Our Choice of New And Emerging Photographers To Watch

Tasneem Alsultan Sasha Arutyunova Xyza Bacani Ian Bates Clare Benson Adam Birkan Kai Caemmerer Nicholas Calcott Souvid Datta Ronan Donovan Benedict Evans Peter Garritano Salwan Georges Juan Giraldo Eric Helgas Christina Holmes Justin Kaneps Yuyang Liu Yael Martinez Peter Mather Jake Naughton Adriane Ohanesian Cait Oppermann Katya Rezvaya Amanda Ringstad Anastasiia Sapon Andy J. Scott Victoria Stevens Carolyn Van Houten Daniella Zalcman

© Justin Kaneps April 2017 pdnonline.com 25 Our Choice of New And Emerging Photographers To Watch © Katya R ezvaya © Katya Editor’s Note Reading about the burgeoning careers of these 30 Interning helped Carolyn Van Houten learn about working photographers, a few themes emerge: Personal, self- as a photographer; the Photo Workshop helped assigned work remains vital for photographers; workshops, Ronan Donovan expand his storytelling skills; Souvid fellowships, competitions and other opportunities to engage Datta gained recognition through the IdeasTap/Magnum with peers and mentors in the photo community are often International Photography Award, and Daniella Zalcman’s pivotal in building knowledge and confidence; and demeanor grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting altered and creative problem solving ability keep clients calling back. the course of her career. Many of the 2017 PDN’s 30 gained recognition by In their assignment work, these photographers deliver pursuing projects that reflect their own experiences and for their clients without fuss. Benedict Evans, a client interests. Salwan Georges explored the Iraqi immigrant says, “set himself apart” because people like to work with community of which he’s a part. Xyza Bacani, a one- him. Ian Bates is known as a hard worker who will figure time domestic worker in , is using her unique a story out. And Amanda Ringstad has, a client says, background to tell stories of “invisible people” who are strong views but “very little ego.” living as she once was. Tasneem Alsultan is working to The path to a successful photography career can seem change the way people see Saudi and Arab women. And mysterious at times, and there is certainly no one-size- Clare Benson’s family and upbringing have been important fits-all formula. But as the stories of these photographers touchstones in her fine-art work. suggest, pursuing one’s personal vision, building Several photographers cited workshops, fellowships, community and working hard for clients has helped many mentorships and other opportunities that propelled them. photographers find their way. —Conor Risch

26 pdnonline.com April 2017 PDN thanks the following people for nominating photographers for the 2016 PDN’s 30: David Alexander Joanna Lehan, Arnold, ICP Museum Travel + Leisure John Fleetwood, Alexandra Garcia, Photo: International League Kathy Ryan, of Conservation The New York Photographers Times Magazine Allie Fisher, , WIRED photographer Allyson Torrisi, Marianne Campbell, Popular Mechanics Marianne Campbell Amy Feitelberg, Associates Square Marvin Heiferman, Amy Wolff, writer, curator, CoEdit Collection ICP/Bard, SVA faculty Andrew Nedimyer, Michael Itkoff, Hum Creative Daylight Ann Jastrab, Michael Kamber, Rayko Photo Center photographer Ariel Shanberg, Michael Mack, curator MACK books Ariel Zambelich, Michelle Bablitz, NPR SAINT LUCY Ash Barhamand, Represents WWD Natalie Flemming, Ashley Lumb, This Represents The Bodleian Libraries, Nathalie Applewhite, University of Oxford Pulitzer Center on Brian Sholis, Crisis Reporting curator Paul Schiek, Catherine Edelman, TBW Books Catherine Peter DiCampo, Edelman Gallery photographer Charles Traub, Romke Hoogwaerts, School of Visual Arts Mossless Darren Ching, Samantha Johnston, Klompching Gallery Colorado Photographic Deb Wenof, Arts Center Refinery29 Sandra S. Phillips, Elizabeth Krist, SFMOMA photo editor Sebastian Meyer, Emily Keegan, Metrography The FADER Stacey Emily Nathan, Clarkson James, Tiny Atlas Quarterly Harper’s Magazine Esa Epstien, Stephen Perloff, sepiaEYE The Photo Review S tevens Fred Bidwell, Steven B. Smith,

o ria Rhode Island

t Transformer Station School of Design Ihiro Hayami, © V i c Tara Guertin, to See more images by the 2017 PDN’s 30 Photographers, Visit PDNs30.com Tokyo Institute of Photography AFAR Jacqueline Bates, Tom Claxton, PDN thanks the Sponsors of PDN’s 30 The Webber Represents for their support of this issue and of Sunday Magazine W.M. Hunt, curator the PDN’s 30 educational programs. James Estrin, Yaelle Amir, Jeff Jacobson, Newspace photographer Center for Our Choice of Photography New And Emerging Jigisha Bouverat, Photographers Jigisha Bouverat Zara Katz, To Watch Collective producer

28 pdnonline.com April 2017 Xyza Bacani had been a domestic worker in Hong Kong for Justin Kaneps nearly ten years when photographer Age: 27 Rick Rocamora discovered her Born: Somerset, NJ street photography on Facebook. Resides: San Francisco Her photographs stood out for their Education: The Art Institute of Boston composition, layering, dramatic light Website: justinkaneps.com and decisive moments. Rocamora Clients: Bloomberg Businessweek, The California Sunday brought her to the attention of The New Magazine, The New York Times, Surface, Fast Company, San York Times, which debuted her work on Francisco Magazine, Airbnb Lens blog in 2014. Almost overnight, Exhibitions: Leila Heller Gallery, New York; Book & Job Gallery, Bacani’s life changed. San Francisco; Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álavarez Bravo, Oaxaca, “Because of my sexy background Awards: Magenta Foundation Flash Forward; American Photography 32 story, I got a lot of media exposure,” Best advice: “It’s important to have a community of photographers for support, but I think she says. Journalists who did stories sometimes photographers get stuck inside of that and become insular within the photography about her began sending assignments community. Make an effort to expand your community beyond photographers to other types her way. In 2015, she came to New of artists.” York on a Magnum Foundation Human Rights Fellowship. With mentoring from , Bob Sacha and others, she learned storytelling and multimedia skills. Bacani now supports herself primarily through print sales “Even if my assignment is one portrait, and editorial assignments that make it I’ll go above and beyond and try to put together a possible for her to pursue her ongoing story,” says Justin Kaneps. His work ethic and his project about immigrant labor around ability to combine portraits with storytelling have Xyza the . caught the eye of photo editors. “His pictures are “She organizes often complex suffused with natural light and rich colors and Bacani photographs really well,” says James textures that give them a vivid, dreamy quality,” AGE: 30 Estrin, co-founder of The New York says Bloomberg Businessweek’s Clinton Cargill, BORN: Nueva Times Lens blog. “Why I’m so impressed who assigned Kaneps to shoot a cover story on Vizcaya, is that she moved into doing this Levi’s. “They also fit clearly in the tradition of the RESIDES: “Living incredibly important work on domestic early color photographers…It gives his pictures out of a suitcase for workers…she has the access, and a sense of nostalgia that worked perfectly to two years now.” ability to see it like nobody else can.” portray an iconic American brand like Levi’s.” WEBSITE: Bacani first tried her hand at painting, Kaneps breaks down his approach to xyzacruzbacani.com then bought a camera. “I was like, ooh… photography like this: minimal gear, respect CLIENTS: magic!” she recalls. She carried it for subjects, let the work speak for itself. The New York Times Lens blog, ChinaFile, everywhere. “At night I snuck out from my He balances the meticulously placed and the South Morning Post, Fujifilm employer’s home to take pictures.” arbitrarily happened-upon, the thoughtful EXHIBITIONS: Arrow Factory, ; She went online to study the work and the spontaneous. At art school, he was Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild Youth of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fan Ho and heavily influenced by the New Topographics and Arts Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; Pedro Luis Raota. She also studied how photographers, but when he started making Kong Art Space, Hong Kong Renaissance painters “play with the portraits in 2011, he looked to the work of AWARDS: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting light and composition.” And she binged and Lewis Hine. Moving forward, Travel Grant; Forbes 30 Under 30 ; on movies, pausing on scenes that he hopes eventually to dig into long-term Magnum Foundation Human Rights caught her eye. “The first thing I learned storytelling projects in places as far flung as Fellowship; BBC 100 Women of 2015; is that light is everything. Even if your Alaska, Guatemala, Latvia or . Visionaries 2015; Justice Centre Hong Kong form and content are beautiful, if your Kaneps credits human connection and Human Rights Arts Prize light is flat, it’s not going to be visually communication with both peers and editors for BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “Starting out as a appealing,” Bacani says. the advancement of his career thus far. “I wear my freelancer, I do not have a safety net, so failing Lately she has been studying heart on my sleeve, but it’s helped me forge deep is not an option. My family is poor. For me it’s the elements of design, to better connections to my peers, mentors and subjects,” important that we survive first. When I got the understand composition and hone her reveals Kaneps. Meeting individually with editors Magnum Foundation Fellowship, I was really visual instincts. “My photography is all in their offices has been more helpful for earning happy, then reality sinks in: If I go to New York about instinct and feeling and mood,” assignments than attending portfolio reviews or and lose my job, will I be able to support my she says. Her aspiration is to continue festivals. Speaking about marketing his work, he family? My family and my [former] employer working, “doing shows and telling says there’s a lesson he’s learned: “Keep a fire in said, ‘Opportunity only comes once. It’s a stories, especially underreported ones your heart and if you really want it you’ll get there chance to change your life, so why not?’ It was about invisible people,” she says. with a fine balance of patience and persistence.” scary, so I tripled the hard work.” © X y z a B acani A ll P hotos —David Walker J ustin K aneps © A ll P hotos —Sarah Stacke

