Photography has always been Alicia Paley’s favorite form of self-expression. Over the years, her relationship with the medium has evolved, from developing black and white prints in the darkroom during the 1980s, to shooting color film with a point-and-shoot in the 1990s, transitioning to digital photography in the 2000s, and ultimately returning to film in recent years. In 2019, she received a medium format film camera that reignited her passion for analog photography. A few years later, she launched a personal project: taking one film photo every day for an entire year. Her images often capture the quiet beauty of everyday life, revealing the extraordinary in the ordinary. Carrying a camera daily became second nature, and she is now in her second year of the project. In September 2024,...
My first experience with photography came at age eight when my parents bought me a cheap “toy” film camera to play around with. In high school I enrolled in a photography class and I have had a camera by my side ever since. During my thirty-six years as a practicing dentist, I used a camera on a daily basis to document patient conditions and treatment outcomes. Starting in dental school, with a 35mm film camera and a bellows attachment, the technology progressed to a series of DSLRs with macro lenses and specialized flash set-ups. On weekends and vacations, those same DSLRs became my creative outlet. Since retiring from dentistry in 2019, I have devoted the bulk of my free time to artistic expression through photography. Statement My photography is all over the board ranging...
Stephen Rauch is a photographer whose work explores themes of place, memory, and shared humanity. Early experiences—spending hours with National Geographic magazines and traveling across the U.S. on family road trips—instilled a deep curiosity about the world and its diverse cultures. That curiosity matured during work-related travel, when Stephen Rauch first picked up a camera to document encounters across Europe and Asia. What began as a way to capture personal memories has evolved into a deliberate and thoughtful practice. Today, Stephen Rauch creates photographic series rooted in specific themes or geographies, seeking to evoke the quiet beauty of a moment and the emotional resonance of a place or person. The images aim not only to document but to connect—inviting viewers to...
My name is Cristiano Bartoli, I am 54 years old, and photography has been a passion of mine for many years — especially street photography. I have attended courses and seminars, always eager to learn from the masters of the craft. What drives me is the same pursuit every time: to transform an ordinary moment into an extraordinary image. I have never truly achieved it, yet along the way I have often been moved and touched, even in the simple act of searching. Artist Statement : My photographic research stems from the need to observe and narrate everyday life. I am drawn to what often goes unnoticed: a gesture, a detail, a geometry taking shape within the urban space. For me, street photography is a tool of exploration and wonder: I seek to transform ordinary moments into...
Takayuki Nakamura is a photographer from Japan with a background in modern art history. He earned his master’s degree in the field at a Japanese graduate school, where he completed a thesis on the theme of “War and Art.” During his studies, he discovered the Naniwa Photo Club, Japan’s oldest photography organization founded in 1903, and soon became a member. Though largely self-taught in photographic technique, his artistic vision was deeply shaped by the legacy of the club’s pioneering figures, including Nakaji Yasui, Kiyoshi Koishi, and Yoho Tsuda. Much of his photographic work is dedicated to Japanese culture, capturing subjects such as ikebana, traditional performing arts, craft artists, and the artistry of the kimono. For more than 15 years, however, he wrestled...
Jingyi Zhang is a New York– and Beijing-based artist who earned her M.A. in Film and Media Studies (Emergent Media track) from Columbia University. Her practice spans photography, moving images, and interactive design, with a particular focus on metaphors embedded in natural objects. Her work has been exhibited internationally in the United States, China, Japan, and Brazil, at venues including Yachang Art Center, Yan Art Gallery, Moon Gallery & Studio, Brooklyn Art Cave, The Peripheral Experiment, and Flowing Space Gallery. Zhang has received multiple honors, including the Young Talent Award at the 5th International Photo Festival Olten (IPFO), Photoville4600,shortlisted for the Visual Art Open 2025 (VAO), the Third Place in the All About Photo Contest and AAP Magazine #50...
Liz Obert is a lens-based artist based in the Pacific Northwest. Her current work is a reflection on mortality and the human condition, along with our culture’s obsession with materialism. It expresses the transience of our existence through our shared experiences with food through imagery inspired by Dutch’s paintings. She has a BFA from the College of Santa Fe and an MFA from Washington State University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with showcases in Spain, France, and Hungary. Her work has been published in outlets including The Missouri Review, Slate, The Huffington Post, and others. Modern Vanitas In my series Modern Vanitas, I draw upon the paintings of 17th-century artists in the Netherlands who created still-lifes often referred to as...
Costanza Rossi is an Italian-born documentary and travel photographer whose work explores remote and indigenous communities around the world. Dividing her time between Italy, the UK, and extended travels, she has developed a practice rooted in cultural storytelling and human connection. Her photographs are the result of immersive fieldwork in some of the most isolated places on earth, from the nomadic herders of northern Mongolia to the tribes of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia, the Amazon rainforest, or the Darién Gap. Costanza’s work has appeared in both solo and collective exhibitions, with venues such as the History Museum of Salento and the Paris Imagination Gallery. She is the co-author of I mondi nascosti dei popoli Surma (Pensa Editore, 2025) and the editor and curator of the...
Born in Shanghai, Yusheng Jiang was deeply captivated by the allure of photography from a young age. His father, a photojournalist from the 1990s, left him with precious visual records, igniting his profound interest in photography, especially the transformation of cities and the vibrant rhythms within. Yusheng's academic journey began at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, where he majored in photography and uniquely explored human desires through 3D software. Subsequently, he pursued his MFA at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, specializing in photography, video, and related media. He further expanded his artistic horizons there, particularly delving deep into the relationship between cities and their inhabitants through interdisciplinary studies. To Yusheng,...
Jana Šantavá is a visual artist and fine art photographer based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Her work explores themes of introspection, identity, and the space between reality and dream, often through staged, cinematic imagery that invites the viewer into layered narratives. Using mirrors, duplicated figures, and subtle surreal elements, she creates photographs that function as both visual poetry and metaphorical self-portraits of the human psyche. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally in cities such as Paris, Milan, New York, Venice, Arles, Budapest, and Athens, as well as across Slovakia. She has received multiple awards, including the Gold Medal at the Budapest International Foto Awards 2023, Silver at the World Photo Annual 2023, and recognition from PX3 de la...
