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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. 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. November 2, 2025 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Alejandro Davila INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Alejandro Davila’s photographic practice examines the relationship between identity and cultural visibility. Based in Pachuca, Mexico, he has developed a sustained engagement with the artists of his own community. His ongoing project What We Are, What We Do is conceived as a visual archive, documenting the presence of dancers, musicians, actors, artisans, and writers who contribute to the cultural life of the city yet often remain absent from dominant narratives. The project positions photography not only as a documentary record but as an act of recognition, affirming the value of practices that exist outside the circuits of mainstream visibility. His path to this work carries its own story of transformation. For years, music had been Alejandro’s language, the medium through which he expressed rhythm and emotion. An injury ended that path, silencing performance but opening another. Photography arrived not as replacement but as refuge, carrying the sensibility of music into the visual field. This shift is central to the tone of his photographs, which reflect the discipline and structure of an artist's life redirected. The archival dimension of What We Are, What We Do is significant. By accumulating portraits across disciplines — musicians mid-performance, dancers in rehearsal, actors on stage — Alejandro constructs a collective image of cultural life in Pachuca. His incidental backdrops are integral to meaning, situating art within the everyday and emphasizing processes of preparation, repetition, and interaction. At the same time, his subjects are acutely aware of the camera’s presence. Theatrical gestures, choreographed movements, and deliberate postures introduce an element of performance even within documentary settings. The project thus resists both individual heroization and anonymous generalization, placing each subject within a network of relationships that together define community life. The project engages with questions central to documentary practice: who is seen, how visibility is granted, and what forms of recognition are possible. Through careful attention to form, environment, and gesture, he articulates the way identity and practice are bound together. His work affirms that cultural value resides not only in celebrated achievements but in the daily, sustained labor of those who create. In the following conversation, Alejandro Davila reflects on this journey, the role of photography in his community, and the evolving vision behind What We Are, What We Do. “My project seeks to make visible those who are often left out of dominant narratives, creating images that honor their voices and rhythms. Photography becomes a space of encounter, where representation is questioned and transformed. The local is my starting point: a living territory of memory, affection, and everyday life. From there, stories gain strength and meaning, connecting the familiar with the universal without losing their singularity.” IN CONVERSATION WITH ALEJANDRO DAVILA TPL: Your portraits often capture the “process” of art — rehearsal, repetition, discipline — rather than only its finished form. How does this focus alter our understanding of artistic identity? Do you believe that showing labor and practice reshapes how audiences interpret the meaning of art itself? ALEJANDRO: In many parts of the world, art is still undervalued, and where I live is a clear example of this. It doesn’t matter the discipline — whether dancer, painter, musician, or photographer — people often think it’s a game or something easy. That’s why I believe it’s essential to show the world the hard work behind every artistic creation, so that the dedication, meaning, and beauty of these important works are truly understood. TPL: You describe your project as both an archive and act of recognition. From a critical perspective, how do you reconcile the documentary impulse to preserve with the interpretive role of the photographer as author? ALEJANDRO: Through my experience as both a viewer and a photographer, I’ve realized that photography isn’t just about creating pretty images or simply recording reality. The best photography transforms what we see into images with meaning — something that truly captures attention and emotion. I aim for my photographs to feel like scenes from a film or a museum: deeply grounded in reality, yet visually powerful, where each person appears important, imposing, and worthy of being seen. TPL: How do you envision the role of What We Are, What We Do in ten or twenty years — both for the community you document and for broader audiences? Do you imagine the project functioning primarily as a historical record for the community, or as an ongoing dialogue that continues to evolve with new generations of artists? ALEJANDRO: I imagine What We Are, What We Do will have a dual role in the future. On one hand, it will function as a historical record, an archive that preserves the memory of the community and the value of their artistic work, so that new generations can understand where they come from and how those who came before lived. At the same time, I hope it remains a living dialogue, evolving over time to include new voices, forms of expression, and artists. It should not only be a mirror of the past but also a space where art and community continue to create meaning together. TPL: Do you prefer to work in black-and-white, and if so, what draws you to it as your primary mode of expression? If you were to work in color, how do you think it might shift the ethical or interpretive weight of your images? ALEJANDRO: Honestly, I enjoy working in both color and black-and-white, but I chose black-and-white for this first stage of the project because I wanted to emphasize shapes, contrasts, and expressions. I wanted to remove the weight of color so that the focus would be more on how the scenes feel rather than how they look. In color, the photographs would be more descriptive; although I believe they could also work, I conceived this part of the project in black-and-white from the start for its ability to convey emotion and depth. TPL: You’ve described photography as a “refuge” after your injury. Had you engaged with photography before that turning point, and why did you choose it as the medium to continue expressing yourself? Has this shift changed the way you think about fragility, resilience, and expression in art? And what has photography ultimately taught you about yourself — about what you are, and what you do? ALEJANDRO: Yes, photography had always interested me, even though I first dedicated myself to music and thought of it more as a hobby. After my injury, I had to take different jobs in my hometown, but I didn’t feel happy or fulfilled. It was photography that gave me hope that things could get better — and they did. Through this noble practice, I found a way to remain connected to art and to keep expressing myself in a deep and authentic way. Yes, it changed everything. I came to understand that life is fleeting, and that through photography I could leave a part of myself behind. I also realized that everything could change in an instant, that nothing is guaranteed. From my previous profession, only photographs remained as memories, and it was there that I discovered in photography a profoundly powerful source of expression — one that preserves memory while also giving meaning to who we are. Photography taught me to trust myself. When I had to let go of my previous dream, I lost a lot of confidence in myself and in my abilities. But with every photograph I took, I found something that made me feel good. At first, I didn’t believe people when they told me I was good, but eventually I accepted that this path was meant for me. I realized that I want to spend the rest of my life with a camera in my hands, sharing with the world what I feel and what I see. TPL: What were your first learning resources or influences? Did you follow specific photographers, books, or platforms that shaped your vision? ALEJANDRO: At first, I turned to YouTube tutorials; although they covered very basic lessons, they sparked my curiosity to go further. I then decided to explore the work of important photographers in history: watching their interviews, reading their books, and engaging with their ideas. Artists like Sebastião Salgado, Letizia Battaglia, Tom Wood, Arnold Newman, Fan Ho, Ansel Adams, David Hurn and others were a great inspiration. Yet, without a doubt, my influences also came from music and my interest in cinema. These experiences opened my mind to understand that photography is not just about “taking pictures,” but a language with the power to tell stories, evoke emotions, and give meaning. TPL: When photographing peers in your own community, what responsibilities do you feel toward them as both participants in the image and collaborators in its meaning? Has their feedback ever reshaped how you think about authorship or shifted the direction of your project? ALEJANDRO: When I photograph these talented artists, and people in general, I feel a responsibility to capture their essence and convey, through their image, a message that reflects the importance of their work. I want them to be seen in a way that highlights the value of what they do. Additionally, spending time with them allows me to understand what they value most in their practice and what they wish to express, which enriches my vision and guides how I create each photograph. TPL: How do you understand the ethical responsibilities of photographing people you know, and how does this differ from photographing strangers? ALEJANDRO: Photography is a deeply human activity; it’s not just about taking pictures, but also about having a genuine interest in people, their lives, and their work. It involves approaching them with curiosity and respect, getting to know them at least a little, admiring them, and valuing what they do. This helps build trust and an authentic relationship through photography. It may be easier with people you already know, but the same care and attention apply to those you don’t, because ethics and respect are not determined by familiarity. TPL: Can you walk us through what’s typically in your photography bag? Are there tools or objects you never leave behind, even if they’re not technical? Anything on your WishList? ALEJANDRO: I always carry my camera, and the more versatile it is, the better. I believe that the less equipment you have and the lighter your load, the better you work. Still, my backpack always includes my 35mm and 50mm lenses, a water bottle, and several batteries. Even though I don’t use it often, I also carry a variable ND filter and a Pro-Mist. Additionally, I always bring a small violin keychain my girlfriend gave me, which serves as a personal reminder of her. TPL: When you are not working or photographing, what else could we find Alejandro doing? ALEJANDRO: I really enjoy going out for bike rides and getting some exercise. I also love spending time with my girlfriend, watching films with excellent cinematography, and listening to music, especially jazz. Overall, I like to make the most of my days and enjoy them fully. TPL: Is there a question I haven’t asked that you feel is essential to understanding your project or your journey as a photographer? ALEJANDRO: I think something important I would like to say is that I would love to become a well-known photographer, but not for fame or superficial reasons. I want people to be inspired to learn photography with me, so I can share everything I know and help beginners discover the deeper meaning of the craft. I also hope that, when I am no longer here, my work will not disappear. I want my photographs to continue existing and endure over time, leaving a testament to what I saw, felt, and learned. 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.

