║ Marysa Dowling ║

© Marysa Dowling, Portrait 028, Ireland, from the series The Dowling Study, Parts 1-7, 2005-07

© Marysa Dowling, Portrait 03, Stockport, UK, from the series The Dowling Study, Parts 1-7, 2005-07

“This collaborative family study spans four generations (involving all 32 blood related members of the family) and three countries, the UK, Ireland and the USA. It aims to memorialise the family through sets of images, as well as to explore the role photography has at every level to define, group, classify and individualise us. The series looks at our sense of self, migration, family history and memory, with particular regard to the relationship between photographer / subject / audience.

The images vary from personal portraits to pseudo-forensic and pseudo-anthropological documents. Each person is photographed in the same way, regardless of age or place. The Dowling Study investigates not only the nature of a family group but also my own sense of self, place, belonging and heritage.

Within such a group the use of photography helps to create emotional links, form a group identity (both fictional and real), highlight loss within the family unit, record genealogy, suspend familial events, and expose cultural, emotional and social parallels and contradictions.

Finally, the project highlights the ways in which individuals represent themselves within the family group, both privately and publicly, and perceive the self and others.”

To see more of Marysa’s work click here

║ Simone Bergantini ║

© Simone Bergantini, Untitled, from the series Seminario sull’infanzia

© Simone Bergantini, Untitled, from the series Seminario sull’infanzia

To see more of Simone’s work click here

║ Ally Birch-Probyn & Anni Skilton ║

© Ally Birch-Probyn & Anni Skilton, Untitled #19, from the series Partners in Grime

© Ally Birch-Probyn & Anni Skilton, Untitled #21, from the series Partners in Grime

“We have been rummaging through skips for some time now and have established this lens based project from our findings. The contents of each interesting skip becomes the backdrop of our images. What we find in these skips also inspires us to create a character that interacts with the discarded objects. Our characters are individual to all the different skips we use. We are attempting to address important environmental and ecological issues through our images. By choosing this subject matter we illustrate exactly what people discard, often depicting our throw away mentality. Due to the items being, frequently, in good condition, we began to ask ourselves whether we should all think more about recycling and re-using rather than throwing away and filling up the world’s landfills. We don’t want to preach…it’s just a thought.”

To see more of Ally and Anni’s  work click here

║ Susanne Junker ║

© Susanne Junker, The Perfect Woman Is A Lie, from the series Woman, 2006

© Susanne Junker, The Perfect Woman Is No Lie #1, from the series Woman, 2006

© Susanne Junker, The Perfect Woman Is No Lie #3, from the series Woman, 2006

Photographiée par les plus importants photographes de mode elle fera les couvertures du ELLE et autres grands magazines de mode.
En 1999 elle décide de tout arrêter pour se réapproprier son image en se photographiant par morceaux choisis.
Son travail apparaît alors comme une quête identitaire avant de projeter son regard sur le monde. Son passage obligé au plus proche de son quotidien de jeune femme naissante donne lieux à toute une série d’autoportraits crus réalisés entre 1999 et 2001 et qui feront partis du groupe d’œuvres appelé « Stage Back » en contradiction affirmée avec le diktat des studios de mode.
Suivra un premier positionnement engagé et dénonciateur avec « FIGURE FOR THE BASE OF A CRUCIFICTION » qui amorce une réflexion sur l’acceptabilité de la position de la femme contemporaine telle qu’elle est vécue aujourd’hui avec ses repères imposés qui aboutit à la récente phase de son travail,
« THE PERFECT WOMAN IS A LIE ».”

Source: Acte2Galerie

To see more of Susanne’s work click here

║ Aneta Grzeszykowska ║

© Aneta Grzeszykowska, Untitled #21, from the series Untitled Film Stills, 2006

© Aneta Grzeszykowska, Untitled #30, from the series Untitled Film Stills, 2006

“A precise, and truly Warsaw, remake of Cindy Sherman’s seventies classic “Untitled Film Stills” starring Aneta Grzeszykowska. In contrast to the original, Grzeszykowska’s photographs are in color. The initial composition and makeup has been strictly observed, while the props, clothes and setting has been chosen by the artist according to the modern standards and local possibilities. The restaging of all 70 photographs took one year. The role-play has reached its peak – effacing her own personality yet another time, Grzeszykowska returns it to Cindy Sherman, and at the same time imitates the both American artist and her fictitious film personifications.”

