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Simon Johansson
Simon Johansson
Simon Johansson

Simon Johansson

Country: Sweden

Simon Johansson is a self-taught freelance photographer and journalist/writer based in Stockholm, Sweden. Member of The Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF). Simon has been working as a freelance photographer since 2000. He takes both editorial and commercial assignments. 2016 he released his first photo book "Across the Bridge" (Journal) about everyday life on the Swedish island Öland. In 2018 his second photo book, "A Familiar Place" (Journal), was released and this time it's about everyday life in Stockholm. In November 2019 his third book "The Young Ones" (Journal) will be released. Simon works in a classic documentary black and white tradition and he rarely takes a photo if it's not a human being in the frame. Simon wants his photos to be timeless, therefore he avoids modern references and time markers.
 

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Victor Moriyama
Brazil
1984
Victor Moriyama is a freelance Brazilian photographer based in São Paulo that covers the region of South America and the problems concerning the Amazon Rainforest for the international press, mainly for The New York Times. His work discloses an humanist kind of photography, committed to document the processes of violence that prevail in social and environmental relations in Brazil and the Amazonian region. Agrarian Conflicts, the deforestation and conservation of the Amazon Rainforest, the genocide of the indigenous populations, the acceleration of climate change and the violation human rights have been guiding themes of his career in the last few years. Victor also collaborates regularly with NGOs, such as Greenpeace, Instituto Socioambiental, iCRC and UNHCR. Concerned with the shortage of reported on the conflicts in the Amazon, Victor has created, in 2019, the project @historiasamazonicas a community of Latin American photographers committed to document the current processes that are taking place in the Amazon, with the objective of defining and changing the present. The idea is to expand the world's knowledge concerning the conflicts that surround the Amazon and to engage the global society into thinking and fighting the deforestation of the greatest rainforests in the world. Victor is also a member of the @everydayclimatechange, a group of photographers from the five continents engaged and committed to climate change. Mr. Moriyama is also a photography columnist for the Brazilian edition of the Spanish Newspaper El País. About Amazon Deforestation "'Nature will die in embers', told me Davi Yanomami, one of Brazil's greatest indigenous leaders, during the 70 days I spent doing field work in the Amazon Rainforest. The greatest rainforest in the world is dying. The year of 2019 was the worst in history for the Amazon Forest. The deforestation of the vegetation cover set a record and increased 29.5% in relation to 2018, adding up to a total loss of 9.762km² of forest. However, this process isn't new: the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest has been going on for decades, with the connivance of the rulers of the South American countries, whose actions are utterly inefficient when it comes to trying to reverse this context of destruction. This situation became even more severe, after the elected right-wing government took office in 2019. Stimulated by official speech, deforestation agents set thousands of hectares on fire, with the certainty of impunity. As an immediate reaction, thousands of young people started protesting against the destruction of the rainforest, in dozens of cities worldwide, headed by Greta Thunberg. This series of images is the result of my immersive work in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, where I have documented the advances of the deforestation in a special piece for The New York Times." -- Victor Moriyama
Debbie Miracolo
United States
1953
Debbie Miracolo is a photo-based artist interested in transition and passage of time. A former graphic designer with a fine art education, she creates inventive images with a sharp attention to detail and composition, often with a generous sprinkling of emotion and whimsy. She attributes her outlook to memories of an introverted childhood infused with make-believe worlds and storybooks. By transforming rather than documenting truth, her interpretations of humanity, nature, and train travel serve as seductive invitations to linger, question, and weave a story of one's own. Growing up as an only child in a home with her European parents and grandmother made her childhood reality different from that of her friends. She was introverted, shy, and intimidated by the world around her, but found that creating art alleviated some of the loneliness she felt and helped her to express her feelings. By the time she finished high school she had become skilled at drawing and painting. At Rochester Institute of Technology she earned a BFA, studying printmaking, photography, and art history, and later moved to New York City to pursue her artistic dreams. There she began a 15-year career as a graphic designer in the busy publishing and advertising industries. With the birth of her