mmalphotos

[mmalphotos]

Joshua White

“When I moved to North Carolina, someone told me that the New River is the oldest river in the world. I have always been drawn to the water of a place, whether it is a lake, ocean, or river, and I was immediately intrigued. It turns out that the New is not, in fact, the oldest river in the world, but numbers among the oldest rivers along with the French Broad also in North Carolina, the Finke River in Australia, the Yangtze in China, and the Meuse River in France. In any event, just the notion that the river was so ancient, older even than the Appalachian Mountains, was enough to get me started on this project. I began to think about personal histories, my idea of home, and how a river affects ecology and the communities through which it flows. I also started to think about Pangea, and where North Carolina used to fit against Africa, creation stories and the Garden of Eden, and how religion is a large part of this region and my past. I love the fact that the same water that starts in a seep high up on Snake Mountain in Meat Camp, North Carolina, not far from my home, flows north to confluence with the Kanawha River outside Charleston, WV, and later joins the Ohio River that flowed past my hometown in Indiana. I would sit on those banks for hours, just watching the water slip past, and now it is like I have traveled back in time, away from my home but closer to my origin.”

https://www.joshuawhitephotography.com

[mmalphotos]

Al Palmer

“Soliloquy is an exploration of the edge of a city, where suburbs begin and industry ends. This is often an overlapping area, a single housing block among industrial units and businesses springing up among homes. Often dismissed as soulless estates due to a perceived lack of character, these areas struggle for identity, which often often leads to several waves of work upon an area.

The margins of a city are always slowly expanding and contracting, quietly related to issues such as immigration, economic growth, and gentrification. This slow rhythm engages the viewer; the city that is revealed doesn't exist but is a composite of many places.

These liminal spaces are of an area constantly in flux; the mundane elements of the suburbs become markers and indicators for an area without a fixed identity but several different objectives. Such districts exist in every city, their familiar sign posts – derelict buildings, skips, palettes – showing the city limits in a transitional period.”

http://www.alpalmer.co.uk

[mmalphotos]

John Mann

“Following five years of photographing the landscape and those who travel through it, Folded in Place finds its exploration of place through a visualization of the map as the final destination. These images turn the abstract representation of the map back into a physical landscape, by looking at the map as a geography of its own.”

http://rockpapercloud.com

[mmalphotos]

Nate Lemuel

“Over time, I have been photographing for many years. One of the many important reasons that led to continue this practice, is the land I grew up on. As I continue to understand more about my communities on the Navajo Nation, I always take in the moments to see what is around me and what I was taught to be appreciative of. My grandmothers always told me to be thankful for every sunrise and sunset. These photographs that I took over the past 2 years are photographs that represent where I came from and my perspectives of the places I go to when I come home.”

https://www.darklistedphotography.com

[mmalphotos]

Liz Kubal

“When you move out to California from back east, you come for a reason: You’re leaving behind a bad relationship, or escaping your hometown, or thinking you’ll be a star. And what you find when you get here is that things aren’t what you thought they’d be. There’s some of what you expected—sunshine and palm trees and long, wide beaches. But there’s more: houses with cacti and succulents in place of the green lawns you grew up with; women in bikinis climbing ladders; trees groomed in an archway, the expected path between them blocked by a gateless chain-link fence. You answer an ad on craigslist for a used car and find yourself in a boxed-in car lot in Van Nuys and go for pie at Du-par’s afterward, because pie makes sense when you’re on Ventura Boulevard and it’s 95 degrees and the car wasn’t what the ad said it would be. And you’d think that, after all this, you’d become disillusioned and go back home, and some do, of course, but many more of us stay and instead of growing bitter, we hang on—hang on to a world that, to us, is even more fantastic than the one we thought we’d find, because it’s real in its absurdity and because we have stories to tell.”

https://www.lizkuball.com

[mmalphotos]

Ron Jude

“Lick Creek Line is the third installment in a trio of projects about my childhood home of central Idaho (preceded by Alpine Star and emmett). Although there’s an element of narrative in most of the individual images, the pictures ultimately find their meaning through the structure of the book. (I can’t overstate how important books have been to all three of these projects. In fact, it’s safe to say that none of them would have come to fruition without the book to give them form.)”

