“I started researching macro techniques, microscopy, objectives, and microscopes and shooting my own specimens from the garden,” he explained in an interview with Lecture in Progress. “After a while, the photographic process got to a point where I felt I needed better specimens to shoot. I went to the Oxford Museum of Natural History, presented some of my work and asked if they were interested in collaborating. I kept zooming into the images and they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing. They gave me open access to their entire collection, and the assistance of their entomologist James Hogan who helped me find and prepare the specimens.”

“It was a challenge to see if I could take all the lighting and studio skills, that I’d be honing for over 20 years, and translate them onto a subject that was five millimeters long, and still keep all the clarity and the creative control,” he added.

Take a look at some of his stunning photographs.

The post Levon Biss Zooms In on Insects and the Result is Stunning appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I’m incredibly fascinated by creating dream within reality,” van der Togt admitted in an interview with i-D Magazine. “I’ve always been able to remember my dreams in the finest detail and it affects the way I look at my surroundings. In my attempts to capture a feeling of magic or surreal in reality, I draw inspiration from magical realist art and film.”

“My earliest memory of making images was the webcam,” she went on to say. “I must have been around 11 years old when I started to make self-portraits with that bulky Logitech bulb on top of my parents PC in the living room. It was the first time I realized that a photograph isn’t a perfect document of reality — it’s rather elements of reality reconstructed to show whatever the maker desires.”

Her photographs have since gained a much larger audience, with features in notable publications like Metal Magazine, Schon! Magazine and Grit Magazine. She has also showcased her art in exhibitions in New York, Milan, and Amsterdam.

The post Renate Ariadne van der Togt’s Portraits Are Somewhat Surreal appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I will shoot anything from people to cars to still life, if the quality is equally good and it can all be tied together stylistically you give yourself so much more appeal than being stuck in one box,” he told Lecture in Progress.

“The most enjoyable aspect is the variety of work and the work-life balance. The least enjoyable is going out to market yourself, and the unpredictable nature of being self-employed,” he added.

Based in Harrogate, Lloyd works independently as a commercial and editorial photographer and has worked for publications like Bloomberg, The Guardian, and Sunday Times Magazine. He has also shot some well-known celebrities like Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. And judging by the quality of his work, we’re sure that the unpredictable nature of his job has decreased already.

Check out some of his portraits in the gallery below.

The post Photographer Captures Stunning Portraits That Look Like Paintings appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Collaborating mostly with her friend and artist, Honey Long, the
Melbourne-based photographer has worked for high-end brands like Gucci, with her portraits being featured in galleries in Los Angeles, Zurich, Rome, Tokyo, New York, and more.

“I usually say I’m a photographer, I feel a bit funny saying I’m an artist,” Stent admitted in a chat with i-D. “I shouldn’t, because I don’t actually make any money off commercial photography. But I still feel a bit self-conscious about it. I guess it’s the uncertainty of being an artist, that it doesn’t really feel like a legitimate job and you never know when you’re going to have to go and seek other work.”

But with 200k followers on Instagram, we can’t imagine a time or place where her work wouldn’t be sought after. Take a look for yourself.

The post Prue Stent’s Portraits Are Something Else appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Her photographed subject seems to be all alone in a human-less world. His “yeti” costume is an artwork in and of itself, created by using unconventional materials like plastic forks, earplugs, vinyl gloves, car air fresheners or compact mirrors.

“I began to look into various mythologies from around the world and the costumes associated with them and observed most involved the covering of the face and many times the entire body to transform the person into a mythical being,” writes Thompson on her website. “At the same time I was looking at urban legends and hoaxes such as Bigfoot and people’s obsessive fascination of these elusive beasts.”

“What interested me most was that many seemed to be based on existing mythologies and the fact that many of these creatures, seemed to be trapped between two worlds,” she explained. “Bigfoot being the prime example is not quite human or animal so wanders on the fringe of both, not really belonging to either. From these findings, I began to create modern day mythological narratives in which I explore themes associated with the dislocation of our senses.”

Take a closer look.

The post Laura Thompson Creates Modern-Day Mythology appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I honestly didn’t choose photography, photography chose me,” he said in an interview with Vogue. “I’ve always liked images (even growing up and for as long as I’ve remembered I’ve always had a camera) and the first time it occurred to me that I could use a camera to produce a distinct feeling was when I made portraits of my sisters.” Now, his striking portraits are featured in glamorous publications like the New York Times, i-D, GQ and Riposte.

In his most recent series, “e wá wo mi” (come look at me), Ogunbanwo photographs Nigerian brides from Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa-Fulani tribes. Mostly hidden under elaborate headpieces and beaded veils, the brides look mysterious as they are majestic, making for a striking effect.

“This series is my first time using women as subjects,” admitted the photographer. “I am very aware of this as a man, and prefer to engage with this work fully as an outsider. It is important to note that this is an expansion on existing forms of womanhood and femininity, and not a way of defining. I can be inspired by women, and femininity, but I am not seeking to say who has access to this, or what this is.”

Take a look.