30 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 31 After art school, Victoria Stevens moved to in 2007, and explored the commercial photography world by assisting photographers who were shooting still life, fashion and portraits on large-scale studio shoots. She also did jobs in production and retouching. Then she became a full-time photo editor at City magazine, and it exposed her to a different esthetic. The first time she shot for the magazine, she photographed the band The XX. Instead of using strobes, sets or any of the props she had been accustomed to using as an assistant, she used natural light. “That was it,” she explains. “That made me say, ‘I’m a photographer.’” The pared-down approach eventually became the foundation of her artistic vision. Stevens began taking photographs more frequently, giving herself assignments to shoot musicians, actors and directors. Breaking out of the studio enabled her to “get the shot quicker, and get what I want without relying on strobes all the time,” she says, an approach ideal for capturing celebrities or directors with limited time. As an undergrad, Adam Birkan studied Victoria Stevens After City folded in 2012, Stevens joined Anthem at ’s School of Visual AGE: 32 Magazine as photo editor/photographer-at-large. Communication, a program designed to train “staff BORN: Dunedin, FL She gave herself assignments to travel to music newspaper photographers,” says Birkan. For fun, he RESIDES: New York City and film festivals, honing her style and building up and his friends would watch documentaries about EDUCATION: Savannah College of Art and Design a portfolio she could show to clients. She pushes photographers. One, about William Eggleston, was WEBSITE: victoriastevens.net herself, even when her time with a celebrity is short. a revelation to Birkan. “After four years of hardcore CLIENTS: WWD, W Magazine, Interview Magazine, “Never settle for a shot,” she says. photojournalism, watching William Eggleston just blew Dior, Capitol Records, Interscope Records As a former photo editor who now pitches photo my mind,” he says. “The next day I was taking pictures AWARDS: 2015 PDN Faces editors, Stevens recognizes the importance of of cracks in the street.” While his studies had focused Best Advice: “Pitch your own assignments. It’s better than constantly promoting yourself. “Treat every situation like on telling stories, Eggleston was appealing in that waiting around. When I first started I thought, ‘Okay, I have a degree. Editors are going to a networking opportunity,” she advises. “You never know “he doesn’t have grand ideas,” says Birkan. find me and pitch this to me,’ and that didn’t happen right away. Pitch your own ideas.” who you’re going to meet.” —Stacey Goldberg His interest shifted from photojournalism to photography as art, and after he graduated, Birkan moved to Bangkok in search of an interesting place to make pictures. With teaching English as a fall-back

plan, he began working on a personal project that eventually became “All That Glitters,” a mix of street life and architecture that comments on economic disparity. Once he had a set of images he liked, he began submitting them to “blogs that are good at getting your name out there into the wild.” His work received some press and

B irkan A dam © A ll P hotos awards, and editorial assignments began trickling in from photo editors who had come across his work. (He also emailed dozens of editors directly but says, Adam Birkan “I never ever got a single assignment that way.”) Most AGE: 26 of his bigger assignments have come in the past two BORN: Jerusalem years, he says. RESIDES: Bangkok The low cost of living in Thailand allows Birkan EDUCATION: Ohio University to choose assignments that offer the most creative WEBSITE: adambirkanphoto.com freedom, and to continue his explorations of places CLIENTS: GQ, Vogue, , The New York Times, that spark his interest, from studies of life on a Thai Bloomberg Businessweek, Free Men’s World island during the off-season to a look at the piecemeal EXHIBITIONS: JAM Gallery, Bangkok; Bangkok Art & Culture Center; modernization of the capital of Vietnam. He’s planning Street Photography Festival a trip to to look for traces of recent and ancient AWARDS: Magnum 30 Under 30, Photo Contest, history in the landscape. Rather than plan an itinerary or PDN Emerging Photographer, PDN World in Focus. shot list for the trip, “I like to think I’ll find interesting BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “My goal is to have photos that appeal to my mom, things,” he says. “But that’s what Eggleston taught to my mentors, to industry professionals, to artists and to guys on the street. me—everything is interesting.”

S tevens V ictoria © A ll P hotos I’ve only ever taken two or maybe three that accomplish that. I want more.” —Rebecca Robertson

32 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 33 Sasha Arutyunova Age: 28 Born: Moscow Resides: New York City Education: New York University, Tisch School of the Arts Website: sashaarutyunova.com © I ke E deani Clients: The New York Times, Hemispheres, AFAR, Norwegian Air, Make Room USA Exhibitions: Center for Faith and Work, New York City; Brooklyn Navy Yard; Metropolitan Building, Queens, NY Awards: Passion Passport: Artist Residency with Amtrak; Center for Faith and Work Artist-in-Residence; New York University President’s Service Award; New York University Thomas Drysdale Production Fund Key Lesson: “The most important thing I’ve learned is that I need my peers. Being a photographer is a solitary experience, and it’s important to invest time in your peers and the photo community so that you can help each other out when needed. Fostering positivity in the photo community is so important.”

Immigration, opportunity, belonging: Salwan Georges’s family fled in the ’90s for , in America, these are hot-button issues. For Sasha Salwan Georges then emigrated to the U.S. in 2004, when he was 12 years old. Arutyunova, they are also deeply personal. Arutyunova AGE: 26 “I went through the hardship of being a refugee twice, and was six years old when she left her native for the BORN: Baghdad I wanted to express my experience and feelings but I didn’t , joining her mother, who had separated RESIDES: Detroit know how,” he says. He eventually ended up at Oakland from her father a year earlier. Since then, Arutyunova EDUCATION: Oakland Community College, Royal Oak, Community College, where he signed up for a class taught by has shuttled between the two countries, keeping a Michigan; Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan Rob Kangas. For his first assignment, Georges took pictures foot in both. “Having such a close connection to two WEBSITE: salwangeorges.com in a coffeehouse that his father frequented with other Iraqi cultures allows me to step back and look at them, both CLIENTS: , Washington Post, The New York Times refugees, playing cards and talking about their lives. from the inside and the outside,” she says. EXHIBITIONS: Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, Michigan; Kangas was impressed, Georges says. “He said, ‘I haven’t In an ongoing, as-yet-untitled personal project, A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education, Detroit; Detroit Artists seen this community in America. We can’t just walk in, but Arutyunova is examining everyday life in Russia through Market; The Scarab Club, Detroit; Hatch Art Gallery, Hamtramck, Michigan you have access.’ And I thought, ‘This is really cool.’” He began the lens of her family and their surroundings. The work AWARDS: , Michigan, Best Feature Photo 2016 imagining a career as a photojournalist. While he was pursuing fills what she sees as a gap in coverage of her homeland: BEST ADVICE: “I once shared with John Stanmeyer that his work inspires me, a journalism degree, Muslim extremists killed one of his “People who aren’t from Russia go in and take pictures, and he replied: ‘Inspiration has to come from within. From messages told to us in cousins back in Iraq. Georges’s shock and anger inspired and it’s usually an overview of the country. I’m excited to the wind. Expression from a tree. Felt in our hearts. Eyes. Simply through being. him to start photographing the growing Muslim community be able to tell a story that’s personal but also speaks to The mistakes will never end, [and] therein rests your potential.’” in Dearborn. this larger moment, with issues of travel and immigration.” “I wanted to show what it takes to come here” as a refugee, At the same time, Arutyunova is shooting portrait Georges says. “As I photograph refugees, in every photo, assignments for magazines. After college, she produced I see myself and my family’s story.” work for her first portfolio by shooting performances He graduated in May 2015, took an internship at the by actor and musician friends. She became part of two Detroit Free Press, and started reaching out to photographers artist collectives, Mason Jar Music and Nomadique, and and photo editors by email. That led to assignments from The continues to shoot stills and video for both. That work New York Times and Washington Post to photograph stories led to an assignment for Hemispheres and later for about Detroit’s failing public schools, the water crisis in Flint, The New York Times. “Sasha brings a certain light Michigan and other topics. It also led to a staff position at and sensitivity to her work,” says Alana Celii, photo the Detroit Free Press, and invitations to the Eddie Adams editor of The New York Times Arts & Leisure section. Workshop and VII Agency workshop. “She’s extremely dedicated and cares immensely Last year, he was one of 15 photographers accepted about the work she’s doing.” into the three-year Visual Storytelling & Documentary In the future, Arutyunova says, she’d like to continue Photography Projects mentorship program organized by doing both fine-art and editorial photography: She James Estrin and Ed Kashi. envisages putting out a book about her family project. “He’s technically really strong,” Kashi says of Georges. rutyunova A asha G eorges alwan As for the new state of affairs between Russia and “But more than that, he has a real sensitivity to the subject. America, she says, “I’m curious and horrified about how He’s a natural born storyteller and he yearns to push himself. everything is going to unfold.” With luck, she’ll be there I’m taken by his aspiration, and his drive and his talent.” © S A ll P hotos © S A ll P hotos to capture her perspective on it. —Sarah Coleman —David Walker

