For many contemporary photographers, taking a picture is just the starting point of the creative process. We showcase 11 of photography's innovators who use Instagram to highlight their pioneering work and tell the story behind the techniques, tools and media they use to express their vision.
Since her work The Ventriloquist gained critical acclaim, Alma Haser has been surprising her audience with her signature aesthetic. In her recent project, Within 15 Minutes, the German photographer moves away from the conventional 2D photographic image to create jigsaw puzzle-based portraits and segments images into 1000-piece puzzles by hand.
With his otherworldly landscapes causing a stir at leading international photography fairs worldwide, Australian photographer Murray Fredericks combines light, color, space to create his Salt: Vanity series. Speaking about the work he says: "Standing in the silken water, surrounded only by a boundless horizon, I sense a release, a surrendering as the self dissolves...”
Inspired by the internet and flea markets, photographer Giseok Cho's multifaceted portfolio is a window into Korean culture and its people today. With perfectly composed images combining color, influence and striking portraiture to powerful effect, it's easy to see why brands like Adidas, Vogue and Dazed have collaborated with the South Korean photographer.
Wonderfully eccentric, the work of Pol Kurucz takes studio portrait photography in a new direction. His distinctive pop-tastic style has been praised by some of the leading fashion magazines for being theatrical, provocative and startlingly subversive. Continuing to innovate, Kurucz has moved into the moving image world, more of which can be seen on our Instagram feed when he did a takeover earlier this year. Pol was awarded third place in the Creative category in the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards' Professional competition.
Winner of the Creative category in our 2019 Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition with her series compelling series Chosen [not] to be', Marinka Masseus experiments with presentation through the Instagram platform to question and experiment with the role photography holds in our world.
Beautifully poetic, British photographer Cig Harvey seeks to find the magical in the everyday life. Rich with narrative and stemming from her love for the natural environment, it's clear to see why Harvey's elegant books have all sold out – all three now desirable collector's items. For those not lucky enough to have a copy of one of her books, her Instagram feed is an inspiring substitute.
The brainchild of French duo Nicolas Gaspardel and Pauline Baert, BEURKMAGAZINE focuses on combining everyday food and with mundane objects for humorous effect. With eye-popping color and startlingly clarity, their series Yuck is sure to entice and disgust in equal measure.
London-based photographic artist Antony Cairns' shadow images of the UK capital at night have a spectral quality that stays with you. Fascinated by sci-fi and continually exploring ways of reproducing his photographs in a totally unique way, Cairns' innovative work was key to Tate Modern's leading 2018 exhibition Shape of Light. His Instagram is a mixture of old and new works.
Exploring themes of sex, indulgence and nature through her close-up, color-drenched aesthetic, Maisie Cousins is, like Antony Cairns, another London-based photographer looking to offer and say something different to her audience.
A nature and landscape photographer with a difference, Alexander Mourant's Aomori series looks at nature's relationship to the color blue. With work published in FT Weekend Magazine, Photograph and Unseen Magazine – and the likes of curator Susan Bright saying: '“It is a very rare occasion that you come across work and just know, deep in your gut, that the artist is going to continue to make work that will inspire and surprise” – Mourant is one to watch.
The creator behind Adobe PhotoShop's latest artwork, Ronald Ong is a photo manipulation wizard – conjuring up images of the weird and wonderful. Expect to see pictures where a fox and loaf combine, a goose's head grows out of a banana skin and an owl takes on the guise of a pineapple; all delightful examples of when imagination is given free rein.
