Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i Lens Magazine

Not all location assignments are equal when it comes to packing camera gear. I envision the photographic possibilities and tailor my equipment list to the project. For urban exploration, that often means going low-key and having everything I need in a relatively small bag. After doing my homework on the shot list, I opted for the Think Tank Urban Access 15-inch backpack filled with a Nikon Z8 and Nikkor Z 14-24 f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, and 70-200mm lenses and a StellaPro CLx10 light to explore Nashville, Tennessee, America’s greatest bastion of music, and one that goes far beyond the genre of country. I started documenting what’s been dubbed Music City in the honkytonks lining Broadway, where neon lights entice visitors in to watch live music while downing beers and cocktails. A…

Shamanism in Nepal is characterized by a rich tradition of spiritual practices involving chants, rhythmic Drumming, and vibrant, colorful food offerings. Nepalese shamans, known as "Jhankris" or "Dhamis," often incorporate chants and mantras into their ceremonies. These vocalizations are intended to invoke and establish connections with the spiritual world. The chants, often sung in ancient languages, are considered vehicles to reach altered states of consciousness and facilitate communication with spiritual entities. The use of drums plays a central role in Nepalese shamanic practices. Percussive rhythms are fundamental in inducing trance states in shamans, allowing them to access the spiritual realm. The pulsating sound of drums creates a ritualistic atmosphere, marking the rhythm of the spiritual journey during ceremonies. Food offerings play a symbolic and practical role in Nepalese shamanic practices.…

“THE ELECTRONIC EYES REFLECT WHAT WE ARE AND OFFER US THE POTENTIAL TO BE MORE. NLUZ’S EYES CAN SEE EVEN BETTER BEYOND. JUST TAKE A LOOK AT ONE OF HIS PHOTOS TO NOTICE. EYES LIKE THESE ARE AMONG THE SELECT OBJECTS THAT ACCOMPANY US IN LIFE AND SURPASS BEING MERE POSSESSIONS."- RAFAEL TORRELO. ARCHITECT Throughout his career, Nluz Love has received numerous awards and accolades for his photography. In 2004, he was honored with the National Professional Photography Awards, including Lux Gold in Architecture and Interior Design, and Lux Silver and Bronze in Industrial categories. His work has been showcased at esteemed venues such as the Barcelona Convention Palace. In the following years, Nluz Love continued to receive recognition for his outstanding work. Notably, in 2010, he was featured in…

“While I believe that photos taken with careful thought and focus are meaningful, I also think that capturing light-hearted photos in such hyped atmospheres can be an important part of my life and career."- Seungyeun Lee I am someone who enjoys challenges and chose photography as a medium because it allows for various attempts and experiments."- Seungyeun Lee Seungyeun Lee, born in 1994 in Seoul, South Korea, has dedicated himself to capturing the beauty of everyday life through his photography since 2021. From February 2023 to February 2024, he immersed himself in various photography projects in Calgary, Canada, and also crafted a one-year itinerary in his native language. He is currently based in South Korea, where he continues working on new photography projects. His work has garnered recognition, being featured…

Everyone we meet in the northern Albanian town of Bajram Curri has stories of a brother, a sister, a cousin, and a friend who has left in search of a better life or to provide for their families. Unemployment is widespread in Albania, and remote northern towns like this one have been disproportionately affected. Driven by desperate poverty and a sense of hopelessness for the future, more than a million Albanians (mostly men of working age) have left, hoping to find opportunities abroad. This series is the story of those who have remained. It features portraits of ordinary people I encountered on the street and the world they live in. Mieke Douglas is an internationally awarded photographic artist from the Netherlands and Canada who currently calls London her home. Her…

"COLORBLIND" BECAME AN INTRINSIC PART OF ME. AT ONE POINT, COLORS EVEN BEGAN TO IRRITATE ME WHEN REVIEWING SHOTS. ALTHOUGH THAT RADICAL PHASE HAS PASSED, I STILL SELECTIVELY EMBRACE BEING "COLORBLIND"—COLORBLIND BY CHOICE."-XAVIER PONCE As a lifelong music fan, one of my favorite songs from the 90s is "Colorblind" by Counting Crows. Little did I know that this term would come to define my passion for monochrome photography in recent years. This strong desire to shoot in black and white feels like a nostalgic yearning to recapture my youth, taking me back to my early 20s when I first learned the art of film development at the Alliance Française Academy in Quito, Ecuador. Rising before dawn, I wander through empty streets in search of that magical interplay between darkness and…