34 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 35 Carolyn Van Houten was a physics major Jake Naughton interested in optics and the physics of light when AGE: 28 she enrolled in a photojournalism class as a college BORN: Farmington, CT sophomore. It opened her eyes to a career that would RESIDES: Brooklyn, NY allow her to blend her passion for science with her EDUCATION: University of Wisconsin, love of connecting with people. Madison; City University of New York She took more photo classes before spending the WEBSITE: jakenaughton.com next year zipping through photo internships at the CLIENTS: The New York Times, NPR, Tribune; the ; The Herald in Newsweek, VICE, GlobalPost, MasterCard Jasper, Indiana; and the White House. “There’s only so Foundation, Storefront Gallery for Art and Architecture much you can learn in a classroom when the work you EXHIBITIONS: Division Gallery, Toronto; Photoville, Brooklyn, NY; really need to do is out in the field,” she says. Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, Toronto Van Houten joined the staff of San Antonio AWARDS: Blue Earth Alliance sponsorship; New York Foundation Express-News in January 2015, a month after for the Arts Emerging Photographer Project Grant; Reporting Grant, graduating with a photojournalism degree. She Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; Immigration Reporting Grant, wasn’t done interning, though. After winning College Beacon Reader Photographer of the Year, Van Houten was invited to BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “The hardest thing has been to unlearn the intern with National Geographic for four months, and received ideas about what kind of photographs I can and should be got a leave of absence from her staff job. making, what kind of stories I can and should be telling, what kind of Today she has what she calls a “dream situation” voice I can and should have. I feel like my life is a continuous process at the Express-News. “Occasionally I do daily stories, of unlearning. I think on some level I have had to give myself permission Carolyn Van Houten but basically it’s all long-term projects, so I pitch and work on pretty much whatever I want to at the paper,” to dream bigger for myself and my photographs, and it was a huge AGE: 26 process to get there. I’m still getting there, actually, every day.” she says. BORN: Greenville, NC Many of those stories humanize issues, like how RESIDES: San Antonio the downturn in oil prices is affecting a South EDUCATION: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community. “Economics are always hard to visualize,” WEBSITE: carolynvanhouten.com she says. “As long as you can find the people [who CLIENTS: National Geographic, The New York Times, are affected], then you can find visuals and important TIME, Wall Street Journal things to cover surrounding that issue.” AWARDS: Pictures of the Year International Newspaper Photographer of the Year; Working at the newspaper has taught her to be a College Photographer of the Year; Magnum 30 Under 30; Hearst Journalism better journalist, which in turn is making her a better Awards National Photojournalism Championship; National Press Photographers photographer. “The best photography for me has come Association Best of Photojournalism after I’ve done a lot of reporting and a lot of research KEY LESSON: “Paid internships are crucial because they provide you with an opportunity to on an issue,” she says, “and when you understand the work in a community unknown to you for a period of time. You don’t have a lot to lose, so you subtleties of an issue, then your pictures can be a lot Jake Naughton came to photography as a disillusioned art can experiment and figure out what you want and don’t want for yourself and your career.” more nuanced.” —Mindy Charski student. Jesuit high school had instilled in him a passion for social justice that he wasn’t sure how to reconcile with the insularity of the art world. “I liked to travel, I cared about the world and I was interested in esthetics,” he says. A college friend suggested Naughton try photojournalism. He pursued a journalism degree and became the photo editor at the student newspaper. Naughton then moved to Washington, D.C., to intern at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; he was soon hired as the multimedia projects coordinator. He learned how to produce and fund photography projects, and how to collaborate with editors at major publications. After three years at the Pulitzer Center, Naughton wanted to produce his own work. “I decided the fastest way to build up my chops would be to go to graduate school.” At the City University of New York, Naughton found a mentor in James Estrin, co-editor of The New York Times Lens blog. Through Estrin he landed an internship at Lens, as well daily assignments for the paper. “Jake does not settle for easy images, no matter how visually arresting they may be,” Estrin says. “He makes great images, but what sets him apart is the depth of his critical thinking and his ability to communicate his ideas and observations in nuanced ways.” Naughton says he’s strategic about his business, only pursuing an H outen stories that he knows he will be able to sell. He’s funded personal projects through grants, and his collaborations with writers have helped V arolyn ake N aughton him sell stories to major media. He also cofounded the cooperative Black Box with Chris Gregory, Natalie Keyssar and Alejandro Torres Viera. “We are all exploring how esthetic a news photograph can be, and

© J © A ll P hotos pushing against what a publication can offer.” —Brienne Walsh © C A ll P hotos

36 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 37 Amanda Ringstad AGE: 36 BORN: Edmonds, WA RESIDES: Seattle EDUCATION: University of Hawaii at Manoa WEBSITE: amandaringstad.com CLIENTS: Bloomberg Businessweek, Sight Unseen, Fast Company, Refinery29, Popular Mechanics, Amazon, Tom Dixon, Design Within Reach, Civilization, Brooks Running EXHIBITIONS: Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY KEY LESSON: “Figuring out the work-life balance. I’m a really hard worker, so I think that I used to work too hard and that would kind of burn me out. I’ve figured out a better balance in how to work and be happy and take care of myself. I think it’s really easy to fall into an unhealthy cycle of staying up all night hunched over a computer because you’ve got to get something done. You can tell yourself that it’s The danger and violence in his home state of Guerrero, OK, that it’s good enough. You don’t have to keep going. Yael Mexico, has fueled Yael Martinez’s artistic growth. In 2013, Sometimes what I think is right, it’s unrealistic in terms Martinez after two of his brothers-in-law went missing, an agonized of the timeframe and what other people might expect.” Age: 32 Martinez did what came naturally: he picked up his camera. Born: Guerrero, Mexico His family was grief-stricken and, slowly, Martinez tried to Resides: Guerrero, Mexico capture moments that would convey the turmoil at home. Although she had a degree in photography and worked in and Education: Seminario de Fotografía “It was a way to understand what we were going through,” around the industry—as an assistant, printer and retoucher, among Contemporánea, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico he says. other jobs—Amanda Ringstad had a hard time envisioning herself as Website: yaelmartinez.com Caused by drug wars and an often-complicit government, a professional photographer until she plugged into a community of the problem of disappearances in Mexico continues to Exhibitions: Centro Fotográfico Manuel creative people who offered advice, encouragement and opportunities Álvarez, Oaxaca, Mexico escalate. Martinez’s raw, personal images have an intense to collaborate. She’d worked on personal still life projects “getting my intimacy and, at the same time, express an experience lighting down,” she recalls. But she’d kept her work mostly to herself. Awards: FONCA’s Jóvenes Creadores Grant; common to many families in his country. “There are 70,000 Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Grant Through a retouching gig for Jill Wenger, who was establishing fashion cases of missing people in Mexico—and those are only retail brand Totokaelo, Ringstad met Seattle-area photographers, BEST ADVICE: “Mary Ellen Mark always told me to pursue the projects that I love the ones that are reported,” Martinez says. His work, industrial designers and other creatives. “I would ask them advice and the most and feel most connected to. ‘Be true to yourself,’ she said. That’s the best which straddles a line between documentary and fine-art they would support me,” she recalls. As part of this community, she advice I’ve received.” photography, is intended “to keep a memory alive,” he says. collaborated on projects and worked on her portfolio. In 2013, she met Previously, Martinez had captured another difficult her agent, Maria Bianco, who helped Ringstad get her first commercial period for his family: the last years of a beloved assignments and encouraged her to go to New York to show her book. grandmother who suffered from Alzheimers. In 2012, that Working for friends early on helped Ringstad develop a work caught the attention of Mary Ellen Mark, who was noncommercial, conceptual and experimental approach to still life. teaching a workshop Martinez attended in Oaxaca. Mark She likes to take an object and “make it look like something new or was impressed enough to give Martinez a scholarship to her different,” and gets “excited about trying out new lighting techniques,” masterclass in New York, where a fellow student, Ernesto even making her modifiers. She’s also into gels, and working with the Bazan, introduced him to James Estrin of The New York emotive quality of color. When she’s excited about an image, viewers Times Lens blog. A feature on Lens followed, and then Mark respond. “I put some soul into it, so I think that’s visible,” she explains. introduced Martinez to Joan Liftin, a veteran photo editor “I like the fact that even if I’m in a bad mood, I make things that are and photographer. “His pictures really bounced; they were pretty positive.” full of life and energy,” Liftin remembers. She recommended Recently she’s enjoyed collaborating with editors on conceptual him for a Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Grant, magazine work, and working with commercial clients, such as which he won in 2016. industrial designer Tom Dixon, who encourages her to “just do your Now expanding his work on Mexico’s disappeared, Martinez thing,” she says. “She has a real eye for geometry and brings life to has started photographing other families of missing people. inanimate objects,” notes Dixon. “There is a real care in proportion and z ael M artine He would like to put out a book and build a website on the composition, and the images are hard hitting enough for modern digital issue. “I will always photograph things that relate to me and media.” Dixon also appreciates that Ringstad “seems to have very little my country,” he says. “It’s the only thing I can do.” ego but still has strong views, which is a great combination.”

