A wide-ranging review of Eggleston’s recently published collection of photographs that touches on his influence on David Lynch as well as the unique “silence” in his photographs.
“It’s so easy to make photographs, and if you’re not radical, you won’t progress”—Stephane Duroy discusses the necessary link between destruction and creation vis-à-vis his retrospective at Le Bal, in Paris.
Intimate and dramatic images of autistic children reveal the unique—almost magical—methods of communication that arise in the midst of this difficult childhood.
Last year, inflation in Venezuela hit 800% and basic goods became scarce—forcing all kinds of people to travel many hours, spend (relatively) vast sums of money and cross international borders just to acquire the simplest everyday products.
A showcase of the winners from this important regional celebration of contemporary photography.
“There is a certain alchemy that goes into a successful portrait shoot; as a photo editor, I try to assemble the best ingredients and then let the process happen…”
A complex, multi-layered series that confronts the swirling questions of identity, womanhood, and the fundamental assumptions of portraiture.
What did you dream of when you were a child? Featuring young people from all over the world—Jordan, India, Haiti and beyond—this series starkly illuminates the way our hopes change depending on our circumstances.
Two artists—partners in life and photography—seek to create a “document of life” for their two children. The result is a series that captures a family on the cusp of new discovery and transition.
After a chance encounter, a young photographer forges a close bond with two artists who have been married for over half a century. A tender and intimate portrait of friendship and family.
Faced with limited land, soil degradation, and water scarcity, farmers in India are driven to despair. Many have ended their lives. This portrait series seeks to recognize their plight.
A conversation with Moonlight’s cinematographer reveals the surprising but formative influence that still photography had on this Oscar-winning film.
“We are not in the business of images. We are in the business of ideas”—a diverse and idiosyncratic selection of photographs reflects on the importance of concept in our contemporary moment of “infinite digital scroll.”
Drawing on the long, rich lineage of fictional self-portraiture, a pair of young French artists push this genre into a resonant new space, delicately balanced between gritty realism and a touch of magic.
How can the sound of a rising hummingbird be photographed? A meditation on photography’s ability to express visions from deep in our psyches, even to capture the invisible…
A wide-ranging discussion with one of the world’s leading curators of portrait photography—touching on temporality, identity and the changing nature of the medium itself.
Nostalgic, vintage-style snapshots in which the photographer (and sometimes her sister) sit in for each and every family member. With so much photography now shared digitally, the family photo album is quickly becoming a historical oddity.
“It’s critical to develop a distinctive style—a visual stamp of sorts…When I’m considering an assignment, I usually think about someone’s style more than anything.” Inside The New Yorker’s photo department.
A temporary victory for environmentalists and Native Americans’ rights in Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota has been reversed—what comes next is anybody’s guess.
We preview the 9th edition of Bangladesh’s premier photography event—a festival that champions work from across the Asian continent and makes admirable efforts to bring photography to new audiences around the country.
Poetry and photography go hand in hand in this spare but suggestive collection of pictures—learn more about this unusual monthly publication.
Recognizing your innate curiosity as an asset; seeing photographic series as novels; the life-long process of learning how to “see”—dive into a wide-ranging discussion with photographer and educator Richard Rothman.
Eerie, post-apocalyptic images—initially shot as a series on human traces in otherwise desolate landscapes—take on urgent new meaning after the US presidential election.
Publisher, teacher and artist Michael Itkoff draws on his diverse experiences to offer invaluable insights on the power of narrative photography.
Inspired by a “petit moment de philosophie” from the street photography giant Joel Meyerowitz, a new online magazine aims to celebrate the beloved genre.
There is a sacred grain eaten by more than 3.5 billion people around the globe—rice. But fast-approaching environmental catastrophes pose a grave threat to its cultivation and thus to food security for millions worldwide.
Caught up in the rush and crush of modern progress, have we lost touch with the value of silence? A meditation on the disservices of technology when immersed in the world’s sacred spaces.
No, these are not photos from battlegrounds in Ukraine or Syria—these are from Paris, the erstwhile city of love and light, transformed into another stage for conflict in the aftermath of two years of terror attacks and heightened security and anxiety.
Many photographers want to make photobooks without knowing exactly what goes into the process—emotionally, logistically, psychologically. This essay takes us deep inside the creative journey.
A haunted, spectral look at Berlin in the moments when the day’s first light hits the city’s still pulsing streets.
LensCulture Emerging Talent 2016: Feeling the holiday blues? These carefully composed, highly saturated images of urban landscapes highlight striking design and architecture around the world. Summer travels beckon, just a frame away.
A wide-ranging group of experts from around the world share their personal favorite photobooks from 2016—discover something inspiring for the new year!
In another banner year for photobook publishing, here are 14 remarkable publications that were selected by a wide-ranging group of photography experts from around the world.
These prize-winning portraits, focusing on men in the Arab world, challenge our notions of masculinity and force us to reconsider the centuries-old male gaze embedded in the history of art.
The harsh, even spasmodic surprises of our contemporary moment come also with flashes of truth. The new edition of Previously on Hans Lucas brings together a range of images, texts and video to tell the story.
Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty—a short but beautiful meditation on the unique aesthetics of Japan.
Neither daughter nor mother—this photographic performance enacts how the artist was cut from the role of daughter while at the same time denied a maternal role. Simple, moving, inventively cross-disciplinary work.
Going behind the scenes with Le Bal’s talented and unconventional exhibition designer in order to understand just how the performative space of the exhibition space comes into being with each new show.
The list of contenders for the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards 2016 runs the gamut from weighty odes to the medium to innovative, idiosyncratic and (at times) playful reflections on the art of photography. Read one of our editor’s thoughts on the most deserving candidates.
Playful, beautiful images of children gliding through the clear blue waters of a pool evoke powerful dreams of summers past—and a master painter’s most iconic work.
Ceaseless travel, diligent hours of preparation and a life steeped in nostalgia: meet the Brunette Bros family, the group behind one of the world’s smallest, but no less dedicated, circuses.
An ethereal series meditates on the overwhelming pull of the Greek islands: “One happy moment, sometime between July and September, a breeze arises, stirring numbed bodies. In the softness of a lane, looking across at vineyards and olive groves, whitewashed paving stones gleam in the dusk…”
White, blue-collar males are not the only Americans voting for Donald Trump this November—this series explores the diverse contingent of Latinos who have pledged their vote to the controversial candidate.
Enough plastic has been manufactured since the end of the Second World War to coat the entire earth in plastic wrap. The problem then manifests in plankton: they ingest the micro-particles and so begins plastics’ journey up the food chain…
Hyper-modern megacities around the world offer a dizzying look into humanity’s concept of a “brighter” future. For example, man-made “supertrees” promise to purify rainwater—useful, perhaps, when all the “normal” trees will have long since disappeared…
Photographers can show us things we’ve never seen (and couldn’t see) and can turn us toward the world with renewed attention—we trust the great ones to invade the street and give it back to us, transformed.
Urban-dwellers the world over were shocked when the Colombian peace referendum was voted down recently—but this project takes us to the “other” (deeply rural) half of the country, where the decades of war have been felt most acutely.
A rough, raw and gritty series that is also filled with tremendous compassion—learn the full story behind this controversial, award-winning project in an extended interview with the man behind the camera.
This lovely photobook is filled with discovery, taking us on an eye-opening journey from England’s most haunted village to the flooded fields of Assam, passing by dazzling blue glaciers and a crimson-drenched apiary—all through the inverted vision of infrared film.
Attempting to capture and convey the confusion and tension along Syria’s border with Turkey—using non-linear narrative and powerful, metaphorical imagery.
“Everything has to go”—the new edition of Previously on Hans Lucas (#9) brings together a diverse—and at times unstable—range of images, texts and video that in their sum propel us forward with the force of a parade.
In the final summers before the violent outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russia, a small military camp for children presaged the growing militancy and fraying unity that was soon to come apart in spectacular fashion.
The latest edition of Previously on Hans Lucas (#8) addresses a wide range of conceptual subjects including isolation, companionship, spirit, and a personal search for identity—learn more about this innovative monthly photography publication.
A conceptual multimedia series that questions the relationship between the self and place in the context of present-day migration in Africa.
An ambitious multi-year travelogue examines a region’s uncertain identity in the face of cultural and physical divisions and recent political shockwaves.
Dizzying multi-frame exposures speak to the disorienting final stretch of this surreal election—in the photographer’s words, “I wanted my photographs to feel like part of a confusing dream…”
“I feel like a mermaid. My body tells me that I am a man but my soul tells me that I am a woman…” A penetrating, multi-year report on a unique group of people—who fall outside of Western notions of gender—trying to carve out a place in the world.
On the digital streets of a fictional city, an infinite number of decisive moments lie in wait—this conceptual street photo series, produced within the world of a best-selling video game, raises unsettling questions about the blurring division between our real and imagined worlds.
While the photography community remains engulfed by controversies of “manipulation” vs. “reality,” artist Matthew Wylie is more intrigued by how the medium can break down these rules and impose the photographer’s own subjectivity onto the act.
An epic tale of modern-day mythology showing life across the Indian sub-continent, as well as two intriguing conceptual projects from emerging Italian artists—see all the prize-winners of this French award dedicated to supporting young photographers.