TOUR DE VILLE Jocelyn Calac shares with us his images from an upcoming book project that focuses on his beautiful home city of Rodez. TOUR DE VILLE December 21, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Jocelyn Calac INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE When life presented an unexpected opportunity, Jocelyn Calac decided to take it. Three years ago at the age of 37, the French photographer made the courageous leap to become a full-time photographer. With the help of his mentor Balint Poreczi, Jocelyn has since rediscovered photography as an art form and created stunning images of his beloved home city of Rodez. Now, we are delighted to announce Jocelyn's upcoming book project 'Tour de Ville' which highlights its beauty and history. Jocelyn’s journey to becoming a photographer is both inspiring and humbling. Despite having no formal training or background in photography, he was able to make the transition with the help of his mentor’s guidance. His commitment to capturing the unique beauty of Rodez as a whole is commendable, highlighting the rare moments that bring the city to life. Through his lens, we are invited to explore the streets and visit various hidden gems of Rodez, discovering a side of the city that is vibrant yet intimate. This interview explores Jocelyn’s journey to becoming a full-time photographer, from the moment he decided to take the plunge to his thoughts behind creating the book project. We will also take a look at some of his photographs from ‘Tokyoites’ from his many trips to Japan and gain insight into how he captures the beauty of Rodez. “I was born in Rodez where I'm still living now, a little town in France. I bought my first camera for making video blogs of my different trips to Japan between 2009 and 2015. Then, in 2017, when working with disabled people I had the idea to make video workshop with them and decided to learn the basics of still photography first, to be in control of my camera. That was like a revelation for me, and I slowly discovered the art and have been interested since 2018. I was in Japan in November 2018 for 4 weeks. And would love to go back for another.” IN CONVERSATION WITH JOCELYN CALAC THE PICTORIAL LIST: Jocelyn please describe your photography style? What are some elements you always try to include in your photographs? JOCELYN CALAC: My style is candid most of the time and I love to have an human factor in my frame, many people who are walking alone. Maybe, as we see the world as a mirror, I prefer photographing the people that are living by themselves, like me. TPL: What motivates you to take photographs? Do you ever have any struggles in photography? JC: I take it as a mission, I do photography to bequeath memories, to the people that I work with and also to the history of my town and other locations that I document. TPL: Do you have any particular stories or any interesting experiences or memorable moments of connection with people you met? JC: Thanks to Instagram, I met in Tokyo, a French guy who is living in Japan, first we connected by the photography and we ended up getting along well together, we saw each other three times and he took me to places where I never been. As an example, I had the chance to enter into the Comiket (a huge event about manga and cosplay culture, around 750 000 visitors in 4 days) with a press reporter badge. What a great experience it was! TPL: In regard to your specific process, if you are embarking on a new expedition or just starting a new project...how do you get started? JC: I think it’s by making that discovery of what I am doing, as Pierre Soulages said before me. I feel the same, I don’t think so much and start making as soon as I can when I had the first idea of it. Then after, when looking at my work, I sometimes understand that I opened a path that I just have to follow. TPL: Do you have a favourite quote, lyric or saying that especially resonates with you? JC: "Living in the present moment" - is my favorite quote because it involves a lot of things that resonate with me and my photography process can be resume in this quote. I do photography to bequeath memories, to the people that I work with and also to the history of my town and other locations that I document. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? JC: My favorite photographer is Elliott Erwitt, specially his sense of humour and his way of framing. The one who influenced me the most is Balint Porneczi, a great Hungarian photographer with who I had the chance to spend some time in my beginning as a pro. TPL: Where do you find your inspiration? And do you have a favourite place(s) to shoot? JC: My inspiration is coming from a natural curiosity mind questioning the world around me. The better place to do it for me is the street. It can be a few meters away from my apartment like my home town of Rodez, in the streets of Tokyo or in Nepal. TPL: Tell us about your series and first book 'Tokyoites'. How did the idea come about? What did you love about Tokyo? What was your motivation to make it a book? JC: The 'Tokyoites' project was born from my love for Japanese culture and more particularly Tokyo citizens, having always challenged me during my previous trips there. I took a ticket to stay five weeks in the capital from late November 2019 to early January 2020. My only motivation was to photograph the Tokyoites in their public space. Becoming in fact the main subjects of the project I understood that I was photographing their loneliness. The idea was simple, wandering the streets being present at the time, in non-judgmental observation, of what is around me. I did the editing every morning in a coffee near my hotel before choosing a spot on the map for the day. This immersion in the largest urban area in the world allowed me to take my 50mm lens to areas unknown to tourists. Luck often smiles at me, having the feeling of always being in the right time in the right place, because simply in the present moment, accompanied me all along. On returning to France, I locked myself up for 48 hours, still in Japanese time, to make a first selection. My Tokyo life routine always in mind, it was the time to give birth, to reconstruct the history that was written during the many photographs taken on the spot. The following days, my attention was focused on the construction of a photographic story served by a logical and dynamic layout to make a book of it, which is for me the final step of my work. TPL: Describe what you love or hate about the camera you use? Does the equipment you use help you in achieving your vision in your photography? Do you have a preferred lens/focal length? JC: I am now using the Ricoh GR3 (that I won with the SPi awards 2020 as a finalist), this camera became instantly my main tool. It is way more discreet compared to the Sony A7III that I was using before and the 28mm fits very well the needs of what I do and like the most, street photography. I do prefer the Ricoh rendering with more character compared to the 'too clean' one on the Sony. TPL: Are there any special future projects that you would like to let everyone know about? What are some of your goals as an artist? Where do you see yourself or hope to see yourself in five years? JC: I have three projects on the go, the first will be 'TOUR DE VILLE', a book with a concept in it. As Rodez is an ancient fortified town, there is now a long boulevard surrounding the city where every pictures in this book have been took. The concept is that each page you turn bring you some meters further in the traffic way, at the end you come back to the starting point, witch is the famous cathedral Notre Dame de Rodez. If I have a goal it is to continue to make a living off photography and keep documenting the world. In five years I hope to be a travel photographer. TPL: "When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… JC: I like watching movies and documentaries, listening to music (mostly hip hop), play solo video games and gather with friends around board games. I’m a big Moto GP fan also." 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.

JESSE'S STORY Jesse’s story becomes a timeless testament of an unconventional and successful fighter. Andrée Thorpe invites us to reflect on the inspiring journey of this brave individual. JESSE'S STORY September 20, 2023 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Andrée Thorpe INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Andrée Thorpe is a passionate visual storyteller and landscape photographer who has worked closely with renowned photographers and co-taught workshops worldwide. Her eye for drama and finesse has been recognized by the photography industry, having won the prestigious PDN award for World in Focus in 2012. With her own business focused on teaching, Andrée continues to inspire her students to capture the unique moments of the world around them. One of her most powerful projects, ‘Jesse’, is an example of traditional documentary blended with a fine art approach. The project chronicles the 178 days spent with Jesse, a sheep farmer in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, who is also a heroin addict on a methadone program. Through the series, Andrée is able to share the struggles of Jesse’s journey through addiction and his newfound hope for a healthier life. With Andrée’s dedication to document the resilience of Jesse’s story, she has created an inspirational masterpiece that will leave a lasting impression on all who view it. Andrée hopes that “Jesse’s story becomes a timeless testament of an unconventional and successful fighter”. Andrée invites us to reflect on the inspiring journey of this brave individual. “Jesse Archibald is a farmer at Lemoine Point Farm; he is also a heroin addict and a methadone user. But addiction doesn’t define Jesse—his story is one of entrepreneurship, creativity, and a strong desire to live a healthier life. Jesse has used almost every drug. After being in a methadone program for more than ten years, he has now reduced his monthly usage by more than half. With this reduction comes withdrawal symptoms: anxiety, migraines, and physical pain. Everyday involves willpower. He sees no doctors other than for his weekly urine testing—he sees no therapists, no psychiatrists. Instead, Jesse’s therapy comes from working on the farm and being a caretaker. He now raises chickens, pigs, cows, and sheep with an ethic of maintaining biodiversity and respecting the land. The farm gives him peace and a new focus: The animals are his protectors. Nature calms him down. Jesse’s house is a place of chaos; there is a continuous process of recycling and upcycling everything on the farm. What looks like garbage to most of us has a potential future life with Jesse. When you think about it, this chaos is tied to rebirth. Jesse’s story is one of a daily push and pull, of the continuous cycle of life and death. His words: “I want to live.”” In this interview for The Pictorial List, we are grateful to have the opportunity to ask Andrée more about the connections she has made through her photography and to elaborate on some questions we have, giving us a better understanding of how we can support her meaningful projects. “In 2017, I met Jesse, the sheep farmer. I was simply told by one farmer during my first project ‘Fields of Hope’; you must meet Jesse with no comment about his drug addiction. And I did! I will never forget our first meeting. His self-introduction was, “I am a junky with 6 teeth.” In 2020, during the pandemic, I couldn't continue to work with the local farmers for maybe ‘Fields of Hope, Part 2’. Covid restrictions wouldn't allow me to continue to work with them. However, Jesse worked alone on the farm, and we created our own bubble! Jesse was my “new project”; heroin addict on a methadone program working on a sheep farm. Under Cig Harvey's mentorship, I played with traditional documentary, visual storytelling, and a touch of fine art photography, using metaphors to show his story in a somewhat organized way with a touch of chaos, just like Jesse's life. I did a lot of research about how farming is helping those suffering from addiction. In Europe and the United States, we can find many rehab farms and their success ratio is quite high. So, I knew I was telling an important story.” IN CONVERSATION WITH ANDRÉE THORPE THE PICTORIAL LIST: Hello Andrée, thank you for your time answering our questions. Please tell our readers a little about yourself, where you are from, and how that has made who you are today. ANDRÉE THORPE: I was born in Chicago and moved to Canada with my mother when I was 4 months old. I was mostly raised by my grandparents. I grew up in the countryside north of Montréal and at age 19, I moved to the big city to find work. After a couple of jobs in the manufacturing sector, I found my career path in the commercial/industrial insurance industry in 1982. While working during the day, for over 10 years on many nights, I completed my financial/ business management and insurance university degrees. I met my husband and we moved to Calgary in 1994, then in 2000, we moved again as I was given a major promotion in Toronto to be the Underwriting Manager for Global Risk Management Royal Sun Alliance Insurance Canada. After September 9, 2001, many opportunities were created in Bermuda to be part of new insurance company start-ups. So, we jumped at the opportunity of a lifetime. We both worked in the new start-ups and lived in Bermuda until 2013. I had a successful career in the insurance industry and was lucky enough to retire at age 50. A year before I decided to retire, I attended a National Geographic photography weekend workshop which was led by Raul Touzon in Miami. From there, a life-changing experience. I knew, right then, photography was going to be my new way of life. I am fortunate my husband was truly supportive of my newfound passion. His words, “I don't want you to die with regrets by not living your dreams…go for it.” Nicest gift one can receive. In 2013, we returned to Canada and moved to the Thousand Islands, Ontario. By then, I was traveling a lot with Raul Touzon. I was assisting and teaching with Raul at different workshops around the world. I photographed in the Arctic, Antarctic, South Georgia, Greenland, Seychelles Madagascar, Cuba, Turkey, Bolivia, and many other European countries. I wanted to spend more time with my husband, and I needed something to photograph closer to home. I also wanted to bring my skills as a visual storytelling/documentary photographer to a higher level without having to travel all over the place. But what to photograph around where I live? Raul suggested; “farms, so many around you”. For 5 years, Raul mentored me on my first project, ‘Fields of Hope’. TPL: Did you immediately know that you wanted to pursue documentary photography? ANDRÉE: From 2010 to 2016, I took several photography workshops with Raul Touzon, Maggie Steber, Cig Harvey, Ernesto Bazan, Alex, and Rebecca Webb. I first learned