Source: Raster Gallery

To see more of Aneta’s work click here

║ GiesenLeenders ║

© Maurits Giesen & Ilse Leenders, Untitled #2, from the series Mimicry, 2003

© Maurits Giesen & Ilse Leenders, Untitled #3, from the series Mimicry, 2003

To see more of GiesenLeenders’ work click here

║ Ilse Leenders ║

© Ilse Leenders, Untitled #1, from the series Absorbent Absurdness

© Ilse Leenders, Untitled #3, from the series Absorbent Absurdness

To see more of Ilse’s work click here

║ Andreas Weinand ║

© Andreas Weinand, Julia und André, from the series Finding Oneself, 1990

© Andreas Weinand, Gero und Olli, from the series Finding Oneself, 1989

© Andreas Weinand, Anna und Gero, from the series Finding Oneself, 1990

“While reflecting on my own youth, the cycle Finding Oneself developed from 1988 – 1990 in Essen. The philosophy of life held by the people I photographed during this time reminded me in a way of my own philosophy as a young person in the ’70s, that of not seeing in society a chance for one`s future. The protest of not conforming to society`s conventions, as they were at that time, is an issue I felt also existed amongst the people I met while photographing Finding Oneself.

But as this work developed, I became aware of my own subjective interpretation of the situation; I could no longer compare the lifestyle of those represented in Finding Oneself with that of my own youth. Rather, I recognized that I looked at their lifestyle with the eyes of an adult. My youth had been more than 10 years prior. Out of this tension between sympathy and distance I developed my photographic message.

Both works deal with the question of the identity of the individual within a community. The people in both groups are looking for social contacts. They develop habits and demonstrate their outlook on life. One can say that the individuals and families from Deutsche Volksfeste adhere to a set of rules created for them by previous generations and help to convey those rules0 and codes of behaviour to future generations. Simply said, the people from Finding Oneself oppose the principles and manners given to them by their upbringing. They create a way of living that demonstrates their rejection of social values. In living out this rejection, they create other rules and codes of behaviour.”

Andreas Weinand

To see more of Andreas’ work click here

║ Nicholas Prior ║

© Nicholas Prior, Untitled #44, from the series Age of Man, 2003

© Nicholas Prior, Untitled #30, from the series Age of Man, 2003

“This project explores the subject of childhood as a social construction. It is influenced by Freud’s writting  on The Uncanny and the idea that an adult can not look back on childhood as a child, which implies an impenetrable and mysterious chasm between adults and children.”

Nicholas Prior

To see more of Nicholas’ work click here

║ Nadja Bournonville ║

© Nadja Bournonville, Untitled #3, from the series Amor Omnia Vincit

© Nadja Bournonville, Untitled #20, from the series Amor Omnia Vincit

© Nadja Bournonville, Untitled #19, from the series Amor Omnia Vincit

© Nadja Bournonville, Untitled #15, from the series Amor Omnia Vincit

“The study of personality presents many beautiful ambiguities as it opens up a limitless landscape of interpretative possibilities. For example, are there a finite number of stable enduring monolithic building blocks of personality in the neurological connections of our brain, identified as traits and constituted by our genetic inheritance, that predict our behaviour regardless of situation? Or are we individually so unique, so phenomenologically idiosyncratic, that to understand personality we have to explore subjective experiences? If so, are all attempts at population generalisation through psychometric gymnastics essentially futile? Maybe it makes no sense to think of personality residing within the mind at all but rather personality is constructed in the language that we use on a day-to-day basis. Alternatively, is the driving force of personality the universal unconscious urges and motivations of existence that if realised unambiguously lead to the annihilation of the human race? These are just four well evidenced, highly respected and sometimes controversial approaches to personality and they produce infinite options when searching for explanations of behaviour. While ambiguity has a controversial place within modern psychological theory, not least because one important goal of work in this area is to produce solutions, alleviate suffering and ameliorate pain and distress, ambiguity is celebrated within aesthetic epistemologies and here beauty is also constructed along an infinite number of ambiguous dimensions.

Bournonville, like a psychologist, presents constructions of personality. Not complete comprehensive structures, but rather she opens multiple seams, narrow and endlessly deep; multiple seams of fundamental personality dilemmas. These dilemmas are interrogated and problematised in such away that we are invited to explore our feelings in response to these elemental questions. Whether these feelings are conscious or not there is no escape from the Faustian Gretchenfrage provoked by the images. An obscured face looking upwards towards a symbolically and complexly textured background. Curtains opening and possibly beckoning us to trust our uncertain feelings of attraction and begin a journey, a drama, where passion, trust and hope have significant roles to play(…)”

Raymond MacDonal (to read the full text click here)

To see more of Nadja’s work click here

║ Jöern Lies ║

© Jöern Lies, Untitled #2, from the series In den Wäldern, 2006/08

© Jöern Lies, Untitled #3, from the series In den Wäldern, 2006/08

To see more of Jöern’s work click here

║ Carmela Garcia ║

© Carmela Garcia, Untitled, from the series Paradises, 2003

© Carmela Garcia, Untitled, from the series Paradises, 2000

“The photograph’s eroticism is not always lesbian yet it obviously belongs to that space among women. Carmela Garcia’s work neither touches on nor focuses on this theme directly, though it does convey discernment to it, questioning and challenging it. Garcia’s work has no political agenda or biographical and existential intentions. Though it could be argued that the subjects of her photographs draw on and involve discourses related to questions of identity and gender, her fictions and fantasies always unfold as representations of desire and pleasure rather than documentary, evidential artifacts or ideological projections. Formally rigorous, perceptive, sceptical of grandiose statement and yet always beautiful, suggestive and often mysterious, Carmela Garcia’s work convey a progressive exploration of the ‘woman’s’ world.

