All photos © Karolina Karlic

Karolina Karlic is a Los Angeles-based conceptual artist. Her work is tied to the idea of the West: road trips, car culture, industry, economic ups and downs, and the experience of the migrant. Her series “Elementarz” (Polish for “Primer”) shuttles between the familiar American photographic road trip and her reexamination of parts of Poland where her family comes from and to which her father, after years working as an emigre engineer in the Detroit auto industry, was dispatched to investigate new sites for the next generation car plants. The work weaves together family, surrogate relatives, religion, nostalgia, Motown music, manufactured ideologies and other themes.

Karlic is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship.  She continues to explore representations of American culture, industry, labor, and the immigrant experience in a current work-in-progress that focuses on an American oil boom town. – Artist statement courtesy of Karolina Karlic

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“Dendrobium gouldii.” © Frazier King

Frazier King of Houston, Texas, not only photographs orchids, he also grows them. He says that the flower “has a dual nature: both a creature from its own exotic world and a reflection of our sensual or spiritual nature.” To capture each orchid in its own unique way, he uses a 4 x 5 Deardorff camera with a long lens and long bellows. King explains, “I subject each Polaroid Type 55 negative to the solarization technique (made famous by Man Ray) in order to create the atmosphere or environment in which each orchid lives its unique existence. Each negative is printed in a straightforward way on warm tone silver gelatin paper and toned with selenium.”

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All photos © Giovanni Savino

Many generations of New Yorkers have opened fire hydrants in order to cool off on hot summer days. Giovanni Savino, who is based in New York City and the Caribbean, documented the tradition in the Bronx using an iPhone. He says the mobile device helped him “get closer to my subjects and shoot more candidly than I probably could have done with a professional camera.”

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“100 Prime Mountain Acres, Whitetop, Virginia, 2011.” © Justin James Reed

Portland, Oregon-native Justin James Reed set out to study the relationship between the allure of the natural world and the constant urge a person faces to alter his or her surroundings. Focusing on parcels of land advertised by real estate agents and developers, Reed captures the natural landscapes before they are demolished by builders. Named after the term Lewis and Clark used in their personal journals as they left to explore the new western United States territory, “The Real Unknown” looks at how the American landscape has gone from uncharted wilderness to a divided and carefully thought out development in only a few generations. “For some, these spaces represent pure commodity, another opportunity to profit from the unceasing development of America,” Reed says. “However, spending time in these places has given me a different perspective. I see a world with sublime and contemplative qualities. One that holds mystery, still offers the potential for discovery, and challenges our understanding of exactly what it is and should become.” Reed is part of the 2012 Review Santa Fe 100.

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All photos © Patrice Schreyer

In July, cyclists Alban Aubert and Hans Rey biked to and around five different volcanoes in Ecuador in just five days. Swiss photographer Patrice Schreyer documented the trip along with his wife, Floriane Boss, who captured the journey on video. Schreyer says the biggest challenges—aside from the energy it took to travel up each volcano, one right after the other—were the altitude, which at its peak was 5,000 meters (16,000 feet), and the strong winds.

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