Mahdiyeh Afshar

Mahdiyeh Afshar

Dana Stirling

Showing emotion with your body is hard sometimes. we always show human’s feelings with their bodies and their faces . we think that objects don’t have feeling . I want to connect these two world . I Try To Make A New Space With High Contrast. I Try To Break The Law By Creating A Weird Environment Which Reflects On My Feeling.

It Was Hard The First Time Because I Have To Change It Regardless Whether I Like It Or Not. But After A While I Realize Art Means Changing What It Is And Making A New Thing mahdiyehafshar.com

Vitaly Severov

Vitaly Severov

Dana Stirling

Summer Shore | Summer Shore is the geographical name of the coastal area of the White Sea and standing opposite the Winter Shore.That names gave by ethnic people of White Sea - pomors, who are lived there for centuries, which trade with Norway and living by sea. This book has the same title — «Summer Shore» and represent my journeys there and nostalgia feelings of my childhood which spend there, in a small point -Severodvinsk city.

In this series, I try to understand how memories affect perception. The book is made as a harmonica scroll, placed in a clear plastic audiocassette case. This form conveys the idea of time, rhythm and continuity of music. The book has linear narrative that unfolds itself through the recurring images of light. I remember our home, windows were facing west. Every evening, before plunging into darkness, the sun threw the last beams of light through the windows. Where the sun was setting, the coast disappeared behind the horizon. That world left me only memories and few things. But the shore is still there and I‘ve been dreaming about traveling there. vitalyseverov.com

Joshua Cavalier

Joshua Cavalier

Dana Stirling

He asked if I was looking for God | Beauty requires a witness — an observer to organize the chaos of the material world into arrangements of aesthetics and goodness. From life’s most mechanical experiences, the conscious observer composes meaning. We learn from mistakes and mistrials. Failures and accidents become stencils around which we trace new futures. Friendships and lovers come and go, and are the punctuation marks that give our sentences weight and power.

Like the accident of shapes and colors that struck the sidewalk of the park that day, the circumstances of our lives occasionally line up for a marvelous instant and allow us — ever so briefly — to commune with true wonder. Thanks to my camera, I find that even the smallest of coincidences appears marvelous still. Everything beautiful is at least in some part an accident. joshuacavalier.com

Mendia Echeverria

Mendia Echeverria

Dana Stirling

Cartographie Éphémère | On January 7, 2019, I entered the Bois de Vincennes for the first time and discovered Le Grand Rocher. Memory, footprint, nature and landscape are the concepts that give meaning to this book. All of them surround the forest, mixing time and space articulated around a rock that limits the empty space and returns it converted into changing and suggestive images of parallel realities. The rock stands almost omnipresent throughout the entire forest, above the urban landscape and that delimited by the Bois de Vincennes itself.

The Bois de Vincennes and the Grand Rocher dialogue until they meet, establishing a theoretical and visual reflection on the social and photographic construction of memory. One of the main objectives of the research is to obtain and form a trace, both past and current, of the photographed place, which is constantly evolving. The set of images already processed in their final form allows an attempt to recover the memory of physical space, as well as the formation of an almost sensory imprint that is modified by the passage of time. www.mendiaecheverria.com

Willy Vecchiato

Willy Vecchiato

Dana Stirling

Lanzarote | Lanzarote is a hymn to the founding elements of the earth, the raison d'être of the senses on which the fragile human intentions rest. Like ancient wills carved on stone. Lanzarote is an epistème and together it traces the same duration of the primordial substance. Life, in which sacred and profane mingle in a dream of eternity.

Willy Vecchiato's photograph is black and white. Visceral, absolute and not at all reassuring. He scraps reality in a damnably poetic way. An intruder who moves between the folds of seeing to free all the slags and the annoying or uncomfortable meanings.’ Steve Bisson In December 2019 he published his first book, Lanzarote, for Penisola edizioni. www.willyvecchiato.com

Hannah Altman

Hannah Altman

Dana Stirling

Jewish thought suggests that the memory of an action is as primary as the action itself. This is to say that when my hand is wounded, I remember other hands. I trace ache back to other aches - my mother grabbing my wrist pulling me across the intersection, my great-grandmother’s fingers numb on the ship headed towards Cuba fleeing the Nazis, Miriam’s palms pouring water for the Hebrews in the desert - this is how a Jew understands action.