landscape photography with Raul and it was my focus. Then, I ventured into documentary and visual storytelling in 2014. I then photographed Easter in Antigua Guatemala, the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, and Easter in Sicily just to name some events I photographed to develop my skills as a documentary/visual storytelling photographer. In 2014, I knocked on the Dowling family farm's door. They let me in! Right then, I bought a pair of rubber boots, and it changed my life again. From there, I worked with many other farms in the region. I learned about farm life, our food supply, and oh man, hard work. I spent 5 years photographing and documenting local farms in the Thousand Islands. I absolutely loved it. It was hard and challenging. During my research about the world of farming, I stumbled on this quote that got me truly inspired: “My grandfather used to say that in your life you need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher, but every day, three times a day, you need a farmer.” – Brenda Schoepp In 2019, I published my first book, Fields of Hope. This book is a collection of images that celebrates farmers and their way of life. The goal was to create a sequence of images in unity to praise and honor their craft and to remind the world that what they do is extremely valuable and essential to our basic survival. From there, I knew I was creating a valuable project. The people featured in this book (including Jesse) are among many farmers in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario, Canada, who focus on changing the way our food is produced. They work to create a local food system that is accessible to all—a food structure that is economically, socially, and ethically better. They don't measure their wealth in dollars. They want to support food justice and promote sustainability; it is just the right thing to do. They would say that when we unite the community with good food, our souls become rich. I chose to photograph mundane moments in a different light: I decided to have an affair with farm life and show my audience a story of hope and these farmers’ commitment to the land. Fields of Hope sold out. TPL: You spent 178 days with Jesse on the farm. Describe what your visits were like to the farm? Was it continual extended stays or were you able to come and go? Describe what a typical day was with Jesse. ANDRÉE: At the time, I lived only 20 minutes away from the farm. So, I was able to come and go every day. Sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes a full day. It all depended on what was going on. Pretty much every day, I helped him with his chores while offering my friendship and presence during some of the hardest moments of his life. Chaos, anxiety, withdrawals, and migraines were common occurrences. I became his confidant, a trusted friend. A typical day with Jesse: I would pick up a large “French Vanilla drink” at Tim Hortons on my way to the farm along with a large steep tea for myself. Always very early. Most of the time, Jesse was already tackling the chores that needed to be done, feeding the animals, moving fences, moving the chicken coop and the sheep. Then time for a break, we enjoyed our drink of choice from Tim's. Jesse would light a cigarette and we would talk about world events and farming, and when the mood was right, we would talk about his addiction, struggles, dreams, wants, and so on. Then back to work. I had his full trust, so while he was back in the barn, or doing other work around the farm, many times I would stay in his house and explore/photograph his home. His home was full of surprises, and it kept changing (stuff moving around or new stuff coming in) all the time, creating new stories for me to capture. One day, he harvested mushrooms, ducks in the incubator were poking the shell and born, Legos everywhere in boxes, piles of books, magazines, marijuana plants, you name it, stuff all around. Even outside, around the farm, it was the same. In Jesse's world, pretty much everything was recycled or upcycled. One time, he built a chicken coop from stuff/material laying around his house and the barn and it was superb. Many days, I would follow Jesse doing his chores and capture moments while he was working. Jesse's story is one of day-to-day struggles while using methadone. His lifestyle is out of the ordinary and often misunderstood. Once you enter Jesse's world you realize his story is one of entrepreneurship, creativity, and a strong desire to live a healthier life. Jesse is much more than the subject of this project. Working together created an unconditional friendship. Living and experiencing Jesse's life was essential to this story. It needed to capture strong images and moments to weave a cohesive visual narrative. Searching for light, and colors, creating small stories with emotion was paramount in presenting Jesse's daily existence. I used a wide-angle lens on most images to transmit intimacy and interaction. I was there, I was part of the action, and I felt what he was feeling. Creating respectful images while staying committed to the truth and his story was essential. Every day I searched for strong independent moments that were rich and meaningful. Using a fine art approach to achieve a more aesthetic look beyond the obvious visual method was my primary goal. Mundane moments and objects became extraordinary within the context of the story. TPL: Because so much work and time goes into your photographs to convey so much emotion, what do you want your audience to “take away” from this project? ANDRÉE: Substance abuse is on the rise worldwide and Canada is not immune. Recent reports state that annually 47,000 Canadian deaths are linked to this cause. I chose to record a small part of this problem by visually documenting the daily life of Jesse. While being a prisoner of addiction, Jesse has found a safe way of living his life and I hope that Jesse's story becomes a timeless testament of an unconventional and successful fighter. Jesse was never one of these street-level addicts. He is a very functional addict. He is not the only one out there. It is part of the reason why Jesse was interested in this further project with me. With this project, we wanted to share with people that there are many faces of addiction and that when people think of a heroin addict, their first thought isn't just thinking only of those addicts who are bent over at the waist staring at their shoes. Jesse would say that some of his interpersonal relationships were not what they could have been, but he got up and went to work every day and paid his bills. What we can learn through the photos and the text in this book is that it wasn't just the methadone that is helping him, but through this process and the act of farming, it is helping him as well with his mental health. “The daily practice of getting out and caring for life outside of your own brings you out of your own world and you start really sort of viewing ‘the everything’ with a slightly larger empathetic view.” There is a huge stigma around heroin addiction in general and it is not that I'm trying to glorify drug addiction in any shape or form. What I wanted to bring out is that there are people like Jesse, and there are many of them and we don't necessarily know about them. So, what if there were other options meaning getting off methadone, learning about the human side of it, humanizing somebody like Jesse? Many times, when I talked about Jesse, many said: “Why would you want to hang out with somebody like him.” I guess the point is that there are many functional addicts you may be interacting with, and you do not know it. It is important that people really see that there is another side to the coin than what we are seeing in the national press these days. To me, working with Jesse was helping me to understand this world and yet, I know very well, what I learned is just a tiny bit of this world. I never worked on a street drug addict project and that, on its own, is a whole different story. Of course, I know parents are going through hell. I spent countless hours reading stories about parents dealing with their child's addiction or death from drugs. So, every side of addiction is complex, multi-faceted, and hard as hell to live and understand. Farm rehabs are already out there. Shifting the focus, learning new skills, connecting with the land and nature, and building a sense of purpose help people who suffer from addiction. So, let's make it more accessible. TPL: What have you taken away from this project? What have you learned? ANDRÉE: So much! Compassion for someone who is trying very hard. Even though sometimes when it comes to addiction, it is so hard to see that people can have redeeming qualities that deserve compassion and understanding when it comes to their addiction; and although they struggle, some of them are looking for help in any way to get their life back. There is a huge stigma around addiction, and I get why. It is true, when it comes to addiction, even when you tend that hand, there are relapses, relapses, and more relapses. But what about Jesse? He didn't relapse in 15 years, using methadone for survival all along. Jesse's story is just a tiny bit of this entire world of addiction. There isn't a lot of help out there. Yes, there are in many ways, but there isn't. Rehab is very expensive, yes, a clean drug supply in some parts of Canada, clean needles, and methadone but it doesn't help in the long term. What about mental health, after rehab…? All of this doesn't give them their life back. It is all short-term. We need to look at other models out there, like Portugal for example. Not perfect, but certainly better than what we have in Canada right now. We are so caught up with the criminalization of drug use, we forget about the why's, when's, what for's… in the first place. I have been a passionate and relentless learner never accepting the word failure as part of my vocabulary. TPL: What were Jesse’s reactions to the whole experience? Describe his emotions when he saw the finished project. ANDRÉE: PRIDE! All around. Jesse is not much of an emotional guy, but I could tell how happy and proud he was. I know the fact that his story is out there for the world to see is making a huge difference in his life. I know working with me on this project gave him emotional support, something different to focus on these 178 days, more importantly, I believe he values our friendship. TPL: So far in your photography career, apart from the ones you have spoken about previously, what are some successes, and what are some learning curves, or advice you can share that was a valuable lesson you have learned? ANDRÉE: Photography wasn't obvious to me. I worked with numbers, statistics, legal documents, risk management, and spreadsheets for 30 years. I had to make this big shift in my brain. Going from left to right was a challenge. All I knew was after that photography workshop in Miami with National Geographic Photographer Raul Touzon, that is all I wanted to do. I have been a passionate and relentless learner never accepting the word failure as part of my vocabulary. I also have put myself through some physical and emotional pain to become a respected photographer. It was hard and I never gave up. I have this long collaboration of creativity, learning, and respect with Raul Touzon. It has been more than thirteen years of working together and photographing the most remote regions of our planet. Working with Raul has never been easy, even to this day. He has and continues to challenge me over and over. I cried, kicked, and pushed! I got over it and learned a lot. Cig Harvey's mentorship on Jesse's project was a huge turning point for me. This is when I found my voice and my own vision. Taking workshops from masters such as Maggie Steber, Ernesto Bazan, and Alex & Rebecca Webb helped me develop my documentary and visual storytelling skills. Shooting the images with your own creative process is one thing, selecting and sequencing them is the challenge. The best advice I can give is don't be afraid of truthful/honest/constructive feedback. While shooting I constantly have at the back of my mind: • Follow Raul’s mantra: “The four pillars of an outstanding image are subject, moment, light, and place all of them in perfect harmony following the rules of composition”. • Cig: “Follow your gut, color, light, metaphors, look content, form, get the unseen seen...” • Ernesto: “Go beyond the obvious…” • Maggie: “Follow your truth, connect with people…” TPL: What projects do you have planned for the future? ANDRÉE: For now, I am taking a break from visual storytelling projects other than teaching. Self-publishing JESSE is a lot of work. You must do all the work yourself and knock on doors. It is life consuming. I still have 200 copies to sell! I enjoy landscape and wildlife photography. It is restorative for me. I am going to Greenland in September, South Georgia in October, and Yellowstone in February. So maybe soon I might work on some books around these places/themes. I am actively shooting, and I know that down the road I will find another subject that will be so relevant to me that a major project will emerge. This process is organic, and you cannot force it, but it is essential. During the pandemic, I learned how to print and bookbinding. I enjoy the creativity process that goes on. So, I plan to bring my past work into a new light. TPL: Do you have any favorite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? ANDRÉE: Raul Touzon, Cig Harvey, Ernesto Bazan, and Maggie Steber are truly my favorite artists. Each of them has a very different creative style and approach to the art of photography, although they have the three “P’s” in common PASSION, PATIENCE, and PERSEVERANCE”. I consider them to be masters in the art of communicating powerful stories through their images while generating a myriad of emotions in their viewers. I took several photography workshops with them for good reasons. All of them had a very positive impact on my photography. I follow a wide range of photographers, from street photographers to wildlife. TPL: What’s in your camera bag? Is your equipment an integral part of your practice? Is there something on your Wishlist? ANDRÉE: I now work with Sony Alpha A7R V. Sony lenses are 16-35mm, 24-105mm, 100-400mm, and 200-600mm. When I work on visual storytelling projects, my lens of choice is 24-105mm. I can be very nimble with this lens and act quickly. It allows me to have intimacy with my subject while giving me a wide range of creativity when I need to without changing the lens. No wish lists. I am very happy with what I have. TPL: And, when Andrée is not out photographing, what is she doing or would like to be doing? ANDRÉE: I love to spend time with my husband and friends. My new favorite hobby now is printing and bookbinding. Endless creativity, the sky's the limit. I find a lot of peace while bookbinding. 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.

