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Last Call to WIN A Solo Exhibition this December! Juror: Ed Kashi
Last Call to WIN A Solo Exhibition this December! Juror: Ed Kashi
Mariana Basurto
Mariana Basurto
Mariana Basurto

Mariana Basurto

Country: Mexico
Birth: 1976

My name is Mariana Basurto. I was born in Mexico City and I'm passionate about exploring the world with my camera in hand. My photography seeks to invade the intimacy of the streets, to extract and represent the magic that is perceived in everyday life and show the world from my eyes.

Through my lens I seek to capture the unique and different everyday life with a personal stamp. With every click of my camera I connect with people through a smile or conversation where I have achieved spontaneity, intimacy and respect.

There are three people and a country that triggered my passion for street photography at various times in my life. My grandfather and my father taught me to never stop being surprised in life and this fueled the action of exploring the planet. Today, I have visited more than seventy-five countries in the world and I have had the opportunity to live in five of them. My sister inspired me to photography when we traveled together and she captured moments with her Kodak camera from the 1980’s. Finally, having lived in a city like Shanghai motivated me to tell with my lens the fascinating stories that are lived every day in a country as special as China.

I hold an Industrial Engineering degree and Professional Cook but abandoned both careers to focus on photography. I’m a member the Women street photography and Mexican Street Photography Collectives. I’m interested in documentary, travel and street photography.

My medium-long-term documentary projects are:
• At their home – Show how people live around the world. Through my connection on the street I have managed to enter people's homes and they have shown me how they live.
• Elder beauty portrait- Document the expressions, textures and stories of elderly men and women from different cultures who through their skin show a unique beauty
• Quirks – Fun and unique things from everyday life that represent cultures, places or people

I have recently participated in worldwide exhibitions in Hong Kong, New York, Iran, Mexico but my greatest reward is seeing people's expressions when I show them their photo. They feel happy, heard, and represented. I currently live in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the United States in constant search of new places to visit and stories that my lens can tell

Statement
My photography is a unique, personal dialogue between the images and viewer, crafted with the passion and privilege of capturing human connections and truths, often challenging prevailing narratives without compromise,. My main belief is that: “Never stop being amazed”
 

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More Great Photographers To Discover