Because no physical space is a given for the Jewish diaspora, time and the rituals that steep into it are centered as a mode of carrying on. The bloodline of a folktale, an object, a ritual, pulses through interpretation and enactment. In this work I explore notions of Jewish memory, narrative heirlooms, and image making; the works position themselves in the past as memories, in the present as stories being told, and in the future as actions to interpret and repeat. To approach an image in this way is not only to ask what it looks like but asks: what does it remember like? www.hannahaltmanphoto.com

Vibhav Kapoor

Vibhav Kapoor

Dana Stirling

टहलने की दास्तान (a story of meandering) | These photographs are a selection from an ongoing body of work called टहलने की दास्तान (a story of meandering). They have been made on improvised wanderings around my hometown of Gurgaon in the Delhi region of India. Observed in between nature and the built environment about the mystery and memory of places deciphering ontological obscurity. https://vibhavkapoor.com

Alejandra Vacuii

Alejandra Vacuii

Dana Stirling

La Mala Fortuna | "La Mala Fortuna" is a photo project about an internal search. In the wake of an identity crisis that manifested itself through strong anxiety, I began to ask myself questions about my place in the world and the true nature of my sensitivity.

It was through my approach to photography that I managed to channel in a productive way the sensations that my permanent state of alertness has made me suffer. Trying to investigate the reasons for my psychological state, I began to take photos guided by a need to reveal myself to the world, in order to reveal myself. A very instinctive process, not very rational, somewhat visceral. It is in melancholy, anguish, boredom, nostalgia (for the past and future) and boredom where the photographs of this project are reflected

Each photograph works as a microcosm that works both alone and together. Sometimes thought (almost never), sometimes found (almost always), they inhabit a place between found reality and idealized reality, like visual poems where the meaning is never clear and a space is established for imagination and also for reflection. . I keep asking myself unanswered questions about the world around me and my position in it and it is these images that I get in response. "La Mala Fortuna" is the universe that I have created to be able to explain myself to the world. www.alejandravacuii.com

Nat Raum

Nat Raum

Dana Stirling

The Light Won't Find You | My queerness lives the strongest in the room inside my mind.

I found comfort in myself and in my own body for the first time in years when I began to question my gender. These images explore my changing relationship with my gender and sexuality following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the end of my most recent romantic relationship. They follow me through the process of healing, reflecting, and beginning to define my identity.

Creating these images is a form of escapism; in depicting my personal utopia, I distance myself from a reality in which I am largely closeted and often performing a version of femininity that was engrained in me as a result of past trauma. I strive for the images to feel vernacular, and as such, I am removing a lot of the technical precision I usually employ in my work. The experience of redefining my gender has been surreal and imperfect, and I aim to mirror that in the images I create. By creating hazy, dreamlike images, I depict the feeling of existing in this personal utopia. This includes a combination of imagery from locations including my bedroom, my childhood home, and my grandmother’s house, as well as the city in which I grew up and continue to reside. My relationship to place has always been strong; I am finally examining how places and people have shaped my identity. natraum.com

Cornelia Hediger

Cornelia Hediger

Dana Stirling

Doppelgänger | The Doppelgänger series of photographs are pictorial narratives that explore internal human emotions, notions of the uncanny, the subconscious/conscious mind, the ego and the alter ego. The narrative structure itself is based upon and utilizes the concept of the Doppelgänger—specifically as understood within Germanic literature. In this context, the notion of the Doppelgänger is understood as a ghostly double or apparition of a living person, widely assumed to be sinister and a harbinger of bad luck, but also highly ambiguous, thus presenting a psychological dilemma. The central characters themselves, are enacted by the artist herself, within claustrophobic and timeless spaces.

The structural device of the tableaux-vivant is used to carefully choreograph multiple individual, full-frame photographs into single artworks, using a grid system that also serves to maintain the photographic integrity of each photograph. Most of the artworks are constructed with six photographs, but as the series has progressed they have developed in complexity, incorporating up to eighteen photographs. The more recent artworks have progressed in their storytelling, moving beyond the grid itself and making use of the diptych and triptych format. www.corneliahediger.com

Ion Zupcu

Ion Zupcu

Dana Stirling

American Homes | The houses showcased in this series illustrate the spirit and evolution of common houses found in American neighborhoods for the past three centuries. The installation represent a range of 24 homes from Folk to McMansions. The development of these styles is a reflection of our ever changing taste and sensibilities.

The photographs in “American homes” are the result of my passion and investigation into architecture, structure and light. My previous experience with three-dimensional forms helped to create a fluid transition into my understanding of the history and design of our homes.

Architectural models were carefully selected, designed and constructed for these photographs with the help of architect Tagore Hernandez. After an unsuccessful start with detailed models, I became aware that what captivated me the most about domestic homes for years were their initial outline and form; houses in their minimalist state. When these models were stripped down and presented on a stage, the sculptural form emerged.

All the houses are put on the stage before the public. These are not landmarks, they are icons of the homes that most of us still sleep, eat and raise our families in.

