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SHOT FROM THE HEART Ibi Gowon is an artist at heart, fascinated by how people interact and inhabit the space. His images capture an encounter filled with so much soul with touches of mischief. SHOT FROM THE HEART March 26, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Ibi Gowon INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Ibi Gowon is a visionary – a photographer of African/British heritage with an unquenchable passion for capturing the essence of current events. With an unwavering dedication to his craft, Ibi takes to the streets daily in search of captivating subjects and moments that tell a story. His unique style of street photography, which focuses on portraiture, is a beautiful fusion of his London upbringing and his African interactions. Ibi’s works are a testament to his creativity and his commitment to excellence. His eye is sharp when it comes to detail and composition, and he is never afraid to push conventional boundaries in order to capture the perfect shot. From political gatherings to social movements to moments of everyday life, Ibi has seen it all through his lens – and he has a remarkable way of capturing these moments in time like no other. He often takes a step back from taking photos and instead observes the scenes before him, allowing him to gain a deeper understanding of the people and places he visits. Ibi’s photographs are inspiring and thought-provoking and they invite viewers to explore different perspectives on our world. What sets Ibi apart is his ability to skillfully capture the raw emotions, mischief, and soul of his subjects, producing powerful and emotive photographs that leave a lasting impression. In this interview, we take a closer look at Ibi’s journey into photography and explore just what makes this brilliant photographer so unique. “I studied art at school and photography was an element of it. However it wasn’t until I went overseas for work that my photography really took off. I was mesmerised by the colours around me, colours that were so different to those of London. For me photography allows you to capture a specific moment and it also allows you to tell a story.” IN CONVERSATION WITH IBI GOWON THE PICTORIAL LIST: Hello Ibi, let's begin by telling our readers something about yourself. IBI GOWON: I’m an International development consultant, and that’s how my “Colours /(Colors) of Abuja” series started. I grew up in North London, Golders Green, and then Hadley Wood, thus my following of Arsenal Football Club…! I have one daughter who although young is a very good artist and photographer. She kept taking my kit but it was too heavy, so I got her a secondhand Fuji X Series. She is my locations and lighting director..! I have now embarked on documentary filmmaking, charting the course of Nigeria’s ancient and lesser known civilisations. TPL: Could you tell us what growing up in London has inspired in your work and the way you portray your community? IG: London is real mix of everybody from all over the world. You can walk along the Holloway Road, Green Lanes or Seven Sister’s Road and hear 25 different languages being spoken! It’s this eclectic mix of the city I always try to capture. Being part of the community allows one to get closer to the subjects that you photograph, particularly in more private moments such as the pubs! TPL: What first attracts you in the moment, movement, light, colour, texture? Or do people and their personalities play an important role in how you portray them? IG: Light, colour and moment play an important role, but for me it’s more of the human interaction that you can portray, and how much of the subject’s personality you can show. TPL: Does having a spontaneous approach to your photography allow for the serendipity in the moment to dictate the frame? IG: Yes it does. I try not to have something solid set in mind when I shoot. That way if you don’t pull it off you are not disappointed. I like to let the moment happen. Even when shooting a specific subject, I will always allow for spontaneity, as quite often that is when you take your best image. TPL: Talk to us about your work in Nigeria. How much does documentary photography in particular play a role in your overall photography experience? What key themes do you want to show through your documentary photography? IG: Every work situation is a photo opportunity and a chance to document real life issues that concern everyday people’s lives. Documentary photography plays a huge role. It helps to dispel myths or misconceptions about the country, both internally and from abroad. I hope that my photography helps to create a means of changing the stereotypical narrative to one that showcases the best of what the country has to offer. There are many other Nigerian photographers doing this and I’m happy to be helping them achieve this goal. I hope that my photography helps to create a means of changing the stereotypical narrative to one that showcases the best of what the country has to offer. TPL: What was one of your favourite moments photographing? Where was it? And why? What are some of the challenges that you have faced out photographing on the street? IG: My favourite moments were photographing the Hyena Men of Nigeria. I never knew how big and powerful hyenas were until then! I got to within 1.5 metres of a hyena! It was interesting to understand the lives of this group of people. It was only after the shoot that I was informed that the hyena was the African Spotted hyena, the largest and most dangerous of the hyena family! The other moments were the pre “Sallah” ram sale, marking the end of Ramadan, where rams are bought and sold; and the other was builders working on a site in Abuja where there were so many vintage 1950s/1960s Mercedes trucks, still in use! Both tof hese were chance shoots! The biggest challenge I had was assuming that shooting on the streets of Abuja would be the same as in London..! It is not..! People, there are far more wary of the camera. They either feel you are spying on them or you are a part of the state security apparatus. Always have an escape route planned and get ready to run, as things can turn pretty spicy in seconds. Of course, this happens too in London. I will happily night shoot in Soho, but I won't do so on Green Lanes or Seven Sisters Road! TPL: Do you have favourite locations you like to point and shoot, or do you prefer the challenge, or the inspiration of new locations? IG: I have favourite locations that I always return to, as they are great for photography. You can always shoot a new scene there and use the location as a backdrop. Each new place I go to offers up new and interesting challenges: the best location, the light, etc, so I will always have a wonder around to draw some inspiration. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? IG: Gordon Parks. His work on covering the poor America, the African American Experience, his work in the Civil Rights and his filmography. Vivian Maier. A prolific photographer that was so ahead of her time, whom we may well have never heard of had it not been for the chance finding of her negatives after her death. My favourite artist is Georges Seurat. I love the impressionist era, but Seurat and his pointillism style is my favourite. I went on a school art trip to Paris aged 16, and fell in love with his “Un dimanche après-midi à l’ile de la Grande Jatte” and “Bathers at Asnières”. I can remember sitting in the gallery and sketching them! That was the beginning of a lifelong love of pointillism. TPL: What was the first camera you ever held in your hand, brought to eye, and released a shutter on? What is the camera you use now and your preferred focal length? Is there anything on your wishlist? IG: It was one of the type you look down from above. I was about 4 years old, and it was my father’s photographer who let me try it out! Today I use a Sony A7iii, a Fuji X100f and a Fuji X-T20. My preferred focal length is 35mm. I have lots of things on the wish list, but the pockets are not deep enough! Maybe the new Sony A7R V, and new Fuji X-T5 and new lenses. TPL: Are there any special projects that you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? What are some of your photography goals for the next 3-5 years? IG: I am currently working on a series of mini documentaries showcasing Nigeria’s ancient cultures and civilisations. The first one is on YouTube (view link at end of interview). The team is hoping to get all the other 12 done in the next year. My photography goals are to have an exhibition of the Nigeria work in the UK and the UK work in Nigeria; to publish the Nigeria work and to continue documenting the different tribes and groups of people in Nigeria. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to)... IG: I always have a camera with me…! There’s always a moment to capture! If I'm not shooting, I’m at galleries, walking the streets trying to find new locations, at food markets, and trying to keep fit..!” PORTFOLIO ARE WE NOK? INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

