Prins de Vos (1991, Raamsdonk) is a Dutch photographer living in Amsterdam. In 2013, Prins graduated with a Bachelor Design from the Academy of Popculture (Leeuwarden). Their work touches on themes such as intimacy, sexuality and gender. Prins' first photo book Enclose (2013) was launched in photography museum Foam, and included a poetic introduction, written by Dutch author Arthur Japin. In 2022, Prins published their second photo book BOYS DO CRY, about Levi, who is an artist, poet and trans man.
Kristina Õllek (b.1989, Estonia) is a visual artist who lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia. She is working in the field of photography, video and installation, with a focus on investigating representational processes, geological and ecological matter, and the human-made environment. In her practice she frequently uses situations when fact and fiction, synthetic and natural, copy and original intertwine with each other and become a hybrid object / matter to obtain new and reconsidered meaning.
Her works are often site-sensitive, analysing the exhibition location and format, questioning modes of presentation and installation politics, viewing it from different perspectives — from a historical museum to online space.
Kristina Õllek has graduated from Estonian Academy of Arts (BA degree in 2013, MA degree in 2016; at the Photography Department, Fine Arts). She has also studied at Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (2016) and Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee (2012). She’s been the laureate of the Estonian Academy of Arts Young Artist Prize 2013 (BA) and 2016 (MA). In 2019 she received the Art Proof Production Grant. Her works have recently been shown in various international group and solo exhibitions in Estonia and abroad. Her works can be found in private and public collections.
www.kristinaollek.com
The project 'The lost paracosmist' is an animated short film by multimedia artist Josephina van de Water. Using digital photography, printed celluloid film, paint, digital scans, video montage, cardboard and extreme patience, she brings a fictitious world to life in fascinating detail. The film was made in the traditional, time-consuming way that requires particular dedication, with each frame individually handcoloured as was done in the first colour movies.
The imaginary island of Paperland is inhabited by a colourful collection of talking animals. Josephina van de Water wrote and narrated the dialogue, giving each animal its own voice, tone and place in her universe. The chronicle guides us through a logical, yet fictitious, tale, in which we learn about Paperland’s geography, history, language, culture and religion.
As in every good fable, imagination is closely accompanied by reflection. While The lost paracosmist focuses on the irresistible charms of storytelling, it also warns the audience to beware of stories. They have the power to contort our perception of the world and disturb our relationship with reality.
The endearing cardboard animals in their warm, glowing colours, and the gentle, motherly voice of the narrator, are reminiscent of children’s programmes. However, the topics covered in this allegory are anything but childish: territorial disputes, political and religious authority and mechanisms of exclusion and esteem all make an appearance, allowing inequality and frustration to creep into this seemingly safe cosmos.
- Text by Geert Goiris (.tiff)
Luna Scales (b. 1992) graduated as a visual artist from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2020. Several of Scales’ works have been exhibited in a number of group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, and in 2019 she had a solo exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden.
Her artistic practice reflects a consistent interest in and references to the iconography of western art history, which comes to expression through photographs and videos of the female body in particular, patterns of movement and directions of the gaze. Scales often portrays herself, playing in her works with the public’s ideas of physical functional abilities. In so doing she questions these very notions, and in this connection also simultaneously presents a critique of the gaze at and notions about the body.
She lives and works in Copenhagen.
Agnieszka Sejud is an interdisciplinary visual artist operating between Hamburg and Wrocław. She holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Wrocław and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Silesian University in Opava (Czech Republic). In her artistic practice, Sejud engages with various media as tools for critical reflection on identity, the notion of individual freedom, and the oppressive structures that constrain human autonomy. Her work aims to deconstruct and dismantle these mechanisms through an experiment-driven artistic approach. She works with photography, both digital and analog collage, artist publications, installations, and video art. A distinctive feature of her aesthetic is the deliberate deformation of the image, which serves as an expressive vehicle for conveying complex ideas and emotions. Sejud’s works have been exhibited in numerous international contexts, affirming their universal resonance and significance within the discourse of contemporary visual art.
Her work is centred around reworkings of historical tropes relating to the black female body, taking from contexts that include art historical paintings and sculptures as well as 19th century colonial photography. She works to subvert established notions about black female sexuality and the standard of beauty ascribed to black females. By placing historical imagery in a contemporary context, the relationship between the treatment of the black female body in the past and its treatment in the present day is explored. Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) in Photography, she has been a recipient of the SSA New Graduate Award and the Degree Show Purchase Prize, resulting in her work becoming part of The University of Edinburgh Art Collection.
Aline Bovard Rudaz is a Swiss photographer based in Geneva. She studied photography at the CEPV (Centre d’enseignement professionnel de Vevey). Through her artistic practice, she sees images as witnesses capable of conveying the concerns of her generation. For her, photography is a sensitive means of tackling the social, intimate and taboo issues of our society. She is particularly interested in forgotten histories, especially those relating to women's lives.
