“I can say about all my pictures that what you see really happened, just not at the same time,” the Massachusetts photographer Pelle Cass tells me. He’s been working with composites over the last decade, and he calls these images his “still time-lapse photographs.” After collecting many pictures in one location over a period of time, he selects individuals from various frames to include in the final scene.

Everyone remains in the exact location where they were photographed, except through Cass’s particular brand of alchemy, the hours have been condensed into a fraction of a second. Recently, the photographer has moved from the streets and into the sports fields, arenas, pools, and stadiums of nearby colleges and universities. In Crowded Fields, he captures the strange and surreal choreography of sports in a new way.

Outside of the eco-village Grow Heathrow, you can find a sign reading, “Open to visitors 10am-6pm.” In 2011, the London photographer Jonathan Goldberg became one of those visitors. “During my first visit to this off-grid community, I was greeted warmly, then promptly handed an axe to chop some firewood,” he remembers. “I loved the hands-on manner of this lifestyle, and the closeness to nature which living amongst trees and bush provided.”

A baptism. Kolodozero, Karelia, Summer 2014.

Fireworks at Christmas. Kolodozero, Karelia, Winter 2015.

Viktor fishing on the lake. Kolodozero, Karelia, Summer 2017.

In northernmost Russia lies the village of Kolodozero, a series of small hamlets including Lakhta, Isakovo, Ust’-Reka, Pogost, Zaozerye, and Dubovo that are concealed within the woods of Pudozh on the border between Arkhangelsk Oblast and Karelia. Around the turn of the millennium, three friends from Moscow made their way to Kolodozero in search of the meaning of life and their purpose on earth. They began raising money to build a new church to replace the one that burned down in 1977.

In 2005, Arkady Shlykov, one of the three friends, was ordained as priest of the new church. At first he was looked upon with suspicion, but over time the locals came to love the shaggy red-haired rebel and punk whose peaceful character embodied the ethos of the church. His presence and leadership restored to the people all that had been lost, creating a new parochial life that renewed the ties between families, neighbors, and the earth.

Like the friends, Russian photographer Ekaterina Solovieva traveled from her native Moscow to Kolodozero to document their world, exploring what keeps the community united as a people. The result is The Earth’s Circle. Kolodozero (Schilt).

Pink © Vivek Prabhakar (@desirednameunavailable), Bangalore, India

Urban Sprawl – Emptiness © Emmanuel Monzon (@emmanuelmonzonphotography), Seattle, WA

For our first exhibition in Asia, The Print Swap will travel to The Indian Photography Festival (IPF) at the State Gallery of Art in Hyderabad, India. The renowned photojournalist Ami Vitale, who has herself documented stories in nearly one hundred countries, served as our guest curator, selecting 25 images from around the world to be part of the show. The final collection includes photographers from throughout India, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Estonia, Indonesia, and Australia. The exhibition will open September 6th and will continue through October 7th for the duration of the festival.

As a photojournalist and conservationist, Vitale has said, “The most powerful stories are the ones that unite us, not divide us.” Here, a shared sense of curiosity and empathy becomes the thread that binds her selections together. A hushed sensibility runs throughout the show, emphasizing moments of quietude and connection in what often feels like a conflicted and turbulent world. From Emiliano Zuniga Hernandez’s portrait of his bathing dog to Alejandra Cardenas’s serendipitous snap of two guards illuminated by the headlights of a passing car, these photographs seek intimacy within the chaos of everyday life. Scenes from the road, as seen in the work of Emmanuel Monzon, Ronald William Waite, Geoffrey Goddard, and Florian de Lomme, tie together faraway places.

Vitale will participate in The Print Swap herself, and she has selected one photograph from the collection to add to her own. In the winning image, titled Pink, Vivek Prabhakar captures a cotton candy vendor making his way through Magh Mela in Allahabad, India, on an early foggy morning. The image Vitale will share with Prabhakar comes from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where Sudan, the last male northern white rhino on the planet, spent many of his years. Vitale was able to document Sudan’s final moments with his devoted caregiver and friend Joseph Wachira. You can learn more about Ol Pejeta Conservancy and animals like Sudan here.

