The network

Tina Farifteh is a Dutch-Iranian artist based in The Netherlands. She obtained master’s degrees in Economics and a bachelor’s degree in Arts. Thanks to this academic and cultural background, she is used to seeing the world from different angles.

She is a visual researcher whose work lies at the intersection between arts, politics and philosophy. Her interest lies in human nature and the politicization of ‘life’ – particularly, the administration and control of life. She is inspired by the work of philosophers Agamben, Foucault and Arendt. Specifically their concepts of ‘bare life’ and ‘biopolitics’.

In her work, she reflects on the impact of man-made power structures such as nation states and corporations on the lives of ordinary people. Often focusing on people stuck between the ‘natural’ life and the ‘conventional’ life. People not only excluded from the privileges granted by the ruling political and economic systems, but often damaged by these to make the system ‘work’. Her photographic approach is research-based and conceptual. Often combining images, text and data. The goal is to seduce us to look at topics that we prefer to look away from because of their complexity or discomfort.

In her earlier project Killer Skies (2018), she explored the impact of the ‘dronisation’ of armies. Currently she is researching and reflecting on the situation of refugees on the move or stuck at European borders. This work focuses on borders, bodies, and the political language used to normalize the absurdity of how we are currently dealing with these topics.

Juliette Cassidy is graduated in Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. After finishing her degree, she travelled across 19 states of the USA, working on the series 'People We Know, These Americans', where she focuses on the emptiness brought by the most brutal capitalism in one of the richest countries in the world. Afterwards, she moved to Mexico City, followed by Los Angeles. She is currently based in London. Although she works in fashion, her most personal work, leans towards documentary photography, which is, at times, influenced by fashion.

She very often travels to remote places, far away from the big cities, where she is able to find more simpler ways of existence.The subjects she photographs are often isolated with little context around them. While this visual isolation is the way Juliette presents herself to the world, she also craves human connection. A direct confrontation with the camera is a way for her to connect with the subjects she photographs and through them with the rest of the world.

In a few words, her practice in documentary photography is a search of self-knowledge and an attempt to reencounter the essence of a life without noise.

Jan Durina is a Slovak interdisciplinary artist who utilizes a diversity of medium to develop personas and grow the complex narratives they exist in. Through performance, photography, and sound Durina unfolds the nuance of each narrative, grappling with themes of loneliness, loss, the boundaries between nature and the body, and the distortions of the human mind as experienced within an ever developing gender and identity. Through this process Durina produces art works
in the form of music, performance, lm, and photography, seamlessly and con dently moving between exhibitionary to performance contexts.

http://jandurina.com/projects/recent-works/cute-tragic/

Agata Szymanska-Medina (b.1981) is a Polish visual artist, photojournalist, and storyteller based in Berlin Germany. She graduated in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, Germany. Her work focuses on long-term projects with socio-political issues.

Agata is working as a freelance photojournalist and a cinematographer. Her work has been published in DER SPIEGEL, Stern, DIE ZEIT, SZ-Magazin, The Guardian, ARTE TV, ARD, NZZ, DUMMY Magazine, Greenpeace Magazine, Taz, BuzzFeed, Free Mens World, Spiegel Online, Zenith, SPIEGEL WISSEN, Politiken, Zeit Online, Gazeta Wyborcza, Newsweek.

Agata's projects have been supported by numerous grants, including: the Magnum Foundation, the Pulitzer Center, Journalismfund.eu, Robert Bosch Stiftung and VG Bild-Kunst.

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Katya Bogachevskaia (*1986) is a visual artist, curator, editor, and lecturer from StPetersburg, Russia, now based in Lisbon, Portugal.

Having worked as a photo editor, curator, and lecturer for many years, Katya picked up acamera after moving from Russia to Portugal. Photography has become a tool forBogachevskaia to express her feelings about forced emigration and the war unleashed byher native country, Russia, in Ukraine. Through her work, she reflects on the intense impactof this devastating war, searches for her own identity, copes with the loss of her home,experiences fear for her children, and navigates the process of integrating into a newenvironment.

Observing her children and the world around her - primarily nature, Katya createsmetaphorical images infused with subtle, hidden meanings.

Katya is the founder of the Academy of Documentary and Art Photography Fotografika, ofthe independent photobook publishing house Fotografika Publishing, and editor ofPhotojournal of Republic Media.

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Jacopo Valentini (1990) lives between Modena and Milan. In 2017, he graduated in Architecture at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture and obtained an MA in Photography at the IUAV in Venice. In the same year he won the “101st Collective Young Artists” at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation.

He has been selected for Giovane Fotografia Italiana #07, Fotografia Europea Festival - Reggio Emilia, and he won the Nocivelli Award (2019). In 2020 he is a finalist for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer and winner of the Refocus Prize, powered by Triennale and Mufoco in Milan. In the same year Valentini won Cantica21 grant, developing the project Concerning Dante - Autonomus Cell research, published by Humboldt Books.

