Photographer #422: Cathleen Naundorf

Cathleen Naundorf, 1968, Germany, is a fashion and fine-art photographer. Her career started as a photo assistant in New York, Singapore and Paris. In 1993 she started traveling to countries as Mongolia, Siberia and Brazil. The pictures made over the years had been published in eight publications of large publishers. In 1997 she started photographing for the Süddeutsche Zeitung with a fashion page of her own. Seven years ago she visited Jean-Paul Gaultier to ask him to lend one or two dresses to photograph. He was so impressed by the work that he gave her access to his entire collection. Since then she has been shooting for Gaultier, Dior, Lacroix, Chanel, Elle Saab and Valentino. She exclusively works on large format camera's (4x5" and 8x10") using polaroid films. She is also granted free choice of models, locations and hair and make-up designers. A publication of her haute couture series is scheduled in 2012. Her work has been exhibited at several venues in Europe and the USA. The following images come from her portfolio's Fashion - B&W, Fashion - Color and Vs- Magazine - 2011.

Website: www.cathleennaundorf.com

Photographer #421: Luo Dan

Luo Dan, 1968, China, is a documentary photographer based in Chengdu. He graduated from the Sichuan Fine Art Institute in 1992. He works as a freelance photographer after having been employed as a photojournalist between 1997 and 2005. For his latest series Simple Song he traveled to the mountains of the Yunnan province. Using the collodion wet plate process he captured the people of this region where the way of life has remained intact for hundreds of years. His series North, South is the result of extensive travelling throughout China. The large body of work raises questions about the large economic changes in China. On various levels the images show the effects on the Chinese population, from the new wealth, consumerism to extreme poverty. Two years earlier he also traveled across China for his series China Route 318. All three projects have been released as monographs. His work has been exhibited extensively, mainly in China. The following images come from the series Simple Song, North, South and China Route 318.

Website: www.luodanphoto.com

Photographer #390: Ken Kitano

Ken Kitano, 1968, Japan, is a conceptual photographer who uses long exposures and piles images on top of each other to create a new photograph. He has been working on the series Our Face since 1999. He shoots portraits of various social groups as young girls in Harajuku, office workers, farm village women in Bangladesh and supporters of the English national soccer team. Each time he shoots various dozens of evenly taken portraits which he piles on top of each other. The more faces that are printed, the more the contours of an individual become blurred and the expressions and ages become more ambigious in the final portrait. The project started in Asia, but should cover the American continent, Europe and Africa in the future. In 2005 he released the book Our Face. In his series One Day Kitano captures specifically chosen locations using an exposure time that stretches from sunrise to sunset. The following images come from the series Our Face, One Day and City Flow and Fusion.

Website: www.ourface.com

Photographer #378: Marcus Bleasdale

Marcus Bleasdale, 1968, UK, is an engaged photojournalist and documentary photographer who uses his work to influence decision makers and policy makers around the world. He has concentrated on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo for many years, highlighting the reasons behind and the devastating effects of the conflict. The first book covering Congo entitled One Hundred Years of Darkness was released in 2002. In 2009 he released his second book about the conflict called The Rape of a Nation. Other projects have taken him to countries as Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, Darfur and China. Marcus has exhibited his work extensively and at important spaces as the US senate, The US House of Representatives and The United Nations amongst others. He has been awarded numerous awards for his photography which has also been featured in numerous magazines as Stern, The New Yorker and Time. Marcus is a full member of the VII Photo Agency. The following images come from the series Congo - The Rape of a Nation, China - Internet Revolution? and Darfur - Never Ending War.

Website: www.marcusbleasdale.com

Photographer #360: Torsten Warmuth

Torsten Warmuth, 1968, is a German experimental, fine-art photographer who received a degree in Natural Science and a doctorate at the University of Kassel. In 1996, after having worked for a US mathematics software producer he decides to devote himself exclusively to photography. Within his extensive portfolio we find works using the double exposure technique. For most of his images he uses a large format camera. His series Belle de Nuit contains work surrounding Berlin's nightlife. While making this series he experimented with multiple toning, producing unique works that give the prints a heightened plastic effect which become Silver Paintings. From 2010 onwards, the produced negatives have become more of a raw material that he works on creating pictorial compositions. By hand he creates multi-toned prints on gelatin silver paper.  The following images come from the series Belle de Nuit, Against the Flow and It's a Man's World.

