April 2011

Jessica Sample (formerly Jessica Schwartzberg) grew up in Los Angeles, where she is currently based. Before coming home to California, she was previously the Deputy Photo Editor of Travel + Leisure in New York and a frequent photographer for the magazine. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University and has studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the International Center of Photography. Jessica finds inspiration in new environments, cultures and people and has traveled to 36 countries.

The Swedish fashion photographer Julia Hetta graduated from the Gerrit Rietveldt Artacademy in Amsterdam in 2004. Her work has since then been shown in magazines and exibitions around Europe. The images of Julia Hetta contains both the very beautiful, sensous and romantic as well as the dark and lurid. Her colour work has a nearly renaissance palette quality to it, while her black and white work is rich in contrast and does not fear the very dark, the very black. Her clients include Another Magazine, Dazed and Confused, Elle, ArtLover, Double, Costume and Dossier Journal among others. She is represented by Agent Bauer.

Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer are a photographer couple working predominantly in the fashion sphere. They are known for their sensual, glamorous and modern style, always shot in natural light. No studios, masks, or makeup. Their work has appeared in I-D, V Magazine, W, Vogue (French, Italian and German versions), Marie Claire and Numero among others. Knoepfel and Indlekoferare are represented by Nice Productions.

San Francisco based Matt Sartain is a photographer and visual storyteller. His photos, which are whimsical compositions of fairytales and imagination, have been featured in many outlets including appearing on the covers of both CMYK and HOW magazines. He has worked with clients such as Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, BBDO, The New York Times Magazine, & HOW Design. Additionally, Sartain’s ‘Misadventures’ series has been exhibited in China and throughout the US.

Can you talk a little bit about the project you’re currently working on?
‘The project that I’m currently working on is a photographic storybook that unveils an entire new epic narrative from beginning to end. Unlike my old work that only gives us a snapshot into an implied larger story this will be the entire scope of an adventure following characters as they journey through a mysterious world learning of life and death, love and loss and their dreams, pains, and experiences along the way.

‘The scope of what I have written for this project is enormous (in terms of production) so I’ll most likely approach this one chapter at a time, continuing to add to the story episodically as time goes on. The final format will be printed like a textless graphic novel as well as a gallery show – the prints laid out on the wall mimicking the page layout of the book so that the project is cohesive from print to wall.

‘The first chapter in the story that I am producing is the story of a desperate father’s journey to save the life of his dying boy. The journey, the sacrifices, and the outcomes are not at all what the father imagined’.

Your work very much utilizes digital manipulation and composites. Do you think this method of creation adds to the narrative strength of your work? If so, how?

‘Besides the color and toning in Photoshop I would be happy to do all of these things in camera. Truth is it’s often not practical and sometimes not even possible to do what I want in camera. Often times the use of compositing and manipulation is a more accessible way to get something that would otherwise be out of my budget. I hope to do more practical in-camera imagery as the budget for my work grows. The less compositing the better as far as I’m concerned, so when I use that technique it’s because the decision has been made from a production standpoint. Before any shot goes into production I consider what I have (time/money/location/crew) and then decide what I can do in camera and what I do in post. Often times images that would require an enormous crew, rigging, permits, etc. are just me and one other person – compositing allows for a lot of freedoms.

‘The role of compositing has had a remarkable effect on my photography. I remember when I first began to construct images – I started small and went bigger and bigger and bigger. I was excited when I discovered that my work was only limited to my imagination. There’s something really empowering about feeling like there is nothing I can’t create – I don’t mean that in a cocky way, I mean only to say that I’ve discovered my strengths and weaknesses and I know that if I can concept an image I can create it’.

There seems to be a real sense of dream-like imagination throughout your images. Where does the inspiration for these concepts come from?
‘My work is inspired by a number of things and dreams are part of that. The image of The Shipwreck came from a dream I had where I was lost on a series of tall floating islands over the sea that were guarded by giants. I jumped over the cliff into the water and found an oak barrel and floated along the currents until I woke up.

‘Besides my dreams I my aesthetic has been shaped by tons of stuff. Illustrators like Shel Silverstein, Arthur Rackham and Winsor McCay. The great imaginations of Frank L. Baum, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were inseparable to my developing mind. Video games like Zelda took me on epic quests as a child and when I went to study English for my undergrad writers like Poe and Melville showed me the “darker” side of the American Romantics. Movies are an enormous influence. Filmakers like Terrence Malick and The Cohen Brothers and screenwriters like Charlie Kaufman have been inspiring me for years.

