portrait photography

Jessica Rosen is an American portrait and fashion photographer living in Sao Paulo, Brazil. About her series, The girls from Avenida Mem de Sa, Rosen writes:

‘I have spent the past three years working closely with a community of transgender sex workers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All of the subjects of these photos were born biologically male and have since taken steps toward feminizing their identity. They have created their notion of the ideal woman and then move towards performing that role as naturally as possible. These photographs are an exploration of the performance of gender and identity’.

Céline Clanet is a photographer based in Paris, France.  About her series, Máze, she writes:

Since 2005, I have been traveling regularly to Máze, a small Sámi village located at the highest point of the European map, far above the Arctic Circle, in Norwegian Lapland. There, I met quiet people who are very proud of their village and territory. They often have binoculars at hand, even in their homes, to gaze at these beautiful landscapes.

I have photographed Sámi people, houses, land and reindeer that were almost not here today. They barely escaped being flooded by the waters of a hydroelectric dam project that the Norwegian government planned in the early 1970’s and thanks to Sámi people’s protests and resistance was fortunately aborted. But I have also photographed a reality that will undoubtedly transform in the coming century, due to global warming and cultural integration. To me, Máze is an ambivalent symbol of resistance and helplessness.

Pride as well as suspicion, solitude and great beauty prevail there. In the most beautiful tundra of the Arctic region, I tasted Ante’s and Ole Ailo’s favorite season, when days get longer and temperatures become milder. The perfect moment, when time doesn’t exist anymore and night is gone, when they immerse themselves in their favorite activities: fishing through ice holes in Lake Suolojávri and riding thesnøskuter in the tundra. And all these hours spent with friends, family, outside on a reindeer skin, in a hytte or under a lávvu, talking, joiking, or lying down doing nothing, saying nothing. Just being.

Photo by Lee Jeffries

Bill Sallans is a native Texan who grew up around Houston on the Gulf Coast. After studying photography in Southern California at the Brooks Institute, he moved to Austin where he works as an editorial photographer. Sallans’ latest series, simply known as ‘Falcon Portraits’, is a comment on the interconnectivity of man and nature. Sallans writes:

‘I am concerned with conservation. It has been my experience that hunters and sportsmen can be some of the most passionate stewards of the land. Falconry started as a way to supplement a limited diet, creating a mutually beneficial relationship between falconer and falcon. I think that relationship between man and nature is still at the core of falconry today.’

Photo by Ryan Halliwill

Cecilia Paredes was born in Lima, Peru, and currently lives and works between San Jose, Costa Rica and Philadelphia. Her artistic career began as a painter but her creative concepts evolved, revealing themselves first in three-dimensional objects, then through photography. This works is a series of self portraits where Paredes paints her own body to blend in with the background.

via My Modern Met

Photo by Valerie Belin

Martin Schoeller is a New York based photographer whose style is distinguished by similar treatment of all subjects whether they are celebrities or unknown.  Martin traveled to the annual “Twins Days Festival” in Twinsburg, Ohio, to shoot pairs of identical twins for National Geographic Magazine.  By using his signature Close-Up style, the portraits allow the viewer to explore the physical similarities between the pairs, complementing the story, which covered their psychological similarities.

Danish photographer Thilde Jensen came to New York City in 1997. Six years later her life and career was cut short by a sudden development of severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS). The urban life she had previously navigated with ease transformed into a toxic war zone. Her immune system crashed, forcing her unto a survivalistic journey, unravelling the comfort and construct of her previous life. The ensuing years were a lesson in basic survival – camping in the woods, while wearing a respirator when entering supermarkets, doctors’ offices, and banks. To her surprise an otherwise invisible subculture of people emerged who shared this isolated existence. Her photographs are a personal account of life on the edge of modern civilization as one of the human canaries, the first casualties to a ubiquitous synthetic chemical culture. Of her series ‘Canaries’ Thilde writes:

‘Since World War II the production and use of synthetic chemicals has exploded. During the course of an average day, people come in contact with a host of chemicals – Just walking into a supermarket one might be breathing as many as 20,000 different synthetic compounds. As a result of the prevalence of these synthetic chemicals, it is believed that more than ten million Americans have developed a disabling condition called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, (MCS).

MCS is a condition where our immune and central nervous system goes into extreme reactions when exposed to small amounts of daily chemicals like perfume, cleaning products, car exhaust, construction materials and pesticides. In addition, some people also react to light, fabrics, food and electromagnetic fields as emitted by computers, phones, cell towers, cars and florescent lights – making life a near impossibility. Many people with MCS are forced to live in remote areas in tents, cars, or trailers. Others are prisoners of their homes, with advanced air filter systems to keep outside air from contaminating their breathing space’.