Artists Spotlight

Sometimes as adults we draw our creativity from our children, there is something so innocent and fresh about how they see the world around them. Occasionally a few will include their children in this process and we are usually left with something both clever and adorable at the same time. This is what Stephen Crowley has done with his daughter Hannah, Photoshopping his images to create a story of a mischievous little girl always getting into dangerous situations.

Playing with shadows is not a new concept however in the boudoir community is has become a beautiful new trend. A recent group competition brought many boudoir photographers into the sight of this staff writer. One photographer in particular stopped the show with some moody light that won us over.

During my time as a professional fine-art landscape photographer, I've come to appreciate the moody and somber aspects of photography more than those bursting sunsets. You can find me in the forest or on the beach in the harshest of conditions or in low-light. However, I'm a real sucker for mountains; mainly because we don't have those here in the Netherlands, but there's something in the interplay between the land and the sky that goes on in mountainscapes that I find truly attractive.

One of Billboard magazine’s latest covers – featuring former Fifth Harmony babe Camila Cabello – was recently shot quite infamously using the portrait mode on an iPhone 7. The spread itself was shot using both the iPhone and a DSLR. What does all of this mean for our ever-changing industry? Should we be worried? I chatted to commercial photographer Jay Mawson, who has shot campaigns for Nike and Adidas, to gather his perspective on all of this.

Artist Jennifer Bolande has created a new art installation whereby landscape photographs "reveal" the sights that can no longer be seen due to billboards.

With over one hundred exhibitions around the world and countless prestigious awards under his belt, 32 year old Czech photographer Martin Stranka, is blurring the lines between dreaming and awakening. His mesmerising body of work has culminated with his latest and most successful series where he showcases the plights of those who have rescued wild animals.

It's been 9 years since Australian photographer Alexander Khimushin left home to travel the world, and he's since been to over 80 countries. While many travelers prefer short-term sightseeing tours, Khimushin is a firm believer that off the beaten path is the only way of traveling. Meeting indigenous people all over the world was the most inspiring part of his journey. This realization led to a personal project called, "The World in Faces," which he started around three years ago.

Masses gathered around the country to march in support together for women's rights. While each had their own unique story, most of what was heard was from adults in response to the new administration. One photographer wanted to go back to the youth of our nation to see how young girls and boys felt about these current issues to get to the root of the innocent take on the rights at hand.

Being behind the camera for a boudoir session can be just as exhilarating for the photographer as it is for the client. You are capturing the confidence being displayed right before your eyes. Add in another subject and the room becomes intoxicating when you think about the final images you will be editing. However, understanding how to gain that moody light or that intensity needed for a couples boudoir shoot is just what one photographer explains to us all.

Jason Miller works as the Global Content Marketing Leader at LinkedIn by day, but is somewhat of a rock 'n' roll photographer by night. With an extensive portfolio consisting of the likes of Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters, and KISS, Fstoppers chatted to Miller to get his thoughts on working as a semi-pro photographer, and how he balances his day job with his passion for photography by night.

While thousands of adventurers and photographers explore the far reaches of our planet forever looking for that next great vista, Marcus DeSieno spends hours scouring over 10,000 traffic and weather cams quietly watching some of the world's most remote and beautiful places. "I’ve watched the sun set over the Grand Canyon, seen waves crashing into Hawaii, watched storms passing over [the Swiss Alps],” DeSieno told Wired. “It’s all from the comfort of my desk chair.”

High-speed sync is a hot topic in the world of portrait photographers today and Francisco Hernandez is someone who has this technique dialed in.

We’ve all been there — forking out for a personal project to make what you envisioned for your images a reality. But fine art photographer Nicky Hamilton takes that one step further — he spent months building these incredible sets for his photos.

Many photographers have that one muse who inspires creative projects, knows exactly what the direction is, and is always the perfect collaboration. One artist found his own muse in himself when he set forth on a project to capture every stage of emotion of his own work. Creating composites from film, this artist brought a new light on the emotional range that photographers face everyday.

Nicknamed the city that never sleeps, New York City is commonly known for busy streets and people on the go at any time of the day or night. When one photographer sees the opportunity to photograph these commonly hustling cities into a uncommonly deserted areas, the results are a tranquil look into the true heart of some of the worlds most famous locations.