two sons and subsequent move to a Victorian house in a suburban New York town, she shifted all of her energy, diving into motherhood, and for several years the creative spirit within her lay patiently dormant. As most artists know however, that spirit never truly leaves, and as her children approached adolescence she could sense it regaining strength. Feeling drawn to photography once again, Debbie made the decision to revisit the medium as an art form. She began taking classes and workshops at the International Center of Photography, gaining mastery of the craft and honing her own personal vision. From there, there was no turning back, and she has been making and focusing on her art ever since. Debbie's work has been published, notably on the cover of Geo Wissen Magazine and most recently, in F-Stop Magazine. Her images have been exhibited in a number of galleries in New York City, Boston, St. Petersburg, Fl. and Middlebury, Vt. as well as online media. About Imagined Moments from the Porch "It was a bewildering, absurd world I found myself in during the first chaotic months of the Covid-19 outbreak. Through incongruous juxtapositions, metaphor and a bit of whimsy, these photo composites of my neighbors portray the surreal, confused and off-kilter feeling I had then, and which still lingers today. With many of us sheltering in place, pedestrian traffic had increased remarkably in my quiet town. People paraded by on the street, some of whom I'd never seen before; young and old, parents with children, and more and more dogs as the weeks went by. I began to photograph what I observed from the steps of my front porch and, over a period of four spring and summer months, the project evolved. The idea to reconstruct the photographs came to me when I needed to switch out a person, and with that one manipulation, it became clear that I would take the series in a more imaginative direction. As the virus numbers increased and the news became more alarming by the day, I digitally rearranged my characters in more unlikely ways. It was as if my wish to change reality and my doubts about what to believe were coming through in my images. Imagined Moments from the Porch is a kind of theatrical narrative made up of fictional scenes I compose to depict my off-beat version of these dark, confusing, and upside-down days." -- Debbie Miracolo
Meryl Meisler
United States
1951
Meryl Meisler was born 1951 in the South Bronx and raised in North Massapequa, Long Island, New York. Inspired by photographers such as Diane Arbus and Jacques Henri Lartigue, as well as her dad, Jack, and grandfather, Murray Meisler, Meryl Meisler began photographing herself, family, and friends while enrolled in a photography class taught by Cavalliere Ketchum at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1975, Meisler returned to New York City and studied with Lisette Model, continuing to photograph her hometown and the city around her. After working as a freelance illustrator by day, Meisler frequented and photographed the infamous New York discos. As a 1978 C.E.T.A. Artist grant recipient, Meisler created a portfolio of photographs which explored her Jewish identity for the American Jewish Congress. After C.E.T.A., Meisler began a three-decade career as a NYC Public School Art Teacher. Meisler has received fellowships, grants, and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Light Work, YADDO, The Puffin Foundation, Time Warner, Artists Space, C.E.T.A., the China Institute, and the Japan Society. Her work has been exhibited at the Zillman Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, Dia Art Foundation, MASS MoCA, Islip Art Museum, Annenberg Space for Photography, the New Museum for Contemporary Art, New-York Historical Society,Steven Kasher Gallery, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and in public spaces including Grand Central Terminal, South Street Seaport, Photoville, Vichy Portrait Festival, and throughout the New York City subway system. Her work is in the permanent collections of the American Jewish Congress,ARTPPOOL Budapest, AT&T, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Brooklyn HistoricalSociety, Book Art Museum (Poland), Columbia University, Emory University, Islip Art Museum,the Library of Congress, Musée de la Poste Paris, Smithsonian Institute, University of Iowa, and The Waskomium, and can be found in the artist book collections of Carnegie Mellon, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Chrysler Museum, the Museum of Modern Art NYC, Metronome Library, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Upon retiring from the New York City public schools, Meisler began releasing large bodies of previously unseen work. Her monographs have received international acclaim. A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick (Bizarre, 2014) juxtaposes her zenith of disco photos with images of the burned out yet beautiful neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn in the 1980s. Her second book, Purgatory & Paradise: Sassy ‘70s, Suburbia &The City (Bizarre, 2015), contrasts intimate images of home life on Long Island alongside New York City street and night life. Her latest book New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco (Parallel Pictures