September 2025, Great New Photographers

News about happenings at Deliberate Light and photography instruction (see Digital Photo Academy). My views on this month’s photography topic: Great New Photographers.

NEWS

Upcoming Workshops. I am next scheduled to teach workshops for Digital Photo Academy on October 4th at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. You can sign up here if interested.

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Mastering Your Camera Controls (1.5 hours) – intended for DSLR/Mirrorless/Compact cameras (smartphone tutorial available separately)

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Composition in the Field (3 hours) – walking tour around the venue with instruction and hands-on practice composing photos (bring any camera)

New Photo.

Morning Table. Early for breakfast, I absorbed the glow on the table, enjoying the fruit arrayed next to last night’s candle. The beauty of a simple setting, carrying with it the reminder of loved ones.

(Baltimore, MD, 2025)

For a more detailed, enlarged view and to get it printed, see it on my website.

VIEWS

Great New Photographers

In past newsletters, I have presented photographers that I admire, most of whom are historically important. This time I want to show you some great contemporary photographers closer to the beginning of their careers. My inspiration for this has been Bill Shapiro, former Editor-in-Chief at Life magazine. I have been following Shapiro for years because he does a superb job of curating photos and photographers. I do not always agree with his assessments, but his selections are carefully made and his comments thoughtful. In a recent project of his to establish a marketplace for historic and modern photographers, I first encountered the photographers I am featuring this month.

All of this month’s selections are black-and-white (b&w). While only a few of these photographers shoot exclusively in b&w, their choice for its use in these photos is worth contemplating.

Adeolu Osibodu, Lagos, Nigeria, now living near London

His images have a dream-like atmospheric quality, inviting an examination of their meaning. Most of his public images are of Africa and many include visions of the sea as a backdrop for people.

So Far We Don’t Fall Asleep, 2022

At first, this may seem a simple image but looks can be deceiving. There are five distinct elements beautifully integrated by the use of B&W: the moon, the birds, the ocean and the silhouetted figures with the large silvery hoop earrings. Without any one of those elements or with color to disrupt their integration, this would have been a different picture.

Greg Gulbransen, New York

A pediatrician who has turned to photography to document the city and the lives in it, some of his images are grittier than the one below, e.g., a recent series on gun violence won an important photo book award. Using b&w photography almost exclusively, his images give you the gift of unsparing compassion for his subjects.

Brooklyn Park, 2020

The use of b&w here lets you focus on the structure and its parts, and I suspect the actual colors might have reduced the image’s visual appeal. Note how the wonderful fading mistiness in the center conveys a sense of distance. I do not know whether to make anything of the fact that the view is from Brooklyn towards Manhattan at the other end of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Alex Almeida, Brazil.

A musician who later became a journalist photographer, Almeida’s photographs reflect his immersion in Brazilian urban culture and in the spirit of the rural heartland of Brazil. The majority of his images are a joyous riot of color, but his b&w images are quite effective.

Two Indigenous Boys Play in the Amazon, Brazil, 2022

Here the delightful lines and textures of the tree are rendered in b&w as an undistracting background for the darkly silhouetted boys, with the tree and the boys seem to be one. Color might have interrupted that cohesiveness.

Clif Wright, Taos, New Mexico.

Wright specializes in mostly b&w photos of the Great Plains and Desert Southwest. A mix of street and landscape photography, you get the feeling that his images have a point to make, though he leaves room for interpretation.

Storm over Colfax County, New Mexico, 2022

This image conveys in b&w a bleakness, almost apocalyptic, with the storm roiling in the background and the discarded plastic bag featured obviously in an otherwise magnificent landscape. Is the plastic bag a statement of defiance or a sad commentary?

Carl Finkbeiner

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