The photographic language of Carmela Garcia expends the borders of photographic practice when it shakes the dust of the knowing smile of the viewer and reminds us that the photograph is an artistic scheme, fictional and not a representation of reality. The work is a narrative, a poetic construct. The images that Carmela Garcia presents us contain a story of the possible that exist only in the work itself.”

Source: Chelouche Gallery

To see more of Carmela’s work click here

║ Adi Nes ║

© Adi Nes, Hagar, from the series Bible, 2006

© Adi Nes, Untitled, from the series Soldiers, 2000

© Adi Nes, Untitled, from the series Soldiers, 1998

“Staged photography, the style which I’ve adopted, demands complex production and exacting direction, if for no other reason than a great deal of money and energy are poured into it. This is a style that, actually, developed when photography was invented. Later, people like Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson and others brought staged photography to a certain level of artistic perfection. Some view photographers as “hunters” who go out into the streets with their 35mm cameras and zoom lenses in an attempt to “catch” some situation. I work a little differently, perhaps more like “gleaner”. The sources of images I build, the world in which I travel, they are like snapshots for me: personal memories, experiences, impressions of body language or some texture that fascinates me. Frequently I’m aided by documentary photographs by others – whether taken by professionals or amateurs. From tidbits I collect here and there I weave my ideas for a picture and transform them into physical sketches that give me a common language with other production people like those involved with makeup and lighting. With the aid of the camera I bring back the image that has been built from different sources so it becomes a new picture, which tells a story and is part of a series of images which I create. Now that I have the privilege to stage a shot and not rely merely on what reality presents, I can be more picky about the quality of the lighting and the picture, the staging, location and costumes – which are, in a sense, the artist/photographer’s palette. This type of photography fits someone who is, essentially, a control freak. I feel I also have this perfectionist side and desire to control everything down to the smallest detail. For many years I earned a living working in the television and film industry and suspect that much of what I learned in these fields sunk-in to my consciousness and influenced my style of working as a stills photographer. One who looks at my photographs clearly knows they’re staged, yet the experience is akin to entering a movie theater when the lights are dimmed: for a moment you may believe the images that tell a story which is entirely allegorical, a story which may be about you.”

Adi Nes (part of an interview by Jess Dugan which can be read here)

To see more of Adi’s work click here

║ Yuval Yairi ║

© Yuval Yairi, from the series Forevermore

© Yuval Yairi, from the series Forevermore

“Yuval Yairi’s (b. 1961) body of photographs, Forevermore, focuses on the Hansen Hospital in Jerusalem, the abode of Hansen’s disease patients, an illness which had erroneously been identified with biblical leprosy. Originally called Jesus Hilfe, the hospital was founded in 1887 by Protestant missionaries from Germany on a remote hillside, nowadays the Talabiya neighborhood. The massive stone building was designed by architect and researcher of Jerusalem, Conrad Schick (1822-1901). It represents late 19th-century Jerusalem architecture, combining European and Middle Eastern styles. The structure contains evidence of the social and political transformations the city has undergone in the past century. A small part of the compound now serves as an outpatient clinic for treatment of the disease, while most of it stands unused; some of the rooms remain as left by the last patients and staff to inhabit them.
(…)
Yairi photographs the leper house with a digital video camera in still mode, constructing the image from hundreds (at times thousands) of frames. The pictures are taken in the course of several hours, during which the artist slowly and accurately documents every detail in the space from a single position, like the viewer’s observation movement upon entering the space. He selects details, which he then combines into a final unified photographic image containing a wealth of information, one that no single still photograph can contain. Thus, in fact, Yairi overcomes the temporal and spatial limitations of conventional photography.
(…)
Yairi’s works, mainly interiors, deconstruct the cohesive space swiftly captured by the eye and the camera. He juxtaposes one image with another, frame with frame, so that the spaces which are mostly small (a room or a section thereof) appear wide and outspread as in David Hockney’s 1980s works, and especially the Grand Canyon series. Hockney creates a photo-collage comprised of a large number of individual photographs laid side by side, so that the landscape reflected in them is panoramic, wide-angled, containing several concurrent viewpoints and perspectives. Hockney thus transforms the landscape and the frozen photograph into something dynamic that conveys the experience of the monumental scope. Yairi, on the other hand, opts, from the outset, for an intimate, domestic space which he deconstructs into hundreds and thousands of images, so that the viewer loses the sense of the small space. Via deconstruction and reconstruction, both artists attempt to address the experience of the space, to photograph the unphotographable and trace the viewer’s movement in the space.”

Raz Samira (To read full article click here)

To see more of Yuval’s work click here

║ Juan Carlos Alom ║

© Juan Carlos Alom, Untitled, from the series Cotton House

© Juan Carlos Alom, Untitled, from the series Cotton House

To see more of Juan’s work click here