FINDING COMMUNITY Leigh Ann Edmond's projects depict a sense of community, focusing on storytelling and pulling the viewer into her own inner thoughts. FINDING COMMUNITY September 3, 2021 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Leigh Ann Edmonds INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Leigh Ann Edmonds is a true artist in every sense of the word. She has been a photographer for over 25 years and she has an unending passion for the craft and a deep connection to the people and places she photographs. Growing up in a small town in Alabama has given Leigh Ann an appreciation for life, adventure, and the outdoors that shines through in her work. Whether it's a wedding, a family gathering, or a scenic shot of the lake near her home, Leigh Ann brings her vibrant spirit and unique eye to every photograph. Her marriage to a full-time working musician has also opened her up to new experiences, and she loves to capture those moments of joy and love. With each shot, she takes us on a visual journey that allows us to appreciate the little moments in life that we often overlook. Leigh Ann is a rare individual who lives her life with an intense passion and a creative spark that is evident in her photographs. So let's take some time and get to know the person behind the lens and discover how Leigh Ann Edmonds captures the beauty of life one photograph at a time. “Working on documentary projects reminds me of the old days when people knew their neighbors...getting out, meeting people and speaking with so many others has helped enrich my sense of connections when it comes to living in a community.” IN CONVERSATION WITH LEIGH ANN EDMONDS THE PICTORIAL LIST: Leigh Ann please tell us about yourself. LEIGH ANN EDMONDS: I was born in a small blue collar town of Mount Olive, Alabama, where the majority of the community has a known trade in carpentry, construction, and auto mechanic work. My family owns a small building supply store where I grew up around a lot of this type of work. I moved off to college and moved around afterwards to larger cities and did a good bit of international travel. I always thought I would not want to return and live in a small town but after life experiences, I realized, this is where I feel most at home. So I am proud to say, I have returned to reside in my small hometown for about nine years now. It just took me moving around to realize there is nowhere else I'd want to be but home. TPL: How did you become interested in photography? What does photography mean to you? Describe your style and how has it evolved over the course of your career? Where or how do you find your inspiration? LE: I was always active outdoors as a child and had a natural sense of adventure. I can't remember life without some sort of camera from my childhood years. I took pictures because I wanted to share with others some of the things I would experience or see while out exploring and it was also a great way for me to remember moments with friends and loved ones. Over time, my friends started asking me to take their photos when I was around 15. I never intended on becoming a portrait photographer, but with time, I found that portrait photography was enjoyable for me when you could capture the innermost being of someone...overtime, I evolved from taking images because they were pretty to wanting to capture an image with more substance. My knowledge continued to grow over the years on photography from the classes I took to eventually receiving a degree in photography from the University of Alabama. My love of documentary photography didn't really surface until after I graduated from university in 2004 when I was mentored by a photojournalist at a local magazine I interned with. TPL: Your documentary projects depicts a sense of community, focusing on storytelling and pulling the viewer into your own inner thoughts. What do you want your viewers to experience when they look at your images? LE: I hope that when others view my work that it takes them there, in that moment and connects them with that time, place or person. TPL: What did the act of photographing your projects personally reveal about you? What new connections have you made both personally and with people? LE: I probably never would have realized this about my work if I would have never started shooting for myself again because for so long, I would predominantly only pick my camera up for client commissions...the whole process of shooting for me again has revealed to me my love of community, family and having a place to belong. The new connections I've made over the past year from working on recent projects has allowed me to meet and discover new found appreciation for the ranchers, farmers and neighbors I didn't know I had. It reminds me of the old days when people knew their neighbors...getting out, meeting people and speaking with so many others has helped enrich my sense of connections when it comes to living in a community. TPL: Do you have any favourite memories or moments from when you have been on the road? LE: Road with the band or just independent travels? Most of my memories from being on the road with the band or independently would be the concept of freedom, no routine, being carefree and spontaneous with my photography and having the opportunity to create new work. I find it's the best way to feel alive, stay inspired and feed my creative spirit. TPL: You have been doing photography for over 20 years. What are some tips/advice you would give yourself if you started photography all over again? LE: Most definitely would tell myself to shoot more for me and continue to work on personal projects. I feel I lost the way when I became a professional full time because it was about making a living, creating work that clients wanted and approved of. I was shooting so much for others that when I was off from work, I didn't feel like doing anything photography related. I burned out hard to where I had to find work elsewhere in order to love photography again. When I see something that intrigues me, it feels like lightning running through my body and I know right then to take the shot. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? LE: I prefer the classic black and white street photographers, such as Elliott Erwitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and just recently discovered and fell in love with Vivian Maier's black and white portrait work. I love work that helps take me back to that moment of a different era. It's like reliving that moment again regardless how much time passes by. TPL: When you are out shooting - how much of it is instinctual versus planned? LE: I shoot predominantly on intuition when out exploring with my camera. When I see something that intrigues me, it feels like lightning running through my body and I know right then to take the shot. Sometimes I'm not quick enough and sometimes I dont have the meter set properly or the focus is soft but that is what makes it so much more rewarding when I do grab that shot and get it right. 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? LE: Right now, my equipment is a Nikon D800. It is amazing how quickly gear can become outdated these days...so I don't think it helps my work. It is probably harder because the newer mirrorless cameras allow you to shoot more discreetly. I probably would still be shooting film if digital wasn't so easily accessible these days. I am always the last to swap gear and probably will use this gear until it dies. I can't say I'm overly enthusiastic about the tech side of photography. I predominantly don't use anything over my 50mm. The 20mm, 35mm and my 50mm are my go to lenses right now. I enjoy being able to give the viewer a sense of location with storytelling details that are achieved with the use of a wider lens. TPL: Are there any projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? What are some of your goals as an artist or photographer? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? LE: I haven't started this project yet, but would love to document one of my friends running one of the ULTRA trail Marathons we compete in. They have a 27 mile, 50 mile and 100 mile distance category this coming spring of 2022. I competed in the 27 mile race this year and hope to return to document the race scheduled for 2022 . There is so much detail, emotion and grit that goes into these 100 mile races, that I would love to have the opportunity to show others what these individuals are capable of enduring. In five years, I would love to have the ability to return to full time photography again but with the right clients that embrace realistic documentary portraiture.There are just too many individuals that are so critical of themselves that it takes the joy out of photography for me (they don't want to have wrinkles, they think they look fat, they hate their expressions...I've heard it all). So hopefully, my goal would be to help educate prospective clients on the value of documentary portrait photography with loved ones over the mainstream 'pretty' and 'perfect' portraits. TPL: "When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… LE: Run...after my "retirement" from being a full time photographer, I magically discovered the beauty of having free weekends again. I picked up endurance running and have now successfully completed two back to back marathons and countless half marathons. I am currently involved with a local ultra trail running community that I run with regularly." 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.

LIVING IN THE MOMENT For Tomas Cihak, photography is all about the emotions and feelings, capturing scenes that evoke and reflect sentiments in that moment. LIVING IN THE MOMENT August 5, 2020 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Tomas Cihak INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Tomas Cihak captures the beauty in the ordinary, mundane moments of life. He is a Czech born photographer, now based in Bristol, United Kingdom, whose vision for photography is to evoke emotion and feeling; a sentiment of warmth, happiness, and nostalgia, but also a reminder of sadness and emptiness. His aim is to live in the moment and remember it in his photos. But what really sets Tomas apart from other photographers is his unique approach to his art. He isn't just looking for the perfect shot, he's looking to inspire meaningful reflection in the viewer. This is what makes Tomas Cihak a truly intriguing photographer: a man who wants to make an emotional connection with his audience through the lens of his camera. “I have the desire to capture warm, positive and old-school looking photographs that can evoke and embody feelings and sentiments of happiness, nostalgia and the good old days' vibe.” IN CONVERSATION WITH TOMAS CIHAK THE PICTORIAL LIST: Tomas, when did you start getting interested in photography? TOMAS CIHAK: I started to think about actually trying to take photographs with a proper camera about two years ago. However, it wasn't until about two months ago that I actually started going out and taking photographs. TPL: What is your favourite quote or words that resonates with you the most? TC: One that has stuck with me for years is “It is what it is 'til it ain't” sung by Mac Miller in a song called “What's the use?”. I am not exactly sure why, but I believe it has something to do with the fact that I am mainly emotionally driven, and I don't like big changes in my personal life. I suppose then the line "it is what it is 'till it ain't” reminds me of the fact that nothing in life lasts forever, that it's OK and that I just have to live in the moment and appreciate what I have while it lasts. TPL: Where do you find your inspiration to photograph? TC: I suppose my inspiration comes from the fact that certain types of images can evoke in me feelings and emotions of nostalgia, happiness and/or sadness. I find that absolutely mesmerizing and I want to be able to take such photographs as well. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? TC: I wouldn't say that I have a particular favourite photographer that has influenced my style but rather the ability of certain photographs to evoke variety of feelings and to communicate emotions. TPL: Since you have only just begun your photography journey, how would you describe your style and what else would you like to explore in the future? TC: I believe the core of my photography will remain the same even in the long run...the desire to capture warm, positive and old-school looking photographs that can evoke and embody feelings and sentiments of happiness, nostalgia and the good old days' vibe. However, there are some other styles and types of photography that I also want to explore in the future, such as a bit more intimate form of photography or shooting in a studio and working with fashion models etc. The line “it is what it is 'till it ain't” reminds me of the fact that nothing in life lasts forever, that it's OK and that I just have to live in the moment and appreciate what I have while it lasts. TPL: Where is your favourite place(s) to photograph? TC: So far, I have only been photographing on the streets of Bristol, but I would love to go and take photographs in places such as Prague, Manchester, Lisbon, Edinburgh and Berlin. TPL: Do you think equipment is important in achieving your vision in your photography? What would you say to someone else just starting out? TC: I suppose it might become more important in the future depending on what kind of photographs I will want to take and how, and of what quality. Having said that, I don't think I need any special or expensive equipment to do what I do right now. I believe one doesn't need to have a super fancy camera to be able to just go out, explore, have a good time and take decent photographs. To someone who is just starting out or thinking about starting, I'd say, your equipment doesn't really matter. I myself shoot with an older inexpensive compact camera, and I couldn't be happier. Just go out and take photos on anything you have that shoots. If you fall deeper for photography and would want to take it to a higher level, then start thinking a bit more about getting a better camera. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on? TC: I am currently working on a platform called "Laid Back Visuals" which I hope one day will become a sort of feature magazine for like-minded photographers with a similar style to mine on Instagram. I find it somewhat frustrating to see that the majority of street photography platforms out there tend to mainly focus on abstract, high contrast and fancy looking street photographs. There are so many talented people out there who understand and portray street photography in a similar fashion as I do but it feels as if there aren't enough platforms to showcase such work. So, I would like to change that. TPL: “If I wasn't photographing what would I be doing? TC: If I wasn't photographing in my spare time, I'd most likely just watch movies all the time...I love movies.” 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.

