Created by Manon Wertenbroek in 2014. The artwork is a pigment print on Hahnemuhle Fine Art 285gr, on aluminum, on wood, and with paint, and displayed at 90.5 x 72 cm.

Waves from the Web, 2009

Visible in

The bright colours and cartoon-like drawings on the model’s body create a playful image. At the same time, the model’s elegant posture might remind you of a classic sculpture from the Renaissance era. In 

, Manon Wertenbroek combines the art of sculpture with the medium of photography. By incorporating the model into all sorts of compositions of colours, circles, blocks, numbers and frames, Wertenbroek explores a rather unconventional approach to portraiture. The young man in the photograph is her brother. They were very close as children, but grew apart as they grew older. Creating this series was a way for Wertenbroek to restore the bond with her brother. Yet her brother cannot recognise himself in the portraits, so that these represent her own projections rather than his actual self. 

Manon Wertenbroek was part of the 2015 Foam Talent selection. Her image 

 served as the cover image for the talent issue of Foam Magazine. 

Tandem Rose, 2014 from the series Tandem, 2014

Tandem Rose, 2014

Maldoror #6, 2014

Jean-Vincent Simonet

Created by Jean-Vincent Simonet in 2014. The artwork is an inkjet print and displayed at 90 x 120 cm.

When Jean-Vincent Simonet chanced upon the book 

 (The Songs of Maldoror), he felt hugely attracted to its dark, theatrical, repulsive character. This avant-garde book, written in 1869 by the French poet Comte de Lautréamont, is an ode to the rebelliousness of youth, blasphemy, and the triumph of dreams over reality. Simonet decided to breathe new life into this literary mystery. His photographs are based on the atmosphere conjured up in the book: gothic angels framed against an overwhelming and digitally enhanced blue starry sky; dead branches that melt into pink and blue shapes and call to mind plucks of hair. The eclectic style inspired Simonet to use both analogue and digital photography, applying digital techniques to distort and blend together photographs. As a result, the book’s mysterious atmosphere becomes palpable in the images. It will likely not come as a surprise to learn that this book was once banned on account of its blasphemous character. 

Maldoror #2, 2014 from the series Maldoror, 2014

Maldoror #2

Created by Lucas Foglia in 2010. The artwork is a pigment print on Archival Epson Premium Semimatte paper and displayed at 86.4 x 111.8 cm.

What story do you think photographer Lucas Foglia wanted to tell with the image, 

? The title of course contains a hint: a woman named Amanda is dousing herself with a garden hose, apparently after a birthday party has taken place. Her clothes and hair are already soaked, suggesting she has stood like this for some time. Her closed eyes and facial expression appear to express a sense of contentment. Would the water be a welcome cooling shower on a hot day? Take your time to again look closely at this portrait of Amanda, paying particular attention to the background, which seems to reinforce the mood of serenity. In his series 

, of which this photograph is a part, Foglia in fact portrays the harsh reality of ranchers’ lives in the western United States: long working days, and a permanent struggle with drought and ever-encroaching mining industries. The portrait of Amanda captures the romantic notion that outsiders often have when thinking about life on a farm surrounded by nature.  

Amanda after a Birthday Party, Jackson Wyoming, 2010 from the series Frontcountry, 2009-2013

Amanda after a Birthday Party, Jackson Wyoming, 2010

Created by Alessandro Imbriaco. The artwork is a c-print and displayed at 40 x 30 cm.

Half hidden in the greenery of a small forgotten marsh somewhere on the outskirts of Rome, Italy, stands a woman named Luba. Her face, only just visible in the soft light of dusk, looks directly at the camera. For his series 

, photographer Alessandro Imbriaco visited this hidden spot at the periphery of one of Europe’s most visited cities. Due to a lack of housing, like so many migrants the Russian Luba and her Italian husband Piero were forced to build a life in all sorts of unconventional locations, for example hidden beneath flyovers and in narrow alleyways. Note how the leaves in the foreground seem to frame Luba’s portrait and create a sense of depth: as if the shrub forms a protective layer between her and the world around.  

, the Italian photographer Alessandro Imbriaco was selected for Foam Talent 2011. The story about Angela’s family’s life was shown as part of the group exhibition and in Foam Magazine #28 Talent. 

Luba from the series Angela's Garden

Luba

, photographer Alessandro Imbriaco seamlessly combines the portrait genre with documentary photography. In this image, traditional portrait photography techniques stand out: the subject is placed at the centre of the image, with the body turned slightly to the right while the head turns back to face the camera. At the same time, Imbriaco creates a somewhat mysterious atmosphere by the poor quality of light that gently falls on her rosy cheeks. This mood is enhanced by the background: dark and wild shrubbery surrounds the timid-looking girl, named Angela. The portrait hides the dire reality of migrants leading a concealed and isolated life in a marshy area at the edge of Rome, Italy. Imbriaco’s comment on this work: “

The colours are interesting and muted, like a Garden of Eden where everything has gone wrong.

Angela from the series Angela's Garden

Angela

Untitled, from the series The Afronauts, 2012

Cristina de Middel

Created by Cristina de Middel as part of 

What if Zambia had put the first person on the moon instead of the United States? The launch of a Zambian space flight programme during the heyday of the international space race in the 1960s forms the starting point of Cristina De Middel’s series 

. In this series, the photographer creates a fantasy world in which fact and fiction intermingle, and the Western stereotypical perception of the African continent is questioned. By alternating staged scenes with copies of typed letters and reproductions of vintage photographs, the true and the fake are woven together. In this archived letter, the Zambian Ministry of Technology is enquiring about the funding of the space programme. In the end, the programme was discontinued for lack of funding.  

Untitled from the series The Afronauts

Created by Cristina De Middel. The artwork is an inkjet print on cotton paper and displayed at 50 x 50 cm.

Documentary and journalistic photography are often viewed as the most true-to-life forms of photography, with the created images serving as representations of reality itself. Yet a photograph never tells a purely objective story, even without any staging or editing. Every image tells a story through the photographer’s eyes, and this personal angle always infuses the image with a subtle subjective character. In 

, photographer Cristina de Middel plays with the promise of ‘truth’ suggested by the medium of photography. Based on historical fact, De Middel uses her imagination to recreate the cancelled space flight programme launched by Zambia in the 1960s. On the photograph 

, the viewer’s attention is drawn to a patch of white stone surrounded by a darker hillside, resembling part of a skull. This image could well be a faithful documentation of a natural phenomenon, but as a part of the series it nevertheless provokes the question whether it is truly so. 

Gwendalu

Created by Cristina De Middel. The artwork is a inkjet print on cotton paper and displayed at 50 x 50 cm.

 marked the start of a new direction in the work of journalistic photographer Cristina de Middel. As a reaction to the one-sided Western coverage of the African continent with its stereotypical narratives about poverty and conflict, De Middel found inspiration in a true story from Zambia’s recent history. In 1964 the country launched an ambitious space flight programme to compete in the international space race. In 

, De Middel portrays a fictitious end to this true historical story, through which she also questions the established photo journalistic sector. In 

, De Middel captures a deserted otherworldly landscape with a solitary drifting cloud. In fact shot in Alicante, Spain, this photograph shows the surrealistic and mysterious atmosphere that De Middel uses to convey her message. 

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