Name: Saskia Lelieveld
Hometown: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Style of photography: Documentary/Autonomous
Type of camera(s): Analog Mamiya 645 super pro and Mamiya 7II 6×7
Website: www.saskialelieveld.com

What gives you inspiration?

What inspires me are the people close to me, music (Modest Mouse, Bon Iver, Elliot Smith), city’s or places where decay has set in, closed old houses, old worn down factory’s. Everything that used to be beautiful, but isn’t anymore. What also inspires me are the trips I take with my mother to places were you can find the history of World war II. These places are interesting but depressing and awful at the same time.

What are your influences?

Bas Jan Ader, he was a brilliant Dutch conceptual artist. The early works of Annie Leibowitz, when she was on tour with the Stones, and her early portraits. Robert Frank, Stephan Vanfleteren, William Kentridge, Martin Parr and Anton Corbijn.

Why did you choose these photos?

These pictures show my style as a photographer. The two pictures of the ‘German Soldiers’ are from a new series: ‘Don’t mention the war’. Grown men re-enact German WOII battlefields, with great determination and genuineness, but you can see everyday life coming through.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography is a way to capture the things I find funny, odd, depressing or beautiful and show them to the world around me.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Saskia Lelieveld

Name: Łukasz Biederman
Hometown: Wrocław, Poland
Style of photography: Documentary
Type of camera(s): Hasselblad 500C/M, Mamiya 645Pro, Mamiya 7II, Holga 120CFN.
Website: www.lukaszbiederman.com and Flickr.

What gives you inspiration?

My basic inspiration comes from the photographs I watch every day. Of course many different sorts of art are stimulating too. Music, paintings, comic books, all that stuff makes me much more responsive to the world. But my very private inspiration is the surreal world of dreams. There was a time, when I was so fascinated with dreams, that I tried to note them down just when I woke up. Nowadays I try to take pictures of the real places, people or things, which somehow remind me of the surreal world of these sleepy memories.

What are your influences?

There certainly is a great number of photographers whom I appreciate. I wouldn’t like to name exact authors, but for sure the image of all their works together helps me to create my own style of seeing the world. Definitely all these pictures leave a trace of beauty in my mind. I do not mean the beauty in this common, happy, bright and colorful sense. The focal point of my photographic interest very often rests upon the images of the dull and solitary places. Many of my memories come from the time of the real socialism in Poland, where I was brought up. It influenced my perception of the cityscape and today I really love taking pictures of the grey, sad and very often absurd remains of these times. They take me mentally back to the world of my childhood, to the places which twenty years ago, before the system transformation, looked completely different.

Why did you choose these photos?

I think these photos are good examples of what is my way of comprehending reality. I like these works particularly because I think they do not narrate in an obvious way and they rather pose questions than give answers. Viewing such an image gives the onlooker s the possibility of creating their own story.

What does photography mean to you?

As for me photography is one of the most beautiful ways of expressing deepest feelings.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Lukasz Biederman

Name: Raphael Halin
Hometown: Paris, France
Style of photography: Landscape and people.
Type of camera(s): Canon 5D, Ricoh GR
Website: http://cargocollective.com/raphaelhalin

What gives you inspiration?

Humanity. The landscapes and the absence and surrealism.

What are your influences?

Koudelka, Gursky, De Stael, Lucien Hervé, Rothko and Depardon.

Why did you choose these photos?

They tell strange stories and they translate the various messages which I try to pass on, I hope.

What does photography mean to you?

The same answer as previous question, to tell stories and to pass on feelings.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Raphael Halin

Name: Pip Atra
Hometown: Bangkok, London, Chiang Mai.
Type of camera(s): Canon EOS 50, Canon A-1, Pentax Espio, Yashica T4, Praktica MTL 3.
Website: www.piptelevised.com

What gives you inspiration?

My loved ones.

What are your influences?

Pablo Picasso, Peter Doig, David Axelrod and Flying Lotus.

Why did you choose these photos?

I enjoy looking at them.

What does photography mean to you?

Total control.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Pip Atra

Name: Martina Maffini
Hometown: Salsomaggiore, a little town on the hills near Parma (Italy), but also Bologna, Paris, Buenos Aires.
Style of photography: I don’t really know. I like landscape photography but I mean, I don’t think I really have a style.
Type of camera(s): Rolleiflex, Polaroid (sx-70 and 600), Holga, Panasonic Lumix.
Website: www.martinamaffini.com, http://temporary-places.blogspot.com and http://pianure.tumblr.com (a project with J. Reverberi, a friend).

What gives you inspiration?

Light, nature, music, books, emotions, countryside, trees, beauty, poetry, plants, love, foreign places, the first sight at something new… everything that captures my attention and that I relate with my feelings in that moment.
The relation between people and nature, how they manage to be together…

What are your influences?

My influences come from other photographers (Luigi Ghirri in particular, but also Joel Sternfeld, Alexander Gronsky, Tarkovsky’s Polaroids and many many others - I really like to discover new photographers surfing on online blogs and magazines ), music (rock’n'roll, punk-rock, blues), movies, writers (in this moment Calvino and Buzzati), politics sometimes, travels and cities where I lived, states of mind.
The last couple of years I lived in different places, every time I take a plane it’s a really new start and in this state of mind I feel very inspired from people, places, nature, the discovery…

Why did you choose these photos?

