Folio 2023/24

Dedicated to rethinking the ethics of storytelling and representation, through the construction of an empathic gaze.

Giulia Bernardi, 1990, Casale Monferrato. Lives and works between Milan, Liguria and Piedmont.

At first she approached photography as self-taught, later she specialized at Cfp Bauer in Milan (2020).

Her research takes inspiration from the concept of ‘psychogeology’ and the identity of places. She wants to understand the relationship between interior landscape, written word and manifest scene. Her approach is sentimental, physical and analytical at the same time: she reconstructs the poetic memories of places by exploring their configuration through the aesthetic practice of walking in them. At the same time, this direct and prolonged relationship with space leads her to catalog portions of the landscape in which she seeks a possible future between humans and ‘non-humans’ and a geological language that is intimate and daily.

Vincent Bezuidenhout is a South African born artist whose work spans image-making and investigative documentary practices. He has been awarded grants and fellowships from The National Arts Council of South Africa, The Goethe Institut, The Tierney Fellowship, Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, School of Visual Arts - NYC and the National Research Foundation of South Africa. Residencies include the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and Photoglobal at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Bezuidenhout holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, is a published writer, and has lectured widely. Solo exhibitions include Separate Amenities and Fail Deadly. Recent group exhibitions include Powerplay, Arebyte Gallery, London and The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Imagined Communities, Nationalism & Violence, Rubber Factory, NYC, and Addis PhotoFest, Ethiopia, 2018.

I currently work as a photographer, director, and film archive conservator. I use images to explore how violence, myths, and divinity are interconnected and how they shape our understanding of our place in the world. My images attempt to convey the individuality of identifiable places and evoke timelessness, while exploring the tension between the human and the supernatural. My debut film has premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival in France and I have been invited to the MoMA's New Directors/New Films in New York, as well as other festivals.

In 2014 he joined the Israeli Defense Forces as a photojournalist at the Spokesman Unit, acting as one of the official photographers of the Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot.

He graduated from the International Center of Photography's Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program with a George Moss Scholarship.His work appeared on The New York Times, The New Yorker, VICE, Huck Magazine, Office Magazine and different Israeli publications.He interned at Magnum Photos, and attended the Eddie Adams Workshop XXXI.

Uta Genilke, born in 1964, is a graphic designer, photographer and bookmaker. After living in Hamburg and Hong Kong, she settled with her family in rural northern Germany. She uses snapshots and archive material and translates her dreams, longings and fears into books. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions and at international photobook festivals.

Her book SOMMERSPIELE was shortlisted for ISSP Photobook Dummy Contest, CHARTA Dummy Book Award, Kassel Dummy Award and SIPF Photobook Award. Her latest work RAUHNACHT won the second prize of the Gomma Grant 2022, was selected for BUP Book Award 2022 and finalist for X Galicia Contemporary Photography Award.

I am a self-taught artist. Born on a farm in rural post-war Germany, I had to overcome significant hurdles on my path to personal and artistic emancipation. As a single mother, I started out with commercial photography as a way to make a living for my family, doing commissions for schools and kindergartens for many years. I started a company and employed several photographers.

Over the following decades, I developed my own style of documentary photography, which is characterised by an unflinching, intensely personal look at the social and political controversies of our time.

I hate the expression "leaving one’s comfort zone", because for me, there is no such thing as a comfort zone. I never make it easy for myself in my work and always push the boundaries of what I can do. My photographic work, I don’t try to comfort or entertain the viewer. Instead, I want to show things that might not be comfortable to look at, but provide new perspectives on topics we have taken for granted too easily.

In 2018 I decided to take life by the horns and started an artist residency on the Spanish island La Gomera, called Casa Tagumerche

My work is mainly focused in the relationship between the space and human being, trying to create a sort of relation among the elements that belong to photography, to develope an atlas that want neither to inscribe the structure nor outline the borders, it wants to explode them and unsettle our certitude creating spaces for a new exploration.

Federico "Monty" Kaplan (1986) is a nomadic photographer from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He uses photography as a tool to examine and question our perception of the reality we inhabit. With his camera, he explores intersubjective spaces, that are shaped from the relationship between our subjective experiences and the objective nature of things.

His background in filmmaking helps him create unorthodox narratives filled with atmosphere that blur the line between fiction and documentary.

Monty has exhibited work across the globe in USA, London, Germany and Argentina.

His project “The Measure” was recently selected to be part of the FOLIO masterclass with PHMuseum and Witty Books.

His work has appeared on numerous publications, including It’s Nice That, PH Room and i-D.

Rosa Lacavalla (b. 1993, Barletta) is an Italian photographer and visual artist based in Bologna. Graduated in Art Graphic (2014) and Photography (2017) at the Fine Arts Academy in Bologna she spent part of her studies in England at Coventry University and in 2016 she worked as a trainee for the collective Cesura.

