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Paul Lukin
Paul Lukin
Paul Lukin

Paul Lukin

Country: Croatia
Birth: 1980

Born in the coastal city of Split, Croatia in 1980, Lukin started photographing in 2004 and has been obsessed with the medium ever since.

He works on long-term projects, in pursuit of capturing raw and unfiltered emotions of the human experience, creating photographs that are both beautiful and thought-provoking.

Lukin captures candid real-life fleeting instances in the streets of Bangkok to unveil a dark, mysterious, and dreamlike city. His images often of lonely subjects offer an atmospheric glimpse into a world that depicts a sense of loneliness and isolation.

Through his use of black and white, he is able to distill the essence of his subjects, and oftentimes what he photographs isn’t the subject of the photograph, it’s just a vehicle to get the viewer to think about the subject/story or emotion, while also leaving room to make their own interpretation.

Lukin is a finalist of the Sony World Photography Awards 2018, a finalist of the Siena International Photo Awards 2019, and was shortlisted for the World Press Photo 2019. He was also an invitee artist by the European Cultural Center for the Venice Art Biennale 2019 and 2021. Paul Lukin’s prints are part of several permanent public and private collections.

His work has been exhibited in galleries internationally, his photographs appeared in major publications and media outlets worldwide.

Lukin lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

Websites

paullukin.com

@paul_lukin

 

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More Great Photographers To Discover

