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Rising Photographers

We have selected some of the most promising photographers. Select a letter to discover our A to Z list of rising photographers:
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Inspiring Portfolios

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Our 10 Latest Rising Stars

Gudula Röttger
© Gudula Röttger
© © Gudula Röttger

Gudula Röttger was born in 1966 in Germany and is based in Heidelberg, Germany. Influenced by her family she started with photography at the age of 6 years. After studying to become a teacher in sociology, politics, economics and German studies, she decided to become self-employed. The perfect balance for this activity is traveling and photography. Photography sharpens the senses and builds bridges to foreign people and cultures, but also sharpens the view of one's own environment and social structures. As a result, she decided to focus on street photography in 2020. Her photography often focuses on detailed compositions and layering, with a strong use of colors and a special emphasis on the play of light and shadow. With her series Bits and Pieces, she captures the vibrant diversity...

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JJ Jordan
© JJ Jordan
© © JJ Jordan

JJ Jordan is a visual artist, graphic designer, and photographer based in Surrey, UK. Working with both digital and analogue photography he creates monochrome, blurred, layered, or multi-exposed visual metaphors that favour ambiguity over certainty. Jordan’s work is deeply informed by personal experience, influenced by the dreamlike narratives of Murakami, Schulz, and Kafka, and the surreal aesthetics. Artist Statement My work explores the fragile line between perception and reality, between what is seen and what is felt. Through experimental portraiture and conceptual photography, I aim to question visual certainty and challenge the camera’s claim to truth. Often working in monochrome, and drawing on both digital and analogue processes (while deliberately excluding AI), I...

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John Kayacan
© John Kayacan
© © John Kayacan

I am a passionate street photographer with an unyielding curiosity for the vibrancy of life. Born and raised in Los Angeles, I developed a keen eye for capturing candid moments that reflect the raw energy and emotions of the streets. Street photography is all about capturing the essence of everyday life, there's a rawness to it that can’t really be matched by any other art-form.It allows you to freeze moments in time that might otherwise go unnoticed. I started photography at the age of 14, shooting photos with a camera my parents had, and it eventually formed into an obsession with capturing things, and thus turned into an ever growing portfolio of work to someday look back on....

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Da Miane
© Da Miane
© © Da Miane

Da Miane (Nika Pailodze) is a Georgian street photographer based in Tbilisi. Born in 1995, he has been captivated by visual storytelling from an early age. Even when 0.3-megapixel phone cameras were standard, he began experimenting with photography, initially capturing nature before turning his lens toward the human and urban landscape around him. With an academic background in literary studies, Da Miane brings a nuanced narrative approach to his photography. This foundation has sharpened his eye for storytelling, composition, and emotional depth. He sees the world as a stage, where fleeting moments become lasting impressions through his camera. Since 2014, Da Miane has documented the streets of Tbilisi almost daily. His work focuses on spontaneous human interactions, environmental...

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Nihal Araptarlı
© Nihal Araptarlı
© © Nihal Araptarlı

Nihal Araptarlı is an expert clinical psychologist. She started taking photographs in her high school years but stayed away from photography during her intensive education and work life. She picked up her camera again 5 years ago and made photography the most enjoyable part of her life. Although she mostly does street photography with the advantage of living in Istanbul, which is a very rich photographic city, she continues to improve herself by shooting in every branch of photography and making new experiences. While she provides therapy to her clients with various methods, she also uses photography as a therapeutic treatment tool for herself. Statement: Photography is my therapy Awarded Photographer of the Week - Week...

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Lotte Ekkel
© Lotte Ekkel
© © Lotte Ekkel

Lotte Lisa Ekke is a self-taught photographer based in Amsterdam. She works without a fixed plan, capturing poetic and intuitive images using only natural light. She finds beauty in quiet, often overlooked moments, creating photographs that invite reflection. Light is both her subject and her guide. Photography captures light, yet light itself has no sense of time—it moves in a constant now. Time only takes shape when light touches something, enters an eye, or sparks a memory. Ekkel’s images exist in that moment, where light and the world come together to create meaning. Her compositions are precise and graphic, often with a painterly flatness that makes spaces feel abstract. She is drawn to in-between places, where time seems to pause and emptiness has a quiet presence. Her work...

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Maxine Harraway
© Maxine Harraway
© © Maxine Harraway

''Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. - Edgar Degas Maxine Harraway is a British artist based in Wiltshire who began her artistic career in London in her mid 40’s She is a multidisciplinary artist both painter and photographer. She has exhibited works both in London and the West Country Uk. Her work draws on her own emotional response to her surroundings and experience in life. Inspired by Gerhard Richter and the photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, her work can vary from minimalistic to an energetic mix of colour. She applies layers and fragmentation both in her painting and often in her photography. Her use of simple materials from the home or the environment, or reverting to the use of specific angles in her photography, she draws the viewer in to examine the image...