I have lived with my wife and daughter in a Shed Modern home for the past seven years in Upstate New York. In what home do you reside? www.ionzupcu.com

Pamela Connolly

Pamela Connolly

Dana Stirling

WISHMAKER | As a child, I spent endless hours roaming the maze of rooms in my parents' "Ethan Allen" furniture store. The shapes and patterns that filled these constructed spaces became imprinted in my consciousness. Even our family home growing up was a replica of a fantasy, a duplicate of the store, a stage selling hopes and dreams.

Much of my photographic work is in response to these childhood impressions. Through furniture, spaces, and interior decoration, I have been exploring the themes of home, childhood, aging, and the yearning between the imaginary and the real.

Confined to my house during the Pandemic, I immersed myself in a

project photographing 1960's litho-printed tin dollhouses. These toys were designed and marketed to baby-boomer girls growing up in the many suburbs across the US. Printed on the walls of these miniature houses are illustrations of the elements necessary for a successful, fulfilling life: red geraniums on the kitchen window, coordinated curtains, tasteful artwork, rose-covered arbors… Included in the box, colorful plastic furniture and fixtures to complete the fantasy.

A dollhouse is a microcosm of hopes and dreams, the pocket female fantasy.

Although I did not own one of these tin dream houses growing up, they are of my own childhood. I can't help but observe that the backgrounds are rendered in the same aesthetic as my parents' furniture store and home. Peering through the windows like an oversized Alice in Wonderland, I roam through these tiny spaces with my camera, transported back in time to a childhood that took place in showrooms and dreams. www.pamconnollyphoto.com

Jacopo Brunello

Jacopo Brunello

Dana Stirling

Where the echo still resounds | The pre-alpine highlands, between Veneto and Trentino, are places where nature and history intertwine in an indissoluble way. In these places, isolated from the transit areas, language and traditions of an ancient population are still preserved, the Cimbri. The language called cimbrian is a Germanic language of Nordic origin, still spoken in some areas of the highlands. The Cimbrian culture is rich of myths and legends coming mainly from northern Europe.

This project wants to represent - what has been for centuries and still continues - the relationship that has been established in these places between man and nature. For this reason, the choice fell on the Cimbrian community, because it constitutes a bridge between past and future, and between reality and fantasy; through legends, traditions and their unique language.

The project is titled Where the echo still resounds, the echo of the legends that comes from the past and that progressively fades away until it disappears. But this echo lives and still resonates in the memory of a few people and especially in some places, pervaded by an immortal aura and enchanted. The intent is also to try bringing back to life through photographs the memories of a past times, when man lived according to Nature, respecting and venerating her. www.jacopobrunello.com

Paul Yem

Paul Yem

Dana Stirling

Fragments | The work entitled “fragments” is an invitation to explore my cave. Created out of a curious entanglement of my subconscious, i dwell deep inside to reflect. i conjure up images to recreate a memory, to pull it out of context and into an unyielding light. This is a fabricated nostalgia in search of a self constricting understanding, a vulnerable, unfillable void. a yearning to forget all of the tiny little details that i cannot seem to let go, that i piece back together so scrutinizingly meticulous.

I sink deeper and deeper, withdrawn and incoherent and yet i feel unwound and unfettered. it’s where i go to meddle with the inner workings of a distant train-of-thought, so subtly complex yet so sweetly sensual. So take from it what you will, i only hope that this maze leads you to get lost into your own beautiful conundrums. www.paulyem.com

Becky Behar

Becky Behar

Dana Stirling

Seeing You, Seeing Me | Seeing You, Seeing Me began as a photographic collaboration between my 21-year-old daughter, Leah, and me. She is in front of the camera while I stay behind it. However, in our images we share the roles of observer and participant. In these pictures, I see her becoming an adult, while she sees me in the role of mother and photographer.

With Seeing You, Seeing Me, I slow time with intent. I dress Leah in my clothing and pose her with personal artifacts. In doing so, I reflect what gets passed from one generation to the next. I portray the traditions and morals that I hope to leave in her. I include still lifes that also act as portraits in their own way. The fruits and flowers matured, yet they remain vibrant and fragrant.

Inspired by Dutch artists, particularly Vermeer, I attempt to create romanticized images that capture a fleeting and pivotal moment in time – the still of life as she stands on the cusp of adulthood and I witness the passing of time. www.beckybehar.com

J Houston

J Houston

Dana Stirling

Tuck and Roll | Tuck and Roll* builds a queer community situated in the Midwest, examining what a utopia could look like in domestic and private landscapes through the lens of magical realism. I center collected objects, hair, quiet performance, and unfetishized body, and sitting somewhere between reaction and fantasy, I pull materials integral to queer nightlife into the daylight. Shot on medium and large-format film, the images were made in areas around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and across Michigan, including friends, family, partners, interiors, and landscapes that repurpose the different layers of erasure experienced in this region.