"EACH PHOTO BECOMES A TIME CAPSULE, CONTAINING A STORY, AN ATMOSPHERE, AND SOMETIMES EVEN AN ENTIRE WORLD. THE MAGIC LIES IN THIS ABILITY TO ENCAPSULATE THE ESSENCE OF THE EMOTION I FELT WHEN I PRESSED THE SHUTTER RELEASE. EACH SHOT BECOMES A WINDOW INTO MY INNER WORLD."- ALAIN DAUSSIN The Residence Palace in Brussels looks like it has stepped straight out of the pages of 'Tintin in America.' When I was a kid, my parents lived just across the road from the behemoth in a small house, and very quickly, I imagined exploiting the windfall of such a situation. I got into the habit of inviting my school friends up to the attic, where, perched on a stool to reach the skylight, they could see 'America,' and all for five…

“Iam a photographic artist and poet living on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. I was given a camera and crayons at the age of 3 and was exposed to California’s motifs: light, trees, ocean, music, and architecture, which defined my left-handed aesthetic. I started taking pictures of family and friends in my youth, studied painting and drawing, and then began developing blackand-white photos in college. I am a student of the universe, art, architecture, history, literature, film, and music, heavily influenced by everything from ancient Assyrians to Vermeer to Hopper and from Atget to Cindy Sherman. I embrace both natural and urban environments. While I appreciate color in all its vibrance, I hold a special reverence for black and white. All these influences deeply touch my art and life.…

There are few if any celebrations more intense than the Yanshui Beehive Festival in Tainan, Taiwan, where fireworks are launched not only vertically but horizontally. The latter is aimed at a glass-cased deity held responsible for bringing a plague to the island two centuries ago. The festival has been running for almost 150 years and is listed as one of the world’s top three major folklore festivals. In order to capture the action, I had to get into the middle of it, which meant suiting up in a fireman’s suit and donning a motorcycle helmet. I added a clear filter to protect my Nikkor Z 24-70mm lens. It’s a lot cheaper to crack a filter—a very real possibility in this situation—than breaking a lens. Once the fireworks started, everyone except…

“These projects address a problem faced by almost every woman in modern society: Social media, with their influencers and automatic photo filters, have created a distorted ideal of the female body. Unaltered, it seems to be nothing more than raw material that must be shaped to be socially acceptable. As a result, women are under enormous pressure to conform, and mental issues concerning body image (not only but especially among young women) have reached epidemic proportions. Of course, social media are not solely responsible for these disorders - they existed long before the Internet age. However, platforms like Instagram and TikTok have been proven to significantly aggravate these issues. PROJECT: GOLDEN GLARE “Social media platforms typically feature people with perfect faces and bodies by using filters and photo editing tools…

Some ghost towns are left to decay and rot in the surrounding area, such as the former town of Drawbridge, located near Fremont, California, which is slowly sinking into the Marsh near Oakland. Others have been transformed into tourist attractions, such as Calico, California, or Oatman, Arizona; both hold gun shows daily in the city streets and sell refrigerator magnets in their shops. But Bodie, California, is something special. Nestled in the Bodie Hills, east of the Sierra Nevada mountains and just north of Mono Lake, between seven and eight thousand people lived in this mining town during its heyday between 1877 and 1881. Some $75 million in gold was taken from Bodie Butte during those years. The town contained over thirty different mines and nine stamp mills, 65 saloons,…

This series, “Utopian Visions,” critiques the idealized constructs of societal perfection, illustrating the fragile boundary between utopian beliefs and dystopian realities.- Tianqi Liao Tianqi Liao is a visual artist who holds a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Columbia University. As a photographer, she delves into the dialogues sparked by the friction between societal norms and individual perceptions. Her work captures the subtle tensions and overt contradictions in everyday life, using a critical lens to explore themes of conformity, resistance, and the in-between spaces. This method allows her to shed light on the intricate dynamics of societal structures and their effects on personal experiences, encouraging viewers to question and rethink their own perspectives and the world around them. Alongside her artistic pursuits, Tianqi has gained professional experience at several…