HOW I SEE THE WORLD Yoel Gracia uses photography to communicate how he sees the beauty in the world through his palette of vivid colour and contrasts. HOW I SEE THE WORLD May 7, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Yoel Gracia INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Yoel Gracia is a street photographer who takes the everyday and turns it into unique visual stories. With a unique eye and a vibrant palette, Yoel captures the beauty of life that often goes unnoticed by most. From bustling cityscapes to serene landscapes, Yoel's photography has a distinct style that oozes emotion. Through his vivid colour and contrast, Yoel shines a light on the awe-inspiring beauty of the world, allowing us to appreciate the world around us in a different way. Yoel travels the world, capturing remarkable moments and turning them into unforgettable works of art. This interview will explore how Yoel Gracia uses photography to communicate the world as he sees it – a place of beauty and inspiration. “I always try to experiment with new planes, compositions and colors. I used to try to show everyday and sometimes implausible scenes, but, nowadays I try to look at the games of lights and shadows always applied to my vision of street photography.” IN CONVERSATION WITH YOEL GRACIA THE PICTORIAL LIST: Yoel, when did you start getting interested in photography? YOEL GRACIA: I've always liked art and capturing moments from around me. One and a half years ago was when I started getting serious about photography. Thanks to street photography I can now express myself and free my soul. TPL: Where do you find your inspiration to photograph? YG: I find my inspiration on Instagram and in some of the street photography magazines. TPL: Who are your favourite artists and photographers? YG: Alex Webb, Trent Parke, Joakim Möller, Lydia Roberts, Joaquin Pastor Genzor and Çağdaş Kul. TPL: Do you think equipment is important in achieving your vision in your photography? What would you say to someone just starting out? YG: I know what is usually said in these cases but it's the truth...You have to go outside take all the photos that suggest something for you and train your photographic eye daily. No matter what camera you use, the place you're with, or the people you're with. I'm going to show the world how my eyes see it. TPL: Have you ever been involved in the arts before photography? YG: No, I didn't. Although today I need art to make sense of my existence. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? YG: No I don't. At the moment I take the pictures I see without thinking that they have to go down a path. It's just natural. TPL: “If I wasn't photographing what would I be doing?... YG: I'm a primary school teacher and I like to travel each time that I can.” PORTFOLIO INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

PICTORIAL STORY THE SHOW MUST GO ON October 23, 2020 PICTORIAL STORY Photography and story by Simo Väisänen Introduction by Melanie Meggs SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link When we think of circus, we often conjure up images of wild animals, daring aerial acts and colourful clowns. But there is much more to the circus than just entertainment and spectacle. In Finland, the circus is an art form that has been around for centuries, evolving and growing to become a respected and much-loved part of the country's cultural heritage. This is why Simo Väisanen, a highly accomplished Finnish photographer, has had a long-held fascination with the circus and has captured some stunning photographs of shows by Circus Caliba, Circus Florentino and Circus Finlandia between 2012 and 2019. His love for old Finnish black and white movies, Italian neorealism and Akira Kurosawa's and Sergei Eisenstein's productions shines through in his photographs, captivating audiences with the beauty of the circus and its characters. Step into the magical world of the circus with Simo Väisanen's photography and embark on a journey of discovery and delight! I have always been a great fan of circus. It all began when me and my kid brother hadn't even started school yet. Our Mum took us to a circus which had come to our hometown Kuopio in Finland. We saw lions, dogs, horses and one Indian elephant doing their act with their trainer or tamer behind his or her whip. Nowadays there are no wild animals in circuses in Finland. That's the law. I believe that's ok. Lions belong to Africa. Circus (sirkus - fin, circus - en) in Finland began when a French equestrian circus group performed in Turku in 1802. In successive decades Finland became a fixture on international circus tours as groups passed through on their way to St. Petersburg from Stockholm. During the last 200 years circus has grown to become a respected, active and independent art form. The first Finnish circus troupe started performing in 1896. At the beginning of the 20th century, circus acts were often performed as part of touring funfairs, but long distances, hard winters and the high entertainment taxes that were levied on circus hindered sustainable circus activity. Finland is the third country in Europe, where circus has been accepted into the National Inventory of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The second awakening of Finnish circus began in the 1970s. The founding of our biggest touring tented circus, Sirkus Finlandia in 1976 revived a long-lost Finnish circus tradition. Youth circuses were also established in the same decade. Since then, a huge rise in the number of children and youth engaged in circus as a hobby has fed a new generation of performers and spectators. Today there are more than 8,000 amateurs in 44 youth circus schools and clubs all around the country. High quality youth circus education is widely available and is designed to provide a solid footing for professionalism in this art field. Contemporary circus art began to develop in Finland in the 1990s. One important step in the development of the art form in Finland was the founding of The Association Cirko – Centre for New Circus in 2002. Between 2004 and 2006 Cirko carried out a development project for a new circus with funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. In 2006 Cirko was divided into two, so that the tasks of documenting, developing and promoting circus arts became the responsibility of Circus Info Finland and Cirko continued as a production centre. The opening of the Cirko venue and residency centre for contemporary circus in Helsinki in 2011 was a major step forward. Today we have around twenty full-time contemporary circus companies and around the same number of solo artists, duos, collectives and working groups, with an estimated 250 circus professionals. Circus is being taught in two educational institutes. The street arts sector in Finland still remains quite small and unorganised. Outdoor performances can be seen at summer festivals in Finnish cities and villages, but our short summertime