© Y © A ll P hotos —Sarah Coleman R ingstad A manda © A ll P hotos —Conor Risch

38 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 39 Peter Mather got interested in wildlife and wilderness landscape photography as a college student, when he saw Eric Helgas a traveling slideshow of Ken Madsen’s work. Mather went AGE: 26 on to teach math in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, but seized BORN: Baltimore the opportunity while he was there to work with Madsen RESIDES: New York City documenting conservation issues. EDUCATION: Maryland Institute College of Art One of the projects Mather worked on was the preservation WEBSITE: erichelgas.com of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which supports a herd of CLIENTS: Bloomberg Businessweek, Esquire, 200,000 caribou that the Gwich’in First Nations people depend Fast Company, The New York Times Magazine, upon for their survival. “I was taking pretty pictures, but I didn’t see The New Yorker, Opening Ceremony, WWD the story at my feet” about the “caribou people,” Mather says. AWARDS: American Photography 30 In 2012, Paul Nicklen hired him as a guide and assistant for KEY LESSON: “Being nice and easy to work with is really important. a National Geographic story about the Yukon. Watching Nicklen If [clients] have the opportunity to hire one of two photographers, and one’s work, Mather says he started thinking about showing the difficult to work with, they’re going to choose the other photographer.” relationships between people and nature. “I realized I wanted to start telling National Geographic-type stories,” he says. Mather started using camera traps, as Nicklen and other Geographic photographers do, to get more dramatic, up-close images of wildlife. At the same time, he says, he began pushing himself to shoot layered, emotionally driven images of people “that tell specific and important stories.” Peter “From Paul, the biggest thing I learned was the amount of work you have to put in to get those photos,” he says, Mather describing long drives, some 23-hour work days, and the litany AGE: 41 of physical discomforts behind some photographs. “I’m putting BORN: Toronto in twice as much time and effort as I used to, and I’ve learned RESIDES: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory not to be frustrated when you put in the time and don’t get the EDUCATION: University of Alberta, Edmonton shot. It’s just part of the process,” Mather says. WEBSITE: petermather.com His goal is to continue working on long-term stories CLIENTS: Geo , Maclean’s, about wildlife and people across Northern . He’s shot Canadian Geographic, Canadian Wildlife Federation assignments for several publications, including Maclean’s and AWARDS: 2016 Oasis Photo Contest First Place Geo France. Looking back on his long road to a photography Key Lesson: “To produce good work, you have to find a good story career, Mather says his advice to aspiring photographers is to Eric Helgas has long been a fan of reality television, but he’s and good characters. You have to work really hard to find the right “follow your passion projects [not] the money. Eventually [that] less fascinated with the lifestyles or the characters it presents than people. Every time I’m out shooting now, that’s what I’m thinking will lead you to a career that you will love.” the facade itself. “I feel like I have a critical eye and I’m interested in about: finding the right story and right characters.” —David Walker looking beyond the constructed images of media and fashion,” he says. Many of his conceptual still lifes and portraits are influenced by manufactured TV realities, and using bright light often helps him execute his vision. “It adds an artificial element. The idea of a set becomes way more apparent when there’s a blatant use of light,” he says. “I think the use of flash adds a performative quality to the work.” Helgas began working in photography as a studio manager and assistant for Ryan Pfluger in New York. During that year, Helgas started marketing himself beyond social media by sending postcards to about 15 photo editors. “I was reaching out to people I thought I could actually make pictures for,” he says. About a week later, a Bloomberg Businessweek editor called him to do a shoot that night for a story about what was then called the Apple iWatch. He shot an iPhone taped to a friend’s wrist. He left Pfluger’s studio a few months later, and began emailing editors to request meetings. That effort led to work from The New Yorker, and other clients followed. “Eric’s photographic style is unique because of the way he’s able to reimagine the familiar into something that feels slightly offbeat, unexpected and, therefore, striking and new,” says Siobhán Bohnacker, senior photo editor at The New Yorker. Bohnacker sees Helgas as a “grade-A troubleshooter” who understands that images have to fit the esthetic style of her magazine. Bohnacker says, “He’ll push the subjects, the publicists, whoever it might be, to give him a little something extra.”

© P eter M ather A ll P hotos © E ric H elgas A ll P hotos —Mindy Charski

40 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 41 After working for several years as a wedding photographer, As an undergraduate at Western Washington Tasneem Alsultan received her first call about an assignment in 2015. Kai University and after he graduated, Kai Caemmerer A National Geographic editor wanted Alsultan to cover ’s first Caemmerer worked as an architectural photographer. At the same elections in which women would be allowed to vote and run for local office. Age: 29 time, he was making art. He often photographed “I’m not interested,” Alsultan replied. “This is how the Western Born: Seattle, WA the “low, contractor-grade spec homes” he came audience wants to portray Saudi women as being liberated and it’s a Resides: across while on commercial jobs, but played with lie,” she recalls saying before hanging up. The editor called back to get San Francisco, CA scale and angle to turn these ordinary houses into Alsultan’s perspective. Alsultan said women were still struggling to Education: surprising, unexpectedly off-putting structures. win control of their own lives. She agreed to take the story, however, Western Washington “I was more intrigued by the stuff I was producing and show the restrictions placed on female candidates. “No gathering University, in my art work than I was with the work I was between the women and their voters was allowed to be photographed Bellingham, WA; making for my clients,” he says. He decided to and published anywhere,” she explains. She contacted candidates in Columbia College Chicago pursue an MFA from Columbia College Chicago. several cities “until I had the few that allowed me to photograph them in Website: kaimichael.com There, he found a big city to explore. “I was really different environments that would represent their districts.” Exhibitions: Tokyo International shocked by the scale of the urban environment, and Alsultan says making the leap from wedding photography to Photography Festival; how everything was growing so fast in that city,” documentary photography wasn’t difficult: “I learned how to tell a full International Photography Festival; he says. He would explore on foot and take notes, narrative through weddings and work well under stress and pressure.” Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; then return before sunrise and just after sunset to Alsultan’s best-known body of work, “Saudi Tales of Love” shows Pictura Gallery, Bloomington, IN; photograph with his 4x5. At those times, “the light the lives of happily married, divorced and widowed women in a country Lianzhou Photography Festival, levels become more even” and long exposures Tasneem where divorce is still stigmatized. Alsultan says the series found its Lianzhou, China produce “these hyper-saturated colors and almost footing after photographer Tanya Habjouqa, whom she met at Magnum surreal lighting.” Alsultan Awards: Stuart Abelson Foundation’s Arab Documentary Photography Program, encouraged In 2015, Caemmerer traveled to China to Age: 31 Fellowship; Golden Colt Award her to collaborate with her subjects. Alsultan began asking them how make “Unborn Cities,” a series documenting urban Born: Tucson, Arizona Key Lesson: “I was balancing they would like to be portrayed in a story about love. “I felt like I was developments that the government has been building my commercial work and my Resides: Dammam, Saudi Arabia peeling off layers of these humans that I wouldn’t have reached with since the early 2000s. Unlike Western cities that fine-art practice, and I found Education: King Abdul Aziz documentary photography alone,” says Alsultan. Habjouqa also urged her grow slowly over time, the places Caemmerer that my fine-art practice had University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; to choose less pretty, more emotional photos. “Coming from a wedding photographs in China are densely built but have been quite influenced by the Portland State University background, I wanted everything to look perfect—no lines crossing the remained mostly empty during their construction. commercial work I was doing. Website: tasneemalsultan.com head, well lit, everyone smiling.” The cities felt “like CAD renderings—they were so But I was more intrigued by Clients: National Geographic, “She is trying to use her work to change the way people see Saudis new and so shiny, they almost felt unreal or futuristic.” the stuff I was producing in Vogue Italia, Wall Street Journal and Arab women, and Arabs in general,” says photographer Maggie In 2015, the project was shown at the Lianzhou my art work…so I decided Exhibitions: Photo Kathmandu, ; Paris Photo Steber, who mentored Alsultan. Steber says Alsultan goes beyond Photography Festival, in Lianzhou, China. Since that was something I wanted Awards: Magnum Foundation Prince Claus AFAC grant “the obvious and goes right for the heart and the intellectual thinking.” graduating last spring, Caemmerer has been working to pursue.” Best advice: “Jim Estrin [co-editor, The New York Times Alsultan is working on a project about the LGBTQ community in nearly full-time on this and other fine-art series. His Lens blog] said to me, ‘Photograph your own backyard before . “It’s the only country in the Gulf region that is very out,” she says. interest in the urban environment comes back to the you go somewhere else.’” “Westerners wouldn’t know this, but we know this.” —Sarah Stacke feeling he finds in cities, where “there’s this constant flux, this change and growth and movement...that for me seems to imbue the landscape with a sense of unrest or anxiety,” he says. Walking through a financial district made of glass and steel, “I think there’s something almost sublime about that,” he says. But rather than coming from nature, the feeling comes from the “power of what we have built.” —Rebecca Robertson aemmerer A lsultan asneem © K ai C A ll P hotos © T © A ll P hotos

