The Bangladeshi photographer Ismail Ferdous is based in New York, but he has returned often to his home country, in particular to photograph at Cox’s Bazar, the longest natural sea beach in the world. In recent years, the beach has become familiar from news bulletins as the site of one of the largest of all refugee camps, housing 1 million Rohingya people, forcibly expelled from neighbouring Myanmar. Ferdous has worked as a photojournalist telling that tragedy, but he has also been moved to reflect on a more personal and timeless aspect of that Bay of Bengal coastline, in a series that features in the annual photography festival in the French town of Saint-Nazaire.

Like most Bangladeshis, as a child Ferdous would go to the beach for holidays – and in the last five years he has been taking pictures that reference that past. In order to find the light he remembers, Ferdous always photographs people on the beach in the winter months and at noon. His images have a delicate pastel palette – even this high-contrast picture of the beach trader in his pink shirt, clutching his tree of candy floss.

Traditionally families, rich and poor, would go to Cox’s Bazar not to sunbathe or swim but to dress in their best clothes and promenade on the sand. These days there are stretches of the beach devoted to surfing, but the older habits persist. Speaking of his pictures, Ferdous says: “After living in the United States for a number of years and returning to Cox’s Bazar, I see my own memories reflected in the beachgoers collecting shells, making sand sculptures, or viewing newlywed couples on the shore. This series of photos represents both the connection and the disconnection I feel.”

• Cargo photography festival runs until 1 October, Saint-Nazaire, France

THE WOODLANDS, TX — Tara Flannery of Tara Flannery Photography LLC in The Woodlands has earned the Master of Photography degree from Professional Photographers of America (PPA). The degree will be presented to Flannery by PPA president Kira Derryberry, M.Photog.Cr., CPP, at the association’s annual convention, Imaging USA, to be held in Louisville, KY, in January 2024.

The Master of Photography degree is an achievement of the highest caliber. It means that Flannery has met the standards of excellence set by PPA. She has been awarded this degree in recognition of her superior photographic competence demonstrated through image excellence, advanced education, and service to the profession.

Flannery’s degrees—and all the expertise they require—illustrate her accomplishments and talent as one of a select few.

Tara Flannery Photography specializes in headshots and branding, family portraits, and senior portraits. Many people have outdated portraits that no longer represent who they are. As a Certified Professional Photographer and Master Photographer, I use lighting, posing and over 12 years of experience to create new portraits that reflect the very best you! With your new portraits, you’ll feel confident and attract attention, happiness, and success in your personal and professional lives.

About PPA Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is the largest and longest-standing nonprofit photography trade association. Founded in 1868, PPA currently helps 34,000 professionals elevate their craft and grow their business with resources and education, all under PPA’s core guiding principle of bridging the gap between photographers and consumers.

Contact:
Tara Flannery
713-412-5437
tara@taraflannery.com
www.taraflannery.com

Viewfinder is the recently released 3D puzzle platform videogame from Sad Owl Studios, published by Thunderful, for PlayStation 5 and PC. It has a similar theme to Inception-style physics games like Portal, while using perspective tricks that will feel familiar to anyone that has played games like Superliminal. However, it manages to feel fresh and utterly unlike anything I’ve ever played before. 

• These are the best photography videogames across all genres

At its core, Viewfinder is a puzzle game where to complete each level you’ll need to reach a teleporter to advance to the next section. To do so you’ll pick up various photos, and later an instant camera to take your own snaps. These can then be carefully repositioned in the level to bend space and time to your will. 

If there’s a gap in the level that you’re struggling to traverse, for example, take a photo of a bridge and place it over the gap and watch the pixels become replaced with those in the photo – as a 2D print is transformed into three-dimensional space (as in the GIF at the top of this page). It’s a difficult concept to explain, so be sure to watch the trailer below to see how it all works in action:

The fun comes from how creative you can get with your solutions. While in the early levels your solutions are restricted to photos and artwork that you’ll find lying around, later on you’ll pick up an instant camera, (it’s unbranded but looks suspiciously like an old-school Polaroid), so you can take your own photos and insert them into the levels.

You’ll usually only have a few frames of instant film to play with, so you need to make them count. Get creative with what you take a picture of, the perspective, and whether or not to rotate the image when you come to place it back in the scene.

The level design is varied and constantly introduces new mechanics such as photocopiers, battery generators, or timers that keep the game feeling fresh while adding a new challenge at the same time, making it a great mental workout.

There are five main hub worlds to explore that get progressively more challenging. The main storyline took about 5-6 hours to complete, but factor in all the additional content to 100% the game and unlock all of the achievements and it was probably more like 10 hours all in – though being an avid fan of both puzzles and photography, perhaps I’m at an unfair advantage.

It was, however, the optional challenges that gave me the biggest headaches. While I did eventually figure out the solution to most of them after several attempts, there was one level near the end that did completely stump me – and when I looked up the solution, you can imagine I did the biggest facepalm. That said, the difficulty overall was nicely paced and offered a fun, rather than frustrating challenge.

Viewfinder is unlike anything else I’ve ever played. It feels new, exciting, challenging and it’s a joy to get sucked into its super-saturated worlds. If you love both photography and puzzle games in equal measure don’t pass this one by; it’s available now for $24.99 / £19.99 / AU$37.95 on PS5 and PC (Steam).

Why not also check out the best desktop computers for photo editing as well as how to take photos in videogames.