and unpredictable weather conditions have hindered the growth of the sector. The Finnish government has systematically supported circus arts over the last decade. Nevertheless, compared to the state support received by theatre and music venues the support for circus is still very small-scale. In 2014 circus art was finally included in the law for theatres and orchestras, but there until now there are no circus organisations that receive legislated funding from the government. Circus Finlandia, where I took some of the photos shown here, is The National Circus of Finland. It is a touring family circus founded by the Jernström family in 1976. The Circus Finlandia Grand Tour around Finland starts in April and ends in Helsinki in October. More than 200,000 Finns see their programme every year. Other famous big circuses that have been touring in Finland in the 21st century are Sirkus Caliba, Sirkus Florentino, Sirkus Tähti and Sirkus Valentino. There's one image though that will stay in my mind forever. A trapeze act is an essential part of any circus. In 1960's there were no safety nets in circuses. That first ever evening at the circus there was this already a bit elderly German couple with their only son in his twenties. The son flew through the air and his parents kept watching him closely at the same time taking care of the ropes that controlled the trapeze bars. Suddenly the son couldn't catch the bar coming towards him and he came down almost headfirst and thudded on the sawdust. The poor mother ran screaming to her son and started caressing his back gently with her hand. Soon we heard the ambulance. The paramedics did their job and in no time the ambulance headed to the hospital with the whole family in it. The circus band started playing again and the ringmaster announced the next performance. The show must go on! © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen © Simo Väisänen Simo Väisanen's photography captures the beauty and timelessness of the circus, an art form that has been around for centuries in Finland. His works are inspired by the greats in the world of film, bringing to life the spectacle of the circus world. We take the opportunity to thank Simo for allowing us to step into the beautiful world of the circus and be inspired by the characters and stories that he captures with his photographs. view Simo's portfolio Read an interview with Simo >>> Website >>> Instagram >>> Sources used in story - Circus Finland Sirkus Info Casa Circuits The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s, and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List and the team. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

PICTORIAL STORY NYC SUBWAY RIDERS BEFORE THE INVASION OF SMARTPHONES Hiroyuki Ito’s subway photographs reveal a vanished intimacy — strangers lost in thought in a world before digital distractions took hold. June 22, 2025 PICTORIAL STORY photography HIROYUKI ITO story MELANIE MEGGS SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link There’s a peculiar kind of intimacy that lives in Hiroyuki Ito’s subway photographs. It's not the kind born of conversation or connection — quite the opposite. It’s the intimacy of solitude. Of being lost in thought, adrift in a crowd, present only to oneself. These photographs, made on New York City subways between 2007 and 2008, capture something that has all but vanished in the decade and a half since: the unguarded inner life of strangers in public. Hiroyuki Ito has spent much of his life observing people in motion, in performance halls, on street corners, under stage lights, and deep below the city, on screeching trains beneath the asphalt. Born in Tokyo in 1968, Hiroyuki arrived in New York in 1992 more by parental edict than personal ambition. “I graduated from high school and for the next three years, I didn’t do anything,” he recalls. “I didn’t go to school; I had no job — I was a lazy bum staying home all the time. Finally, my mother got sick of me and suddenly told me to go to America and do something.” She handed him the number of a friend’s son studying music in Boston. When the young Hiroyuki admitted he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, the man offered a simple suggestion: “Go to New York. You might find something.” Hiroyuki didn’t know what he was searching for, only that he had to start looking. Over the years, New York gave him direction, mentors, and ultimately, a career. As a freelance photographer for The New York Times for over two decades, he covered countless performing arts events, balancing the precision of visual storytelling with the fluidity of human expression. But what he captured on the subway during his commutes, those unposed, unscripted interludes, reveal another dimension of his photographic practice: one anchored in patience and reverence for the everyday. There is no peak action, no drama. In these photographs, faces become quiet landscapes of thought. “Did I turn off the gas before I left home?” “How am I going to pay this month’s rent?” “Does he really love me?” “Will my mother be okay on her own?” We’ll never know what any of them were thinking. But that’s the point. These aren’t photographs meant to explain. They are photographs that suggest. Photography, Hiroyuki reminds us, is not about clarity. It’s about imagination. “A photograph is still and silent,” he says. “It can’t move or speak like a video. It needs the viewer’s mind to complete it.” It was 2007, the first iPhone had just been released, and though it would soon revolutionize how we live and move through the world, it hadn’t yet infiltrated the subway. Hiroyuki’s photographs, then, become a kind of archaeological record, visual evidence of a now-extinct species: the publicly private New Yorker, whose mind was their only entertainment on the ride home. “I miss the blank facial expressions,” Hiroyuki reminisces. Of course, Hiroyuki isn’t lamenting the loss of the past for nostalgia’s sake. He's well aware that times change, as do the tools we use to shape our days. “Photography is essentially about time,” he says. “It’s a record of something that is leaving us.” His images aren’t a plea for regression. They’re an invitation to see what was there and what might still be, if only we look more closely. There’s a humility to Hiroyuki’s practice that runs counter to much of what we associate with artistic authorship. He doesn’t consider himself an artist, or even a journalist. “I feel more like a municipal clerk,” he offers, “punching the clock and taking pictures every day.” That modesty belies the quiet rigor in his work. Whether documenting actors on stage or riders on a subway bench, he approaches each scene with a sensitivity to rhythm, to breath, to what he calls the “rest” in a musical composition — the moment between notes, where silence makes meaning possible. This sense of restraint, of going only halfway and allowing the viewer to meet him there, is deeply rooted in Hiroyuki’s Japanese heritage. In a city where everyone is performing, whether consciously or not, Hiroyuki knows when to look, and when to hold back. His camera is his sketchbook. “It’s like a pencil and a small notebook,” he says. “A way of making a quick drawing.” And so, these subway portraits function almost like visual haikus — minimal, contemplative, and open-ended. There is no attempt to make the subway more glamorous or more despairing than it is. Instead, Hiroyuki focuses on the ordinary magic of people simply being, lost in thought, waiting, transitioning from one place to another. The subway becomes not just a vehicle but a metaphor for a moment suspended between past and future. Between who we were and who we’re becoming. And that’s where the power of these photographs lies. They remind us of something that is both specific and universal: that we all carry secret lives, even in plain sight. That reflection is possible amid the noise. That even in transit, we might be still. For The Pictorial List community, this project opens a quiet window onto