The post Photographer Captures the Hidden Beauty of Nigerian Brides appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Her creative agency, ASIYAMI GOLD, launched in 2013, collaborating with giants like GAP, J. Crew, PANTENE, VOGUE, and more.

But the multi-faceted creator didn’t have it easy from the get-go. “I grew up in a country where art was respected but not revered which then led me to treat the arts as it had been painted: ‘Art is a hobby; it doesn’t put food on the table,’” she recalled in an interview with Create & Cultivate.

“I picked up a camera when I turned 15 and never looked back,” she said. “I enjoyed documenting life and the beauty that I saw in things that others didn’t deem as beautiful. As time progressed, I fine-tuned my work, studied what I liked about photography, and executed my vision.”

“Through my work, I’m able to offer a different perspective on how people may perceive their everyday ‘norm’ and that to me is what really makes it all magical,” she said.

Take a look at some of her photos in the gallery below, and prepare to fall in love with her life.

The post Asiyami Gold’s Instagram Life Will Make You Jealous appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“As far as how I find materials to experiment with, it varies a lot,” she told Colossal. “I generally work with what I can find around the house, inside or out. It begins as a scavenger hunt of sorts, and then a challenge as I begin to build.”

All of her arrangements are shot in her house in New Haven CT, where she keeps a studio. Her artistic career includes work in floral design, interior decorating, window design, and prop styling.

Check out her Instagram page for more.

The post Kristen Meyer’s Art Tries to Make Sense Out of Nonsense appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Known for her youthful approach to fashion photography, she likes to challenge the norms when it comes to women photography, with her primary goal being: moving people. “It doesn’t really matter what emotion it is really… It’s so difficult to move people,” she admitted.

Weir graduated from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Art in 2010. It was there that she taught herself photography, experimenting with film and collage. She soon began shooting advertising campaigns and lookbooks for major labels including Balenciaga, Céline, Stella McCartney, and Jacquemus.

Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below.

The post Harley Weir Has a Creative Approach to Fashion Photography appeared first on PlayJunkie.

In this series, the female protagonist, played by Rothen herself, creates her “perfect” man and makes him dress, pose and perform his manhood in the ways she demands.

“A lot of my inspiration is also from images we’ve already seen before and I alter and re-portray the subjects by changing the context,” she told Lomography.

Rothen works both digitally and with film, explaining that “each image is captured with a digital camera and then photographed again with Polaroid film which is then scanned. This way of working became a necessity when Polaroid stopped producing and the film became expensive. It was important to keep Polaroid in the equation because I didn’t want to lose the photographic quality.”

Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below.

The post What Happens When a Photographer Falls in Love with a Mannequin? appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I started researching macro techniques, microscopy, objectives, and microscopes and shooting my own specimens from the garden,” he explained in an interview with Lecture in Progress. “After a while, the photographic process got to a point where I felt I needed better specimens to shoot. I went to the Oxford Museum of Natural History, presented some of my work and asked if they were interested in collaborating. I kept zooming into the images and they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing. They gave me open access to their entire collection, and the assistance of their entomologist James Hogan who helped me find and prepare the specimens.”

“It was a challenge to see if I could take all the lighting and studio skills, that I’d be honing for over 20 years, and translate them onto a subject that was five millimeters long, and still keep all the clarity and the creative control,” he added.

Take a look at some of his stunning photographs.

The post Levon Biss Zooms In on Insects and the Result is Stunning appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I’m incredibly fascinated by creating dream within reality,” van der Togt admitted in an interview with i-D Magazine. “I’ve always been able to remember my dreams in the finest detail and it affects the way I look at my surroundings. In my attempts to capture a feeling of magic or surreal in reality, I draw inspiration from magical realist art and film.”

“My earliest memory of making images was the webcam,” she went on to say. “I must have been around 11 years old when I started to make self-portraits with that bulky Logitech bulb on top of my parents PC in the living room. It was the first time I realized that a photograph isn’t a perfect document of reality — it’s rather elements of reality reconstructed to show whatever the maker desires.”

Her photographs have since gained a much larger audience, with features in notable publications like Metal Magazine, Schon! Magazine and Grit Magazine. She has also showcased her art in exhibitions in New York, Milan, and Amsterdam.

The post Renate Ariadne van der Togt’s Portraits Are Somewhat Surreal appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I will shoot anything from people to cars to still life, if the quality is equally good and it can all be tied together stylistically you give yourself so much more appeal than being stuck in one box,” he told Lecture in Progress.

“The most enjoyable aspect is the variety of work and the work-life balance. The least enjoyable is going out to market yourself, and the unpredictable nature of being self-employed,” he added.

Based in Harrogate, Lloyd works independently as a commercial and editorial photographer and has worked for publications like Bloomberg, The Guardian, and Sunday Times Magazine. He has also shot some well-known celebrities like Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. And judging by the quality of his work, we’re sure that the unpredictable nature of his job has decreased already.

Check out some of his portraits in the gallery below.

The post Photographer Captures Stunning Portraits That Look Like Paintings appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Collaborating mostly with her friend and artist, Honey Long, the
Melbourne-based photographer has worked for high-end brands like Gucci, with her portraits being featured in galleries in Los Angeles, Zurich, Rome, Tokyo, New York, and more.

