Modern Photographers / U

This photo project presents a series of photographs about provincial Russia, executed in the style of classical realism. It reveals the everyday life of ordinary people living in small towns and villages.

Living on a semi-rural, heavily forested island, I experience each season intimately without the filter of modern urban life. Every day is a unit of time measured in the changing character of light, reminding me it is good to be alive. Winter is full of mysteries tucked away in the woods —places that inspire the telling of fairy tales.

Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas has unveiled the results of his year-long camera trap project deep in the Congo rainforest, revealing some of the region’s most elusive species in breathtaking detail. Over 12 months, remotely operated cameras recorded secretive rainforest inhabitants, including golden cats, red river hogs, water chevrotains, and a spectacular male leopard—one of the most challenging predators to photograph in dense jungle environments.

Once the shantytown on the hills was bulldozed, an apartment complex bearing the name of a prosperous town took its place. Driven by the fear of losing out on an opportunity, and despite the premium attached to being close to a flashy neighborhood across the river, I ended up purchasing a unit. While this numbered, rectangular space—built in the air—legally belongs to me, I can’t shake the anxiety. Even though I’ve just bought it, the thought of selling it already gives me a headache.

As a woman in my seventies, I've witnessed the rapid growth of an anti-ageing culture that constantly encourages women like me to be ashamed of our ageing bodies. This culture, heavily promoted in women's magazines and on social media, has escalated over the years, making it increasingly difficult for women to ignore as they age. By encouraging anti-ageing and a youth-focused culture, sexism and ageism against older women become more powerful.

I'd like to share a series of images that I began capturing in the winter of 2020 during the pandemic. With the unexpected free time brought on by the coronavirus, I started taking long walks along the Mississippi River. I was captivated by the ice formations along the riverbanks. Soon my camera joined me on these cold walks.

As Winter arrives on Cape Cod, trees become bare and beautiful in their various forms. At first glance they are just leafless totems, but on closer inspection they are so much more. The twists and turns of branches are almost human-like in form. I see dancers, phantom shapes and everything in between. My imagination takes hold and I riff on their beauty by mirroring, repeating and enhancing their mysterious winter forms into meditative, Mandala-like images. Sometimes a tree is not just a tree.

It was to study at university that I first came to İstanbul. I was very excited that I was going to discover the strangeness, chaos, and anarchy of Istanbul, which doesn’t fit into any classification or discipline. Wandering around the historical peninsula, the place that most reflects the melancholic spirit of the city stuck between the West and the East, caught between the past and the present was my greatest pleasure.

I first visited Cuba in 2013 and have been there many times since. The focus of all my trips there has been street photography, and my experiences on the island have been intense, illuminating, creatively gratifying, sometimes heartbreaking, and often deeply moving.