a time not so distant. One we all passed through but rarely stopped to see. Through Hiroyuki’s perspective, we’re invited to slow down, to remember what it felt like, and to rediscover meaning in the ordinary moments that once rushed by unnoticed. © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito © Hiroyuki Ito Three decades after his first subway photographs, Hiroyuki Ito still rides the trains, camera in hand, eyes open to the choreography of urban life. The world around him has shifted. He doesn’t mourn the change. He adapts. He watches. He documents. And perhaps, decades from now, his images of people swiping screens and tapping icons will carry their own elegiac beauty, as foreign and fascinating to future viewers as these quiet, analog souls appear to us now. For Hiroyuki, photography is not a pursuit of drama or self-expression. It is an act of steady attention, a way of listening without words. And as long as people keep creating fleeting moments of stillness amid the noise, he’ll be there, observing, recording, and quietly reminding us to look a little closer. view Hiroyuki Ito's portfolio Website >>> Read on Substack >>> The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List and the team. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

PICTORIAL STORY FIRE AND FORGE In the crater’s depths, where blue fire flickers and sulfur coats the air, Alexandros Zilos documents the stark reality of mining and its haunting beauty. August 16, 2024 PICTORIAL STORY photography ALEXANDROS ZILOS story ALEXANDROS ZILOS introduction MELANIE MEGGS SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link In the captivating yet harsh landscape of Mount Ijen in East Java, Indonesia, the lives of sulfur miners reveal a narrative of resilience and determination. Alexandros Zilos, a documentary photographer, videographer, and video editor based in Athens, Greece, engages with this juxtaposition of beauty and hardship. With a camera in hand, Alexandros captures the interaction between man and nature, documenting the spirit of those who labor amidst toxic fumes and treacherous paths. After completing his academic studies in Conservation Biology in Plymouth, United Kingdom, Alexandros began an extensive journey across three continents. Traveling by bicycle, he immersed himself in diverse natural environments and cultures, gaining a deep understanding of the lives and struggles of the people he encountered. Alexandros’s work focuses on environmental issues, human rights, and regional cultural realities. Through his project Sulfur Miners and Tourism at Mount Ijen , Alexandros’s photographs depict the fascinating coexistence of tourism and labor in this volcanic region. Tourism has increased at Mount Ijen, drawing visitors to its sulfur mining operations and landscapes. This increase in visitors affects local communities and the environment, causing potential environmental degradation and disruptions in mining activities. The presence of tourists also influences local economic and cultural dynamics, as communities adjust to the demands and opportunities created by tourism. Alexandros delves deep into the harsh reality of sulfur mining, while also capturing the allure of the blue fire phenomenon created by sulfur deposits in the crater. Mount Ijen is a stratovolcano located in East Java, Indonesia. Daily, hordes of tourists ascend its steep slopes to witness the captivating blue flames emanating from sulfur deposits. It is one of the few remaining active sulfur mines in the world. While its surreal landscapes have fascinated scientists and adventurers for over two centuries, in recent years, the miners themselves have emerged as a contentious tourist draw. In the heart of this volcanic wonder, I observed a world where beauty and hardship intersect. Using my camera, I documented the daily struggles of the sulfur miners, their bodies bent under heavy burdens and their spirits tested by the harsh elements. Manually loading sulfur into their baskets, the miners laboriously carry their hefty loads on foot. Among clouds of toxic sulfur dioxide that cause immediate discomfort to their throats and eyes, the miners work tirelessly without adequate protection, with only a few possessing gas masks. As I followed Dharma and his fellow miners on their ascent, I noted the scale of their labor. Carrying baskets and driven by determination, they navigated steep paths and dense jungles, their bodies covered in sweat and grime. Formerly a seasoned miner, Dharma transitioned from working in the crater to becoming a tourism operator, demonstrating the enduring human spirit. He spent years learning English to leave behind the life of a miner and focus on tourism. He recounted to me his three-year stint, making the arduous journey two or three times a day. The mark on his shoulder shows the burdensome baskets used to transport sulfur. Dharma explained that most miners prefer working at night to avoid the daytime heat. Despite their resilience, the miners remain at the mercy of forces beyond their control. Operated by a distant Chinese company, the mine lacks permanent staff and offers low wages and little in the way of protection or support. Miners decide their daily ascents up the 2769-meter volcano. On average, a miner can carry between 60 to 90 kilograms of sulfur at once, with some of the strongest shouldering over 100 kilograms. The miners utilize primitive baskets connected by a yoke. The journey entails carrying the load up to 300 meters along a steep mountain path to the crater's edge. Then, they trek an additional three kilometers through the jungle to the collection point at Pos Paltuding. Each miner earns approximately $5 per trip, typically managing just two trips a day. And yet, it remains one of the highest-paid occupations in the region, a stark reminder of the harsh realities faced by those who call Mount Ijen home. © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos © Alexandros Zilos In concluding this exploration of Mount Ijen, between the environment's beauty and the miners’ arduous labor. Alexandros Zilos’s photographs provides a profound look into the resilience and determination that define the daily lives of these workers. With his background in Conservation Biology and extensive travels, Alexandros brings a unique perspective to his work. His images are more than visual records; they are powerful narratives. These narratives provoke thoughtful discussion on socio-economic dynamics and the preservation of cultural heritage. They prompt us to consider the human and environmental costs of the beauty we often take for granted. They challenge us to think critically about the untold stories and the lives that unfold far from the spotlight. In the end, the sulfur miners of Mount Ijen have left a strong impression on our awareness. Alexandros ensures their stories are seen and heard, a testament to the human spirit and the role of storytelling in bringing attention to less visible aspects of our world. view Alexandros Zilos' portfolio Instagram >>> Facebook >>> The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s, and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List and the team. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

SAYAN BISWAS I am a software engineer who happens to use a camera. I am drawn less by the identity of being a photographer and more by the act of observing. For me, photography is about noticing, slowing down to see what often goes unnoticed in everyday life. Balancing a full-time career in technology, I bring discipline and structure into my process while remaining open to uncertainty. I do not seek to define myself as an artist, but as someone trying to pay closer attention to the world around me. My photographs have received international recognition, including five selections for National Geographic Editor’s Choice and third prize at the Indian Portrait Prize 2024, organised by the Indian Photo Festival. My work has been exhibited widely in India and internationally, with showcases across major Indian cities and in countries including Italy, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Australia, Brazil, and New Zealand. It has also been featured across several photography platforms and international publications. LOCATION Kolkata INDIA CAMERA/S Nikon d7500, Nikon d5200 @THE_IRON_MASK FEATURES // The Pull of the Earth