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B McCormick
© B McCormick
© © B McCormick

B. McCormick’s photographic work explores the intersection of built and natural environments, where man-made structures and organic elements collide to create movement and challenge perceptions of visual depth. Her process often begins with pinhole or other analog film cameras; many images are constructed through layering and multiple exposures, capturing not only what is seen, but what is felt—balance, tension, and the passage of time. With a background in architectural photography and industrial design, McCormick brings a unique appreciation for the tension between structure and chaos. Her creative process—rooted in curiosity, exploration, and a touch of magic—is often as compelling as the final image itself. Her work has been exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography,...

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Junxian Wang
© Junxian Wang
© © Junxian Wang

A 22-year-old street photographer originally from China with 1.5 years of hands-on experience capturing everyday life, culture, and emotion through candid imagery. I’ve photographed in diverse urban settings across the world, driven by a love for travel and connecting with people. My work highlights the beauty in ordinary moments and reflects local identities. Currently building a portfolio for exhibition and...

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Jet Long
© Jet Long
© © Jet Long

Growing up in the dense, vertical landscape of Hong Kong, Jet Long was captivated by the interplay of light, shadow, and form that defined his urban environment. Surrounded by modern architecture and the constant hum of city life, he developed a deep sensitivity to the structures and rhythms that shape the world around us. After working in Information Technology, he transitioned to photography, channeling his analytical mindset into an artistic pursuit. Now based in Los Angeles, his work involves the abstract forms of modern buildings, capturing the minimalist lines and textures that transform everyday structures into visual narratives. A passionate traveler, he is deeply inspired by the cultures, landscapes, and people he encounters along the way. From remote natural environments to...

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Related Articles

Documenting The Alaska State Fair by Clark James Mishler
These images were selected from a body of photographs produced during the fair's two-week run at the end of August between 2015 through 2021. My assignment, from the fair’s marketing department, was to capture iconic images of those who participated in the fair while documenting the fair’s events and singular moments that define the small-town aspect of life in rural Alaska’s Matanuska Valley. I was so happy that my client gave me the freedom to find and capture images that spoke to me. Never once did they give me any instructions or tell me how to make my images.
Souvenir d’un Futur by Laurent Kronental
''Souvenir d'un Futur'' documents the life of senior citizens living in the “Grands Ensembles” (large housing projects) around Paris. For the most part erected between the 1950s and the 1980s to address the housing crisis, urban migration and the inflow of foreign migrants while meeting modern comfort needs, these large estates are today often stigmatized by the media and marginalized by public opinion. In sharp contrast with these cliché views, and fascinated by these projects’ ambitious and dated modernistic features, Laurent Kronental was moved by the living conditions of these urban veterans who have aged there, and who, he feels, are the memory of the locus.
Transparent Curtains Aging Through the Eyes of Gay Elders by Oded Wagenstein
Research has shown that elders in the LGBTQ+ community are often more likely to experience loneliness, exclusion, and fear of turning to health and welfare services. The men pictured in this series, all over seventy, identify as gay and live in Israel. A land of continuous religious and ideological struggles, where, despite progressive reforms in recent decades, LGBTQ+ members are still subjected to legal discrimination, stigmas, and exclusion fueled by influential and political groups.
Inclusive Nation by Marijn Fidder
Life can present many obstacles for people with disabilities. These challenges lead to social isolation, poverty and reduced quality of life. However, amid these obstacles, Uganda is gradually transforming to become more inclusive.
After the Darkness by Stefano Battistelli
Women fleeing homes that have become traps, holding their children by the hand, carrying only a few belongings and one certainty: they can no longer stay where they are. In those moments when darkness seems to prevail, Fondazione Asilo Mariuccia Onlus is there to provide support. Since 1902, this foundation has been a point of reference for the protection of women and minors who are victims of violence. Founded in the early 1900s, it is now one of the most active organizations in the field of protection and social inclusion.
Portrait of a Poet: A Journey Through Layers by Piotr Skubisz
This series of monochromatic portraits, titled "Portrait of a Poet – A Journey Through Layers", explores the multifaceted persona of Manka Menga, a Tanzanian poet whose work challenges societal norms and serves as a form of self-expression and therapy. It's an intimate journey into the poet's singular world, yet a reflection of the universal human experience, where we all seek to commune with ourselves. Highlighting the paradox of human experience – the unique and the universal intertwined.
Life Underground  by Pilar Vergara
I started learning photography when I began my career in journalism in my home country of Chile. I worked as a photojournalist for a human rights organization and for several news agencies, documenting protests and conflicts in Chile under the Pinochet regime.
Russia at Dusk by Dmitry Ersler
This photo project presents a series of photographs about provincial Russia, executed in the style of classical realism. It reveals the everyday life of ordinary people living in small towns and villages.
Winter on Whidbey by Yasmine Rafii
Living on a semi-rural, heavily forested island, I experience each season intimately without the filter of modern urban life. Every day is a unit of time measured in the changing character of light, reminding me it is good to be alive. Winter is full of mysteries tucked away in the woods —places that inspire the telling of fairy tales.
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