LIVED SPACES Ryan Dodd's project about 'lived' spaces is designed to pose questions...What happens on these streets? What happens inside these homes? LIVED SPACES March 22, 2021 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Ryan Dodd INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Every day, all around the world, billions of people are living their lives without us ever noticing. Photographer Ryan Dodd has set out to capture these overlooked moments and to tell the stories of the unseen inhabitants in a series of photographs. Unlike many photographers, Ryan chooses not to impose his presence but instead allows the moment to unfold in front of him naturally. His photos aim to make us ask questions: what happens on these streets? What happens inside these homes? Through his thoughtful observations, Ryan focuses on the small details that are so often overlooked in our everyday lives. Capturing these fleeting moments, he hopes to bring attention to the people living within these ‘lived’ spaces, allowing the audience to discover something new and to appreciate the beauty in the ordinary. Join us as we explore the captivating work of Ryan Dodd and his ongoing project about 'lived' spaces. “I am interested in the urban places where most people live. I find that there is a kind of energy to those areas that draws me in. In England, these city spaces can look similar, but I find there’s a lot to observe if you take your time. Right now I’m finding plenty to interest me locally.” IN CONVERSATION WITH RYAN DODD THE PICTORIAL LIST: Ryan please tell us about yourself. How did you become interested in photography? RYAN DODD: I was born in the South of England, where I still live. Photography wasn’t the first medium I engaged with creatively, I actually have a background as a graphic artist. Nearly ten years ago I had a graphic novel published. At some point I found that drawing was too slow and could no longer do what I wanted. So I pretty much quit doing that. I picked up a camera one day and decided why not, what could there be to lose in trying it? I liked the way it felt to take photographs so I’ve continued it ever since. I still do sketches sometimes but it’s extremely sporadic. TPL: Where do you find your inspiration? RD: I draw my inspiration from what I discover out in the field. TPL: What is it that you enjoy about 'banal' photography? What happens when you walk the streets with your camera? Explain your technique? Have you ever had a negative encounter? RD: I take inspiration from the spaces and objects I encounter when I am out taking photographs. Essentially I spot something that I want to investigate further with the camera. If the area is busy I’ll walk around the block until it isn’t. Sometimes the area is fenced off and I have to find some way to get creative about getting the photograph. Or I’ll come back and explore the same area taking a slightly different route. Quietly observing and waiting for something to reveal itself to me is at the heart of my process. I can recall a somewhat funny negative encounter. I was photographing an aerial on top of the roof of a house. I thought the way the wispy clouds in the sky framed this object was kind of interesting. Anyway, the owner of the house didn’t take kindly to me standing there taking photographs, and opened a window up ready to shout at me. I explained that I was an artist and that I was just capturing the thing on their roof against the sky, and they actually seemed quite pleased after that. TPL: When you go out photographing, do you have a concept in mind of what you want to shoot, or do you let the images just 'come to you', or is it both? RD: I sometimes go out with a plan, having thought about some aspect of a photograph I have taken or seen, or some idea that I want to be able to convey using the medium. But once I’m out in the field, no matter what my plan was, something else always presents itself to me and I have to go with it. TPL: Do you have a favourite quote, lyric or saying that especially resonates with you? RD: I’ve been a fan of Slavoj Žižek for a while. Admittedly some of his writing is borderline impenetrable. But unlike a lot of academics of his standing he has a very cheeky sense of humour which makes him much more relatable and entertaining to listen too. I’ve liked the notion that ideology guides or constrains so much of our thinking and Žižek has a pretty humorous allegory for this. “I already am eating from the trash can all the time. The name of this trash can is ideology. The material force of ideology makes me not see what I am effectively eating.” - Slavoj Žižek Žižek mentions this in an analysis of John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’, which just so happens to be one of my favourite movie directors and films from my teen years. It’s in this same piece of analysis that Žižek talks about “pure ideology”. Which is probably what he is most known for in terms of internet memes. I like the idea that something can be revealed through a photograph that otherwise you wouldn’t have thought of or even noticed. Where possible I like to incorporate chance and the accidental into my work. TPL: What has been the best advice you have ever received in photography? RD: I went to meet with a mentor at the Aspex Gallery to discuss my work. It was suggested to me that I take a look at William Eggleston and Martin Parr’s photography. I had come across their work before but had never owned any of their books. I started to seriously invest in photography books after that. I had studied for a Bachelor degree in Web Science at the University of Southampton before, and it was suggested in this same meeting that I go on to pursue a Master’s degree in Photography. That is what I’m currently studying. 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? RD: My approach relies on the technological limits of the camera not restricting my ability to respond spontaneously. So the camera will inevitably get in the way at times, and of course light conditions are always a factor. I have used a rather outdated Pentax K-x DSLR that I find can add in some rather interesting grain and grittiness to some photographs. But I’ve also had the chance to use a Nikon D3400, a Fujifilm XF100, and a Canon EOS 5DS. An 18-55mm, or 24-70mm lens has been my favourite for the ability to quickly switch between different compositional possibilities. There is also something to be said to restricting yourself by using a fixed 23mm lens as was the case with the Fujifilm I used. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? RD: Eggleston’s work helped give a feeling that what I was doing in photographing mundane, everyday scenes had some purpose behind it, even If I couldn’t understand what exactly that was. I look outside of photography as well, some of my favourite artists are Emil Nolde, Pieter Bruegel, Maurice Utrillo, and Tom Roberts. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? What are some of your goals as an artist? Where do you see yourself or hope to see yourself in five years? RD: I’m right in the middle of putting together a body of work in the banal genre, building it, refining it. I’m hoping to find the right space for it once it’s finished but there is still a little way to go. And eventually putting together a photography book of my own. When it comes to the specifics of how to reach these goals, I don’t tend to think as far into the future as five years. I feel it’s a distraction to think beyond exactly what I’m trying to do right now. TPL: When I am not out photographing, I (like to)… RD: I’m constantly thinking about ideas. I’ve had the opportunity to engage with some of these ideas in my Master’s degree. I also enjoy walking and daydreaming. In my down time I enjoy watching slightly outdated cheesy TV dramas like ‘Lost Girl’. 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.

PICTORIAL STORY DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. February 27, 2026 PICTORIAL STORY PHOTOGRAPHY John Agather STORY John Agather INTRODUCTION Melanie Meggs SHARE Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link As the light recedes across the Mississippi Delta, John Agather photographs what holds after attention moves on. Delta Dusk is set in and around Clarksdale, where history is not staged but absorbed into daily life. John approaches the region through observation rather than assertion, allowing streets, buildings, and gatherings to register on their own terms. His camera stays close to moments shaped by use, habit, and quiet exchange. The photographs unfold during the hour when clarity loosens. Buildings register long use. People meet the camera without request. Music drifts through scenes as part of the air rather than the event. John resists summary. He allows the place to speak through proximity, through what is shared and what is withheld. The Delta appears neither fixed nor fading, but active in its own terms. John’s method is grounded in a long commitment to photography. He began working in black and white at fourteen, spending extended hours in the darkroom and learning to read time through exposure and restraint. Influenced by Atget, Erwitt, and Cartier-Bresson, he carries forward a documentary ethic shaped by patience and presence. Now based in San Antonio, his practice centers on street and documentary photography, informed by lived experience rather than distance. What follows is John Agather’s narrative, written in conversation with his photographs. Neither medium serves as support or explanation. Image and text advance together, shaping a shared record of time spent, attention given, and experience gathered on the ground. In this exchange, the Delta is not translated or summarized but allowed to emerge through parallel acts of seeing and telling. Clarksdale, Mississippi is no theme park. Unless you are from here, you are not qualified to pass judgement. Like a fallen branch floating along the nearby Sunflower River, there is an aimless quality while ambling along the ghostly streets of this storied home of the Blues. The air hangs with humidity amid the muffled sounds emanating from dimly lit juke joints. The desolate corridors of this once prosperous hub are lined with abandoned buildings. They range from shuttered multi-story brick towers constructed in the early 20th century to a high school deserted in the 1990s. On the edge of downtown is the fabled crossroads where rumor has it Robert Johnson traded his soul to the devil himself. There are penetrations to the senses that leave you bewildered. Within the span of one block, a man sits on a street curb blowing a great blues riff on his harmonica, the smell of something deep fried stirs the soul, and there is a graffitied storefront that once sold high end goods sitting vacant. The combination is like a dystopian scene from a post-apocalyptic video game. The center of Clarksdale is a place of contradictions. People are friendly enough but distant. As you walk past one of the few pedestrians and wave a greeting, the answer is a muted response with a quick dart of the eyes down to the pavement. There seems to be a true wariness of outsiders, like maybe we are agents of the Robert Johnson pact. As twilight descends on tall trees reflected in the river, moods start to change. Dimness is a friendly companion to the obscured urban canyon. Life awakens inside hidden rooms, music is played on impromptu stages, and laughter emanates from a joy that can only be rooted in pain. The Blues. When seeds bourgeon, they grow at speed in uncontrolled directions. This part of the Mississippi Delta has touched the globe. Many forms of music can trace their ancestries right back here, especially rock and roll. When Elvis Presley exploded out of Sun Studios just up the road in Memphis, Tennessee, he was channeling the tunes that had sustained Clarksdale through war, famine, celebrations, funerals, and human struggle. The melodies came back reflected, changed, though not diluted. Only six miles away is the heart of Stovall Family Farms. Founded in 1830 by William Oldham, this storied plantation is still owned by his descendants. There has been triumph and much tragedy in this legendary bloodline. But they endure. The Mighty Roots Music Festival is a testament to the creativity and love for this hallowed ground by an Oldham descendant, Howard Stovall. He decided to return to the land of his ancestors and honor the incredible art form born in this bend of the Mississippi Delta. He learned in his youth at a dinner in Chicago from rock star Billy Gibbons, of ZZ Top fame, that the celebrated bluesman Muddy Waters was from Stovall Farms. He had no idea. That set Howard on a mission to investigate and breathe new life to the musical tradition that inspired the world. His promotional contribution to the world of music is profound, especially for the Blues. After many ventures encouraging Blues festivals and clubs, Elvis Presley celebrations, and numerous other musical acts, Howard had a new dream. He and his wife, Baylor, invented the multi-day Mighty Roots Music Festival. It is hosted at an intersection of rural highways on the site of the cotton gin that had operated for Stovall Family Farms, a mere walking distance from what was once Muddy Waters’s home. Howard has cleverly named this new jubilee in acclamation of the derivations of song that spring from the soil of his boyhood. The Mighty Roots Music Festival talent lineup is at once eclectic yet cohesive. There is a reason for that. Howard. Life is affirmed watching people pursue a passion. It is like an artist’s invitation is extended to climb inside a painting, a photograph, within a symphony, or any number of other human endeavors that are the result of someone’s thirst to reveal their vision for the meaning of our existence. At first glance, this gathering is not a commercial venture. It takes place in the middle of nowhere, has no well-known headlining acts, and spans everything from Zydeco to Outlaw Country ensembles. The band roster is a curated list that does not make sense in a music business model now dominated by the corporate limitations of earnings projections. The constant beat is the talent that is worthy in the birthplace of the music they play. Surrounded by cotton fields as the sun begins to set, the old Stovall Farms gin mill logo glows above food trucks that offer concertgoers a range of options from steaks to burgers, quesadillas, and a local curiosity called a Kool Aid Pickle (it’s exactly what you think). The one clue that Howard is not a novice concert promoter is that you cannot walk 100 feet in any direction without encountering a retail opportunity; thankfully, most of them are bars. This is a modern-day hootenanny. The last night ends with a plywood guitar-shaped sign being set ablaze as a sacrifice to who knows what....... A fire truck stands by just in case. In the wee hours of the morning, whoever is still left of the musicians, concertgoers, and volunteers all end up inside the crammed, timeworn roadside store that once sold bait at Stovall Farms. Rapt attention is paid to a pickup Blues group that features local legends, including Howard himself on the keyboards while his son, Quint, keeps rhythm on the drums. The Mighty Roots Music Festival ends as it began, steeped in the love of music and family. © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather © John Agather In Delta Dusk , John Agather shows what his practice stands on. The work is built through time spent in place, through returning and paying attention rather than arriving with an idea to prove. His photographs move quietly, allowing the Delta to register through what repeats and what lingers. As part of our community, John’s project speaks to a shared understanding of photography as a way of staying with the world. The images and the writing hold the same ground, shaped by listening and care. Delta Dusk reflects a practice that values continuity over closure, reminding us that the work often begins by remaining present. view John Agather's portfolio Website >>> Instagram >>> The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List. read more stories >>> THE LIFE WITHIN THE MOUNTAIN Ten years after first seeing Larung Gar, Jing Wei returns to a changed mountain, finding continuity in faith, memory and the lives held within it. PROSCENIUM GHOSTS Said Manseur honors these young actors, their courage, and the unseen work they give to keep theatre alive against the odds. REGINA: BOARDING SCHOOL LIFE AND DREAMS A boarding school room becomes the frame for Cleopatra Joint’s portrait of ambition, instability, and a young woman’s search for freedom. LIFE ALONG THE RIVER Along the Hooghly, Shubhodeep Roy photographs Kolkata through faith, labour and memory, revealing a city shaped by water, inheritance and shared life. A HOME OF MEMORIES AND THE PRESENT Davide Santangelo returns to his family home by moonlight, tracing how absence, memory, and love continue to live within place, objects, and atmosphere after loss. THE PULL OF THE EARTH This is more than a record of rural Bengal. It looks at the bond between Sayan Biswas and the place that shaped him, even after distance has changed that relationship. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye.