PICTORIAL STORY DON'T WITHER AWAY In his latest project, Vinh Tran steps into a Hanoi nursing home, searching for more than just images. He captures the lives of its residents as he reflects on his own anxieties about purpose, aging, and what it means to grow old with dreams still burning. This story isn’t just about the elderly — it’s about all of us, and the questions we’re often too afraid to ask. August 13, 2021 PICTORIAL STORY photography VINH TRAN story VINH TRAN introduction MELANIE MEGGS SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link The sound of a camera's shutter, the buzz of an old-fashioned film camera and the whisper of the wind. All of these sounds made Vinh Tran, a documentary and street photographer based in Vietnam, feel alive. He is a man who speaks through his lens, expressing himself through his art and everyday practice of photography. Vinh has this unique outlook on life and his passion for photography has become his language, allowing him to communicate his ideas and perspectives with others. He is never seen without his camera, always capturing moments that others may easily overlook. Through his photographs, he aims to tell stories that are often left untold. In April 2021, Vinh embarked on a project that was close to his heart. He visited a nursing home in Hanoi, searching for answers to his imaginary fears - the fear of living a life without any objectives. This project became a way for him to explore his inner thoughts and feelings, as he was determined to answer the questions that were lingering in the back of his mind. What is it like living in a nursing home? Would it be ok to live in a nursing home when you are a person with countless objectives and expectations? For most of my existence, I have been fighting with my parents to achieve freedom for myself. The priceless space that offers me the right to make my own decisions in any circumstances, to freely follow my dreams, and to live as a young man with countless ambitions independently. Asian parents are well-known for being invariably overprotective of their children, which triggered my curiosity about what it is like to be a child raised by non-Asian parents. Is it necessarily true that Western parents are more liberal as they seemingly give the decisions and feelings of their children more consideration? Back in April 2017, when I had a conversation with a Canadian friend and his mother, I asked a question that had always been deeply hidden in my memory related to my curiosity of the Parent-Child relationship in Western society: "Would you move to an elderly care center or live with your son when you are old?" She held her son's hand and said: "Of course I would live with my son. Therefore M, please don't leave me alone when I'm old, honey." I felt shocked and, at the same time, immensely emotional by her answer. It fractured my bright imaginary perception of aging in Western countries. This series of images was taken in a nursing home in Hanoi throughout April 2021. I talked to the elders here, listened to them, sympathized with them, and witnessed different emotional nuances from numerous stories. My approach illustrates the imaginary fear of loneliness at old age, the feeling of pointlessness and emptiness. The definition of time becomes vague. Life turning upside down in a loop of boredom as there are no more objectives and expectations. © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran B. Former pharmacist. "I hope my grandchildren are qualified to enter higher education. I hope they will succeed, so life will be much easier for their kids. There are no differences between my life five years ago and my life now; at the time my husband passed away, so I had to live alone. I don't have any expectations of life anymore." © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran "I have to go outside tomorrow; I will go home." V suffers from dementia and is almost unable to converse naturally. He sleeps very little and always looks out the windows saying that it is time to go home. © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran Clothing tag. This ID Tag helps keep track of valuable clothes and belongings in order to reduce the risk of loss. © Vinh Tran © Vinh Tran KP. Poet. “Five years ago, I worked without a day off. I wrote a ton. I studied everywhere I had been to. I did not even have time for sorrow. But now I am all depressed. I am down in the dumps because I cannot go to the pagoda. It does not make sense to me - as a poet; living in a nursing home means that I am blind to what is happening out there. I wish I could keep exploring so I can complete unfinished poems as soon as possible. I want to go to China; I want to see The Great Wall.” © Vinh Tran Two poems that KP had written during Lunar New Year 2021. © Vinh Tran Vinh Tran's project allowed him to discover the answers that he was seeking. He brought light to a place that is often forgotten and through his photographs he was able to communicate his ideas and perspectives with others. This project was more than just a reflection of his inner thoughts; it was a reminder of how powerful photography can be in bringing attention to the issues that are left unseen. view Vinh's portfolio Read an interview with Vinh >>> Website >>> Instagram >>> The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List and the team. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

PHOTOS PUNCTUATING LIFE Photographs punctuate Suzanne Phoenix's life, giving her life a rhythm and focusing on topics to see more representation by a female gaze. PHOTOS PUNCTUATING LIFE August 14, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Suzanne Phoenix INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Suzanne Phoenix, a Melbourne-based photographer, has been using her camera to capture people and places through events, live music and performance, documenting street and daily life. Unconstrained by judgement, Suzanne's lens unlocks a world of beauty and wonder, allowing her to explore and grow in a creative way. Her unique style of photography is both captivating and thought-provoking, as she often focuses on topics which need more representation, pushing herself beyond her boundaries. It is this certain kind of magic which has earned her much recognition and respect in the photographic world. With her passion for photography pulsing through her veins, Suzanne punctuates her life with photographs that tell vivid stories and make an impact. Come along with us as we explore Suzanne's inspiring journey. An artist serves their community. - Amanda Palmer “When I worry about focusing too much on things that I am close to, love and am part of and think I should be working bigger, I remember the way I can best serve is in those very places.” IN CONVERSATION WITH SUZANNE PHOENIX THE PICTORIAL LIST: Suzanne, when did you start getting interested in photography? SUZANNE PHOENIX: Photography has been a love of my life. My family and my Nana showed great respect and importance of photographs. My Nana was terrible at it, always with a thumb over the lens, a shadow or missing the subject completely. I now adore and treasure her photos, they are completely surreal, you couldn’t make these photos if you tried. I have photographed since before I was 10 years of age, unfortunately it’s not one of those cool ‘my grandparents gave me their box brownie’ kind of stories. It was a red plastic Kmart job. I really only thought I could take it more seriously in about 2012. I am mostly self-trained; I learn best through doing. I have participated in a few photography and artist/photo books masterclasses with Stephen Dupont, and Kate Baker was my