Valentini work has been exhibited in institutions and private spaces both in Italy and abroad, including: La Triennale di Milano, L. Pecci Center for Contemporary Art, Museo Fattori, Royal Institute British of Architecture, Fabbri Foundation, Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Ragghianti Foundation, Civic Gallery of Modena, Italian Cultural Institute of Addis Ababa, Italian Cultural Institute-Moscow.

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‍https://jacopovalentini.it/

David Arribas is a freelance photographer based in Madrid. Interested in documentary report on anthropological and social issues, he seeks to document the life forms of the environment that interest and inspire him. He began studying photography in a self-taught way, attending several photography courses and workshops.

Over time he acquired his own language, nourished by his own experience and the realization of several master classes with different photographers such as Antonio Heredia, Manu Brabo, Antoine d'Agata and Crisitna García Rodero.

Currently, he is dedicated to the realization of long-term photographic works related to social and human taboos.

Łukasz Rusznica (b. 1980) is a photographer, curator, and educator based in Wrocław, Poland. Since graduating in cultural studies from the University of Wrocław, he has exhibited his works in galleries and museums in Poland and abroad.

He is the author of the photobooks Smog, Near, Infra, Toskana, European Eyes on Japan Vol. 18, and The Most Important Things I Do Not Tell You At All, designed by Thomas Schostock. His works have been published in SZUM, BIURO, LaVie, Machina, POST, and Bad to the Bone. He is a winner of the Show OFF Section of the Krakow Photomonth Festival 2012 and the WARTO 2015 Award.

In 2016 he was selected to take part in European Eyes on Japan—a unique project inviting photographers from European Capitals of Culture to capture everyday life in Japan. He is the winner of Griffin Art Space Prize—Lubicz 2017 for the best portfolio at Krakow Photomonth 2017. Rusznica currently runs a photography gallery, Miejsce przy Miejscu, dedicated to promoting emerging photographers from Poland and abroad.

Andrei Budescu is a visual artist from Romania. He is an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca and received his PhD in 2011. He teaches History of Photography and Multimedia at the Photo-Video and Processed Image Department. He has participated in a number of artist residencies and workshops in Romania, USA and India.

Andrei Budescu has been fascinated by cameras and photography since he was a young boy. Over the last 10 years he has been experimenting with different photographic processes (Polaroid, Wet Plate Collodion) and different cameras (4x5, 5x7, 8x10 cameras). Andrei uses different cameras for his processes and recently he started refurbishing a mammoth camera for his Wet Plate Collodion Process which will be added to his collection.

Lia Dostlieva (b. 1984, Donetsk, Ukraine) is an artist, cultural anthropologist and essayist. Her primary areas of my research include the issues of trauma, postmemory, commemorative practices, and agency and visibility of vulnerable groups.

As an artist, she works across a wide range of media including photography, installations, textile sculptures, interventions into urban space, etc. since 2012.⁠

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Kincső Bede (b. 1995) is a Romanian visual artist with Hungarian roots, who grew up in a small city in Transylvania, Romania. She is fascinated by the communist past of her homeland, the power of the leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, the control exercised by the security agency Securitate, and how this history is passed down across the generations. Currently, Kincsõ lives and works in Budapest, Hungary and she studies at the Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design. She is part of the Studio of Young Photographers.

In 2020 she won the photography scholarship of the Association of Hungarian Photographers. In the same year she was among the winners of Carte Blanche Students, a scholarship founded by Paris Photo, the world's greatest photo art fair. The works of the four winners were exhibited at the Parisian Gare du Nord. Her diploma series, entitled "Three Colours I Know in This World," was chosen for the 10 New Talent 2020 programme by the curators of BredaPhoto Festival and was exhibited in The Netherlands.

Her work is often applauded by the foreign press. Also her photos are part of the Blurring the Lines 2020 issue. From 2020 she is represented by TOBE Gallery, Budapest.

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Cloe Jancis (b. 1992) is an artist working with photography, video, drawing and installation. In 2018, she graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a BA in photography, and is currently following an MA programme in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Jancis is fascinated by the social image and daily roles of women – and the related myths, expectations and feelings they evoke. In recent years, her work has focused on objects and rituals associated with performing femininity.

Kateryna Snizhko was born in Ukraine in 1984. She holds a Master of Law from the National Law Academy in Ukraine (2006) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (2016). Since 2012 she leaves and works in Amsterdam.

For the past 6 years, Snizhko participated in several group exhibitions, festivals and international fairs in The Netherlands, Japan, Ukraine, Austria and Czech Republic. Her installation “TINI” was awarded the Best Artwork Award and Public's Prize at Smart Illumination 2016, Yokohama, Japan, Honorable Mention and Public's Prize of Steenbergen Stipendium 2016, The Netherlands. 

Michael Swann is a photographic artist currently completing his MA at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).

