Dane Shitagi’s photography series, The Ballerina Project, grew from the idea of New York City as a magnet for creativity; each photograph is a collaborative work of dance, fashion design and photography played out against the city’s landscape. Shitagi writes:

‘Crafted over the span of ten years the Ballerina Project is not “dance photography” but an etching of a ballerinas heart and emotions. Every aspect of the Ballerina Project is carefully crafted and cultivated. The majority of ballerinas who have posed for the project are professional dancers and the minority are advanced ballet students in renown dance schools.’

Photographer Sharon Boothroyd is the founder and editor of the photography blog Photoparley and is a visiting lecturer. She is represented by Lensky Gallery and lives in Oxford with her husband and two young daughters. Of her series, Edelweiss, Boothroyd writes:

‘Edelweiss is an ongoing series conceived as a visual lullaby using my daughter Anais. I began using the child as a means of portraying feminine grace, pain and suffering with all the trouble it brings. I am also interested in everyday moments where pain and routine events give way to some deeper point of connection; an enlightenment of sorts.

I based the project loosely on the lullaby because of the arresting clash between innocence and a sinister component which often occurs and leads to a deeper reading. Rather than being an illustration of the song, Edelweiss, in it’s repetition, emotion and simplicity, seeks to disarm the viewer by using childhood troubles as a correlation to those of the adult world.’

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. These photographs are a celebration of beauty both masculine and feminine and everything in between and beyond.’

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.

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.’

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

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.