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HEBREW HALLOWEEN Mark Zilberman ventured into Williamsburg on the Jewish Holiday of Purim looking to reveal the distinctiveness and uniqueness of it all. HEBREW HALLOWEEN June 22, 2022 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Mark Zilberman INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE For Mark Zilberman, photography has been a life-long journey of exploration and discovery. From his early days when his mother bought him his first camera, to the freelance photographer he became in New York City, to his forays abroad as a photojournalist, and finally to his current career as a social worker. With a keen eye for the extraordinary in everyday life, Mark has been able to document a world often overlooked by the public, sharing his rare observations with the world. His latest project, HEBREW HALLOWEEN, is a captivating look at the Haredi community of Satmar Jews in Williamsburg. Through this series of photographs, Mark takes us on an intimate journey exploring the customs and culture of this tight-knit community as they celebrate Purim, a joyous holiday that is particularly celebrated in this part of Brooklyn. With his camera, Mark brings to life scenes of traditional costumes and rituals, while also providing a glimpse into the lives of those living within the Haredi community. Mark's work as a photographer has been deeply informed by his experience as a social worker over the past two decades. With a unique perspective on what it means to be human, he has used his art to bridge cultural divides, bringing us closer to understanding one another. In this interview with The Pictorial List, Mark shares his story and his photographic journey, offering us an intimate look into the life of an American photographer who is deeply connected to the people and places he captures. “I was raised in a reformed Jewish home on Long Island. There really could not be a more differentiated approach to Judaism than that of the reformed Jews and the Satmar. I can have very different views of life than Satmar. Some of their stances, quite frankly, anger me. And yet, I am drawn. Who are they? Why do they do what they do? In the attached work, I ventured into Williamsburg on the Jewish Holiday of Purim. This is a visual day, to be sure. Basically, this is HEBREW HALLOWEEN.” IN CONVERSATION WITH MARK ZILBERMAN THE PICTORIAL LIST: Mark please tell us about yourself. What drew you to photography? What was that moment that you decided to pick up a camera? MARK ZILBERMAN: My photography journey has bookended my life. My first experience was when I was 6 years old. My mother was taking my brother and I to Washington DC to see the Japanese Cherry Trees in bloom. We walked by a drugstore window where I saw a bright shiny yellow box and said I wanted it. It was a Kodak Instamatic 104 with cartridge film and flash cubes. There I began and continued uninterrupted till my early thirties. During this period, I made my living as a freelance photographer in NYC. At this point I learned mostly on my own. Very much with the incredible photography book series by Andreas Feininger. But also, while pursuing a degree at Arizona State University and courses taken at Phoenix and Scottsdale Community College and SVA in NYC. Additionally, several years working as a photographer’s assistant in NYC where I had the opportunity to work for many amazing photographers. As a freelancer in New York City, I photographed for magazines (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Eastern Airlines just some of them), and graphic designers (working on annual reports). As time went on my interest went more towards photojournalism. I went on several trips to Gaza, the West Bank (photographing settlements there), Panama (during the reign of Manuel Noriega), Nicaragua (during the time of the Sandinista Contra conflicts). I made a decision to leave photography at that point and return to college to get a Master’s degree in Social Work. The move into socially relevant work was consistent with the changes going on with me in my photography. I have worked in that field continuously since then. Though, it’s difficult to say how much, my work as a social worker for over 20 years certainly has informed my photography. After about a 20-year hiatus from photographing, I slowly returned to taking pictures. There was a learning curve in becoming proficient in digital photography. I love digital photography. Analog photography is not romantic to me, as it seems to be for many other younger photographers. I just can’t get nostalgic over the scent of acetic acid in an enclosed dark space. As I don’t long for push mowers. I enjoy the immediacy and easily accessible control of digital. Along the way I started to look again at my work from the past. It was interesting to see that the pictures that I most liked at this point in my life were the images that were most like pictures that are done for photojournalism and street photography. And this is the direction that I’ve been going ever since. I also shoot weddings. But I don’t do these in the traditional sense. My weddings are in a documentary wedding photography genre (aka candid). And I enjoy them thoroughly because I pursue them as a street photographer. The amount of emotion that is going on at a wedding is abundant. And this is what I seek to catch on these assignments as well as on the street. Strong emotion. TPL: Tell us about the series that you submitted to us. How and when did this project first manifest for you? What is the full story behind the project? What was the inspiration? MZ: I don’t see myself easily fitting into any one group. Many of my views consist of positions that one would tend to find in very different groups. I can have at the same time, feelings of inclusion and exclusion. I can feel both acceptance and as an Auslander. It is a bit of a cliché, though still true nonetheless, that the camera can be a passport. It can be a raison d’etre amongst people and peoples you wouldn’t ordinarily be amongst. I found/find myself both photographically and personally being energized and pursuing photography in what would be called (although I hate this term) “subgroups”. I did this for seven months in Kibbutz Beit Alfa in the Jezreel Valley at the base of Mt. Gilboa in Israel. And, then again, photographing for several years in a rural upstate New York bar that effectively serves as the town green in the hamlet of Andes, New York. And, as you can see in the accompanying photographs, in the Haredi community of Satmar Jews in Williamsburg Brooklyn. I was raised in a reformed Jewish home on Long Island. There really could not be a more differentiated approach to Judaism than that of the reformed Jews and the Satmar. I can have very different views of life than Satmar. Some of their stances, quite frankly, anger me. And yet, I am drawn. Who are they? Why do they do what they do? In the attached work, I ventured into Williamsburg on the Jewish Holiday of Purim. This is a visual day, to be sure. Basically, this is “Hebrew Halloween”. People are dressed in costumes. They are in a powerfully festive mood. They are celebrating the failed destruction of the Jews living in the Persian Empire. It is a moment of joy and vindication. It is a statement that at times when God seems most remote, God is there. I can’t think of a more needed day than this in these times. With the camera, I was not a stranger. I was accepted. It was a basis for conversation, learning and growth. Photographically, I am looking to reveal the distinctiveness and uniqueness of these people. As well, allow myself to apply my chosen photographic style to make compelling, feeling and sometimes humorous imagery. I am drawn to images that show glaring and/or subtle juxtapositions. Often, these are evinced in facial expressions or body gestures. Other times in the light or color. I want my pictures to be strong. I want them to possibly entertain. I want you to feel. Something. Often, these