Matthew Steaffens

I am a self-taught photographer from Milan, Italy, where I was born and lived for most of my life, working as a university lecturer until 2023. Photography became a true passion in 2007, when I began studying the work of the great masters who shaped my vision. Their influence taught me to see the expressive power of light, shadow, shape, color, and the often-overlooked details of everyday life.

Rory Lewis is a British portrait photographer whose work carries the language of the Old Masters into the present day. A historian before he was a photographer — he read Medieval History at King's College London — Lewis came to the camera through painting: Holbein's court portraits, Caravaggio's tenebrism, Rembrandt's candour. Twenty-three years on, that education still governs the work, which he describes simply as capturing history, one portrait at a time.

Siarhei Mikhaliuk is a renowned Belarusian photographer, member of several international art associations, founder of Fluxism in photography (2025), founder of the Magic Dance Theater (1998), laureate of international competitions including National Geographic, author of numerous solo exhibitions, articles, educational programs, and the book "Fluxism. Your Trace in the Universe." The philosophy of holistic perception. The works are united by the project: Fluxism. Traces of Evolution.

Born in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Behzod Boltaev is a visual artist and street photographer whose work explores human presence, architectural geometry, and the dramatic interplay of light and shadow. His photographic practice was shaped in part by his family heritage, as he learned the fundamentals of visual language from his father. Through his images, he brings together observation, composition, and atmosphere to reveal poetic connections between people and the spaces they inhabit.

John Gubertini is an Italian photographer and visual storyteller based in Tenerife, Canary Islands. With more than forty years behind the camera, his work is rooted in observation rather than spectacle, seeking the quiet emotional truths hidden within everyday life. His photography has a strong connection with black-and-white imagery, where light, shadow, and silence become essential elements of the narrative. His photographs often explore themes of memory, identity, vulnerability, and the invisible dialogue between people and their environment.

I was 8 years old in Lincoln, Nebraska, when my dad gave me my first camera. I cherished it. I also loved our family tape recorder—a novelty in 1963—and a listening device with a parabolic dish called “The Big Ear.” These things, plus a chromed Raleigh bike, were prized possessions. I had mobility and means to record sights and sounds. After many years in the midwest—running a business and raising a family—I moved to Sedona, Arizona.