travel & documentary photography Feb 2021

Zurich native Alberto Venzago virtuously oscillates with his camera between reportage and advertising, between documentation and staging. With photo essays, he casts a critical eye on world events and tells moving stories: from Zurich's Platzspitz to Benin's voodoo cult to child prostitution in Manila.

As a concerned photographer, Venzago does not shy away from any scene - neither the organised crime of the Yakuza in Japan, nor the long-standing revolution in Iran. His well-composed and constructed imagery, which serves as advertising campaigns for international brands or dazzlingly showcases world-famous stars, forms the antithesis to his reportage.

Venzago's first museum exhibition ever is an opulent retrospective of the photographer and filmmaker's work, Museum FUER GESTALTUNG ZUERICH opening July 2021.

Andy Mahr is a Texas-based photographer. His work has regularly been featured in the Communication Arts Photo Annual, PDN and One Eyeland, and he has been nominated as one of Archive Magazine's 200 Best Ad Photographers Worldwide' several times.

Andy began his photography career as a travel and landscape photographer. He loves immersing himself in different cultures and has travelled the world, visiting six of the seven continents.

Andy started his career as an art director. Coming from the advertising world he has a unique understanding of the creative process and a real appreciation of what creatives go through to bring their ideas to light.

His travel clients include Texas Tourism, California Tourism, South Padre Tourism, Dallas CVB, Austin CVB, Monterey Tourism, GoRVIng, and Shermans Travel Magazine, just to name a few.

Arnaud Février became an independent photographer in 1993 and began working in Lisbon, Beirut and Riga.

He has been the official photographer of musician Jean Michel Jarre from 1990 to 1997. Arnaud collaborated with the Imapress Agency until 1997 with which he produced several reports on the Gaza Strip and Iraq highlighting the humanitarian disaster. Then he turned more and more towards portraiture and joined the team of photographers at the MPA agency until 2004.

He has photographed many personalities from the cultural and political world and was the official photographer for many publishing houses. In parallel with these press assignments, he worked for many communication agencies to produce the visual identity highlighting women and men who build today's society. Passionate about the industrial world, transport and energy, he has shared his experience with the communication services of large companies. 

His recent personal work questions Franco-American identity and culture, and one of his recent exibitions took place during Les Rencontres d'Arles in 2019.

Chris is a multi-award winning travel photographer. He has worked with the biggest brands in the industry for over 30 years and in more recent years he has collaborated with Doodledo to bring video content into the mix.

He is a storyteller at heart, and his portfolio gives you an insight into a photographer who matches technical skill with intimate stories. The most beautiful locations, all the big hitters, but with a unique perspective that brings destinations to life and celebrates the culture and people that make these places special. And besides producing an extraordinary volume of output from travel shoots, that personal touch is the difference.

He is magnetic, disarming and a lot of fun to be around. That might seem incidental, but it results in images that are almost impossible to come by anywhere else. There is an empathy and engagement with people that tells a story. The spontaneous moments, the ones that usually come through years of friendship, but Chris finds with strangers!

Irwin Wong is an editorial and commercial photographer based in Tokyo.

Originally from Melbourne, he moved to Japan in 2005. Known for his ability to interpret a wide range of subject matters, from billionaire CEOs to otaku gamers, Irwin’s portraiture is featured in a wide variety of magazines and advertisements, notably The Washington Post, The Hollywood Reporter and Forbes.

Irwin’s technical and creative versatility in the field also makes him attractive to travel, automotive and tech clients, including the Economist 1843, Christian Dior, Apple, Amazon, and Mitsubishi Motors.

He has developed an interest in craftsmanship after photographing several artisans for work, and his first book, 'Handmade in Japan', was published in September 2020 by Gestalten.

Please see his website for a portfolio of his past work.

"I am a UAE-based photographer and I was born in Sweden, raised between Pakistan, Turkey and North America before I moved to Dubai in 1992. My favorite genre of photography is travel and documentary.

I work across a multitude of editorial and commercial genres and have delivered multi-national campaigns for a broad spectrum of world-leading private and public sector enterprises. My clients include global advertising and branding agencies, corporations and major publications around the world.

Since August 2020 UAE is 100% open for film and photo productions and I have been very busy with both local and international clients."

Assignments have taken Mark Edward Harris to more than 100 countries on six continents. His editorial work has appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair, LIFE, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, GEO, Newsweek, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, AFAR, Wallpaper, Vogue, Architectural Digest, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and The London Sunday Times Travel Magazine as well as all the major photography and in-flight magazines.

His advertising clients range from The Gap and Coca-Cola to Japan and Turkey’s tourism boards.

Among his numerous accolades are CLIO, ACE, Aurora Gold, Prix de la Photographie and IPA awards. 

His books include Faces of the Twentieth Century: Master Photographers and Their Work, The Way of the Japanese Bath, Wanderlust, North Korea, South Korea, Inside Iran, The Travel Photo Essay: Describing A Journey Through Images and his latest, The People of the Forest, a book about orangutans.

Nathan is a photographer based in Denver, Colorado, specialising in landscape and transportation photography and the adventure they produce when combined.

The images focus on a clean aesthetic to capture fleeting moments of weather and nature.

This Spotlight features work included in Nathan’s self-published magazine, Grey LP.

A few of Nathan’s clients across disciplines include Boom Supersonic, Acura, 5280 Magazine, Nissan, and RM Sotheby’s.

Yuriy Ogarkov is a German photographer, born in Ukraine and based in Barcelona.

Long before Yuriy became an advertising, sport and fashion photographer, he discovered a passion for travelling and learning about different cultures. His most acclaimed work is about the shamans of Siberia. In that self-produced project Yuriy was travelling through Siberia living and photographing the lifestyle of shaman communities.

The series won many international awards, exhibited in Los Angeles and was published in prominent publications. When Yuriy is not busy doing commercial photography, he uses the time to travel and discover unique corners of our planet. His communication skills, curiosity and respect to other cultures enable him access and trust of people that he photographs. It gives Yuriy the ability to capture people in their everyday life in a natural and authentic way.

Awards: Survival International’s Photo 2019 competition; Monovisions Photography Awards 2019, Hhonorable mention; MIFA - Moscow International Foto Awards 2018, bronze; Chromatic Photography Awards 2017, 1st place; The International Photographer 2017, Finalist; Neutral Density Photography Awards 2017, 2nd place; 124th Toronto International Salon Of Photography 2017, 2nd place; IV FAPA Fine Art Photography Awards - Travel: Professional Nominees.

"I was born in Taungdwingyi, Myanmar, a country where a lot of beautiful places exist. I've been into photography since 2014.

I'm a seafarer working as a captain of the ship and I spent most of my time travelling during my vacation time.

My passion is to document people, landscapes, culture and the relation between them. I mainly focus on daily life, portraits and culture; images that tell stories of people and sense of the places. I always seek the moment and light in capturing travel images and try to use my photographic instinct to turn ordinary to extraordinary. As a photographer, my objective is to witness the moment and record the human stories. I believe photography can capture powerful story telling images and inspire us to make a positive change in our world. I'm a lifetime member of Myanmar Photographic Society and I have won two times Best Photographer of the Year in Myanmar. 

I've won numerous National and International Awards including major awards from Nikon and Sony throughout the years. My photos have been published in National Geographic Magazine, Digital Camera Magazine and other international photography books and magazines. I have showcased my works at many exhibitions across the world. I have worked with Manulife Insurance (based in Canada) for their advertising photography project and open to work with other commercial companies for their photography projects. I'm also leading photo tours in Myanmar and abroad too."