Press 2021) revieals darker sides of disco and takes the viewer into 1980s Bushwick school and street life. Meryl Meisler lives and works in New York City and Woodstock, New York. NIGHTLIFE NYC, 1977-2023 In 1975 Meryl Meisler moved to New York City. Two years later its most notorious and celebrated nightclub, Studio 54, opened its doors. Meisler immersed herself in the nightlife scene and began to make images of Studio 54's colorful pleasure-seekers, along with some of its most noted party-goers such as Andy Warhol. The photographer states, ''When Studio 54 opened, my friend JudiJupiter got us on the guest list as photographers. The doorman took a liking and parted the door for us night after night. Studio 54's fabulous changing décor, DJs, sound system, and incredible crowds of diverse ages, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and gender identities were thrilling.'' Fueled by the excitement of Manhattan's exploding club scene of the late 70s, Meisler photographed fashionable night revelers and celebrities at a number of other hedonistic havens that popped up throughout the City. Legendary clubs such as Copacabana, Paradise Garage, Hurrah, Xenon, GG's Barnum Room, CBGB, and erotic Go-Go bars, provided an endless and diverse array of extravagant subjects immersed in dance and party spectacles. Each venue had its own unique identity, clientele, and energy. Some club-goers who were unable to gain admission to Studio 54 or wanted a change of scenery explored the crowd, vibe, and music at other night spots. Meisler adds, ''On nights off, club owners and cohorts would party at other discos.'' It was on one of these evenings that Meisler photographed Halston and Studio 54 co-owner Steve Rubell comfortably huddled together on a couch at the club Hurrah. A monogamous relationship, full-time art teaching job, and the onset of the AIDS epidemic prompted the photographer's foray into nightlife culture to dramatically slow down around 1981. Meisler kept her collection of images to herself, as a sort of private visual memoir, until an encounter in 2014 at the drag & burlesque bar BIZARRE, in Bushwick. Many of the club's performers and the scene they created were reminiscent of the freedom and energy that abounded during New York City's nightlife heyday in the late 70s. This emerging scene with its emphasis on inclusion, costumed spectacles, and over-the-top revelry inspired Meisler to exhibit her earlier nightlife photos and, once again, document these venues of unbridled celebration. Dance and performance take center stage in many of Meisler's current images taken at clubs like Bushwick's House of Yes and Bartschland's roaming parties. These new club scenes with drag queens and kings, bodacious burlesque performers, acrobats, magicians, dancers, and disco divas add to the continuum of NYC's nightlife culture — honoring and elevating the dynamic spirit set forth by prior generations of party-goers. Article Street Walker
Lilian Caruana
United States
"As an immigrant from Italy growing up in New York, I was drawn to observing people and fascinated by differences in cultural behavior. I saw myself always faced with the dilemma of interpreting and reconciling home country with adopted country norms and behavior. Things that were perfectly normal in one culture could be foreign, even problematic, in the other. I developed “antennas” having to constantly read and interpret cultural cues or nuances in interactions with people. This feeling of being an outsider made me want to know more about people, how they lived, what they believed in. Seeking this, anthropology has been a lifelong study that I explore photographically. Photography has served as a passport that allows me entry to worlds normally closed to me. The central theme of my photography is individuals who are outside the mainstream of the larger society. I have photographed immigrants, punks and skinheads, Austrian farmers in the Italian Alps, inner city youth and gang members. My work explores how individuals who, either by choice or because they are seen as “the other,” live outside the dominant culture. My goal is to explore how individuals shape their identity and give voice to their own existence." REBELS: Punks and Skinheads of New York’s East Village "New York’s East Village has always been a haven for strivers, a home for immigrants, artists, poets and later the place where the punk movement was born. In 1984 I moved there and was fascinated by the young people walking around sporting body metal, torn clothing, tatoos, and chains. I photographed them in the streets, in the abandoned buildings they called home and in the clubs like CBGB where they played their hardcore music. These were young people who were looking for a more authentic way to be and did not see a place for themselves in mainstream society. It was exciting to see, in what appeared to be squalor and dissolution, something being born. With grit and ingenuity they took vacant lots filled with rubble and turned them into urban gardens, abandoned buildings into housing, and anger into art, music and community. Despite the drugs, poverty, and violence that battered the East Village at the time, the creative response was there, raw and beautiful, and that is what interested me."