The world’s most iconic images linger in our minds, inviting us to create further stories and worlds from the moments captured therein. Why? This essay offers a single frame and an explanation.
Two exhibitions revisiting street photography stole the show at this year’s festival in Arles—read our thoughts on what made them special (and what made the rest of the festival a bit disappointing).
Cuba is changing: earlier this year, a sitting US president visited the country for the first time in nearly a century. In the photographer’s words, “I wanted to visit the island—to walk its streets and feel its heartbeat—before any more radical changes came into effect.”
A bold new channel has begun producing in-depth (yet short) films on how photographers work and think—read on for a profile of the founder and to see their first feature, a touching film about Paddy Summerfield’s celebrated series “Mother & Father”
Following last year’s bold edition, this flagship festival continues to stake its claim as a laboratory for new photographic practices—enjoy our highly selective 41-image preview.
What would a society look like in which everything was shared, everyone’s voice was heard, and art was produced everywhere, all the time? Look no further than the world’s Rainbow Gatherings—these magical photos attempt to bring back a glimpse of this unique atmosphere.
An unconventional portrait series capturing the endless incongruities and numb vulnerability of people catching up on their sleep in public places.
Decades of conflict and troubled history continue to turn up in the form of unexploded ordnance (UXO) across the lands and waters of Cambodia—a group of brave “de-miners” are working to undo this deadly legacy.
Before Silicon Valley was a TV show or a byword for success and innovation—it was a landscape. These contemplative photos mix past, present and future, allowing us to see through the furiously changing cycles of the moment—and thus with greater stillness and clarity.
Practicing the same way of life for thousands of years, the Tsaatan people are one of Mongolia’s last groups of nomadic reindeer herders—this documentary report offers a portrait of their fast-disappearing traditions.
Mixing pinhole photography with award-winning photojournalistic frames, this photobook masterpiece succeeds in breaking through our repetitive representation of the refugee crisis to tell the story in a fresh, powerful, poetic manner.
A kind, 11-year-old girl entrenched in the poverty and trauma of one of Sao Paulo’s worst slums. Her possible way out? The “Young Miss Brazil” beauty pageant.
A brand-new award dedicated to supporting the creation of documentary work about the Mediterranean. The inaugural group of laureates have made powerful work in Greece, the Middle East and Italy: here are their works-in-progress.
Despite mountains of photographs, can we really understand the trauma felt in the aftermath of the horrific earthquakes? This project draws on local mythology to offer another way of envisioning the country’s still fragile psyche.
“These people may be listless and lost, but they matter just as much as anyone we know. By showing the unseen, Zielony confronts us with the neglected reality that we, now, must try desperately to acknowledge and even change.”
“Where is the border between one person and another? What really defines closeness?” These delicately constructed images—portraying feelings suspended in time—draw us into the intimacy of all kinds of different relationships.
“The very structure of being itself involves a journey”—a challenging group exhibition that looks at the issue of migration from the perspective of those on the inside, an uncharted area where we become strangers even to ourselves.
Inspired by the visionary writings of sci-fi geniuses and fascinated with the possibilities of chemical-based photography, this London-born artist wanders the streets of his home, capturing the metropolis’ ever-changing faces.
Puncturing, rubbing, piercing: the photographic medium becomes a testing ground for physical interventions, mirroring our own fraught relationship with the natural world.
The work of two dozen photographers, from great names like Frank and Winogrand to lesser-known gems, constitute this fascinating group exhibition, which offers a piercing collective gaze into how the venerable United Kingdom is perceived by those outside its borders.
Celebrating Tomorrow/Peace Through Understanding/A Century of Progress—a pensive look at the remains of our insatiable appetite for the new, the grand and the futuristic, seen through an examination of a century and a half worth of former World’s Fairs.
From Cartier-Bresson’s trusty 50mm to the phones in our pockets, black and white photography has come a long way and shows no signs of slowing down. Here is a selection of our editors’ favorite monochrome images from the upcoming fair.
Taking to heart the notion that a skilled photographer can find all the material they need right in their own backyard, this series was built up over three decades, in a small town in Massachusetts.
A look back at one of the great portrait-makers of the 20th century: a master of light, the frame and drawing out rich, telling moments with his evocatively captured subjects. An artistic proclamation about what it means to be African, back then as much as today.
The refugee crisis stands as one of the most pressing political questions of our time—a new photo festival has been founded to explore the pressing themes of identity and borders in Europe, and across the world.
The history of European cinema has been deeply marked by the warm-blooded influence of the Mediterranean. See the Italian genius Michelangelo Antonioni and a few of his compatriots in this series of black-and-white portraits.
“At the age of 26, I revisited my hometown for the first time—a town I never knew and never will.” An emotional return to the silent heart of humanity’s greatest nuclear disaster, Chernobyl.
Now open in Amsterdam! An inspiring, disturbing, beautiful and eye-opening look at the world around us. From the refugee crisis across Europe to the earthquake in Nepal, and so many stories in between, this was another important year for news stories.
Sometimes, an outsider’s view can offer greater clarity about what’s happening on the inside. Six years of the eternal beauty and grinding tragedy that make up daily life in Greece today.
From Tiananmen Square to September 11th, iconic images define our understanding of the world. But as a mischievous pair of Swiss artists show, there is a touch of artifice behind every document…
A clever, conceptual approach to skirting those restrictions—different on every street across the world—concerning photographing people in the street.
Shot with the cinéma vérité-style of a smartphone, this daily series of “candid” photos pierces the slick facade of film-making while causing us to question the distinction between reality and performance in our own lives.
On the surface of the water, our gaze searches the horizon, our consciousness expands; beneath the water, we settle into the inky blackness, returning to base instincts and wordless, ancient rituals…
Fascinated by the ephemeral constructions that Tunisians create whenever they visit the seaside, this photobook presents these informal structures as a lens to explore the hidden dynamics of a rapidly changing society.
Quashed for 18 years under repressive, dictatorial rule, Chilean documentary photography flourished—serving as a flashpoint for moving the disenfranchised into action.
An interview with the young, talented photographer behind this award-winning work about the Soviet (or human) impulse towards utopia and technologically achieved perfection—dreams of progress that came to a crashing, frozen halt.
Over a decade ago, Takashi Arai decided he wanted to work chronologically through the historical techniques of analog photography. To this day, he remains stuck on the daguerreotype. Learn more about this contemporary master of the timeless method.
Using only the dramatic power of light, these glowing black and white photographs give whole new meanings to the basic elements that surround us.
Humankind has lost control over its own creations—today, the line between living and inanimate is gone. These striking fine art portraits explore our current state with retro-futuristic verve.
“With suspension everything remains possible, nothing is definite.” Explore this conceptual series of found photographs which plays with the rich, fertile idea of suspense.
A massive retrospective exhibition in London allowed us to reconsider one of the giants of the field and further appreciate his life-long dedication to the craft of photography.
Within a decade, if no action is taken, the mighty African elephant could be extinct. This inspiring photographic project aims to illustrate the bigger picture and bring about much needed political change.
Utilizing portraiture, this group of photographers offer us a touchingly personal, yet sweeping narrative on the cyclical themes of history: economic decline, racism and the ever-changing communities we form.
Utilizing the “killing” power of poetry and art, these four female photographers survey the role of women in Moroccan society through their sharp, critical lenses.
Carefully designed to deliver perfectly manicured happiness and relaxation to its inhabitants—but for all its bright colors, this is a dystopian vision in utopian dress.
Examining the lasting influence of four of Japan’s greatest photography masters—and three fascinating contemporary practitioners, who are utilizing diverse techniques such as daguerreotype and more.
A small town in Wales—which rose to international prominence after a rash of suicides—is re-examined through the lens of local photographer, who is also facing the question, “Should I stay or go?”
The history of photo manipulation reaches all the way back to the origins of photography—learn more in this fascinating interview with a talented French curator.
How do cultural misunderstandings affect the way we perceive images? Playing with traditional Finnish, Karelian and Sami customs, the photographer leads us into an outlandish and absurd universe, full of surprises around every corner.
“All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” An opinionated look at some fresh, emerging self-portrait makers, especially those who hew closer to fiction than autobiography.
“André was very talkative that day. As he spoke, I kept photographing. He seemed lonely and frail, having lost his wife. He reflected on how much he missed her. He was very reflective. I thought to myself that it seemed he didn’t have much longer to be with us…”
In Benin’s capital city, the omnipresent petrol traffickers are called “human bombs” due to the frequency of explosive accidents. This reportage reveals the harsh reality of illicit petrol trade in West Africa.
Theatrical and poetic in style, this series of constructed photographs tells the tale of a long-lost Jewish neighborhood in Krakow. A magical and enchanting photoessay, which reflects the fleeting, fluid nature of memory—and dreams.
Every photograph we take is, in some ways, a self-portrait. A simple yet touching series, inspired by a child-like fearlessness to engage with the world.
A place where no one is born and no one dies; where there are no cats, no trees, no traffic lights. People come here for just two weeks and have stayed for years. This is Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost city; this is not real life…
Access to clean drinking water can prove the difference between life and death. As these documentary portraits show, we are all together on this planet—yet by mere chance, some have so much more than others.
Tracing a line from August Sander through William Eggleston to the best portrait-makers of today, this “long little text” offers a personal, yet thought-provoking, perspective on portraiture over the ages.
