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Sasha Maslov
Sasha Maslov
Sasha Maslov

Sasha Maslov

Country: Ukraine
Birth: 1984

Sasha Maslov was born in Ukraine in 1984. Inspired and taught by his father, photographer Guennadi Maslov, and later his teacher and mentor, Oleg Shishkov, he developed into an aspiring young photographer. Later Sasha became known for his social documentary projects around Eastern Europe, especially in his native country. He started pursuing career as a portrait photographer in New York city, where he moved at the age of 24 in 2008. Since then he has been working for leading publications around the Globe and pursuing work on his personal projects.

Statement
"I believe in the efficacy of photography as a visual art medium. We are living in age where visual stimuli in a variety of mediums populate the waking moments of our lives. Our memories are inhabited by fragments of life – experiences from around the globe, products, familiar faces – all intricately tied together in a complex web of associations. This visual overload has polluted our minds, made our tastes less discerning, and ultimately devalued the standards that qualify impactful and meaningful photography. Instead of reveling in a complex photo that enjoys intense visual engagement and reflection, viewers now expect to devour and digest imagery in one gulp. While I do believe that evolving for adaptation is vital, however, it is also important to me that every image I take embodies a sense of purpose and meaning, provokes thought and sparks dialogue."
Selected Books on Available on Amazon
Sasha Maslov: Ukrainian Railroad Ladies
Sasha Maslov: Ukrainian Railroad Ladies
Sasha Maslov

Website

sashamaslov.com

 

Selected Book

Sasha Maslov: Ukrainian Railroad Ladies
Sasha Maslov: Ukrainian Railroad Ladies
Sasha Maslov

Inspiring Portfolios

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More Great Photographers To Discover