Platon (Antoniou)
Platon (Antoniou)
United Kingdom
1968
Born in London in 1968, Platon was raised in the Greek Isles until his family returned to England in the 1970's. He attended St. Martin's School of Art and after receiving his BA with honors in Graphic Design, went on to receive an MA in Photography and Fine Art at the Royal College of Art. After working for British Vogue for several years, he was invited to NY to work for the late John Kennedy Jr. and his political magazine, 'George'. After shooting portraits for a range of international publications including Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and the Sunday Times Magazine, Platon developed a special relationship with Time magazine, producing over 20 covers. In 2007 Platon photographed Russian Premier Vladimir Putin for Time Magazine's Person Of The Year Cover. This image was awarded 1st prize at the World Press Photo Contest. In 2008 he signed a multi-year contract with the New Yorker. As the staff photographer, he has produced a series of large-scale photo essays, two of which won ASME Awards in 2009 and 2010. Platon's New Yorker portfolios have focused on many themes including President Obama's Inauguration, the U.S Military, portraits of world leaders and the Civil Rights Movement. The following year, Platon teamed up with the Human Rights Watch to help them celebrate those who fight for equality and justice in countries suppressed by political forces. These projects have highlighted human rights defenders from Burma as well as the leaders of the Egyptian revolution. Following his coverage of Burma, Platon photographed Aung San Suu Kyi for the cover of Time - days after her release from house arrest. In 2011, Platon was honored with a prestigious Peabody Award for a collaboration on the topic of Russia's Civil Society with The New Yorker Magazine and Human Rights Watch. Platon's first monograph 'Platon's Republic', was published in 2004 by Phaidon Press. To coincide with its publication, the work was exhibited internationally, in London at the ex-Saatchi Gallery as well as the Milk Gallery in New York. His second book, 'Power' - a collection of portraits of over 100 world leaders - was published in 2011 by Chronicle and following its success was selected by Apple to be released as an app. The book includes portraits of Barack Obama, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Dmitry Medvedev, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Abbas, Tony Blair, Robert Mugabe, Silvio Berlusconi, and Muammar Qaddafi. In recent years, public speaking has progressively played a major role in Platon's career as communicator and storyteller. He has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Yale, the London School of Economics, the National Portrait Gallery in London and the International Center of Photography in NY. He has also appeared on a range of television media including Charlie Rose (PBS), Morning Joe (MSNBC), Fareed Zakaria's GPS (CNN) and the BBC World News. Between 2011-2013, Platon's work has been exhibited in galleries both domestically and abroad. He has exhibited in New York at the Matthew Marks Gallery and the Howard Greenberg Gallery, as well as internationally at the Colette Gallery in Paris, France. The New York Historical Society also exhibited a solo show of Platon's Civil Rights photographs, which remain as part of the museum's permanent collection. Other permanent collections holding Platon's photography include The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa, Florida and The Westlicht Museum for Photography in Vienna, Austria. Platon's advertising credits include the United Nations Foundation, Credit Suisse Bank, Exxon Mobil, Diesel, the Wall Street Journal, Motorola, Nike, Converse, Verizon, Vittel, Levi's, IBM, Rolex, Ray-Ban, Tanqueray, Kenneth Cole, Issey Miyake, Moschino, Timex and Bertelsmann among others. Platon lives in New York with his wife, daughter and son. (Source: www.platonphoto.com)
Noell Oszvald
Noell Oszvald
Hungary
1990
Noell Oszvald was born in Hungary in 1990. While preferring to be labeled as a visual artist, Noell Oszvald uses the photographic medium as the raw material through which she channels her emotions. Favoring black and white in order to avoid any distraction that may be created by colors, she strips her images to their bare essence. Her compositions rely on pure straight lines into which the subject fuses, hence rubbing off all hierarchy within the components. The resulting sobriety, reinforced by the choice of a square format, acts as a breeding ground to a complex melange of subtle feelings derived from her melancholy and loneliness. Indeed, while all facial features are deliberately kept hidden, Oszvald’s work could easily fall within the self-portrait category; “they’re reflections of who I am,” says the artist about her images. However, the spectral presence of the character merging with its surroundings, the full-fledged role played by the environment and the powerful sensitivity that exudes through, are closer to the conceptual photography of the similarly precocious Francesca Woodman. Yet, more than her self, Oszvald conveys an apparent yet suspicious sense of calmness, well guarded by a perfectly controlled composition. In addition to the lines dividing space, the impeccable geometric interactions and the sharp contrast between the various shades of black are brought into opposition with the muffled silence of her quiescent emotions. It triggers a delicate duality, which underlies a rich and complex inner world. The reassuring perfection of these images acts like a robust armor to the highly sensitive Oszvald, who despite her young age, proves herself to be an accomplished artist. “My aim is to set up concepts using the human body as a base, while not making it the main focus of the picture. The result is a still image that is built around a