42 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 43 Adriane Ohanesian has covered news in South , Sudan, Burundi, and elsewhere, but it’s the more in-depth stories she assigned herself that have earned her accolades and attention. “The photos and stories that I have worked on independently have been the most successful. I think that’s because I’ve been able to spend more time photographing,” she says. Two months after she graduated from ICP, Ohanesian traveled to Eastern Sudan on a National Geographic Young Explorers Grant, and then ventured to . She met photographer Goran Tomasevic there in 2012, “showed him some work on my dusty laptop while sitting under a tree, and he let me string for Reuters.” A year later, seeking a new challenge, she went to northern for three weeks. She photographed young women soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army, observing their training, their daily routines and their brief moments of relaxation and loneliness. In 2014, while at the Eddie Adams Workshop, she showed the work to James Estrin, who published it on The New York Times Lens blog. Soon after, newspapers in licensed Adriane Ohanesian the story, opening doors to other publications. She’s shot AGE: 30 assignments for Wall Street Journal, and also funds her BORN: Saratoga Springs, New York own stories, then pitches them to publications. RESIDES: Nairobi, In 2015, after lengthy preparations, she went to EDUCATION: Colorado College; Darfur, a region of Sudan that had long been inaccessible In 2011, Ronan Donovan was researching chimpanzees in International Center of Photography to international journalists. She was inspired to tell “a story Ronan Donovan ’s Kibale National Park for Harvard professor Richard WEBSITE: adrianeohanesian.com about the people in Darfur who continue to live in an active AGE: 33 Wrangham when he made the images that helped him establish a Clients: Wall Street Journal, Reuters, UNICEF, AirBnB warzone, and continue to be raped and bombed by their BORN: Norwich, VT career as a conservation photographer. Part of his work involved Awards: Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism own government.” Her image of 7-year-old victim of a RESIDES: Bozeman, MT climbing fig trees to observe the chimps, and he brought his camera Award; Getty Reportage Emerging Photographer Award; Eddie Adams Workshop; bombing earned her honors at . EDUCATION: University of New Hampshire with him, creating a series of photographs of the primates from World Press Photo, Contemporary Issues Singles 2nd Place; Magnum “30 Under 30” Now based in Nairobi, Ohanesian continues to shoot in WEBSITE: ronandonovan.com above. Wrangham sent the images to wildlife photojournalist Tim Best Advice: “Success is the work itself, and if you don’t continue producing work you South Sudan often, but wants to branch out to more of the CLIENTS: National Geographic, Laman, who put Donovan in touch with Kathy Moran, National are no longer a photographer. I like the idea, and I think it’s true, that no matter how continent. She says, “I think the challenge now is to come The New York Times Geographic’s senior editor for natural history. That put Donovan on successful you are as a photographer, you’re up before sunrise, crawling around in the up with meaningful ideas, and be able to support those AWARDS: The Wildlife Photojournalist Award, Single Image Moran’s radar, but it wasn’t until 2014 that Moran asked if he’d like dirt, being denied access and shooting images, because that’s the work itself.” ideas with quality images.” —Holly Stuart Hughes BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “I worry that the work that I do is just bringing to try assisting photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols on a project an issue to the surface, just presenting and educating. I like to have about Yellowstone National Park. Moran initially gave Donovan a tangible outcomes, and I’m trying to find work that does have that. two-week contract to see if he and Nichols clicked. He ended up That’s what pushed me to [conservation photography] in the beginning. assisting Nichols for several months. When things didn’t work out [M]y biggest challenge right now is to feel like my work is contributing with a photographer who was covering Yellowstone’s gray wolves to positive change in a tangible way, which is maybe asking too much, as part of the same project, Nichols pushed for Donovan to get the but that’s where I’m at.” assignment. Donovan spent the next year on that work, which was published in the May 2016 issue alongside stories by Nichols, Erika Larsen, David Guttenfelder and others. Donovan taught himself the technical aspects of photography and filmmaking while working for eight years on a series of wildlife biology projects. In 2013, he decided to pursue photography and filmmaking fulltime because he thought he could have “more of an impact through visual storytelling” than he could as a biologist. His wildlife research work has helped him, however. “Knowing your subject in general, [in] any type of photography you’re doing, is going to make the work you do much more successful and much more powerful, because you know the moments that are unique,” he says. At Moran’s urging, Donovan has worked to expand his storytelling skills beyond wildlife. “You can’t address conservation if you don’t address the human interaction,” he says. He took a in 2015, and was on his way to another workshop in onan D onovan Kenya when he spoke with PDN. With the help of a grant from the National Geographic Society, he’s also pursuing a story in Uganda about how deforestation is creating conflict between chimpanzees

© A driane O hanesian © A ll P hotos © R A ll P hotos and humans. —Conor Risch

44 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 45 Christina Holmes AGE: 36 BORN: Eaton Rapids, Michigan RESIDES: New York City EDUCATION: The Art Institute of Pittsburgh WEBSITE: christinaholmesphotography.com CLIENTS: Best Made Company, Beretta, Toms Shoes, Whole Foods, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Domino, Popular Science EXHIBITIONS: The Carton, Beirut Souvid Datta was 22 years old KEY LESSON: “My biggest adjustment has been Souvid Datta when the accolades for his lush, evocative figuring out how to really get the workflow down [on] AGE: 26 photography started rolling in, and they the current job you’re shooting, while you are doing BORN: Mumbai don’t appear to be slowing down. Born in pre-pro on another and post on another, all in sync. RESIDES: Mumbai but raised in both and London, The challenge…has been an eye-opening experience… EDUCATION: University College London Datta came to photography through his but has now fallen into a flow.” WEBSITE: souvid.org passion for people and culture. “I wanted to CLIENTS: National Geographic, , be a politician…[then] a lawyer,” he explains. The New York Times, TIME, VICE “Part of what interested me about that EXHIBITIONS: Horniman Museum and Gardens, London; was the interaction with people, the social One of the most valuable lessons Christina Royal Geographic Society, London; Somerset House, commitment and the challenge of compelling Holmes learned when she was starting out was London; Houses of Parliament, Inter-party Panel of Global Health, London communication and argument.” “to take your time doing your craft to perfection,” she AWARDS: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Catalyst Grant; Visura Photojournalism Grant; Those same interests underpin his says, and develop “a sure sense of your point of view.” Getty Grant for Editorial Photography; International Photography Award; photojournalism, which explores themes of When she made the transition from assistant to pro, College Photographer of the Year Silver Portfolio Award social justice, environmental degradation and she was confident about the pictures she wanted to KEY LESSON: “Creatively, it’s more important than ever to have unique and personal things human conflict. His career began in earnest make, and clients quickly took notice. to say, to have your own way of interpreting the world. That’s what people remember, what with an impulsive trip to Cairo during the Holmes studied photography at The Art Institute they buy into, and what they will keep coming back for. Take strong pictures and let others 2011-13 Arab Spring protests. “It was a bit of Pittsburgh, and moved to New York City soon after inspire the hell out of you, but find your own way of seeing and communicating. In terms of a trial-by-fire learning experience, but it graduating. Her first assisting gigs came through a of developing a decent living from photography—networking, targeted promotion, finding opened my mind to the world of on-the-ground food stylist she knew, and Holmes found she enjoyed market gaps have become so important.” reporting, and the need to just trust your gut food photography. Having grown up on a farm in and go for it sometimes,” Datta says. Michigan, she says, “I feel like food for me has always In , he formed connections with been a place of comfort.” other photographers. Having never studied When she wanted time and space to develop photography formally, he had to build his her own voice, however, she stopped assisting food own networks of colleagues, collaborators photographers. “I wanted to make sure what I was and mentors. Winning the IdeasTap/Magnum doing was my own style,” she says. “In the world of Photos International Photography Award in food, when you’re starting full time, you want to be 2014 was a big stepping stone. Not only did doing something that nobody else is really doing.” it mean mentoring from experienced editors She began working as a digital tech in fashion, and and photographers, but it also helped point him spent her spare time shooting tests, making still towards new projects in China and . lifes in the studio. To build a portfolio of travel work, He urges aspiring photographers to put she would tack extra days onto trips she made as aside apprehensions about applying for a digital tech, so she could shoot on her own. She grants and competitions. “Don’t be nervous eventually developed her own look: “very open, simple or doubt yourself because there’s also very composition, very spare,” she says. “I remember sitting little to lose,” Datta counsels. “On the flipside, with Bettina [Lewin] on location in , which was one you get exposure, sometimes a chance to of the last shoots that I teched on, and her saying to me, interact with industry leaders, the possibility ‘You’re ready. You’ve got everything set. Go for it.’” of funding, great publishing platforms, and a Her first editorial jobs were for Bon Appetit and bit of a career springboard.” Food & Wine. Today, her assignments often take place For Datta, photography is just one of the outside of the studio, but Holmes makes location images atta tools—along with writing and video—that with the same calm look and emphasis on negative allows him to express himself. Moving forward space as in her studio work. Even after finding her voice, he wants to keep using all of them to tell the she still experiments through personal work. She says, stories of “oppressed and exploited people at “I’ve learned that you constantly need to evolve.” the fringes of societies.”

