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Sure shot – Natalia Poniatowska on the art of capturing the off-moments

“I could picture myself as this little girl. The photograph has a reminder of the escape into a childish world, full of power and imagination and carelessness. You would not lie down next to the buffet during the party as an adult unless you are not sober.” Natalia Poniatowska’s entry to the BJP Breakthrough Awards 2017 is an outtake from a wedding renewal ceremony, which was taken quite by accident whilst the photographer was looking at lighting in the room. The image shows loneliness but also the power of children’s imagination.

1 September 2017

Landskrona Foto Festival reclaims the city from 08 September

“Our ambition is that Landskrona becomes the capital of photography in Scandinavia,” says photographer and festival curator Jenny Nordquist. “We want photography to manifest itself in public spaces, from shop windows to parks and old buildings, and become a perceptible part of experiencing the city. This is both an open invite for the visitor to discover the city and a practical consideration about what public spaces – so often privatised by advertising or market economics – can and must be.” The fifth edition of the Lanskrona Foto Festival opens from 08-17 September, co-curated by Nordquist and the legendary VU’ founder Christian Caujolle.

1 September 2017

Yonca Karakas holds a mirror to perfect societies

“We are criticising everything; art, science, politics, animal rights, human rights, simply anything we can imagine. Yet we continuously declare our opinions as correct under our perfect profile pages. Are we really so good? I don’t think so,” says Karakas. Her project, The Anatomy of Things, transports her subjects to an altered reality, where everything is perceived to be perfect and everyone looks the same. This disquieting vision plays with our ideas of perfection and our global obsession with curating our lives online.

30 August 2017

Jack Orton's oblique take on architecture and the built environment

The 22 year-old has shot Poundbury and Milton Keynes, among others, to pick out how we shape the environment – and how it then shapes us. “I quickly realised the importance of human presence within these urban environments; how we change them over time and how the environment changes us.”

28 August 2017

Why Is Your English So Good? by 21-year-old Daniel Adams

Malaysian youngster Daniel Adams came from Kuala Lumpur to Falmouth to explore identity and racism in photography. When embarking on his most recent project, Why Is Your English So Good?, the 21-year-old asked fellow Malaysian friends who were studying or working in the UK to recount their experiences of racism. Each crafted a one- or two-sentence anecdote and the images that Adams made in response attempt to visualise what it’s like to be on the receiving end of casual prejudice. Using constructed sets and make-up to bring the feelings at the core of each story to life, the photographs are visceral and emotive, harnessing the power of the image to express the indescribable.

24 August 2017

Far-right politics in contemporary Italy, in Luke Richard's Under Black Sun

Luke Richard’s project Under Black Sun reflects on the rise of far-right politics in contemporary Italy through the concept of the New Man – a form of idealised masculinity created by Mussolini during his reign as dictator, and propagated through various forms of meticulously controlled media. Appropriating the virile symbolism and values of Ancient Rome, the New Man model drew on Rome’s imperial history to whip up support for the New Italy that was to be delivered under a Fascist government – a pattern Richards believes resonates today.

23 August 2017

Opening closed doors in Vincent Ferrané's Milky Way

“I have simply seen breastfeeding as an act of life and love that is not always an easy task, and that therefore is deserving of encouragement in its all dimensions, psychological, physical and social,” says Vincent Ferrané, whose photobook Milky Way is a testament to his wife and women everywhere as they begin their lives as mothers. The series focuses on breastfeeding, a natural act that can sometimes cause controversy when brought into the public sphere. Ferrané’s photobook hopes to move past that and reclaim the breast as an empowering part of the female body.

22 August 2017

Montreal's Momenta Biennale and the unreliability of the image

For its 15th birthday, North America’s leading photofestival takes on a new name. Momenta: Biennale de l’image is designed to denote a more studied approach than the previous Month of Photography identity and is entirely in keeping with the direction of the festival – in recent years, under the creative direction of artists, curators and academics including Joan Fontcuberta, Paul Wombell and Marie Frase, it has addressed themes such as the ‘post-photographic’ condition and the impact of automation in image-making. This year’s invited curator is Ami Barak, a French visual authority.

22 August 2017

Britt Lloyd takes Martine Rose's AW17 collection back to its roots

“The idea was why don’t we go back to the market and put these clothes back in their home, back where they came from,” says Britt Lloyd, a young fashion photographer from North London. Working in digital photography for Showstudio, Lloyd has recently collaborated with Martine Rose and Machine-A to shoot a captivating menswear range which speaks to the communities of Seven Sisters and North London. Lloyd’s bold series does not follow traditional stylings of the male fashion industry, which she believes needs to change quickly.

21 August 2017