mentor for several years. I have done many and varied jobs and still do other work alongside my photography, like most artists I know. I have been a cherry picker, Feng Shui consultant, filing clerk to CEO, lots of work in community settings, neighbourhood houses and local government. TPL: Where has photography taken you? I heard you say in an interview that you were a shy person. How has photography helped you to overcome this barrier? SP: Photography has taken me everywhere! Well not everywhere, but a lot of places. From, taxidermy championships, jelly wrestling, ute musters, sex shops, protests, dirt drag races, death metal gigs to a drag queen festival in the desert. I will always be a shy person underneath. Putting myself out there is a skill I developed firstly by becoming confident in myself and through my working career. But photography has taken it to a whole new level. If I have a reason to be somewhere, I can be comfortable, and photography gives me that reason. TPL: Even though you don’t like to label yourself with a certain style of photography, where does your main passion lie...what excites you? SP: People and place I think excite me the most. People at both ends of the spectrum from just being themselves to being completely extreme. And moments, it’s all about the perfect, often unseen, moments. TPL: How do you choose your subjects and your projects? Where do you find your inspiration? SP: This relates to the previous question, the everyday and the extreme, and just things I love in life. Around the next corner, in a facial expression and human exchange. Projects are often about focusing on an area where I want to see more representation or an interpretation by a female gaze. TPL: Who are your favourite artists or photographers? Who has mostly influenced your style? SP: Rennie Ellis, Diane Arbus, Patrick Pound, Nan Goldin, Agent Cleave, Amy Taylor, Jack Picone, David Wadelton, Megan Lewis, Stephen Dupont, Betty Grumble and Cash Savage. All these artists have influenced my style in different ways. Some influenced (and continue to influence) my approach, to know when to be brave, step forward and when to stay in the shadows and observe. Projects are often about focusing on an area where I want to see more representation or an interpretation by a female gaze. TPL: Victoria is unfortunately going through it's second wave of COVID-19, and some areas are faced with total lockdown whilst other areas statewide are on level 3 or 4 restrictions...regarding your Project ISOLATION PORTRAITS, what are your feelings and the general feeling of your community second time around? SP: In the second stage of the project the community felt very different. Restrictions were still in place until the end of May, and then relaxed a little in June, but we were still in isolation and encouraged to stay home. Some people were returning to the workplace and transitioning from home schooling. People seemed to be going back to the usual busyness of their pre-COVID-19 lives. There was less willingness and ability to participate in this series. Many people also appeared tired, frustrated and worn down. I plan to commence stage 3 shortly and I imagine the feeling will be different again. I am continuing with this series partly because it is a rare opportunity to document but also because it keeps me photographing. I lost all of my photography business when COVID hit. TPL: Has your style of photographing changed since you first started? SP: I’m really not sure. I probably didn’t have a style at the beginning. I try to not box myself into having just one style and keep challenging myself to learn different ways of shooting and creating diverse work. TPL: Do you think equipment is important for achieving your vision in your photography? What would you say to someone else just starting out? SP: My only real comment on equipment is that I like to use a camera and lens that is small and quiet. This enables me to create imagery without people thinking I am serious; they barely notice me. And if I have engaged with them, they are not intimidated by the equipment and rarely put up a facade. It is helpful for me to have the right equipment for particular settings like music festival, but I usually just carry one camera and lens and create what I can with what I have. To someone wanting to start out in my genre of photography, I’d just say get out there and shoot. Read books, look at the photos of the greats and the emerging and go to exhibitions. But most importantly, just shoot. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist? SP: My art helps me to navigate the world, it’s joys and its challenges. My main goal is that photography stays that way for me. To be making work I am proud of. Making a living. Not compromising my ethics. Experiencing life. Making a difference. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on? SP: I am working on ‘Isolation Portraits – Stage 3’ while we are in stage 3 restrictions. Alongside this I have commenced a long-term series of nudes. 2021 sees the 10th year of my International Women's Day series and I have a few big plans for this. All new portraits will have a focus entirely on BIPOC ( Black, Indigenous, People of Colour ). Other aspects of the series are yet to be announced but it will include a self-publication and look back at the past 9 years. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to)... SP: Think about photography.” PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

Seeking stories is my way of learning. Therefore, I think it is not a coincidence that my Sociology and photography education started in the same year. Capturing the sociology of everyday life brings me closer to photojournalism and documentary photography. Maybe that's why I'm looking for human faces, emotions and behaviour as much as I look for composition and light. Telling an ordinary thing through photography allows us to see it in a completely different way. What attracts me to photography is to witness so many emotions while documenting the events and to tell them as best I can. Narrating social movements, finding short street stories, and telling these stories cinematically makes me one step closer to the documentary subject I have been working on. When I moved to Antwerp from Istanbul 3 years ago, I returned to photography because I thought that the best way to learn a new city was to take pictures. I found a new topic every week and followed the traces of these stories in Antwerp. This inspired me to work on a documentary photography project. I am currently working on a documentary project about Crimean Tatar Villages because it is fascinating to imagine that even a single thing we observe will reach the history pages through us. NESLIHAN USLU Seeking stories is my way of learning. Therefore, I think it is not a coincidence that my Sociology and photography education started in the same year. Capturing the sociology of everyday life brings me closer to photojournalism and documentary photography. Maybe that's why I'm looking for human faces, emotions and behaviour as much as I look for composition and light. Telling an ordinary thing through photography allows us to see it in a completely different way. What attracts me to photography is to witness so many emotions while documenting the events and to tell them as best I can. Narrating social movements, finding short street stories, and telling these stories cinematically makes me one step closer to the documentary subject I have been working on. When I moved to Antwerp from Istanbul 3 years ago, I returned to photography because I thought that the best way to learn a new city was to take pictures. I found a new topic every week and followed the traces of these stories in Antwerp. This inspired me to work on a documentary photography project. I am currently working on a documentary project about Crimean Tatar Villages because it is fascinating to imagine that even a single thing we observe will reach the history pages through us. LOCATION Antwerp BELGIUM CAMERA/S Fujifilm X-T3 WEBSITE https://www.neslihanuslu.com/ @ANTWERPIST FEATURES // Sociology of Everyday Life