Website: www.torsten-warmuth.de

Photographer #341: Gerardo Montiel Klint

Gerardo Montiel Klint, 1968, Mexico, received a BFA in Product Design and studied photography at the Escuela Activa de Fotografia and Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City. His main focus is staged photography. In recent years his work has revolved around the dark side of the human mind where, according to Gerardo, our true personality and primal instincts are hidden. His work revolves around the themes of good and evil, violence and desires. For the evil he refers to disaster, tragedy, ilness and despair. For the good he refers to the spiritual lighting, the miracle and heroism amongst others. He tries to make his images "hyperreal", more real than reality itself, making the viewer a witness of a scene he or she is visually attending. Gerardo's work has been exhibited and published internationally and is in various public collections. The following images come from the series Volutas de Humo, Primeros apuntes para una teoría del infierno and Desierto.

Website: www.gerardomontielklint.com

Photographer #335: Mauro D'Agati

Mauro D'Agati, 1968, Italy, is a documentary photographer who has released various monographs with large publishers. One of the books is Alamar (2010), telling the story on the town close to Havana in Cuba. It was once a symbol of the utopian dream of the socialist community. Although build with passion during the 1970's, it has been constructed in an amateurish way and has become more of an example of chaos and mistakes. In his book Napule Shot (2010) he shows us various aspects and sections of Naples through various characters and locations. Other books Mauro has released are Palermo Unsung (2009) on performances at local music festivals in various districts of Palermo, Vucciria (2006) about an old market neighbourhood in Palermo and Less Vegas (2011) with stories in and around Las Vegas. The following images come from the series Alamar, Napule Shot and Vucciria.

Website: www.maurodagati.com
(Video in Italian)

Photographer #325: Paolo Ventura

Paolo Ventura, 1968, Italy, studied at the Accademia di Bella Arti di Brera in Milan and currently lives and works in New York. He envisioned scenes he wanted to photograph, but these situations could not be found anymore. Therefore he started to construct entire sets by hand. He creates miniature buildings, trees and other objects. At the same time he constructs all the figures himself, making tiny clothes for the little men and women that he uses as actors in his scenes to tell his narrative and magical stories. In 2006 he released his series War Souvenir as a monograph and in 2009 the book Winter Stories came out. In the last five years Paolo has exhibited extensively throughout the USA and Europe. The following images come from the series Civil War, Winter Stories and War Souvenir.

Website: www.paoloventura.com

Photographer #303: Sabine Delcour

Sabine Delcour, 1968, France, is a landscape photographer working and living in Paris. With a large-scale camera she makes very clear and sharp photographs. In her series Thoroughfares she photographs marginal areas where nature has to make compromises, places where the landscape can be seen as a story of "human nature". In 2006 she realeased the book Autour de Nous (Around Us), a project that came to life while she was in Japan. She photographed unfinished houses and interviewed the local people creating a soundtrack to her work. The stories and destinies of these people combined with the images of houses under construction create a link and a relationship. The following images come from the series Itsas Lurrak, Thoroughfares and Arounds Us.

Website: www.sabinedelcour.com

Photographer #300: Lyle Owerko

Lyle Owerko, 1968, Canada, is a portrait and documentary photographer working and living in New York. He studied at the Pratt Institute in NYC. He was the photographer who shot the cover of Time in 2001 of the twin towers on fire on September 11. The happenings he witnessed on September 11th, 2001 have been published as a monograph called And No Birds Sang. The Boombox Project has been released as a book in 2010 for which he has photographed a large amount of vintage boomboxes, taking us back to the 80's. Lyle has traveled extensively for his photography resulting in various projects on the African continent. He works with Human Rights groups documenting cultural groups hoping to contribute to the betterment of the human condition. Owerko also concentrates on film making and commercial work. The following images come from the series The Boombox Project, Radio Simba and The Samburu.