are not necessarily pictures of anything. They are themselves. Themselves only. Then again, as often, they are quite rooted in precisely what is in front of me. This medium offers such an abundance of possibility and directions to go. Often, it’s difficult for me to discipline myself. But then, why should I? TPL: Regarding your photography in general, what is the story you want your photographs to tell? MZ: This is a difficult question to answer. I’m not sure that I’ve a single story to tell across all my photography. I struggled personally in recent years with what I feel is an absence of a singular style in my work. And it would seem that this is necessary to achieve some kind of notoriety. And I can’t tell a lie, I want my work and myself to be noticed. That in no way interferes with my desire for joy in the act of photographing. Emerson once said “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. As such, I have no hobgoblin. But to answer your question, and I do want to, there are different stories. One story is the abundant beauty that is around all of us at every moment. And no medium allows for their preservation as well as photography. Another story is the is the transcendent nature of photography itself to present an entirely different abstract reality which is the photograph itself. And yet another story is the ability to elicit emotions via the photograph and yet these emotions may well have not been present at all at the time the picture was taken. TPL: What does it take for you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by instinct…or a bit of both? Describe your process. MZ: These days, I carry a camera all the time. Somewhat because I want to be able to catch something that is happening at any given time. And at other times, to give wings to the feeling or impulse that makes me want to interact with my environment and create a photograph. Of necessity, as I must make a living, I often need to plan the times that I am photographing. But, at other times it is instinct. One of the beauties of street photography is the ease of access. You really just need a simple camera. But then maybe, access is not enough. We are dependent on moment, light and luck. TPL: Is there any advice that you would give yourself if you started photography all over again? MZ: Don’t try to make a living at it. Regardless of whether you are successful or not and making a living at it, you will likely not have fun doing it that way. This is advice that I would have given myself knowing what I know now. I don’t want to suggest that there aren’t photographers who are making a living at photography who are not having fun. But for myself, who struggled to find out what “they” wanted all the time was poison to me and my work. I don’t see myself easily fitting into any one group. I can feel both acceptance and as an Auslander...it is a bit of a cliché, though still true nonetheless, that the camera can be a passport. TPL: What other photographers do you look for inspiration? MZ: As I have been taking pictures for many years, there have been MANY photographers that I have looked to for visual and personal inspiration. At this point in time, I can say that Bruce Gilden, Richard Kalvar, Vivian Maier (omg, what a story), Jill Freedman and Larry Fink (the perfect model for the wedding photography that I like to make). Next month likely, I can give you another list of different names. And I can go to Instagram anytime and come up with a long list of photographers that I quietly curse for making such amazing images. The amount of skilled and brilliant photographers roaming the planet is staggering. TPL: If you could just choose one photographer to shoot alongside for a day...who would you choose? MZ: James Nachtwey. Not sure I’d have the nerve, though. I see so much imagery from conflict zones. But I’ve never seen anyone’s pictures that are nearly as powerful and representative of war as his. I wish he was working in Ukraine, now. 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? MZ: Unfortunately, at the present time, there are too many moments that remain with me and remind me of the time we live in. Those are the undesirable moments of confrontation with people in public who become resentful and angry when I might be taking a picture that includes them on the street. I really mean no harm. And, in fact, the people in my pictures on the street are really props in my images. These images are rarely about them. They will say, “just ask first”. Sometimes I do. But many images are of a moment that will be gone by then. This isn’t a scheduled portrait session. They will ask me why am I taking their picture? I struggle for an answer that won’t sound like evasive bullshit. More often than not, I don’t know why I am taking a picture at the moment I’m taking it. I just know I have to take it. But this is not what they’re asking for. And they ask what I’m going to use it for? And the truth is, probably nothing. Maybe Instagram. Maybe the Museum of Modern Art. I have no idea. But I think these moments are evidence of the times and places we live in now. People in this country and throughout the world have become simply “wound too tight”. TPL: What camera do you use? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? Is there any particular equipment you need or wish you had to help you achieve your photographic vision? MZ: Presently, I am using Olympus equipment. Previously I used the excellent Nikon D700. But it has the undesirable effect of getting heavier and heavier as I go through the day. In what used to take a very heavy backpack to carry with Nikon, I can easily carry in a shoulder bag with Olympus. Frankly though, if I was starting again, I would pick Fujifilm cameras. They bear some resemblance to the original 35mm film cameras that I find were so much easier to use. Back then, you could pick up basically any 35mm camera and use it. They would be some differences. Not many. Now, you can pick up one model of one manufacturer and you’ll need to thoroughly go over the instruction manual to understand that camera even though it is the same brand as another camera you presently use. In terms of preferred lens, I have been walking around with the equivalent of a 35mm lens for a while. And now switching over to a 24 mm. But I also like zoom lenses very much. So many photographers decry zoom lenses. I don’t know why. It’s true that prime lenses are generally faster than zoom lenses. Generally, I don’t need something to be so fast. And I like the options that zoom lenses offer. However, as I now go everywhere with a camera, primes are just lighter and easier. As for equipment that I might need or wish I had, I think I am pretty good right now. That will probably change in the future. TPL: What are some of your goals? What direction do you think you will take your photography? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? MZ: I really just want to continue making pictures as long as I can. I want my work to evolve to have identifiable characteristics that would be mine. Also want to be working on projects. Not just making singular images, but collections of images that are about something. I want to immerse myself in situations. I would like to take what I have learned and come to know in my social work and merge these disciplines into coherent bodies of work that neither social work or photography could do alone. Some of the most growing and exciting times in my life were during the period when I travelled quite a lot. Photography, in a way, becomes very easy in a new and strange environment. Pictures scream at you. Too long in any one place and things can become banal. Going to a new place can be so liberating and stimulating. And, can definitely change the way you see when you return home. TPL: “When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… MZ: Roll down the windows, drive 10 miles over, turn up the volume to 11 and listen to Dire Straits.” 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.

