Skating in the Appalachian Mountains and capturing Moscow under technology’s spell: these photographers, published in Fotografia Magazine, explore the quirks of humanity
In a monthly collaboration with Fotografia magazine, we delve into the works of the newest creative crop. From the stark Barcelona metropolis to the urban lives of skaters in the Appalachian Mountains and the tech-happy inhabitants of Moscow, photographers from across the globe illustrate the fascinating worldly goings on in overlooked corners and crevasses. Here, Fotografia's founder and editor Graziano Ferri talks through the most exciting emerging artists on the site this month.
RYAN SCHUDE
“American photographer Ryan Schude creates fantastic tableaux vivants so rich with details and with so many subjects, each one up to their own thing, that it will take you a while to get an idea of everything that is happening in a photograph as you scan it from one side to the other. Schude’s imagination concocts all sorts of different stories and scenarios, from over-the-top parties to family reunions, with humor being often - but not always - the main ingredient of his works.”
SALVI DANÉS
“Talented Spanish photographer Salvi Danés gets a knack out of putting images together to suggest a story rather than tell one. For her latest photobook Blackcelona, Danés brilliantly sequenced a mix of original photographs, found pictures and illustrations to construct the representation of a bleak metropolis inspired by her own city, Barcelona. The images show such things as guns, skeletons, secret passages and deadpan humans, creating a noir, eerie atmosphere that is not new to her work.”
ESTHER HOVERS
“Did you know that surveillance cameras try to predict criminal intent of passers-by through an algorithm based on eight different behavioral anomalies? This was the information Dutch photographer Esther Hovers used as a starting point for her new series False Positives. The project consists of a group of both photographs and drawings that depict the eight anomalies considered as possible signs of deviant behaviour (Hovers describes the anomalies in more detail this interview).”
ALESSANDRO CALABRESE
“Who is the author when an image is created by overlaying dozens of anonymous photographs found on Google? Reflecting on the idea of authorship in photography in the Internet era is the theme at the heart of A Failed Entertainment, the latest project by Italian photographer Alessandro Calabrese. To create these intriguing images, Calabrese queried a three year worth of his own photographs with Google’s Image Reverse Search, and worked with the pictures returned by the search engine rather than his original photos.”
NOORA-MAIJA TOKEE
“Shot in parts of the world as distant as Finland and Central America, the beautiful pictures of Finnish photographer Noora-Maija Tokee from her series Anima Mundi celebrate the human being as at one with nature. Noora explains that the project was born in reaction to the mankind’s exploitation of nature: “My pictures turn the idea of power relations between men and nature upside down. Through my images, I return to a past when nature was not under our control” (more photos here).”
CHRISTOPHER RODRIGUEZ
“Between Artifice and the Sublime, the latest body of work by American photographer Christopher Rodriguez, leaves you a bit disoriented. Dramatic landscapes are alternated with photos of flock of birds, two men engaging in a fight, a girl emerging from a pool, a truck flipped on its side in the middle of a serene scenario. What keeps the disparate subject matter together is the use of colour: the hues are slightly but surely hyperreal, as if colours were enhanced, contributing to the impression of artificiality Rodriguez seeks with these images.”
OLIVIA ARTHUR
“In 1961, a ship sank right off the port of Dubai, killing 238 passengers on board. When she read about this tragic episode, Magnum photographer Olivia Arthur had the idea of photographing the Arab city as if she was a survivor of the shipwreck returning to Dubai over fifty years later – how would she see it? What would she think of how radically the city changed in that relatively short span of time? Arthur’s Stranger series is also available as a photobook entirely printed on transparent paper to hint at both the waters that swallowed the ship and the layering of memories.”
MORGAN ASHCOM
“The Appalachian Mountains have attracted many photographers over the decades, most of them in an attempt to challenge the stereotype of a poor region inhabited by lazy hillbillies. American photographer Morgan Ashcom recently completed Leviathan, a body of work about an Appalachian remote community of skaters; but documenting how the people of Appalachia live was not his priority. Ashcom was initially interested as he saw influences of his childhood on a secluded farm and his later urban life as a skater coming together in the same place, at the same time.”
DMITRY LOOKIANOV
“Imagine Moscow’s suburbs at winter: large residential areas and tall buildings looking just like the next one. Everything is covered with snow and no one is in the streets; instead, the Muscovites are locked up in their apartments, looking for happiness in high technology and perfect physical shape. This is how Dmitry Lookianov envisions Moscow’s future in his latest series Instant Tomorrow: “I wanted it to look like an IKEA catalogue but full of anxiety and emptiness”.”
VIKTORIJA EKSTA
“Latvian photographer Viktorija Eksta stumbled upon an old abandoned house in Latvia’s countryside one day while doing some research as an assistant photographer. The house was in quite good conditions: the people were gone, but clothes and any kind of everyday objects were all there. Inspired by the place’s strange atmosphere, Viktorija created a series of self-portraits in which she impersonates the woman who used to inhabit the house, wearing her clothes and using her things.”
