Kurshaka

A Nikon F-501 or Nikon FE2, accompanied by a Nikkor 50mm 1.8 or 100mm 2.8 lens.

Image: ESA’s Earth from Space series reaches its 1000th image with a return to the vibrant waters of southern Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas – the same region featured in the very first edition in 2004.

And more small talk.

Image: Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 21 April 2026, this image shows a double bloom in the Netherlands: an array of vibrant colours in the tulip fields as well as the blue-greenish swirls of phytoplankton in the North Sea.

Today, with Iran's supreme leader dead and the son of the CIA-installed shah coordinating with Washington on what comes next, Europe faces the question it has avoided for seven decades.

Bouwe Brouwer appears on the Eyeshot 50mm YouTube Channel. You can watch the full interview here.

The post Bouwe Brouwer Interview on Eyeshot 50mm appeared first on UP Photographers.

A black and white journey into the depths

When I leave home for a day of diving, I always feel a mix of excitement and detachment. A moment alone at dawn, when everyone is still asleep, becomes a kind of quiet ritual: methodically packing my gear, performing last checks, loading film and setting off towards a world apart.

My photography was born from a simple desire: to share those moments — their quiet magic, and the subtle mix of lightness and oppression that comes with the depths.

I started diving as a teenager with my father in the South of France. These early mornings on the Mediterranean shaped everything that followed. From the start, I knew I didn’t want to make “fish close-ups.” No macro shots. No powerful strobes flattening the background into darkness. I wanted to photograph diving itself — the landscapes, the rarefying light, the divers who briefly inhabit them, — to capture our fleeting moments in a place where we don’t belong.

Why Film, Why Vintage

Years before I even thought about taking @ilm underwater, I bought a Rolleiflex out of curiosity, without realising I was acquiring what is still, in my eyes, the best camera ever built — both for its exceptional qualities and its limitations: one focal length, one film with fixed sensitivity, only twelve shots, and just two settings — aperture and speed. It taught me to become a better photographer

At that time, being of the digital era, I was using with a Nikon D800 in a housing, but the images didn’t re@lect what I was seeing or feeling during my dives. I kept looking for other solutions and eventually found one of the very rare Rolleimarin housings for Rollei@lex, my favourite cameras on land! It was my first experience with film underwater, and the resulting photographs remain amongst my most cherished.

But the Rolleimarin was still a land camera in a box — heavy, difficult to focus, and with a very narrow field of view. A 75 mm lens underwater is roughly equivalent to 90 mm which kept me quite limited to fish “portraits”.

My next step was naturally towards the Nikonos system. Born in the early 1960s, it remains the only truly dedicated underwater camera system. Its optics—water-contact wide angles like the 15 mm and the legendary 13 mm—were designed exclusively for underwater use. I particularily appreciate the Nikonos V understated presence: it fits in one hand and never hinders movement or compromise the safety of a dive. No distractions, no protruding arms to get tangled, nothing that prevents me from assisting a buddy, and no powerful lights blinding the sea life. Nothing in modern digital gear comes close, as I’m not ready to trade either the camera’s compactness or the almost organic grain I love for ultra-high ISO or the ability to shoot hundreds of frames in a single dive.

Working with Light — or the Lack of it

As we immerse ourselves, light vanishes layer by layer, turning the sea into a monochrome world. The depths gradually block colours of the spectrum one by one — red, orange, yellow — until below twenty metres, nothing remains but shades of blue and grey. The grain, contrast, and tonality of black and white film express the atmosphere of my dives far better than any attempt to artificially recreate lost colours ever could.

I mostly shoot Delta 400, it covers nearly all my needs and responds quite well to underexposure and push processing. When I know the most interesting moments will happen deep — on a wreck, for example — I set the camera to underexpose by one stop (or two if needed) and push process at home. This flexibility makes the difference. On shallower rock dives, even if we start deep by dropping to forty metres, I know that most good frames will happen above twenty-five metres, where the light and sea life return, so I keep the best shots for the second half of the dive and stick to box speed.