http://ronjude.com

[mmalphotos]

Gabriel Isak

“The Blue Years entails surreal and melancholic scenes where Gabriel Isak invites the viewer to interact with the inner world of solitary figures that symbolize our own unconscious states. The works is a serene and melancholic meditation that stills the chaos of life and transforms into an introspective journey that questions the depths of existence. Using himself of photography he created these surreal images that are minimal and graphic in it’s aesthetic, rich in symbolism and emotion, focusing on themes inspired by human psychology, dreams, romanticism, as well as his own experiences, especially the years he battled through depression. The subjects are anonymous, imprisoned in monochromatic settings, so the viewer can envision oneself as the subject, reflecting back on one’s own experiences and journey in life, making it to a personal experience. The objective of “The Blue Years” is to shine a light on the experiences of being and the states of mind those brings along. Isak lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden from where he works and travels the world for personal and commissioned projects.”

https://www.gabrielisak.com

[mmalphotos]

Mark Griffiths

“The following images are a visual metaphor for the feeling of being isolated and the apprehension of the unknown during the ongoing enforced lockdown currently in operation.

The pictures are a representation of my mental and physical wellbeing from being isolated or confined to a space for a prolonged period and convey my thoughts and feelings towards an uncertain future during the corona virus pandemic.

Making this work allows me to express my inner anguish and worries about the situation we are facing and provides me with a therapeutic sense of purpose whilst confined within the four walls of my one bedroom flat.”

https://www.markgriffithsphotography.com

[mmalphotos]

James Dodd

“Each seller pulls up to their pitch with their car rammed full of remnants of their lives: the books they've read, the gift's they never wanted to receive, the clothes they feel no longer defines them and the hobbies and collections they no longer desire to peruse.

Each stall is almost portrait of the seller, a piece of themselves spread out right there on decorating tables and on the floor for all to see and buy.

What began as a photographic exercise and a way to keep me sharp in-between other projects and assignments eventually developed into more of a personal journey to understanding the value of goods and perception of quality.

It's not only my thinking that's changed, but also my buying habits. I buy whatever I can from car boots. From clothes to household goods and it comforts me to know that each item has their own back-stories in a way, which is incomparable to new goods.

This is what keeps drawing me back, week in week out... the voyeuristic experiences, the bargains and cheap bacon sarnie's.”

https://jamesdodd.com

[mmalphotos]

Terri Bright

“In Sonnets, I create quiet, lyrical narratives from the everyday – inorganic forms disclose life-like characteristics, randomly placed objects seem purposeful, bent frames become graceful. These images are like small meditations, granting permission to pause, and creating space for contemplation. Forgotten items and ordinary spaces possess a kind of wilted beauty that alternately suggest playfulness, tranquility, melancholy, and desire.”

http://www.fractionmagazine.com/terri-bright

[mmalphotos]

Amy Powell

“When my mother gave birth to my half-sister Erica, I was twenty years old. Sitting in the hospital room with my camera, she made giving birth look easy. I photographed as Erica made her way into the world, cut her umbilical cord myself, and was the very first to hold her. In that moment, I gave her a name she inevitably didn't get to keep. And she peed on me.

Ever since, having a much younger sibling has given me the unique experience of observing the way in which I may have been raised. Photographing Erica has become a window into my own elusive childhood.”

http://www.amy-powell.com

[mmalphotos]

Aleem Hurst

“My body doesn’t feel like a part of me, but like a strange apartment that I did not choose and cannot leave. This tension manifests as an ever-present, buzzing discomfort that ranges from quiet and ignorable to deafening and all-consuming.

When I feel especially trapped, I slip through the trapdoor of my practice and into my work, where I am able to craft my reality into something that is a pleasure to exist in. I revisit places and experiences where I could not, or cannot, exist fully as myself and—through the process of making photographs—construct an alternate narrative that I can inhabit without fear, inhibition, or shame.