When we think of Los Angeles, we likely think of cars: traffic jams, gridlocks, parking lots, freeways. But at night, when the motorways are clear, where do the 7+ million LA cars go to sleep? Playful portraits of the city’s residents at rest.
A paradox lies at the heart of great portraits: intellectually, we know a photograph can’t actually “capture” anything, but emotionally (and spiritually), we can’t help but keep looking for some kind of truth…
Discover our editors’ 50 favorites from the jury’s shortlist—dazzling, varied work from all over the world; a tiny sampling of some of the great contemporary photography made this past year.
“Here are…the landless, the loved and the unloved, the lonely and abandoned, the brutal and the compassionate — one big family hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being…”
Washed-out yet raw, simple and touching—learn how these unassuming portraits of tide-chasing children became the photographer’s means of overcoming tragedy.
Utilizing the antiquated wet plate collodion technique, these haunting portraits explore the cyclical nature of human rituals as well as the relevance of analog techniques in our contemporary time.
Intimate and respectful portraits telling the story of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners—but as seen through the eyes of their wives and mothers, who are patiently waiting for their return.
“Sometimes a good portrait feels like a slap in the face and keeps you awake.” Some of the world’s greatest photographers—Frank, Avedon, Mann and more—captured in a series of intimate, authentic frames.
An intimate portrait of one man’s struggle with a chronic illness—an illness which has rendered his house a comforting, if isolating, refuge from the confusion and turmoil of an ever-changing world.
Women who join the US Armed Forces are being raped and sexually assaulted by their colleagues in record numbers. This important and powerfully told report tells the story of some of the brave individuals who are doing their best to speak out—against an overwhelming pressure to remain silent.
“Their orange-red hair, their pale skin, their bright, light eyes are just breathtaking and magical to me. At times they even appear translucent.” A beautiful series of portraits documenting that rare, special breed—the red-head.
The camera can frame anything—but where that frame can take us is limitless. Noémie Goudal, the young French photographer, meditated on the creative yet contradictory powers of photography in this brilliant retrospective exhibition.
With immense precision and loving attention, David Shannon-Lier creates marks on the earth that meet with the heavenly bodies—the results are stunning, land art-style photographs that allow us to ponder our place in the universe.
Across the world, we are experiencing a severe disillusionment with our nations’ political class. This series takes a humorous, if dark, look at this issue by focusing on the unintended disfigurements that electoral candidates’ faces suffer when advertising themselves to the public.
Impassioned for their cause yet highly secretive, fearless outwardly but perhaps more fragile beneath the surface: these portraits attempt to understand the lives and minds of the Gaza Strip’s controversial militiamen.
In a great portrait, the subject holds a familiar presence as if we’ve known them for years—yet, at the same moment, we feel as if we are seeing this person for the very first time. Dig a little deeper with these portraits of Hungarian children and find these moments of connection.
Bicycles, cars, trains—daily objects in our urban lives—photographed from an unusual perspective that reveals a whole different (under)side than we usually get to see.
“People don’t guess that a modern-day Auschwitz is nearby.” A deep and touching photoessay documenting the countless individuals affected by the huge tuberculosis crisis currently plaguing Eastern Ukraine.
While the rest of the world has long since turned its attention elsewhere, a young generation of locals are returning to their roots, trying to overcome the horrors of a genocide and find a path towards a brighter future.
A multi-faceted group portrait of London’s squatter scene. From an old greenhouse to the 5-story “Castle,” this project shows how communities are capable of transforming almost any space into a “home.”
Utilizing his signature cinematic aesthetic—but applying it to a smaller, more personal scale—Gregory Crewdson’s latest work is as enchanting as ever.
In the decades-long struggle against poaching, a new strategic approach has broken through. Take a look at these proud portraits of the brave women who are preventing their local wildlife from being hunted to extinction.
What compels us to look at pictures of people? When is a photographic portrait successful? Does portraiture tell us more about the person sitting for the camera or the image-maker behind the lens? This masterful collection—spanning dozens of photographers—offers precious insight.
“What’s next? Hard to tell.” A collective portrait of Italy’s countless hard-working yet disaffected youth, a project which documents why so many are on the verge of leaving, tired of a decade of economic stagnation and societal malaise.
If you were to make a portrait of someone close to you that would represent everything they mean to you — the good, the bad, all the moments lived together — how would you do it? These fascinating pictures offer one possibility.
Made in China—but then what? Step inside the world’s largest small commodity market, where endless stalls overflow with the near infinite cheap, plastic goods that surround us in our daily lives.
Let it snow, let it snow…Curl up and enjoy these indistinct yet beautiful park landscapes that recall dreamy pictorialism in all its soft-hued splendor.
Kurdish political refugee; Danish citizen; high school drop-out; guerilla army fighter. Discover the story of Joanna, a young woman who gave up all the trappings of a “normal” life to fight for what she believed in.
By building camera obscuras in the homes of indigenous Colombians, these photographs offer a beautiful meditation on the centrality of territory for the identity of ancient peoples.
Off-cut, off-beat, strange yet enticing: an outsider’s perspective on his bizarre new home: California. The images ask us to look again, to step closer and to re-consider what might be in front of our very eyes.
“There are often two armed sides in any war. For me, as a photojournalist, the most interesting side in this conflict was the third one—ordinary civilians. Disaster came into their lives unexpectedly…”
What is a family? From loving twin sisters to an activist transexual couple, these simple yet diverse family portraits show that our age-old definition deserves a careful re-examination.
The heartwrenching stories of imprisoned Vietnamese sex workers who have been so broken by their experiences that many are unable to go to freedom, even when given the chance.
Each year, across rural Georgia, thousands of young women drop out of school in order to be married. The bride’s consent is not required. This report sheds some light on this little-known human rights violation.
Mario Cravo Neto was a sculptor-turned-photographer with the brilliant ability of transforming inert objects into light-filled, almost sacred material. Discover more of this late Brazilian master’s work.
Last year, cyclists in London undertook a record number of journeys in the city amidst the “safest year on record.” Safest, maybe, but certainly not safe: this project conceptually recreates the final moments of eight who were tragically (and needlessly) killed.
A major retrospective of Philippe Halsman which celebrated a common thread throughout the master’s career: photography used as a joyful, surprising medium, each frame containing an elated moment of creation.
Everyday life in a Romanian town, where bits and pieces of a decomposing existence are repainted and transformed. After all, a total makeover is always possible with a little bit of imagination.
A decade of separate road trips across America, each one distinct and rich in its own way. Like a gravitational pull, the promise of these endless lands inexorably draws photographers towards new discoveries.
As the world marks the one-year anniversary of last year’s shootings, we review images made in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. More than anything else, the displays of solidarity and togetherness feel like a truly distant memory.
Uganda ranks as one of the worst countries in the world for LGBT rights: yet this growing band of brave individuals gathers together each year to celebrate their identity with Pride.
In some circles, photography has long passed on from debates about Truth—but in most realms, we still depend on visual evidence to tell us what “really” happened. This highly regarded exhibition investigates this question from the 19th century all the way up through today.
A group of experts from around the world offer a wide-ranging list of their favorite publications from 2015. Dig in and discover something inspiring for the new year.
One part Martin Parr, another part uniquely American: an avowed “Christmas outsider” dedicates herself to figuring out the biggest event on the calendar. A holiday that is, at once, awkward, bleak, celebratory and sincere—certainly where more is more is more.
A brief visual essay exploring the photography of one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists.
Using documentary landscape techniques as their starting point, these three, inter-linked series transform terrestrial feats of engineering into abstracted, almost painterly compositions.
In a year when photobook publishing seemed to reach an all-time high, here are 10 notable photobooks that were selected by a group of photography experts from around the world.
Using the world’s abstracted city streets as a canvas to create a bold new vision of the world—”an exercise in seeing; an antidote to blindness.”
Insights into the personal and professional opinions of four of the jurors who will help decide this year’s LensCulture Exposure Award winners and finalists — words of wisdom and advice that are useful to any serious photographer!
“As individuals in New York City, when we become part of the crowd, we lose our individuality and become part of the fabric and mosaic of the city. We are the city, our identity is expressed through and of the city—we can say that we are New York.”
By watching the creative process as it happens, artworks can be understood as the result of an ongoing thought, rather than as a final, completed work. A conceptual photographer and videographer team up to explain.
A blockbuster show in Paris which highlights the work of 40 world-class photographers; each frame reminding us that the best photography is defined not by its genre but by the author’s unique vision of the world.
Join us on two different sides of the world; in Mauritius and Cuba, where a morning sweetness, behind the turquoise waters of the lagoons, illuminates the softened colours of the local architecture.
With a painterly control of light and an almost mystical understanding of the photographic frame, this book of landscape photographs from the Ganges River in India is a gift, offering a heightened awareness of our imaginations’ possibilities.
In Christianity, the epiphany celebrates a moment of revelation—these photographs, shot on the streets of a bustling African capital, offer a visual counterpoint to this moment of light, vision and rebirth.
Rising from the cracks of time, these photographs meditate on the relationship between past and present, myths and the ongoing moment. In Sicily, everything needs to change, so that everything can stay the same.
A world where the emptiness of remaining time can be observed on the faces and bodies of surrounding persons as their time flows by in a compulsory way…
“Through my own eyes and my street shots I would like to express: the tension, the edged frustration, the taut atmosphere and the feelings that beat, inherent in the city.”
