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FINAL DAYS TO WIN A SOLO EXHIBITION IN MAY 2026
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Laurent Spadotto
Laurent Spadotto
Laurent Spadotto

Laurent Spadotto

Country: France
Birth: 1972

For Laurent, a photo is a mirror or a window, often both.

Born in 1972, Laurent lives in Bordeaux. A self-taught photographer, he is passionate about literature, still and moving images. In the early 2000s, he wrote and directed several short films.

After a career in the web world, he put his skills at the service of the community by creating a non-profit webradio. After 13 years of listening and giving voice to different audiences, he felt the need to express himself again.

In 2020, at the dawn of his fifties, he plunged him into a long reflection. He decided to change course and to take a difficult but necessary step to give meaning to his life: to become a professional artist photographer.

Rather solitary, he likes to spend time in the company of friends he has never met. A heterogeneous tribe where A. Titarenko, D. Arbus, D. Lynch, A. Hitchcock, The Cure, Nick Cave and many others. With a special affection for Jean Cocteau. Very early on, he followed his advice, « What the public reproaches you for, cultivate it, that’s you ».

His work has quickly conquered Instagram and the interest of the public and professionals (press, galleries contests, festivals…). Laurent regularly sells his photos in limited editions to clients in France and worldwide.
 

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Javier Arcenillas
Photographer and Photoeditor. Graduate in Evolutionary Psychologist by the Complutense University Profesor in the documentary school area PICA. His essays and photography are conceived in pillars that explore PsychoSociology in the helplessness and fragility of the individual in today's society and in the perception of the imaginary territory as an element of reflection. Won prizes, including European Social Fund Grant, Euro Press of Fujifilm, FotoPress, UNICEF, Sony World Photography, POYI, POYILatam, Fotoevidence, Gomma Grant, Eugene Smith Grant, Getty Images Grant, PDN, World Press Photo, Lucas Dolega. In 2013 entered the dictionary of Spanish photographers. It has 5 books published, "City Hope" on the satellite cities that populate the landfills of Latin America, "Welcome" that tells the story of the Rohingya refugees of Myanmar in the Kutupalong camp and Sicarios, UFOPRESENCES in 2018. In the year 2016 La Fabrica publishes a Photobolsillo within the Photographers Spanish collection. In 2024 he published his book LATIDOAMERICA on violence in Central America His most complete news articles outside Spain can be read in Time, CNN, IL Magazine, Leica Magazine, Der Spiegel, Stern, Esquire, GEO, El Mundo, PAPEL, VICE News, L´Expresso, Zazpika, Primera Linea, El País Semanal, Planeta Futuro, Libero, Gatopardo, El Confidencial, El periódico de Guatemala as most important magazines. LATIDOAMERICA Latidoamerica is a Photojournalistic Research project that describes and analyzes violence in Central America, one of the most dangerous places in the world, documenting the direct consequences of violence. Mired in revolutions, dictatorships, genocides, wars or political lack of control inherited in each country, these societies use the fear learned in their worst years to live daily with death and crime in each city. This legacy that left so much death has transformed the way of thinking and acting in the area. Today, a large part of its citizens live with fear and insecurity of certain death by firearm, rape, assault, extortion, kidnapping and murder. Since the end of hostilities in countries like El Salvador, young people who emigrated due to the United States war returned as soldiers from the streets with new laws and regulations. The gangs known as “Maras” are responsible for the fear in which they live because they have sown bloodshed any attempt at peaceful democratic socialization and have led the country into a new undeclared war in which Salvadorans are the victims. Similar circumstances in Guatemala where after years of dictatorship, genocide and death, professions like Sicario end up seducing the poorest young people because of the fear and respect they instill. The hitman recruits teenagers attracted by quick money. Their main game is fear and their job is intimidation and death. To 'graduate', these hitmen murder a person on the condition that the situation involves risk. But it is not the only problem, in these countries without war where deaths from violence occur every hour, their social portrait is the most terrifying place in the world according to the United Nations. In Honduras, its geographical value is a transit point for drug trafficking, a constant fight by drug cartels, a country that does not generate social policies. It's the heartbeat of America. All About Photo Competitions All About Photo Awards 2018 All About Photo Awards 2021 All About Photo Awards 2022 All About Photo Awards 2026
