║ Carrie Will ║

© Carrie Will, from the series I Am Redundant

© Carrie Will, Rikki and Carrie, Fire Island, from the series I Am Redundant

“I am redundant, half of a whole, a freak, identical and lucky. The relationship I have with my twin sister is tightly woven, beautifully strange and difficult to explain. This has led me to explore a visual language that articulates the intimacy and the oddity of being a twin.  Having been subjected to stares and double takes my whole life, I use photography to exaggerate the gaze of others and to illustrate the interconnectedness of our identity.  It is difficult to see yourself as an individual when no one else does. My photographs aim at grasping the idea that I am one person as well as two and discovering what that looks like.”

To see more of Carrie’s work click here

║ Michal Grochowiak ║

© Michal Grochowiak, Untitled #3, from the series Silence, 2007

© Michal Grochowiak, Untitled #7, from the series Silence, 2007

To see more of Micha’s work click here

║ Gregory Halpern ║

© Gregory Halpern, Untitled, from the series Thin on the Ground, 2003-present

© Gregory Halpern, Untitled, from the series Thin on the Ground, 2003-present

To see more of Gregory’s work click here

║ Shadi Ghadirian ║

 © Shadi Ghadirian, Domestic Life #4, from the series Like Every Day (Domestic Life), 2002

 © Shadi Ghadirian, Domestic Life #7, from the series Like Every Day (Domestic Life), 2002

© Shadi Ghadirian, Domestic Life #13, from the series Like Every Day (Domestic Life), 2002

“Ghadirian made her Like Every Day Series after her marriage to fellow photographer, Peyman Hooshmand-zadeh. In this body of work, Ghadirian comments upon the daily repetitive routine to which many women find themselves consigned and by which many women are defined. Each of these color photographs depicts a figure draped in patterned fabric in place of the typical Iranian chador. However, instead of a face, each figure has a common household item such as an iron, a tea cup, a broom, a pot or a pan.”

source: aeroplastics

To see more of Shadi’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

║ Javier Marquerie Thomas ║

© Javier Marquerie Thomas, Beltrán, from the series Flight of Fancy, 2007

© Javier Marquerie Thomas, Vivian, from the series Flight of Fancy, 2007

“Flight of Fancy; to daydream.

Between the impetus of infancy and the inertia of maturity. “The best years of our lives”. Years envied, idealized, over rated. An extensive cloud of anecdotes. An accumulation of memories without a clear continuity. In retrospect, a “phase”. During puberty, we are conditioned to successfully confront the “real world”, but instead we live in a disoriented fantasy; hybrid between something that really has been and a tale.

My mother tongue, apart from Spanish, is English which lead me to being an English teacher. A few years back one of my classes was with two businessmen. We had one-hour classes, twice a week. I was twenty, they were sixty; married, with children and one of them with grandchildren. I was going home to a mattress on the floor and pending bills to pay. The irony of this all seemed somewhat funny, mostly however, it saddened me. Not because of the mattress, this I liked, but because of the realisation that I was now a grown-up. From one day to the next that desire for maturity had turned into something tangible and the image I sought of my self was no longer so pleasant to carry.

Flight of Fancy is a catalogue of characters, fictions conceived as sociological documents of a transformation period. After that leap towards utopia: that is adolescence, we land by inertia into a scripted role, only to find a fiction completely alien to out smattering of adulthood.

Inevitably, in the current, we remain.”

Javier Marquerie Thomas

To see more of Javier’s work click here

║ Valerie Schmidt ║

© Valerie Schmidt, Untitled #3, from the series Eventualities

© Valerie Schmidt, Untitled #15, from the series Eventualities

To see more of Valerie’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

║ Katarina Radovic ║

© Katarina Radovic, Untitled #7, from the series Women, 2004/05

© Katarina Radovic, Untitled #17, from the series Women, 2004/05

“In this series of (self-) portraits I am presenting imaginary types of women that I find attractive, according to a somewhat twisted taste.
These fictive female characters are parodies of the values imposed by society and culture but, within the stereotypical systems of representation, then eventually reveal their “faces”, expressing their unique fantasies and madness.
(…)
“Women” are not just the result of exploring the possibilities of emancipation in a society marked by gender differences; they are fabrications of everyday life, an endless obsession with seduction, hiding and showing, and with the permanent questioning of the essence of feminine principle in a perverse space of a benign irony.”