As a child, I was always intrigued by the camera that my father used to make pictures. I soon received my own, a Konica pop in 1982. Ever since I have been photographing wherever I go and always carry a camera with me. I try to be aware of my own experiences in life and connect them to my photography in several different projects. Atmosphere and emotions are the most important for me. FANJA HUBERS As a child, I was always intrigued by the camera that my father used to make pictures. I soon received my own, a Konica pop in 1982. Ever since I have been photographing wherever I go and always carry a camera with me. I try to be aware of my own experiences in life and connect them to my photography in several different projects. Atmosphere and emotions are the most important for me. LOCATION Utrecht THE NETHERLANDS CAMERA/S Fuji X100vi WEBSITE https://www.fanjahubers.nl @FANJAHUBERS FEATURES // A Voyage to Discovery

I am street photographer living and working in Basel, Switzerland. Growing up within my family's mask making atelier in Basel, an early curiosity developed surrounding what lies beneath any facade. Storytelling in many forms, especially photography and cinema, would fuel my passion for narrative and point of view. Without professional background, I picked up a camera and started walking the streets, on the lookout for an interesting scenery. With a growing interest it feels natural for me to explore my city. I am drawn to the use of colour, perspective and light as a vehicle for emotion and storytelling. In my country, Switzerland, the genre of street photography is not established as a form of art yet. In Autumn 2020, with four other swiss photographers I created the first collective in Switzerland for street photography - the Swiss Street Collective. BASTIAN PETER I am street photographer living and working in Basel, Switzerland. Growing up within my family's mask making atelier in Basel, an early curiosity developed surrounding what lies beneath any facade. Storytelling in many forms, especially photography and cinema, would fuel my passion for narrative and point of view. Without professional background, I picked up a camera and started walking the streets, on the lookout for an interesting scenery. With a growing interest it feels natural for me to explore my city. I am drawn to the use of colour, perspective and light as a vehicle for emotion and storytelling. In my country, Switzerland, the genre of street photography is not established as a form of art yet. In Autumn 2020, with four other swiss photographers I created the first collective in Switzerland for street photography - the Swiss Street Collective. LOCATION Basel SWITZERLAND CAMERA/S Sony a5100, Sony a6100 WEBSITE https://www.bastianpeter.com/ @BASTIANROMANPETER FEATURES // What Lies Beneath

Meryl's series “New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco” is an intimate journey through the pandemonium and ecstasy of New York City from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Meryl documents a tumultuous time in the city’s history marred by epidemics of crime, addiction, and AIDS, intensified by a paralyzing blackout and political and fiscal crises. Frequenting Manhattan’s legendary discos that arose from the disorder, she captured hedonistic havens patronized by celebrities and revelers of the night. In contrast, daylight revealed the beauty of those who loved and thrived in burnt-out Bushwick, where Meryl worked as a public school art teacher and continuously documented her surroundings. Meryl’s effervescent photographs are a personal memoir - love letters filled with compassion, humor, and angst as well - kept secret for decades until she retired from teaching. Meryl was headed to Studio 54 the night of the ’77 blackout, and the next day, she and much of the world first heard of Bushwick - a hellish neighborhood where fires and looting had erupted. Later in 2013, at BIZARRE (a Bushwick drag/burlesque nightclub), Meryl noticed a disco ball in the restroom along with another above the dance floor. This was an epiphany. Bushwick was now THE sizzling club scene, and in her mind the disparate worlds of Bushwick and disco collided becoming intertwined strands of NYC’s story and her own journey. This is when Meryl realized her photographs of Manhattan nightlife and Bushwick daylight belonged together. Meryl’s two previous internationally acclaimed books, A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick (2014) and Purgatory & Paradise SASSY ‘70s Suburbia & The City (2015) were just the top of the iceberg. The artist continued to dig into her archive, finding hidden treasures. Her new book, New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco (Parallel Pictures Press 2021) takes an unexpected turn from clandestine clubs to the classroom where students and staff create a safe space to learn despite societal ills of poverty and prejudice. Meisler’s street photographs radiate with the joys of daily life in contrast to a background of hardship. The nightlife images expose the edgiest, darkest activities the artist has shared to date. Flash forward four decades, and Bushwick is a hub of new music, art, fashion, literature, nightlife, and creative thinking. However, many bemoan the gentrification of neighborhoods like Bushwick. There is a nostalgia and sorrow for what is lost in the process of change. Meryl lives and works in New York City and Woodstock, NY, continuing the photographic memoir she began in 1973 – a uniquely American story, sweet and sassy with a pinch of mystery. Her work is represented by ClampArt. MERYL MEISLER Meryl's series “New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco” is an intimate journey through the pandemonium and ecstasy of New York City from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Meryl documents a tumultuous time in the city’s history marred by epidemics of crime, addiction, and AIDS, intensified by a paralyzing blackout and political and fiscal crises. Frequenting Manhattan’s legendary discos that arose from the disorder, she captured hedonistic havens patronized by celebrities and revelers of the night. In contrast, daylight revealed the beauty of those who loved and thrived in burnt-out Bushwick, where Meryl worked as a public school art teacher and continuously documented her surroundings. Meryl’s effervescent photographs are a personal memoir - love letters filled with compassion, humor, and angst as well - kept secret for decades until she retired from teaching. Meryl was headed to Studio 54 the night of the ’77 blackout, and the next day, she and much of the world first heard of Bushwick - a hellish neighborhood where fires and looting had erupted. Later in 2013, at BIZARRE (a Bushwick drag/burlesque nightclub), Meryl noticed a disco ball in the restroom along with another above the dance floor. This was an epiphany. Bushwick was now THE sizzling club scene, and in her mind the disparate worlds of Bushwick and disco collided becoming intertwined strands of NYC’s story and her own journey. This is when Meryl realized her photographs of Manhattan nightlife and Bushwick daylight belonged together. Meryl’s two previous internationally acclaimed books, A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick (2014) and Purgatory & Paradise SASSY ‘70s Suburbia & The City (2015) were just the top of the iceberg. The artist continued to dig into her archive, finding hidden treasures. Her new book, New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco (Parallel Pictures Press 2021) takes an unexpected turn from clandestine clubs to the classroom where students and staff create a safe space to learn despite societal ills of poverty and prejudice. Meisler’s street photographs radiate with the joys of daily life in contrast to a background of hardship. The nightlife images expose the edgiest, darkest activities the artist has shared to date. Flash forward four decades, and Bushwick is a hub of new music, art, fashion, literature, nightlife, and creative thinking. However, many bemoan the gentrification of neighborhoods like Bushwick. There is a nostalgia and sorrow for what is lost in the process of change. Meryl lives and works in New York City and Woodstock, NY, continuing the photographic memoir she began in 1973 – a uniquely American story, sweet and sassy with a pinch of mystery. Her work is represented by ClampArt. LOCATION Woodstock & New York City UNITED STATES CAMERA/S Graflex Norita (1970s & current), Minolta SRT101 (1970s), Canon Sure Short (1980s), Pentax K 1000 (1970s & 1980s), Pentax 6 x 7 (2001-2019, needs repair), Fujifilm X 100 (current) WEBSITE http://www.merylmeisler.com/ @MERYLMEISLER @MERYLMEISLER FEATURES // New York: Paradise Lost Quirkyvision

SIJIFREDO The streets of Chile was Jano Sandoval's school, and photography was a logical consequence to express his memories. SIJIFREDO November 24, 2021 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Jano Sandoval INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE For those of us that walk the streets of Santiago de Chile, Jano Sandoval is a familiar face. As a child, he found his living history in the streets of his home city - and so, photography became the means through which he expressed his memories, observations and experiences. But Jano is more than just a photographer; he is a storyteller at heart. His books have always been a source of inspiration for his visual creations, and his latest project, SIJIFREDO, is no exception. Consisting of 32 photographs, SIJIFREDO is a story of remembrance; it is Jano’s tribute to his father who left for his journey of exact time and towards his most desired place. Through its vivid colours and subtle nuances, the series explores the human desire to stay one more day with a beloved one who has gone. In this interview with Jano Sandoval, we delve deeper into the world of SIJIFREDO. From the significance of its name to the power of his father’s words, Jano offers an intimate look into his creative process and the stories he has to tell. Join us as we discover an artist whose work speaks louder than words. “SIJIFREDO is a work of visual storytelling that rescues one of the most striking aspects of my Father (the title of the work carries his second name), which was to build parallels between episodes of his history with what he saw in a current moment of his life. The image narrated is transformed in the impulse and rest, to visualize that the dreamed futures