Photographer #303: Sabine Delcour

Sabine Delcour, 1968, France, is a landscape photographer working and living in Paris. With a large-scale camera she makes very clear and sharp photographs. In her series Thoroughfares she photographs marginal areas where nature has to make compromises, places where the landscape can be seen as a story of "human nature". In 2006 she realeased the book Autour de Nous (Around Us), a project that came to life while she was in Japan. She photographed unfinished houses and interviewed the local people creating a soundtrack to her work. The stories and destinies of these people combined with the images of houses under construction create a link and a relationship. The following images come from the series Itsas Lurrak, Thoroughfares and Arounds Us.

Website: www.sabinedelcour.com

Photographer #302: Viktoria Sorochinski

Viktoria Sorochinski, 1979, Ukraine, is a photographer who mixes documentary photography with fiction. She works and lives in New York City and received a BFA at Concordia University in Canada and an MFA at the New York University. Since 2005 she has been photographing a mother and daughter for the series Anna & Eve. The project consists of various substories, changing while the girl and mother are getting older. Even though all the scenes are staged, we see the real relationship between the young mother and daughter evolve. Her images are dreamy, poetic and contain a strong narrative. Viktoria's work has been exhibited and published extensively in recent years. The following images come from the series Anna & Eve, Moments of Revelation and Daddy.

Website: www.viktoriart.com

Photographer #301: Katy Grannan

Katy Grannan, 1969, USA, is a conceptual portrait photographer who lives and works in California. She received a BA at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and an MFA at Yale University in 1999. In her latest series Boulevard she portrayed people at the sidewalks of the Tenderloin District in San Francisco and on Hollywood Boulevard in L.A. With light walls as a backdrop she photographed the inhabitants and passersby in the strong Californian sun. In 2005 she released her monograph Model American which includes portraits of people inside living rooms and bedrooms, but also outside in the woods, by a lake and by rural roads. The people are often in awkward positions creating a mysterious narrative. Katy has exhibited her work extensively throughout the US and several places in Europe. Her images have been published in numerous magazines and exhibition catalogues. The following images come from the series Boulevard, The Westerns and Mystic Lake.

Website: www.katygrannan.com
For more images: www.fraenkelgallery.com & www.salon94.com

Photographer #300: Lyle Owerko

Lyle Owerko, 1968, Canada, is a portrait and documentary photographer working and living in New York. He studied at the Pratt Institute in NYC. He was the photographer who shot the cover of Time in 2001 of the twin towers on fire on September 11. The happenings he witnessed on September 11th, 2001 have been published as a monograph called And No Birds Sang. The Boombox Project has been released as a book in 2010 for which he has photographed a large amount of vintage boomboxes, taking us back to the 80's. Lyle has traveled extensively for his photography resulting in various projects on the African continent. He works with Human Rights groups documenting cultural groups hoping to contribute to the betterment of the human condition. Owerko also concentrates on film making and commercial work. The following images come from the series The Boombox Project, Radio Simba and The Samburu.

Website: www.owerko.com

Photographer #299: Guillaume Herbaut

Guillaume Herbaut, 1970, France, is a documentary photographer with a vast amount of projects and stories in his portfolio. He has been to the region where the Chernobyl disaster happened in 1986 on many occasions. He covered stories on the aftermath, the ghost town of Pripyat which is located only 3 kilometers from the power plant, the nouveau riche coming to build vacation villa's just 200 meters from the forbidden zone, partying youngsters in the third contaminated zone and many others. He also focused on Hiroshima and Urakami, the Japanese places where the US dropped their atomic bombs. Guillaume has traveled the world to cover often harsh stories, from Chechnya to Mexico and from Georgia to Iran. He has released several books amongst which is La Zone, a sensory journey into the heart of Chernobyl's exclusion zone. The following images come from the series Chernobyl Riviera, Urakami and Russia: The Slavic Union.

Website: www.guillaume-herbaut.com

 

Photographer #298: Dana Lixenberg

Dana Lixenberg, 1964, The Netherlands, lives and works in New York and Amsterdam. She studied photography at the London College of Printing and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She has received commissions from magazines as New York Times Magazine, Newsweek and Vibe among others. Next to her commissioned and editorial work she focuses on long-term projects. She concentrates on humans, often at the margins of society. Dana is capable of stripping down any pretences resulting in pure portraits. Amongst the books she has released is The Last Days of Shishmaref. It explores the intricate relationship between the inhabitants of the island Shishmaref in Alaska and the rough landscape. It shows a community with an uncertain future. Dana works with a 4x5inch camera. In her series United States she portrayed American citizens from various layers within the US population including celebrities as Prince and Leonard Cohen. The following images come from the series The Last Days of Shishmaref, United States and Favela Police.