In Belgium, diving is different. Unless under exceptional conditions, quarries become pitch black from 10 meters deep, so I often use Ilford Delta 3200, pulled to 1600 ISO. The light is scarce, and the atmosphere is dense, sometimes almost claustrophobic. But the result can be striking: a diver emerging from the darkness, a fish caught in a beam of winter light.

A Hybrid Process

My workflow blends analog capture and digital finishing. After the dives, I develop the films at home, pushing or pulling depending on how the film was exposed. I love this part of the process. There’s a delicious frustration in not knowing what you’ve captured until you return and develop your film, sometimes weeks after the dive. It means each dive is lived twice: once underwater, and once in the darkroom.

Then I digitise the film using a Nikon D850 with 60mm Macro and an ES-2 reproduction setup. Once acquired in RAW, I make adjustments in Lightroom — just enough to clean up and bring out the tones.

The final image is high-resolution and ready to print or share. It’s still film — every bit of grain is there — but I can present it in a contemporary way. This hybrid approach allows me to enjoy the best of both worlds: the authenticity of film and the flexibility of digital.

Living wrecks

Of all the places I dive, wrecks are my favourite. They are not just physical structures; they are fragments of history and havens for marine life. Some have been on the seafloor for more than a century. They are silent witnesses to dramatic events: the Spahis, the Donator — ships lost in war or storm, now standing as oases in the desert of the seabed. Others, like the Hellcat, tell lighter stories: a French airforce pilot losing his propeller while playing “I dare you to fly lower than me” with his buddy, then ditching gracefully into the sea.

Ship wrecks are both impressive and intimidating. They are places where the sea and human history meet. When I dive on a wreck, I always try to include a diver in the frame — to show scale, but also to anchor the image in the human experience.

Unplanned Moments

Henri Cartier-Bresson once said that photography is the art of exclusion, and a perfect composition is rare. Underwater, this becomes very tangible.

I never dive with a plan or picture in mind, if the moment comes together, I take a picture. In full season there might be many divers and clubs on the same spot. The water alive with bubbles and passing fins. It is often hard to get a clear & clean shot. But that unpredictability is part of the story — and of the dive itself. I’m not staging scenes; I’m documenting what it feels like to be down there.

Every so often, I’m lucky enough to join quiet wreck dives with Frank, the owner of my club, who shares and understands my artistic approach. He knows these wrecks intimately — where to position, how to slip away from the beaten tracks. I can then fully concentrate on photography with minimal distractions: wait for the moment when the bubbles clear, when the wreck looms in stillness, when everything aligns in that window of time.

Different Waters, Different Cultures

Diving is not just about places. It’s about people.

In the South of France, where I learned to dive, many of the people I dive with are “old school.” They belong to a tradition not far removed from the pioneers of scuba diving. One characteristic is the use of spearfishing gear — two-piece “slim-fit” wetsuits that require soap to put on and long fins — a look inherited from earlier generations of divers that gives them a sleek shark-like silhouette underwater. To some modern divers it seems eccentric, and I often get questions about it from people around the world when I post images on social media. But visually, it has a real charm — a distinctive look that makes my photographs instantly recognisable.

Belgium is another world entirely. It is a place where land and water blur into each other, where visibility is unpredictable and the light shifts from hour to hour. The gear is different — shaped by cold water, often 6 °C in winter. The divers are different too: here it’s more about the discipline itself than contemplation. The images are different as well. I like them equally, and the contrast between the two cultures feels almost alien — and creatively, very inspiring.

Born of Water

It is a fortunate accident that my two passions ultimately aligned. Film photography, like diving, is born of water. Film emulsions are liquid at their core, and images emerge from the darkness of developer tanks — just as wrecks emerge from the shadows of the sea. Every photograph I make is shaped by water twice: once when it is captured, and again when it is revealed.

All images ©Blaise Duchemin

The post Light and Fathoms appeared first on Ilford Photo.

Ian Bates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Bates’s Website

Ian Bates on Instagram

Photo by Cosimo Fanciullacci

More photos from past publications of zines and books.

