These are 6 of our favorite promising stars in the photography world right now. These photographers are sure to surprise and delight you with their unique visions, concepts, cultural engagement and talent. By experimenting and pushing creative boundaries they are shaping the future of photography. So keep an eye on them – they're definitely worth watching!
Prince Gyasi | Ghana 1995
Creating images that are vibrant, colorful and hopeful, the brillant photographer Prince Gyasi tells the stories of marginalized individuals who are often pushed aside in society. Taken with his iPhone and occasionally using digital manipulation, he captures his subjects posed against colorful textured backgrounds and alongside the ocean. Most of them are created in his hometown of Accra, where he uses the surrounding landscapes and community as his inspiration. His frames embrace colorful contrasts between his subjects’ skin, dress, and surroundings. His hues are as rich as the lives he depicts. With this aesthetic, the artist challenges idealized beauty standards and the conventions of traditional fine-art photography. Prince also helps educate underprivileged youth in Accra as the co-founder of the nonprofit organization Boxed Kids.
Sanja Marušić | Amsterdam 1991
Dutch-Croatian photographer Sanja Marušić studied photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. In surreal landscapes, often alienated in striking colors, she conceives sculptures from human bodies with geometric shapes, and abstracting the human form even further by incorporating stylized dance movements. They are frequently self-portraits or photographs taken with her husband that include very elaborated costumes and unusual postures, all created with precision down to the tiniest detail. She takes dreamlike, lyrical pictures that fluctuate between hope, longing and resignation through her inventive color, composition and material choices. Sanja’s photographs have been shown in Croatia as well as abroad. Her pictures are held by numerous private collections, in Zagreb, Amsterdam and London.
Leslie Zhang | Yangzhou 1992
Leslie Zhang is a talented photographer based in Beijing. He creates deep poetic pictures that are yet simple and elegant at the same time. Turning daily scenes into dreamy landscapes, he manages to capture what is both unique and universal about life. More interested in painting growing up, it was at university that he became inspired by the work of Japanese icons like Shoji Ueda and Yoshihiko Ueda and decided to apply his painting skills to the composition of photography instead. Across his work it can be felt his fine arts background, from the richness of hues, to the delicate yet empowering positioning of its subjects. Leslie taught himself everything he knows about photography and uses analog film cameras only. He was selected in 2019 for the BoF 500, a list of the 500 most influential designers, models and professionals selected by The Business of Fashion magazine who are shaping the global fashion industry.
Andrea Torres Balaguer | Barcelona 1990
Influenced by dreams and surrealism, the amazing Spanish photographer Andrea Torres Balaguer explores the relationship between femininity and nature. She also explores conscious-subconscious, reality and fiction, inspired by references to psychoanalysis theory and magic realism. Creating pictures that suggest stories, she invites the spectator to interpret them and decipher for themselves what is reality and what is fiction.
Her background of her studies in fine arts and her inspiration by the work of Duane Michals, Sally Mann and Annie Leibovitz, greatly impacts her work. In her most recent series, her self portraits are expertly framed, her figure draped in provocative silks, lace, and velvets, with precise composition of colors and positions. With the brushstroke that is applied across the face in post-production, she plays with the identity and gives each image a touch of mystery and uniqueness. In 2015 she was selected as a Commended Photographer for the Sony World Photography Awards, Enhanced category.
Ziqian Liu | China 1990
After graduating from the University of Technology in Sydney, talented Ziqian Liu began taking photographs in 2018. Today the self taught photographer lives and works in Shanghai. All her images are self-portraits, where she combines her body, plants and mirrors, keen to create quiet images with a sense of rigor and order. One of her main themes is to explore the symbiosis between man and nature. Trying to achieve harmony between them, because it is in this state that beauty is best expressed. Her works rarely show her face, since she wants the viewer to imagine that the body in the picture could be anyone. A second theme in her work is perspective. Things that are familiar to us often remain in a fixed image, but what she tries to convey through her work is to look at the same thing from different angles to reveal different insights. Not only to understand things but also to understand deeply humankind.
Thandiwe Muriu | Kenya 1991
Kenyan brillant photographer Thandiwe Muriu was passionate about photography since the age of 14. In 2015 she began her series CAMO -short for camouflage- with the aim of reclaiming the Self Love of the African woman. She explores who she is as an artist but also as a black woman. The choice of pattern and color is a real means of expressing the individual’s personality, countering the standardized forms of local tailors. It is also at the market that the photographer finds her accessories. These accessories are taken from the everyday life of Kenyans. The artist explains that this artistic recycling also finds its inspiration in local practices: When you have little, you transform and reuse it. Fascinated about the rich history of traditional, architectural hairstyles that are being forgotten, Thandiwe was also inspired to incorporate modern forms of these hairstyles into her work in a process the Artist refers to as ‘modernizing history’- drawing from historical elements to inform future generations about the past. She was awarded the 2020 People’s Choice Award for Emerging Photographer of the Year at Photo London.