#contemporary-photography

#contemporary-photography

The 2025 Refocus International Photographer of the Year Awards reaffirmed the platform's status as a leading showcase for contemporary photography, highlighting work that transcends borders and cultures. This year's winners delivered not just images but deeply human stories, ranging from raw street moments to bold conceptual pieces. Canadian photographer Luke Gram earned the top honor for his series "Humanity Within the Architecture of Control," a subtle yet powerful exploration of everyday life inside North Korea that reveals how individuality persists within rigid systems.

On Friday 14 November, amid the electric energy of Paris Photo 2025, Another Man and Tatras invited friends, collaborators and cultural luminaries to gather for an evening of cocktails at Dover Street Market Paris. The occasion marked the opening of a new exhibition showcasing work from Another Man Volume II, Issue IV, including Paul Kooiker's striking cover story created in collaboration with Tatras, alongside special commissions by JH Engström, Thomas Mailaender and Chardchakaj Waikawee.

Tyler Mitchell's first solo exhibition in France reflects on a decade of practice by an artist who has introduced new visual narratives of Black life, centring beauty, intimacy and empowerment as everyday realities. Tracing nearly a decade of creation, it shows how Mitchell, one of the most striking voices of his generation, explores themes of utopia, memory and intimacy through representations of Black life.

Across a range of genres, from portraits to landscapes to wildlife, the work of 40 contemporary photographers features in a brand new book. Exposure: Contemporary Photographers in Australia and New Zealand, authored by Amber Creswell-Bell, highlights an array of practices that explore fashion, Indigenous culture, nature, and more. Published by Thames & Hudson Australia, Exposure "captures the essence of modern photography, showcasing bold perspectives, striking landscapes, and intimate portraits that reflect the region's cultural richness and natural beauty," says a statement.

A young woman, captured in black and white, dressed in corporate attire with slick bobbed hair, is standing on Vauxhall Bridge at night. She's lifting up the front of her skirt and she's urinating against the pillar - not squatting, but standing and pissing like a man, gazing with rapt intent at the arc of urine soaking the pavement at her sober Mary Jane heels.

A new exhibition brings together work from 17 leading photographers, set within the grandeur of Dalkeith Palace. It invites visitors to reflect on the enduring relationship between people, place and the natural world. Photographer and film-maker David Eustace will debut his first live performance work, Reserved, in which he directs six strangers in a seated, nude performance. PhotoDalkeith 2025: Nature and Nurture | Contemporary Scottish Photography Exhibition is at Dalkeith Palace, Scotland until 5 October 2025 (weekly, Fridays to Sundays)

In 1954, the Cuban ethnographer Lydia Cabrera published " El Monte," a book that committed to paper the hitherto oral history of major Afro-Cuban religious traditions. Its title, which translates roughly to "The Wilderness," refers not only to nature but to the separate, sacred space where, for those who practice Palo Monte and Lucumí-better known as Santería-spirits and deities reside. For decades, the book has informed the art of Cuban nationals and the Cuban diaspora.