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Caras Ionut
Caras Ionut
Caras Ionut

Caras Ionut

Country: Romania

Born in February of the late 70s, I seemed to have taken passion in cooler weather as my inspirations for photography in my life as a romanian artist; so much of my work shows depictions of fall and winter and my mechanics entail several hues of blues and whites. Most people when considering dreams would think of good positive dreams, and I like to think I captured that in my work. I also seem to visit the darker side of what people may see of dreams, not necessarily what one would see as negative, but possibly a dream that one could not quite understand or may feel alone.

The definition of art can be quite broad, however one aspect of art that is widely explored is art through dreams. One’s perception of a dream is vast, which in comparison to the views of art, it helps to encompass what artists want from their viewers. That is the perception of many different opinions from their work. Art becomes most popular by both their similarities in view and also their differences. After all that is what art truly can be defined as, using such work in your own life because art is not useful without personal admiration and profess.

Source: carasdesign.com

 

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Hossein Fardinfard
Netherlands-based Iranian documentary photographer Hossein Fardinfard (born 1985) took an unconventional path to his profession. After majoring in cartography, geomorphology, and IT, ultimately he discovered his aptitude for visual storytelling at the age of 30. Fardinfard came to see photography as a means for observing society more intimately, and for knowing himself more deeply in turn. He has thus come to specialize in photography that explores social observation, human rights, and identity. "I like storytelling not only as a process of documenting but also as a means for exerting a constructive influence on society, something like what Lewis Hine, the pioneer of photojournalism, did in his era in the USA. My relationships with photography subjects enhance my understanding of concepts like human rights. To understand this keyword, I need to know people first. Through knowing them, my spiritual investment in human rights has grown remarkably." In the second phase of Fardinfard's artistic life -- at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague -- he had the chance to reflect more intently on the meaning and philosophies of photography and the pictorial arts. This experience also equipped him with principles of psychology and sociology that he readily applied to his photographic gaze. "It's more thrilling when I can find a scientific explanation of the social behaviors and interactions I'm capturing. I believe we can talk about Human Rights in scientific terms. There should be a point where the hard and soft sciences meet. I try to connect them and then visualize that point."
Sean Perry
United States
1968
Sean Perry is an Austin-based photographer creating atmospheric portraits of the built environment across Texas, New York, and Japan. His photographs and books are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Amon Carter Museum of American Art; Harry Ransom Center; The Wittliff Collections; Yale University; Seattle Art Museum; and the Menil Collection. In 2009 he was selected as a finalist for the Hasselblad Masters Award. Perry attended Berklee College of Music and was a working musician before establishing his photographic practice in 1996. Cloverleaf Press published his first limited edition book, Transitory, in 2006, followed by Fairgrounds in 2008. Both were featured as a case study in Publish Your Photography Book (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011 & 2014). In 2025, he released Fairgrounds: Box Set, a lettered edition of 26. His photographs have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Billboard, New York, Graphis, L'Œil de la Photographie, and American Photography. He has served as Department Chair of Photography & Visual Media at Austin Community College since 2018, and previously taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In 2023, he co-founded Photobook Austin with Bryan Schutmaat. Interview with Sean Perry (2014) All About Photo: When did you realize you wanted to be a photographer? Sean Perry: When I was younger I didn't know or have access to any professional photographers, but I really loved movies and looked at a lot of books. At that time I got into music and everything else was just secondary. As a musician I always thought about pictures and the visual atmosphere great songs provoke and in my thirties I started photographing and haven’t stopped. Where did you study photography? With whom? I don’t have a formal background studying photography but it’s not quite right to say I'm self taught either. One of my old bandmates, Jeff Miller is a brother to me, a great photographer and my first teacher - I learned about cameras, making good pictures and printing in the darkroom. That experience was also my first big introduction to contemporary artists like Joel-Peter Witkin and The Starns. I later had important mentors in a photographer I assisted for, Frank Curry and a sculptor who has had a tremendous influence on me as an artist and photographer, John Christensen. Do you have a mentor? I have a few friends and colleagues who I admire and trust that I ask for insight and guidance with various things... Elizabeth Avedon, Jace Graf, Stephen Clark - there are others. I ask different people, different questions for different reasons if that makes sense. I think it's important to deeply consider who you ask and why. I've been a client of Mary Virginia Swanson for many years and her savvy is always invaluable, I truly owe her a great deal. I'm always learning and seeking out the chance to improve and grow. How long have you been a photographer? I have been making pictures consistently since 1996 and started working professionally in 1998. Do you remember your first shot? What was it? What I remember most are the pictures that when I saw the film, they made me feel that the image was somehow better, or more than my capability at the time. It would lead to months of chasing and trying to catch up to the image. The first time that happened was of a barren tree in the wintertime, backlit. I remember making the other pictures from that time, but the experience of seeing something unexpected back on the contact sheets always sticks with me as meaningful. What or who inspires you? Music always. 