Miriam

Florine Thiebaud (b. 1992, France) is a photographer based in Marseille. With a post-documentary practice that combines photography and writing, she places a significant emphasis on publishing. She explores the notions of imprisonment and isolation, the passage of time, loss of control, identity, and her connection to others. From 2016 to 2019, she developed two projects focused on the consequences of the waiting for papers for exiled people in Greece, placing the relationship with the other at the heart of her practice.The first was the project Exils, which won the Roger de Conynck Prize and was exhibited at the Recylart Gallery in Brussels, followed by Breaking Point. The latter was co-published as a book in May 2022 with Stockmans Art Books, and was exhibited at FOMU in Antwerp and at the Contretype Gallery in Brussels as part of the .TIFF selection and Propositions d’Artistes. Developing her reflections on notions of imprisonment and isolation and their consequences, she is currently working on a project about families of incarcerated people, Des Ondes (On Waves), based on a personal story. This project has received support from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, and part of it was already exhibited in 2023 at the Delta Cultural Center in Namur as part of a group exhibition. In parallel, following confrontations with her own physical and mental limits facing depression, she developped a new series of self-portraits: Revenir (Coming back). Using once again repetitive imagery and a consistent aesthetic, she explores the intersection of vulnerability, isolation, and transformation through self-portraiture. Photographing herself during moments of crisis and depression, she seeks to capture the disconnect between her inner world and reality.

Mara Palena (1988) lives and works in Milan. Her research focuses on themes such as memory, recollection, and identity. She works with photography, video, and sound, reworking materials from archives, often open and participatory, like home movies, and drawing on a personal archive of photographic images that she has been curating for years to document her life. Her work has been exhibited at various international festivals, venues, and galleries, including the Guardian Art Center in Beijing, Galleria Studio G7 in Bologna, Careof, Marsèll Paradise, Nowhere Gallery, Pananti Atelier, and Video Sound Art in Milan, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Madrid, MOPLA in Los Angeles, Artphilein Foundation in Lugano, and Recontemporary in Turin. Between 2021 and 2024, she was a finalist in several art prizes, including the Lucie Foundation, Combat Prize, Premio Fabbri, New Post Photography, and Artphilein Photo Book Contest. In 2022, she was selected by Camera Torino for FUTURES Photography. Her work Oikeiôsis won the 2022 Surprize Award from Sprint and the Marcelo Burlon Foundation. The editorial project was curated and published by Witty Books in 2023 and was included by Photo España among the 100 best books published in 2024.

Visvaldas Morkevicius (b. 1990) is a Lithuanian artist s a Lithuanian artist working in the expanded field of the image, who explores photography and its boundaries through personal experiences and reflections on society. His work navigates themes of identity, technology, and power, blending minimalism with layered narratives to examine modern life’s emotional and psychological dimensions. At this moment, he is pursuing his MA diploma in Photography at EACL, Switzerland (2025). Visvaldas works reflect a deep engagement with contemporary life's emotional and psychological dimensions, examining how hyperconnectivity, media saturation, and systemic forces shape human perception, memory, and agency. The artist's approach is both critical and reflective. He uses photography and interdisciplinary media to explore themes of loss, disconnection, and resilience, juxtaposing personal experience with broader societal dynamics. His art often reveals the tension between intimacy and detachment, questioning how technology mediates relationships, reframes violence, and commodifies identity. Visvaldas draws from psychoanalysis and critical theory to investigate the cycles of desire, control, and addiction embedded in modern systems. He is particularly interested in how these systems exploit human vulnerability, trapping individuals in loops of consumption and obedience. Through his practice, he challenges viewers to confront the fragile balance between autonomy and control, reality and hyperreality.His work combines stark minimalism with layered narratives, creating immersive experiences that invite reflection on contemporary life's emotional and ethical implications. Visvaldas seeks to uncover hidden connections, offering a lens through which to question the forces that shape our lives while exploring the human desire for meaning, connection, and self-expression. Represented by Galerie Elisabeth & Reinhard Hauff

João Bragança Gil (Lisbon, 1989) is an artist, based in Lisbon, Portugal. Attended the Painting course at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon between 2008 and 2010; Graduated in Industrial Design in 2013 from Escola Superior de Artes e Design. In 2014, Bragança Gil moved to London, graduating in MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins UAL in 2016. In 2019 Bragança Gil, moved to Lisbon, and started practicing fine arts full-time. Currently he’s pursuing a Media Arts PhD at Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon.‍Recent exhibitions include “Drop me in the river, Dip me in the water!” (2021) at Galeria Pedro Cera; “The sun, the oldest, the sheep, as the origin (on and on) and the klecks klecks” (2021), by Sismógrafo at Casa das Artes, Porto; “CODA” (2022) at Buraco, Lisbon, “Uncertain Strata” at EGEU; “Estudo do Meio”, Carpintarias de S. Lázaro; “Midnight Sun”, Mono. Recidency at Arquipélago — Centro de Artes Contemporâneas, São Miguel, with FetArt (France) and CiCLO (Portugal). In 2023, Bragança Gil presented “Artificial Paradises” (2023) a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Science and Natural History, resulting from more than two years of research.‍In 2024, participated in the group exhibition “Entre Margens” curated by João Pinharanda and the group show “Passages” at Galeria Encounter; and the solo exhibition “Trouble in Paradise” at (Projectspace) at the Encounter and Jahn und Jahn Gallery, in Lisbon.

