The artists nominated by
My name is Cristian Lipovan, I was born in Gherla in 1982. The passion for photography started back 8 years ago when I bought my first DSLR camera, followed by a photo class in Cluj-Napoca where for the moment I live.
I like to approach different styles of photography, but I prefer the most URBEX (Urban Exploration) photography. I think this genre represents me the best, that's why I'm even more concerned with my project called PLACES SUFFERING.
I'm fascinated by the idea of going into abandoned buildings, finding out their stories, what happened there, why they were abandoned. When I enter such places it is as if I go back in time, I try to imagine those times, to feel the lives of the people who have passed there. Every time I go to a new location, I encompass the emotions for what I can find or what I can meet. We have found all sorts of things undamaged for years, left to chance, from documents, photographs, paintings, dishes, money, clothes, toys, to dead, mummified animals.
Catalin Anghel (b. 1984) is an artist based in Timisoara, Romania, who works in the fields of photography and mixed media art. He obtained his Photography degree in Dublin at Institute of Photography in 2011. He moved back to Romania in 2014 and in the same year he organized his first event ‘Fotocultura – Timisoara European Cultural Capital’ | photography contest and exhibition. In 2017, he started 'Wedtrotter' - a documentary series which follows the best wedding photographers in the world. His latest project is 'Imagine Timisoara Festival' (2019) – an event who got together over 200 photographers in 2 days of conference, workshops, photography contests and exhibitions.
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.
Patricia Morosan studied photography at the Ostkreuzschule in Berlin. In her visual poetic work, she negotiates the duality of intimacy and identity. Represented by Galerie Franzkowiak in Berlin, her work has been exhibited internationally, among which at Les Rencontres de la Photographie d‘Arles Voies Off, Fotohaus Paris-Berlin; Les Boutographies, Pavillion Populaire Montpellier; at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest; Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin; ICR Gallery Lisabon; Kommunale Gallery Berlin; Metamatic TAF, TV Control Center (KET), Athens; Atelier Varan, Paris; at 12-14 contemporary/FotoWien, Vienna; the Noorderlicht International Festival, Netherlands and at the Foto Forum, Bolzano. 2019 she won the Jury Award from Les Boutographies, Montpellier; and the Courage Prize of the Association of Women Journalists in Germany. She was nominated for the Art Prize of the Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin (2019), for the Wellcome Photography Award (2020), the Documentary Prize Wüstenrot (2020), Gomma Grant (2021), BUP Award (2022). She received various grants from: Initial Stipend from the Academy of Arts Berlin (2021) and various grant from the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe. Her work is part of public collections, as the MNAC collection in Bucharest and the Ville of Montpellier, France and in several private collections in Europe.
www.patriciamorosan.com
Hanna Jarzabek (1976, Poland). She finished a Master degree in Political Science and worked on refugee reports for UN agencies such as UNRWA and UNCTAD. She developed her passion for photography while traveling (the Gaza Strip, Iran, Philippines).
Since 2008 she is based in Spain where she works as a freelance photojournalist, combining her personal projects with the teaching of photography. She has published in BuzzFeed News, El Pais, XL Semanal, L'Obs, Equal Times, 5W magazine, Interviú, El Periódico de Cataluña, 7k magazine, Gazeta Wyborcza and Polityka among others.
Her projects address discrimination and societal dysfunctions in western society. She also works on youth radicalization and the raise of right-wing movements in Europe. Lately she has started to investigate the construction of national identity in post-Soviet regions in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
She has won different awards, such as the Third Prize in POY Latam 2015 (Mexico); she has been awarded with the Grant Programa Crisálidas Signo Editores Grant 2019 (Spain), with a Helge Humelvoll Scholarship (USA 2017) and with the “Photojournalism Grant 2015” (GrisArt International School of Photography, Barcelona), among others.
Finalist of the Grand Press Photo 2019 and 2012 in Poland and of the 19th FotoPres la Ciaxa (2013); she was also nominated in 2018 and 2017 Edition of Photography Magazine Grant (London). She has participated in festivals such as PhotOn 2019 and 2018 (Spain), Imaginaria 2019 (Spain), UCL Festival of Culture in London (2017), FOTONOVIEMBRE Tenerife (2015) and the VIII Biennal de Xavier Miserachs (2014) among others.