Stay tuned for new stuff coming soon.

Photo by Grant Lewandowski

Photo by Eric Kim

Photo by Tyler Haage

Photo by Joao Pedro Lima

Photo by Sal Hernandez

Photo by Chris Leskovsek

Striking contrasts, intrigue and nostalgia merge in film photographer Guy Pinhas' photobook, 37000, a visual diary of his trips to and from Tours, Paris. We talked with Guy about the inspirations behind the book, his creative process and more.

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Massive ice floes crush like pebbles in a frosty series by Bernhard Lang. Known for his stunning aerial photos that capture the intricate textures found around the globe, Lang recently flew above the Baltic Sea to glimpse the wintry conditions. Awash in snow and ice, the photos create a compelling tapestry of life from Estonia to Finland that includes traversing the frozen Peipsi Lake on foot and watching crystalline structures form on the water’s surface.

Lang is currently splitting his time between Germany and Estonia, and you can find more of his aerial sights on Instagram. 

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Fractured Ice Drifts Atop a Frosty Baltic Sea in Bernhard Lang’s Stunning New Photos appeared first on Colossal.

Use Of Elegant Black and White

Since 2014, Angélique Boissière has been exploring film photography through medium format, which she likes for its square framing, and thus to get reacquainted with an art that calls to her from her teenage years. With a classical artistic background nurtured through her practice of dance and her affinity for Impressionist and Romantic imagery, the feminine nude came up as an obviousness, given the immutable place it takes in the western Art History. It is with the same aim of universality that the photographer flourishes through the use of elegant black and white.

Free and Spontaneous

In the early stages of her art, Angélique discover herself through self-portraiture. Which, if at the start was only a convenient means to explore the craft of photography, now evolved into an exploratory dimension of the artist in which she finds herself more free and spontaneous than in sessions with models. Indeed, her self-portraits approach an introspective photography which seeps in daily life. In this realm, she invents and reinvents herself as her inspiration surges goes by and the resulting pictures question reality: where is the limit that keeps apart the photographer from her character, the woman from the artist, the pure aesthetic subject from her reflection?

To Preserve

In contrast, the shootings with models defines as a more thoughtful process, requiring meticulous attention to composition and mastery of lighting. While the human element lies at the core of Angélique Boissière’s work, it is through the simplicity and authenticity of her captures that it is elevated, devoid of artifice. The eye is acquainted with the emerging entity, dressed or unveiled, without ever compromising the intention to preserve its inherent naturalness.

Soie

To grant us a glimpse of these beauties captured in their essence, the artist has meticulously conceived and designed two self-published books: Marées (2018 – republished in 2020) dedicated to four years of seaside snapshots featuring multiple wistful portraits bathed in natural light; and Soie (2021) that gathers not only nudes and portraits, but also intricate details and landscapes in a more personal monograph.

The Analog Process

As much an artist as a craftswoman, Angélique takes part in all the steps involved in the creation of picture: the photographer develops herself her exposed film that she then reworks digitally to imbue it with its distinctiveness. The analog process is fully embraced by the wish to accompany, throughout the various processes, the imagined picture, its physical medium, and then its ultimate realization. Beyond the usage of a camera, the artist is on with this extension that often embodied by a Pentax 67 or a Rolleiflex, being an integral part of droves of her self-portraits.

Images ©Angélique Boissière

The post Soie appeared first on Ilford Photo.

French artist Juliette Minchin appreciates wax for its ambivalence. Activated by heat, the modest material can be smooth or crinkled, firm or pliable, and molded into a distinct shape or pooled into a puddle of liquid. No matter its current form, though, wax can quickly morph from one state to another, and this impermanence is partially what inspired Minchin to incorporate the sticky compound into her practice about five years ago.

Today, the artist creates large-scale installations and sculptures often embedded with candles. “The cross, vigil with thorns,” for example” arranges 33 wax-dipped panels in an enormous T-shape centered in a stark 13th-century Cistercian abbey. Each day, 363 wicks burned and melted away the dried substance to slowly reveal a botanical motif in steel.