always had a resemblance to the moment in which they were generated (as imaginary), they are slow transformations that rise safe with respect to the logical human evolution, but at 'geological speeds.' This visual journey, through its color atmospheres, explores the human desire to have the possibility of staying one more day with that loved one who has died, but who has left a deep mark in terms of values and spirituality, without selfishness and without any emotional debt at the time of his departure.” IN CONVERSATION WITH JANO SANDOVAL THE PICTORIAL LIST: Jano please tell us about yourself. How did you become interested in photography? JANO SANDOVAL: First of all, a big greeting to the readers of The Pictorial List. I was born in 1976 in the neighborhood of La Cisterna (Santiago de Chile) and I currently reside in the city of Quilpué (Valparaíso province of Chile). I am a street photographer, self-taught and 100% dedicated to photography since 2011, with several exhibitions and publications for galleries or photography magazines in South America, Europe and Oceania. My interest was not born precisely from photography, it was a long road that emerges from my taste for reading since I was a child and walking the streets of my various neighborhoods where I grew up. On the other hand, my father, who was born in 1916, was a great storyteller, which he placed in historical context, with a personal appreciation and with a final message as a sort of moral, given the various social processes that he had to live and perceive in Chile and the world. It was all these characteristics that allowed me to define that there was a need to communicate, not only what I had received from books or from my father, but also from my own history, which continued to be built from observation and the different cities I inhabited. Although I had already been interested in learning about the history of great photographers and their photographs, it was not until 2007 that I "started photography", after reading the letter that the Chilean photographer Sergio Larraín wrote to his nephew, as an invitation to take pictures and that was the generator for the first time I took a camera and began to travel around the city of Valparaíso, Chile. For me that letter, which was written by Larraín in 1982, was a kind of manifesto and a light for what I would begin to build. A long road, by the way. (I invite you to look for this letter on the internet and read it!) TPL: Tell us the full story behind your series SIJIFREDO. What is it about? When did the project and how the idea for it begin? Is it an ongoing series? What do you want the viewer to experience when they look at this series? JS: The series SIJIFREDO is titled after my father's middle name and is a parallelism of a series of stories that I remembered and wrote down after his death in 2008. The series deals with one of the aspects that I most like to investigate, which is the use of memory and the use of spaces defined by the author in order to visually execute his own challenges. The project arose in 2020, taking several photographs of my period of life in the city of Groningen (Netherlands) in which I lived for almost two years between 2016-2018 and whose images not only correspond to that city, but also to the various European cities that I had the opportunity to know (from Belfast to St. Petersburg). In this way, the territories that were part of my journeys are situated as a way of declaring that borders are quite diffuse and that they are also nothing more than an imaginary, just as our memory does. But there is also a support that allowed me to let the images rest in time and later have a new meaning to honour my father. The collection includes 32 images, giving importance to the number 32 as the age I was when he died and that it is visually told in color, as the chosen technique, navigating through a day that contains in itself, a journey of sensations, memories, empathy and history. This is how this series was closed in terms of number of works, which tells the story of "one more day" with that person who has left a series of lessons from the ethical and spiritual, where death rises as a poetic fact and allows that soul to continue accompanying us and accompanying us as an intimate fact. It is a finished work. I invite the observer to challenge himself to work periodically on memory, the desire to be able to breathe thinking about those who formed him as a human being and that death is a milestone of resistance to the various challenges that life proposes to each person, such as the dangerous concept of "oblivion". TPL: What does street photography mean to you? Describe your style. Where or how do you find inspiration? Are projects important in your street photography? JS: For me, street photography has a very relevant visual and emotional meaning, from those who have given hours of their lives to build houses, roads, squares, etc., to the citizens in urban and rural areas, who give life and create a link with human history. It was growing up in those streets, playing, walking and enjoying, that I found diverse emotions of people: those who want to walk alone, contemplating or thinking only, those who use it as a means of work and daily struggle, those who enjoy creating music or dance, for example. My photography style is a result of everything lived and observed, where I use the techniques of b&w and color as an interpretation of the feeling of a series, all closely linked to a small fraction of the absolute diversity that is observed there, where geometry, abstraction, closeness and remoteness of the subjects are part of the emotions of the human being passerby when facing the street (and what is on the side of the road as well). The photographic inspiration, for me, has two relevant aspects: one is to take my camera and leave home very conscious of feeling calm and well photographing, very aligned with my soul and very lucid to be able to connect with a very therapeutic exercise that allows me to express myself as freely as possible. On the other hand, the photographs that are taken, I review them when I get home many times, but all of them are always at rest, I leave them stored until a new review in time revives them, resignifies them and somehow "have a discourse between them" that tends to cohere. For both ways of looking for inspiration, is that the projects in street photography are relevant for me, because for my way of working it will always be necessary to tell a story, which identifies my discourse with the image as a whole. From that edge, is where I give my respect to the observer, so that he can interpret, criticize and discover that "someone" who is telling a fraction of reality. This is how I have built my four official photographic series, including SIJIFREDO, committed to my essence and admiring/respecting so many good photographers with whom the different ways of perceiving reality in the street, allows me to create a puzzle called "history". TPL: What have been some of your favourite memories or moments in your photography journey? What have you personally gained from your experiences? JS: Undoubtedly one of the most important was my first photograph in Groningen, the first one I took with all the relaxation, importance and connection with the city, looking for images of vanishing points built by groves, a grandfather entered the scene with his granddaughter, she was jumping happily and her grandfather admired and cared for her. Both were lost in the vanishing point of the scene, it was about 5 minutes that lasted this visual surprise. Other favorite moments were visiting Belfast, which from the political and historical point of view always seduced me from a very young age, and being there I could feel a responsibility to photograph, from the respect and my restlessness for the street. In general, life in Groningen and travels in Europe in general are a key period in my photographic development, since I lived it as an ordinary citizen. I must add what I learned from the Pictorial movement, born in Groningen, in the early 1920s called De Ploeg, very relevant for my general knowledge of the arts. Others equally relevant are my walks through the Pasaje Bavestrello in the city of Valparaíso, Chile, in the exact place where Sergio Larraín took one of the most iconic images of his career, so I can sit down to reflect and absorb good energy to photograph. The same happens to me when I visit the Población La Victoria in Santiago de Chile, where I find what I call the "Chile", which with all its social vulnerabilities, has a value of human commitment, always worth mentioning. Finally, all the photographic journey that I have made in my life has meant gaining lucidity and coherence, of course the compositional techniques are relevant and improve over time, but the experiences have been vital to recognize myself as a photographer and to be able to deliver through visual messages included in the storytelling. To feel myself as a human being, very awake to the events that happen around me, many of them daily, others historical. TPL: When you are out shooting - how much of it is instinctual versus planned? JS: For the most part it is instinct that plays a leading role. What I do plan are the places to walk, but the scenes are presented where people are participants, almost in the totality of the images, either with their presence or absence. There are opportunities where the street scenery allows me to wait several minutes in search of an image and shoot as many times as necessary until I feel satisfied. Then I continue on my way. TPL: What are some tips or advice you would give yourself if you started street photography all over again? JS: I think the most relevant would be to take away the shame of taking pictures of everything that the road offers, that the daily exercise allows me to flow with greater relaxation so I can reflect more deeply on what I am rescuing. The other advice I would give myself would be to keep the passion for photography, to keep feeling that inner "fire" to be happy with my camera. I invite the observer to challenge himself to work periodically on memory, the desire to be able to breathe thinking about those who formed him as a human being and that death is a milestone of resistance to the various challenges that life proposes to each person. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? JS: I have two who are my references, one is the Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, who through her photography has taught me the diversity of the places in which she works the image and that ethnographic legacy that she resolves through her visual proposals. Another one is the one I have mentioned a couple of times in this interview. He is Sergio Larraín, from whom I rescue both the letter he wrote in 1982 to his nephew and the scenes constructed through his lens, which to my way of interpreting it, is a constant struggle to rescue the purest of the human being, even denying his own privileges, to achieve a spiritual level in his photography. TPL: Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? What camera do you use? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? JS: Well, I use a Canon EOS 700D camera and my favorite lens is a 50mm f1.8. I have been working with this equipment for the last few years. I hope soon to change equipment and lenses as a periodic renewal, however, I am in love with this machine at the moment. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist or photographer? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? JS: I would very much like to continue creating photographic series committed to my feelings as a passerby, as an observer of the whole and investigating the aspects that the environment and society invite and thus be able to take these series to galleries or photobooks. I would like to see myself in five years, enjoying being able to access invitations from friends in Moscow and Berlin for the development of street photography projects, although the feeling of tranquility is to persist in taking new knowledge from new photographers or others that I have not yet managed to meet, and have the opportunity to deliver all my experience to people who are starting their way down this wonderful path and passion. Long live photography! TPL: Are there any other special projects you are currently working on or thinking about that you would like to let everyone know about? JS: In the coming months I will present my fourth authorial photographic work, called "Oxide", which is a photographic essay with experimental digital photography technique, which will unite another passion that has accompanied me in life, which is music. Its presentation format will be an installation in public places and the music for this work is being constructed and composed with the Chilean composer and singer-songwriter Javier Barría. This work postulates, from street photography, how we citizens constantly and daily fight for our memories, which ultimately build a historical memory as a society and that the main struggle is not to make oblivion a mechanism of self-destruction or oxidation. TPL: "When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… JS: Read a book by José Saramago, playing with my cats, watching photography or science documentaries, getting together with friends and riding my bike...sleeping on some weekend afternoons, a wonderful pleasure!" 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.

LANDSCAPE OF MY ALWAYS Driven by nostalgia, Francesco Mercadante returns to photograph the landscape where he was born. A journey of rediscovering his roots. LANDSCAPE OF MY ALWAYS November 12, 2021 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Francesco Mercadante INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE The passion for photography has accompanied Francesco Mercadante's life since he was about nine years old when he was gifted a blue 'Rondinella' bicycle and a Kodak Instamatic from his father. Both items were inseparable friends on his many solitary escapes over the countryside of his home in Calabria in Italy to capture "glances" and to imagine and dream, marking Francesco's "passage of time". His love for photography and nature, that, still today, he goes looking for, and as he states, she (Mother Nature) calls me amongst the country paths and the expanses of meadows, skies, trees, streams and old abandoned houses. To Francesco they are harmony, landscape architecture..."furniture of the Earth"...fragments of human life. With stories to tell, these landscapes evoke atmosphere and an aura that intimately breathes. Francesco rediscovers those moments from his childhood when he went back to his hometown in his project LANDSCAPES OF MY ALWAYS. “I started this project one summer afternoon. In the twilight hours I picked up my camera and set off. Driven by the nostalgia of when, as a boy, I used to ride my Moped along the road to the sea. Forty years have passed and now, and seeing that landscape again, it is as if I had found another part of myself, still there, waiting for me. It is the work of my heart and the memory of my childhood. So I started photographing the landscape of my hometown, Cutro, where I was born in Calabria. Here the hills become low and, especially in summer, thanks to their yellowish colour (due to the cultivation of wheat), they resemble the scenery of desert dunes. Pier Paolo Pasolini decided to shoot some scenes of the film 'The Gospel According to St. Matthews in this landscape. Driven by nostalgia when, as a boy, I used to ride my bicycle along the road to the sea. I used to cross the landscape of mine while travelling in the truck with my father when he took me with him to load the onions that were used for the sale of his trade in the markets. Then, as a child, I admired these yellow and sunlit dunes from the finerino and from there, a few kilometres away, the view would open to a blue sea. My project gave me great opportunity to relive my most intimate memories, to walk and photograph those places I had always seen through a window. I have rediscovered my roots.” My roots My roots are firm even if they are far from their own land. My roots are like olive wood with outstretched arms almost wanting to caress the red and clayey earth that welcomes them. My roots smell of tufa dust of almond tree in bloom of cultivated gardens. History and perfumes come together in my land, releasing sensations of peace and tranquility, where the sea and the sky they marry in a single color. In the countryside the ancient beams look out like great ladies there time stopped I walk in my land, every time it's a surprise, I find myself I smile and rejoice in so much beauty. - Alda Merini IN CONVERSATION WITH FRANCESCO MERCADANTE THE PICTORIAL LIST: Francesco please describe that memorable moment when you were nine and gifted a blue bicycle and a Kodak Instamatic. Can you tell us a bit more about your beginning in photography? Talk to us about the evolution of your photography. FRANCESCO MERCADANTE: I took my first photograph when I was nine: it was a family birthday, I was entrusted with a camera for family group shooting. I remember there was an ovation when they developed photography on paper; everyone happy and from that moment I fell in love with the photographic object. On my birthday my father gave me a blue bicycle to share with my younger brother and a Kodak Instamatic camera. The passion for photography accompanies me up to the age of 20 taking instinctive photos in moments of going out with friends or on birthdays, and in the days of Easter Monday and mid-August holidays. In the following years, painting takes the place of photography and I begin to paint trying to represent what I photographed. At the age of 40 I took up photography again but this time no longer by instinct but an emotional photograph. My projects always arise from a lived emotion, an emotion that comes to me listening to a song, watching a documentary, or along an old road, the passage of a sailboat, the whistle of a train, the arrival of seagulls at sunset, the muted light reflecting through the leaves of the trees. TPL: Talk to us about your projects. What is it that inspires you to be a visual storyteller? What have been some of your most memorable moments? FM: It often happened to me to run out when I photographed instinctively because I went out without a precise destination and photographed everything I saw and without realising it I found myself with 500 shots and I could not compose a project, but only single shots. Over the years I have acquired a lot of experience and awareness. Today I work with more serenity because before going out to take pictures I have to have an idea in my head, a reason that pushes me to often photograph an emotion. TPL: What are some tips or advice you would give yourself if you started photography all over again? FM: If I started photographing all over again, I would suggest myself to listen to the heart more and let go of the emotions. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance FM: My favorite photographer is Ernst Haas his art his photographs are a source of great inspiration that help me to search and experiment both in photography and in painting_ TPL: If you could just choose one photographer to shoot alongside for a day...who would you choose? And why? FM: Having to choose a photographer to photograph with him for a day, I would choose Ernst Haas because from him and with his creativity I could receive a strong emotion. My projects always arise from a lived emotion, an emotion that comes to me listening to a song, watching a documentary, or along an old road, the passage of a sailboat, the whistle of a train, the arrival of seagulls at sunset, the muted light reflecting through the leaves of the trees. TPL: When you are out shooting - how much of it is instinctual versus planned? FM: As I mentioned before, instinctive photography no longer belongs to me today I only photograph if I have an interest in something that I have already planned before the release. TPL: Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? What camera do you use? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? FM: I think that to achieve a good photograph you don't need a camera and very expensive lenses. I use a Canon EOS 6D mark II and a telephoto lens with a focal length of 28-300 mm. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? FM: I am working on a project that I photographed on a summer night, it is always an intimate work linked to my memories and my roots that I really care about. The title of the project is "Memories Cutro" will be released shortly, however, by the end of 2021. TPL: "When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… FM: When I'm not out taking pictures I like to read, or listen to music." 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.