Pascual Ross (b.1977) is a Spanish photographer, who lives and works in Andalusia.
His photographic practice is based on the people and the stories that each of us carry inside, this being his central axis of work. It reflects on the individual, his natural environment and the customs that condition him in one way or another. The minimal stories are the most important in the story line of your work.
Dirk Hardy (1989, NL) is interested in the relationship people enter into with their environment and with each other. With Vivarium, an ongoing project that took-off in 2018, Hardy constructs hyperrealistic "purposeful fiction": contemporary worlds that express the complexity of our zeitgeist.
With his tableaus Hardy welcomes the viewer to a multitude of worlds. In his creative process he draws from a web of observations, memories and imagination, and responds to both large and small events in the world. He explores the complexity of life in an idiosyncratic and compassionate way and in doing so, aims to increase our social sensitivity.
Hardy studied Architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology and afterwards Photography at the Willem de Kooning Academy. He is nominated for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021 (UK), and launches Vivarium in the accompanying exhibition. His first solo is planned for the end of 2021 in museum MOYA (NL). In 2019 he showed his work for the first time on an international stage during Photo Basel.
Hajdu Tamás (b. 1976) was born in Transylvania. Today, he works as both a veterinarian and a photographer in Baia Mare, Romania. His work has been recognised by a series of prizes, including the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards, and the 2015 LensCulture Exposure Awards. Tamás’ photographs have been exhibited in multiple exhibitions including the Spotlight Romania Show at GEMAK in The Hague, the Netherlands. His work has featured in a number of international publications, including Punctum, Practical Photography, Vice, Lenscratch, Feature Shoot, The Independent, La Repubblica, National Geographic and The Guardian.
Claudiu Guraliuc (b.1977) is a fine art photographer and educator based in Cluj, Romania. His work specialises in fine art portraiture and nudes, inspired by the aesthetics of Old Master paintings from the Baroque period. Guraliuc holds a Licentiate from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, and has achieved numerous international accolades for his work; in January 2022, he received the International Master Photographer of the Year Award. His images have been published by a range of international photography magazines, and his work is found in both private and public collections in Europe, Asia and the United States. Guraliuc is represented by Katsea Art Gallery, Baltimore, and Influx Gallery, London.
Born, raised and live in Kozani, Greece. Studied IT and Computer Engineer at Patras University and he is married with three children. A self-taught photographer whose work deals with documentary and fine-art photography. Street photography is present and obvious in many aspects as well. Attended photography seminars by Jacob Aue Sobol, Platon Rivellis and Paris Petridis.
Exhibitions:
2022 Where The River Runs Mute, Photometria Festival, Ioannina/GR 2021 One World, 1st International Photo Festival, Drama/GR 2021 TOLERANCE(S), Lens-based media exhibition in the framework of Art + Culture vs Xenophobia Project, curated by Eleni Mouzakiti, Kostas Ioannidis, Athens-Norway 2016 HOME, Delmar Gallery curated by Aue Sobol and Sun Hee Engelstoft during Head On Festival, Sydney/Australia 2016 Cultural Landscapes, Group Expo, Athens/GR 2015 Family, Group exhibition at Benaki Museum, Athens/GR 2014 On-Off, Personal exhibition (home printing and framing), Kozani-Kastoria/GR
Awards and shortlists
2022 Parallel Voices 2022, Photometria Festival, Ioannina/GR 2021 Urban Photo Awards Finalist (People’s category), Trieste/Italy 2017-2021 Honor Mentioned and Finalist at quite a few International Street Photo Festivals
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John Robokos was born in 1972 in Athens and grew up in Krines, Corinth. He studied Statistics at Athens University of Economics and Business and lives in Athens.
He has been dealing with photography in his artistic practice since 2013, attending courses organized by the Municipality of Maroussi, under the general supervision and responsibility of the photographer Dionysis Koutsis. He is a member of the Hellenic Photographic Society
Alin Barbir was born in 1981 in Oradea, Romania. Fond of photography, he spends most of his time building up skills and developing abilities in this love field. His work has been rewarded with several prizes.
He graduated from the Film and Theatre Faculty of the “Babes-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, majoring in Cinematography, Photography and Media. He published his first photo album called “Beyond light and shadows” in 2017, an album comprising miscellaneous pieces of his work up to that time. Just like Nietzsche he believes that life without music would be a mistake. Films, books and cats are just some of the activities he likes to indulge in. His daughter Ida was born in 2018 bringing about a totally different perception of life and the way he looks at the stars.