Though the act of imagination serves as a refuge from a painful reality, it is also a valuable tool that I use to build a better one. My imagination informs my intuitive sense of what I want my body to look and feel like and allows me to picture the surrounding world as it could be; it restores my strength and my will to take action towards the ideals that I build upon within it.”

http://www.aleemhurst.com/

[mmalphotos]

Steven Ford

“Recently someone asked me, "Why did you choose Tokyo?" I hadn't thought about it before, but I answered without hesitation, like I'd known all along: "I didn't choose Tokyo, Tokyo chose me."

My first trip, I was running from my myself and from uncertainty. The moment I landed, I caught a terrible cold and spent the week in a haze. I don't remember much, except that I hated the food, hated the weather, and was irritated that nobody would look me in the eye. Vowing to never return, I went home.

Six months later, I finally looked at the photos I'd shot and knew I that I had to go back. So I went, and I'd always return home thinking, "that's it, I'm done, time to move on to something else." But I kept getting drawn back.

Tokyo became my escape and my mirror. Here, I'm safe in the crowd, isolated without loneliness, collecting small reflections, reassurances that I'm not alone.”

http://www.stevenfordphoto.com/

[mmalphotos]

Clay Lipsky

“Between Here & Nowhere is an ongoing series based upon my years of exploring the deserts of Southern California. I was initially inspired to photograph the natural beauty beyond the concrete sprawl of Los Angeles, but my motivation soon changed once I ventured far enough. Upon discovering the rural decay scattered throughout the Mojave Desert to the toxic shores of the man-made Salton Sea, I became focused on documenting the ways mankind had altered this environment. In my eyes, I see the artifacts as symbols of man's basic needs and the applied ambitions to flee urban trappings. However this story is not just about loss and the toll society takes on our surroundings. For every change we make to the landscape, nature will adapt to and ultimately the processes of entropy and evolution will thrive. In the end we are just visitors passing through and these are the marks we leave behind.”

https://goclaygo.com

[mmalphotos]

Ben Huff

“The Last Road North is a portrait of Alaska's Dalton Highway. At 414 miles, the Dalton is the northernmost road in America, and was constructed solely as a transportation route to serve the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay. This dirt scar cuts through a heartbreaking landscape, and provides the photographs with a backdrop that depict a landscape, and people, at the fine edge of frontier and progress.

During this project, I drove during all seasons – moving when I felt the pull, sleeping in my truck, and waking with the light to court the landscape and revel in the fleeting relationships with strangers that only a shared path can afford. There are no stop signs, byways, or crossroads on the Dalton. No amenities or services to speak of. People don't stumble onto this road – to be there is to have a need. To be searching. Always north or south – advancing or retreating. At the end, always oil.”

http://www.huffphoto.com

[mmalphotos]

Carol Erb

“"All human beings have three sides; public, private and secret.” I’m a little obsessed with this quote from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and what it says about human nature.

Growing up in the Midwest, my family lived in a modest house on a tree lined street. We knew all our neighbors. There were no fences or hedges dividing us. We didn’t require much privacy, and we didn’t have any secrets. Twenty years ago, I moved to Los Angeles. The myriad ways in which people wall themselves off from others in this strange city fascinates me. Shrubs are sculpted into opaque walls that delineate property lines, conceal windows, and sometimes hide entire homes. Fences along sidewalks transition to electric gates at the driveway. I barely know my neighbors here, and rarely see them outside. I am struck with this contrast from the world I came from. Are they seeking privacy? Are they hiding secrets?”

https://www.carolerbart.com

[mmalphotos]

Adam Ekberg

“In calculated performances that intersect with photography’s documentary potential, I explore ephemeral occurrences. Making such humble events happen is alchemy of sorts, the transformation of the mundane into the poignant. Within the constructed images, I reposition specific celebratory iconography to create minor spectacles. My process requires detailed and elaborate production outside the photographic frame so that what appears within the frame implies simplicity and straightforwardness. It is important to me that these constructions actually exist in the world, if only for the moment in which the photograph is made.”

https://adamekberg.com/home.html