All images © Adam Amengual

Adam Amengual‘s series, “I Survived Skatopia,” documents a small skateboard/anarchist commune in Rutland, Ohio. Every June around 500 people from all over the United States gather in southern Ohio to participate in Bowl Bash – four days of of music, skating and debauchery. In these portraits, the participants are pulled away from the chaos, if only for a minute. Amengual’s series “Homies” placed in the “personal” category of the 2012 PDN Photo Annual and was the winner of the Sony Emerging Photographer Award.
The 2013 PDN Photo Annual’s extended deadline is today! For more information and to enter the context, visit: http://www.pdnphotoannual.com/

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All images © William Anthony

“While on assignment for Portland Monthly magazine at the Oregon Historical Society’s storage ‘vault,’ I came across their stored archive of vintage mannequins, spanning decades, from the now-defunct department store Meier & Frank. And while we did not photograph these for the feature, I couldn’t get them out of my mind. So, a few weeks later I asked my contact at the historical society if I could return to photograph a selection of them. But instead of lighting them like artifacts, I chose to light them as portraits.

The results were uncanny. I was careful to not remove any visible signs that these are inanimate objects (Velcro, seams, etc.). My point isn’t to confuse or obfuscate, but instead to reflect on what it is that makes humans animate. Some of these are so lifelike, but at the same time there is something indescribable that betrays their insentience.” –Courtesy of William Anthony

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©Hai Zhang

“Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost” is a series about photographer Hai Zhang‘s unsettling journey through the “new” China, with its accelerated economic and urban development, cultural change, and social upheaval brought on by mass internal migration. Zhang shot the images between 2008 and 2012, and says they reflect his raw anxiety about a future with no certainty beyond the acute metaphysical awareness of one’s own fragility. “To me, it has become impossible to take a shot of today’s China without capturing contrast” on the fault line between China’s past and present, he says. “But what does it really mean?…Can I grasp a sense of today’s ‘Chinese-ness’ through a composite portraiture of my own society? Perhaps this is an impossible ambition. Looking at the pictures I have taken so far, I hate to realize that I am still dealing with illusions and fantasies.”

An exhibition of the work is on view at the Chobi Mela VII International Photography Festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is also showing at Gallery Voies Off in Arles, France through March 3, 2013. (more…)

Andre Kertesz from the book A Moment. Master Photographers: Portraits by Michael Somoroff. © Micael Somoroff

Michael Somoroff grew up in photography, as the son of master still-life photographer Ben Somoroff, a member of the Philadelphia school of photographers the likes of Arnold Newman, Ben Rose, Irving Penn and other greats.

The elder Somoroff’s studies with legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch was an early influence on Michael Somoroff’s decision to pursue photography in his own right. Between 1977 and 1983, he documented his father’s associates and other twentieth century photographers in a never before published series of portraits, now compiled by Italian publisher Damiani in the book A Moment. Master Photographers: Portraits by Michael Somoroff.

The European launch of Michael Somoroff’s book will be held on Friday, November 16, from 6:30 to 10 pm at the Art District Gallery in the Royal Monceau Hotel, 41 Avenue Hoche in Paris.

Michael Somoroff’s photographs will be on view at the gallery through November 17, and also presented at Feroz Gallery as part of Paris Photo from November 14 to 18. On Thursday, November 15, Michael Somoroff will be signing books at the Feroz Gallery booth (C2) from 2:30 to 4 pm.

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An image from the series “Totem de Vie.”  © Kate Fichet. Courtesy of the artist.

Parisian photographer Kate Fichet’s offbeat portraits mask the faces of her subjects amid a collection of the most significant objects in their lives, which hang from their torsos in a totemic mishmash.

A recent graduate of the school Ecole Cantonal d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland, Fichet was selected as the judges’ favorite in the French photography competition SFR Jeunes Talents (SFR Young Talents), organized by the mobile telephone network SFR.

Works by Fichet and four other winners: Cedric Van Turtelboom, Erica Kovanen, Valerie Archeno, and Adrien Golinelli, plus two honorable mentions, Aurélien Villette and Patrick Willocq, will be featured in an exhibition as part of Paris Photo, which opens this evening at the Grand Palais in Paris, France and runs through Sunday, November 18.

To learn more about SFR Jeunes Talents, view the winning photographers’ portfolios, as well as submissions from all 1,256 entrants to the competition, click here.

–Jill Waterman