PICTORIAL STORY LAND, LABOR AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. April 12, 2026 PICTORIAL STORY PHOTOGRAPHY Rajesh Dhar STORY Rajesh Dhar INTRODUCTION Karen Ghostlaw SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link Photography has long served as a powerful way to examine the relationship between people, land, and livelihood. In regions where agriculture shapes both culture and economy, the landscape itself becomes a living archive of tradition, labor, and survival. With patience and careful observation, photographers can reveal the stories embedded within these environments, offering viewers insight into the systems that sustain communities and the natural resources that shape daily life. For photographer Rajesh Dhar, visual storytelling is deeply connected to the social and cultural fabric of India. A graduate of the prestigious Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Rajesh works professionally as a graphic designer while maintaining a passionate commitment to photography. His artistic practice often explores the vibrancy of India’s cultural and religious diversity, with particular attention to rural festivals and the emotional energy that emerges from communal celebration. At the same time, his work reflects a thoughtful awareness of the complexities within society, seeking to reveal both its virtues and its challenges through compelling visual narratives. In this ongoing photographic project, Rajesh turns his attention to the agricultural landscapes of West Bengal, where jute cultivation has long played an essential role in both environmental sustainability and economic livelihood. Often referred to as the ‘golden fibre,’ jute has supported generations of farmers, laborers, and artisans while offering an environmentally responsible alternative to synthetic materials. Working within the fields themselves, Rajesh documents more than a material or an industry. His photographs reveal the process of cultivation, the relationship between land, labor, and the broader network of communities sustained by this remarkable natural resource. The jute fields become a place where environmental responsibility, cultural heritage, and economic livelihood intersect. At a time when global conversations increasingly focus on sustainability and ecological balance, Rajesh’s work invites viewers to look closely at a material that has quietly supported both environment and economy for generations. By turning his attention toward the origins of this fiber, he offers a visual reflection on how traditional practices can continue to shape a more sustainable future. In India, the plastic recycling rate is around 60%. The remaining 40% of plastic waste remains uncollected and often ends up littering the environment, causing clogged drains and pollution of land and water systems. Jute, in contrast, is a 100% recyclable natural material. Transitioning to alternative sustainable materials can help mitigate the carbon intensity associated with plastic production and its impact on climate change. In this regard, the use of jute for packaging plays an important role from a sustainability perspective due to its renewable nature, biodegradability, low carbon footprint, and positive impact on soil health. Jute is often referred to as the ‘golden fiber’ because of its natural color and environmentally friendly qualities. As a natural fiber that is fully biodegradable and renewable, it provides a sustainable alternative to synthetic materials. Its cultivation contributes to environmental health by helping reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. One hectare of jute plantation can absorb up to 15 tons of carbon dioxide and release around 11 tons of oxygen during a growing season of about 100 days, offering benefits for already polluted environments. Jute plants also support soil conservation by preventing erosion and improving soil fertility through their deep-rooted system. In recent years there has been renewed global interest in jute as a sustainable alternative to synthetic materials. It is now used across various industries, including textiles, packaging, construction, and even the automotive sector. Traditionally, jute has been an integral part of the textile industry, widely used for making sacks, bags, and ropes because of its strength and durability. Its fibrous structure also makes it suitable for producing carpets, mats, and other home furnishings. The jute industry is one of the prominent industries in India. From cultivation and harvesting to processing, manufacturing, and exporting, the industry creates employment at multiple stages of the value chain. It provides direct employment to around 3.70 lakh workers and supports the livelihoods of approximately 40 lakh farm families. Farmers, factory workers, artisans, traders, and other associated personnel all depend on this sector. Jute and jute products also contribute significantly to India’s export earnings, with the country remaining one of the largest exporters of jute and jute goods in the world. Because of its versatility and environmental benefits, jute remains a valuable natural resource with the potential to contribute to a more sustainable future. By promoting the use of jute products, individuals and industries can support environmentally responsible practices while creating sustainable economic opportunities for the communities involved in its cultivation and production. © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar © Rajesh Dhar Rajesh Dhar’s photographs bring attention to a subject that is both deeply local and globally relevant. By focusing on the cultivation of jute in the fields of West Bengal, he highlights a material whose history is closely tied to the lives and livelihoods of the communities who grow and process it. His work draws attention to the people and landscapes that sustain this remarkable fiber, reminding us that environmental conversations often begin in the places where land and labor meet. Rajesh’s photography has received both national and international recognition, earning awards in competitions including the Mela Moments Photo Contest organized by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Indian Sports Photography Award, the Mangrove Photography Awards, the Fokus International Photo Awards in Albania, and the My Indian Link Photo Contest in Australia. His work has also been recognized through major publications and contests such as The Hindu’s Frame Your Festive Stories and The Times of India’s My City My Click. As this ongoing project continues to grow, Rajesh’s photographs offer an important visual record of a landscape, an industry, and a tradition that continues to shape the lives of millions. view Rajesh's portfolio website >>> instagram >>> The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