person, but all parts of the whole are of equal importance. I reduce my pictures to content, composition, and form because this minimalist approach allows me to put equal emphasis on the idea behind the artwork and the entirety of the image. Portraying a sense of calmness with images that are built up based on geometric shapes is a recurring theme of my work.”Source: Artpil Noell Oszvald only shoots in black and white because she finds colors to be distracting. “I feel the same way about clothes and other matters of appearance, which why I like to reduce my images to forms, composition and content.” When asked what the story is behind one of her photo, Prejudice, Noell Oszald shared this, “I had the idea of Prejudice in my mind for a long time before I finally made it. I was very unsure about it, because I wanted the picture to look absolutely the way it does now, but to achieve this composition I had to paint the bird in, in not exactly the right position. I feared people would pick on me and call me ignorant, because the image is not precise. I was afraid of being judged while working on a picture about prejudice. How ironic.” As you look through Oszvald's beautiful and sometimes haunting images, you can't help but feel a mix of emotions. They all fall in the conceptual photography field, meaning, they illustrate an idea but one that Oszald believes should be personal to the viewer. “I don't want to tell people what to see in my images,” explains Oszland, “this is the reason why I never really write any descriptions other than titles. It shows what I wish to express but everyone is free to figure out what the picture says to them. It's very interesting to read so many different thoughts about the same piece of work.”Source: My Modern Met
Reiko Takahashi
Reiko Takahashi
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Reiko Takahashi is a Professional Japanese underwater photographer. She grew up in a seaside, it was natural to be absorbed in the underwater scenery. In 2017, She quit her full-time job as a semiconductor engineer and started her career as a photographer, shooting the oceans around the world. She has won the 2018 National Geographic Grand Prix and many international Photo awards.
Denis Church
Denis Church
United States
1949
I grew up on an Iowa (USA) farm and drove trucks, tractors, and heavy machinery at a very young age. I loved being out in the weather and open-air fields. One of my earliest memories is riding with my parents when they took a drive to look at area agricultural crops freshly planted and growing in the springtime. These trips inspired my current desire to make car trips to see the world. I studied psychology and sociology in college and was planning a career as a counseling psychologist. These experiences formed my inclination to photograph in public outdoor areas and investigate how the world is “painted and put together”. I acquired a very good expensive camera on a total whim a long time ago, and something radical shifted for me. I left graduate school six credits shy of a master’s degree to pursue the art of photography, which I intuitively felt was my path to truth, instead of the science. I have held many jobs: farm hand, gas station attendant, auto dealer parts manager, car salesman, government employee in two different states, free-lance commercial photographer, real estate investor, landlord, property developer, and photography instructor. Photography has been my main energizing activity for fifty years, for both commercial clients and for myself, pursuing and refining my personal vision of the world. My photographic aesthetic is based on observational street/documentary photography. I currently have several self-assigned documentary projects that I am pursuing. My interest is producing photo-books as a depository for my work, that have availability to future generations. AMERICOLOR - Exploring Urban Color Fields The series or project is a retrospective look at my work from 2007 to 2024. I saw a large exhibition of Color Field painters in early 2024 at The NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A painting by Frank Stella particularly enthralled me and I was puzzled why it had such a strong hold on me. A few days later while I was editing photographs I came across my photograph, Bonita Springs, Florida 2012, and I immediately felt a connection and the reason why the Stella painting was so entrancing. I found that many of my photographs have a similar feel with layered subjects and a planar feel: some more, some less. I decided to edit a group of photographs into a book paying homage to the color field painters, therefore my title, AMERICOLOR: Exploring Urban Color Fields. Recently in 2024, I published this book in collaboration with Palm Beach Atlantic University where I also presented an exhibition of about one third of the 116 photographs in the book.
Victoria Bjorklund
Victoria Bjorklund
United States
Victoria Bjorklund is a photographic & book artist based in Tacoma, Washington. She finds inspiration within the city and seeks to give a narrative in each thoughtfully captured photograph. Victoria is a graduate of the Fine Art Certificate program in Photography from Maine Media College and a graduate of the EDGE program for visual artists through Artist Trust in Seattle. Victoria accepts commissions and is available for commercial and editorial assignments. She is always looking for interesting visual stories to photograph, and welcomes your inquiries. Source: www.victoriabjorklund.com
Patrick Enssle
Patrick Enssle