“Streets are the canvas of culture, painted upon by the people that walk upon it. To truly know a city you must walk the streets, and when doing so, you may stumble upon the bizarre, the wonderful and the beautiful.”
The world’s largest solar installation is a boon to renewable energy efforts—and a blight on the local environment. But as this beautifully made photobook shows, classical oppositions need not always be held in tension.
An eye-opening exhibition in Paris proved that we should not be interested in certain photographs because they were shot by women but because they remain examples of powerful, even ground-breaking image-making, well over a century after they were first made.
When society goes to sleep, they stay awake. At night, the empty streets are their domain and they roll as they like. At night, they feel that they really exist, that they are somebody—that they matter.
“Brand-new land where all is contrast; undecipherable and deep city, colors are guiding me into your maze. Marseille, you adopted me, and to tell your tale, I turn to my senses.”
In these simple yet piercing portraits of (pre)teenage girls in the US and Lebanon, you will find deep joy and a poignant reminder about the deeply individual struggles that we all pass through in life along the road to becoming comfortable within the world.
Seemingly useless plastic debris comes to life when animated with primitive, heroic souls. Indeed, these ageless vessels will likely outlast us all…
A portrait photographer by trade, Denny Renshaw is drawn to the streets by the challenge of “capturing moving people and moments that only existed for an instant.”
This finely tuned retrospective allows us to appreciate Soth’s work with fresh eyes—and through his pictures, be reminded of the importance of listening closely, of remaining keen to the sad beauties of everyday mundanity.- Insights into the personal and professional opinions of four of the jurors who will help decide this year’s LensCulture Exposure Award winners and finalists — words of wisdom and advice that are useful to any serious photographer!
Today we are constantly plugged in—but also ever alone. Our internet-fueled atomization raises concerns about the future of our sociability. There are few people out there able describe such issues with the same poignancy as Alec Soth. Discover his latest book.
Environmental migration is like an unexploded ordnance: by 2050, one in 45 people will be an environmental migrant—200 million people in total. In Haiti, for example, the situation is particularly dire.
“The silence of the impressive landscape and the miles of solitude consistently brought me back to my own self. The experiences I had there were essential in my search for a silence that I had somehow lost along the way.”
What is normal, who is crazy—and who decides? In this nearly decade-long documentation of a local eccentric, we find a fascinating, confident individual who throws into question our standards of normalcy.
While the world’s nations continue to bicker over borders and languages and religions, one country threatens to disappear from the very face of the Earth within our lifetimes—learn more about this unique (and troubling) situation.
Take a tour of Italy’s most scenic landscapes and luscious agricultural products—oh, and along the way, you’ll have the chance to vicariously enjoy the efforts of the world’s premiere cyclists taking part in one of the world’s most demanding races. La vita è bella, no?
These are not winking postcards conveying a glossed-over Mediterranean image of land and art and ancient history in perfect harmony. No, these are spaces re-conquered, wounds in the present, delirious projections into the future.
Across the sandy wrestling rings of Senegal, men strain and strive for glory—learn more about this ancient tradition and its resurgence in modern-times.
In Cannes, on the French Riviera, a single square meter will cost you tens of thousands of euros. A fact which makes an unassuming patch of sidewalk the perfect place for some luxurious people-watching.
In one of the least densely populated places on earth, the delicately colored landscape stretches for miles; the slow passage of time is marked by the hypnotic rise and fall of the native animals’ unhurried gait…
While Haiti continues to struggle to recover from the catastrophic earthquake that hit in 2010, these photos highlight encouraging, individual efforts that, in sum, demonstrate the reawakening of a damaged, but hopeful, nation.
Are front-page pictures leading us to war? A controversial yet nuanced polemic that argues America’s leading newspaper has sanctified, eroticized and glamorized warfare—and that as a result, we are all being “lead as lambs to slaughter.”
“At different moments, the light represents: a way out, a cell with bars, an island of hope, a transit zone, a double-edged sword. Twenty characters wander erratically in their continuous search for light.”
Do clothes really make the (wo)man? As true in Shakespeare’s time as it is today, these vibrant street photographs offer a fresh take on a nearly timeless fact of life.
1st place Series, LensCulture Street Photography Awards: Photographer Martin Roemers set out to document more than 20 of today’s mega-cities. His large-format, long-exposure photographs are jam-packed with detail, and reveal bustling, chaotic, crowded scenes of everyday life in the 21st century.
Photography collectors from all over the world will be sizing up and acquiring photographs and books at the yearly mega-fair, Paris Photo, November 12-15, 2015.
After years of relative anonymity, the Canadian photography scene is sparking into life. An ambitious photojournalism-focused festival hopes to encourage a burgeoning scene.
What is it about the American landscape that has captivated photographers for so long? Over three decades, Graham has tirelessly traveled the country, capturing the colorful, sometimes surreal, and often bizarre thus conveying a quintessential piece of this great, big, strange place.
“By exploring our relationship with the endless skies above, we are reminded of our fertile imaginations, our distant evolution and our humble, tiny—yet beautiful—place in the universe.”
The mundane frustration of being stuck in traffic is transformed into intense, beautiful frames in this lovely set of moments from around the world.
Harnessing the “controlled” unpredictability of his Holga camera, Enrico Doria conjures up a fantastic world—a place of invisible spirits and unnameable emotions brought together into the light.
From colorful, vibrant city streets, to more intimate rural moments, these photographs convey—frame by frame—a beautiful, impassioned vision of the world.
Why should a sequence of photographs have to conform to a conventional narrative structure—how else can images work together? Todd Hido, a master of the photobook, investigates in his latest collection.
In quick cuts and staccato succession, these photographs guide you through a day and a night in Kowloon, one of Hong Kong’s densest and most storied neighborhoods.
In today’s frenetic, urbanized world of consumption and speed, these photographs find and create spaces of contemplation and peace—moments that allow you to take a breather from the city—any city.
Some of the border between Nepal and India is a river—and the river has changed course. The legal ramifications of this shift are murky, but the consequences on the ground are clear: a resolution is needed before the Nepali lands are washed away in the flow…
Ancient photographs—abandoned for years and consumed by mold—are re-discovered, revealing a strange inner world. Vivid, psychedelic, melancholy and beautiful, come read our review of this unexpectedly enchanting book.
Evocative silhouettes and smoky battle scenes recreate a moment from Cambodian history so brutal that those who lived through it have tried their best to forget.
The Raute people are a mystery, living in a world apart from their surroundings. They roam like the clouds, moving freely from place to place. A beautifully told story, one that has been repeated far too many times…
You may find his work and his methods odd, disquieting, or even distasteful—but there is no denying the power of Mark Cohen’s in-your-face street photography.
Carefully post-produced images result in an uneasy world that is “like the thick memory of a strange dream from two nights ago…that somehow seems more important and real than the everyday.”
“It all began with a commotion in the toilet. One day, Chan was busy at his workshop when he heard a noise coming from the bathroom. Curious, he opened the window and looked down below…”
All the love, fear, doubt and joy that comes with being a first-time father, tenderly told through a series of intimate photographs.
In the aftermath of a serious car accident, a personal meditation on corporeality and pain: everyone can find their own punctures here—exhausting dreams, fears, obsessions.
What happens to American youth once they’ve entered the criminal justice system? By employing ideas of anonymity, voyeurism, and introspection, these photos try to examine the youth’s own experience in the system and how it can shape their future.
Across Europe, refugees are largely seen as a problem rather than people who need our help—this in-depth documentary hopes to give a voice to group of Syrian refugees and help us see them in a different, more human light.
A group of French adrenaline junkies travel the world searching for high cliffs and dizzying voids to push themselves to the limit. Come enjoy a vicarious thrill from the safety of your earth-bound chair.
Transcendence amidst the commonplace, intimacy amidst alienation, humor amidst the absurd—over five decades, Chang Chao-Tang has helped shape the photographic culture of his homeland.
“I want to show what the eyes cannot see in the dark—when you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and you feel tiny, insecure, but surrounded by an infinite beauty.”
In today’s world of shrinking media budgets and finite attention spans, how can we produce complex, long-term, nuanced journalism? Metrography, Iraq’s first photo agency, offers a possible solution.
Usually when we imagine a cherry tree, we think only of its widely adored flowers. But we should be reminded of the entire plant system and in particular, the hardy leaf, whose rugged charm remains long after the celebrated flowers have disappeared…
Working in the tradition of an on-the-road artist, these photos from the Atlantic coast use the central theme of water to explore ideas of deterioration, survival and growth.
After giving up their life savings and braving death, what happens to the African migrants who actually succeed in crossing the Mediterrenean? A report on a migrant “reception center” on the coast of Sicily, where refugees are welcomed with something approaching incarceration.
If you never thought to look so closely at your fish, your dog or that bug on the wall, perhaps these veterinarian’s portraits will open your eyes to all that your “best friend” has to offer.
While the world population urbanizes, a group of young people in Spain re-embrace old ways—taking part in a global counter-current of rural regeneration.
Inspired by the phrase “American By Birth, Southern By The Grace Of God,” a series of environmental portraits that glimpse at the core of Southern identity in the contemporary world.