Based in Chisinau, Moldova, Natalia Ciobanu is an internationally recognized photographer specializing in portraits and travel photography. With over 18 years of experience, she masterfully blends color and emotion, crafting images that tell profound human stories. Her work has been exhibited across Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine and has earned prestigious awards, including Gold Winner at the London Photography Awards, Finalist in the Smithsonian Contest, and distinctions from Nikon Photo Contest and Trierenberg Super Circuit. For Natalia, photography is more than just capturing moments; it’s about telling stories, connecting with people, and celebrating the beauty of the world in all its diversity. Each photograph she creates is an exploration of humanity and a tribute to the colors that define our lives.

Rūta Kalmuka is a Latvian photographer whose passion for analogue photography took root during her secondary school years under the mentorship of Andrejs Grants. For roughly seven years, she immersed herself in the art of film developing, darkroom printing, and the finer details of traditional photography. This hands-on experience laid the foundation for her enduring commitment to analogue processes. Despite the demands of a busy editorial career, Kalmuka consistently nurtured her personal art practice. She created bodies of work focused on her immediate family, capturing intimate narratives through the tactile, deliberate medium of film. Over the years, she participated in numerous group exhibitions, both in Latvia and abroad, showcasing her evolving perspective on family life and everyday rituals. In 2022, she transitioned from the news agency to a new role as a photographer in a museum setting, affording her more time and creative freedom to develop her ideas. This shift allowed Kalmuka to delve deeper into the conceptual aspects of her projects, further refining her analogue techniques. Two years later, in 2024, she exhibited a long-term family-centered project at the ISSP Gallery—an exhibition that encapsulated her ongoing exploration of memory, identity, and personal history. Through her distinct blend of traditional processes and reflective storytelling, Kalmuka continues to expand the expressive potential of analogue photography.

Éva Szombat is a photographer based in Budapest, Hungary. She earned her MA in photography from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), and studied visual communication at ESAG Penninghen in Paris. Her works explore themes of happiness, mental well-being, and self-acceptance, by using colorful visuals with a subtle political edge. She previously released two books on the subject: Happiness, and Practitioners. The series I Want Orgasms, Not Roses won the Robert Capa Grand Prize in 2021, later published by Kehrer Verlag in collaboration with Everybody Needs Art in 2022. In 2023 the book was a joint winner at Belfast Photo Festival Photo-Book Award. Her project about nostalgia, titled Echo in Delirium, was completed late in 2024, and was released also in book form in cooperation with Symposion and Everybody Needs Art. Her works were displayed in numerous festivals and exhibitions such as Unseen Amsterdam, 212 Photography Istanbul, Belfast Photo Festival, White Box (New York), Jerusalem Biennale, Imago Lisboa, Foto Wien, Krinzinger Schottenfeld (Vienna), Galleri Image (Aarhus), Fotografica Bogota, National Museum Warsaw, Münchner Künstlerhaus, Robert Capa Center. She was selected for the FUTURES Photography talent programme in 2018. She is currently attending doctoral school and teaching photography at MOME. She is represented by Longtermhandstand.

Sara Perovic’s photography begins with the personal, drawing from her own experiences and memories, and expands into broader themes of repetition, abstraction, and identity. Her work explores how personal moments shape perception and emotional expression. In Palmeral (2017), Perovic uses texture, repetition, and the fragility of nature to reveal the unseen complexities of plants. My Father’s Legs (2020) blends personal reflection with artistic exploration, confronting memory and healing through repetitive gestures, navigating emotional expression and abstraction. TWO (2024) explores human relationships, visualizing emotional connections with metaphorical imagery and a poetic “hugs ballad.” In Home Mirror I, Perovic catalogs her belongings to explore identity as both a collection of material and memory. Her book My Father’s Legs was shortlisted for the Les Rencontres d’Arles Prix du Livre d’Auteur and the Aperture/Paris Photo First Book Award. Perovic also founded aTree, a fanzine promoting young photographers, available at MoMA Library in New York. She works as a photographer and architect in Berlin.