Zane Priede (b.1990) a self-taught still life photographer based in Riga, Latvia, has a background in design and a passion for photography. A graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Priede’s work creates imaginary and surreal scenes with everyday objects, infusing them with fantasy. Her deep fascination for architecture and design can be seen in her visual approach, which involves constructing scenes with small-scale objects. Her interest in science, biology, and psychology are also evident in her visual explorations, contributing a playful approach to storytelling, and discovering the fantastical in the mundane.
Rami’s work is visually striking. The objects of his portraits are statuesque, almost sculptural and hold a quiet dignity, these aforementioned fabrics (the Veil, the Durag) are elevated from their utilitarian role into markers of adornment. A hijab becomes a royal veil, a durag transforms into the crown of a young, anonymous king, A portrait becomes a painting.His use of colour elevate the text in a variety of ways. His work brings a dynamic element of emphasis, playing on the themes of alienation, anonymity and the question of belonging. the pops of vivid colours bring a sensation of playfulness, while some images use the richness of deep blues, purples and gold tones that bring forth a sense of mystery, a world where the viewer is not entirely welcomed but granted a glimpse of what the (un)veiling allows. He presents his family, his source of inspiration with deference, honouring them in portraits that beam with a sense of pride. The questions of stigmatisation and alienation starts in ‘Hooyo’, and re-occurs in his ongoing series « Durag », taking a step back in Indaha qurbaha, (In the eyes of the diaspora) by showing his subjects up close and personal as well as in their contextual spaces respectively.
Lucija Bogunović has been studying New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Zagreb since 2019. As a photographer she collaborated with Mostar Street Art Festival, Zagreb Film Festival and Gallery Karas. In her artistic practice she explores the conceptual relation between photographic medium and time in depicting fragments of life and repetitive events.
@adeyata
Kevin Osepa is a photographer born and raised on the island of Curaçao. His work revolves around his identity and the identity of Afro-Caribbean youth in a post-colonial world. The visuals he creates and the stories he tells are highly influenced by his youth. While the themes he explores are autobiographical, his work can also serve as a quasi-anthropological study. Using different experimental techniques, he creates colourful visual stories that explore themes such as religion, African diaspora, and family.
Since graduating his work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including Steenbergen Stipendium, Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst prijs, Unseen photography festival, FOAM Editions - as well as publications such as the Trouw newspaper, Volkskrant Magazine and Unseen Magazine. He was also nominated for multiple awards - in 2018, he became the youngest person ever to be nominated for the prestigious Volkrant fine art prize.
Mentored by the Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer, he chose not to show the war in the east, but to focus on the aspects of life presented to him in the capital Kiev. By his active presence his work functions as an extension on the early 20th century documentary approach and tends to reveal universal questions rather then to depict actual proof of fact.
While working on two new projects, David is finishing the dummy book of Let Us Not Fall Asleep with the input of British Ukrainian researcher and cultural manager Myroslava Hartmond. Within the book the images will be interconnected with referential sources, testimonies and reflections on the impact that both media and politics have on the hybrid war that is putting strains on the Ukrainian dream and experience of freedom. This book will be published at the end of 2018, exactly 5 years after the start of the hybrid war.
Hiep Duong Chi (b. 1996), who holds a BA from the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava, was born in Děčín, Czechia. Photography formed part of his life from the very beginning; his grandfather ran a photography studio in Vinh, Vietnam, where his mother took photographs before she moved to the Czech Republic in the 1990s. His own work began along the lines of classic documentary photography, exploring notions of family, the Vietnamese community, or following events that caught his attention. During the pandemic, the artist instead began arranging, staging and creating still-lifes and portraits. In this new work, he touches on the realities of life as a second-generation Vietnamese immigrant – That time I wished I was a white butterfly combines references to traditional customs with his own inner feelings.
Florian Amoser (1990), lives and works in Olten. Florian graduated in 2017 with honors from ECAL in photography. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from ETH Zurich (2011). After working for the last five years in the BA and MA Photography at ECAL as well as conducting the research project Automated Photography (with Milo Keller, Claus Gunti), he is now focussing on his personal artistic practice. Florian is also part of the curation team of annual young art show JKON / Junge Kunst Olten. Florian Amoser’s works explore the different aspects of human perception. Since photography’s invention, human beings use it as an instrument to expand the limits of their observational capacity. Consequently, the technological development of the photographic apparatus has a significant influence on our perception. Florian Amoser builds his own original tools for his artistic works, which make new photographic images possible. His photographs bear witness to a material dissolution of the environment in which the view of physical reality is strongly influenced by experiences in digital space.