© C hristina H olmes A ll P hotos —Rebecca Robertson © S ouvid D A ll P hotos —Dzana Tsomondo

46 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 47 Meeting photographer Platon at The New Yorker Festival Juan Giraldo in 2009 was a life-changing AGE: 39 moment for Benedict Evans. Platon BORN: Manizales, was presenting a Master Class RESIDES: Chicago and Paterson, NJ in photography, talking about the EDUCATION: William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ; importance of interactions and Columbia College Chicago personal connections, Evans says, WEBSITE: juancgiraldo.com “and I thought: This is what I’m EXHIBITIONS: Chicago Public Library; interested in.” President’s Residence, Columbia College, Chicago; Evans had just moved from Filter Photo, Chicago; Ann Arbor Art Center, MI; Plymouth Center for the Arts, England to New York City. “I had no Plymouth, MA; Perspective Gallery, Evanston, IL idea how [the photo industry] worked AWARDS: The Center for Photography at Woodstock Artist in Residence; or how many people he employed,” Center for Book and Paper Arts-Columbia College Chicago Alumni he recalls, but he called Platon’s Residency Program; Dwight D. Follett Fellowship Full Tuition Award, studio and spoke with the studio Columbia College Chicago manager Siobhán Bohnacker (now KEY LESSON: “Objectivity is long dead, but it’s important to stay informed a senior photo editor at The New about the context in which you’re working. Concept is important but [work] E vans Yorker) and “quietly insisted” that he’d shouldn’t be so hyper-conceptual and steeped in theory that only you be a good fit for a studio job. That understand it.” call landed him an internship, a visa sponsorship and “my introduction to the world of editorial portrait

© B enedict A ll P hotos photography,” Evans says. After five years, the job had become less challenging. “It came Benedict Evans to a point where, when we were shooting or editing, I realized that if AGE: 31 I was in Platon’s position, I would do BORN: Bristol, England it differently.” He knew it was time Juan Giraldo was born in Colombia, but his photography RESIDES: Brooklyn, NY to take “a hell of a gamble” and go owes more to the hardscrabble streets of Paterson, New Jersey, EDUCATION: University of Sheffield out on his own. Working with Platon, where he was raised. His mother was a domestic worker WEBSITE: benedictevans.com he had met many photo editors and and his father painted houses, so while Giraldo learned the CLIENTS: New York Magazine, National Geographic, creatives. He says the first clients value of hard work at a young age, he didn’t have many role Esquire, Wired, The Guardian Weekend, Budweiser, he contacted were “the ones I was models for a career in the arts. He began taking photography Cadillac, VICE, The Red Hook Criterium already on a first-name basis with.” seriously in community college and worked his way into EXHIBITIONS: Queens Museum, New York City Within a month, he landed his first an MFA program at Columbia College Chicago in 2012. AWARDS: Eddie Adams Workshop; American Photography 31; American Photography 32; PDN Faces; major assignment: shooting a series “Being around such a diverse group of interests, in terms of PDN Emerging Photographer; PDN The Shot; PDN Photo Annual; National Headliner Awards of portraits that ran over 24 pages the work that was being made [in college], pushed me both Best advice: “You can’t publish an excuse. Nobody cares how difficult the circumstances were. in the February 2015 issue of Out. conceptually and technically,” Giraldo says. That’s one of the things I love about photography. It’s problem solving and you’re constantly asking “Once that was published, it helped It also provided the launching pad for his signature work yourself, ‘How can I make this work?’” a huge amount in showing to other to date: “Blue & Blue,” a photo series centered around factory editors that I was capable of taking workers in Illinois and the blue-collar communities where they on a large-scale project involving live. The work led to a month-long residency at the Center for some big personalities.” Photography at Woodstock in 2015. “The CPW residency One of those editors was Elizabeth gave the time to work on my art. I forgot about my full-time Griffin, then photo director of Esquire job at the time and focused on my personal work like it was magazine’s digital products. Griffin my full-time job,” he says. “Always make time for your personal assigned him a sensitive story about work regardless of how tired you might be, unmotivated or a mentally disabled boy who had whatever excuse one might come up with.” been arrested for providing support Giraldo says his approach is constantly evolving. He recently for an act of terrorism. She hired swapped his DSLR for a 4x5 and, as part of that shift, Evans because of “the strength of his reconsidered his process. The 4x5 “has allowed me greater work and his reputation,” she says. control of the process between photographer and subject... “He really set himself apart by being which has given me better control over the narrative of the someone people liked to work with.” work,” he explains. Griffin has continued to hire him for Promotion and financing are the proverbial dragons that “anything,” she says. “He can be a fly Giraldo must slay, only to slay again the next day, but he has on the wall and also direct people and improved, he says. “I work at keeping my website as up to date feel comfortable engaging them.” as possible, email curators, galleries...[and] keep a strong social

—Stacey Goldberg G iraldo J uan © A ll P hotos media presence, whatever that is.” —Dzana Tsomondo

48 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 49 Yuyang Liu was a teenager when he discovered reportage photography and envisioned a career in photojournalism. Anastasiia “I think it’s meaningful for the world and society,” he says. Sapon “It became a dream inside my heart, but I didn’t have the ability AGE: 31 to travel and document the real world.” He was still in high BORN: Kiev, school, after all, with exams to pass. RESIDES: San Francisco Opportunities would open up rather quickly for the self- EDUCATION: Kiev University taught shooter. At a 2013 photo festival in China, Liu showed of Tourism, Economics and Law; some work to Emma Raynes, director of programs at the Academy of Art University Magnum Foundation. She encouraged him to apply for a WEBSITE: anastasiiasapon.com foundation fellowship. CLIENTS: Fast Company, Inc., Stanford University, University He did and won, earning the chance to spend five weeks at of California, Firebrick Consulting New York University learning how to document human rights AWARDS: Emerging Photographer, Communication Arts issues from veterans including Susan Meiselas and Fred Typography Annual 6, The Center for Fine Art Photography Ritchin. “I was so excited because I could never imagine that Black and White Competition, International Art Competition I could attend a class or platform like that, that big,” he says. BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “After I graduated, my biggest challenge “It was really the start of my career.” was first to understand the business side of photography— He worked at two Chinese publications before setting off from marketing to working with clients, and pricing was so on his own to tell stories about urbanization, immigration and confusing as well….The second challenge was to learn how other issues of his homeland. Connections he has made through Yuyang Liu to say no to underpaying gigs, mostly because people do not winning awards have helped him build an impressive client roster. AGE: 25 really understand what goes into a photo shoot.” His government’s media control, however, creates obstacles. BORN: Ziyang, Sichuan Province, China “It’s tough to be a freelancer, and it’s tougher to be a freelancer in RESIDES: Shanghai, China China,” he says. In January, he was working on a New York Times EDUCATION: East China Normal University piece about the Chinese government’s controversial offer to WEBSITE: yuyangliu.com remove the intrauterine devices it had once demanded women CLIENTS: The New York Times, receive. He had to abandon plans to shoot portraits of women. Getty Images, ChinaFile, UNICEF, Local officials had taken the women out of town, and when Liu Save The Children, Greenpeace went to their homes, two men began following him. He ultimately EXHIBITIONS: Bronx Documentary Center, New York City; United Nations shot images in a hospital instead, showing signage in one shot, In the past two years, clients have hired Anastasiia Sapon to create the Climate Change Conference, Paris two people in silhouette in another. kind of bright, colorful, romanticized portraits she’s been shooting for herself. AWARDS: Ian Parry Scholarship; Abigail Cohen Fellowship in Documentary He pushes on, documenting complex subjects like China’s For example, when Inc. hired her to photograph Lynn Jurich, CEO of solar-panel Photography; Magnum Foundation Photography and Human Rights Fellowship fishing industry in West , which he did for Greenpeace. maker Sunrun, deputy photo editor Ernie Monteiro asked Sapon to use the KEY LESSON: “[Awards] don’t only help you continue your work and your Liu’s advice to others is sunny: “Be optimistic,” he says. “About same setup she had used in some of her personal photos: the subject seated shooting, they’re also a promotion for your work. If you’ve got a fellowship, the subject you are shooting, about the story you are making, behind a table, in front of colored seamless. Monteiro also asked her to shoot the [organization will help] publish your project in the media.” about your life and about your career.” —Mindy Charski at least two environmental portraits. Monteiro notes that Sapon’s work is “a little softer, a little airier” than the usual “hipster” portraits she sees often: “Sometimes you want someone to look beautiful and nice,” she explains. Sapon recalls, “It was cool that they sent me my photos to show what they wanted.” Jobs like these are the reward for honing her style through self-assignments. “You have to shoot every day what you like to shoot,” Sapon says. For three years, she assisted San Francisco-based commercial photographer Elena Zhukova, who became a business mentor as well as a friend. “When people start assisting they stop shooting. If you want to be a photographer and not an assistant, you have to find a way to shoot,” Sapon says. With Zhukova, “Even after a hard commercial shoot, we would go and create some photographs for fun.” While living in a house with several roommates, Sapon would use the backyard to make daylight shots of friends, acquaintances, people she met. Once she started landing assignments from tech companies and magazines, she learned to recreate her look indoors using strobes. Hoping to land travel assignments, Sapon booked a flight to Alaska two years ago. She had little money for accommodations, so she would call a town hall or visitors office, and ask if there were locals who would put her up in exchange for photos. Her images of life near the Arctic Circle were published in Emerging Photographer. A rep from SAINT LUCY Represents saw the layouts apon

and offered to sign her. “You never know who will see your work when you enter contests,” Sapon says. Work she submitted to other contests caught the eye of judges and led to a feature in Communication Arts. While she shoots pro bono for charities, she has learned to give a polite “no” to companies that want free work, she says: “By accepting a low price, it’s not only hurting me, it’s hurting the photographers who come after me.”