Website: www.owerko.com

Photographer #297: Eugenio Recuenco

Eugenio Recuenco, 1968, Spain, is a fashion photographer with a unique style and a large and impressive portfolio. His cinematographic and pictorial work is larger than life. Entire sets are build to create his magical and fantastical imagery. The photographs are stylish, visually stunning and his lighting is incredible, often inspired by the great painters of history. Amongst his clients are Diesel, Nina Ricci and L'Oreal. He has also worked with Rammstein and created story-telling images with the German band. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and has been exhibited extensively. It is no surprise that Eugenio also concentrates on film making. The following images come from various shoots.

Website: www.eugeniorecuenco.com

Photographer #225: Patrick Hoelck

Patrick Hoelck, 1968, USA, is a portrait and celebrity photographer. Next to being a photographer he also directed a large number of music and commercial video's. In 2009 he presented his first feature film called Mercy. Patrick has seen many celebrities and musicians in front of his lens, from Queens of the Stone Age to The Game and from Clint Eastwood all the way to Mandy Moore. During the last twelve years Patrick shot polaroids while working on commercial and personal projects. The polaroids will now be combined in the book Polaroid Hotel. The following images come from his portfolio's Portraits, B&W and Polaroid.

Website: www.patrickhoelck.com

Photographer #209: Richard Renaldi

Richard Renaldi, 1968, USA, is a photographer with a large portfolio of projects and several monographs. He travels across the United States to find his images. In the book Figure and Ground he went from coast to coast. Together these images make a portrait of a population and a country. In his project 49 and 50 he went to the 49th and 50th state, being Alaska and Hawaii. It is a tribute to the character of these secluded places. In his project Touching Strangers, Richard asked complete strangers to pose for a picture with one condition; they have to touch each other in some manner, introducing an unpredictable variable in the traditional portrait. Renaldi uses a large format (8x10") camera. The following images come from 49 and 50, Fall River Boys and Touching Strangers.

Website: www.renaldi.com

Photographer #194: Sonja Braas

Sonja Braas, 1968, Germany, lives and works in New York. In her series The Quiet of Dissolution Sonja shows us various natural catastrophes, but in a way that we have never seen before. The viewer begins to wonder how she got so close to the disasters and how she continuously get's a certain serenity in her photographs. Sonja actually builds the scenes herself in a studio as idealized models of reality. In her series You Are Here she took pictures of zoological gardens and natural science museums and put them alongside images of real landscapes. This confuses the viewer when attempting to figure out what is real and what is not. The following images come from the series The Quiet of Dissolution, Forces and You Are Here.

Website: www.sonjabraas.com

Photographer #173: Susana Raab

Susana Raab, 1968, Peru/USA, is a Washington, DC based editorial and documentary photographer. Her series Cholita examines modern coastal Peruvian culture with an emphasis on the Peruvian social constructs, which are a legacy of colonial times. The word Cholo derives its origin from colonial times and signifies a dog of disreputable origin, and was used by the colonial Spaniards as an insult. Today the word is commonly used with both positive and negative connotations depending upon the context and reflects a central paradox of Latin American culture. The following images come from her series Cholita, Consumed (Fast Food in the US) and Migrants in Immokalee.

Website: www.susanaraab.com

Photographer #141: Olaf Heine

Olaf Heine, 1968, Germany, is a portrait and celebrity photographer. His images have been used on numerous album covers. This September his book I love you but I've chosen Rock was released and in 2008 he released a book called Leaving the Comfort Zone. Next to being a photographer Olaf has also directed music video's, commercials and a short film. Sting, Iggy Pop, Rammstein and many others have been in front of his camera. The following images come from his portfolio's Celebrities, 15 Minutes and The Heart has Reasons.

Website: www.olafheine.com

Photographer #089: Frederike Helwig

Frederike Helwig, Germany, 1968, is a fashion and portrait photographer. She studied at Bournemouth College of Art and Design and soon started working for magazines as i.D, The Face and Dazed and Confused. Since then she has worked for several big names and had a long lasting collaboration with Teen Vogue. Her succes has been her style of shooting images, which is a mix of documentary and fashion photography. The following images come from various shoots.

Website: www.frederikehelwig.com