‘All of these things mush together to form some idea of my aesthetic. I have a lot of influences that are in the “fantasy” genre but I’ve always believed that, when concerning my own work, it’s important to cement fantastic events within a real world so that the impacts of these events matter to the characters involved. If everything is a fantasy then nothing really matters. There has to be the cement of reality somewhere within the scope of the work so that the events have meaning’.

The panoramic nature of the photos in the ‘Misadventures’ series you did a couple years ago, really makes the whole project feel quite cinematic. I especially love how as much as the single images tell a story they also seem to inspire the viewer to make up their own story – was this intentional?
‘Definitely. Though, that body of work developed very naturally I began noticing opportunities to explore the mystery and intrigue of untold stories. I wanted to show a piece of some character’s larger journey without revealing too much of it. If the imagery was beautiful enough and the events unfolding intriguing enough I hoped it would inspire the viewers imagination to create their own beginning and end. I’ve had some great responses from people who have described their feelings about the work and I love it because the reactions and responses can be completely unexpected and can often show me a way to look at the work that I hadn’t ever thought of’.

Originally trained as an architect, Erik Wahlstrom worked two years at one of the most progressive and contemporary practices in Sweden, Tham & Videgård Hansson before becoming a full time photographer. Of this experience he writes; ‘They taught me everything I know. Well, almost – but most importantly – that a holistic working method often leads to great results. The drive to be involved throughout the whole process, from developing the first ideas to production to post-production. And don’t forget the celebration when everything’s done’. Some of his clients include Absolut Vodka, Björn Borg, SJ, Alkoholkommittén, Rodeo, Bon Magazine, Gourmet and BUTT Magazine. Wahlstrom is represented by Agent Bauer.

Martin Usborne lives in central London where he has his photographic studio. He started his photographic career after a number of years working as a creative director in children’s TV. Before that he studied psychology at Edinburgh University and then animation at Glasgow School of Art.

Of this work, MUTE: the silence of dogs in cars’, he writes, ‘I was once left in a car at a young age. I don’t know when or where or for how long, possibly at the age of four, perhaps outside Tesco’s, probably for fifteen minutes only. The details don’t matter. The point is that I wondered if anyone would come back. It seems trivial now but in a child’s mind it is possible to be alone forever. Around the same age I began to feel a deep affinity with animals – in particular their plight at the hands of humans. I remember watching TV and seeing footage of a dog being put in a plastic bag and being kicked. What appalled me most was that the dog could not speak back. It’s muteness terrified me. I should say that I was a well-loved child and never abandoned and yet it is clear that both these experiences arose from the same place deep inside me: a fear of being alone and unheard. Perhaps this is a fear we all share at some level, I am not sure. The images in this series explore that feeling, both in relation to myself and to animals in general.

‘When I started this project I knew the photos would be dark. What I didn’t expect was to see so many subtle reactions by the dogs: some sad, some expectant, some angry, some dejected. It was as if upon opening up a box of grey-coloured pencils I was surprised to see so many shades inside’.

Paola de Grenet was born in Italy, studied graphic design at the Camberwell College of Arts in London, and now lives and works in Barcelona. Of photography she writes: ‘When I started working as a photographer, in London in 1999, it was just another medium for me to illustrate my fantasies. I started doing editorial work, for the likes of The Guardian, The Sunday Times Magazine and Penguin Publishers, and continued to work with Spanish magazines after moving to Barcelona in 2003. By that stage, my photographs had become a tool for me to express my curiosity for the world (and we live in a very curious world indeed). But mainly — and this is most visible in personal projects like “Albino Beauty” — photography for me is about the relationship between dreams and reality, both in others and myself. By learning about other people’s struggles, with identity, innocence, prejudice and beauty, I learn about my own. Photography is what connects me to the outside world’.

Drawing together a unique vision, Mike Diver, photographer, and Pedro Aguilar, fine artist and retoucher, met five years ago and quickly formed a successful creative partnership working for clients in both the luxury brand sector and conceptual advertising markets of commercial photography. Diver & Aguilar has seen commissions from clients such as GQ, Tatler, The Financial Times and Graff Diamonds as well as advertising work for Coca Cola and FC Barcelona.

Patrick Kauffmann is a Copenhagen based photographer. Apart from working for magazines and corporations, he also works on personal projects, often exploring deserted places in the city in search of finding beauty in decay. This series, “Spree Park”, was taken at an abandoned theme park in Berlin in the Autumn of 2009. His work has been exhibited in Copenhagen, Germany, France and Monaco.