Alternatively, architectural works like “Vitrail soufflé” are static for longer periods. The stained-glass window rendition features sheer, curtain-like panels bulging and falling around an arched metal frame based on the original construction. Appearing caught in the wind, the billowing sheets are made by pouring liquid wax on flat surfaces to create a thin layer, which Minchin peels off while warm. “I place them on the metal structures, and I have about two minutes to sculpt them. It’s a dialogue between what the material offers me and where I want to take it. I have to let myself be guided by the accident and instantaneity,” she tells Colossal.

 

While the physical properties are endlessly appealing, Minchin is also intrigued by wax’s cultural and spiritual connotations, particularly superstitions and funerary rites. Romans would sculpt lifelike masks to immortalize the deceased, and the ancient embalming method of mummifying shares an etymological root with the Persian word for wax. Candles, though, also signify light and hope for the future, and the contrast between life and death adds to the material’s ambiguity.

Minchin sees her work in this same vein, “as much a destruction as a rebirth” because she re-melts and molds the materials from one piece into subsequent projects. “Paradoxically, the process of destruction makes the work very much alive, since it evolves without the artist’s hand and generates forms autonomously,” she adds, likening wax to human flesh for its protective and vulnerable qualities. This bodily metaphor returns again and again in her practice, particularly as it relates to life’s cycles and time passing. The melting process, she explains:

…is like a soul leaving one body for another… I am inspired by the classical concept of memento mori when two opposite states, two contradictory times cohabit in the same object: stability and fall, presence and absence, birth and (disappearance). Is it disappearing or being born?  I want to produce an image of a ruin where some parts were saved and partially reconstructed and that we have the feeling of a day after a party.

Minchin’s work will be on view in June at Art Basel with Anne-Sarah Bénichou Gallery and later that month for a solo exhibition at Museo Sant’Orsola in Florence. Until then, find an archive of her projects on her website and Instagram.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Inspired by Impermanence, Juliette Minchin Burns Down Her Elegant Wax-Dipped Installations appeared first on Colossal.

Merging organic forms with timeless craft, Susanna Bauer emphasizes incredible details in her intimate leaf sculptures. Working with a range of foraged species, from ginkgo to magnolia to oak, the artist (previously) meticulously stitches around the edges or fills in tiny incisions, creating intricate lacework compositions.

A new monograph Susanna Bauer: IN LEAF, published by 5 Continents Editions, celebrates her use of natural ephemera to create elegant pieces exploring the relationship between strength and fragility. “Nature becomes a metaphor for humanity: the artfully interwoven threads remind us that we are all part of a vaster network and therefore generators of connections,” Valentina de Pasca writes in an introductory essay.

Bauer created a limited edition that includes a magnolia leaf circle crocheted into the opening page. She is releasing these in batches, which have previously sold quickly, so keep an eye on her website for the next update. You can also preorder a standard copy of IN LEAF on Bookshop.

If you’re near Austin, stop by the Affordable Art Fair, which runs May 16 to 19 at the Palmer Events Center, where Bauer is showing work with Muriel Guépin Gallery. Follow more updates on the artist’s Instagram.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Susanna Bauer’s Intricately Crocheted Leaves Celebrate the Elegance and Ephemerality of Nature appeared first on Colossal.

Vincent Glielmi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vincent Glielmi’s Website

Vincent Glielmi on Instagram

Photo by Brandon Getty

More photos from our most recent issue.

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Photo by Christopher Radney

Photo by Dave Glass

Photo by Louis Fabries

Photo by Sila Yalazan

Nature’s subtle irregularities and variations are fodder for Jon Foreman (previously). Using found leaves, stones, and sand, the Wales-based artist assembles swirling gradients and organic motifs that radiate across forest floors and beaches. He precisely arranges each composition by size and color, relying on basic geometric principles to transform a humble material and unconventional backdrop into stunning artworks. Considering the constructions last just a short time before they’re blown or washed away, head to Foreman’s Instagram to see them in pristine condition.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In Sand and Stone, Jon Foreman Sculpts Hypnotic Gradients and Organic Motifs appeared first on Colossal.