Poetic visual storytelling about the challenges of feeling in between—youth and adulthood, the nest and the world, the comfortable water and the firm earth that we all must learn to walk on, someday.
An innovative photojournalism festival helps finance original work while also giving the projects a platform for exposure. Read about what makes the works in this latest edition so special.
Antarctic icebergs & Inuit hunting cabins: these silent, static witnesses—from the top and bottom of the world—offer a potent commentary on the universal threat posed by global warming.
A reflection on the fragments and layers that shape a photographer’s personal landscape and which lay at the root of its erosion and its transformation.
The largest British overseas military camp since WWII—a mere month after being handed over to the Afghan army—lies in the hands of the Taliban. These silent, contemplative landscapes offer a poignant reflection on what will (and won’t) remain of the West’s extended stay.
Toothbrush? Non-essential. Soap, too. Shoelaces: dangerous contraband. At the U.S. Border Patrol facility in Arizona, we discover the scant belongings of attempted immigrants who were apprehended in the desert, seized on their path towards “the American Dream.”
Self-portraits probing the duality within each individual—solitude and stillness against wild, unconscious dreams and uncontrollable anxieties. Discover what rules behind the thick curtain of mystery surrounding our own being.
Enter the far-flung (yet familiar) world of schoolchildren on the Eastern Cape and discover a richly portrayed environment, ripe for interpretation and even open-ended fantasy.
Joy and sadness, work and play, beauty and crisis—a series that conveys the contradictions of this small country that “finds itself continually somewhere in between.”
While the world’s attention drifted away, some of the Nigerian girls who were infamously kidnapped by Boko Haram did manage to escape their awful captivity—hear some of their stories.
Fantastic and surreal, this photobook is filled with landscapes and portraits that are inspired by those beautiful yet uncomfortable moments that hold contradictions—this is rich, revealing work.
We often talk about our impact “on” the environment but it’s really our impact “in” the environment—this look at the avian denizens of the Shetlands Islands offers a glimpse into our planet’s future.
Digging deep into the Sudetes Mountains—once, one of the richest mineral deposits in Europe, now a region haunted by ghosts of the past and murky promises of still untapped treasures below.
Dissecting the United Arab Emirates’ contradictions by examining its futuristic, forward-looking TV studios set against the presenters’ deeply conservative appearances.
“In all their simplicity, these items are the last resort of identity, the last permanent reminder that these people ever existed.” A stark but powerful tribute to the victims of the Bosnian War.
In El Salvador, the time of youth—between the ages of 12 and 25—is also one of the most dangerous. The country’s children attempt to go about their daily lives while surrounded by a numbing cycle of kidnapping, torture and murder. A shocking report.
A tiny, tightly-knit Quebec town rocked by the worst rail accident in a century. A soulful attempt to make sense of tragedy on both the individual and universal scale.
“Not be opened until my death.” A photographic journey that pieces together a disconnected ancestral narrative—all beginning with a single, enigmatic letter.
Offering new perspectives on contemporary Aboriginal life through a comparison with a famed, century-old photographic archive. In each diptych, the past, the subjects and the photographer come into intense, performative dialogue.
By displacing ordinary objects and radically recontextualizing them, this series allows us to perceive our habitual existence in a wholly new way.
Threatened by genocidal violence from the Islamic State, the Yazidi people are desperately struggling not just for their religious identity—but their very existence.
“A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness, a lovesickness.” These pictures come from that emotional space of longing, of wishing for things that never were and might never be.
Ignore the headlines and come see one perspective about what’s “really” happening—after all, a “refugee crisis” is, at its heart, an accumulation of individual stories.
One of the greatest challenges for photography is not only to describe the present but predict the future—this series casts its gaze to the ravaging effects that rising sea levels will surely have on the already crowded shores of Bangladesh.
With great tenderness and sensitivity, we discover the discriminated and isolated communities of sexual minorities in east Africa. In the face of their societies’ critique, true love perseveres.
A gut-wrenching photoessay on the awful dynamics of domestic abuse—and also a profoundly intimate portrait of a woman’s quest for a measure of peace and solace in the world.
FOAM Talent, photographer, sculptor, Swiss and Dutch—learn how this young artist harnesses disparate elements to construct and immortalize her fantastic creations.
“Darkness is commonplace; it is light that is the rarity.” The sense of wonder cast by light in an otherwise impenetrable darkness is the driving force behind these unique, gunpowder-generated prints.
Amsterdam opens its doors and gives itself over to the world of photography. Come see our editors’ picks of some of the highlights that will be on display—though we hope it’s only the beginning of your exploration of what the fair has to offer!
“Post-photography is not a style or a historical movement but a rerouting of visual culture…it defines a new relationship we’ve adopted with our images.” Join provocateur/curator Joan Fontcuberta on an eclectic tour of the photographic practices that are pushing us to question our most fundamental beliefs about the field.
“Exploring the mendacity of memory and its relation to youth” through nostalgia-filled portraiture of rural Idaho’s innocent and imaginative next generation.
Scattered across non-descript suburbs and deserted country lanes, artificially-lit football pitches transform the quiet English countryside into an unexpectedly dramatic stage.
On the beach, we forget ourselves, exhibiting little of the self-consciousness that usually marks our being in the public space. What if we could carry on so blissfully in the rest of our daily lives…?
Come discover the fresh, dazzlingly varied work of 21 photographic talents—emerging today, household names in the none-too-distant future.
Deep within the rich blacks and glaring shafts of light, we find the city of Sydney as an abstracted backdrop for fragile human presence, a chaotic stage of ceaseless development and consumerism, tempered by the photographer’s intimate touch.
An ambitious, collaborative art/travel project in the dead of Swedish winter transforms into a precious diary of those moments in between, the unexpected times when the true meaning of travel comes to light.
In the trenches and amidst the madness of Donetsk, Ukraine—the center of what could be considered Europe’s first civil war of the new century.
A deeply personal search for meaning in heritage, an artist’s reckoning with a traditional, New England version of American femininity.
Today, there are over 200 million migrants worldwide—this overwhelming figure is humanized through the singular narrative of Sahra, a Somalian refugee living in Munich. A reminder that underneath the alarmist headlines, there are individuals, human beings who feel lost and alone…
Along the paths running through the no-man’s land north of Greece, temporary identity papers litter the soil. A tiny, but touching representation of what the refugees must discard on their way to the promises of Europe.
A surprising, at times even ticklish, pictorial study of the tensions and incongruities that present themselves in the “urban” landscape of Phoenix, Arizona.
Stairs, roofs, shadows all desperately in pursuit of an escaping light—an exploration of abandoned spaces and the suffocating mystery therein.
Set against the backdrop of a depressed, post-industrial East German town, we find the unruly energies of youth looking for some outlet, striving for a different future.
Merging sand, sea, sky (and ships), An My Lê’s camera takes us around the world with the US navy, showing what life is like when the guns are quiet and a mighty military lies docile.
Macrophotography taken to a deeper, more sensitive place—in this series, living plants are transformed into two-dimensional sculptures, crafted with care yet shot with simplicity.
Missing out on this year’s edition of Visa Pour l’Image? At least you can enjoy 52 great images from the program and an interview with the legendary festival director who started it all.
Coming face to face with the eternal questions, the unresolvable mysteries—and learning to recognize that some things will remain forever unanswered.
“The colors of the Earth do not only touch our senses, but also tell us something about the creation and texture of the surface of our planet, the Earth’s crust and the ground under our feet” — 25 beautiful aerial photographs that show us what remains of our home’s pure, unspoilt landscapes.
Backstage at the world’s greatest fashion shows—a place devoid of pretense, wholly transitory, without past or future: it only exists here and now.
Understanding the 5,000-mile U.S. Gulf Coast by way of the region’s relationship to nature—alternately reverent and blindly negligent.
“Julia Wannabe” is a photographic collaboration between a mother and her daughter, as the daughter transitions from being a girl to a young woman — award-winning work!
A four-year voyage of discovery through southern Italy—photos which show a region rife with modern contradictions, ancient traditions and a feeling of eternal suspension and stillness.
Using paint, ink, thread and a photocopier, these deceptively simple interventions offer deeper thoughts on the ways that we can (or can’t) change the world around us.
“Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality”—a sensitive vision from the streets of Rome, where the photographer went in search of the sublime.
“There was never any plan other than to immerse myself in the sort of tangible reality absent from much of modern life, feel hardship and indulge in aimlessness…”
Picking cherries in the middle of nowhere Canada and making pictures that capture the youthful glory of living in the moment, enjoying each and every frame.
“We have marched from Selma, but 50 years later, where are we now?” Turning a contemporary lens onto the issues of racial inequality that divided the United States in the ’60s and have recently come back into the public eye.
An intimate work that probes the complex depths of marriage and the self, as well as the idea that the (romantic) Other can somehow provide us with fulfilment, support and undying love.
On a mysterious island lost north of Greenland, an isolated Inuit population finds itself torn between modernity and tradition, abandonment and resistance. The landscape is as beautiful as it is disturbing.
Made in a psychiatric hospital, on the verge of suicide, these self-portraits offer a piercing window into the gaping maw of depression, anxiety and loneliness.
Photographing this famed urban beach using grainy, high-contrast monochrome. The hardened locals who can stand the sun and the sand are shot in all their gritty glory.
