Get inspired by this week’s collections tackling equity & justice
In a world where we’re often driven by what makes us different, art can be the great unifying element that brings us together. Each artist in the Voice x PhotoVogue NFT Residency was given the subjects of equity and justice. They brought their unique perspectives to the topic, while simultaneously showing us the common thread of humanity.
Tomasz Kawecki is a photographer living and working between Krakow and Warsaw. In his work, Tomasz uses elements of performance and installation to mix reality with fiction. The resulting photographs have a quasi-documentary quality. His NFT collection is inspired by a long-held fascination with the influence that photography has on the perception of paranormal phenomena and how the veracity of events are verified and proven through the medium.
Pretika Menon is a photographer and mixed media artist based in Goa, India. She creates visual stories inspired by her queer identity, the socio-political climate of her local community, and post-colonial issues in India. Their NFT collection, Archetypes of Freedom, highlights the internal strengths and struggles that we often fear. It was created with the vision that representation has to move beyond tokenism. Pretika devised this collection to give marginalized folx a safe space to express the storytelling innate within their bodies.
The subjects are women and genderqueer folx whose forms are often hypersexualized and often ostracized and endangered. Proceeds will be shared with the subjects/ collaborators.
David PD Hyde is a London-based Photographer and Video Maker. Born in China, Hyde came to England in his early teens and in early 2010 he bought his first SLR camera and began taking photographs for student union events, and through that, he started taking portraits. The narratives that particularly appeal to him are those that are controversial or bizarre; where the characters, whether real or imaginary, have interesting lifestyles; and where there is both a strong emotional pull into the story and also an element that, in some way, shocks him.
UBERlab is a conceptual laboratory in Kiev, Ukraine helmed by photographer Victoria Art and designer/stylist Victoria Nooga. The duo collaborate on projects that embrace the idea that creativity is deeply informative. Their current project Obscurum per Obscurius is about the things we carry with us from our land, that are encoded in our identities, that project outward as a continuation of ourselves through creativity.
Hassan Kurbanbaev is a photographer born and raised in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In his practice, he is interested in creating stories that reflect his identity, his country, and the moment he is living in. His NFT collection is an homage to one of his favorite cities, Samarkand. It is in this place where Hassan first began thinking about his own unique cultural identity. His journey of self-reflection has become a guiding force in all of his works. Alongside his photographs are archival postcards, drawings, and diary entries reflecting the artist’s feelings and thoughts.
His collection is a series of paper collages dedicated to one of his favorite cities — Samarkand, Uzbekistan. During a trip to this city, the artist reflected on Uzbekistan and his own cultural identity, which continues to inspire and guide his work today.
Ranita Roy was born in Andul, a small town in India. She currently spends time between Kolkata and Pune, India. She is a Visual Storyteller. Her work evolves between reality and the dream world.
Oded Wagenstein is an award-winning photographer and artist. His collection, Spirits and Snow, explores the relationship between Aging and Exclusion. All artist’s profits from the sale of the works will be donated to organizations that support the elderly.
About the photograph, Mordechai’s Dream: A portrait of Mordechai Zilberman (born in 1934) dressed in the clothes of his recently deceased partner Aryeh. Mordechai and Aryeh lived together as a couple for sixty years. When Aryeh’s health deteriorated and he was hospitalized, they were terrified that they would not be safe at the hospital because they were in a same-sex relationship. It was on Aryeh’s eighty-eight birthday, exhausted by anxiety and pain, that they decided not to return to the hospital again. Mordechai told Aryeh that he could rest, and, on that night, Aryeh passed away at their mutual home. Mordechai is often wearing Aryeh’s clothes to feel closer to him.
Ayomide Tejuoso (Plantation), is a Nigerian contemporary photographer based in Lagos and France. Her work is invested in exploring the black disposition and is centered on archiving the black expression and experience. Her works seek to engage and further understand the global black diasporic experience. Ayomide’s photographs are a visual manifestation of her musings on the black sacred, black femininity, and nihilism. They are a deep testimony to black visual culture, marked by a whimsical and explorative yet hauntingly gritty tone.
This collection conveys a whimsical and explorative testimony to black visual culture from Nantes, France to Lagos, Nigeria.
Liza Kanaeva-Hunsicker is a photographer born and raised in Moscow, Russia. Her work is a messy love letter to women, to New York, to Moscow, to nonconformity, to her body and others, to the young school girl she used to be and still is. For her NFT collection, Body, she created digital photographic sculptures that pay homage to the digital space. They are part women, part imaginary creatures, part bodies, part houses, part sculptures. They are fragmented landscapes of womanhood. They take root in Liza’s ongoing exploration of feminine space and concepts of how the body can channel social and personal histories.
Her collection titled ‘Body’ is a part of an ongoing exploration of societal expectations and how the body can channel social and personal histories.
Imraan Christian (b. Cape Town, SA) is a self-proclaimed ‘son of the soil’, a visual artist and an activist. He is a Brand Ambassador for South Africa, and in this capacity has been chosen to represent the freedom of expression for his nation. His documentation of the Student uprising of 2015/2016 in South Africa catapulted his work into the international spotlight. With grassroots activism and a particular focus on decolonization and innovation as his chosen voice, he then blazed a trail through the art, and advertising world collaborating with a plethora of entities.
His collection ‘Synthetic Intelligence’ is an ongoing series of fine art portraits that question the role and nature of artificial intelligence in creating artworks. The first trilogy begins with Alpha; the cosmic mother and overseer of all creation.