Tamas Dezso
Hungary
1978
Tamas Dezso (b.1978) is a documentary fine art photographer working on long-term projects focusing on the margins of society in Hungary, Romania, and other parts of Eastern Europe. His work has been exhibited worldwide, with solo exhibitions in 2011 in Poland, Bangladesh, Budapest, New Mexico, and at the Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, and recent exhibitions at the New York Photo Festival, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, and FOAM Photo Museum in Amsterdam. He was twice Hungarian Press Photo’s Photographer of the Year (2005 and 2006), and has received awards from organizations such as World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, and PDN. His photographs have appeared in TIME magazine, The New York Times, National Geographic, GEO, Le Monde magazine, and many others. Dezso has recently been nominated for the 2012 Prix Pictet. Tamas Dezso's series 'Here, Anywhere' offers a desolate yet beautiful look at the people and places left behind during the post-communist transition in Hungary. Begun in 2009, the series explores the unique atmosphere of the country's now 20-year-long transition, and changing notions of Eastern European identity. With the introduction of democracy in the 1990s came euphoria and promise, but unrealized expectations of quickly catching up with the West have led to widespread disappointment and frustration, compounded by the current serious economic difficulties have fanned the popularity of far right politics, as well as an anachronistic nostalgia for the stability of communism. Presently Hungary has a right wing populist government and the strongest opposition party is the neo-Nazi party with nearly 1/8th of the eligible voters and gaining popularity. Dezso's layered images present unsettling moments of stillness that poetically allude to this gritty reality. Motivated by the isolation he sees his country facing, Dezso photographs the people and places of Hungary as symbols, where "a certain out-dated, awkward, longed-to-be-forgotten Eastern Europeanness still lingers." This award-winning series has garnered international attention, earning Dezso First Place at the 2011 CENTER Project Competition in Santa Fe, the Daylight Magazine & Center for Documentary Studies Project Prize, and Grand Prize at the Jeune Création Européenne Biennal 2011/2013 in Paris-Montrouge.Source: Robert Koch Gallery Interview with Tamas Dezso All About Photo: When did you realize you wanted to be a photographer? Tamas Dezso: Soon after I left the University of Technology in Budapest in 2000. AAP: Where did you study photography? TD: I am self-taught. AAP: How long have you been a photographer? TD: I started as a photojournalist with a political daily in 2000. AAP: What or who inspires you? TD: Music. Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. AAP: How could you describe your style? TD: Documentary. AAP: Do you have a favorite photograph or series? TD: Richard Avedon 'Italy #9', 'Boy and Tree, Sicily, July 15, 1947' AAP: What kind of gear do you use? Camera, lens, digital, film? TD: Phase One cameras with various Schneider Kreuznach lenses. AAP: Favorite(s) photographer(s)? TD: Richard Avedon and Irving Penn AAP: What advice would you give a young photographer? TD: "Follow the advice of others only in the rarest cases." -- Beethoven AAP: What are your projects? TD: I am interested in the transitional period, the period after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. AAP: Your best memory as a photographer? TD: My first trip to Romania. AAP:If you were someone else who would it be? TD: A pianist. AAP: Your favorite photo book? TD: Walter Niedermayr's Civil Operations.
Susan Meiselas
United States
1948
Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer who lives and works in New York. She is the author of Carnival Strippers (1976), Nicaragua (1981), Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1997), Pandora's Box (2001), Encounters with the Dani (2003) Prince Street Girls (2016), A Room Of Their Own (2017) and Tar Beach (2020). She has co-edited two published collections: El Salvador, Work of 30 Photographers (1983) and Chile from Within (1990), rereleased as an e-book in 2013, and also co-directed two films: Living at Risk (1985) and Pictures from a Revolution (1991) with Richard P. Rogers and Alfred Guzzetti. Meiselas is well known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. Her photographs are included in North American and international collections. In 1992 she was made a MacArthur Fellow, received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), and most recently the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2019) and