Executed with “erotico-mystical heat,” these visceral, voyeuristic portraits plumb the depths of the photographer’s relationship with his model and muse—who is also his wife.
In the vein of Antoine D’Agata, a deeply personal and subjective exploration of the ravages of drug addiction, a snapshot into “those sparkling moments between happiness and madness.”
Abstract fine art that celebrates old-school photography — darkroom chemicals, light, paper, collage, and the hand of the artist.
For hundreds of years, the direct descendants of enslaved Africans have kept alive their unique cultural traditions in the southeastern United States. Despite bondage, a Civil War, segregation, the community thrived—but today, a historic way of life is threatened, a unique piece of America’s cultural mosaic could be lost forever.
Over the roofs and the spires, far, far above the beating heart of over-crowded Sâo Paulo, we find a soaring figure, at the height of her powers.
These oddly beautiful photographs question the future of landscape imagery when tons of plastic products are consumes and discarded minute by minute.
Each day a different stranger, a different subject, a different story—overcoming big city coldness 365 separate times to make intimate street portraits in the City of Light.
Wildwood, New Jersey—once, one of the great holiday get-aways in the United States. Today, its unchanged mid-century architecture pays tribute to another era, to five decades of summers gone by.
Abandoned places, gutted houses dot the Greek countryside. They testify to a life once full of abundance—and now to expectations mown down in mid-flight. A deeply affecting, conceptual look at the country’s ever-deepening crisis.
Photographed at heritage sites across the English nation, this series reflects upon how the countryside has been modelled and managed for the purposes of leisure, and in turn, how our sense of belonging is determined by a connection to place.
While today’s exchange of digital photos is certainly rampant—it’s not a wholly new phenomenon. This smart, original exhibition shows how sharing has always been at the heart of photography and how today’s behavior is more of an evolution than a revolution in the way we consume images.
Love at first sight is the inspiration behind some of our favorite stories, our most timeless dramas—but is it real? Using the hyper-rational languages of science and photography, this playful series attempts to answer one of humanity’s last great mysteries.
While most who question the future focus on the big issues, each one of us is also preoccupied with personal concerns—love, loss, aging, death. Conceptual photographer Phillip Toledano explores these themes in ways both touching and wholly irreverent.
Dramatic, yet also intimate, black-and-white images capture daily life within prisons scattered throughout Belgium, challenging us to consider how we treat the wayward members of our society.
Undeterred by the daily threats of violence, constant intimidation and at the risk of being cast out by their own families—the lesbian women of two South African townships continue to be proud of who they are and the love they represent.
The world’s largest tent; a presidential residence designed after the White House; an Orwellian-sounding “Palace of Peace and Reconciliation”—these are just some of the many odd sights that one can find in the world’s latest gleaming petro-city: Astana, Kazakhstan.
After spending several years in her new home and seeing it only from the viewpoint of a car window, this photographer decided get to know her city: by walking.
Cinematic, moody yet fresh: a European-wide art project which aims to celebrate the idea of the flâneur within the contemporary urban fabric of the continent.
Photographed at heights of 4000-6000m, the scenery in these mountains runs from the sublime to the overwhelming. Perhaps it is impossible to convey such awe through a 2-D photo, but this series makes a brave attempt.
Kalasha women wear their hair in long, exposed braids; an elderly Buriad woman blends traditional cultural dress with Western fashion in her choice of sunglasses: these black-and-white portraits share unique, individual experiences from over a dozen different Asian indigenous peoples.
In a time of “inward looking mirrors and outward looking windows,” this smart, conceptual series reinterprets photographs presented to the North Korean people by rephotographing them using smartphones and then polaroids.
The only time that the camera can reproduce is time that has already been spent—a sad but beautiful fact that makes it the perfect canvas to convey the frozen, immobilized population of crisis-stricken Greece.
With a tightly focused theme on the future of photography (and of aesthetics in general), the upcoming edition of this highly regarded German festival looks promising! Our editors preview some of the most exciting work that will be featured.
Repurposing images depicting American life from 1964-74, this conceptual series challenges the viewer to link together the nation’s cultural history and the photographs’ intriguing yet disjointed visual narrative.
In an era where nomadic lifestyles are increasingly difficult to maintain, the Awa people are hanging by a thread. Despite their efforts to keep moving, they face the encroachment of the modern world at every turn.
Within a cold, vast emptiness—there is something so beautiful. An awe-inspiring series of photographs from across the Finnish Lapland.
Why should names be passed down from our fathers, why should the oldest (boy) always inherit the family’s wealth? For an indigenous people in northeastern India, girls are of preeminent importance and all the “usual” societal conventions are turned on their head.
On the banks of the Volga River, a Cossack association hosts a patriotic summer camp for children, in the hopes of indoctrinating them—meanwhile, the kids themselves ignore adult agendas in favor of summer fun.
50 years ago, the French state took an unremarkable stretch of coast and transformed it into a vacation destination for the whole continent. A look at what remains from this once futuristic, now anachronistic, piece of urban planning.
Introspective and dreamy, these black-and-white photographs capture the delicate moment when the bubble of childhood pops, when fairytales cease to fall under the category of truth.
The heart of London shown as a dizzying labyrinth of glass, steel (and money). While all the maps tell us “you are here”—they fail to show us a way out.
Cinematically staged portraits where women play fictional yet realistic roles that offer private, intimate images of womanhood that are rarely represented in the mainstream media.
Imaginary and impossible, strange yet beautiful: these photographic visions yield quietly convincing representations of our future—while also offering a piercing look onto our present condition.
Following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie and Lawrence of Arabia, these carefully shot interior photographs tell us the story of a once grand hotel and a bygone Aleppo, an indirect portrait of Syria in its better days.
A celebration of childhood and family life through a collection of simple yet beautiful moments of two sisters growing up in the remote Australian wilderness.
20% of China is desert—and that percentage is growing. From howling sandstorms to abandoned villages, this documentary report reveals one of China’s most pressing environmental problems today.
A teenage AIDS epidemic is burgeoning in Sub-Saharan Africa—but amidst the chilling narratives of isolation and depression, we also find extraordinary stories of hope, as individuals fight to pursue their dreams, against the odds.
What does “identity” signify in Europe? Through 25 years of great portraits, this newly opened exhibition demonstrates the power, wealth and diversity of contemporary European photography and makes links with the Renaissance tradition—the origin of the portrait genre.
Must a portrait necessarily show the face? With the vibrant fabric of Tokyo as inspiration, these oddly intimate portraits cut out the usual point of attention, thus piquing our interest and engaging our imaginations.
Dirk and Jenny have lived together happily for four years—so what if Jenny is a silicone doll? Before judging, take a look at these beautiful photographs (+ video) and ask yourself, “What is normal, anyways?”
Every day, we are overwhelmed with stories of the growth of ISIS, the destruction of ancient cities, the death of innocents—meanwhile, these brave Iraqi photojournalists go deeper and stay longer, offering in-depth humanitarian reports that aim to deepen our view of a complex, ever-changing region.
Facing oppression since the 16th century, Mennonite communities in Russia, Germany, and Canada tell their stories through this series of thoughtful portraits.
Focusing on masculine energy and drawing from the artist’s queer experience, this series of intimate portraits examines identity, desire, and intimacy.
Taken four years after the Fukushima disasters, these haunting black-and-white images—printed on unique Japanese paper—document the region’s slow decay and point to the fragility of our control over nature.
Access to electricity has the immediate ability to drastically improve living conditions. These portraits form a visual diary documenting how solar panels have transformed daily life for villagers in Myanmar.
Emerald waters and sapphire skies—a former oasis of the Eastern Bloc, Lake Balaton forms the setting for this series of vibrantly colorful portraits.
In Indonesia’s Waria community, a small but tightly bound group defies expectations—they identify as both practicing Muslims and transgender individuals.
By altering and embellishing family photographs, the artist confronts disturbing childhood memories and the gravity of her parents’ early death.
Two photographers survey the devastating aftermath in Nepal—and allow us to see the awe-inspiring potential that remains in the hearts of the Nepali people.
Raw, revealing photo-documentation of China—that proves much more complicated than meets the eye. Hear from the (Chinese) photographer himself what’s really going on here.
Sensitive, conscientious portraits of children with learning disabilities taken during their transition between childhood and adulthood—powerful work that can “only be described superficially with words.”
Come enjoy dozens of inspiring interpretations of beauty as a variety of artists (both established and emerging) push photography to its expressive, aesthetic limits. Surely something here will touch your spirit, pique your interest, or allow you to view the world with fresh eyes.
Amidst the endless stories of religious warfare in the Middle East, these photographs offer a ray of hope, showing us an intimate portrait of harmonious co-habitation between a Christian and Sunni family in Kirkuk, Iraq.
We continue our in-depth preview of the fair by sharing some of the most stunning nature and landscape photography that will be shown at Photo London this week—enjoy!
“Prisons are a reflection of society, a mirror of what is happening in a country, from small dramas to the great social and economic crises”—an unflinching exploration of South America’s prisons that offers a piercing look at one aspect of the continent’s contemporary state of being.
These photos offer a powerfully honest look into the harsh toll that war takes on those who wage it. Each image conveys a moving depiction of courage, strength—and vulnerability—in a beautifully artistic manner.
Contrasting the intrinsic nature of the self with the humanity’s similarities as a whole, these ethereal photographs prompt internal reflection and a search for our original, unique being.