Gisèle Freund
Gisèle Freund
France / Germany
1908 | † 2000
Gisèle Freund was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists. Her best-known book, Photographie et société (1974), is about the uses and abuses of the photographic medium in the age of technological reproduction. In 1977, she became President of the French Association of Photographers, and in 1981, she took the official portrait of French President François Mitterrand. She was made Officier des Arts et Lettres in 1982 and Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, the highest decoration in France, in 1983. In 1991, she became the first photographer to be honored with a retrospective at the Musée National d’art Moderne in Paris (Centre Georges Pompidou). Freund's major contributions to photography include using the Leica Camera (with its ability to house one film roll with 36 frames) for documentary reportage and her early experimentation with Kodachrome and 35 mm Agfacolor, which allowed her to develop a "uniquely candid portraiture style" that distinguishes her in 20th century photography. She is buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, France near her home and studio at 12 rue Lalande. Freund was born into a textile merchant family on 19 December 1908 to Julius and Clara (nee Dressel) Freund, a wealthy Jewish couple in the Schöneberg district of Berlin. Her father, Julius Freund, was a keen art collector with an interest in the work of photographer Karl Blossfeldt, whose close-up studies explored the forms of natural objects. Freund's father bought Gisèle her first camera, a Voigtländer 6x9 in 1925 and a Leica camera as a present for her graduation in 1929. In 1931, Freund studied sociology and art history at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Breisgau, Germany; and from 1932-33 she studied at the Institute for Social, Sciences, University of Frankfurt under Theodor W. Adorno, Karl Mannheim and Norbert Elias (also known as the Frankfurt School). At university, she became an active member of a student socialist group and was determined to use photography as an integral part of her socialist practice. One of her first stories, shot on May 1, 1932, "shows a recent march of anti-fascist students" who had been "regularly attacked by Nazi groups." The photos show Walter Benjamin, a good friend of Freund, and Bertolt Brecht. In March 1933, a month after Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, Walter Benjamin fled to Paris on May 30, Gisèle followed him since she was both a socialist activist and a Jew. She escaped to Paris with her negatives strapped around her body to get them past the border guards. Gisèle and Walter Benjamin would continue their friendship in Paris, where Freund would famously photograph him reading at the National Library. They both studied and wrote about art in the 19th and 20th centuries as Freund continued her studies at the Sorbonne. In 1935, Andre Malraux invited Freund to document First International Congress in Defense of Culture in Paris, where she was introduced to and subsequently photographed many of the notable French artists of her day. Freund befriended the famed literary partners, Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company, and Adrienne Monnier of Maison des Amis des Livres. In 1935, Monnier arranged a marriage of convenience for Freund with Pierre Blum so that Freund could obtain a visa to remain in France legally (they officially divorced after the war in 1948). In 1936, while Sylvia Beach was visiting the United States, Freund moved into Monnier and Beach's shared apartment and they became intimates. When Beach returned, she ended her intimate relationship with Monnier yet maintained a strong friendship with both Monnier and Freund. Freund finished her Ph.D. in Sociology and Art at the Sorbonne in 1936, and Monnier published the doctoral dissertation as "La photographie en France au dix-neuvieme siècle," under the La Maison des Amis des Livres imprint by Monnier. Monnier introduced Gisèle Freund to the artists and writers who would prove her most captivating subjects. Later that year, Freund became internationally famous with her photojournalistic piece, Northern England, which was published in Life magazine on December 14, 1936 and showed the effects of the depression in England. No magazine in France could publish color photographs at that time, so Freund's work with Life—one of the first color mass magazines—would start a lifelong relationship between the photographer and magazine. In 1938, Monnier suggested that Freund photograph James Joyce for his upcoming book, Finnegans Wake. Joyce, who disliked being photographed, invited Gisèle Freund to his Paris flat for a private screening of her previous work. He was impressed enough by Freund's work to allow her to photograph him, and over a period of three days, she captured the most intimate portraits of Joyce during his time in Paris. In 1939, after being "twice refused admission to Tavistock Square," Freund gained the confidence of Virginia Woolf and captured the iconic color photographs of the Woolfs on display in the English National Portrait Gallery. Woolf even "agreed to change her clothes to see which best suited the colour harmony and insisted on being photographed with Leonard (and their spaniel Pinka). In some of the prints, Woolf is pale and lined, in others smiling a little and more youthful. The background of fabrics and mural panels by Bell and Grant adds to the value of the images; this was the inner sanctum of the queen of Bloomsbury where parties were given and friends came to tea. Just over a year later the house was destroyed in The Blitz." On June 10, 1940, with the Nazi invasion of Paris looming, Freund escaped Paris to Free France in the Dordogne. Her husband by convenience, Pierre, had been captured by the Nazis and sent to a prison camp. He was able to escape and met with Freund before going back to Paris to fight in the Resistance. As the wife of an escaped prisoner, a Jew, and a Socialist, Freund "feared for her life." In 1942, with the help of André Malraux, who told his friends, "we must save Gisèle!," Freund fled to Buenos Aires, Argentina "at the invitation of Victoria Ocampo, director of the periodical Sur. Ocampo was at the center of the Argentinean intellectual elite, and through her, Freund met and photographed many great writers and