David Benjamin Sherry photographed this month’s cover star Kristen Stewart  in a Hollywood-in-the-Eighties-inspired shoot with stylist, Katie Shillingford. “I have never seen ‘Twilight’”, confessed Sherry, “but I was researching lots of images of her. I was inspired by the paintings of Patrick Nagel. I was reminded of a young Jodie Foster or Winona Ryder. I tried to portray a new way of seeing this blossoming teenage actress.”

Also rising is Sherry’s profile with striking work for Dazed, Another Man and i-D complementing his work as an artist. Following a well-received solo exhibition in Berlin last year, Sherry recently curated a group show at The Bellwether Gallery in New York featuring work by friends like Marc Hundley and Michele Abeles, going under a title pinched from Allen Ginsberg, A Song for Those in Search of What They Came With.  “That was an awesome opportunity to work with my closest friends and get their work out there and tie it in with this thread that runs between each of us that is making art and being there with each other and going though life in a similar way.”

His first monograph with Damiani, titled It’s Time due out this Fall, perfectly captures the occultist, darkly fantastical element of Sherry’s work. You can see elements of Jean Genet, Kenneth Anger and Lucas Samaras as Sherry transforms himself and his environment. His new work sees him delving deeper in himself – “I’ve been shooting less landscapes then before - and thinking (photographically) a lot about the people I’m closest too; my friends, muses, lovers and myself.” For Sherry, the recession offers him the perfect opportunity to escape through his art. “It’s a wonderful time because you’re left to your own devices, just to produce and make your work. It’s an opportunity for me to react to what I feel inside. I feel it’s the most honest time. This is a turning point in society and culture.”