NEW REALITIES Faced with a unique reality, Tony unifies several of his images, and transforms this reality and presents a new image in a different way. NEW REALITIES February 19, 2021 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Tony Remartinez INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Tony Remartinez is a visionary artist who is revolutionizing the world of abstract photography. His work is renowned for its ability to capture the duality of things, images, and thoughts, creating an entirely new reality. Through the use of unique imagery, Tony's work pushes the boundaries of photography, allowing us to view the world from a totally different perspective. By combining several of his photographs together, Tony creates something that transcends the tangible elements of photography, instead presenting us with something more emotional and reflective. With each photograph, Tony invites us to look closer, to challenge our understanding of reality and to explore a totally new realm of possibility. “As the people pass me, I always wonder, where do they go? What do you think? In something that catches my attention and I see the image superimposed with another that has nothing to do with it (at first). And from there, I begin to deconstruct, to search, what? I do not know.” IN CONVERSATION WITH TONY REMARTINEZ THE PICTORIAL LIST: Tony, please tell us about yourself. How did you become interested in photography? TONY REMARTINEZ: I was born in a town in Cordoba, Spain, until I was ten years old I lived in Sidi Ifni, then in Zaragoza and currently I have my residence in Sitges. My first memories of photography came from the shoe box where we kept the family photos, which my father made with Kodak Retinette IA (which I still have). I have always liked photography, and I have done photography; but had never learned them, until three years ago when I started posting on Instagram. TPL: Where do you find your inspiration? TR: In the people, in the images that pass in front of you when you walk... TPL: What do you enjoy about abstract photography? What do you want to express through your photography? And what are some of the elements that you always try to include in your photographs? TR: Abstract photography allows me to lose myself in other worlds, in other thoughts; the deconstruction of reality takes hold of me when I start to play with images. From the outset I have to say that I don't use powerful editors such as Photoshop or Lightroom. Let's say I work in a 'traditional way' using the iPad with double or triple exposures, with movements of images, recovering elements, which is usually a character in the image. TPL: Do you have a favorite place to photograph? How has the pandemic affected you and your photography? TR: The truth is not, because it is close to the town where I live Sitges, its beaches, its people; then Barcelona in general, wherever I am, I try to shoot. The pandemic has affected me, especially losing some exposure; and evidently not being able to go out and take the camera; but there are many images to take, nothing happens. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists or photographers you would like to share with us, and the reason for their significance? TR: I like to look, photograph, look at images in Instagram, in Art Limited, in digital magazines and with that I am discovering photographers that I like the most and that capture my attention such as Pep Ventosa, Chema Madoz, Stephen Allsopp or Jack Savage. Abstract photography allows me to lose myself in other worlds, in other thoughts; the deconstruction of reality takes hold of me when I start to play with images. TPL: When you go out to photograph, do you have a concept in mind of what you want to photograph, or do you just let the images "come to you", or is it both? TR: I have nothing in mind, I go out for a walk, I love to walk and as I always carry my camera, I shoot; There are days when I shoot compulsively, there are days when I don't shoot anything, but I look and observe, and I keep the image. The images I capture, then I go to the computer, and I look at them when I look at them, I'm not in a hurry. There are images that I have been able to look at over the months, or I am looking for an image for something specific that I know will capture in its day. TPL: Have you ever been involved in the creative world before photography? TR: No, and I don't have photographic studies either. What I do is visit exhibitions of both photography and painting, I am passionate about that. TPL: Does the equipment you use help you achieve your vision in your photography? What camera do you use? Describe what you like about your camera and what you don't like (if you do). Do you have a preferred lens / focal length? TR: Currently I have an Olympus OMD, I have always carried compact, small cameras that I can carry in my bag or backpack; I usually carry a prime lens the Olympus 25mm; sometimes I also shoot with the iPad. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist? Where do you see yourself or do you hope to see yourself in five years? TR: Honestly, I do not have them, I do not think about it and less to a term of five years. TPL: Is there a special project you are currently working on that you would like everyone to know about? TR: I have in mind, I would like, to make a "fusion" of photography with painting based on Sitges images. 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.

STORIES IN GARBAGE Jens F. Kruse visually condenses ordinary scenes and objects into a fragmented view changing the context and narrating a new story. STORIES IN GARBAGE March 30, 2022 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Jens F. Kruse INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Travelling from Germany to Mallorca in 1999, Jens F. Kruse has been creating a unique artistic landscape of the Spanish island ever since. As a Michelin star chef and award-winning photographer, Jens has crafted a career in both culinary and visual arts. With his roots in analogue photography from the eighties, and later delving into digital landscape photography and street photography, Jens has developed a blog dedicated to his photographic journey in Mallorca. But what sets him apart is his photographic series STORIES IN GARBAGE, a creative take on how one interprets and portrays everyday garbage in an unusual and thought-provoking manner. Now, The Pictorial List has the pleasure of interviewing Jens to find out more about his life in Mallorca and his acclaimed photographic series. “The world is never boring, it is ever exciting, strange things can happen around the next corner, there is always something to capture...Everywhere, every time...I forget what I do...but I am fully aware of what is happening Past and Future exist in the here and now. there is nothing quite like this...Life is candid!” IN CONVERSATION WITH JENS F. KRUSE THE PICTORIAL LIST: Jens please tell us about yourself. JENS F. KRUSE: I was born in Germany in the 60s. In 1999 I immigrated with my family to Spain, where I have been living and working until now. My young heart has been beating for art and music and already at the age of 12, I had the dream of becoming a professional musician. But this was a bit naïve and I started an apprenticeship as a cook. After a short time it turned out that I was very talented and made a fast career (1 Michelin star). I still had not given up on my dream and went back to school to get my A-levels (1991)…Then I studied musicology (but that was too dry for me) and finally art/music! In art, my focus was on photography and land art (1992-1998). In all this time I gave many live concerts and released 4 cd albums, did a lot of art and conceptual photography. When we went to Spain (with two kids), I started cooking professionally again (the bills had to be paid). Since 2009 self-employed as a private chef! During this time I started to photograph my views out of the kitchen windows of my clients with a little Sony cyber shot camera (I loved it), so it was a conceptual work... and it turned into snapshots, moods and detail photographs. It turned into stories on social media and on my website. The final result was the publication of a combined cookbook and lifestyle book, together with my wife! Thinking about taking other food photos and also making the layout extraordinary, I borrowed a Nikon D5600 with a 35mm fixed focal length and started to take really focused photos again...I was already doing street photography without knowing it! Due to professional ban in 2020 with Covid-19, I sold my business and have been a professional street photographer since 2021. I give workshops and I am on the road as a storytelling photographer in a company called Corporate Street! TPL: You say that you studied music and art. How did you become interested in photography? JFK: I took photos before, but more as a location photographer on holiday or with the family. During my studies, I learned the analogue approach and development work completely, what you can do with negatives...(almost) everything we can do digitally today is also possible in analogue. These were rather conceptual, abstract and poetic photo works of mine. Furthermore, I have always been interested in the symbiosis between art and music...which is immeasurable. TPL: How have the streets and culture you capture influence your photography? JFK: Life as such, in all its facets, has always interested me. Through my music I have travelled many countries ( Africa, Brazil, Canada, USA, Europe), learning music there and taking photographs...I had no idea about street photography but I was always interested in the stories behind the motifs, but I was always careful not to have people in my pictures...more mood shots, landscape, lifestyle or poetic views . In 2018 in Stockholm (Sweden) this should change...!!! TPL: Talk to us about your series STORIES IN GARBAGE. Where did the inspiration come from to start the project? What do you want the viewer to experience and take away with them? JFK: I can still remember it very well: about 2 years ago I noticed that a magazine had been carelessly left on the street or thrown away several times. One copy was lying on top, with the cover page on the dustbin, the portrait of a man with closed eyes, looking calm and content. That motivated me...there was a story and that was the beginning of paying attention to stories in the rubbish. I like to put things in a different context, when pictures have a friction...raising questions. Normally we would hardly pay attention to many of the objects depicted in my photographs, as they seem insignificant and banal to us. But torn out of their purely functional context, visually condensed in fragmentary view, they acquire such a strong sensual presence that they can develop a great power of association for the viewer. We do not look at the things, the things look at us. TPL: Do you have any favourite artists and photographers? JFK: Not really! In art as well as in photography there are so many fantastic artists I like very much, whose works influence or inspire me. Not only in street photography, but also for example in documentary, reportage, art or fashion photography...I think of Annie Leibovitz, who I admire very much. By the way, the same applies to film and theatre for me! I like to put things in a different context, when pictures have a friction...raising questions. TPL: If you could just choose one photographer to shoot alongside for a day...who would you choose? And why? JFK: Since I became addicted to street photography, I naturally study all the great masters from the past and present...There are so many fantastic photographers on the road today. Since I am rarely the fisherman and feel more like a hunter on the street (that's where my adrenaline is), I will mention Matt Stuart as an example! I like his views and his photographic realisations and since I read his book "Think like a Street Photographer", I know that he thinks and sees like I do...I could have written that book...but I didn't (hahahaha...). TPL: When you are out photographing - how much of it is instinctual versus planned? JFK: I'm on the street every day! The camera is ALWAYS with me, even when I'm taking out the rubbish...No matter if I go out at home in my small town or travel to big cities...Most of the time I go off unplanned, so I tend to walk and let my interactions with the street take me to where I hope I'll take a successful photograph. When I'm in the streets I try to be open and relaxed and to allow my eyes to take me to unique new experiences. I love to let myself drift, do I go left or right? Where do I feel the energy I need? But when I'm working on a series, for example, I go off quite purposefully with an image in mind and look for the places where I might find the right motifs. With my corporate streets, the storytelling for companies, I have a rough concept according to which I proceed. I know that in the end a book should come out. 