His work explores aspects of religious belief, mysticism and phenomenology and aims to understand how photography can be used to communicate such themes. Michael’s latest body of work, Noema (2020), follows the search for the Virgin Mary’s presence in two locations in which she has reportedly been seen.

Farren van Wyk (1993) is a South African and Dutch photographer and educator. She holds a BA Degree in Photography and an MA Degree in Cultural and Visual Anthropology. She has a truly dual perspective on both her home countries, which is visible in her work. Her photographs show how she tries to come to terms with two sides of facing colonialism, the slave trade and apartheid.

Van Wyk is a member of the African Photojournalist Association with World Press Photo, Women Photograph and Black Women Photographers. Her work has been featured by the internationally based i-D, The Washington Post, Photo Vogue, Der Greif and The Times UK.

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Graduated in Political Science and Urban Sociology, his work unfolds in territories left, maintained or deliberately built on the fringes of our cities. In an attempt to exhaust these places, he takes them on over a long period of time and draws up a personal cartography, walking a fine line between documentary and fine art photography. He attaches particular importance to form, colour and material, which serve as points of encounter with his mental universe. In this way, he constructs a visual language that is both frontal and polysemous, offering a singular vision in which human frailties are transfigured by new lines of force.
His work is regularly exhibited at festivals in France and abroad, like Athens Photo Festival, Tbilisi Photo Festival, Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles or Circulation(s). He was awarded the Maison Blanche Prize in 2021.

Martina Dendi (Livorno, 1994) lives and works in Milan. She graduated in photography at the Libera Accademia di Belle Arti (LABA) in Florence and, in 2017, she attended the Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) in Texas. In 2018, Dendi attended the course of New Technologies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, where she graduated in 2021 with a specialization in Photography. In 2019, she studied for a semester at Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem, in Budapest.

In 2017, Dendi publishes her first photo book Caducità who has been also exhibited as solo show at the Tethys Gallery in Florence, and as part of a group show at Seipersei gallery in Siena. She exhibits the photographic project Assenza at the Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) in Texas. In 2020 she exhibits Hungarian Style at CAREOF (Milan). In 2021 her work has been selected among the finalists of the Combat Award 2021.

Her works start from an anthropological approach of interest on grotesque and ironic side of life. She is often actress and subject of her images, exploring the therapeutic process of self-definition and awareness of her presence in the world.

martinadendi21@hotmail.it https://edu.myphotoportal.com/dendi/

Zoé Elia Menthonnex, aka Really Bad Picture (b. 1996), is a Swiss and French photographer based in Lausanne. Her work, which oscillates between experimentation and visual narrative, explores the boundaries between the real and the imaginary through projects combining photography, illustration and visual poetry. Among other things, she has developed commissioned work in the world of music, capturing the raw energy of contemporary scenes while pursuing a deeply personal artistic approach.

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She graduated from École Supérieure de Photographie de Vevey (CEPV) in 2022, and her work has been exhibited in Switzerland since that year. She took part in PLA(T)FORM at Fotomuseum Winterthur in 2023, as well as in the 2024 edition of the KBCB, as part of a collaboration stemming from the Lumpen Station residency at Fotomuseum. Her work has also attracted international attention: her work was featured in the book Flora Photographica, edited by William A. Ewing and Danaé Panchaud and published by Thames & Hudson in 2022, with her series ZOMBIE.

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Through her images, Zoé Elia Menthonnex constructs a hybrid visual language, where the trivial and the sacred, the spontaneous and the reflective, the absurd and the symbolic intersect. Her instinctive approach, driven by a strong sensitivity to materials, textures and atmospheres, makes her work a sensory and emotional experience, always in tension between chaos and contemplation.

Hanane El Ouardani (NL, b. 1994) lives and works in Amsterdam, where she graduated from The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art in 2018. The Dutch-Moroccan photographer was born in the Netherlands with bicultural roots, and her practice reflects a recurring duality: on one hand, an unwavering desire to truly feel at home somewhere, and on the other, embracing her status as an ‘outsider’ due to the unique perspective it offers her, allowing her to keenly observe differences from a distance. In 2018, she published the photo book ‘The Skies are Blue, The Walls are Red’, a visual diary that explores the various layers of a diasporic identity. The book raises questions about representing one’s roots without feeling estranged from one’s own culture.

Drawing inspiration from clichés and contradictions, her work raises questions about identity, exotism, contradictions and social status. She dissects the layers of these themes, often starting from a personal narrative, which organically speaks to a collective spanning different cultures.

El Ouardani takes her camera to places where men are prominent in public spaces. As she actively interacts with them as subjects, she insists, “ I believe it’s crucial for the female gaze to participate in uncovering masculinity’s place in our contemporary world.” Her work has been exhibited at notable venues, including the Van Gogh Museum, Unseen Amsterdam, Foto Tallinn and Paris Photo.

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