Martyna Benedyka, born in 1991, is a Polish visual artist, vocalist and teacher working in a wide range of media including painting, film and digital photography, collage, installation, and sound art. She studied Art and Design at the Gray’s School of Art in Scotland, UK and graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art Painting in 2014. She has exhibited in the UK, Poland, Romania, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada and the USA. Her work has been chosen by the Federation of British Artists for the Futures - UK’s largest annual survey of emerging contemporary figurative art at the Mall Galleries, London, among others. She is the recipient of both Polish and British scholarships for her artistic achievements as well as the winner of international residencies and competitions - the latest being the Photo Romania Festival 2022 and De Structura cross-border project 2022-2023, Tallinn, Estonia. Her work is in private and public collections. She specializes in classical music and has performed in many group as well as solo concerts internationally since 2004.
Sara Meinz is a Spanish photographer and art director based between Berlin and Galicia.
With a mindful approach she seeks stillness and hidden messages in ordinary life, often exploring society, human-made landscape and nature.
Panagiotis Papoutsis studied photography, business administration and has a master’s degree in Cultural Management with specialisation in Photography Festivals. He has co-founded the Photometria International Photography Festival. As a photographer and manager of culture, he has organized numerous cultural events and photo exhibitions in Europe and has been invited to give lectures and view portfolios at several European photo festivals.
Andreea Harabagiu was born in Bacău, Romania, where she presently lives. Having studied graphics at The University of Arts and Design in Cluj-Napoca, she currently works as a graphic designer. Passionate about documentary photography, she is on a path to pursue this career.
Based in Spain, Iceland and Ukraine, Raúl Moreno is considered a documentary photographer who likes to deal with long-term issues.
Having worked for several years in various media as a photojournalist, he made the decision to turn in their work and personal lives mainly developing projects of human and environmental fields.
He is currently also as a photo guide in Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Norway and Ukraine.
Georgiana Feidi, currently based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, is a visual artist who
achieved her photo video MA's degree from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca in 2020. In her artistic approach, she uses both digital and analog tools, including post-processing and the hands-on exploration of darkroom and alternative photography techniques. In her artistic endeavors, Georgiana explores themes inspired by the mysteries of the universe, nature, personal insights and experiences. Her works reflect a journey into unexplored territories, creating visual narratives that transcend conventional boundaries of thought. Over the years, she has presented her work in solo exhibitions nationally, and participated in group shows across Romania and internationally, including cities like Dortmund, Melbourne, New York, and Rome. Her work has also been featured in various online publications both nationally and internationally.
Spiros Zervoudakis was born in Athens. He studied Mathematics in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , continued with Post Graduate studies (Msc) in Applied Mathematics in Technical University of Crete and Philosophy of Mathematics in National University of Athens.
His interest in Photography started when he attended classes on the medium in the Photographic Group of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued by attending seminars and workshops. He has presented his work in individual and group Exhibitions both in Greece and abroad and his works have been awarded prizes in National and International Competitions. His works are exhibited in the “Benaki Museum”, in the Benetton Foundation’s collection, in Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (MOMus), in the Municipal Gallery of Chania, in “Contemporary Art Museum – Olivepress” as well as in many private collections in Greece and abroad. He lives, works and creates in the city of Chania, Crete.
Nominated for Futures in 2018 by the Photo Romania Festival, Szilvia Mucsy is a Hungarian artist based in Budapest.
Szilvia studies at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest and at the Athens School of Fine Art, in Greece.
Vassilis Pantelidis’ images provide a glimpse of an alternative reality, which consists of a series of conceptual self - portraits. The individual scenes adopt a theatrical approach where the abstraction, the paradox and the absurd as well as the repetitive weave and the claustrophobic thread around the human subject, without any sort of redemption or solution.
Oana Stoian was born in Lugoj (Romania) in 1993. Her passion for art distinguished itself since childhood, when she started to express her creativity – first through painting and then, during her adolescence, through the discovery of photography as her medium of choice. Her work shows an abstraction of reality, a loss of identity in the context of mysterious scenes.