“I usually say I’m a photographer, I feel a bit funny saying I’m an artist,” Stent admitted in a chat with i-D. “I shouldn’t, because I don’t actually make any money off commercial photography. But I still feel a bit self-conscious about it. I guess it’s the uncertainty of being an artist, that it doesn’t really feel like a legitimate job and you never know when you’re going to have to go and seek other work.”

But with 200k followers on Instagram, we can’t imagine a time or place where her work wouldn’t be sought after. Take a look for yourself.

The post Prue Stent’s Portraits Are Something Else appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Her photographed subject seems to be all alone in a human-less world. His “yeti” costume is an artwork in and of itself, created by using unconventional materials like plastic forks, earplugs, vinyl gloves, car air fresheners or compact mirrors.

“I began to look into various mythologies from around the world and the costumes associated with them and observed most involved the covering of the face and many times the entire body to transform the person into a mythical being,” writes Thompson on her website. “At the same time I was looking at urban legends and hoaxes such as Bigfoot and people’s obsessive fascination of these elusive beasts.”

“What interested me most was that many seemed to be based on existing mythologies and the fact that many of these creatures, seemed to be trapped between two worlds,” she explained. “Bigfoot being the prime example is not quite human or animal so wanders on the fringe of both, not really belonging to either. From these findings, I began to create modern day mythological narratives in which I explore themes associated with the dislocation of our senses.”

Take a closer look.

The post Laura Thompson Creates Modern-Day Mythology appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I honestly didn’t choose photography, photography chose me,” he said in an interview with Vogue. “I’ve always liked images (even growing up and for as long as I’ve remembered I’ve always had a camera) and the first time it occurred to me that I could use a camera to produce a distinct feeling was when I made portraits of my sisters.” Now, his striking portraits are featured in glamorous publications like the New York Times, i-D, GQ and Riposte.

In his most recent series, “e wá wo mi” (come look at me), Ogunbanwo photographs Nigerian brides from Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa-Fulani tribes. Mostly hidden under elaborate headpieces and beaded veils, the brides look mysterious as they are majestic, making for a striking effect.

“This series is my first time using women as subjects,” admitted the photographer. “I am very aware of this as a man, and prefer to engage with this work fully as an outsider. It is important to note that this is an expansion on existing forms of womanhood and femininity, and not a way of defining. I can be inspired by women, and femininity, but I am not seeking to say who has access to this, or what this is.”

Take a look.

The post Photographer Captures the Hidden Beauty of Nigerian Brides appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Her creative agency, ASIYAMI GOLD, launched in 2013, collaborating with giants like GAP, J. Crew, PANTENE, VOGUE, and more.

But the multi-faceted creator didn’t have it easy from the get-go. “I grew up in a country where art was respected but not revered which then led me to treat the arts as it had been painted: ‘Art is a hobby; it doesn’t put food on the table,’” she recalled in an interview with Create & Cultivate.

“I picked up a camera when I turned 15 and never looked back,” she said. “I enjoyed documenting life and the beauty that I saw in things that others didn’t deem as beautiful. As time progressed, I fine-tuned my work, studied what I liked about photography, and executed my vision.”

“Through my work, I’m able to offer a different perspective on how people may perceive their everyday ‘norm’ and that to me is what really makes it all magical,” she said.

Take a look at some of her photos in the gallery below, and prepare to fall in love with her life.

The post Asiyami Gold’s Instagram Life Will Make You Jealous appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“As far as how I find materials to experiment with, it varies a lot,” she told Colossal. “I generally work with what I can find around the house, inside or out. It begins as a scavenger hunt of sorts, and then a challenge as I begin to build.”

All of her arrangements are shot in her house in New Haven CT, where she keeps a studio. Her artistic career includes work in floral design, interior decorating, window design, and prop styling.

Check out her Instagram page for more.

The post Kristen Meyer’s Art Tries to Make Sense Out of Nonsense appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Known for her youthful approach to fashion photography, she likes to challenge the norms when it comes to women photography, with her primary goal being: moving people. “It doesn’t really matter what emotion it is really… It’s so difficult to move people,” she admitted.

Weir graduated from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Art in 2010. It was there that she taught herself photography, experimenting with film and collage. She soon began shooting advertising campaigns and lookbooks for major labels including Balenciaga, Céline, Stella McCartney, and Jacquemus.

Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below.

The post Harley Weir Has a Creative Approach to Fashion Photography appeared first on PlayJunkie.

In this series, the female protagonist, played by Rothen herself, creates her “perfect” man and makes him dress, pose and perform his manhood in the ways she demands.

“A lot of my inspiration is also from images we’ve already seen before and I alter and re-portray the subjects by changing the context,” she told Lomography.

Rothen works both digitally and with film, explaining that “each image is captured with a digital camera and then photographed again with Polaroid film which is then scanned. This way of working became a necessity when Polaroid stopped producing and the film became expensive. It was important to keep Polaroid in the equation because I didn’t want to lose the photographic quality.”

Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below.

The post What Happens When a Photographer Falls in Love with a Mannequin? appeared first on PlayJunkie.