Thank you

Sorry for my absence in the last couple of weeks... no real excuses at hand, other than I designed a book of our new house (well actually more of the surrounds) for my parents for xmas and it took longer than expected - as most things do. I love it that in our minds we can think about all the great projects we like to do and they are done as quickly as we can dream them up, but if we begin the project in earnest, well... it always takes much longer.

Also a big thank you to Bryan from la pura vida for including UYW in his "Top 15 Photography Websites of 2010."
It is an honor to be on this list along with Ahorn Magazine, 1000 Words Magazine, Daylight Magazine, The New Yorker's PhotoBooth, Jen Bekman's Hey Hot Shot, Wired Magazine's RAW blog, Luceo Images, The New York Times Lens Blog, Blake Andrews' blog, Pictory, Flickr, Tumblr and Urbanautica.

What we remember

The other day I discovered the work by Eugen Litwinow. His luxurious series "Obratno" presents a great story about his trip to Russia, to connect with his wider family he hasn't seen in 17 years. via

Where is my summer

I am a summer girl, but so far we had rain and rain and more rain - don't get me wrong it is nice and very necessary to have rain, but a bit of sun with rain - well makes rainbows... anyway... Today I came across Oksana Yushko and felt inspired by his colors, ease and quirks of his images. (Via)

New UYW issue

The other weekend I went to an exhibition opening and whilst enjoying a glass of champagne and the paintings around me I tried to imagine a world without art. I simply couldn’t, or better said, I wouldn’t let myself imagine such a depressing world. Art is varied and whilst we all have such different tastes it is simply a necessity. Every time I think of giving up - I imagine my world without my cameras... and without art – and I think I would have to go and see a psychologist instead, but I prefer looking through the view finder and creating to sitting on a couch.

This month I invited five artists who could not be more different in their style of photography, but each one of them delighted my eyes and heart in a different way. They all use their BW photography as an entrance to unknown worlds. Worlds of mystery, beauty, delight and joy - time and time again. They are completely different in details and are engaging us in a distinctive development of their ideas. Their simplicity transforms into something memorable and creates a possibility. So to finish off this great year I invited

Paula McCartney
Roger Ballen
Rodney Smith
Rhondal McKinney
Michelle Kloehn

Why did I make it an exclusive BW issue? In the middle of the year, I spent a couple of days in Rome and stayed with Fabio Severo. His knowledge of photography and BW inspired me no end and I invited him to write the foreword, to share his knowledge on this subject from a different point of view.

You'll find the new issue here. There won’t be an UYW edition in January as I will need some time to concentrate on my work and then go to a workshop in January with Todd Hido and Bruce Gilden in NZ.