Katarina Radovic

To see more of Katarina’s 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

║ Anoush Abrar ║

© Anoush Abrar, Catherine, from the series Californication, 2003

© Anoush Abrar, Marianna, from the series Californication, 2003

“The film studios, the celebrities, the entertainment capital of the United States- the state of California revolves around the film industry and its success. Projecting an image of fame and fortune, beauty and happiness, Hollywood draws people like a magnet.
I started this photo project in Los Angeles because I wanted to get as close as possible to the young people who flocked to this city seeking fame and fortune. The main idea was to focus on women ? the hopeful starlets and models ? because, as opposed to the men, I felt that they have more opportunities for success through appearances in TV shows, TV advertisements, lingerie campaigns, and erotic calendars.
In a world where maximum media exposure is akin to success and image is everything, any and all television, magazine, cinema, and Internet coverage is important, sought after and in a sense, vital. Running from casting to casting, appearing on shows and getting their photographs taken, these women will stop at nothing to be noticed.
What are they ready to do to achieve their dream? How far will they go to achieve celebrity status? Who are these girls that come from all over the world. What drives them? What do they look like? Through body care, excessive aerobics, gym visits, and even plastic surgery, they try to create the perfect image that caters to the whims and demands of the cinema and star industry.
Following the casting trail, I easily established contact with some of the models I portray in these images and found others by creating a casting call on the Internet.”

Anoush Abrar

To see more of Anoush’s work click here

║ Wilma Hurskainen ║

© Wilma Hurskainen, Untitled, from the series No Name, 2007 -

© Wilma Hurskainen, Untitled, from the series No Name, 2007 -

© Wilma Hurskainen, Untitled, from the series No Name, 2007 -

“In my new series No Name I go further with the themes of childhood and memory. This time childhood and adulthood, like layers, are present in the same photograph. I re-create my memories, some of which are false or invented, and continue the visual representation of these memories by loosely attaching texts to the pictures. By doing this I try to find out and question the means a text and a photograph use to mediate a story(memory. A text seems a lot more straightforward in its narration; and yet it is the photograph that has an indexical relation to the past. The reader/spectator takes a different position towards the text than the photograph. I hope that looking at the series could resemble the actual, complex process of remembering and the constant re-writing of a memoru. At the same time, the texts comment on the photographic representations and the posssibilities of posing for a photograph.”

Wilma Hurskainen

To see ore of Wilma’s work click here

║ Cláudio Balas ║

© Cláudio Balas, Phil & Nicola, 2008

© Cláudio Balas, The Journey, 2009

To see more of Cláudio’s work click here

║ Mário Ambrózio ║

© Mário Ambrózio, Untitled, from the series The Strong Man, 2007/2008

© Mário Ambrózio, Untitled, from the series The Strong Man, 2007/2008

To see more of  Mário’s work click here

║ Anna Rackard ║

© Anna Rackard, Untitled, from the series Farmers

© Anna Rackard, Untitled, from the series Farmers

‘Farmers’ is an exploration of contemporary rural identity in Ireland. Specifically it examines the role of women in farming and their invisibility within the family farm. Women have always been involved in farming in Ireland, usually as a spouse, sister or daughter.

Studies show that despite the process of modernisation rural farming identity is still based on a traditional, patriarchal construct – the visible representation of the family farm is usually of the male farmer who owns the land, is subject to taxation and entitled to social security. Most rural women have no legal or professional status unless they are farm owners. A report published by the NDP Gender Equality Unit in 2002 showed that two-thirds of men owned their farms through inheritance, compared with one twelfth of women.
Despite the level of input a woman (usually a wife) put in on a farm she would more often be classified as ‘farmer’s wife’ instead of ‘farmer’. The women in ‘Farmers’ are not meant to be archetypes, it is not a survey of all women farmers, but it is a sample of some of the people who fall into that category. Some of these women farm with their husbands, others farm with a daughter or a son and some farm on their own. Some of them own their farms jointly with their spouse, some inherited the farm through being widowed and others inherited from a parent or other relative. The point is not how much work an individual woman may contribute to an individual farm but that they do contribute (on a national level) to the farming labour force and that their work, no matter how many or few hours should be recognised as farm work, and the women themselves as farmers.

Anna Rackard

To see more of Anna’s work click here