Matt Lief Anderson’s Affinity for Travel and Landscape Photography

All images and words by Matt Lief Anderson. Used with permission.

I’m Matt Lief Anderson, a music photographer based in Austin, Texas. I work mostly for Pitchfork and Vice and travel the world shooting bands on tour and music festivals. I like to shoot landscapes and travel photos when I’m not on assignment. I don’t see myself tied to any specific photographic genre and mostly take inspiration from films. I love shooting portraits of musicians in studio and on location and I feel very lucky to make my living that way, but I also have a need to retreat to nature as much as possible. I have a deep connection with travel stemming from my time living and working as a teacher in Asia and Europe for several years as well as my day job of music photography which sends me to some incredible corners of the world.

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Matthew Hall Finds Beautiful Abstracts in Everyday Objects

Images and words by Matthew Hall. Used with permission.

When I was young my grandfather subscribed me to National Geographic. I remember the vivid images and stories of foreign places and thinking how lucky these people were to be working in such a field. I also thought how easy it would be to have a job as one of those photographers, traveling the world with nothing more necessary than the ability to push a button. It was years later that I began looking at the artistic side of photography, beginning with Edward Weston. Staring at his photos of peppers my initial thought was ‘so what, it’s a pepper’. Then, I began to see the sculptural quality of the image, and the transformative power of photography was opened up to me.

I continued to explore the works of numerous photographers — Josef Sudek, Henri Cartier Bresson, Ralph Gibson, Ernst Haas, Aaron Siskind, and too many others to list, but always I was most drawn to those who emphasized the transformation of the world into something else.

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Maria Sahai’s Landscape and Nature Photography is an Ode to the Arctic

All images and text by Maria Sahai. Used with permission.

I’m Maria Sahai, and I was born in a remote Russian Far East on the shores of Sea of Okhotsk, raised in the steppes of Southern Kazakhstan, and worked and lived all over the world since then. My family, working in the Soviet military, traveled around the former Soviet Union, including less known areas where polar bears roam freely, the aurora borealis can be seen for months, and the indigenous chukchas live in seal skin-covered yarangas.

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Kuo-Chiao Lin: Moving from Street Photography into Portraiture

All images and text by Kuo-Chiao Lin. Used with Permission.

I’m Kuo-Chiao Lin, a Taipei native, a New Yorker at heart, and a vagabond wandering back and forth over New York City, Tokyo, Montreal, and Taipei. I’m an official Fujifilm X-Photographer who, to all genres of photography and visual stories, applies street photography as a method, a way to accept randomness/chaos and react to what’s happening around. I shoot exclusively with the Fujifilm X Series for it strikes a balance between functionality, image quality, and ergonomic simplicity. I believe in minimal equipment (X-Pro2 paired with the ultimate F2 compact WR lens: XF23/35mm) and lighting setup (natural light or Nissin i60A only).

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Sebastian Jacobitz Captures the Faces of Berlin’s Famed Shopping Street

Images and words by Sebastian Jacobitz. Used with permission.

I am Sebastian Jacobitz, a street photographer from Berlin and member of the collective Berlin1020. Since 2015, street photography has been a passion of mine and I love wandering through the city, capturing the beautiful moments of this city. For my usual stroll, I use the Fuji X100F or the Ricoh GR II and an off-camera flash. With this setup, I get really close to people to provoke their emotions and get the viewer close to the scene.

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How Tammy Ruggles Overcomes Limited Vision through Photography

All images by Tammy Ruggles. Used with permission.

My name is Tammy Ruggles and I’m a legally blind photographer. To practice photography, I use a point-and-shoot camera set on auto, a 47-inch monitor, my former art education, and my remaining vision. I’m more of a fine art photographer than a commercial photographer. I’ve been an artist since the age of 12, mainly sketching. I studied art in high school and college, so art heavily influences my taste and style when it comes to photography.

As for my equipment, I use a Sony Rx100 set on auto, and prefer my photos be black and white, since I have a visual impairment known as Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), where high contrast is seen more easily by my eyes.

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Jack Ronnel’s Story of Boxers in Monochrome Deliver a Classic Look

All images by Jack Ronnel. Used with permission.

My name is Jack Ronnel and I specialize in black and white fine art and documentary-style portrait photography. I work with film as well as digital. I love reportage photography and portraits. With documentary style portraits, without my intervention in any way, as opposed to directed photography, I am able to get the real human interaction, emotion and spontaneity, creating an involvement that the viewer can experience. I shoot reportage photography with musicians, artists, artisans, craftsmen and professionals. In my photography, I enjoy emulating classic b&w film, with a contrasty and grainy look that appear more “alive”, creating drama and a classical quality. I develop and print my work, as I enjoy the process very much.