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. 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. August 9, 2026 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Len Irish INTERVIEW Karen Ghostlaw Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Photography has often been described as an act of observation, but the most memorable photographers understand that seeing is only the beginning. Beyond description lies interpretation. Beyond likeness lies presence. The photograph becomes less a record of what stood before the camera than a conversation between what was visible and what was felt. Looking across the work of Len Irish, one begins to recognize a practice shaped less by genre than by a sustained way of seeing. Portraits, landscapes, still lifes, dancers, symbolic studies, and abstract constructions may appear to move in different directions, yet they are held together by the same thoughtful attention. His photographs do not rely on a single visual signature. They reveal a mind drawn to presence, intuition, memory, and the threshold between what is visible and what is felt. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Len studied photography at ArtCenter College of Design before establishing himself as a portrait photographer in New York City. His career brought him into contact with remarkable individuals including Muhammad Ali, James Brown, Oprah Winfrey, and B.B. King, yet his practice has continued to expand beyond portraiture into still life, landscape, abstraction, movement, and personal explorations of symbolism and memory. What becomes compelling is not only the variety of subjects, but the consistency of inquiry behind them. Across his works, meaning is rarely fixed. It emerges slowly through relationship, structure, atmosphere, and the viewer’s willingness to look more closely. There is an honesty in Len’s photographs that does not need to announce itself. It can be found in the restraint of a portrait, the solitude of a landscape, the careful arrangement of opposing elements, or the imagined space where abstraction opens into feeling. His work invites curiosity rather than certainty, allowing the unexpected to become part of the discovery. Rather than asking Len Irish to explain individual images, this conversation looks at the deeper ideas that move through his work as a whole. What follows is a reflection on seeing, memory, intuition, and the creative process of an artist who has spent decades using the camera not only to describe the world, but to remain open to where each photograph might lead. “Living and working in New York shaped and refined my photography. It didn’t give me my personal vision but it rather helped me discover it. At that time, the daily exposure to the arts was overwhelming and everywhere in New York.” IN CONVERSATION WITH LEN IRISH Before photography became a profession, a practice, and a way of moving through the world, who was Len Irish? I’m interested in the life before the camera, the early curiosities, influences, and moments of recognition that began shaping the way you looked at people, objects, places, and images. How did the path toward photography first open for you, and when did you understand that it would become more than something you did, but something through which you could think, question, and express yourself? My early years were shaped by life with my single parent mother. Most mornings she was up and off to work, from there my day was mine to do as I pleased. There weren't many adults or kids around so I used that time to walk the streets. I would go from bar to bar asking strangers to shine their shoes or walking the alleyways where I could satisfy my curiosity by going through the trash that various businesses were throwing out. Years later when I found myself clearly committed to photography, the first thing I did was go back out onto those streets, alleys and bars - I had the same curiosity although with a new purpose. I was ready to ask strangers for their portrait and I was free to pick any object from the trash for discovery with my camera. It was at this point in my life at the age of eighteen that I first called myself a photographer. It was a time of no defining purpose, a time of freedom to see and discover with a camera without any intention or specific aspiration - a time to just see and feel the camera. All the while, I was without any exposure to the arts. You have built your career in New York, a city where photography has a long history and where visual culture is constantly shifting. How has living and working there influenced the way you see? Has New York sharpened your attention to people, performance, objects, architecture, and the small theatre of daily life, or has its influence been more subtle, shaping your discipline, pace, ambition, and relationship to the image over time? Living and working in New York shaped and refined my photography. It didn’t give me my personal vision but it rather helped me discover it. At that time, the daily exposure to the arts was overwhelming and everywhere in New York. One day it was dance photographs on billboards that caught my eye, fashion ads on construction site walls, Keith Haring in the subway, Penn and Avedon in the museums and one of my personal favorites, the postcard racks in the parks where I started my collection. Then there were the photographers…Robert Mapplethorpe, Duane Michals, Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and so many others. If they didn't live in New York, then they infiltrated it through magazines and ads. I would spend money I didn’t have, to get a French Vogue. I was endlessly curious about all the possibilities - portraiture, still life, fashion, fine arts, etc… this all added up to a many years long Master Class in seeing. Looking across your portfolios, the subject changes dramatically, yet the questions seem remarkably consistent. Whether photographing a portrait, a landscape, or a simple object, what is the photograph trying to reveal that wasn't visible before you and raised the camera? Do your strongest photographs begin with intention, or do they emerge from the surprise of recognizing something you hadn't anticipated? Let me address that last part first. I begin with intention…. it sets things in motion. I follow that intention until it falters (as it almost always does). The intended image starts to reveal that it isn’t as interesting as I thought it would be, i.e. the lighting is uninteresting, the weather isn't cooperating…. so many things can fail that would stop one from continuing. This is the normal outcome I find. Then, however, the original intention now switches to intuition and curiosity becoming the new driving intention. It's time now to get my head out of the process and start seeing & listening with my eyes. To answer your other question “What is the photograph trying to reveal that wasn't there before?” It's a difficult question to answer, maybe this explains it… I have a photograph of a vase. The vase itself is interesting, Japanese, “Big Belly” style. I wanted to discover what it could share of itself in a photo. The vase and I are having a conversation with each other. My first intentions for the vase were basic. Sitting on its base, rotating for the angle. Positioning it in a different light. Ok, it kind of works, but something isn't satisfying about the photograph. I walk away from my original intention to maybe return to it another time.. The vase was sharing its basic aesthetic - interesting, but the image didn't go beyond. Months later I came across the vase photos in my library. One of the images in the files had been switched to a horizontal from the vertical. There it was… everything I couldn’t see until it was given to me to see as a horizontal. It is now an abstract large mouth vessel yelling at the world, with a beautiful light and wonderful tones (in my humble opinion). I started with that initial intention that we spoke about earlier and it failed and the image evolved into the photograph I was hoping for. There remains one interesting aspect to this vase photograph for me. What triggered my overwhelming response to that horizontal version of the photograph? Why didn't I perceive it as just a photo that needs to be turned upright? The vase seemed to have disappeared yet all that is there is just that vase. From the Portrait series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish From the Landscape series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish From the Imagining series © Len Irish From the Dance series © Len Irish From the Landscape series © Len Irish From the Landscape series © Len Irish Many photographers become known for one genre. Your work moves comfortably between portraiture, still life, landscape, dance, abstraction, and symbolic imagery. Have these varied bodies of work been different paths toward the same destination, or has your practice been shaped by following unexpected turns, allowing curiosity and intuition to reveal the next chapter rather than planning it? I was never satisfied with repeating any photographic look, lighting or idea. Needless to say, I did repeat myself from time to time even though the goal was to create something new with every assignment. This included different subjects, lighting styles, locations etc. I found Irving Penn’s versatility to be a great example. It became known as part of my professional profile