I’ve chosen those photos because they express what I tell you before.
I think they speak about how I was feeling in the moments I took them, how I looked at those places, under the influence of a finished love, or a book I was reading at, or a discovery or a nostalgic feeling.

What does photography mean to you?

My photographs are the way I see the world. I like that people could see places or things I’m lucky to look at. And this particular sight comes from all the things I saw, I read, I heard, I suffer for, I love. It’s a representation…

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Martina Maffini

Names: Patrice Esser and Garrick Fujii
Hometown: Stuttgart, Germany // Long Beach, California
Style of photography: Street, Landscape, Portraits
Type of camera(s): Contax T3, Leica M6, Mamiya 7II, Nikon 28Ti, Nikon FM2n, Olympus XA, Ricoh GR21
Website: http://theyshootfilm.com

What gives you inspiration?

Life. From the hustle and bustle of the city to the quiet and calm of the countryside.

What are your influences?

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Robert Frank, Richard Avedon.

Why did you choose these photos?

We always seek to capture the wit or charms of daily life that surrounds us. These photos are a small attempt to catch these moments.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography allows us to freeze in time the fleeting and passing moments that give richness to life and the fabric of our experiences. It’s the ability to capture the shared human experience in everyday life that keeps us shooting.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Patrice Esser and Garrick Fujii

Name: Spencer Tweedy.
Hometown: I was born and am being raised in Chicago, Illinois.
Style of photography: Impromptu photojournalism and portraiture.
Type of camera(s): Canon T1i for digital, and a 70’s Olympus OM-1 for film (plus a few others).
Website: http://spencertweedy.com and Flickr

What gives you inspiration?

My inspiration comes from the weird things you see on the street, in the home, or really just wherever I am. I have a lot of fun making pictures with my little brother Sammy (and sometimes his friends; they’re ten-year-olds) – most of the time, he’s reluctant, but once in awhile I’m able to get a few odd fun ones outta’im. I also find a lot of inspiring photographers from “zines” like fourteen-nineteen and Holy Ghost, and especially Booooooom and this one!

What are your influences?

As an aspiring photographer (and just a person who loves photos), I have an extremely lacking cultural knowledge of actual professional photographers. I know enough about cameras and the art itself to maybe get a passing grade on some photography test (if I ever came across one), but I’m ashamed to say that in terms of “da legends” (other than Eggleston, basically), and the non-legends… I’m not to well-versed. BUT – I’d say my favorite photographer right now is Justin Ouellette. I also like Mary Robinson.

Why did you choose these photos?

Photojournalism and portraiture, if I had to choose a category. I like weird, creative photographs.

What does photography mean to you?

Photography to me is another way to express feelings. I’m a musician, too, and I think photography and music go hand-in-hand in that, through them, you are expressing a feeling to another human being. Or, in some cases, not to another human being; just to yourself or a journal or something. But both are definitely a vessel of some sort of “storage” and “transfer” of feelings. I love it.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Spencer Tweedy

Name: Tata Vislevskaya
Hometown: Moscow, Russia.
Style of photography: Wild nature experience
Type of camera(s): Hasselblad 500CM, Kiev-88
Website: www.behance.net/tatavislevskaya

What gives you inspiration?

My strongest inspirations are traveling to wild nature, cinema and my dreams. The sensation of being in different places on the world gives me incredible power. There is no stronger feeling than to look at a mountain face to face and see all its cracks and structure. It is the Universe. The mysticism in daily occurrence is very important for me and I see it since my childhood.

What are your influences?

There isn’t a photographer who has influenced me. I was much more influenced by Andrey Tarkovsky and Ingmar Bergman’s movies. I like to dream about places. But daily I’m influenced by light. It really changes all around you. Stalin architecture in Moscow also has a very strong influence on me.

Why did you choose these photos?

These photos are very intuitive so I love it. Japan, Switzerland, Iceland and Russia. Four important countries for me.

What does photography mean to you?

If my heart is skillfully to tell, it would speak with the photos I take. All my emotions, experiences, conditions and feelings are in my pictures. Photography is the most true self-knowledge, possibility to learn other times and other spaces.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Tata Vislevskaya

Name: Xarlene
Hometown: Badalona (Barcelona), Spain.
Style of photography: Urban landscapes, portraits.
Type of camera(s): Leica Digilux 3
Website: www.xarlene.com

What gives you inspiration?

Anything around me. It can be a landscape, a building, a car, a graveyard .. I admire those little things we have in our surroundings which go unnoticed. I also like to photograph the people I love, and show them what they mean to me through the photos.

What are your influences?

I admire photographers as different as Jordi Bernado, Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans. All their work are based on portraying things as they are: naturally. Jordi Bernado said something which I think is perfect for defining good photographic work: “I don´t manipulate reality, I never touch anything that I photograph, the thing more rare to be found was really there and not moved a centimeter, because to me what I like is the fact”.

Why did you choose these photos?

They represent the various things I like to photograph. They are not the best ones, but some of the most special.

What does photography mean to you?

It is a form of visual poetry.

Photos:

Copyright reserved by Xarlene