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Mads Peter Iversen Revels in the Beauty of Nature Through Landscape Photography

All images and words by Mads Peter Iversen. Used with permission.

Danish photographer Mads Peter Iversen may have eased into photography from commercial videography, but you can say taking his sweet time enabled him to discover the kind of work that resonates with him. In between juggling his time in Aarhus and Silkeborg, he’s jumping from one breathtaking location to the other to create his beautiful fine art landscape snaps. In this submission, he shares with us the beauty and grandeur of nature that motivates him to do artful landscape photography.

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Up Close and Personal with Underground Rock Shows in Pittsburgh

All images by Nick Seyler. Used with permission.

My name is Nick Seyler, and I’m a 21 year old music and portrait photographer from Pittsburgh PA. I focus predominantly on the energy that live music has, but mostly in the underground (literally underground basement shows) DIY music scene here in Pittsburgh. My first introduction to photography was my grandfather’s polaroid camera that I would play with until I eventually ran out of film. I then bought my first camera when I was 15. That’s roughly the age when most of my friends were playing in metal and hardcore bands in the tristate area, and I would go along with them to photograph their sets.

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Andrew Kurcan on Capturing the Quiet, Unspoken Moments of Grief

All images and text by Andrew Kurcan. Used with permission.

For me, photography is not only a profession, but a way to cope, interact and understand the world around me. Earlier this year my brother-in-law died unexpectedly. Weeks later my mother passed away — equally unexpectedly. 2017 has been defined by grief — the loss, the anger, the confusion, the isolation — often a full gamut of emotions. Over the past few months, I have been shooting a photo essay titled On Grief as an attempt to capture those quiet moments when one is left with nothing but their own thoughts. Being a visual creative, I find that I cope and express best with imagery.

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Eric Davidove’s Street Portraits Show the Faces of San Francisco’s BDSM Culture (NSFW)

All images and text by Eric Davidove. Used with permission.

I am Eric Davidove, a photo hobbyist living in the San Francisco Bay area, who loves taking street photos. My camera is the Sony a6500 and my two lenses are the Zeiss 16-70mm and Zeiss 24mm. I have been shooting for about 2 years and picked up the hobby during a time when I suddenly found myself unemployed. Taking photos helped me deal with the stress and anxiety of unemployment, which lasted a year. For many years, a long time ago, I was a street mime who observed and interacted with people. Becoming a street photographer was a natural progression, and the mime experience helped me better anticipate and capture street moments, and interact with strangers.

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Michael Schauer Weaves Stunning Stories Into Landscape Photography

All images and text by Michael Schauer. Used with permission.

I am Michael Schauer, a 27-year-old landscape and nature photographer, photographing since late 2014 and hailing from Munich, Germany. During my Sociology studies I picked up photography as a new creative outlet and started out with the forests and mountains surrounding Munich but soon found that my heart beats for the cold and northern landscapes. In my work I look for new ways to interpret places and stories through my own creative point of view, giving it a surreal twist in hopes that the viewer can relate to the feeling of solitude and calmness.

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Ryan Ochoa Explores Identity and Mental Health Through Film Photography

All images and text by Ryan Ochoa. Used with permission.

My name is Ryan Ochoa and I am a photographer based in San Francisco. I work mainly with film, specifically 35mm since I believe it adds a rawness that reflects my hyper-sensitivity to the world — both the pain and the beauty within it. My go to camera is the Canon AE-1, and all photos in this series were shot on this camera. Topics I like to explore in my work include gender and identity, the illusion of the American Dream (a nightmare), as well as the distortion of image through light and color. I am a young queer boy who deals with Borderline Personality Disorder (which causes my hands to shake leading to the blurriness of some of my images) and these aspects of my identity heavily influence how I view the world behind the lens. Continue reading…

I’m Unashamedly a Photographer Suffering from Gear Acquisition Syndrome

I’m an amateur photo-hobbyist living in Tokyo, Japan. I picked up photography around 3 years ago, thinking I could jump into a new realm of the world that I’ve never understood before. Prior to picking up a camera, I was a normal college undergrad who put studying first before most of my hobbies; however, photography taught me that I should cherish the people and the moments around me and try to remember them especially as a foreigner living in a wonderful place like Japan.

I am unashamedly a man “suffering” from G.A.S., and I shoot with whatever I find interesting within my range of affordability. This came in the forms of Nikon D810 (and D800, D750, Df etc.), Canon 5D Mark III (and IV), Fujifilm X-Pro2 (and X-T1) all the way to Hasselblad 500C/M, Pentacon Six TL, Nikon F3 and many other cameras.

