Scot Sothern (born 1949) is an American photographer and writer. He has created controversial black and white photographs of prostitutes in Southern California, whom he photographed from 1986 to 1990. In 2010, he began photographing and writing about sex workers in Skid Row, Los Angeles. [1] [2] [3] [4] Sothern described the photographs as exposés that expose both the women and also the artist behind the camera. [5]
Scot Sothern was born to a portrait and wedding photographer in the Missouri Ozarks. He spent 40 unsettled years selling freelance photography in the US and abroad. His first solo exhibit, Lowlife, was held at the Drkrm Gallery in Los Angeles in 2010. His first book, Lowlife, was published in the U.K. by Stanley Barker in 2011 and as an ebook by powerHouse Books in 2013. The British Journal of Photography called Lowlife "The year's most controversial photobook". Curb Service: A Memoir, was published by Soft Skull Press in July 2013, [6] and Streetwalkers was published by PowerHouse Books in 2016. [7] Sothern has been in solo and group shows in NYC, Miami, and Los Angeles as well as Ottawa, London, Basel and Paris. In 2013 and 2014, Scot wrote 52 photo-illustrated columns for Vice Magazine : Sothern Exposure [8] and Nocturnal Submissions. [9] In 2017 Sothern's novel BigCity was published by Stalking Horse Press. [10]
In 2011, The British Journal of Photography commenting on Lowlife wrote, "Scot Sothern makes this year's most controversial photobook".[ citation needed ]
Roger Ballen in 2021 opined, "Scot Sothern has bravely and empathetically entered a hidden world of humanity. A place where the human condition bares itself on all levels. This penetrating book of photographs and text will haunt and challenge the viewer".[ citation needed ]
Joel-Peter Witkin is an American photographer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work often deals with themes such as death, corpses, often featuring ornately decorated photographic models, including people with dwarfism, transgender and intersex persons, as well as people living with a range of physical features. Witkin is often praised for presenting these figures in poses which celebrate and honor their physiques in an elevated, artistic manner. Witkin's complex tableaux vivants often recall religious episodes or classical paintings.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is an American documentary filmmaker and portrait photographer based in New York City. The majority of his work is shot in large format.
Jessicka Addams is an American visual artist and musician. Best known by her stage name Jessicka, she was the frontwoman for the alternative rock band Jack Off Jill, and later for the noise-pop band Scarling.
Kenny Scharf is an American painter known for his participation in New York City's interdisciplinary East Village art scene during the 1980s, alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Scharf's do-it-yourself practice spanned painting, sculpture, fashion, video, performance art, and street art. Growing up in post-World War II Southern California, Scharf was fascinated by television and the futuristic promise of modern design. His works often include pop culture icons, such as the Flintstones and the Jetsons, or caricatures of middle-class Americans in an apocalyptic science fiction setting.
Mike Brodie, also known as the "Polaroid Kid" or "Polaroid Kidd", is an American photographer. Since 2003, Brodie has freighthopped across the US, photographing people he encountered, largely train-hoppers, vagabonds, squatters, and hobos. He has published A Period of Juvenile Prosperity (2013), Tones of Dirt and Bone (2015), and the box of reproduction Polaroids Polaroid Kid (2023).
James Welling is an American artist, photographer and educator living in New York City. He attended Carnegie-Mellon University where he studied drawing with Gandy Brodie and at the University of Pittsburgh where he took modern dance classes. Welling transferred to the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California in 1971 and received a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. in the School of Art. At Cal Arts, he studied with John Baldessari, Wolfgang Stoerchle and Jack Goldstein.
Yuichi Hibi is a Japanese fine art photographer currently living and working out of New York City.
Leigh Ledare uses photography, archival material, text and film to explore human agency, social relationships, taboos and the photographic in equal turns. Through a wide span of artistic practices, Ledare examines issues related to desire, identity, and morality.
Peter Harkawik is an artist working in sculpture and photography. His work has been shown in Los Angeles, New York and Paris and is held in several private and public collections. He frequently explores themes of visual perception and intersubjective communication, often drawing from the fields of industrial design and architecture. Writing in the New York Times, Roberta Smith described him as "a younger sort-of painter who favors decals on clear vinyl." He studied at Hampshire College, University of California, San Diego, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Yale University. He lives and works in Los Angeles, where he is represented by Thomas Solomon Gallery.
Mariah Robertson is an American artist. She lives in New York City.
Cole Sternberg is an American visual artist. Sternberg's primary medium is painting. The artist also has works in: photography, sculpture, room installations and film. Cole Sternberg Paintings, a hardcover book released in 2008 features six years of his painting. The 162 page book is listed as the first public release of Sternberg's work. Subsequent work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe.
Wendy White is an American artist from Deep River, Connecticut who lives and works in New York City.
Martin Edward Elkort was an American photographer, illustrator and writer known primarily for his street photography. Prints of his work are held and displayed by several prominent art museums in the United States. His photographs have regularly appeared in galleries and major publications. Early black and white photographs by Elkort feature the fabled Lower East Side in Manhattan, New York City, showing its ethnic diversity, myriad streets and cluttered alleys. The Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn was another favorite site during that period. His later work depicts street scenes from downtown Los Angeles and Tijuana, Mexico. Throughout Martin Elkort's long career as a photographer, he always showed the positive, joyful side of life in his candid images.
Blake Little is an entertainment, advertising, and fine art photographer based in Los Angeles since 1982. He has had assignments in advertising, film, television, book and magazine publishing. He has worked with personalities in entertainment, sports and politics. His work has been exhibited in New York, Seattle, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Japan.
Hannah Greely is an American mixed media artist. She mainly creates site-specific sculptural works that seek to redefine the boundary between art and life. Her sculptures are colorful and often replicate ordinary objects or subjects, with subtle incongruencies in material or form. Her material experimentations lend the work an uncanny quality, as recognizable objects fade from real to fictional. Greely’s work explores open dialogue between object and environment, as well as the theatrical otherness of sculpture.
Julia Dault is a Canadian artist. She is best known for her abstract paintings and Formica and Plexiglas sculptures. She lives and works in Toronto.
Mindy Alper is an American artist who lives in Greater Los Angeles. Her drawings, paintings, and sculptures focus on the representation of people, either in portraiture or as figures who embody aspects of her inner experience. She has been praised for her ability to articulate complex and profound emotions in her work. Among her art media are paint, ink, marker pen, papier-mâché, clay, and wood. She was a performance artist in the 1980s, and she plays guitar and violin. Alper is represented by Rosamund Felsen Gallery.
Glen Seator (1956-2002) was an American visual artist and conceptual sculptor. He lived in Brooklyn, NY and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Bryan Formhals is an American photographer and editor, based in New York City. He co-edited the book Photographers' Sketchbooks (2014).
Stephen McLaren is a Scottish photographer, writer, and curator, based in Los Angeles. He has edited various photography books published by Thames & Hudson—including Street Photography Now (2010)—and produced his own, The Crash (2018). He is a co-founder member of Document Scotland. McLaren's work has been shown at FACT in Liverpool as part of the Look – Liverpool International Photography Festival and in Document Scotland group exhibitions at Impressions Gallery, Bradford and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. His work is held in the collection of the University of St Andrews.