All images and words by Joris Hermans. Used with permission.
I’m Joris Hermans, a documentary and portrait photographer based in Belgium. I started studying photography in Antwerp more than ten years ago and graduated in 2009. Ever since, I’ve been combining personal and freelance work while trying to travel as much as I could. I’ve won several awards among which a Nikon Press Photo Award in my country last year.
All images by Paulo Monteiro. Used with permission.
Wherever people settled and built towns and cities, they also crafted their collective spirit on myths, stories, and rituals. We can say that many street and documentary photographers have made it their mission to uncover these elements through their work. One of them is self-taught photographer Paulo Monteiro, who has been documenting his town, the autonomous region of Azores in Portugal.
All images and words by Wong Wei-Him. Used with permission.
My name is Wong Wei-Him, and I’m a street photographer and architect based Hong Kong, and founder of In-between design office.
I used to take photos as inspiration for my design projects, and I always carry my camera wherever I go, looking for beautiful architecture, spaces and details. It wasn’t until I came across the magnificent works of Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt and Japanese street photographer Shin Noguchi — so peculiar the way they look at culture and humanity — that I decided to make street photography a second passion of my life.
All images and text by Sam Parkes. Used with permission.
My name is Sam Parkes and I would describe my photography as poetic storytelling. By that I do not mean fiction or in any way set up, I don’t add things in the edit or take away. I try to create an individual photograph that tells a coherent and compelling story. I travel, I take to the streets, to the forests, to the temple, to the market place and I walk and watch and wait. My photography covers a broad spectrum; it deals with the complexities of human life, our daily activities and cross cultural exploration. But I do not limit myself to being labeled a ‘human photographer’. I am just as likely to photograph landscape, wildlife, architecture, whatever I feel is worth recording. Neither do I exclusively work in black and white or color, but whatever best tells the story and creates a photograph you want to look at more than once.
All images by Pete Barrett. Used with Permission.
Pete Barrett’s work remains a favorite of ours for his striking storytelling and visual style. Following our feature on his American Worker Project and a closer look at his image for a Travelocity ad campaign, we present another of his story-driven, documentary work. In his action-packed photo essay titled So That Others May Live, Pete captured the perilous training of the Coast Guard members stationed at Cape Disappointment. What was initially meant as an addition to the ongoing American Worker Project became a separate body of work with a compelling narrative of its own.
All images and words by Miguel Valencia. Used with permission.
My name is Miguel Valencia and I am documentary/street photographer with an obsession for capturing the epidemics in gangs, drugs, prostitution, and the homeless within the margins of South and South East San Diego, where these lifestyles influence dread and consume many communities here. My vision is to bring awareness, inspire and tell the stories about people really living those lifestyles, and for many of them to be heard because not too many of these persons in my captures will be alive or incarcerated. I don’t use anything fancy partly because of costs. However, I shoot with a Nikon D5300 and upgraded to an 18-200mm lens, and a strapped backpack for my camera.
All images and words by Jason Halayko. Used with permission.
My name is Jason Halayko, and I am a Canadian-born photographer who is now based in Tokyo, Japan. I have been doing photography for around 20 years (since many hours of time in the high school darkroom) and have been doing it as a full professional for the last 3 years. The main types of photography that do would be action sports, portraits, street photography, event photography, etc. I personally really love shooting action photography and working with the crazy athletes that take their sports to the extreme edge and even beyond at many times. This is what I am best known for as a photographer, and especially for my work with Red Bull here in Japan over the last 10 years.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