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Manu Grinspan: Colorful Street Photography In Cities at Night

All images and text by Manu Grinspan. Used with permission.

I’m Manu Grinspan, a photographic artist specializing in evocative images of the living world and best known for my ‘unique-in-style’ color photography. Born in Belgium, I moved to Israel in 1996 and started to discover my passion for photography. Within a short time, I started my life as an international traveling street photographer. My photographs of people and street reveal a compassionate understanding of my subjects and my unique photographic touch.

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Cody Schultz: I Was Going to Be a Landscape Photographer

All images and text by Cody Schultz. Used with permission.

I am Cody Schultz, a landscape photographer who specializes in creating beautiful works of art in tones of gray. While I had originally began my journey into the realm of photography by creating portrait and fashion work, I found myself burnt out. My stress levels were higher than ever and having been in only 10th grade at the time, I could not handle it any longer. In the summer of 2016, I found Thomas Heaton’s YouTube channel and was immediately hooked: I was going to be a landscape photographer. And as if that was not difficult enough of a field to stick out in, I decided as a New Year’s Resolution for 2017 that my portfolio would be strictly black and white, at least for that year. Now, I am simply hoping to make a name for myself in a world full of nobodies.

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Tom Bradley’s Surreal Portraiture Explores His Relationship with Dhaka

All images by Tom Bradley. Used with permission.

My name is Tom Bradley. I was brought up in London, where I’m generally based, but I spend much of the time abroad. I’ve been pretty lucky these last eight or so years and traveled quite extensively across west and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and one or two other places in the world. I suppose most of my work would be referred to as documentary, but as in the case of this particular work here (which I wouldn’t describe as documentary at all), I go wherever I’m drawn. The common (and very general) theme is that I tend to photograph life around me without setting things up or posing people. I’ve done projects on Syrian refugees, prisoners in Armenia, stone miners in Bangladesh, a small LGBT community in Bangladesh, and perhaps most extensively leprosy.

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Stepping Out of Your Head with Street Photography: The Meditative Process

My name is Tom Souzer and I’m a self taught photographer from Pittsburgh PA . I’ve been shooting the streets of Pittsburgh for about two years now. I tend to focus on emotions, expressions, and fleeting moments. I personally like to not be seen while I’m out shooting (although it does happen from time to time) because I want to capture moments as they happen. I edit mostly in black and white using lightroom then Silver Efex Pro. I shoot with a fuji x pro 1 using either a 18mm or 23mm lens. When people hear that I shoot digital they automatically think that I’m using autofocus but I would say 99% of the time I’m zone focusing.

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I Find Fashion Photography So Boring; But Not Street Photography

For work I shoot commercial and fashion photography and really, it is so fucking boring. So in my own time I just love to photograph humanity. I want to turn the mundane into something beautiful. I think this helps me cope with life, making the ordinary extraordinary. I have a Leica Q and like to take my camera out when I walk my dog every day. At school I wanted to paint photos realistically but I was crap, so I figured I could just take photos instead. I really enjoyed it and got a rush from the results and I just never stopped.

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On How Photography Taught Me to Cherish Moments

All images and text by Michael Lin. Used with permission.

I’m an amateur photo-hobbyist living in Tokyo, Japan. I picked up photography around 3 years ago, thinking I could jump into a new realm of world that I’ve never understood before. Prior to picking up a camera, I was a normal college undergrad who puts studying first before most of my hobbies; however, photography taught me that I should cherish the people and the moments around me and try to remember them especially as a foreigner living in a wonderful place like Japan.

I am unashamedly a man “suffering” from G.A.S., and I shoot with whatever I find interesting within my range of affordability. This came in the forms of Nikon D810 (and D800, D750, Df etc.), Canon 5D Mark III (and IV), Fujifilm X-Pro2 (and X-T1) all the way to Hasselblad 500C/M, Pentacon Six TL, Nikon F3 and many other cameras.

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Jamie Saechao: Striving for Elegance in Wedding Photography

All images by text by Jamie Saechao. Used with permission.

I fell in love with photography while working at a job I absolutely hated! Sometimes you have to find what you don’t love to do in order to discover what your true calling is. I needed a creative outlet and photography allowed me to express myself, connect with others, and feel alive again. I especially loved connecting with other women, celebrating their beauty, and building confidence through portraiture.

I strive to create images that are elegant, timeless, and romantic. I feel most accomplished when I’ve created a portrait that makes someone stop and look a second time… although to be honest I think those images come to you, in the midst of creating. It’s something you have to wait patiently for.

I have also found great joy in documenting nature on film…there is a certain joy in capturing the beauty and simplicity of combining the two!

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