Her work entitled Sana Sana won the 3rd Place for Emergentes 2021 - International Photography Awards Encontros Da Imagem (Portugal) and has been shortlisted by Safelight Paper, Cahier d’images, Fresh Eyes Talents 2021, Verzasca Foto Festival, Camera Work 2021, New Talents 2020. It was also featured on Der Greif, Cahier d'Images, Grandmama's Print, Museè Magazine, C41 Magazine.

Her visual research took part in collective shows and festivals such as Liquida Photo Festival (Italy, 2023), Encontros Da Imagem (Portugal, 2022), Castelnuovo Fotografia (Italy, 2022), Verzasca Foto Festival (Switzerland, 2021), FotoLimo Festival (France, 2020), PEP - New Talents (Germany, 2020), Funzilla EXPO (Italy, 2020), PIP Festival and Lishui PhotoFestival (China, 2019).

Cinzia Laliscia (b. 1999) is an intimate photographer born and based in Italy. Her personal works arise from themes such as nostalgia, timelessness, the unconscious and the relationship between humanity and nature. The act of creating images and series helps her to talk about her family experiences, her memories and her life.

In 2020, during her second year of university, her work Lost and found (a story about youngsters) was published by Canon in the collective book Encourage after being selected for the Student Development Program during the Visa Pour l’Image Festival. In 2021 she graduated with honours in Visual Arts at the European Institute of Design in Rome.

From 2022 her work “Finalmente posso andare” was chosen for several exhibitions, among these the PhotoVogue Festival in Milan, the Incadaqués International Photo Festival in Spain, the Liquida Photofestival in Turin, for “New Talents 2022” by PEP - Photographic Exploration Project in Brussels, the Photometria International Festival and the Photopolis Agrinio Photo Festival both in Greece.

Her work was mentioned in The Guardian, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Photo Vogue, Exibart, Artribune, PhMuseum, GQ Italia, Nowhere Diary and Deir Greif.

Yshao works with artist books, photography, new media arts and installation. By drawing upon forms rooted in personal memory, struggles and experience, His works investigate issues in migration, sense of belonging and cultural negotiation under modernization.

His works have been recognized with awards. He has been selected for Antoine d'Agata's residency in Arles, France in April chosen to participate in the New York Times Portfolio Review. He also received the Flash Forward Award (Canada). His works have been exhibited in COME TOGETHER: ART AND POLITICS IN A CLIMATE OF UNREST, Tate Modern, United Kingdom and other venues in China and the United States.

His works are in institutional collections including Jiazazhi Photo Book Library (China), and Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection.

Nikola Lorenzin (1989) was born in Belgrade just before the dissolution of Yugoslavia, but he grew up in Italy.

After graduating in Engineering, he turned his attention towards photography and film-making. His work merges open-ended narratives with a subjective documentary approach to conceptually explore contemporary issues and the linguistic potential of images.

He is currently based in Milan, where he co-founded the collective of directors Santabelva.

Marisol Mendez (1991) uses her camera to study the tension between truth and fiction, the tight relationship between what a photograph creates and the (sur)real it comes from. Unconcerned with image hierarchies, she combines lo-fi procedures with sophisticated photographic techniques to explore the dynamics between immediacy and intimacy, memory and identity.

Marisol received a BA in Audiovisual Communication at Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires and a Masters in Fashion Photography at the University of the Arts, London. She has exhibited across Europe, Argentina and Bolivia and her work has been featured internationally. She was recently selected as one of the recipients of the 2020 Michael Reichmann’s Project Grant.

Aziz’s work is research based and documents, examines, and abstracts images of neglected landscapes questioning the social and ecological implications of urban development and state building.

Emilio Nasser is a photographer and multi-media artist originally from Argentina and currently based in Switzerland.

Embarking on different paths, his works are based on the interconnections with local histories, re-visited myths, oral memories, belonging, imagination and community. Seeking to expand the multiple possibilities of visual narratives and storytelling through lens-based practices, research and collaborative approaches.

After graduating in photography at Spilimbergo School of Applied Arts, he became a self-taught cook on the move when the Argentinian social-economic crisis in 2001 broke out. While living between Latinoamerica and Europe he has been engaging in multiple learning experiences; such as ISSP-Lisa Barnard, Criticae-Max Pinkers, Folio Phmuseum, Laura El-Tantawy-Sybren Kuiper, Experimental's Photobook-Julián Barón, among others. Member of Now_you_see_me_moria collective and co-editor of Brote, a collaborative platform focusing on food with local-global perspectives.