Bob Willoughby
United States
1927 | † 2009
Bob Willoughby, whose photographs transformed the images of Hollywood’s biggest stars, is a true pioneer of 20th century photography. He was the first “outside” photographer hired by the major studios to create photographs for the magazines, and was the link between the filmmakers and major magazines of the time, such as Life and Look. Born June 30th, 1927 in Los Angeles, his parents were divorced by the time he was born and he was raised by his mother. Bob was given an Argus C-3 camera for his twelfth birthday, providing the catalyst for what would become the key to his future. After high school, he studied cinema at night at the USC Cinema Department and design with Saul Bass at the Kahn Institute of Art. At the same time he apprenticed with a number of Hollywood photographers; Wallace Seawell, Paul Hesse, and Glenn Embree, gleaning technical and business know-how. His first magazine assignments were for Harper's Bazaar in the early ’50s when famed art director Alexey Brodovitch became aware of his work. His career took off in 1954 when Warner Bros. asked him to photograph Judy Garland’s final scene on the set of A Star Is Born. His portrait of the freckle-faced star became his first Life cover. From then on his production was phenomenal. His images were in print literally every week for the next twenty years. As the first “special” he covered the making of over 100 films, including the 1960s movies The Graduate, My Fair Lady, Rosemary’s Baby and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. His body of work, documenting this historic era of filmmaking, is unsurpassed. He captured with wonderful perception the most famous actors and directors of the time on and off the set, in unguarded moments of repose, vulnerability and high drama. He had a unique ability to capture what was essential to each film. Bob also had a remarkable understanding of the needs of each individual magazine; he could be shooting for seven different publications and know exactly what each one needed in terms of editorial content and design layout. While Willoughby is most famous as the great chronicler of Hollywood, before he began covering film production he had already made an astonishing series of images of jazz musicians. Willoughby had a huge appreciation of jazz both in its technical aspects and its ability to raise the roof in performance. He had a masterful feel for the character of the artists, and he was able to convey it even in the difficult lighting conditions of recording studios and stage. He was responsible for a number of technical innovations, including the silent blimp for 35mm still cameras, which became common on film sets. He was the only photographer working on films at the time to use radio-controlled cameras, allowing him unprecedented coverage in otherwise impossible situations, and he had special brackets built to hold his still cameras on or over the Panavision cameras. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood honored Willoughby with a major retrospective exhibition of his work. He was awarded the Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Still Photography in New York in 2004. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the National Museum of Photography, Bradford, UK; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, Film Department, New York; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Tate Gallery Collection, London; Théâtre de la Photographie et de l’Image, Nice; and Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium. In December 2009, Bob passed away at his home in Vence in the South of France, surrounded by his wife Dorothy and four children.Source: willoughbyphotos.com
Gerda Taro
Germany
1910 | † 1937
Gerda Taro, a pioneering figure in the world of photojournalism, illuminated the harrowing realities of conflict through her lens. Born Gerta Pohorylle on August 1, 1910, in Stuttgart, Germany, she would later adopt the pseudonym "Gerda Taro" as she ventured into the tumultuous landscape of war-torn Europe during the 1930s. Taro's journey into photography began as she fled Nazi persecution, seeking refuge in Paris. It was there that she crossed paths with fellow photographer Robert Capa, sparking a creative and romantic partnership that would shape both their lives and redefine the boundaries of photojournalism. Together, Taro and Capa embarked on a mission to document the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that would serve as a crucible for their artistic and ideological convictions. Working under the banner of "Robert Capa and Gerda Taro," they captured the raw intensity of battle, immortalizing the struggles of Republican forces against the backdrop of Franco's fascist regime. Despite the dangers inherent in their profession, Taro fearlessly ventured into the heart of the conflict, often disregarding personal safety in pursuit of the perfect shot. Her images exuded a sense of urgency and immediacy, offering a stark reminder of the human cost of war and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. Tragically, Taro's life was cut short at the tender age of 26 when she was struck by a tank during the Battle of Brunete in July 1937. Her untimely death sent shockwaves through the world of photojournalism, serving as a sobering reminder of the risks faced by those who bear witness to history's most tumultuous moments. Though her life was brief, Gerda Taro's impact on the world of photography endures as a testament to her courage, compassion, and unwavering commitment to truth-telling. Her images continue to serve as a powerful reminder of the human toll of conflict, inspiring future generations of photographers to wield their cameras as instruments of social change and justice. As we reflect on the legacy of Gerda Taro, we are reminded of the profound significance of bearing witness to history's darkest chapters and the enduring power of images to shape our understanding of the world and ignite the flames of empathy, compassion, and solidarity across borders and generations.
Zev Hoover
United States
1999
Zev Hoover, from Natick, Massachusetts, goes by the Flickr username Fiddle Oak, a play on 'little folk', which adequately describes the incredible images that make up his 'miniature world'. In his fantastical photos in which people are digitally shrunken, acorns make excellent seats, Popsicle sticks are the ideal size for building rafts, and paper airplanes are viable modes of transport. Zev told Today.com that while he takes the photos with his own camera, his older sister Nell, 18, was the brains behind the original tiny people concept. "She is sort of my partner in crime," he said, adding that she is "more of a writer". While Nell may have come up with the idea, Zev executes the images beautifully, and his unique work has attracted the attention of professional photographers and designers. The 14-year-old, who also writes a blog, explained the complicated process of how he creates his dreamlike images, many of which feature him as the main subject. The process involves capturing the background image first, shrinking photos of people in similar lighting, manipulating the images in Photoshop and editing the color scheme so that it all matches. 'It takes a long time,' he said of the resulting images, which are so otherworldly that they almost look like drawings. One image shows a boy constructing a house of playing cards, his body the same size as the cards. In another image, a 'miniature' boy and girl sit upon a raft made of Popsicle sticks, the sail of which is a single leaf. Many of Zev's images explore nature, including one in which a boy perches inside the shell of an acorn. Another nature-themed photo, which plays with and distorts size ratio, shows a miniscule-looking boy sitting on the edge of a rock, a violin in his hand. Photography and design websites have picked up on Zev's work, lauding him for being so talented and creative at such a young age.Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Kimmo  Sahakangas
United States
1958
Kimmo Sahakangas received a Bachelor of Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona and a Master of Architecture from UCLA. After higher education, he was awarded an architectural traveling fellowship which facilitated a year-long exploration of European urban spaces. It concluded in a slide show presented to an academic institution. Prior to architectural studies, photography was a passionate endeavor in the family along with vacation roadtrips. At age 19, he traveled the very first time to Las Vegas… stayed at a cheap motel and was keen on photographing the neon lights of Fremont Street and the strip… the visit would inspire architectural study and form an interest in photographing the built American landscape. Sahakangas contextualizes the vast American landscape with a focus on transitional places and spaces. Some of the more favored subjects are roadside business establishments which epitomize the road trip experience. Traveling off the interstate, he would find such visual matter in the landscape... on a two-lane road allowing a slower pace without a destination in mind. His observations exclude people, to portray isolation as a visual drama. And to frame the cultural, economic and social policies at hand. His work has exhibited nationally in a dozen private and public galleries including Praxis Gallery Photo Arts Center (Minneapolis), Black Box Gallery (Portland OR) and Torrance Art Museum. A self-published affair, titled "Roadside Testament", was available in 2021. It features several decades of photography.
Anaïs Boileau
France
1992
Anaïs Boileau is from the south of France. She completed training in photography and visual communication at ECAL, the art school from Lausanne. She works in 2012 with the photographer Charles Freger and in 2014 she gets a residency at the Hong Kong Design Institute. Her photographic work is presented in various group exhibitions. In 2015, her photographic project Plein Soleil is part of the Black Mirror exhibition in New York, organized by Aperture Foundation, and is presented to Katmandu Photo festival in Nepal. It is selected to Boutographies 2016 projection of the jury and is one of ten finalists presented at the 31st edition of the international fashion and photography festival in Hyères at the Villa Noailles where she received the audience award and the Elie Saab grant.My work "Plein Soleil" is about a kind of community women taking the sun. These are women with golden skin exposing themselves under the omnipresent sun. They stay along the coast of the seaside towns marked by Latin, bright and colorful architecture. There is a temporality game beetween women and architectures because they are modeling in the same way by the sun light. These portraits represents a kind of happy idleness that exist in south. I try to bring a look a bit funny and tender about that women cause it was like a game with them about their image. Lost behind their sunglasses, accessories, women are distant, pensive as absorbed by the sun. We never see their eyes with their solarium glasses and that make them impersonal. Floating Between documentary and fiction, the portraits of this matriarchal community, reveal a desire for exoticism. There is a dimension of artificiality and something false in all that . The idea that they put forward, they refine and polish their bodies but also in the idea that all this is just a world of appearance, of surfaces.
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