L iu Y uyang © A ll P hotos S A nastasiia © A ll P hotos —Holly Stuart Hughes

50 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 51 Andy J. Scott says working as a videographer and editor Clare for six years, first in Atlanta and then in Los Angeles, helped Benson train his eye for framing, color and composition. But after AGE: 31 shooting photography “as a creative outlet,” he decided to quit BORN: Drummond his day job and seek jobs in the photography world. That’s when Island, MI he discovered how much he needed to learn. He contacted RESIDES: Nicholas Maggio, a photographer he admired, about an Phoenix assisting gig. As Maggio’s career in commercial photography EDUCATION: took off, Scott assisted him on larger and larger shoots, gaining University knowledge of techniques and production. In his spare time, of Arizona; Scott shot portraits and images for young musicians he liked. Central Michigan University “It was using photography as a way to connect with people I might not otherwise connect with,” he says. “That’s remained WEBSITE: clarebenson.com the thing I love the most about photography.” EXHIBITIONS: Norton Museum Very early in his career, he mailed some images to dream of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; clients like . He realizes now he was “embarrassingly Division Gallery, Toronto; Candela Clare Benson spent her formative years shooting for the stars,” he says. “I think I wasn’t quite ready to put Books + Gallery, Richmond, VA; on Drummond Island, a township on Michigan’s myself out there.” Since then, he’s gotten most of his jobs either Lycoming College Art Gallery, Lake Huron, developing a fascination with “extreme through word of mouth or by “having a clean, updated website Williamsport, PA; Northlight shifts in seasons. The winter is really long, and you with good SEO,” he says. “I have gotten a lot of overseas work Gallery, Phoenix see this incredible change from winter into spring, because [clients] are Googling ‘LA photographers.’” AWARDS: Fulbright Fellowship; and the fall into the winter.” Living in the north A personal project on the artists and musicians of LA’s Fairfax Photolucida Critical Mass influenced her work and “notions of family, memory district led directly to his biggest break to date: Pivot TV network Monograph Award; American- and mortality,” she says. “I watched my mother die hired him to shoot promos for the reality show “Welcome to Scandinavian Foundation Grant; of cancer when I was 11; memories of that time Fairfax.” Says Scott, “People always say, ‘Shoot what you want Swedish Women’s Educational seem to still be embedded in the images I create, to shoot.’ This just worked out perfectly.” Assignments for Nike Association of San Francisco though the subject matter has changed over the and BMW followed. Scholarship years.” Her series “The Shepherd’s Daughter” charts Scott strives to make “timeless” photos, and avoids “trendy BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “I think one her relationship with her father and her family techniques,” he says. An assignment to shoot MADE Fashion of the biggest challenges can be through their shared tradition of hunting. Week, which highlights young, independent fashion designers, overcoming feelings of self-doubt, Benson is fascinated by photography’s ability forced him to apply his thoughtful style while shooting amidst a and the fear that what we create both to misrepresent reality in a “terrifying and scrum of runway photographers. He had to “tune all that out and won’t be good enough, for the rest incredible” way and to provide evidence for look for the moments no one else was getting,” he says. of the world, or for the unrealistic scientific research. In graduate school at the Scott is exploring making music videos while continuing to expectations that we manage University of Arizona, Benson combined her refine his photographic style. “Knowing what subjects you want to to hang over our own heads. photographic practice with painting, sculpture, shoot and how you want to portray them will keep you on a path, The best thing we can do then is performance and video to create bodies of work and honing your style will bring clients who want your unique voice.” make as much work as possible, that could be mistaken for exhibits at a natural —Holly Stuart Hughes stop worrying and just do.” history museum. “She makes her photography practice one of science, and research,” says Sama Alshaibi, co-chair of the photography department at the University of Arizona. “This is exhibited Andy J. through her work and yet her images are esthetic, they’re poetic, they hold their own, they’re not just Scott research-based.” AGE: 31 In 2012, Benson visited an observatory, and BORN: Bangor, ME felt that something “clicked into place.” She saw RESIDES: Los Angeles studying the stars as a way of learning about EDUCATION: Florida humans’ quest to understand the universe. State University She won a Fulbright Fellowship at the Swedish WEBSITE: Institute of Space Physics, where she produced AndyJScott.com her series “Until There Is No Sun.” CLIENTS: BMW, Benson credits part of her success as an artist Nike, VICE, MADE, T Brand Studio, Billboard, to applying for grants, which forces her to fully Architect Magazine develop her ideas, and to being part of an academic BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “I think being self-taught community—she is a visiting artist and faculty was great for my style and voice, though I think I member at Arizona State University. “It provides a missed out on the business knowledge and have J. S cott level of accountability that is important for me,” she had to learn that along the way… I was luckily says. “Academia taught me to understand the value able to reach out to reps and producers I know to of hard work. It helped me develop a network of like- get some help. When you are starting, it’s easy minded individuals among my peers.” to feel like an island when you don’t have the

© C lare B enson A ll P hotos —Brienne Walsh connections or support.” A ndy © A ll P hotos

52 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 53 Last year was a year of workshops Peter Garritano for Katya Rezvaya. “The workshops gave me a AGE: 28 huge step forward,” she says. At Eddie Adams, BORN: Shelburne, VT she met with photographers and editors she RESIDES: New York City had admired from afar. The Angkor Photo EDUCATION: University of Vermont workshop provided connections across Asia. WEBSITE: petergarritano.com But Rezvaya is aware of the risk of spending too CLIENTS: TIME, WIRED, VICE, CNN, Pfizer, Delta, P&G much time in workshops. She recalls the advice KEY LESSON: “If you’re interested in a topic and your approach photojournalist Vlad Sokhin gave to a class: sheds new light on it, trust that there’s a market for that. I’ve had “How many of you are planning to seriously work photos picked up by editors after being rejected by others at the in this industry? Then stop studying. Work!” very same publication. Don’t be too discouraged by rejection. A well-crafted pitch can make When she decided to dive into photography all the difference.” in 2014, she had the technical skills needed, but the bigger challenge she faced was overcoming her self-doubt. The breakthrough that boosted her confidence and brought her recognition was her Peter Garritano believes his portrait series called “Oh my rabbits,” which she aversion to doing a job he hated—working shot over a three-day period at the 92nd annual in public relations at a financial holdings American Rabbit Breeders Association convention company—might have led him to try a career in Oregon. Although it felt like a huge risk to travel in photography. After he shot portraits of abroad with only curiosity, a scarce budget, employees for the company’s website, a and a few contacts, it paid off. The series was superior gave him a “back-handed” compliment recognized in contests and earned her invitations and suggested he pursue photography. to Eddie Adams and Angkor Photo Workshops. Garritano decided to take the comment “It’s very recognizable,” says Rezvaya of the at face value. “I had enjoyed photography Katya Rezvaya work, “it’s something you look at and remember,” growing up, and I just wanted to do something Age: 28 and has served as a key promotional tool. I had a better chance of being good at.” Born: Saint Petersburg, Russia Rezvaya is “committed to development, Self-taught, Garritano didn’t have a portfolio Resides: Saint Petersburg, Russia change and growth through her work” says Andrei of work to show, but he had a background Education: Saint Petersburg State University of Polikanov, Visual Director at the online news outlet in business and marketing: “I knew how to Economics and Finance; FotoDepartment.Institute Takie Dela. Rezvaya hopes to continue honing package [a story in a way that editors] would Website: rezvaya.com her storytelling and to avoid being pigeonholed be remiss to pass on.” He pitched VICE a Clients: CNN, The Guardian, The Observer, as the “rabbit photographer.” She has already story on a DIY tattoo parlor his sister was Spiegel Online, 6moise, Takie Dela, Refinery29 produced series on a psychotherapist who opening with friends in Fairplay, Colorado. Exhibitions: Angkor Photo Festival, uses an unorthodox form of role-play in his He says, “It’s exactly the blood and guts Siem Riep, ; The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles; practice, and on people affected by healthcare stuff they publish.” Garritano sent the editors Kolga Tbilisi Photo, Tbilisi, cuts in Russia. She recognizes the need for a Tumblr page with some of his images. VICE Awards: Eddie Adams Workshop Award, PDN Exposures, LensCulture Portrait Award persistence. “A career in photography seems to commissioned the story. Best advice: “Once I asked [photojournalist] Ruth Fremson about going to places that be a long-term project in itself,” states Rezvaya. Since then, he’s successfully pitched might be considered unsafe for a woman photographer. She answered, ‘Sometimes you She adds, “At some point, I will start projects to TIME, WIRED, and CNN, and has need to project confidence when you don’t have it. You are there as a professional, a third teaching photography. I would love to help and shot for Delta and Pfizer. He’s shot illegal street gender.’ This advice about confidence related to being a photographer and everyday life. inspire people to believe in themselves.” racing in the and a series The words were simple, but they were said at the right moment and touched me a lot.” —Sarah Stacke of portraits of New Yorkers who post personal ads on Craigslist’s “Strictly Platonic” section. The latter highlights his growing technical skills and his ability to connect with the subjects. “Peter allows their energy, their loneliness, their quiet, to come forth,” says Katie Booth, digital manager at the Aperture Foundation, who met Garritano while working on Tina Brown’s Women in the World summit. His portraits “have a very quiet feel to them—that’s very powerful.” Garritano supplements his personal work with commercial jobs that don’t make it into his portfolio but help fund his business. In the

arritano future, he’d like to create a broad epic, “like Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights,’ charted out in various chapters.” For now, he’s still figuring out the delicate balance between maintaining his marketability while not diluting © P eter G A ll P hotos his personal voice. —Brienne Walsh R ezvaya © K atya A ll P hotos