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? JFK: When I started street photography seriously, I had of course read from great photographers that most of them use a fixed focal length (use your feet for zoom!). Nevertheless, or maybe because of that, I went out with a Lumix GM5, 12-32mm. That's a bit wide-angle but by the end of the day, I was pretty far away and cropping! It helped me get over my fear in the beginning and it was a great dry run. I then extended it a bit with a 7-14mm Vario lens on the camera. That was pretty fun and I got a lot of pleasure out of it. That was a lot of fun and I get great crops with it, but since I got the Leica Summilux 1:1.4/25mm lens on my camera I know the photographers are right! It's a whole different thing to shoot with a fixed focal length. You approach your subjects very differently, the compositions become different, and you don't crop! I recently started using the fujifilm X100v with a 23mm fixed focal length, sometimes with a wcl converter...that's the equivalent of a 28mm fixed focal length. TPL: What are some of your goals as an artist or photographer? Where do you hope to see yourself in five years? JFK: I am very satisfied with my photographic career in street photography so far. In addition to individual and group exhibitions, some of my pictures have been awarded prizes internationally or have been published in books. However, I would like to step on the gas a bit more, there is still room to get even more attention. I love to pass on my knowledge! I am a very good teacher, I know that from my experience in music and cooking! Maybe my pictures will be so interesting that photographers will want to know how I take them! Technique, focal lengths, depth of field, etc.. You can learn all these theoretical things and with experience, you learn how to deal with them...that can be learned. What you can't learn in books or on YouTube is the seeing, the perception, the mindfulness, the courage or the humility with which you should be on the road...someone has to show you that and explain...why that is so important. I like to pass that on in workshops. Of course, I would like to have more exhibitions with picture sales, that's for sure. Sales are starting but it could be more. With my corporate street thing, I would like to have more stability in the orders. But that will all come, I'm sure. All this is to say that I can make a living from the photography I want to do. TPL: Are there any special projects you are currently working on that you would like to let everyone know about? JFK: Every month I travel to a big European city and spend a week there to photograph on the street, to improve myself, to consolidate my photographic handwriting, you never stop learning. I also work on different series, which means I go out specifically to photograph a theme. It's one thing to select pictures from your archive that have a common theme, and then put them together in a series, or if you're working specifically towards a new theme. A very new collaboration with a pianist: we did an online session where she improvised on the grand piano to a picture of mine (which she had chosen)...it was an incredible experience. My picture started to move, and the music gave me the feeling of being in the middle of the picture. Then, we turned it around: she sent me a music recording and I went off and made a picture to go with it. An approach that is very unusual for me, very exciting ... out of my comfort zone. TPL: When I am not out photographing, I (like to)... JFK: Seeing films, spending time with my wife and my family...and I still love cooking! 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.

I am an architect from Azerbaijan who loves traveling and discovering new places and faces of my native country. I presented my first photo-project in 2020 "Island in the Mountains", in the frame of Tbilisi Multimedia Museum Grant program for women of Caucasus. (https://tpmm.ge/en/video-archive/island-in-the-mountains/). Photos are mostly about the lifestyle of villagers, architecture, nature, colors and patterns around. CHICHEK BAYRAMLY I am an architect from Azerbaijan who loves traveling and discovering new places and faces of my native country. I presented my first photo-project in 2020 "Island in the Mountains", in the frame of Tbilisi Multimedia Museum Grant program for women of Caucasus. (https://tpmm.ge/en/video-archive/island-in-the-mountains/). Photos are mostly about the lifestyle of villagers, architecture, nature, colors and patterns around. LOCATION Baku AZERBAIJAN CAMERA/S Fujifilm X-E2, Sony a6400 @CHEBUUREKK FEATURES // Discovering My Country

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 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. November 9, 2025 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Laetitia Heisler INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Double exposure has always carried a tension between accident and intention, between the technical error of overlapping frames and the creative act of constructing layered realities. In the analogue practice of French German visual artist Laetitia Heisler, this tension becomes the very site of inquiry. Working with RA-4 color printing, she reclaims the material instability of the medium as both aesthetic strategy and conceptual foundation. Her photographs exist not as fixed records but as mutable encounters, where body, landscape, and memory interlace to form images that hover between representation and apparition. What distinguishes Laetitia’s work is the refusal of resolution. By reloading rolls of film, exposing scenes twice over, and submitting the negative to a process of reinvention in the darkroom, she generates visual spaces where presence and absence are no longer opposed but entangled. What emerges is not simply a double but a third presence, that hovers between representation and abstraction. In these compositions, photography shifts from the evidentiary to the performative, aligning itself more closely with ritual and self-portraiture. Her work is profoundly autobiographical yet resists confession. It is shaped by Laetitia’s interest in the invisible: trauma, desire, menstrual cycles, psychic thresholds, and the body as a living archive. Here, the analogue darkroom functions not only as a site of technical manipulation but as a psychic chamber where shame and silence are reconfigured into visibility. The RA-4 color print becomes less a reproduction than a residue of performance — each manual intervention, distortion, and gesture embedded in the surface of the image. To engage with Laetitia’s photographs is to enter a state of oscillation: between clarity and blur, intimacy and estrangement, recognition and disorientation. They recall the Pictorialism tradition in their embrace of softness and atmosphere, yet they remain insistently contemporary in their politics of feminist self-imaging and their emphasis on process over product. At once fragile and resistant, these works ask us to reconsider what it means to look, to remember, and to inhabit an image. We begin our conversation with Laetitia Heisler — asking what drives her devotion to analogue experimentation, how she approaches the risks and revelations of process, and what it means to transform the personal into shared visual experience. “My practice and my inner life constantly shape one another, but what matters to me just as much is how this devotion reveals another way of relating to time. The darkroom demands slowness, patience, and attentiveness - qualities that are increasingly rare in a fast, efficiency-driven world. Many of my works are self-portraits, so enlarging an image often feels like allowing hidden layers to come into visibility. But beyond the personal, the process itself speaks of a different rhythm of existence, one that values pause, silence, and depth. My daily rhythms naturally mirror this: I gravitate toward the darkroom when I feel the need for solitude and when I want to step out of linear productivity, into a space where time stretches, bends, and transforms with the image.” IN CONVERSATION WITH LAETITIA HEISLER TPL: Your practice is deeply founded in experimentation. What does risk mean to you in the analogue darkroom? Can you recall a moment when failure led to an unexpected breakthrough in your work? LAETITIA: Experimentation is at the core of my practice. With it comes failure, unpredictability, and sometimes even loss. In analogue photography, risk is not only about trying something new without following established rules, but also about accepting that what was once captured on the negative can completely disappear in the darkroom. It accepts losing the control. In some of my experiments, I use unconventional liquids during development, and sometimes this means ruining an entire roll of film. But this loss is part of the point - it challenges material attachment and destabilizes the idea of photography as something fixed or permanent. Failure, repetition, and even destruction become part of the process. For one print, I might use dozens of sheets of paper - not to reach perfection, but to test limits, to see what happens when control slips away. In this sense, the darkroom is less a place of mastery than of negotiation, where the unexpected is allowed to intervene. When I teach analogue double-exposure workshops, I encourage participants to value the one image that works, but equally to pay attention to the many that fail. Each “mistake” opens another possibility. What matters is not the preservation of an image as an object, but the experience of process, of time, and of transformation. TPL: You speak of the darkroom as both sanctuary and laboratory. How do you balance intuition with technical precision when working with film and RA-4 prints? Do you find that one — intuition or precision — dominates at particular stages of your process? LAETITIA: My relationship with the darkroom began with learning the fundamentals. For black-and-white, I trained with Kira Enss at Butz Lab in Hamburg, and I was introduced to RA-4 printing at Stills in Edinburgh with Caroline Douglas. Once I had the technical foundations, I began to deliberately break them. I experiment with the process intuitively, relying on my five senses, often introducing gestures or movements that destabilize precision. For me, precision is never absent. It forms the structure, the framework. One cannot break rules without knowing them. But intuition grows within that framework when I get to know the image after having made a few prints of it. Then, the intuition grows increasingly, and I can completely let go by playing with the enlarger and filters, shifting the image or even bringing physical movement into the process. In this sense, the darkroom becomes both sanctuary and laboratory: a space where discipline and unpredictability constantly negotiate with one another. TPL: Many artists working today are drawn to digital possibilities, yet you remain committed to analogue processes. What does analogue photography offer you that digital cannot? Do you see this commitment as an act of resistance in itself? LAETITIA: I am not against digital tools, I may use them for video or other projects, but I remain deeply committed to analogue processes, mostly because they bring me joy. For me, making art should also carry a sense of play. Screens and social media often make me feel stressed, so analogue photography offers a counterbalance: a material, embodied practice. A real hug cannot be replaced by a lovely message on WhatsApp; in the same way, the physical experience of analogue work cannot be replaced by digital photography. To me, they are both completely different practices. Each having their pros and cons. In the darkroom, all the senses are engaged. My eyes are absorbed by the light produced by the enlarger, my nose is filled with the smell of chemistry, my hands navigate in complete darkness, my ears catch every small sound, even taste is connected to the air I breathe. This sensorial immersion does something to the mind - it grounds. It is comparable to being in a forest, where you are surrounded by air, smells, colors, sounds. I feel that analogue photography brings an anchoring quality, something material and direct, which is increasingly missing in our screen-driven lives. Today it is easy to feel disconnected from our immediate environment; I think that analogue photography is a way of restoring balance between the virtual and the material and that is why so many young people are going back to it. The Eye © Laetitia Heisler The Door 1 © Laetitia Heisler Immersion v2 © Laetitia Heisler The Sleepy Menstruant © Laetitia Heisler Life & Death Bond © Laetitia Heisler Laetitia v3 © Laetitia Heisler Eugénie © Laetitia Heisler So Vulnerable So Alive © Laetitia Heisler Humanoid Vegetalis © Laetitia Heisler At the Wrong Place © Laetitia Heisler TPL: The negative in your work is not an endpoint but a starting point. How do you understand the negative as a living material? Do you ever return to the same negative multiple times, and if so, how does each iteration evolve? LAETITIA: In my practice, the negative is not a sacred object that needs to be enlarged according to conventional codes. For me, the negative is a medium, a point of departure to create images beyond the negative. Each time I return to the same negative - because I often do - something new can emerge. Printing becomes less about reproducing what was captured on film and more about opening possibilities. For me, this reflects the way reality itself operates. Reality is not a single, universal truth but a layered, shifting field - something that cannot be fully pinned down. By working the same negative again and again, with different tones, gestures, and movements, I want to make visible