2023 LensCulture Emerging Talent Award Winners
Jurors’
picks
Each of our jury members selected one photographer to be awarded special distinction. Here are the jurors’ special selections, with a brief quote from each expert explaining what they especially appreciate about these photographers and their work.
Alisa Martynova
The populist rhetoric tends to represent migrants as an indistinct mass of people, as if they belonged to a separate human category. To counter this narrative, Alisa Martynova compares migrants to scattered stars, a constellation of young people from different countries, each one with his or her own story and aspirations. Thanks to a masterful use of light, she invites the viewer to wander through surreal landscapes, in the liminal space between reality and dream, while her enigmatic portraits put the individual back at the center of the story.
From this year’s Emerging Talent entries I have selected Andrés Mario De Varona‘s project, Trials, for my Juror’s Pick. Andrés’ complex photographic images visualize personal challenges brought forth from project subjects including himself on experiencing the pain of loss and the struggle to regain purpose in life.
In this emotionally charged series, his directed collaborative works and self-portraits depict ongoing angst and recovery of both physical and emotional struggles.
A quote from the artist:
“My photographs aim at the delicate truth of what it means to be human by encapsulating the frictions of reality, wounds from survivors, trust, and the ambiguity of human conflict.”
- Andrés Mario de Varona
Dave Coyle’s project, Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, vibrates with quiet solitary tension and the low hum of mystery throughout its sparse sequence of photographs. The project’s title is taken from what looks to be a weekly community message board or an outdoor church sign, triggering an otherwise mute, gently chiding narrative that resonates with Coyle’s own day-to-day struggle with personal habits he’d like to change. The pictures are subdued, all captured in quiet lonely hours on abandoned roadways or nearly empty neighborhoods or barren fallow fields. I’m attracted to the cinematic moody overtones of the whole body of work, and I can imagine many viewers will feel some personal connections or echoes of their own personal stories in Coyle’s images.
With his latest body of work, Genetic Bomb, Kriss Munsya delves into personal history and the lingering traumas of colonialism. Born in Kinshasa, DRC, Munsya moved to Belgium as a very young child. In his artist statement, he speaks of carrying “generational guilt, confusion, and disenchantment,” given the wars that have troubled his home country, since gaining independence in 1960. Munsya’s striking pictures are compellingly out of time and place. He’s inventing his own world of vibrant color and lush landscapes, a self-styled pop sci-fi with a hint of futuristic narrative.
How do we transform our memories of past trauma and its effects into something visual that is relatable to our viewers without weeping self pity onto the paper? In Lisa Murray’s, For Parts Not Working, a personal mishap acts as an educational tool to explore the function of the brain with all of its potential and limitations. The work blends facts, metaphor and near magical realism with contributions from her children and effective and purposeful mixed media which helps bring the physical part of trauma rushing to the surface.
I am confronted with a variety of artists' projects on a daily basis, but never before have I encountered something so "emerging," something that gives me a sense that the future has arrived. From the point of view of ordinary individuals, the "universe" is still not something we can imagine in a realistic way. However, by connecting it to the issues closest to us today, it made me realize that, when it comes to people, there are still a lot of unexplored and underdeveloped perceptions surrounding it as well. As Mackenzie discovers new ways of expression, the project continues to develop, and although it is still ongoing, I look forward to seeing how it will develop in the future even more, similar to the exciting anticipation of scientific progress.
Oliver Raschka's The World Ain't Enough offers its viewer an unmediated glimpse into the youthful energy, imagination, and (mis)adventures of childhood. By documenting and exploring the dynamic of his sons' relationship to the world and to each other, Raschka invites us to live vicariously through them, but also perhaps a chance to relive some of our own memories of youth.
Tomomichi Nakamura
I was drawn to the surreal, poetic nature of this series. The artist expresses the challenges of being neurodiverse in a neurotypical world through a number of seemingly random images – from still-life photos of fish and nail cuttings to a self-portrait of himself in the middle of the sea. Hermit crabs become metaphors that express his isolation and these are integrated into collages and cinematic narratives. It’s a bold, movingly honest and beautifully constructed photographic piece.
“The Emerging Talent Awards never fail to surprise me with notable talent. It’s a field full of ideas, some at their advent, full of potential and others more fully formed just ready for exhibition and publication. LensCulture provides a platform for me to discover international talent that I wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to see.”
Finalists
Adra Pallón
Aidan Klimenko
Alex Vasyliev
Andriana Nativio
Arrayah Loynd
Davide Bertuccio
Florence Iff
Jack Lawson
Jair F. Coll
Kerr Cirilo
Mehrdad Mirzaie
Rogério Vieira
Shunta Kimura
Sitara Thalia Ambrosio
Stephanie O'Connor
Stephen Goldstein
Yuanbo Chen
“Being part of the jury of the 2023 Emerging Talent Awards introduced me to dozens of talented artists whose work I was not yet familiar with. For that I am grateful, and I am excited to see where their careers will take them next, as I will be watching closely for the right opportunity to work with many of them in the future.”
