All Photos © Bill Finger

Seattle-based photographer Bill Finger—who worked earlier in his career as an assistant cameraman—uses his knowledge of cinematography and set design to fuel his fine art project “Previously.” The macabre post-crime scenarios create narratives that straddle the line between fiction and reality, which at times surrender hints at the diorama’s construction. Finger showed his work as a participant at this year’s Photolucida in Portland, Oregon.

“The creation of each image begins with the construction of a miniature diorama. Each diorama is constructed specifically to be photographed. Like filmmaking, all staging and lighting is done looking through he lens. Once photographed, the diorama is destroyed. Through this process I create a temporary space, which like a film set, only lives on within the image.” —Bill Finger

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All photos © Douglas Ljungkvist.

Douglas Ljungkvist first experienced Ocean Beach, New Jersey, in the early Nineties while visiting friends vacationing there. His first impression was that it looked like a work camp, mainly because of the enormous area with its small cottages, all the same size, laid out in a grid with streets made of sand.

Through this work, Ljungkvist takes on the role of visual historian and anthropologist as he works to capture the fast growing minority of cottages that have not yet shed its wood paneling and kitschy beach decorations for generic white sheetrock walls, flat screen TVs, and Wi-Fi Internet access. This may offer vacationers more comfort and conveniences but also sacrifices the strong sense of place and charm that Ljungkvist remembers. He has come here five times since that initial visit in the Nineties and plans to keep coming back.

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All Photos © Alyssa Miserendino.
Chicago-based photographer Alyssa Miserendino‘s documentation of her own abandoned home in 2004 paved the way for her current project Our World Insideout. During the economic crash in 2009 the familiar emotion of loss and displacement resonated with her so much so that she began documenting foreclosed homes in the Chicago area, and eventually homes in Brazil and New Orleans. Miserendino has spent time photographing families in Brazil who are part of the favelas, historical abandoned sites, and reclaimed homes. In New Orleans the project focused on the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and what was left untouched versus what people have squatted in to make their own home.

Miserendino is currently working with an organization in Brazil to help turn the most popular squatted in building into the first urban public housing building in Rio de Janeiro. She says, “I created the imagery with the hope that this project will incite a visual, global dialogue concerning the used and unused resources; thus inspiring change. It touches on the many levels of humanity and one of the most sacred places for us: home.”

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All photos © Scott Frances. Above: Glass house designed by architect Kengo Kuma. New Canaan, CT.

Architectural photographer Scott Frances’ exhibition MonoVisioN, comprised of large-scale works, is currently on view at the D&D Building in Manhattan.

The exhibition coincides with the release of Frances’ first monograph of the same title with an introduction by Richard Meier, published by Pond Press. In the preface to MonoVisioN, Meier states: “A Scott Frances photograph captures all these ephemeral elements that I have always explored in my architectural work. The images in this book portray the qualities that give every space and building a sense of place, and the constant dialogue between the man-made and the natural. MonoVisioN becomes an exploration of solid and void, transparency and opaqueness, the rational and the intuitive, and an essay on composition.”

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© Grant Gunderson

This image of Prusik peak was from a catalogue shoot that Grant Gunderson did for Outdoor Research in the Enchantment’s portion of the Alpine Lake Wilderness in Washington. Gunderson says, “We don’t do your typical posed and set up catalogue shoots working with Outdoor Research. We always approach it with a more photojournalistic style on trips with people, who are not models, in remote locations. Not always the easiest thing to do when your backpacking with a full load of camera equipment plus your regular gear during long distances with lots of elevation, but the out come is always worth while.”