that multiplicity. The negative is alive because it carries within its infinite potential versions, just as reality is never one-dimensional but always in flux. This way, a single image may exist in different variations within the same edition — for example, print 1/7 might differ from print 2/7, even though they originate from the same negative. TPL: Your self-portraits are performative and serve primarily as a way to externalize your subconscious and move beyond the psychological dissociation you have experienced. How do you navigate the boundary between self-exposure and self-protection? Are there aspects of your life or body you intentionally keep outside of your work? LAETITIA: If there were things I intentionally kept outside my work, I certainly wouldn’t announce them. What matters to me in self-portraiture is not self-exposure for its own sake, but rather the act of questioning the viewer. For instance, in my series Ce que je ne veux pas dire, composed entirely of self-portraits, I use mirror passe-partouts to underline that what the viewer sees of me is ultimately a reflection of themselves and at the same time, the mirror serves as a form of protection, a way to shield parts of me while redirecting the gaze back onto the spectator. I resonate deeply with Francesca Woodman’s statement, “You cannot see me from where I see myself” (Francesca Woodman, 1958–1981). Of course, self-portraiture also serves me personally, but what it generates within me remains private. By showing these works, I am less concerned with revealing myself than with evoking what the human psyche so often endures in silence: fragmentation, vulnerability, multiplicity. It is, in fact, a claim for authenticity, for daring to truly look at ourselves rather than remaining in sterile relations. What interests me in self-portrait is not confession but resonance: creating images that become a mirror for collective inner experiences. To me, art is about opening a space where we might ask how we are really doing, what remains hidden, and how those hidden aspects might be acknowledged. TPL: Your images engage with trauma, desire, menstrual cycles, shame, and silence — subjects often erased from visual culture. What does it mean for you to make them visible through photography? Has working with these themes changed how you relate to your own body? LAETITIA: Engaging with these themes has inevitably reshaped the way I relate to my own body and experiences. Take menstruation, for instance: like many menstruating people, I have endured both physical and psychological pain around it. But since menstrual blood has become a medium in my practice, whether through double exposures or by immersing negatives in it for 24 hours before development, my perception has shifted. I now anticipate my cycle not only as a physical event, but as an opportunity for my artistic practice. It transforms something often silenced or stigmatized into material for expression. Imagine if everybody would see menstrual blood as an opportunity! Making such subjects visible is not about provocation; it’s about dismantling taboos and expanding what we allow ourselves to see. Photography, for me, becomes a tool to re-inscribe these embodied experiences into visual culture, where they have long been erased. This process does not only alter my relationship to my own body but also asks viewers to confront aspects of their humanity often kept in the shadows: vulnerability, shame, cycles, desires. It is an invitation to acknowledge that these dimensions exist, to engage with them rather than turning away. And if some viewers feel discomfort when confronted with images addressing menstruation or trauma, then perhaps that discomfort itself should be questioned - why does it arise, and what does it reveal about the structures that shape our collective gaze? TPL: You’ve mentioned affinities with early pictorialism. How do you reconcile that tradition’s romantic atmosphere with your more contemporary, political concerns? Are there specific Pictorialism photographers whose work resonates with you today? LAETITIA: What draws me to early pictorialism is not so much its stylistic nostalgia, but its insistence on photography as an expressive, interpretive medium rather than a neutral reproduction of reality. Like the Pictorialists, I am interested in how an image can evoke emotion, atmosphere, or even ambiguity, rather than simply documenting the visible. Photographers such as Robert Demachy or René Le Bègue, with their emphasis on material interventions, remind me that the photographic image has always been open to manipulation, to being shaped as much by the hand as by the lens. Anne Brigman also resonates strongly with me: her use of the female body in dialogue with nature feels like an early feminist gesture, embedding subjectivity and lived experience directly into the image. Other figures also inspire me, not strictly pictorialism but adjacent, like Claude Cahun or Francesca Woodman. For me, these references are less about emulating a style than about situating myself within a history of artists who used photography as a space for transformation where process, emotion, and vulnerability outweigh clarity or control. TPL: Your work asks viewers to reconsider what it means to look and to inhabit an image. What do you hope stays with someone after encountering your photographs? Do you think of your photographs as conversations that continue long after they leave the darkroom? LAETITIA: What I hope lingers after someone encounters my work is not so much a fixed image, but a shift in perception, a question that stays with them. My photographs are less about offering answers than about creating space for introspection. If they provoke viewers to look inward, to reconsider how they see themselves and the world around them, then the work has fulfilled its role. I do think of photographs as conversations, but not in a didactic way. They are open-ended exchanges that unfold over time, sometimes resurfacing in unexpected moments. The darkroom may be where the image begins, but it only comes alive once it is carried into someone’s inner landscape, where it can continue to resonate, disturb, or even transform. 10 Years Still You © Laetitia Heisler The Door 5 © Laetitia Heisler Retenue Par La Chaise © Laetitia Heisler Holy Place v1 © Laetitia Heisler Desire © Laetitia Heisler Elegant Sabotage © Laetitia Heisler Forest Is My Temple © Laetitia Heisler Not A Flower © Laetitia Heisler Lost in Fantasy © Laetitia Heisler Hope © Laetitia Heisler TPL: Photography has long been tied to evidence and truth. How do you see your practice challenging these conventions, particularly as a feminist intervention? Do you feel your photographs argue for a new kind of truth — one that is fluid, embodied, and multiple? LAETITIA: My work, especially through multiple exposures, seeks to challenge the conditioning we inherit around the visible by layering, fragmenting, and reconfiguring it. I work only with tangible elements from my immediate surroundings - objects, textures, organic materials - to emphasize that what we perceive as “real” is always filtered through perspective, always multiple. In this sense, my practice resonates with Alexandra David-Néel, who explored what lies beyond appearances. She once wrote: “Truth learned from others is worthless. Only the truth we discover ourselves counts, only it is effective.” This does not mean rejecting facts or science but rather acknowledging that truth becomes transformative only when it is experienced directly. For me, the darkroom is precisely such a site: a place where the visible can be encountered in its instability, through experimentation and the senses. Even a single negative can unfold into endless variations. Working through sight, touch, smell, even sound, is what allows me to connect more deeply to the material world around me. This is also why I integrate menstrual blood into my work - whether by photographing it or incorporating it into the chemistry. It is both a way of entering into real contact with my body, through all senses, and a radical feminist gesture of reclaiming what has so often been silenced or erased from visual culture. In this way, photography becomes not about fixing one singular reality on an image, but about the process and about revealing that reality is embodied, fluid, and always uniquely experienced by each observer. TPL: As you look toward the future of your artistic practice, what types of projects are you currently considering, and how do you envision these endeavors evolving over the next 3 to 5 years? Are there specific themes or issues you feel compelled to explore more deeply, and how do you see your style or approach transforming as you continue to grow as an artist? LAETITIA: At the moment, I am pursuing several projects that continue to expand the relationship between body, psyche, and image. One ongoing research focuses on menstrual blood in photography, not only as a subject but as a material in itself. Alongside this, I am developing a large-scale installation composed of around 350 instant photographs taken over five years, exploring dissociation and the complexities of mental reaction to trauma. I am also framing my series Ce que je ne veux pas dire, a body of double exposed self-portraits printed in the darkroom and presented with mirrored passe-partouts. For me, the mirror reframes the self-portrait as a relational image: the viewer is confronted with their own reflection. It shifts the vision of the self-portrait - although I appear in the image, it cannot be reduced to knowing me. What the viewer ultimately sees is filtered through their own eyes, their own experience. In parallel to my darkroom practice, I am beginning to integrate sculptural work into my practice, extending my exploration of materiality beyond the photographic print. These new directions allow me to deepen questions of embodiment, vulnerability, and the multiplicity of realities. Over the next years, I see my practice evolving toward immersive forms, where image, object, and viewer coexist in spaces that do not simply present a work, but create an experience. My aim is to engage the spectator in a way that challenges both perception and intimacy, making it evident that the work is not complete without their presence. TPL: When you’re not behind the camera or in the darkroom, what fun adventures or creative pursuits would we find Laetitia diving into? LAETITIA: I’ve always been immersed in art in one form or another. Before photography, I was a dancer and later a musician, playing in a band for several years in my youth. Music still matters deeply to me - especially underground scenes. It keeps me connected to raw energy. When I do self-portraits, I always listen to John Lennon or Brian Jonestown Massacre. At the same time, I read, write, and draw a lot. Also, psychology fascinates me. I even enjoy staying in therapy as a way of continuing to explore the human psyche. Eastern philosophies, particularly from India, have also deeply influenced the way I live and work. I’ve been there to study meditation, ayurveda and know I am learning to speak Hindi. And of course, being on the road, walking endlessly through forests or wandering cities is something that makes me feel very alive. I also like to dive underwater, looking at fishes. Those underwater explorations, just like walking or traveling, are part of the adventures that feed my imagination. 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. 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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.

I am a photo artist and documentary photographer based in Azerbaijan. My work explores the intersection of culture, nature, and everyday life. Through long-term projects, I aim to capture the essence of remote villages, urban landscapes, and the deep human connections that shape life across Azerbaijan. My photographic journey began in 2009, and over the years, I’ve experimented with various genres — from documentary and street photography to landscape, minimalism, and conceptual work. I’ve had the privilege of participating in prestigious masterclasses, including those led by acclaimed Magnum photographers such as Chien-Chi Chang, Thomas Dworzak, and Sabiha Çimen. My work has been featured in international competitions, exhibitions, and publications — all of which continue to inspire and shape my evolving perspective as an artist. ZAMIN JAFAROV I am a photo artist and documentary photographer based in Azerbaijan. My work explores the intersection of culture, nature, and everyday life. Through long-term projects, I aim to capture the essence of remote villages, urban landscapes, and the deep human connections that shape life across Azerbaijan. My photographic journey began in 2009, and over the years, I’ve experimented with various genres — from documentary and street photography to landscape, minimalism, and conceptual work. I’ve had the privilege of participating in prestigious masterclasses, including those led by acclaimed Magnum photographers such as Chien-Chi Chang, Thomas Dworzak, and Sabiha Çimen. My work has been featured in international competitions, exhibitions, and publications — all of which continue to inspire and shape my evolving perspective as an artist. LOCATION Baku AZERBAIJAN CAMERA/S Canon Eos 5D Mark IV @ZAMINJAFAROW FEATURES // Traces Of Time