Photograph: Elina Brotherus /Camara Oscura, Madrid
Human Nature X, from the series Human Nature 2022
Idiosyncratic encounters with and in nature form a central theme in this series of photographs by Kostas Maros. With the perspective of a silent observer, the images document how humans relate to nature. At the same time, the depicted scenes have a curious theatricality. The people in them, preoccupied with themselves and their surroundings, turn towards and away from each other. Yet the landscape becomes the primary spectacle for the viewer
Photograph: Kostas Maros/Galerie 94, Baden
Chrysler by Night, from the series Summit
In this series Niv Rozenberg focuses on the cityscape of New York. In focusing on an isolated facade, he reduces the architecture to form and colour. The photographs challenge the way we look at architecture we have known and seen for years
Photograph: ©Niv Rozenberg/Galerie Catherine Et André Hug, Paris
Forets 2021
Léa Habourdin’s observes the relationship we have with animals and landscapes, to summon notions of survival, fracture and reconstruction while composing a view of what we call ‘the wild’. Initiated in 2019, the series Images-forêts: des mondes en extension was born from the observation that there was no more forest unexploited by man in France. However, some spaces tend, by the force of conservators and foresters, to return to their primary state. It is these places that the photographer has documented
Photograph: Léa Habourdin/Fisheye Gallery, Paris
The Seduction, from the series The Swamp, 2020
Tereza Kozinc’s work spans diary and documentary photography, characterised by minimalism and surrealism. Based on intuition and on her everyday life, Kozinc’s series stretches from the north of Japan to the south of her kitchen. She is a self-taught photographer, mostly using 35mm
Photograph: Tereza Kozinc/Analix Forever, Chêne-Bourg
Emily in the River, 2020
Cig Harvey writes: ‘Find a comfortable seat and close your eyes. Take your pulse by touching two fingers to the top of your left wrist. Now stare at the photograph here for 10 minutes, letting go of all other thoughts. When you stare, resist the urge to blink. Your eyes will flood, and soon you will be crying like a little baby. Ayurvedic medicine uses this method as a way to cleanse the soul. Retake your pulse. Record the difference’
Photograph: ©Cig Harvey/Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica
About Daisies, 2022, from the series I Miss You Already
Shen Wei’s self-portrait work intertwines with the natural world, and his recent work places particular emphasis on plants and flowers. Wei says: ‘I Miss You Already is an ongoing self-portrait project that began in 2009, and reveals the process of self-reflection and self-discovery. It is a provocative way to explore my sense of security through understanding the tension between freedom and boundaries’
Photograph: Shen Wei/Galerie Foreign Agent, Lausanne
Couvent de La Tourette - Roof garden, 2011
Choosing austere subjects – medieval or contemporary architecture, the detail of a structure, a snowy landscape – Jens Knigge photographs sublime shades of grey, with an extreme sensitivity to light and shadows, shapes and textures, and a photography at the limits of abstraction
Photograph: Jens Knigge/Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
Architecture of Density Scout #101, 2009
Michael Wolf’s series examines the megacity’s ever-expanding architectural anatomy. The photographs bracket out sky and ground, emphasising the vertical lines of the buildings
Photograph: Michael Wolf/Galerie Buchkunst, Berlin
Ira, 2010
Michal Chelbin writes: ‘Ira was taken in 2010 in a women’s prison in Ukraine. Ira was sitting in front of the camera holding a Bible and mumbling sentences from it, and it took me some time to get her to be relaxed. I am very much influenced by the great masters of painting and with her outfit, head scarf and the background, it reminded me of a renaissance portrait’
Photograph: Michal Chelbin/Galerie Alex Schlesinger, Zürich
Gorge, from the series Friction, 2022
Margaret Lansink writes: ‘By immersing myself in nature, I move into a different time, sync with the slow rhythm of nature and become deeply aware of her beauty, her changes and the interconnectedness in the smallest of details. Nature however seems not to be fazed by me, my existence, my dreams, desires or fears. It appears to live in a completely different time frame’
Photograph: Margaret Lansink/GalerieXII, Paris
Playground 2022
Sarfo Emmanuel Annor is a 21-year old visual artist who uses colour to share the stories and dreams of young people from Koforidua, Ghana. He uses his smartphone to revive the art of portraiture by capturing colourful images of the local youth, translating the dynamic story of contemporary Africa
Photograph: Sarfo Emmanuel Annor/The Bridge Gallery
Ulivo (Olive tree), 2020
Lucretia Moroni writes: ‘What I take pictures of is not necessarily what I see. The camera itself has its own way to frame what I’m interested in capturing, and often surprises me! I look back at my roots, the places where I lived as a child, my family history. I follow a fine thread from memories to images to flashbacks’
Photograph: Lucretia Moroni/Galleria l’Affiche, Milano
The Yellow Nap, 2021 from the series Obscura
In this series, Darian Mederos creates something new: a photorealistic abstraction. The bubble wrap reflects light and distorts the underlying image, and it is only at a distance that the works come into focus. When viewed up close, the faces dissolve into bold strokes of flesh tones and painted light. The work asks the viewer to understand the core of human identity from a respectful distance
Photograph: Darian Mederos/Mazel Galerie, Brussels
DIESSEITS, 2019
Ester Vonplon’s herbarium is a collection of leaves, flowers and stems saved from the ephemeral. Vonplon creates her photograms with photographic paper dating from 1907. Her images take on an unexpected form due to the ageing process. In sunlight, the light-sensitive paper, which has been stored in the dark for more the a century, changes colour within a few hours. The plants leave blurred shadows, as the artist lets them move on the paper in the wind
Photograph: Ester Vonplon/Galerie S, Paris
Akihiro Maruyama (Miwa), Tokyo, Japan, 1980
René Burri was a Swiss photographer, known for his images documenting major political and cultural events of the late 20th century. It wasn’t until joining the photographic cooperative Magnum Photos in 1955 that he began the work he would become best known for, documenting key figures in military, political and cultural spheres all across the world for Life, the New York Times, Stern, Paris-Match, and Look
Photograph: Rene Burri/Magnum Photos/Galerie Bildhalle, Zürich
Présage
Hideyuki Ishibashi writes: ‘We consume an enormous amount of images every day. Information technology means we have a plethora of images. In this project I use photographs found at random, images born of another’s point of view. I assiduously erase all the traces of their merging. After completing impossible corrections, a new image, one seemingly closer to an original piece of photography, begins to emerge. I wish to give viewers time to rethink the act of seeing’
Photograph: Hideyuki Ishibashi/Ibasho Gallery, Antwerpen
Unfinished Landscapes, 2022 (series)
This work represent the latest phase of Tomo Brejc’s artistic oeuvre, which is characterised by sublimated scenes of the manmade environment. The work represents a new direction in the artist’s ongoing formal exploration of the photographic medium and its expressive and confessional potential
Photograph: Tomo Brejc/Photon Gallery, Ljubljana/Vienna
Transit Series, 2023
Selim Süme’s current work focuses on the fragility of the relationship between the image and reality, through which the concept of the image is called into question
Photograph: Selim Süme/Versus Art projects, Istanbul
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 1985
Over the years, Nan Goldin has photographed intimate parts of her personal life as well as that of friends in Berlin, Boston and New York. Her work captures moments of the LGBTQ community during the Aids crisis of the 80s. This image shows her friends in New York City in 1980
Photograph: ©Studio Nan Goldin/Galerie Fabian & Claude Walter, Zürich
English (US)