Ari Jaaksi | Cover | This November was one of the darkest in recorded history. For the entire month, Finland had only 17 hours of direct sunlight. The remaining 703 hours were either night time or cloud covered. November also brought the first fragile snowflakes that reflected the little light there was. But with this limited light, what was lost in quantity, was gained in quality! To me, November is the best time for photography. I’m captivated by its beautiful darkness, wet streets, introverted people, and naked trees. So whenever the weather got miserable I grabbed my camera and headed out to the streets. Artificial light sources created interesting structures and the city was new and interesting. It is this newness that draws me outdoors regardless of cold and wet.  

Rebecca Moseman | Irisah Travelers | These series of images reflect my personal interactions with the Travelers I met at various halting sites, and illegal encampments
 in Galway and Limerick, outside of Dublin, and at 
the annual horse fair in Ballinasloe. I first encountered the Irish Travelers through a photographic trip to Killaloe, County Clare. Although they have a savory reputation for violence and criminal behavior, I found them to be generally friendly, approachable, and tragically misunderstood. I think it’s important to document the Travelers as we know them today, to collect a photographic record of a unique people and their traditions before they disappear. Although there is great interest in the Travelers outside of Ireland, they remain invisible to the Irish citizens who consider them a nuisance to society. Nevertheless the travelers are desperate to have their stories of heritage and hardship told, to be respected and understood for where they’ve come from and who they are now. As a woman and as a non-Irish citizen, I’ve been able to connect with the Travelers in a unique way. I offer no threat nor judgement, just curiosity & a willingness to listen and understand them.

Dina Goldstein| The 10 commandments  | This year I created a series based on my observations of the sea changes roiling America since the election of Donald Trump in 2016. The 10 Commandments juxtaposes the tenets of the Ten Commandments with America’s current political, social and cultural status. The Bible continues to play a large role in American public life, as politicians, candidates, and activists advert to it directly in support of a variety of positions, programs, and policies. By creating images, which include some of America’s most famous presidents, within the context of the Ten Commandments,I intend for the visual shock, incongruity, irony and metaphor to inspire discourse and insight into how American society has gone so astray, diverting away from the “American Dream.”

Jo Lauren | Portfolio | I am a photographer from Mersea Island, often influenced by my surroundings. Having always lived in this place, I have a deep connection with it, acting as a constant source of inspiration for my work. My images draw together concepts of place and memory, exploring narratives which combine the imagined and the real. It considers how narrative and perspective play a role in the interpretation of the photograph. I am interested in investigating the relationship between photographer, sitter and viewer and place, as part of my ongoing investigation into the contingent nature of truth. I graduated with a BA(Hons) in Photography from Norwich University of the Arts in 2018 and I am currently studying an MA in Photography. I have been successful in competitions in the past few years such as the Moscow International Foto Awards, the Association of Photographers Awards, Editor’s Choice for the British Journal of Photography and the Batsford Prize. Places where my work has been published include Wotisart Magazine and Average Art Magazine. My work has been exhibited in locations such as the Old Truman Brewery, The Printspace Gallery and Mother London. I held my first solo exhibition in Mersea Island in 2018.

Emmanuel Monzon | Urban Sprawl | Through my urban sprawl series, I want to photograph the in-between state found in the American landscape. So I capture places of transition, borders, passages from one world to another: am I leaving a city or entering a new environment?  In my artwork there is no judgment, no denunciation, only the picture itself. If I could sum up the common theme of my photos, it would be about emptiness, about silence. My pictures try to extract from the mundane urban landscape a form of estheticism. Where most people only pass through, I stop and look for some form of poetic beauty. I like repetition, I like series, and I like driving around. This generic title, “Urban Sprawl Emptiness”, was imposed by the seriality and the repetition of my subjects of predilections: the deserts of the American West and their poetic and chaotic processions of motorway interchanges, the cities without centers, the residential zones without inhabitants. I have the feeling that the extension, the identical and omnipresent reproduction of the trace of the humans on this territory, ultimately shrinks the world.

Hal Gage | Glacial Silt Patterns | From an early age, Hal Gage showed a love of art and music. In high school and college he studied drawing, painting, and music theory and ultimately public communications with an emphasis on television broadcasting. In 1977, Gage was introduced to photography by his painting mentor, thereafter focusing his interest on photography. Gage has mounted dozens of solo exhibitions and been in hundreds of group exhibitions between 1979 and the present. In 2004 he mounted his first museum exhibition, “Ice: a personal meditation.” It subsequently toured the state of Alaska to museums in Fairbanks, Homer, Juneau, and finally to Portland, OR. In 2011 Gage mounted two followup series titled “Strangers: Tidal Erratics of Turnagain Arm” and “Ice Abstractions” that toured in Alaska. Most recently the series, “Flow: Glacial Silt Patterns” is touring Alaska.