that I was interested in a wide variety of assignments. I think it started with that same original curiosity I had as a kid roaming the streets looking for something new. Looking through your portraiture, I was struck by how rarely you rely on direct eye contact to establish a connection with the viewer. Yet the emotional presence of your subjects is unmistakable. Rather than asking them to meet our gaze, you seem to allow the connection to emerge from something much deeper. What is it you're looking for beyond the eyes, and how do you know when you've found it? Shooting with direct eye contact with my subjects was truly one of the great pleasures I enjoyed in my portraiture work. I have always been on the shy side so looking through a Hasselblad viewfinder allowed me to hide and at the same time make eye contact through the viewfinder… plus it was confrontational to photograph someone head on, it created an “in your face” experience for the viewer. Not all of my portraiture was shot in that style, at times a softer portrait that didn’t have direct eye contact could be appropriate. These were and still are in-the-moment decisions. The emotional expression tended to be decided in the editing process. I never looked for it at the time of shooting the portrait, people are constantly changing from moment to moment during a portrait session. I mostly focused on posing - the positioning of the body, head or hands can suggest an emotion and then I would follow that up in the edit, looking for the image that stands out. How do you know when you find it… hard to say, you just do. This is the highly personal part of portraiture, picking the ‘frame’. Rather than simply placing a figure within a setting, you seem to be creating a conversation between the person and the space they inhabit. What does that dialogue represent for you? Are these architectural frames meant to suggest identity, memory, strength, vulnerability, transition, or something that resists definition altogether? I took the background in my portraiture work very seriously, it was always the first problem to solve. The background created, as you said, “a conversation between space and subject.” The focus, the light, the graphics, the overall feel and tone of the background all came first. The decisions made about backgrounds were centered around “do I love the look,” never about any concrete meaning (I shouldn’t say never). I could be shooting today and have a flashback to a photograph from some time in my past, mine or someone else's, and I will change how I take that photo today. In your still lifes, the objects never seem to exist in isolation. They become part of a carefully considered visual conversation where focus and blur, light and darkness, texture and form, color and space all contribute equally to the image. Are these relationships the true subject of the photograph, with the objects simply becoming the vocabulary through which that conversation takes place? I have always loved shooting still lifes (again, Irving Penn). Penn’s still life photographs are very theme oriented. My intention with still life photography leans towards the abstract. In my still lifes nothing needs to relate to anything except everything needs to relate to the totality of everything else. The box that Apple products come in, they're so immaculate, perfect white empty containers ready to be introduced to a new purpose. Addition and subtraction is the process, knowing when to stop is the challenge. Looking across decades of photographs, do you recognize recurring visual ideas that only became apparent with time? Has returning to your archive ever led you to reinterpret your own work, inspiring new directions or uncovering connections you hadn't previously seen? I'm also curious whether photographs you once dismissed have found new significance, reminding you that sometimes the images we question the most become the ones that endure. All of the above are correct, it seems photographs are subject to a form of quantum entanglement. The creation of one instantly changes all of the others. Looking back on past work however can seem like nothing really has changed. My experience has been that looking through very early work often shows the same interest and curiosities. With that said, time does change perspective. So this forward / backward looking is what really adds up to the photography I take today. I could be shooting today and have a flashback to a photograph from some time in my past, mine or someone else's, and I will change how I take that photo today. Throughout a lifetime of making photographs, there are often people who quietly change the course of our journey. They introduce new ideas, challenge our thinking, open unexpected doors, or simply encourage us to trust our own vision. Looking back, who have been those people for you, and how did they influence not only your photography, but the way you see the world? Finally, if a young photographer were sitting across from you today, what guidance would you offer as they begin discovering their own path? Again I’d like to answer that last question first. I like the quote "I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members," I don’t want to be a part of a classroom that would have me as a teacher. I have had moments where I have been asked to speak to student level groups. I think I left every single one thinking I wasn’t very good at that. I’m not a big believer now in my ability to inspire others, particularly the young as I don't consider myself a great teacher. Speaking to a young photographer can go both ways, disillusionment or inspiration… too dangerous for me to fail at. As far as who has inspired me personally, they were mostly photographers I experienced through magazines. I felt I could read their minds through their photographs. It was too late to begin assisting, I had to just start doing it. So it was magazines where I found my teachers and my inspiration. From the Portrait series © Len Irish From the Dance series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish From the Imagining series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish From the Imagining series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish From the Imagining series © Len Irish From the Still Life series © Len Irish Every photographer has their trusted tools, and readers always enjoy a glimpse behind the scenes. What is currently in your camera bag, and is there one camera or lens that has become an extension of the way you see the world? Are you someone who believes equipment influences vision, or does the photograph always begin with the photographer rather than the camera? I would say all photographs start and remain sourced from a photographer’s experiences. Who are these photographers who travel out onto the ice of Antarctica to photograph a polar bear. God bless them! So thankful there are photographers with this courage and purpose. I’m just not one of them. Your question about equipment remains an age old one. The young photographer asks “What camera do you use? Maybe I can take that photo if I use it too.” I had that thought myself early on. Guess what, I found out what camera it was, I bought it and I created a long career with it. It's the right question, keep asking… until you have the answer and keep in mind more than likely you will have to find that camera that's right for you.. What I’m trying to get across is that equipment matters. You do see through this thing. If you can’t see what you want to see through your camera, you're not going to achieve the photograph you want. So important, how it feels in your hands when you're just walking and looking. So important, the format through the viewfinder. My vision was always at its best when I was working with a Hasselblad and its square format, 150mm lens and F8. So young photographer, I gift it to you… run with it. While photography has clearly been a lifelong companion, we all have other passions that shape who we are. Beyond making photographs, what occupies your heart and mind? What inspires you, challenges you, brings you peace, or simply makes you happy? How do these parts of your life influence the artist you become each time you pick up the camera? Oh such a sad answer… that young boy that I have mentioned a few times earlier tried to be good at anything. Nothing went my way, I had a great desire but no talent with anything. When I discovered photography I knew immediately I would eventually be good at it. Seriously, I was filled with confidence for the first time in my life. I didn't need anything else. Then… along comes love and marriage and the baby carriage. The sad part to this answer, some might say, other than family, I don't have other interests. There just isn't enough time for anything outside of family and photography. Printing and framing is my obsession now and I will soon be publishing a book of my recent photographs titled, “No Unifying Concept.” Finally, if there is one question you've always hoped someone would ask about your work but never has, what would it be, and how would you answer it? I would like to reverse that question… I have never before had anyone share their comprehensive review of my photographs. It was informative and enlightening to read yours, I do think you are correct in much of how you see my work and I thank you for the kind words. 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.

