Spencer Stephens, "Sheep"

When people hear that I take portraits of sheep they laugh darkly so it's useful to explain why.

The majority of the pictures in this series are of Herdswicks (the ones with the smaller ears and wider white faces which are my favorites) and Swalesdales (the ones with the narrow faces with black markings which are my wife's favorites). These are the dominant breeds in England's Lake District where the pictures were taken.

My first portrait of a sheep was a Herdswick ewe. I looked at it later expecting a totally blank expression. And perhaps it was blank, or perhaps if you look longer you might also wonder if it's actually an enigmatic expression. Is it looking at us asking itself the same question? 

Are these portraits of an animal of limited intelligence or one that is so content with its existence that, unlike we humans, it doesn't see any reason to continuously demonstrate how smart it is? Watch them for a while in the sheep pens at a farmers' show, catch them looking at you and you wonder whether they aren't just humoring us and waiting for us to do something intelligent first. 

Spencer Stephens grew up in post-war North London and graduated from Sussex University with a degree in Physics. After graduating he spent his early years in the music industry as a tour manager. 

For the last two decades, Spencer has lived Los Angeles and employed as the senior technologist for a Hollywood studio, working on everything from the camera to the screen. He spends part of his time working with directors of photography on camera and lens technology, and new ways to shoot.

A lifelong photographer, Spencer has several long-term photographic projects captured primarily in Europe exploring an eclectic mix of subjects and has also worked in the commercial field.

Zoran Milosavljevic, Alone In Public

Zoran Milosavljevic’s photo series Alone in Public, is a group of photographs of people in cities around the world, who are essentially surrounded by humanity and yet utterly alone. 

The individual photographs are not from an intended project. For me as a photographer, street photography does lend it self to such limitations. All of the photographs that I take represent a continuing project to photograph life as it unfolds in front of me, wherever I may be.

Zoran Milosavljevic Photography
Website: http://www.zoranmphotography.com
Blog: http://losangelesstreetphoto.blogspot.com

Elisa Haber, A Corporation: People I Work With

A Corporation: People I Work With

This body of work began organically. Everyday I would say hello to the same people.  We see these people more than our families, our spouses, our children, yet we really know nothing about them. I wanted to change that.  I wanted to dive past the "Good morning, how was your weekend"?  I only asked them to tell me just a few facts about their life; just enough to get a better sense of who they are and where they come from.  This is an on-going project, there are many more stories to tell.

Elisa Haber Photography
www.haberphoto.com

Catherine Just, Chasing the Fog: Learning how to Breathe

Chasing the Fog::Learning how to Breathe is an exploration of personal identity specific to motherhood, divorce and falling in love. I explore my own internal dialogue through self-portraiture and by creating a visual language using personal objects as metaphor and symbolism. I’m interested in the space between the words, places felt deeply, under the surface of what appears to be reality. Diving deep into what I consider the river beneath the river, I’m constantly digging, as if I were an archeologist, looking for buried treasure. I use long exposure and movement of my own figure to explore the unknown layers that reside in a space that’s non-linear. The self-portraits and still life imagery is a visual container for what the heart hears.

Catherine Just is a conceptual and commercial photographer, living in Los Angeles, California with her 6 year old son, Max who happens to have Down syndrome. She teaches conceptual photography courses and workshops, both online and off and creates portraits for celebrity and high profile clients. Her work has been published on the cover of National Geographic Magazine, and inside Photo District News Magazine, Oprah.com, Annapurna Living and other publications and websites. Her conceptual photography work has been exhibited in solo and juried group shows around the country. She is the co-founder of the here co. a space that offers online photography courses, live workshops in Los Angeles and NYC and photo sessions around the world. She’s in the process of creating the Max Harrison Foundation, a hub to teach children with Down syndrome how to express themselves through photography.

As a young woman, Catherine struggled with addiction. She found that photography became an essential process and tool for her recovery, expressing visually what was difficult and often painful for her to express verbally. Catherine studied art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, graduating with a BFA in Photography, film and video. After being sober for 28 years, Catherine still uses photography as a form of therapy for both herself and her students.