Percy Dean

Mistress Arella I

Kate Peters was born in the city of Coventry; located deep in the heartland of the UK. Discovering photography in secondary school she soon became inspired by
exposure to artists such as Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe and Cindy Sherman. After receiving a BA (hons) in Photography from Falmouth College of Arts, Cornwall, Peters spent a four years assisting photographer Nadav Kander and developing her own personal works.

Now living in London her beautifully observant portraiture and editorial work explores ‘the environments we, as humans inhabit on both physical and psychological levels’ and her work regularly appears in publications such as Monocle, Exit, Guardian Weekend, The Independent New Review and The Telegraph. Several of her photographs are held at the National Portrait Gallery in London and she is represented by Institute Artists Management London. Of this series, yes, Mistress, she writes:

Visual explorations of gender, power, absence and memory combine to form the underlying themes in my work. ‘yes, Mistress’ looks at the world of the Dominatrix and the male slaves that serve them in dungeons throughout the UK. I am interested in challenging traditional representations of women and exploring alternative roles of women in contemporary society. I am fascinated by the way participants are temporarily able to enter an alternative reality, to step into a role, the same way an actor takes on a part. For the past two years I have been photographing professional Dominatrix, combing portraits with mise en scene, the images are fragments of a story revealing a side of life in the UK not often seen. Isolated from their surroundings the women portrayed become icons of a hidden world, it is left for the viewer to wonder as to who they really are.

Mistress Morrigan

Maid Franchesca II

Goddess Sophia

Miss Toe Tease

Mistress C

Madame C

Mistress Absolute

Mistress V

Maid Franchesca I

Rio Cinema

Chris Dorley-Brown has been photographing the East End of London for nearly 30 years and as such has built up a vast body of work. He is interested primarily in documenting the evolution of the ever-changing social landscape. For this series, The Corners, Chris to began shooting the streets of London, specifically where his maternal and paternal ancestors had lived during the last 200 years. In this process of genealogical research he noticed that “standing on those same street corners 150 years later, my curiosity shifted from the buildings to the people walking, cycling and driving past- nameless, anonymous figures, but continuing this endless choreography of social mobility’.

The challenge was now how to image these ‘corners’ and the people that passed through them. To do this, he utilized composite techniques with each individual image taking many hours to shoot. Chris says, ‘The finished picture is deceptively simple, a snapshot on first seeing, but revealing complex layers of relationship between people and architecture.’

Laburnam Street

Dalston Junction

Fleet Street

Three Colts Lane

Tudor Grove

Wallis Road Bridge

This project from London-based photographer Ben Roberts is an evolving personal document on the effects of the rapid boom and subsequent collapse of the Spanish economy. The collation came from a series of long meandering ‘loosely planned’ walks around the urban fringes of new developments. ‘The new work’, says Roberts ‘reflects a more personal experience of Spain. Away from the major tourist centers and coastal resorts, I found a landscape imbued with a strange mix of anxiety and tension, where the delineation between nature and city had become ambiguous. “The Gathering Clouds” contemplates Spain’s loss of direction, and my own disorientation in an unfamiliar and sometimes unnerving environment’.

Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the remote town of Tiksi on the Siberian coast of Russia. She studied Art Management at the International School of Moscow and in 2009 graduated from the ICP’s photojournalism and documentary program. She now works between Russia and New York.

Arbugaeva writes:

Tiksi is a real town, situated on the Arctic coast of Siberia. I was born in Tiksi in 1985 and spent my childhood days there. In the days of the Soviet Union, Tiksi was an important military and scientific base. People came from all over the country, some driven by employment opportunities, and others driven by a romantic dream of the far North. As the introduction implies, although the town is very far north and surrounded by vast expanses of tundra, there was an abundance of beauty. After the fall of the USSR my family, along with many others, boarded the windows of our home and left for a bigger city. I was 8 when we left, and ever since then I have never been able to forget Tiksi. The scenery, the colors, and the moments of pure childhood imagination made a lasting impression on me. I have always wanted to be that little girl again.

Last winter and fall for the first time in 18 years I went back to Tiksi. The scenery was still there, but the town was nearly abandoned. I met Tanya, a young girl who reminded me of myself when I was a kid. She had a similar fascination with the sea and the tundra, and a similar urge to explore her environment. Soon after meeting Tanya, she told me how much she admired Jacque Ives Cousteau (the red hat is a tribute to her hero). She quickly became my friend and my guide to Tiksi. In the fall of 2012, Tanya’s family—just like my own 18 years ago—will leave Tiksi behind. They see no future in the small town and plan to move to a larger city.