artists, such as Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda." While living in Argentina, Freund started a publishing venture called Ediciones Victoria. She writes, "In reality, I started this for the De Gaulle government in exile where I was working in the Information ministry, volontairement without payment." She also founds a relief action committee for French artists and becomes a spokesperson for Free France. In 1947, Freund signed a contract with Magnum Photos as a Latin America contributor, but by 1954, she was declared persona non grata by the U.S. Government at the height of the Red Scare for her socialist views, and Robert Capa forced her to break ties with Magnum. In 1950, her photo coverage of a bejeweled Eva Peron for Life magazine caused a diplomatic stir between the United States and Argentina and upset many of Peron's supporters—the ostentatious photographs went against the official party line of austerity; Life Magazine was blacklisted in Argentina, and once again, Freund had to escape a country with her negatives. She moved to Mexico and became friends with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco. In 1953, she moved back to Paris permanently. Over the life of her career, she went on over 80 photojournalism assignments, primarily for Life and Time, but also Du, The Sunday Times (London), Vu, Picture Post, Weekly Illustrated, and Paris Match, among others. From the 1960s onward, Freund continued to write, and her reputation as an important portrait photographer grew with each successive exhibition. Gisèle Freund is now celebrated as one of the best portrait photographers of the twentieth century: Upon her death, "President Jacques Chirac praised her as 'one of the world's greatest photographers."Source: Wikipedia Ms. Freund was one of Europe's most prominent photographers and a pillar among French feminist intellectuals after settling in Paris in the 1930s. Born to a wealthy Jewish family, she became a student activist who battled the rise of Hitler's national socialism. She studied sociology in Frankfurt but was forced to flee in 1933, escaping as police were about to arrest her. In Paris, Gisèle Freund pursued doctoral studies at the Sorbonne, where her enthusiasm for photography was met with skepticism. She met militant feminist writer Adrienne Monnier while browsing at La Maison des Amis du Livre, Monnier's book shop on the Left Bank. The shop was frequented by the likes of Simone de Beauvoir, Andre Gide, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Jean-Paul Sartre and Paul Valery. Monnier became her lifelong mentor and companion, introducing her to the Parisian intellectual set and encouraging her to pursue photography. In 1935, Ms. Freund executed a widely acclaimed series of photographs, documenting the misery of British coal miners, and met Andre Malraux. Her portrait of the author of Man's Fate--wrapped in a trench coat with a cigarette dangling from his mouth--is among her most well-known photographs. Her use of color clashed with the prevailing style of retouched black-and-white studio portraits, but she persevered, saying color "was closer to life." Gisèle Freund specialized in conveying attitudes. She focused on hands, posture and clothing. Some of her most famous photographs appeared in Life and Time magazines. The Nazi invasion of France in 1940 interrupted her career. Gisèle Freund fled again, to southern France and later Argentina, where she worked until the war's end in 1945. She returned to France, where she earned an international reputation as the photographer of Jean Cocteau, De Beauvoir, Joyce, and Sartre, among others. Her works include Three Days With Joyce, a collection of black-and-white photographs showing the Irish writer with friends and family, and correcting proofs of his novel Finnegan's Wake. "Freund was involved in the lives of the artists and writers she photographed," said art critic Ann Cremin, who knew Ms. Freund. "She was more of a witness than a reporter." In later years, Gisèle Freund became well-known in her adopted country, winning the National Grand Prize for Photography in 1980. She took the official photograph at the presidential inauguration of Socialist Francois Mitterrand in 1981. She gave up photography in the mid-1980s.Source: Washington Post
Debbie Smyth
Debbie Smyth
United Kingdom
1959
Debbie is an avid travel and documentary photographer, always on the move, with eyes and lens constantly in action. The camera allows her to tell the stories she sees, portraying both the physical and cultural aspects of the places she visits. Her working life started as researcher in the British Library Reading Rooms, moving on to designing library systems for use around Europe, and from there into the payments industry. With her daughter now grown up, exploration and photography are getting a larger share of her life. Whilst travel has been limited for the last 18 months, Debbie has had time to concentrate on her photography projects, currently focussing on the traditions and architecture of the British coast, and Cold War architecture.
Chad Cowan
Chad Cowan
United States
1984
Chad Cowan is a photographer and aspiring filmmaker who has been chasing storms across America's Tornado Alley over the past 10 years and 200,000 miles. His goal is to capture the awe inspiring beauty of nature in the most extreme and violent weather on earth. Cowan's current film project for which he is seeking financing and distribution is a collection of timelapses of these supercells shot in 8k resolution. Growing up in Kansas, the epicenter of severe weather on the planet, he quickly became obsessed with thunderstorms. Inspired by a few timely weather-related gifts from his grandfather at a young age, Cowan decided he wanted to chase them once he had his driver's license. Cowan's photos have been published around the globe and his work has appeared in major motion pictures, and on most national news outlets. In 2010, his 'Icemaker' photo of the supercell that dropped the largest hailstone ever recorded on earth came in second place in a National Geographic photo contest. He has a BS in Economics from Kansas State University
Kyla Rys
Kyla Rys
United States
2001