Amy  Heller
United States
Award-winning artist Amy Heller, originally from Washington, DC, lives year-round on Cape Cod in Massachusetts with her husband. Amy earned her B.A. in fine art at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and her M.F.A. in photography at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC. She has been an exhibit specialist for Smithsonian Museums and National Gallery of Art, and a photo editor/researcher/curator for U.S. News & World Report, National Geographic, Microsoft, and the Newseum. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally and this includes: Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dimock Gallery at GWU, and many private collections. Statements: Here are statements for three of my portfolios of my lens-based, mixed-media artwork. In every instance I am always experimenting, playing, stretching the boundaries of the medium, and sometimes breaking the rules. Happy accidents occur along the way and I embrace the journey as much as the outcome. Time/Motion Study Multiples I have always loved dance and movement. As a child I was constantly in motion, dancing to the Beatles or pretending to be a ballerina. Even when seemingly at rest I "moved." I would lie on the living room couch, staring up at the cathedral ceiling, dreaming of the world upside-down. As an adult, I still have a fascination with motion and time: I am a child at heart, evidenced by my large collection of wind-up toys. I fell in love with the late 19th century human locomotion photographic experiments of Etienne-Jules Marey, Eadweard Muybridge, and others and started experimenting with the moving film stroboscopy technique of shooting motion. After many "happy accidents" I came up with my own version of Time/Motion studies, using the nude figure as a subject as well as a foil. I love the implied motion, the stopping of time, and the liminal spaces with abstract patterns created by photographic alchemy. I have examined the idea of motion and reality and seeing the unseen: what exists and yet cannot be perceived by the naked eye. Through the use of multiple imagery, the photographs reveal images that display surreal, dreamlike themes and moods, explore time, and produce on a flat surface, multi-dimensional creations in time and space. There are virtually limitless visual possibilities inherent in these techniques. My new series of reimagined Time/Motion Study Multiples combines the old (analog) with the new (digital) spanning three centuries of photographic exploration. The first time I shot the photos with black and white film and printed panoramic images. Now the second time around I am collaging and layering those earlier analog images in the digital world, creating new works of art. I am always experimenting with different ways of making art, and feel like I'm an artist in search of a medium that hasn't been invented yet. Maybe I will invent it?! Cyanotype on Fabric Mannequin Sculptures + Egg Sculptures I have been making cyanotypes for many years and have always loved the idea of mixing this 19th century process with 21st century digital technology and printing on non-traditional/unexpected surfaces such as fabric (cotton, dyed cotton, silk, velvet, etc.). "Still Lives" began as a series of figurative cyanotype photographs on fabric of classical sculpture from museums and art spaces. The sculptures are frozen in time/static, literally "still lives," revealing little else but their forms. The blue of the cyanotype adds to their "cold" stillness. "Still Lives" evolved into a series of three-dimensional, collaged mannequin sculptures, using the figure as a subject as well as a foil. The figures are collaged with cyanotype photographs of miscellaneous objects, and along with the collaged cyanotypes, the mannequins are veritable pin cushions stuck with decorative pins, acupuncture needles, wrapped with rope, etc. They are more narrative, exposed, and cerebral in nature and explore subjects such as astronomy, self-portrait, psychological themes, etc. The mannequins "wear" their stories on the surface, inviting the viewer to experience their own interpretation. Sculptural "Still Lives" morphed into explorations of time, motion, and dreams, first using manual turntables and then motorized turntables. A veritable "back to the future" for me, re-examining earlier themes used in my time/motion studies and combining my love of motion and cyanotypes. The cyanotype egg series is another exploration of my cyanotype sculptures. The eggs are collaged with cyanotype on fabric images of classical sculptures, everyday objects, etc. The egg form suggests renewal and rebirth, and at the same time is a simple, beautiful shape that is universal. LED Mixed-Media Cyanotypes on Silk Currently I have been making LED mixed-media cyanotypes on silk, exploring the theme of light as a metaphor for truth, revelation and understanding. The light reveals the multiple layers of collaged and sandwiched negatives, positives, and cyanotypes on silk, similar to an x-ray. The work is constantly evolving, and my creative process is somewhere between a stream of consciousness and a waking dream. Earlier LED mixed-media cyanotypes were smaller, multi-themed pieces and these newer ones are much larger. I am experimenting with wet cyanotypes in my new series "Sea/Me" using aquatic subject matter including prehistoric looking sea creatures (squid, octopi, skates, jellyfish, etc.), seaweed, and algae. Climate Change is something that is seen and felt firsthand on Cape Cod and is always on my mind. This series illuminates the flora and fauna and brings these often-hidden things to light. It is also a nod to Anna Atkins, and is inspired by fond childhood memories of beachcombing and swimming with my mother in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Keith Carter
United States
1948
Keith Carter is an American photographer who is known for his dreamlike black and white photographs of the figure, animals, and meaningful objects. He began photographing new and unknown realities in his native East Texas environment. This setting, with heavy folklore, religious, and cultural motifs, inspired Carter to create some of his most iconic images. Since his start in Texas, his work continues to push imaginative realms in his travels within the United States and across oceans. In 1970, Carter earned a Business Management degree from Lamar University and began his career as a commercial photographer while working on personal projects. These personal projects have resulted in a long career and over twelve published monographs. Carter currently teaches photography at Lamar University as a Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. He travels worldwide providing photography lectures and workshops for artists. Carter's fine art career has made him the recipient of an array of awards such as the 2009 Texas Medal of Arts, 2009 Artist of the Year presented by the Art League Houston and, in 1991 the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University presented Carter with the Lange-Taylor Prize. His work has also been featured in print and online publications, television, and film. In 2006, the Anthropy Arts in New York filmed a documentary about Carter's photographic work, and in 1997 CBS made an art segment on Carter's work for public television. He has extensively exhibited his work throughout the world and participated in over 100 solo exhibitions. Permanent collections of his work can be found in many private and public institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman House, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Dallas Museum of Art, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
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