Mobile photography makes it easier than ever to document the world—and in new, inventive ways. Indeed, it seems this growing, global movement is making its mark on the very boundaries and direction of contemporary photography itself.
Step into a world of Juju healers and devil dancers, a world where the influence of secret societies is rampant and a belief in the power of witchcraft is widespread.
“We don’t fix time, we hold its traces”—these metaphorically rich photographs speak to Israeli identity, adapting to life in America and the eternal tensions between the sacred and the profane.
Through compelling portraits and environmental shots, this series communicates deeply affecting stories of displacement in an Iraqi refugee camp.
Like delicate Japanese paintings, these carefully crafted images reach past the rational and the intellectual to stimulate our hearts and our souls.
A series of (photographed) performances, which touch upon everything from identity alienation, to imperiled environments and the stark beauty of the desert. This work overflows with energy and inspiration—don’t miss it!
Look past the protestors, past the policeman, past the bullhorns—what lies at the heart of Baltimore’s (and America’s) unrest runs much deeper than a single violent incident.
Winner of the First Book Award—these stark, startlingly photos invite us into downtrodden rural Ireland, a world dominated by failed Machismo and dejected, soggy dreams. Like a stiff whisky, it’s strong stuff that you won’t shake off easily.
By carefully tracing the journey of two young, orphaned Iraqi boys across their country’s shifting battle lines, these photos convey the devastating personal impact of conflict and displacement.
On the occasion of Mother’s Day: touching, collaborative portraits that speak to the deep unspoken bonds (and aching uncertainties) that fill the air around all mothers and daughters.
A meditation on loss and collective memory, this series contrasts the sweet innocence of childhood with the pain of losing loved ones later in life.
Each of these portraits seems to emerge from total darkness to glow with vibrant silvery intensity—the subjects come to life in a unique and memorably artful manner.
The result of over a dozen visits to South Africa, these black-and-white images engage with the vibrant daily life through moving portraits and well-observed environmental shots.
Are red-heads going extinct? A photographer/”genetic conservationist” decided not to take any chances, creating this catalogue of one of our planet’s more unlikely endangered species.
Over one million displaced refugees have flooded into Iraqi Kurdistan—this touching photo-report tells the story of a group living out of two over-crowded hotels and their daily struggle to get by.
Like a Dutch Sally Mann, this up and coming photographer portrays children in an engaging yet honest light; her images are filled with unadorned beauty.
Take an epidemic (the fight against Ebola), photograph the true heroes (soldiers from the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces), and show the spirt of the human soul and the deep bond of brotherhood (these moving photographs) = Pure Brilliance!
China’s Yellow River is the country’s cradle of civilization, a site of ferocious annual flooding and a marker of the land’s astoundingly rapid transformation.
A Japanese photographer set out to challenge his own stereotypes and find the “real” America. In his photos, he digs deep and creates revealing portraits that are full of drama, challenging his view and what he thought he knew.
The extraordinarily gifted young people of the Netherlands, depicted in an enigmatic yet immediate fashion. Within each frame, we wonder (along with the subjects)—from where exactly does talent arise?
Inspired by the subtle aesthetic of wabi-sabi—a philosophy of reduction, modesty and the beauty of imperfection—these luminous images offer an enchanting gaze on the world around us.
Inspired by film-noir and comic books, these dramatically lit nature portraits tell the stories of the world’s most incredible parasites: the kind that can alter their hosts’ DNA and even control their minds.
Inspired by wildlife paintings, these environmental portraits in Afghanistan offer a sensitive attempt of understanding a country that has been subjected to conflict for over 30 years.
But what do photographers look like in front of the camera? This curated project asks a pair of photographers to photograph each other. The results are wildly diverse and simply inspiring, speaking to the endless possibility available in the photographic medium.
Rich, evocative photos that portray those heady days before the collapse of the Wall—and remind us how looking back also means recognizing that something has been lost.
There is something in these powerful ambrotype images that evokes desire, disgust, the hallucinatory and the mystical. We are not asked to observe these pictures—but to absorb them.
A portrait of “the Hermit Kingdom”—a photographic effort to pierce the veil of mutual misunderstanding and find something human beneath the grandiose propaganda and widespread misinformation.
A touching portrait of a woman whose life-long companion has been art. Each day, for 90 years, she has drawn, illustrated, posed and created—doing her small part to bring a little more beauty into the world.
Come see our full-screen slideshow featuring our favorite work from this year’s winners, including that of the L’Iris d’Or/Photographer of the Year: John Moore.
Made by a self-described dreamer, these sensual, provocative images exaggerate reality to make us stop, take notice and most importantly, ask questions.
Quirky, expressive, unique and unexpected—delightful portraits of local swimmers at a beach in China who face the sun’s harmful rays and the area’s giant jellyfish with colorful aplomb.
The great frontiers of today are not real mountains nor real oceans—they are the infinite digital worlds that exist all around us. Step into the dizzying mind of Drew Nikonowicz.
Photo-poems in prose, fictional biographies told through pictures, a series of playful reminders which reveal the extraordinary role that chance plays in each and every life—from the ordinary to the most strange.
Photography has a powerful ability to address the most pressing issues of our time. These awards recognize two powerful visual-storytellers who utilize the power of the image to connect people and galvanize change.
A collection of photographs from South Africa that probes into the country’s difficult history and attempts to address the problematic questions of identity, belonging and the very meaning of the word “home.”
A pair of clever, enigmatic series that play with desire, eroticism and photography’s fundamental questions surrounding presence and absence.
How will you die? Where will you end up in 20 years? What’s in your future? Inventive and brave photographer Phil Toledano decided to face his fear of his own mortality and imagine what his fate might hold.
A monumental work, spanning two decades, that conveys both the individual tragedies and historical consequences of humanity’s greatest nuclear disaster.
The beauty of the sakura lies in the brevity of their blossoming—these simple yet elegant photographs aim to convey not only the flowers’ visual delight but a deeper, subtler feeling of presence and the passage of time.
What do the signs from the past look like? What if they’re hardly visible at all? A searching photo series about our relationship with our pressing, yet at times invisible, histories.
Using simple geometric shapes and the delicate image transfer process, these simple constructions invite us into “the still mind-space that meditation brings.”
Deep-frozen images of the world’s most endangered specimens, made using the wet plate collodion process—each plate is as unique and fragile as the animals themselves.
China was once known as the “Kingdom of Bicycles”—today, the countless rusting bikes, cast aside in favor of fancy cars, are witnesses to (and victims of) the seismic transitions that modern China is undergoing.
Welcome to an offbeat universe where cut-up photographs make us daydream…Pictures, both alluring and disquieting, absorb us in a deconstructed world conducive to emotional and physical discoveries…
Like a modern-day Larry Clark or Nan Goldin, this emerging South African photographer allows us to be both voyeurs and participants in his world—the vibrant melting pot youth culture of South Africa’s biggest city.
By examining the nuances of “natural” versus “unnatural” landscapes in the American West, these photographs allude to the endless cycles of reconstruction & destruction—and the role that humans play in nature’s rhythms.
Even as he approaches 90 years of age, this groundbreaking, pioneering street photographer continues to create new work that reverberates with life now and into the future. Here’s a review of his latest photobook.
Set against the grand, wild majesty of the eastern Icelandic landscape, these searching self-portraits are one woman’s attempts to connect with herself and forge a basic understanding with her environment.
Can unseeing eyes show joy, happiness, disappointment, pain, suffering, pity, regret? The blind have their own worlds—yet even if we cannot see them, this series endeavors to help us imagine what they might look like.
The backdrop of growing up between two cultures, two countries, two different realities informs this photographer’s passionate efforts to use her camera to find her identity and place in the world.
FRESH: A highly selective early preview of just some of the contemporary photography that will be on display (and for sale to collectors) at Photo London, May 21-24, 2015.
In Japan, one can find vending machines in the most out of the way places—so much so, they have become a familiar, integral part of the natural landscape.
One week: No TV. No radio. No newspaper. No phone. No Internet. No deadlines. One week. Right here. Right now.
Haunting, graphically arresting, truly surreal—in the artist’s own words, “Photography is a mundane poison that has haunted my life.”
The glorious temples at Angkor Wat have and will survive the ages—the fishes, they just come and go.
Returning to where you grew up is always tricky: these dreamy images blend distant memories with feelings of nostalgia to produce a longing, loving portrait of home.
In these award-winning, explicit portraits, Okabe sensitively presents her subjects: two of her transgender lovers who are going through the intense period of their transitions.
Raw, unvarnished, straight from the night-lit corners of Harlem, New York. In the artist’s own words, “Photography is a dissemination point for me to say that there is beauty in everyone.”
These artistic black and white nature photographs pay tribute to the majestic lion in all its magic and mystery.
Take a dive into our extensive preview of this exciting contemporary art fair! Our editors have carefully selected 59 images which can be viewed in a full-screen slideshow. These offer just a taste of what will be showing in Paris!
The world’s largest volcanic lake; a glacier that crashes into a rainforest; an otherworldly underwater sinkhole—follow us to the furthest reaches of our planet and back (without leaving your seat!)
Across contemporary Europe, strange and ancient worlds come to the foreground a few times a year as communities celebrate age-old rituals. These vibrant, lively photos offer a glimpse into these real-life fantasies.