Website: www.danalixenberg.com

Photographer #297: Eugenio Recuenco

Eugenio Recuenco, 1968, Spain, is a fashion photographer with a unique style and a large and impressive portfolio. His cinematographic and pictorial work is larger than life. Entire sets are build to create his magical and fantastical imagery. The photographs are stylish, visually stunning and his lighting is incredible, often inspired by the great painters of history. Amongst his clients are Diesel, Nina Ricci and L'Oreal. He has also worked with Rammstein and created story-telling images with the German band. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and has been exhibited extensively. It is no surprise that Eugenio also concentrates on film making. The following images come from various shoots.

Website: www.eugeniorecuenco.com

Photographer #296: Guy Aroch

Guy Aroch, 1971, Israel, focuses on fashion, beauty and celebrity photography. In 1988 he moved to New York to persue a career in photography and in 1993 he graduated from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Today he works both in the USA and Europe. He describes his photography as modern pictures with a sexy, dreamy, nostalgic twist. He has worked for major clients including Diesel, Tommy Hilfiger and L'Oreal. His editorial work has appeared in magazines as Vibe, Vogue and GQ magazine. Ashton Kutcher, Christina Ricci and Michael Pitt are amongst the list of celebrities Guy has worked with. His photographs are beautifully lit, strong, sharp yet soft and sometimes magical. The following images come from various shoots.

Website: www.guyaroch.com

Photographer #295: Dimitris Triantafyllou

Dimitris Triantafyllou, 1967, Greece, studied physics and mathematics and even received an MA in Biophysics. He also studied photography at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He works as a freelance photographer and teaches photography at various locations in his hometown in Greece. His photography is dark, gritty and very personal. It focuses on themes of identity, perception and memory. In his series Human Face, Heart of an Animal he questions himself how we look at other human beings and ourselves. By recording the events with his camera he started to create his own world, a world of expression that gave him a chance to comprehend himself. Thru the Looking Glass is a series that questions reality and fantasy. If reality is guided by emotions, memories, thoughts and dreams, maybe reality is fiction itself. He focused on people he knew including their dreams, their worlds and their realities. The following images come from the series Diaries of Ghosts, Thru the Looking Glass and Human Face, Heart of an Animal.

Website: www.dimitristriantafyllou.com

Photographer #294: Dorothée Smith

Dorothée Smith, 1985, France, is a young conceptual photographer who studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure de la Photographie in Arles. Her series Löyly is a sequence of portraits and landscapes. Löyly, Finnish for Steam, is a word that describes the raising of healthy smoke resulting from the transformation of matter; water to steam. This and her reference to Gender Trouble written by Judith Butler have resulted in a series of melancholic images. She photographs people she knows or has some connection with, showing a generation of young men and women who try to have or find an identity that surpasses the standard. They go outside of the borders in who they are as people, but also in their sexual identity. The results are stunning portraits of undetermined or dissolved identities. Dorothée has released three books with blurb. The following images come from the series Löyly, Loon and Spree.

Website: www.dorotheesmith.net

Photographer #293: Aaron Feaver

Aaron Feaver, 1978, USA, is a Los Angeles based fashion photographer. For a long time he was interested in merely the technical aspects of the photographic medium concentrating on landscapes and objects. Recently he started shooting people and hasn't looked back since. He delicately photographs young women in landscapes and interiors. His soft toned, often poetic and in evening sunlight images show the women in a vulnarable yet strong way. Aaron mixes familiar fashion poses and awkward body positions when shooting his sometimes partially clothed or nude females. He is interested in the way people are capable of unique and unpredictable expressions which is why he prefers to use film; due to its unpredictability which he says is partly the same unpredictability he sees in people. The following images come from various portfolios on his website.