NOTES ON A LANDSCAPE Very poetic and existential in nature, Mostafa Nodeh’s minimalist landscapes invites us to reflect on the deeper questions in life. NOTES ON A LANDSCAPE June 24, 2022 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Mostafa Nodeh INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Very poetic and existential in nature, Mostafa Nodeh’s photography invites us to reflect on the deeper questions in life. What is the meaning of it? How are we spending it? Or to engage with more politically charged questions such as which lives matter? Or who is disposable? Mostafa is an Iranian artist and self-taught photographer based in Guilan, on the northern coast of Iran. He is known for his captivating symbolic minimalist landscape photographs in black and white. The barren landscapes, footsteps in the snow, birds flying towards freedom, tiny people against large constructions, ladders, and winding roads can be interpreted as metaphors of life. They all hint of a journey, a long slow walk and the paths there are to choose within it. Mostafa’s world could in many ways be described as a world of contrasts. At first we are struck by the beauty and simplicity of Mostafa's work, however, beneath this facade hides deeper meaningful philosophies. The dark shadows, strong lines and sharp geometric shapes create a striking presence, as Mostafa describes, “like an emerging storm they hint of unease, which is further empathized by the distance to the subjects that appear small against large landscapes, constructions and the overall brutal and raw force of nature.” At the same time, the light, warm tones and soft organic textures emit a strong sense of serenity, peace and hope, “a calm after a storm and the promise of a bright future.” With a background in painting and while photography is his preferred medium today, Mostafa recognises a strong link between painting and photography, often combining aspects of both into his working process, and is visible in the photographs themselves. Mostafa's minimalist works are a combination of preconceived ideas, often inspired by his own thoughts and dreams, and chance and coincidence, twisting the notion of time and space, making it impossible for us to anchor in any reality to us. His masterful transitions between light and shadow, the texture, tone, shading and color, which at times resemble aspects of painting, but also in his dreamlike treatment of the subject matter and in the overall composition. “To me, minimal photography is an art in the way that artists learn how to omit the extra elements which seem to be very necessary in such a hectic life. I see it as an international language to communicate with the people round the world.” IN CONVERSATION WITH MOSTAFA NODEH THE PICTORIAL LIST: Mostafa please tell us about yourself. MOSTAFA NODEH: I was born in one of the farthest northern regions in a village called Nodeh. Nodeh village is one of the regions of Gilan. Unfortunately, due to working conditions and earning income, I migrated from this beautiful village and settled in a city called Zibashahr, Qazvin. I worked as a photographer due to the difficult economic conditions in Iran. In my country, artists face many problems, and I am no exception to this rule. TPL: You have a background in painting. What was that moment that you decided to put down the paintbrush and pick up a camera? How does your use of the camera as a tool influence your use of it in recent years as a means for self-expression and emotion? MN: Yes, I loved to draw with a pencil and I used to put the images that came to my mind on paper. My paintings were great at school and sometimes I painted for my classmates. I loved magazines and dailys that had photos, and I would cut those photos with scissors and turned them into an album as I wished. I would then stick them to my office wall. This interest led me to get a small compact camera and eventually a professional Canon 7d camera with a lens of 18-135mm. TPL: Very poetic and existential in nature, your works invite us to reflect on the deeper questions in life. What is the story you want your photographs to tell? MN: Yes, it is. In each of my works, there is a story where the audience starts to tell a story. One day, a writer by the name, Azin Jahanian, saw my photos and started writing for dozens of my photos. It was written in a soft and poetic way to suit the mood of each photo. Later, together we decided to collaborate, publishing my photographs and his writings in a book called "Minimalism for the world" in both English and Persian and translated by Jalileh Masoumi Moghaddam. TPL: Describe what it is like to photograph in Iran. How have the streets and culture you capture influence your photography? MN: Photography in Iran is at a relatively high level. The Iranian people are by nature artists and art lovers. The streets of my country have a rich civilization, which is both attractive and proud to depict, whether in the form of paintings or photographs. TPL: What photographers do you look for inspiration? MN: Ansel Adams and Michael Kenna have always been an inspiration to me. I get a sense of nostalgia for their work that takes me back to my childhood. I love solitude and silence, I talk less and listen more. I believe that a good photo expresses all the emotions and intentions of the owner of the work. My photos look like graphics at first glance, but I must say, I created the graphics with photography. TPL: Is there a special photographic moment you recall that will always remain with you...one maybe that changed your view of the world in which you shoot in? MN: All my photos are summarized in my childhood dreams. I would like to go back. In my opinion, the best time in a person's life is his childhood. When you are a child, the ultimate pain is the damage to your toys. You breathe carefree and make the best movies from your mother's storytelling. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist or photographer? What direction do you think you will take your photography? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? MN: Global influence is one of the most important goals I pursue. I believe that a person who leaves an acceptable work of art does not disappear even with an earthly death, and the name he leaves behind due to his works and the impact on his audience is the best meaning for his whole life. For five years I have been searching for the meaning of life for nothing. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… MN: To listen to Electronic music...I love the songs of Jean-Michel Jarre. Even on a trip to France and Paris and my solo exhibition in Paris, I told a French reporter that I was in love with Jean from France. I listen to Jean's songs while photographing. I dream of Jean's songs.” PORTFOLIO INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> CONTOURS OF ABSENCE Where concealment unsettles recognition and ordinary spaces turn psychological, the photographs of Serhii Fett suspend identity between presence and absence. THE ART OF ATTENTION Curiosity turns portraits, objects, and places into discoveries as Len Irish reflects on a life shaped by the camera’s attention. WHERE EMOTIONS BREATHE Simple encounters Irina Sedletskaya almost missed become photographs shaped by silence, distance, uncertainty, memory, hope, and resilience. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details.

Started my journey in the late nineties, and then took a break for eight years. Almost six years forward, and the journey has recommenced. I photograph things the way I see them, focusing on light, shadow, and colour. My images focus on the people and things, in the small semi rural town where I live, in New Zealand. I use multiple ways to show my work, exhibition, electronic media, and public display as billboard style images, two metres plus in size. I believe it's important to have images accessible, to as many people as possible, because not everyone feels comfortable in a gallery. The journey has taken me from assisting commercial photographers and as a freelance press photographer. It is all a learning curve...but as long as you are learning. TONY REDDROP Started my journey in the late nineties, and then took a break for eight years. Almost six years forward, and the journey has recommenced. I photograph things the way I see them, focusing on light, shadow, and colour. My images focus on the people and things, in the small semi rural town where I live, in New Zealand. I use multiple ways to show my work, exhibition, electronic media, and public display as billboard style images, two metres plus in size. I believe it's important to have images accessible, to as many people as possible, because not everyone feels comfortable in a gallery. The journey has taken me from assisting commercial photographers and as a freelance press photographer. It is all a learning curve...but as long as you are learning. LOCATION Palmerston North NEW ZEALAND CAMERA/S Fuji XE-3 - 23mm F-2.0 lens WEBSITE https://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_reddrop/albums @TONYREDDROP FEATURES // Crossings