*Tuck and Roll (v.); The technique, almost always done while running, involves diving forward in such a way that your shoulder lands on the ground first, and you roll into a little ball. As you come out of the ball, immediately spring back up into a running stance, or move into a kneeling position. www.j-houston.com

Leslie Hakim-Dowek

Leslie Hakim-Dowek

Dana Stirling

Twilight Island | Twilight Island is a poetic contemplation of a time spent on a volcanic island. The book resonates with several subtexts of themes and cycles. A succession of vistas, from volcanic craters to desert plateaux, is juxtaposed with landmarks, memorials and recreational spaces where spectacles are set to unfold in a succession of endless tourism. A polarising axis is drawn between the earthly transformations over millennia, laid bare on this island, and the minute cycles of a summer season and the coming of age of two girls, my twin daughters. Within this brief reflective bracket lies the vast wilderness, an earthly stage on which generational rites and rituals come into being but to which, we remain largely oblivious to.

A silent equation unbinds deep rings of fire,
Palpable in damp ravines
And oceans gathering around the island's edge.

Out of the parabola of the skies,
Summer galloped in with its sad stillness
Full of slow time and blinding rays.

As time slips into stones,
Shallow moons fall into tepid lakes
And girls hover in their reflections
Living scene by scene.

I once lapsed into numbness,
Perhaps I am here, or lost dreaming of
A colony of peaks soaring into orbs of distance,
Rhythmic forest that swell as lunatic terrors
And, diagonal rains which seep into
Shadows of feathers, shadows of needles,
Full of breath and the holler of myths.

We are at the end and the beginning.
www.lesliehakimdowek.com

Lesley MacGregor

Lesley MacGregor

Dana Stirling

Memories Recorded in Water | These two series, Pattern Separation and Tales of the Sea, explore how we move through our lives, finding patterns where none seem to exist, sculpting from them a narrative of our experiences. The ocean is the perfect medium for these thoughts, ceaselessly changing yet comfortingly the same.

Pattern Separation is a meditation on being in lockdown: as the days slid by, one becoming another with nothing to mark the progression from week to week, time ran together. Psychologists call this inability to differentiate memories pattern separation. The series juxtaposes identical backgrounds of water, with the working boats whose differences become clear only as you observe them more carefully. Together they are a reminder of when time stood still and I clung to the small differences — a red hull or blue, a barge or a freighter — to mark the passage of time in an unending sea of repetition.

In Tales of the Sea, old sail boat hulls, resting in dry dock bear the story of every voyage they’ve taken, etched by currents, waves, and debris. The pattern of accumulated memories, written in chipped paint and rust stains, bookends the ocean itself, author and scribe of their adventures. The initial impression of shape, colour, and space provides an emotional tapestry for the series before these abstractions resolve themselves into specific representations.

Both series express my interest in how our memories reshape our past, how we narrate our lives based on experiences rather than on objective facts, how each of us builds our own fragile reality. My photographs take this internally constructed world and make it external with photographs that feel like thoughts, slightly untethered from the real world, showing my unique way of seeing. www.lesleymacgregor.com

Karen Osdieck

Karen Osdieck

Dana Stirling

Modern Boyhood | ‘Modern Boyhood’ is a long-term project documenting the personal journey of my children while navigating complexities of early adolescence. Childhood is a confusing time and I feel it is important for my two boys to openly explore their identity without restrictions and preconceptions. While my husband and I encourage our boys to be true to who they are, the media and societal views play a huge role in shaping our youth. Our culture is moving toward embracing a less rigid version of masculinity and accepting alternative parenting styles but it is not yet the norm. Through these images, I am examining their behaviors both innate and learned while teaching the importance of empathy, vulnerability and self expression.

Struggling with speech delays, both boys grew up knowing they were different from other children. Early on, I realized how important confidence is to their development. Crying, admitting fear and having interests deemed feminine are not signs of weakness inside our household. Now, as they venture out on their own, they are becoming aware of how they are perceived by their peers and expected male behavior. My hope is that they retain the courage and confidence to measure themselves by their own standards.

This series began as a way to hold on to this liminal state of innocence. Fading in and out of their consciousness and only stepping in when needed. It became a way to cope with my anxiety of not knowing the future and hoping I have done enough. For these moments I am invisible.

This project is ongoing. www.karenosdieckphotography.com

Wendy Constantine

Wendy Constantine

Dana Stirling

Reverie | Reverie inhabits the space between reality and dreams. One foot is firmly planted on terra firma, and the other steps through an otherworldly portal filled with melancholy wonder. This body of work is a personal fairytale, depicting a landscape of loss in a luminous, panoramic form.

These visual poems were inspired by a dream, and they make tangible the deeply buried grief that has haunted me for years. Set along the quiet and still waters of Coal Creek in Boulder, Colorado, the imagery metaphorically explores the “wintering of the soul” that comes before healing, just as spring fosters new growth and resilience. wendyconstantine.com

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