the first Women in Motion Award from Kering and the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles. Mediations, a survey exhibition of her work from the 1970s to present was recently exhibited at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Jeu de Paume, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo. She has been the President of the Magnum Foundation since 2007, which supports, trains, and mentors the next generation of in-depth documentary photographers and innovative practice. About Nicaragua Susan Meiselas became known through her photo reportages on the Nicaraguan revolution. From 1978 to 1982 she documented the uprising of the Sandinistas against the then president Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Some of her photographs, foremost among them the “Molotov Man”, became iconic media images and shaped the way the Latin American revolution was perceived in the West. About Carnival Strippers The role of women has been a focal point of Meiselas’ work ever since the 1970s. In her first major photographic essay entitled Carnival Strippers (1972-1975), she showcased the working conditions of women who earned a living working as strippers at fairs in New England. She combined her photographs with audio recordings of the women, their clients, and their managers. In this project Meiselas depicts the reality of life for these protagonists and lets them tell their own stories, thereby strengthening their feeling of self-worth and their personal identity. About Prince Street Girls For the series Prince Street Girls, she accompanied young girls in Little Italy, New York City over a period of seventeen years - from childhood to puberty and on into adulthood. The photographs illustrate the gradual changes in their lives, their bodies, and their place within society. About Archive of Abuse In her series Archive of Abuse Susan Meiselas addressed the issue of domestic abuse. In the early 1990s, the photographer was invited to support an awareness-raising campaign in San Francisco on the subject of domestic violence. Meiselas used material from police reports to focus on documenting the crimes, both visually and in text. The collages created in this way were posted in public spaces to raise people’s awareness of the many different forms of violence towards women as a structural phenomenon. About Kurdistan Meiselas’ starting point for her long-term project Kurdistan was the documentation of the genocide perpetrated against the Kurds by the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq in 1988. She created an archive that preserves a people’s cultural memory and the chequered history of the Kurdish diaspora. The multimedia project comprises photographs, videos, documents, and oral accounts compiled by the artist over a period of more than thirty years.Source: Kunst Haus Wien
Christian Werner
Germany
1987
Christian Werner is a freelance multimedia/photojournalist based in Boitzum, Germany. As a teenager he developed his interest in photography while traveling to foreign countries. In 2014 he graduated the photojournalism & documentary photography course at the University of Applied Sciences in Hannover. His main interests are social diversity and global political issues. The areas of interest is mainly the arabic world and culture. Chris worked in various countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and South America. His work has been exhibited internationally. He welcomes assignments local and overseas. Since 2012, Christian is represented by Agency Laif. Source: World Press Photo Chris, born in 1987, studied from 2009 to 2014 photojournalism and documentary photography at the University of Hanover. He works as a freelance photojournalist and published his photos and stories, among others, in Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post and many more. From 2012 -2016 Christian Werner was represented by the German reportage agency laif. In late 2016 Chris is represented by Zeitenspiegel. His photographic focus is the processing of social injustice, conflicts and geopolitical issues. His work has been awarded several times and frequently exhibited internationally. In 2015 Chris participated at the World Press Joop Swart Mastercalss in Amsterdam. 2016 Chris has been chosen in the 30 under 30 Europe Forbes List in the Media category. In late summer 2016 he begins working with MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station). Chris worked in various countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and South America. Artist Statement "Rubble and Delusion - A Journey Through Assad's Syria With the fall of Aleppo, the regime of Bashar Assad once again controls the country's second-largest city. But is reconciliation possible in the country? A journey through the dictator's rump state. Our journey leads us to the three largest cities in northern and western Syria: Aleppo, Latakia and Homs. Aleppo has become symbolic of the brutal bombing campaign. Latakia, the regime stronghold on the Mediterranean, was largely untouched by the war and is still a popular vacation spot in the summer. And Homs, once the center of the uprising, was destroyed and is now slated to become a model of reconstruction."