As always, photographers are welcome to submit images to The Print Swap by tagging #theprintswap on Instagram. Each participating photographer gives a print and receives a print from another photographer somewhere in the world. Print Swap photographers who submit between now and July 13th will be considered for our next exhibition, opening at Photoville later this year. It’s free to submit to The Print Swap, but selected photographers pay $40 per image to participate. Learn more at our website, and follow along at @theprintswap on Instagram for updates.

Jamun

“While physical health is both easily identifiable and spoken of, mental health still remains in the background like a mute elephant in the room,” the London photographer Doma Dovgialo tells me. Behind the I – a portrait of the mind turns the human psyche inside-out, bringing elements of our interior, hidden universes to the fore. For the book and multimedia project, Dovgialo collaborated with people facing a variety of mental health-related obstacles. After photographing each participant, she invited them to draw over their portraits using an acetate sheet. When the sheet is laid over the original photograph, the final artwork presents a version every individual colored by their thoughts and emotions.

“As soon as the morning light hits, you’ll see them making their way through the sand until the sun sets in the horizon,” the Aba, Nigeria-born photographer Yagazie Emezi says of the surfers of Robertsport in Western Liberia. “It’s a serious passion for them, living and breathing. It’s unrelenting.” A Young Thing is her testament to the surfers, the littlest of whom are eight to twelve years old.

The Stray. Marmaduke / Shar Pei Pitbull mix, 7.5 years old (Marmaduke is up for adoption at Pacific Pups Rescue!)

The Senior. Magda / Cocker Spaniel Dachschund mix, 13.3 years old

Last year, I opened an old cardboard box to discover a long-forgotten stuffed monkey that once belonged to my childhood dog. Perry passed away more than a decade ago, but the memory of his scent rushed back to me in an instant. The tattered, time-worn toy seemed to contain so much of the life of my beloved pet, regardless of how much time had elapsed. Dogs, like humans, have objects they use and cherish, and these items help define who they are. The Los Angeles photographer Alicia Rius pays tribute to this truth in her new series A DOG’S LIFE.

Imagine you could not only hear your favourite songs, but also see them as vivid colours.

Dublin-based artist Andrea Lambe has chromesthesia—sound-to-colour synesthesia—meaning her perception of auditory stimulus results in her experiencing colours too.

“My background is in engineering and research. I quite enjoy, now, reflecting on how I became mad and that process of where the brain takes you. That I find fascinating. I think it’s quite difficult to become suicidal really. You need trigger points, some people need just need one, I needed quite a few. But once you’re there…

“The first time that I had heard the word Maytree I had been sectioned. I was in Chase Farm, Enfield, in the hospital unit. There were 4 people around the table chit chatting and 2 of those had both been guests at Maytree. It was 2005. It was coming up to the Christmas period and I didn’t think I’d get through it. One of the women said maybe you could go and stay at Maytree.

“Maytree was a wonderful safe place. I remember I was in a bad place. It really was quite bad. I couldn’t cook or do anything for myself. I used to love porridge. On the first morning Michael made me porridge and I thought… that little thing, making the porridge, was good.

“When I got better I thought maybe I should volunteer at Maytree. I think I have a sense of loyalty to Maytree. I find it therapeutic going there. It’s sometimes very challenging but I’ve never really thought it’s too overpowering, but when you walk through that door you never know…” – Michael

Maytree is a house in Finsbury Park, London. It has four bedrooms, and its inhabitants change all the time. As a suicide respite center, it serves as a temporary home to people in crisis. Guests stay for four days and five nights only; during that time, they can speak openly with volunteers and peers. They can talk about anything and everything, or they can talk about nothing. There is no judgement, and the environment is decidedly non-clinical.

There are about 150 volunteers currently working at Maytree. The photographer Daniel Regan is one of them. His book and exhibition project I Want to Live tells the story of this unusual house and the people who walk through its doors.