54 pdnonline.com April 2017 April 2017 pdnonline.com 55 As a junior photojournalism major at Ohio University, Ian Bates decided he wanted to Daniella Zalcman pursue a different style of work, one without “all the AGE: 30 restrictions”—ethical, compositional and otherwise—of BORN: Washington, DC photojournalism. He studied the books and careers of RESIDES: London photographers such as Alec Soth and Joel Sternfeld, EDUCATION: Columbia University bought a Mamiya RZ67, and started “messing around WEBSITE: dan.iella.net on my own and looking at more work.” He taught himself CLIENTS: Mashable, , Buzzfeed, portraiture by photographing friends and, after he CNN, National Geographic, Five Thirty Eight, BBC graduated, started a personal project, “Meadowlark,” EXHIBITIONS: Anastasia Photo Gallery, New York City; Photoville, Brooklyn, a free-form investigation of the people and landscape NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston of North Dakota. He’s since expanded the project to AWARDS: FotoEvidence Book Award; Magnum Foundation Inge Morath encompass five other states that share the Western Award; Magenta Foundation Bright Spark Award; Pulitzer Center on Crisis Meadowlark as the state bird. The project combines Reporting grants; International Women’s Media Foundation fellow landscapes and portraiture. It considers such themes as BEST ADVICE: “Almost all of the advice I got as a young photographer applied wildlife habitat loss, rural depopulation, and how political to a part of my career that no longer exists, but I do remember one Daily News and geographic borders affect cultural perception. staffer telling me that as long as I could learn to file my photos quickly I’d With referrals from photographer Matt Eich, whom he always be okay, and I did, and he was right.” assisted one summer, Bates began showing his work to editors and freelancing while still in school. He attended the Eddie Adams workshop as a junior, and did The New York Times portfolio review. National Geographic photo editor Vaughn Wallace, who first worked with Bates at Al Jazeera America, says he likes working with him “because he produces this really great and surprising mix of reportage Ian Bates and portraiture.” Often photographers do one or the other AGE: 24 well, Vaughn says. Bates excels at both. And, “he’s a worker. BORN: New Brunswick, NJ You can put him on something and he figures it out.” RESIDES: Seattle As his work has evolved, Bates says he’s tried to “shake For a documentary photographer who focuses on the EDUCATION: Ohio University loose” of the photojournalism lessons about composition pernicious legacies of Western colonialism, Daniella Zalcman’s WEBSITE: ianbates.com and content he learned in school. Rather than trying career began improbably: shooting news assignments for CLIENTS: National Geographic, The New York Times to make photographs layered with information, he’s New York tabloid The Daily News. And although she is Magazine, California Sunday Magazine, Bloomberg “interested in editing out all those layers and getting away from those days, Zalcman still values what she learned. Businessweek, WIRED down to one specific thing that I want to look at.” One of “It taught me to be quick, and trained me in a lot of different EXHIBITIONS: College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA the skills that he has carried with him, however, is the subgenres of photojournalism, and was a lot of fun, too.” AWARDS: Eddie Adams Workshop “practice of talking to strangers and knocking on doors. The shift in her career trajectory began when her husband—also KEY LESSON: “Learning to take a step back and not need to look at [images from I haven’t been afraid of doing that, so that helped early a journalist—got a job in London and the couple moved in 2012. a trip] right away....[Now I] get home from a trip, upload everything, back it up and on for learning how to make portraits that I like.” This year, Faced with the task of rebuilding her client list in a new country, then just sit on it for a month. Then I go through it all and order a ton of tiny prints in addition to continuing “Meadowlark,” Bates is working Zalcman realized that she wanted to move away from newspaper and put them on a wall and let them sit. Taking time and living with work has been to get more big editorial assignments and make inroads work entirely. Her “big break” came with “Kuchus in Uganda,” really helpful.” in the commercial market. —Conor Risch her story about Uganda’s LGBT community, which earned her a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in 2014. Over the last several years, the Pulitzer Center has supported three of Zalcman’s projects with a total of six travel grants. Managing Director Nathalie Applewhite lauds Zalcman’s “ability to intelligently and empathetically engage” with her subjects, and her “deep commitment to understanding the roots of trauma.” A self-described “obsessive person,” Zalcman takes an exhaustive approach to long-form documentary work. “Whenever I start a project I dive into research, reading archival photos, research papers, anything,” she says. Zalcman hopes to spend the next five-to-ten years working around the tragic impact of Indian Boarding Schools in North America. Having had no formal training, Zalcman credits the strong relationships photojournalists form, in the field and with their editors, as her source of mentorship. As for her artistic aniella Z alcman sensibilities, she is not particular to any camera or stylistic approach, preferring to focus on “being consistent in how I incorporate and invoke the voices of the people I photograph.” © I an bates A ll P hotos © D A ll P hotos —Dzana Tsomondo

56 pdnonline.com April 2017 Nicholas Calcott Age: 33 Born: Midland, MI Resides: New York City Education: New York University Website: nicholascalcott.com Clients: T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Frieze, Fast Company, Herman Miller, Dwell, Mociun Exhibitions: Osnova Gallery, Moscow; CFA Brooklyn Pop-Up Show, Brooklyn, NY Awards: Tierney Foundation Fellowship KEY LESSON: “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to be persistent and not give up. When you send work out, only a tiny percentage of the audience gives any feedback that they’re looking at it at all. But then, years down the road, you might get a call from someone who’s been following you all along.”

Whether he’s shooting architecture, an interior, a still life or a portrait, Nicholas Five years ago, Cait Oppermann and her partner, Calcott brings a mix of discipline and Cait Oppermann Yael Malka, spent two months backpacking across playfulness to his work. He does that using a AGE: 27 Europe with one goal: to make pictures. Through combination of muted tones and pops of color, BORN: Kansas City, MO Kickstarter, they raised enough to support the trip straight lines and wild curves. “I work with RESIDES: Brooklyn, NY and Los Angeles and publish Sea Blues, a book that mixed their lines and geometric figures, but if something EDUCATION: Pratt Institute portraits, still lifes and vignettes of the cultures they looks too pure, I might fold in a rougher element, WEBSITE: caitoppermann.com explored. “That’s what I love: Giving myself a project or include something more spontaneous,” CLIENTS: WIRED, Bloomberg Businessweek, Surface, or parameter or a place and just going and shooting,” Calcott says. Metropolis, Buzzfeed, Refinery29, Tumblr, Uber, Oppermann says. His approach has led to a wealth of editorial Urban Outfitters, Fast Company, Hello Mr. The trip was an opportunity for personal growth, work, from regular assignments shooting EXHIBITIONS: Photoville, Brooklyn, NY; but it was also strategic. Oppermann says the interiors and portraits for T: The New York Der Greif, Krakow, photos in Sea Blues showed “how I wanted to shoot Times Style Magazine, to photographing still best Advice: “There was a time where I was afraid of not getting enough work. During editorially.” The book served as her first promo and lifes for Metropolis. “Nick is always excited that time I would work from 8:30 a.m. to midnight and compile a mailing a list and set “was the first big thing that started my photo career.” about whatever project he’s taking on,” says up meetings. I would shoot personal work that I could share all the time. If someone isn’t Her biggest project to date was her series on Nadia Vellam, photo director at T. “It’s great hiring me to shoot, I need to hire myself to shoot so I have work to share. When you live the players of the National Women’s Soccer League. to work with someone who’s always game for in a place like New York and there are hundreds of other photographers who are shooting Having played soccer growing up, “I had a deep whatever you’ve asked him to do.” for the same magazine, it’s up to you to continuously remind people that you exist.” connection to the sport,” Oppermann says, and that Like most photographers just out of college, interest helped her make connections with players on Calcott struggled. A job assisting editorial and off the field. She worked extra hard on the project photographer Dean Kaufman was a key step to “because I knew I wanted to do more work like that.” success, enabling him to perfect his techniques Oppermann says she does her best work when while meeting industry folk. But then he moved she’s “at play” with the camera, and the Soccer to Paris for four years, where “the editorial League project allowed her to experiment. “I made market is pretty conservative,” he says, and his some super tight crops of athletes’ bodies,” honing career stalled. He worked as a set painter and in on the goose bumps on a player’s legs during an web designer, meanwhile showing his portfolio ice bath, for instance. whenever he came to New York. Her compositions are getting Oppermann noticed. His persistence paid off. First, Fast Sarah Silberg, senior photo editor at WIRED, says Company assigned him to photograph an she has received the photographer’s promos for years architect working with Doctors Without and watched her grow as an artist. When she hired Borders. Slowly, other work started trickling Oppermann for the first time last July, she says, it was in. Then he was contacted by Vellam at T with the photographer’s “composition and colors that drew an assignment. That shoot three years ago me in.” Silberg assigned Oppermann to photograph gave him “visibility,” he says, and he was able to

David Adjaye, architect of the National Museum of alcott pursue photography whole-heartedly. African American History and Culture, in his office. These days, Calcott likes to keep things O ppermann Silberg notes, “I was thrilled to work with her from interesting by dividing his time between ait then on because she makes my job easy. She makes editorial genres. “In the photo world, it’s difficult sure anyone who hires her gets what they need, but not to be pigeonholed,” he says. But he’s defied she also adds her own style to it and it’s always in line the trend. “The joy of the medium is the joy of © C A ll P hotos with what we ask for.” —Stacey Goldberg C © N icholas A ll P hotos experimenting.” —Sarah Coleman

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