While the self portrait has fascinated artists since the very earliest periods, the use of the shadow in such works is almost exclusively owned by the photographic medium—this series takes full advantage of this fact, melding photographer and landscape into a seamless, integrated whole.
Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok are nothing more but immense containers of lives in transit—reflective glass facades filled with restless beings, displaced desires, endless searching.
Losing yourself to find yourself; finding yourself to know yourself—these enigmatic images show us how experiences of loss can be the most illuminating ones of all.
Lines, shadows, shapes and forms—a silent symphony of images that visualize the relationship between our bodies and our built environment.
These eery portraits double their subject and weave together beings with their own image. Each photo questions our comfortable notions of identity and fills the very idea with smoke—rendering our own perceptions stranger and realer at the same time…
Polish artist Tadeusz Kantor claimed that if an item is not capable of fulfilling its main function in reality—then it regains its message (and meaning) in the world of art. These inventive assemblage photographs give fresh form to the old idea of “ready-mades.”
These highly inventive, conceptual landscapes explore the photographer’s personal history but at the same time our shared mythology of “islands”—places of isolation, seclusion, exoticism and paradise.
Kathy Ryan, the longtime director of photography at the New York Times Magazine is also a first-time published photographer: in this book, she offers us a simple yet elegant ode to light, to beautiful interiors and to her inspiringly designed work space.
Personal, surreal, playful, exploratory — a series of portraits that explore the concepts of identity, multiple lives, play, and performance.
Something needs to change. As our world heads towards environmental catastrophe, these brave and unflinching photographers offer us sobering—but also galvanizing—glimpses into some of the most pressing problems around the globe.
Last summer, the shocking news of a downed passenger airline in Ukraine swept the world—these photographs bring us back to that stunned disbelief we felt in the immediate aftermath.
In a seemingly unremarkable patch of land on the Swiss-Italian border lies unsurpassed natural beauty. But it’s easy to miss behind all the gas stations and ski lifts. An eerily simple meditation on our relationship with the landscape around us.
In a rugged and remote corner of Kurdistan—straddled between Iran and Iraq—the Hawrami people carve out a unique (and dramatic) existence on their mountain slopes.
During the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, entire family histories were forcibly erased—yet some, at great personal risk, kept tiny physical keepsakes from their past. These still life photographs are a touching testament to these individual’s bravery and courage in the face of mortal danger.
This sweeping, abstract landscape series is not about being in the right place, at the right time—but instead, about finding an inner tranquility and a feeling of freedom that transcends any external pressures at all.
A portrait of a nation that has a population of 300+ million people—and a circulation of 300+ million guns.
From Civil War re-enactors who have faced hundreds of deaths to extraordinarily imaginative Fruit Loop landscapes to a dark, dreamy Night Journey—these three prize winners present a dazzling array of work that’s well worth diving into!
What began as a few isolated cases has become a regional (and almost global) epidemic. This uncompromising look offers insight into the unfolding human tragedy in West Africa.
In the former Soviet city of Tblisi, one can find the marks of history in every space and on every inhabitant—these environmental portraits speak to the burdens of the past that we all carry.
In these empty, yet eerily haunting photographs, we are confronted by the locations in which young men were executed by their own compatriots for offenses such as desertion or cowardice.
During the winter, Finland can feel like a quiet and lonely place—but perhaps an unexpected visit to the country’s places of summer amusement could brighten the mood?
Markus Andersen doggedly pursues great images on the streets of his home in Sydney, Australia. The city has become his canvas—he calls it the “belly of the beast.”
Like probing x-rays of the porcelain features and perfectly PhotoShopped tones of the fashion world, these behind-the-scenes photos offer an insider’s glimpse to the “industry of desire.”
See our full-screen slideshow featuring 38 of our favorite picks from the jury’s shortlist.
On the border between East and West, Europe and Asia, Catholicism and Orthodoxy—these portraits from an almost forgotten village in Estonia offer a window into the past, into a culture that has all but vanished.
“The war stories I know don’t usually have a hero, or even a good guy.” Soldier-turned-photographer Ben Brody spent several years embedded in Afghanistan, producing this complex, haunting series, which lays bare the existential folly of America’s decade-long involvement.
In our first seconds of life, we are screaming, bloody and primitive. And yet, as these portraits show, there is a deep vitality in this unvarnished, originary state.
Every springtime, off the coast of southern Spain, fishermen gather to catch the bluefin tuna—the fiercest and most dangerous variety—using the ancient practice of “Almadraba.”
While documenting the harsh living conditions of the thousands of African immigrants that work in Italy picking tomatoes, the photographer was confronted by the workers, who demanded dignity — “I am not what I look like” — transforming these pictures into a universal, conceptual exploration of identity.
An uplifting, beautiful reflection on life in the Mississippi Delta—a land where traces of the unwavering human spirit can be found around every corner and are etched on every face.
Despite the profusion of media attention, many people who give tireless and decisive contributions to the Carnival receive very little acknowledgment and no accolades—this series sheds light on all those people who make the party possible.
The people of Detroit are troubled, struggling, and coping with the harsh reality of living in a post-industrial city that has fallen on the hardest of times—but they are also surviving and occasionally thriving, unbroken by circumstances.
In Rio de Janeiro, sports are life—and life is not a spectator sport. As these dizzying (and staged) aerial photographs show, athletics find their way into every nook and cranny of the urban fabric.- During 9 months on the road across Latin America, this photographer captured unrepeatable and unpredictable moments of human existence—all the through intuitive and aesthetic prism of her own worldview.
In many corners of the world, Russian president Vladimir Putin is reviled, feared, lampooned—but for a group of young people in Russia, Putin is their idol, their daddy, their perfect husband. Meet the members of Fan Club Putin.
In the only Maoist village in China, the housing and electricity are free, the healthcare is provided—but underneath the harmonious, untroubled surface lies a deep uneasiness about the projected image of perfection.
During Romania’s transition from Communism to capitalism, the once mighty rural industrial centers fell silent. Today, they struggle to find purpose and direction in a swiftly changing world.
Although the daily activities of Occupy Wall Street have faded from the headlines, the spirit of the movement lives on in today’s anti-austerity parties and in tomorrow’s fight against inequality—these photos reveal some iconic moments from OWS’ beginnings.
A bold show at London’s premier modern art museum examines our visual understanding of war from a novel angle—photographs of conflict arranged according to how long after the event they were created.
America in the late 60s and early 70s was an America full of fear and full of hope—a country at its worst and at its best and for all the difficulties, it was an America we should not forget.
These photos are about claiming graspable, heightened moments, when life opens up, time expands and some essential truth is revealed—an exercise in living in the wonder of now.
Given the wide open theme of “evidence,” these six award-winning photographers produced fascinating, varied work—see our editors’ picks here.
See the winning photos for 2015, and read statements by the jury — a powerful year for news stories!
In the summertime, Lithuanians of all sorts descend on the beachside resort of Palanga—the results range from the comic to the surprising to the just plain weird.
Although our modern world can feel like its getting more chaotic, changing faster and faster, there can be something comforting in the figure of a father or the rhythm of a farmer’s life.
In the heart of Mexico City lies Tepito, the “Barrio Bravo,” where you can just as easily find tomorrow’s new movie releases (on pirated DVDs) to an AK-47—along with an indomitable spirit and a fiercely traditional defiance to anything coming from the outside.
A photograph is a photograph and a dance is a dance: yet this inventive exhibition in Amsterdam highlights the many intersections between the two art forms — as well as choreography, video, film and music— revealing deep and stirring fundamental connections!
150 years ago, refugees from Silesia (a Polish, German, Czech region) found a home in Texas. More recently, two Poles went looking for these lost ancestors to see what remained.
Drawing from a collection of over 250,000 images, this wonderfully rich and varied exhibition makes clear how the versatility, imagination and innovation that fuels today’s photography have been present in the art form since its birth.
Over the past decade, Mongolia has become one of the fastest-growing economies in the world—the result is a dizzying mix of new money, rapid urban development and a total reconfiguration of a centuries-long nomadic lifestyle.
Months after the summer conflict between Hamas and Israel, Q. Sakamaki created these hard-hitting portraits of Gaza Strip residents posing in front of their bombed out homes. Affecting work, with a powerful presentation and text.
Deep in the California desert, a strange breed of rugged, solitary individuals carry on an unusual way of life—but in their empty surroundings, they see Paradise.
There is so much beauty in our everyday and by “beauty” I do not speak of conventional beauty, but actually: harmony, truthfulness and that which is telling.
An award-winning photobook, The Pigs echoes the design and form of “The Economist” to deliver photoessays of real situations in four countries suffering in economic crisis in the EU: Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain — referred to by the financial press with the disparaging acronym PIGS.
British photographer Hannah Guy combines imagination, still images, animation, and platinum prints, to help us get to know some trees from 360 degrees.
Real weddings in Campania, Italy are choreographed and produced to look as lavish and over-the-top as an Italian soap operas or American reality TV. Stefano De Luigi’s photo series captures the wedding fantasy industry in action.
The story of a break-up and of the unaccepted loneliness that followed. About going back to the same places and finding memories that can’t be forgetten.
Sharon Schoen presents a lighter side of Africa, with global fashions and hip-hop culture.