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Hasselblad 501CM with a 120mm lens and 25A Red filter. Tri-X film in A12 backs. Processed in D76, 1 to 1. Silver gelatin prints bleached and then toned in combinations of sepia and selenium or platinum–palladium prints from enlarged negatives. Do you spend a lot of time editing your images? I tend to run film and then not look at it for a while.... I then go through the contact sheets and make work prints of the things that seem to have promise. As the series and work evolves the process of editing, sequencing and design kicks in. After the edges of a project are more or less in place, I’ll go back again and see what I may have missed on the contact sheets. Favorite(s) photographer(s)? If I am only allowed one, Irving Penn – hands down, no one else. I love books and too many favorites to list, but in no particular order others would be Saul Leiter, Ted Croner, Robert & Shana Parke-Harrison, Tom Baril, Louis Faurer, Edward Burtynsky, Albert Watson, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Berenice Abbott and Matt Mahurin. What advice would you give a young photographer? Fearlessly make all the bad pictures you need to in order to get to the good ones. Not thoughtlessly in the number of images, but without hesitation in the intent to chase your ideas. When you are disappointed, try to understand why specifically – was it a technical mistake your effort and experience will resolve over time or was it about vision in what you could or could not see at that moment. The technical things are usually easier to improve upon, I have found the other takes additional perseverance and courage. For myself there is always the confrontation of closing the distance between the potency I’m after and the many challenges at hand while guiding it there. 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It provides a mechanism for high school students to share and express their photographic work with a new audience and has direct, tangible advantages for everyone involved – accenting the importance of communication and emphasizing the photography community's tradition of portfolio review. Your best memory has a photographer? All of my favorite memories are darkroom related. My first darkroom was in John Christensen's studio, I deeply miss those days and that place. I would often print all day and all night - it's where I learned about photo-chemistry and the subtleties of split-toning and other irresistible alchemy. Your worst souvenir as a photographer? My checking account. If you could have taken the photographs of someone else who would it be? It's an interesting question but it reminds me of a rock & roll story, urban legend I remember as a kid and recently retold in Esquire Magazine. When Van Halen was touring in the late 70’s they were opening for Ted Nugent who admired Eddie Van Halen's guitar tone. Among other things, Eddie would hide one of his effect pedals (a tape echo) in an old bomb casing, adding to the mystery of his great tone and why he sounded the way he did. Everyone believed he had a "magic" black box. During sound check, Ted Nugent got the chance to play through Eddie’s rig and was disappointed to discover his guitar tone was unchanged – he sounded like he always did and whatever he loved about Eddie's tone was in his hands and not in the gear. I think photographs are like that, there are many pictures I would be thrilled if I had produced but in the end I can only make what is in my hands and heart. The images I love that others have made don't represent my life and could never belong to me. I remain a fan and audience to my heroes, happily so.
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Alon  Goldsmith
South Africa/United States
1961
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
Olivia Arthur
United Kingdom
1980
Olivia Arthur is a British documentary photographer. She co-founded Fishbar, a publisher and space for photography in London, with Philipp Ebeling in 2010. Arthur is a member of the Magnum Photos agency and has produced the books Jeddah Diary (2012) and Stranger (2015). Originally studying mathematics at Oxford University, Arthur later studied photojournalism at London College of Printing. She became a nominee member of Magnum Photos in 2008, an associate member in 2011, and a full member in 2013. In 2010 Arthur co-founded Fishbar, a publisher and space for photography in East London, with her husband Philipp Ebeling. Her first book Jeddah Diary (2012) is about the lives of young women in Saudi Arabia. Her second book Stranger (2015) views Dubai through the eyes of the survivor of a shipwreck.Source: Wikipedia Olivia Arthur is known for her in-depth photography examining people and their personal and cultural identities. Much of her work has illuminated the daily lives of women living in countries as varied as Saudi Arabia, India and across Europe. A more recent focus on large format portraiture has brought her work back to the UK. “For me, part of the power of still photography is the ambiguousness of pictures, the ability to give a hint about a scene or event without being too absolute,” says Arthur of her work. Arthur was born in London and grew up in the UK. She studied mathematics at Oxford University and photojournalism at the London College of Printing. She began working as a photographer in 2003 after moving to Delhi and was based in India for two and a half years. In 2006, she left for Italy to take up a one-year residency with Fabrica, during which she began working on a series about women and cultural divides. Representation and the way we see ourselves are also areas of interest for Arthur. She explored these themes in her project In Private/Mumbai (2016-2018) about sexuality in India and through her ‘Portrait of a City’ commission about young people for Hull, City of Culture (2017). Arthur’s work has been shown in publications including The New Yorker, Vogue and TIME Magazine among others and selected commercial clients include British Airways, Capeb and BNP Paribas. She has received support from the Inge Morath Award, the National Media Museum, OjodePez-PhotoEspana Award for Human Values. Arthur continues to return to India and to work in London where she lives. She became a full member of Magnum Photos in 2013.Source: Magnum Photos
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