Despite the idyllic photos that populate Instagram feeds and travel blogs, Bali has a plastic problem. The island produces 1.6 million tons of waste each year, and thanks to ocean currents, it also receives tidal waves of pollution from neighboring islands that bury its beaches in mounds of trash, debris, and even rotting animal carcasses during monsoon season. To mitigate the problem, two sister organizations have teamed up to clean Bali’s waterways and transform the uncovered waste into useful goods.

Sungai Watch leads the first part of the process by identifying problem rivers and installing wide barriers to trap pollution. Since launching in 2020, the nonprofit has pulled 1,718,562 kilograms, nearly 1,900 tons, of plastic from the waterways.

Once cleaned and sorted, the waste is handed off to Sungai Design, which shreds and presses the material into large panels. CNC machines cut parametric components that are fashioned into a line of modern chairs, while offcuts are recycled into other products. Available in two shapes and three colors, the speckled designs both feature wide, sloping seats and angular legs. Each recycles an estimated 30 kilograms of plastic.

To dive into the trash collection process, head to YouTube, and shop available products from Sungai Design.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article A Nonprofit Is Creating Modern Loungers Entirely from Plastic Pulled from Bali’s Waterways appeared first on Colossal.

Armed with his trusty Hasselblad XPan and a Sprocket Rocket camera, film photographer Nuno Cruz decided to try out panoramic format in the streets of Amsterdam. We sent him some Lomography Lady Grey and Berlin Kino film and spoke with him about how each combination performed.

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Hordes of ants with serrated mandibles, a coiled caterpillar, and puffy white cotton-ball clouds materialize in Greg Olijnyk’s Melbourne studio. The artist continues his ever-growing collection of cardboard sculptures augmented with LED lights, toothpicks, and “a lot of hours and lots of coffee.” His most recent works include a trio of mechanical insects presented like entomological displays, their legs and heads revealing Olijnyk’s meticulous attention to detail and devotion to rendering minuscule features. Keeping with the wondrous world that he’s been expanding the last few years, the artist also fashioned a “Dream Factory,” a whimsical manufacturing plant shipping out the most fantastical imaginings.

For more of Olijnyk’s sci-fi universe of robots and uncanny architecture, visit his site and Instagram.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Cardboard Takes a Fantastical Turn in Greg Olijnyk’s Mechanical Insects and Wondrous Dream Factory appeared first on Colossal.

“The two things I love the most are observing people and playing with colours,” says Bangalore, India-based artist Muhammed Sajid, whose vivid digital illustrations highlight personalities, garments, and visual culture inspired by his home state of Kerala. Ornate fabrics and objects surround figures who gaze directly at the viewer or interact with flora and fauna, and symbolic references to vernacular architecture and art fill each vibrant composition.

Sajid was inspired to start making portraits while he was in college, and over time, he honed his interest in portraying people and their surroundings. Initially, he worked in watercolor and poster paints, but found it difficult to achieve the saturated hues he was drawn to. “In the digital era, things are entirely different, and I started using different types of colours,” he says, exploring the full spectrum and building bold contrasts.

In his Folks from Kerala series, Sajid draws from memories and renders subjects who are reminiscent of people he would see around his childhood town. “Some of the pieces that I had done in that series show people who are familiar folks and faces from the village,” he says. “I felt that no one gave much attention to how simple and beautiful their lives were.” He continues to build on these initial explorations, combining elements of pop culture, fashion, and landscape.

Later this year, Sajid will show a couple of new pieces with Galerie Kurokama in Paris, which focuses on contemporary Asian art. Find more of the artsit’s work on Behance and Instagram.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Vibrant Digital Illustrations by Muhammed Sajid Evoke Memories of the Artist’s Hometown appeared first on Colossal.

Ending the year on a positive note, our picks of positive trends and admirable global breakthroughs of 2023.

Part of our Beautiful News project. There we surface the good news and happy data we can’t always see when fixated on the negativity of the news.

» See the charticle
» Explore the data and sources