Kyla Rys is a New York based photographer. She captures striking, yet minimal images with a sense of timelessness. Born in Hunan, China and raised in Colorado, Kyla’s passion for photography began at age twelve. Her early projects with pets have been published with appearances in National Geographic and The Huffington Post. While receiving a B.F.A in photography from SCAD she produced distinctive brand visuals for the university’s marketing team. Kyla is currently working at Ralph Lauren in Creative Services. Winner AAP Magazine 35 Colors
Agniva Kolay
Agniva Kolay
India
1997
Agniva Kolay is a photographer based in Bangalore whose work spans wildlife, travel, aerial, street, and underwater photography. A self-taught photographer, he is drawn to moments where simplicity, geometry, and emotion come together through minimalist compositions and the use of negative space. Through extensive travel and exploration, Agniva documents both natural and human environments with a focus on form, relationships, and scale. Influenced by both painting and documentary photography, he approaches his images as an intersection of art and observation, using photography not just to document a scene, but to reinterpret it through form, atmosphere, and perspective. Statement For me, a successful photograph is one that creates both visual impact and emotional connection. All About Photo Competitions Photographer of the Week 23, 2026
Augusto De Luca
Augusto De Luca
Italy
1955
Augusto De Luca graduated in law, then became a professional photographer in the mid-1970s, working along the boundary line between traditional and experimental photography. With his style, he has been going through multiple photography genres, making use of many materials, always trying with his snapshots to enhance primary elements, minimal expression units that make up images in which shapes and signs combine in a way that is reminiscent of metaphysical atmospheres. His photographs have been exhibited by many galleries. De Luca is the author of record covers, advertising campaign pictures and photography books. He taught photography at the "Montecitorio Club" of the Italian Parliament. Light enhances but its shadow deletes, thus giving the picture its depth, its third dimension and its subtractive properties... I believe that commitment and technical skill can be achieved by means of one's own will and study, while fantasy and passion are more valuable because they are innate and inescapably peculiar assets.
Archie Cludven
Archie Cludven
China
2003
I take photos to live with passion, to feel with heart, to look for meanings, and above all else, to seek for change. All About Photo Competitions All About Photo Awards 2026
Takeshi Yamamoto
Takeshi Yamamoto
Japan
Takeshi Yamamoto is a Japanese documentary photographer based in Yamanashi, Japan. His work focuses on long-term social and environmental issues, with particular attention to memory, landscape, and the traces left by disaster and policy. Since 2011, he has been documenting Fukushima and the long aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. His project Silent Witnesses: Fukushima 2011–2026 examines how land, communities, and memory are transformed over time, and how absence, reconstruction, and normalization become visible in the landscape. His work has been recognized with the 9th Natori Younosuke Photography Award and has been exhibited and published internationally, including a solo exhibition at Sony Imaging Gallery and features on Social Documentary Network and All About Photo. All About Photo Competitions All About Photo Awards 2026 Article Where Devotion Resides
Francis Malapris
Francis Malapris
France
1968
Schizothymic baby-boomer, at the age of 12 Francis takes refuge in computer science and excels in this field despite social and academic failure. In 1996, as he becomes an engineer, he meets the need to preserve memories of the Moment and tries photography. Gradually, this utopia fades to give way to the sensitivity he has so long repressed. 20 years later, he is an accomplished self-taught artist through the study of technique and the masters who inspire him such as Raymond Depardon, Rafael Minkkinen and Daido Moriyama. Key encounters have formed his photographic approach to bring him to social contact and staging. He then abandons computer sciences to exploit his bubbling creativity, full of sensitivity. The human being is then at the center of his work, after the fashion of the "Self" (Freud), which lies between unconscious desires and moral standards. Affected by the death of a friend, he undertakes a strong introspection that will highlight neuroses that he crystallizes through nude photography. In 2011, he begins the IN SITU project about mental escape, a phenomenon that concerns him. In 2014, he develops a shooting process to build the AQUATIC series. In 2017, the images encounter a great success, are published and exhibited at the FEPN in Arles, namely with the festival bill. With his installation in the heart of the Saint Anne chapel, Francis goes beyond photography to offer a contemporary art installation which sublimates female energy. Artist Statement "The human element is a fantastic material. I like observing bodies, their movements and expressions, sometimes with the idea of appropriating them. The part that fascinates me the most, because almost inaccessible, is the soul, at the head of the personality with its tastes, emotions and especially its history. Then comes the complex relationship to society, which evolves with environment and time. I approach the person naturally with openness and sensitivity, on the lookout for singularities that may resonate in me. From object, 'the other' becomes a proper individual, whose distinguishable particles and sub-particles I highlight. The main theme of the work I am presenting is that of the relation to reality: whereas the physical body is submitted to the present, imagination is free to roam without constraint in time and space. The ambiguity of this permanent oscillation between rational and irrational, resignation and escape, motivates me in my research where letting go is the motto. The plurality of my projects illustrates the richness of mental spaces that I have visited. Whether dreamlike or real, I put limits only on the possible interpretation of the codes that I use."
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Call for Entries
AAP Magazine #58 B&W
Publish your work in our printed magazine and win $1,000 cash prizes
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