Website: www.feaverishphotography.com

Photographer #292: Gonzalo Bénard

Gonzalo Bénard, 1969, Portugal, started his career writing, painting and drawing, but when this was no longer fulfilling to him as a creator, he started with photography. He feels the need to express through his art and create a dialogue on the "oneness" of humans, gender, ritual, sexuality and life. Most of his photography is black and white and contains nude bodies creating a scene of light without distracting colours or clothing. He often uses his own body in his photography. However they are not self-portraits but representations of concepts. He uses the methods of acting to portray inner worries, wonders and his own inner worlds. His work is conceptual and sometimes provocative or ironic. Gonzalo lives and works in Spain. The following images come from the series Oneness 10, Oneness 08 and Photo-Graphic & Metamorphosis.

Website: www.gbenard.com

Photographer #291: Matt Black

Matt Black, 1970, USA, is a socially engaged documentary photographer. He grew up in a small town in California's Central Valley, an agricultural area that is home to some of the poorest communities in the US. In his Dust Stories he photographs the various communities, including indigenous Mexicans and the isolated Hmong population, who have come to Central Valley to work on large and rich farms or try to make a living on their own. However, poverty, unemployment, drug and alcohol addiction, crime and teenage pregnancies are commonplace in these areas. The area produces nearly half of the US supply of fresh food. In Cloud Stories, Matt went to photograph the Mixteca, a mountain range in southern Mexico that is home to four indigenous ethnic groups, living largely isolated, speaking the pre-Colombian languages and often living without electricity and indoor plumbing. These towns have recently (and currently) transformed as the inhabitants are largely migrating to the USA. Matt has received numerous awards and grants for his work. The following images come from the Dust Stories: Oaxacan Exodus and The Black Okies and from the Cloud Stories: The Third Root.

Website: www.mattblack.com

Photographer #290: Diego Levy

Diego Levy, 1973, Argentina, is a documentary photographer. In his series Choques, he photographed crashed cars. His intention was not to sensationalize the crash itself, but to show the violence and intensity of these impacts caused by negligence, lack of driver skills and the lack of respect for life of themselves and others. The cars that become broken sculptures in Buenos Aires function as a metaphor of the widespread violence. The images in his series Sangres, taken in Argentine, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico show gritty scenes of violence. The photographs of injuries and deaths show the reality of what has become almost a daily scenario for the inhabitants of these cities. Sangres was released as a book in 2006. Golpes is a series of portraits accompanied by a video production of old boxers that have given their lives to the sport. The faces show the scars from the beatings, referring to their dark past and the sacrifices they have made. The following images come from the series Choques, Sangres and Golpes.

Website: www.diegolevy.com

Photographer #289: Jacob Felländer

Jacob Felländer, 1974, Sweden, is a landscape photographer working with multiple captures on a single image. With a modified analogue camera he has created a technique that enables him to expose and wind the film one centimeter at a time. Through this process Jacob is able to capture fragments of time, space and perspectives. For his latest project I want to live close to you he traveled to the most densely populated cities in the world. He wanted to capture multiple cities in one frame and as the places started to merge together he grew increasingly fascinated by how close we all live together. Jacob's images seem chaotic, but they create a landscape that is multi dimensional. The series has also been released as a book. Since 2003 he has traveled extensively for his photography. The following images come from the series I want to live close to you, Nownownow and Stand Still. 

Website: www.jacobfellander.com

Photographer #288: Anna Skladmann

Anna Skladmann, 1986, Germany, is a young documentary photographer who lives and works between New York and Moscow. She focused on several projects in Russia. Recently her book Little Adults was released, a collection of portraits of priviliged children in Russia. These Russian kids belong to the "nouveau riche" and grow up surrounded by money. They are considered to become the next elite class of the post-communist country, putting pressure on them to become achievers. In a country where the gap between rich and poor is so large, it starts to raise questions about the notion of normality. Anna photographed the children that behave like little adults in their own surroundings and clothes. The following images come from her personal series Little Adults, Sochi and Portraits.

Website: www.annaskladmann.com

Photographer #287: Jesse Burke

Jesse Burke, 1972, USA, is a conceptual photographer who received a BFA in photography at the University of Arizona and an MFA at the Rhode Island school of Design. In 2008 he released Intertidal, a monograph in which Burke explores the complexity of the masculine identity. In a poetic manner, Jesse shows the various facets of man, strong, vulnarable, insecure and emotional. In 2009 he self-published the book Low. For this series he photographed people living on the streets. The portraits, combined with images of plants, show the men with a bare chest against a pitch-black background. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and several places in Europe. The following images come from his portfolios Intertidal 1, Intertidal 2 and Low.

Website: www.jesseburke.com