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Patrick Enssle is a German journalist and photographer specializing in conflict reporting and crisis zones. His passion for visual storytelling was ignited in 1995 after discovering Life Magazine’s 1965 cover story “One Ride With Yankee Papa 13,” featuring Larry Burrows’ haunting photographs from the Vietnam War — an experience that shaped his career path early on. From 2017 to 2024, Patrick served in the German Army’s Press Department, where he received specialized training in photography. In 2019, he began working as a freelance photographer alongside his military role, focusing on major conflict zones, particularly the war in Ukraine. His work is dedicated to documenting war crimes and amplifying the human stories often overlooked amid the chaos of conflict. Blending rigorous field experience with a strong commitment to ethical storytelling, Patrick’s images confront audiences with the raw realities of war while preserving the dignity of those caught in its grasp.
Kyle Everett Smith
Kyle Everett Smith
United States
1991
Kyle Everett Smith is a photographer from Leucadia, California. He is currently studying at Glendale Community College working towards a B.A. in Photography. Smith's work focuses on mundane landscapes of modern environments. He is an avid skateboarder and outdoors enthusiast currently residing in Los Angeles, California.
Alon Goldsmith
Alon Goldsmith
South Africa/United States
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Dubbed “LA’s iPhoneography Wizard” by Forbes magazine, Alon Goldsmith is an award-winning photographer who has been featured extensively across media and exhibited in galleries around the globe. Alon’s achievements include overall winner of the MIRA Mobile Prize in 2022, 3rd place in the Los Angeles Center of Photography’s Street Photography Around the World Competition, winner of Santa Monica College’s Curriculum Cover Contest and runner up in the journalism category in the prestigious Mobile Photography Awards. Alon was a jury member for the 2018 and 2019 MPAs. His work has also been published in Street Photography Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Reader's Digest, the Forward, the Argonaut and the App Whisperer, and has been extensively featured in Snap and Mobiography magazines. In 2020, Alon published In Place | Portraits of a Pandemic, a book documenting people isolating during lockdown. In 2025 he published 366 Days in the Life of an iPhone Wizard featuring a photo taken every day during 2024. ARTIST STATEMENT: I am a photographer and storyteller drawn to the intersections of people, place, and perception. My work explores how we inhabit the world together — how identity, environment, and chance encounters shape our shared experience of being alive. Whether photographing a stranger on a busy street or creating large-scale composite portraits, I seek to reveal the quiet connections that exist beneath the surface of ordinary life. Photography, for me, is an act of attention. It asks me to slow down, to notice, and to honor the presence of others. Much of my work begins in public space — sidewalks, markets, transit stops, festivals — places where humanity unfolds in its most spontaneous and diverse form. I am fascinated by how these encounters, however brief, can become profound when framed through care and curiosity. The camera becomes less a tool of documentation and more a bridge — a means of acknowledging another person’s existence. Over the years, my projects have consistently examined how art can restore connection in a fragmented world. During the pandemic, my series In Place | Portraits of a Pandemic became both archive and lifeline — documenting resilience and loneliness while reaffirming the human capacity for hope. That experience crystallized my belief that photography can serve as a form of care, a way of holding space for others. My current series, Going Places, continues this pursuit on a global scale. Each collage is built from dozens of environmental portraits taken within the same setting — city squares, beaches, villages — then woven together into a single composition. Some subjects engage directly with the camera; others remain absorbed in their own rhythm. The result is a visual chorus that speaks to the tension between individuality and belonging. In expanding this series across continents, I aim to create a planetary portrait — a reflection of how people live, adapt, and coexist within their ecological and cultural environments. Ultimately, I see my practice as a dialogue between seeing and being seen. The work invites viewers to slow their gaze, to recognize themselves in others, and to sense the invisible threads that bind us all. Photography, at its best, is an act of empathy — a quiet reminder that we are, each of us, part of something larger, fragile, and profoundly connected. AAP Magazine: AAP Magazine 52 Street
Marcel Rebro
Marcel Rebro
Slovakia
1968
The first time I smelled developer was in 1985 when I was memeber of National Sport Center (Parachuting) in Lučenec. With the tiny Smena 8M camera, I was trying to capture my parachuting colleagues when descending, jumping out of a plane, or even during the free fall. Burning glass and red light became my loyal friends. Later, with the switch to colour film, I, in turn, became a friend of photo labs. In 2001, I switched to digital and after numerous changes of hardware I remained loyal to Olympus mirrorless. Paradoxically, this change led to a gradual return to black and white photography and a classic photo film. It started with 'ordinary' black and white documentary and street photos, and then along came karate, landscapes, and infrared photography. Today, I work almost exclusively in black and white. When taking a black and white photo, I don't need to care too much about balancing the white or about colour profiles in printing and I can enjoy the actual process of taking photographs much more. Black and white photography is in fact quite liberating. Genres that I specialise in are simultaneously my hobbies - karate, skiing, backcountry skiing, scuba diving, mountain hiking, and travelling.
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