GRIDLINES Always having been drawn to architecture, Ben Allan photographs in a way that is graphical and abstract, being very much led by grids. GRIDLINES April 22, 2021 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Allan INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Exploring the world with a camera in hand and a keen eye for architecture, British photographer Ben Allan captures the beauty of the built environment in stark black and white. A self-proclaimed 'wanderer' with a camera, Ben loves nothing more than exploring the world around him and capturing it with his own unique style. His love for architecture and patterns is evident in his work, which is characterized by its graphical and abstract compositions. Instead of focusing on colours, Ben opts for black and white photography, finding that it enhances the lines, grids and patterns of his photographs. Join us as we get a closer look at this talented photographer's work and learn why he chooses to capture his subjects without any hint of colour. “I love graphical elements - lines, patterns, and shapes. That's why I'm generally drawn to buildings. You can make a building seem so interesting with the right shot. I wouldn't say there's a bigger idea I'm expressing through my photography - it's simply what I think looks cool!” IN CONVERSATION WITH BEN ALLAN THE PICTORIAL LIST: Ben please tell us about yourself. How did you become interested in photography? BEN ALLAN: I was born in Bristol, UK, but have been living in London for the past five years or so. A few of my friends were interested in photography growing up, so I played around with their cameras a bit. I properly got into it when my parents bought me an entry-level DSLR for my 18th birthday. TPL: Where do you find inspiration to photograph? BA: I'm someone that needs new things to stay excited...the stretches of Covid lockdown where I've not been able to explore new places definitely stifled my motivation and creativity a bit. TPL: Where is your most favourite place(s) to go photograph? BA: Anywhere with lots of tall buildings! Buildings aside, Barcelona sticks in my mind as a great place to photograph. TPL: What happens when you go out with your camera? Do people respond positively to you, or do you sometimes get negative reactions? If yes, how do you handle it? BA: If people are in my photos, it's generally pretty incidental or they are far enough away, so I've never had any trouble. Once a skateboarder told me to stop because he had an 'official' photographer with him. It was just his mate, which made me laugh. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? BA: Some of my favourite photographers are: Alan Schaller (B&W street photography and he has a good podcast), Jered and Ashley Gruber (cycling photography), Fred Mortagne (combines skating and architecture), Francois Prost (architecture and other things), Nathan Brookes (architecture), Jamie Windsor (brilliant YouTube videos). I see cool things every time I open Instagram. I generally let things come to me. I love walking around and seeing what catches my eye. TPL: Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? What camera do you use? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? BA: I use my iPhone 11 more and more every day - the image quality is crazy for the size. Otherwise I have a Canon 80D, so nothing super fancy. I tend to use prime lenses. I love my 24mm f2.8 as it's so light and forces you to move yourself to get the right shot, not just zoom in. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist or photographer? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? BA: I need to set up a proper print shop online (please message me currently on Instagram if you after one of my prints). Seeing your work in real life is great. A gallery show is a dream of mine. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? BA: Nothing special to mention. Just looking forward to lockdown ending and seeing some new places and finding some inspiration there. TPL: When I am not out photographing, I like to… BA: Cycle and waft. 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.

Photography, for me, is less an art form and more a means of bearing witness — a visual record of time passing, of how people live and adapt, of what gets left behind and what lingers. Living between cultures has shaped how I see. I am a product of a mashup society — Japanese by origin but deeply shaped by Western and non-Western influences I have encountered in New York. I photograph daily, mostly in black and white, mostly on 35mm film. I remain drawn to stillness within movement, to blank spaces where viewers can enter and complete the picture with their own imagination. HIROYUKI ITO Photography, for me, is less an art form and more a means of bearing witness — a visual record of time passing, of how people live and adapt, of what gets left behind and what lingers. Living between cultures has shaped how I see. I am a product of a mashup society — Japanese by origin but deeply shaped by Western and non-Western influences I have encountered in New York. I photograph daily, mostly in black and white, mostly on 35mm film. I remain drawn to stillness within movement, to blank spaces where viewers can enter and complete the picture with their own imagination. LOCATION New York UNITED STATES CAMERA/S Yashica T4-Super WEBSITE https://hiroitophoto.com/ FEATURES // NYC Subway Riders Before the Invasion of Smartphones

In Hawaii, it’s common to find pictures of our majestic mountain ranges or glistening beaches. Street photography is underrepresented here as an art form. Knowing this I still attempt to defy all that’s beautiful (and typical) in Hawaii to showcase the raw and gritty of photos of “the street.” TIM HUYNH In Hawaii, it’s common to find pictures of our majestic mountain ranges or glistening beaches. Street photography is underrepresented here as an art form. Knowing this I still attempt to defy all that’s beautiful (and typical) in Hawaii to showcase the raw and gritty of photos of “the street.” LOCATION Honolulu HAWAII CAMERA/S Ricoh GR III WEBSITE https://timhuynhphotography.com/ @TH__STREET FEATURES // Fill the Frame The Raw and Grit of Hawaii

I am a documentary photographer from a small town in Alabama. My marriage to a full time working musician and my love of life, adventure and outdoors is often depicted with my personal works. Photography has been a huge part of my life for well over 25 years now, so I consider it more about a visual journey than a professional destination. The vast majority of my work is in black and white as I connect it more to a nostalgic and timeless look over my color images. This probably has a lot to do with how I learned how to shoot with black and white film printed and developed in a dark room. So I credit my style from my earlier, formative years as a student of photography. My work is predominantly unplanned, spontaneous and observant. I never want to control or direct individuals with my documentary work as this takes away the individual's authentic moment and identity. LEIGH ANN EDMONDS I am a documentary photographer from a small town in Alabama. My marriage to a full time working musician and my love of life, adventure and outdoors is often depicted with my personal works. Photography has been a huge part of my life for well over 25 years now, so I consider it more about a visual journey than a professional destination. The vast majority of my work is in black and white as I connect it more to a nostalgic and timeless look over my color images. This probably has a lot to do with how I learned how to shoot with black and white film printed and developed in a dark room. So I credit my style from my earlier, formative years as a student of photography. My work is predominantly unplanned, spontaneous and observant. I never want to control or direct individuals with my documentary work as this takes away the individual's authentic moment and identity. LOCATION Birmingham UNITED STATES CAMERA/S Nikon N70 (Musicians), Nikon D700 and D800 WEBSITE http://www.leighannphotography.com/ @LEIGHANN_PHOTO FEATURES // Turning Negatives Into Positives The Lumber Yard Finding Community

I snap it like I see it. We are living in extraordinary times and it’s my duty to capture them one day at a time. DAVID KUGELMAS I snap it like I see it. We are living in extraordinary times and it’s my duty to capture them one day at a time. LOCATION New Jersey UNITED STATES CAMERA/S Canon T6 @KUGEY FEATURES // Candid Snapshot