Helena Ernst | Cover | Helena Ernst is a photographer and filmmaker based in Paris, France. Originally from Colorado, her interest in image-making began when she was 13, when she spent her free time creating videos for Youtube. Her current work has evolved into emotional representations of her dreams, memories, and values; compelled by the surrealist movement, and drawing from philosophical and ethical theories that question morality and reality. She distorts and blurs reality through her work, experimenting with alternative analogue processes and pushing the viewer to question their interpretations of existence. Helena seeks to explore the nuances of life and death on Earth for all living creatures, researching and creating her own meanings of time, memory, and loss. Helena is currently obtaining her MFA in Photography and Image-Making at Paris College of Art in Paris, France.

Ron Cooper | America Latina | Ron Cooper is an American travel, documentary and portrait photographer. He travels extensively in pursuit of images that reflect local cultures and people. His emphasis in recent years has been on portraiture, with the objective of introducing viewers to the people he meets and photographs at home and around the world. His work has been exhibited in more than 50 juried group shows in the United States and Europe. He has presented six solo exhibitions and his photographs have been published in consumer magazines, newspapers and photography journals. Ron has published two books: We Are Santa (2020, Princeton Architectural Press, New York), and Celebrating Humanity: Faces from Five Continents (2021, Studio Photiq, Royal Leamington Spa, United Kingdom).

Daniel Haeker | Winter maps | I was born and raised in Berlin, Germany, where I also studied law. But my dream had always been to become a professional musician, so I took up playing drums, timpani and percussion and ended up studying music in Essen, Copenhagen and Dusseldorf. Ever since 1995, I’m a permanent member of the Wuppertal Symphony as a timpanist and percussionist. Now, in case you’re wondering where photography comes in – after my first wife divorced me, I was left with a camera that was actually more hers than mine, and I started to use it. That was in 2007, the camera was a Panasonic bridge camera, my orchestra went on tour to Italy and to Japan, and I found myself taking pictures every minute I could spare. That same year in November, I bought my first DSLR, a Pentax, and in December, I had my first paid assignment as a photographer.

Marcel Rebro | Nenet reindeer shepherd | The first time I smelled developer was in 1985 when I was memeber of National Sport Center (Parachuting) in Lučenec. With the tiny Smena 8M camera, I was trying to capture my parachuting colleagues when descending, jumping out of a plane, or even during the free fall. Burning glass and red light became my loyal friends. Later, with the switch to colour film, I, in turn, became a friend of photo labs. In 2001, I switched to digital and after numerous changes of hardware I remained loyal to Olympus mirrorless. Paradoxically, this change led to a gradual return to black and white photography and a classic photo film. It started with ‘ordinary’ black and white documentary and street photos, and then along came karate, landscapes, and infrared photography. Today, I work almost exclusively in black and white. When taking a black and white photo, I don’t need to care too much about balancing the white or about colour profiles in printing and I can enjoy the actual process of taking photographs much more. Black and white photography is in fact quite liberating. Genres that I specialise in are simultaneously my hobbies – karate, skiing, backcountry skiing, scuba diving, mountain hiking, and travelling.

Alejandra López Zaballa | I dry my hair in the wind | Alejandra is a Spanish and Mexican professional photographer, specialized in street, travel, visual storytelling and people photography. She starts her projects with a concept, a strategy that takes her to travel to those places where she can explore deeper the subjects she wishes to communicate and express with her passion. She studied photography at the London School of Photography and ICP in NYC. She feels fortunate to have had great mentors including Mary Ellen Mark. After 14 years devoting her career as a Human Resources professional in American and British multinationals, in October 2011, Alejandra created a Photography company in Thailand. Two years later she moved as a freelance photographer to Mexico City. Having lived in 9 countries and visited more than 70 has contributed to her passion of giving voice to people from many different cultures and backgrounds.

Tiers Van Brussel | Alleyways | Ties van Brussel was born in Sint-Oedenrode in 1984, and raised in the adjacent municipality of Son en Breugel, in the south of the Netherlands. He is a medical doctor, working and residing in Amsterdam. Next to his work as a physician, he loves to work as a photographer and illustrator, acting as contributor to Getty Images and exhibiting his photo work internationally. From his early youth, anything with visual impact was a reason for intrigue. In childhood, he spent much time on gazing at imagery found in old comics, old MAD magazines, and was struck by the colours and composition of the compelling cinematographical wonder from filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Paul Verhoeven. He enjoyed drawing his own comics, primarily in gag-format. Many projects stranded halfway, hindered by a constant innate sensation of impatience as production took too much time. Thankfully, during his PhD-fellowship he was allowed to focus more and more on photography, with one camera-click to produce imagery.