Our International Jury
Michael Famighetti is the Editor of Aperture magazine. In 2013, he organized a relaunch and reconceptualization of the publication, which won a 2018 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. He is the recipient, with guest editor Sarah Lewis, of the ICP Infinity Award for Critical Writing and Research for “Vision & Justice,” the summer 2016 issue of Aperture.
In addition to editing the magazine, Famighetti commissions and edits books for the Aperture Foundation, including volumes by William Christenberry, Robert Adams, John Divola, Jonas Bendiksen, Kwame Brathwaite and Joel Meyerowitz, among others. He is currently a visiting critic at the Yale University School of Art and a participant in SVA’s Mentors program.
His writing has appeared in Frieze, Bookforum and Aperture, among other publications. He is a member of the American Society of Magazine Editors and has been a guest reviewer and speaker at many international festivals and institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The New York Times; Vogue Italia; FOAM, Amsterdam; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the Bamako Biennial, Mali; Kyotographie, Kyoto; Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark; and Fotografiska, Stockholm.
Caroline Hunter is a picture editor for The Saturday Guardian Magazine. Caroline has over 20 years experience of commissioning photography (from concept to celebrity, portraiture, still-life, beauty, fashion and documentary photography) and reviewing photo-essays and proposals. Caroline is regularly invited to review portfolios at international photo festivals and has also acted as a judge for a number of photography competitions.
Michael Foley opened his eponymous gallery in the fall of 2004 in New York after fourteen years of working with notable photography galleries including Fraenkel Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery and Yancey Richardson Gallery.
The gallery has since been invited to participate in over thirty international and national art fairs including Paris Photo, Pulse, AIPAD, VOLTA, and the London Art Fair. Gallery exhibitions and artists have been reviewed and written about in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Artforum, Modern Painters and ArtNEWS.
Foley is the founder of The Photo Community, which offers classes and commentary on contemporary photography. He continues his interest in education by serving on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography where he teaches and lectures on issues in contemporary photography.
Elena Boille is deputy editor and photo editor of the Italian news magazine Internazionale. Boille graduated with a degree in history of art and she co-founded, in 1993, Internazionale. She’s in charge of the photo desk and of the science pages of the magazine. She has judged many photo competitions and participated in portfolio reviews. Boille also teaches photo editing workshops.
Internazionale is a weekly magazine that selects and translates the best journalistic stories from around the world and brings them to an Italian-speaking audience. Every issue features a photographic portfolio, which focuses mainly on long-term projects. Along with photojournalistic and documentary stories, it publishes personal works, conceptual series and more.
Mary Virginia Swanson has dedicated her career to helping artists find the strengths in their work, identify appreciative, responsive audiences, and present their work in an informed, and professional manner. Swanson’s in-depth knowledge, professional experience, reputation, and relationships throughout the photography industry cover a broad range of perspectives on both the making and marketing of lens-based work. A respected contributor to the field, she frequently serves as a Portfolio Reviewer and Judge at contemporary photography and photobook competitions, conducts public presentations at industry festivals and lectures at numerous colleges throughout the year.
Swanson is co-author with Darius Himes of Publish Your Photography Book (Third Edition, Radius Books August 2023) which offers a window into being published and self-publishing photobooks today. The book’s dedicated website is rich with resources and information on their companion online course of the same name through La Luz Workshops: www.publishyourphotographybook.com @ publishyourphotographybook
Ms. Swanson resides in Tucson, Arizona. www.mvswanson.com @ maryvirginiaswanson
Currently serving as the Creative Director of United Photo Industries, Sam Barzilay is also the co-founder of Photoville, a photographic gathering that has rapidly become one of the largest and best-attended photography events in North America. Sam is also one of the founding producers of the T3 Photo Festival in Tokyo, Japan.
Sam holds a Master in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster (UK), where his studies focused on curatorial and photo-editing practices. Over the past decade, he has worked alongside some of the best and brightest minds in the global photographic community in pursuit of developing new audiences for photography. He is interested in devising methods of presentation that further amplify the power of photographic storytelling to help increase public awareness and bring about social change.
Yumi Goto is an independent photography curator, editor, researcher, consultant, educator and publisher who focuses on the development of cultural exchanges that transcend borders.
She collaborates with local and international artists who live and work in areas affected by conflict, natural disasters, current social problems, human rights abuses and women’s issues. She often works with human rights advocates, international and local NGOs, and humanitarian organizations as well as being involved as a nominator and juror for international photographic organizations, festivals and events.
She is now based in Tokyo and is also a co-founder and curator for the Reminders Photography Stronghold, which is a curated membership gallery space in Tokyo enabling a wide range of photographic activities.
Jim Casper is the editor-in-chief of LensCulture, one of the leading online destinations to discover new contemporary photography from around the world. As an active member in the contemporary photography world, Casper loves to meet with photographers and talk about photography. He curates art exhibitions, publishes books, conducts workshops, serves as an international juror, nominates photographers for key awards, and is an advisor to arts and education organizations.