Leigh Ann Edmonds
United States
1980
Leigh Ann is a freelance photographer located in a small town just north of Birmingham, Alabama. Her freelance career spans over 20 years as a professional with portrait, commercial and documentary/editorial work for publications and the entertainment industry. Her work has been in ROLLING STONE, VINTAGE GUITAR and B&W MAGAZINE. She is also an award-winning photographer for her portrait titled 'RODEO'. She is an avid trail runner married to a full-time working musician and her work often reflects that of her lifestyle, showcasing her love of adventure, people and the great outdoors. She received a BA in Studio Art and minor in Journalism from the University of Alabama in 2004 and considers photography more about her visual journey than a professional destination. STATEMENT Over the years I have noticed a pattern with my personal works. I often seek out the road less traveled rather it be within my living environment and community or during my travels. The isolation feels comforting and safe for me, as it allows me to slow down, it is here in these moments, when photography becomes my therapy. I've always been intrigued by the unplanned photograph and my work never is pre-conceptualized. I typically don't know what I will end up photographing and often feed off the energy I am given within that moment when I decide to take the image. The act of shooting is more important to me than the image I capture because it is about the connection I have found with the individual or space I come across. I tend to shoot more on sporadic intuition than thinking the shot through. If I feel something, I don't hesitate and click the shutter only to discover the image later, which can add to the excitement of this experience with my camera. The days I find myself inspired to shoot are days that I long for a connection, rather it be connection with others or the space I am in. I have found that over the years, my photography has become more about a glimpse into who I am more than a means to make a living as a professional. The pattern of my work tends to primarily focus on portraits of locals and the environment of small towns documented in black and white. This approach is to give the sense of isolation and nostalgia of small-town living. I don't want my work to feel 'dated' as I hope those viewing my work will also connect them to that place or person without feeling dated or current. I want my work to gather a sense of timelessness to the viewer and to me. I consider my personal works a journal of my life, my adventures, and a sense of belonging somewhere as I hope others will stumble across and 'read' my photographs when I am gone.
Alban Lécuyer
France
1977
Born in Paris in 1977, Alban Lécuyer studied Journalism and Photography at the Lille Graduate School of Journalism (France). He mainly works as a photographer of architecture within public projects and for private companies (advertising campaigns, photographic missions). Whilst collaborating with various journals, he teaches the History of Photography and Image Analysis at the DMA in Nantes (France). His personal projects centre around the analysis of new forms of dwellings from the social, economic, political and media point of view, and on the alteration of urban space. His works have been exhibited in Spain (Getxophoto Festival), in Switzerland (Biel Festival of Photography) and in France (Le BAL, Circulation(s) Festival, Images Singulières Festival, Archifoto – International Awards of Architectural Photography, etc.). The Here Soon project transposes reality from everyday city life into the aesthetic of computer graphics, which aim to showcase high-quality real estate projects. The pictures of the series reproduce the codes of those fictitious representations of reality: contrasts are light, shadows are reduced to a minimum, and all that stands between the spectator and the architectural project – trees, vehicles, passers-by and so on – is shown in transparency. Nevertheless, the frame leaves place for writing on the walls, laundry hung out to dry, abandoned objects, trash – everything that bears witness to a civilization that has left its mark on the place that it inhabits. The presence of the local residents also calls attention to their singularity, their paths, and their relationship with their surroundings. Therefore, the emergence of a concrete memory of places contradicts the universal and potential value of images.
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