The notion that “race has no basis in reality” is at the forefront of the thought-provoking "I Am None of This" campaign by London-based portrait photographer, Slater King. King's insightful views on society and the primitive assumptions which people have about others (based on race) are reflected beautifully though his eye-opening body of work.

For the past few days, the work of Russian Retoucher Max Asabin has been circulating the Internet. Much attention is turning to the talented artist, who possesses the ability to merge several photographs in order to create a dramatic scene. See more of his work and gain an insight into his work process here.

American Photographer Ted Tahquechi is shining a light on visually impaired artists through his own thought-provoking body of work, "Landscapes of the Body." After a car accident in 1999 left him almost completely blind, Tahquechi found himself having to explore new and dynamic ways to capture the world around him on film.

This past summer I dove deep into an article on the long time debate: does a photographer's gender alter the way in which he or she photographs a subject. Is there really a difference in how one gender sees the final image, or is it just artistic preference? Two artists decided to test this theory during a creative shootout to see if all the variables stayed the same, would the image turn out differently. Does the gender of the photographer really influence the final image, or simply the approach in which is taken during the shoot?

"It's a vulnerable thing being photographed," says the photographer sitting across from me, "It's not abnormal for me to sit and chat with people for 20 minutes before I photograph them. I'm timing myself; I am watching for a look in their eye... Once I see it, I know we are ready to start photographing." Sitting down in Michael Schacht's studio, nestled in the heart of Chicago's meatpacking district, I have come to realize he is all about human connection.

Take a look at these portraits and see if you can tell what you’re actually looking at.

Artist Jason Shaltz explores the everyday lives of some of horror's biggest icons in his latest personal project, “Everyday Horrors.” Most of us know who Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers are, but outside of their gruesome yet successfully franchised acts, what do we really know about them? Well, like any good horror fan, Jason sat down and tried to capture what it might look like if they lived among us, had errands to run, or just enjoyed a nice day off.

On a late night twitter search one of my guilty pleasures is following Pee Wee Herman; it just so happened Pee Wee tweeted an image from this artist's account where he took a dump truck and filled it with fruit loops. How could I not dig further and find out who this creative and silly person is and what else have they done?

Three years ago Yulia Taits fell in love with the process of conceptual photography. The hard work of planning, searching for the perfect location, and matching styles to create something beautiful and magical fascinated her. Yulia was hypnotized by the pure and almost fairy tale beauty of people having Albinism since she remembers herself. Yulia always knew that she will make a project dedicated to them one day.

Landscape photographers know that there’s only so much you can plan. Today I want to introduce to you a fellow Dutch landscape photographer who recently came back from the volcanically active Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. What Tomas van der Weijden captured there is truly extraordinary and he told me everything about the creation of this photo.

For the past year we have been subjected to constant political bombardment. With the U.S. presidential election right around the corner, there is finally, thankfully, an end in sight. Like every presidential election, artists are using their talents to sway voters to the left or to the right. But Filipino born filmmaker Bryan Alano and a team of other photographers and poets have chimed in at the last minute with a reasonable and artistic project that serves as a last request to voters.

Hungarian photographer Flóra Borsi is not your average self-portrait artist. Many of us are satisfied with the regular glamorous makeup and looks, but Borsi shapes her own perception of the perfect selfie through her exceptional creativity. A while ago, Flóra took a picture along with her dog in which the eyes of the dog overlapped with her own, creating a feeling as though this was an eye of hers. This was the initial trigger to create the "Animeyed" project, a series of self-portraits with different animals whose facial features overlap with her own, giving an illusion of one, common eye.

How do you recognize a talent? How do you predict if someone in the photography industry will become a good professional when they are just starting? Is it the level of the aesthetics you see in someone’s work, a sense of perfect balance in their compositions, their speed of mastering technical aspects of certain art, or do you just feel it in your gut? It might be an amalgamation of all, but the young Mauritian Photographer Karen Pang sure has it all, and I feel privileged to have spotted her right at the start of her career and watched her growth throughout the years.

As large as the photography community is in a whole, it seems small and intimate when a crisis attacks one of our own. We have seen photographers unite and rally when another is hit with tragedy. However the way one couple decided to deal with the crisis themselves leads to a whole new way of thinking for personal projects and photography shoots.

When Mihaela Noroc, a photographer from Romania, decided to quit her job at the age of 27 to travel the globe and capture the diverse feminine beauty of the world, she had no idea it would turn to an ultra popular project in less than three years.