Awarded and exhibited on different platforms as; the Archive of Documentary Arts Collection Award at Duke University (US), Phmuseum Days (IT), Verzasca Foto Festival (CH), Emergentes International Photography Award-Encontros da Imagen (PT), Valongo Festival Da Imagen (BR), Yet-Magazine (CH), PHEspaña (ES), SCAN PhotoBooks (ES), Ojo de Pez (ES). Twice awarded grants by the National Arts Fund (AR).

Edward Nurton is an author and educator who works with the photographic medium.

His work is an exploratory journey of the self that revolves around the motifs of nostalgic longing for the past and anticipation of the unknown future.

Nurton’s photography is both real and unreal: reflected in mundane objects and experiences, it evokes the eternal and existential, through its attention to detail. Its unreal-ness is formed by its ephemerality, a dream-like journey into the unconscious, while its realism is reflected through the use of archive images.

Revolving around the themes of chimeric family heritage, childhood memories, and identity, Edward’s work approaches subjectivity both as the main theme and as a transformative process that connects the artist and the audience.

Nasrah Omar (she/her) is an artist working with photography, AR/VR and collage. Through imaginative world-building, her work probes narratives of visibility, mythologization and ritual with the cultivation of affirming paracosms.

Nasrah's work interlaces layered experiences of the South Asian diaspora, material culture and syncretism, employing color as an agent of contamination and to augment the artifice of her photographic vernacular. Mediated through carefully crafted, lurid tableaus, she explores pathways to decolonial futurities; traversing the realms of the sensory, simulated and sublime.

She holds a BFA in Photography from School of Visual Arts and lives and works in Lenapehoking (Queens, NY).

Allan Salas M (b. 1993) is a photographer based in San José, Costa Rica.

His work is a poetic exploration that revolves around introspection and self-analysis through the themes of mortality, the passage of time, and the relationship between nature and the self.

Nicole Schwartz received her MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 where she was awarded the T.C. Colley Award for Photographic Excellence. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at County College of Morris. In 2021, Nicole received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her work circles around themes of identity, memory, and family.

The practice of Ellen Smeets (b.1980) revolves around the human condition within a social context. The subjects carry something universal, experiences that everybody recognizes.

1989 born, Florence based Italian photographer.

My work is mainly focused in the relationship between empathy and social dynamics, trying to understand the emotional interaction and mind shapes we all have facing the differences ages of life and circumstances.

Julia Vandenoever is a photo-based artist whose work is generated from a personal perspective exploring themes of memory, identity, place, and home.

Raised in New England, she received a BA in Art History and a minor in photography from Smith College. Her career began working for Wendy Ewald’s Literacy Through Photography program where she cemented her love of storytelling. Next, as a photo editor, she helped shape the visual aesthetic and storytelling for iconic magazines including Backpacker, Skiing and Outside for more than a decade. Now Julia is a full-time freelance editorial, commercial and fine art photographer.

She has served as a visiting artist at Guttman College in New York City and was recently awarded a Colorado Artist Relief grant and Boulder Arts Week grant. Julia has exhibited at The Humble Arts Foundation, The Griffin Museum of Photography, The Center for Photographic Art, Colorado Photographic Art, Boulder Creative Collective, SE Center for Photography, and Center for Fine Photography. She had a solo show at the Center for Photography at Woodstock of her project Still Breathing. She was a 2021 and 2022 Critical Mass finalist.

This past year Julia was an artist-in-residence at the Boulder Creative Collective where she had a solo exhibition of her work, while I wait. Her first monograph, Still Breathing, was published in 2022 and reviewed by Lenscratch, PhotoEye and PhotoBook Journal. It was acquired by Smith College Rare Books Library.

Giulia Vanelli (1996) is a photographer based in Florence, Italy. In her work she blends documentary narratives with intimate approaches, always starting from personal experiences.

My work is influenced by the inspiration that I draw from my personal experiences, my approach with my projects is mostly narrative.

Eva Verbeeck is a Belgian photographer and filmmaker. She is based between Antwerp, Belgium, and New York. Her family traveled around the world for most of her life which fused her love for visual storytelling with her deep interest in social justice, youth culture, and activism. Focusing on portraiture and collaborative storytelling, her personal work has revolved around environmental issues, human rights, gender, and the exploration of identity employing a mainly analog approach. Her long-term projects are developed by building trust and working collaboratively.

Wenkai Wang, born in 1996, originally from China, is a New York

and Shanghai based photographer, filmmaker and production designer. Wenkai

earned his BA degree in Film&TV at NYU Tisch School of The Arts,

United States. The works of Wenkai Wang are often results of

juxtaposing staged reality with an unlikely cast of the surreal.

Wenkai’s work has been recently included in the 2020 LensCulture

Exposure Award.