In 2015, she received her Bachelor's degree from the Department of Photography-Videography at the Art and Design College, West University of Timisoara and, in 2017, her Master's degree in Publicity Graphics. In December 2015, she had her first personal photography exhibition in Timisoara, followed in the next few years by several personal and group exhibitions. In 2016, Oana was selected for the Professional shortlist in the Staged category of the Sony World Photography Awards.
Nominated for Futures in 2018 by the Photo Romania Festival, Kristine Wathne (b. 1995) is an artist based in Trondheim, Norway.
Wathne studied Visual Arts at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art and Photography at the Norwegian School of Photography.
Vassilis Triantis (b. 1975) is a Greek photographer based in Amsterdam. He comes from a scientific background and after completing a doctorate in medical biology, he turned to photography which he now combines alongside his career in medical research.
His practice explores themes of isolation and identity, the juxtaposition of collective and individual, communication versus segregation. By using small narratives he wants to shed light on ways we affect and are affected by artificial social and physical environments.
He has exhibited in The Netherlands and abroad and his work was included in The New Dutch Talent catalogue of 2017 from GUP magazine, and in the Encontros da Imagem 2017 festival program, while his project Point of View was shortlisted for FotoFilmic18.
Javier Corso (b. 1989) is a photographer, founder and director at OAK STORIES (documentary agency). His photographic work originates from the need to communicate about aspects of the human condition through means of local, smaller-scale stories.
Corso began working as a documentary photographer in 2011, publishing in media outlets like National Geographic, Al Jazeera, TIME Lightbox, GEO magazine, MO, Il Reportage, VICE, El País, and or Revista 5W. Among the cultural centers that have hosted and exhibited his projects, the following stand out: The Cervantes Institute in New York, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Palau Robert (Barcelona), Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), the International PHOTON Festival (Valencia), Photo Romania Festival and the LUMIX Festival (Hannover). His work is part of the traveling exhibition "Creadores de Conciencia", curated by Juan Manuel Castro Prieto and Chema Conesa, which compiles the work of 40 authors under the topic "committed photographers".
His documentary work has been recognized by the International PHOTON Festival, BANFF Photo Essay Competition, Prix de la Photographie Paris, Moscow International Foto Awards, International Photography Awards and as a finalist of other contests such DAYS JAPAN Photo Awards, the World Reporter Award, the Contemporary African Photography Prize, the Siena International Photography Awards, the Balkan Photo Awards and the LUMIX festival, among others.
In 2018 he is nominated for the World Press Photo 6x6 Global Talent Program and his project MATAGI received the National Geographic Society Explorer Grant.
Máté Bartha (b. 1987) is an artist based in Budapest who works in the fields of photography and documentary film. His most recent short documentary is titled Downstream (2019). He exhibits his photography works in solo and group exhibitions since 2011, in Hungary and abroad, and takes part in artist-in-residence programs (Ulm, New York), portfolio reviews (PLATTFORM Winterthur).
After receiving the National Scholarship of Hungary for photographers, he self-published his first book, titled Common Nature (2014). With his most recent photography project, Kontakt, he received the Robert Capa Grand Prize Hungary (2018), and the Louis Roederer Discovery Award in Arles (2019), divided with Laure Thibergien. The project Kontakt reports from military-themed summer camps for kids, observing our attitude towards strict discipline, weapons, and war, and raises questions about their place in our society.
More: https://barthamate.com/
Luiza Marinas (b.1987) is a Romanian photographer, whose work merges elements of fine art, conceptual photography, portraiture, documentary photography and travel photography. Travel was her entry point into the discipline; for Marinas, photographing other cultures offered a means to better understand herself. She photographed people and places in Romania, Mongolia, Nepal, Argentina, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Jordan, Iceland and Greenland, before later turning to the world of fine art and conceptual photography. Her photographs have been published by the likes of Blur Magazine, National Geographic and Vogue Italia, whilst her work has featured in several exhibitions in Romania 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.
Luciana M. Vulea is a PhD student in Visual Arts and a university assistant at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Living in a world of images, she draws inspiration from a broad range of imagery and artistic techniques – many of which she integrates into her own practice. As a doctoral student, Vulea’s research examines the insertion of virtuality into the contemporary imaginary. Her role as a university assistant involves teaching 2D and 3D animation to students. Vulea’s work also spans conservation – through the restoration of old photographs – as well as various curatorial activities.
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