With the Christmas season rapidly approaching, Covington’s newest photo studio offers photographers access to seasonal sets in anticipation of the holiday rush.

“We have perfect backdrops for Christmas meetings here at En Boga Studios,” owner Carmen McGrath said.

En Boga is Spanish for ‘in vogue,’ meaning something is popular or fashionable. Located at 727 Scott Blvd., En Boga is inside a renovated 1,792-square-foot building that was previously a doctor’s office.

Her business features multiple rooms for photographers to shoot for holidays, maternity, portraits and bridal parties. Rates vary for different types of shoots. It’s $65 an hour for Christmas photos or a newborn photo session. The price for a full day is $480, while a half day is $240. Bridal party shoots are $500. A 30-minute session is the cheapest option at $45.

“We send instruction on how to access the buildings so we don’t have to be here to open the door for anybody,” McGrath said. “Everything is electronic.”

Originally from New York, McGrath told LINK nky she became disillusioned with her corporate job after years of grinding. Anxious for a fresh start, she decided to pursue a career in entrepreneurship. En Boga is the manifestation of her decision.

“I had bad experiences with corporate America,” McGrath said. “I said that I needed to look for something to do to be an entrepreneur and to be the owner of my own time.”

McGrath said the concept for her studio business came from her native Dominican Republic.

“These are concepts that really came from the Dominican Republic where in the D.R., we provide a lot of backdrops for people to take pictures,” McGrath said.

In addition to photo spaces, En Boga has multiple private suites available to rent for cosmetic work. These suites feature electric lash/spa chairs, moon lamps, and smart locks. Rent for the suites starts at $200 a week.

The studio is now open for business seven days a week, McGrath said. En Boga is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Officials from the City of Covington were on hand at a ribbon cutting to honor En Boca’s first official day in business.

“Here in Covington, y’all means all,” Covington Vice Mayor Ron Washington said. “We’re very excited to have you here.”

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Photography from the private collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish is to be exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) next year.

Titled Fragile Beauty, it will feature more than 300 “rare prints” from over 140 photographers including portraits of actress Marilyn Monroe and US jazz musicians Miles Davis and Chet Baker.

Running from May 18 2024 to January 5 2025 at the gallery in South Kensington, London, it is set to be the V&A’s largest temporary exhibition of photography to date.

The collection will span from the 1950s to the present day and will feature key moments of history from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Aids activism of the 1980s and the events of September 11 2001.

Across eight thematic sections, it will also explore topics including fashion, celebrity, the male body and American photography.

Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei will be among those featured as well as photographers Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston,Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Carrie Mae Weems and Zanele Muholi.

Sir Elton and his husband Furnish said: “Since we first loaned a selection of Horst photographs to the V&A in 2014, our relationship with the museum has grown significantly.

“Fragile Beauty takes our collaboration to really exciting new heights, showcasing some of the most beloved photographers and iconic images from within our collection.

“Working alongside the V&A again has been a truly memorable experience, and we look forward to sharing this exhibition with the public.”

The exhibition is being curated by head of photography at the V&A Duncan Forbes, director of The Sir Elton John Photography Collection Newell Harbin and the V&A’s exhibition project curator Lydia Caston.

Sir Elton and Furnish’s partnership with the museum began in 2019 following their support of the V&A’s Photography Centre.

Curator Forbes said: “We are delighted to be working with Sir Elton John and David Furnish to present highlights from their unparalleled collection: from the playful and surprising, to the contemplative and thoughtful.

“Whether through the elegance of fashion photography, the creativity of musicians and performers, the exploration of desire, or the passage of history as captured by photojournalism, photography reveals something important about the world.

“Fragile Beauty will be a truly epic journey across the recent history of photography, and a celebration of Sir Elton John and David Furnish’s passion for the medium.”

Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection in partnership with Gucci will run at the V&A from May 18 2024 to January 5 2025.

On a rainy October 20th evening, Prada feted its new collaborative exhibition with Magnum Photos at their store in New York’s Soho. “Witness to Nature” reflects on the evolving relationship between man and the natural environment and encompasses the different visions of eight photographers. They capture both its humbling majesty and fragile ephemerality.

The exhibitions runs until November 6 and features over 200 images in the undulating Rem Koolhaas-designed gallery space. Highlights include Japanese photographer Hiroji Kubota’s poetic Chinese mountain ranges and Nanna Heitmann’s ruminative mediations on secluded banks of the Yenisey River in Siberia. Themes of global warming, mythology, native customs, and the surreal blight of urbanization are also explored.

Prada Reporter collaborated with Magnum on the exhibition. Courtesy of Prada.

The exhibition is part of the Prada Reporter initiative that aims to “forge vital connections between fashion and other languages” and support “numerous forms of creativity.” The space has been outfitted in a reportage theme with oversized decorative silver cameras. The mannequins, dressed in the vaguely photojournalism-themed capsule collection (multipocketed Re-Nylon vests and baggy trousers with an ample silhouette to squat for that perfect shot) are posed as at-the-ready paparazzi.

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DETROIT – A photographer is aiming to reclaim Detroit’s narrative with a new book.

Instead of taking photos of what’s being demolished, he’s focused on what’s being built.

Cyrus Tetteh is a Detroit photographer who can now add self-published author to his accomplishments with the release of his new book, “Only In Detroit.”

“I want people to think about these moments when they think Detroit,” Tetteh said.

It features more than a hundred photographs snapped between 2017 and 2022.

Born and raised on Detroit’s east side, Tetteh said his goal is to capture exciting moments in Detroit’s history.

“Crafting this book I wanted it to be a celebration for our city,” Tetteh said. “Celebrating in ways that I didn’t see growing up.”

Tetteh is a part of the Mayor’s media department. He said his photos combat “ruin porn,” a budding movement that documents city decay.

“There’s a demo, which is the only one I have in the book, because I didn’t want to focus on that,” Tetteh said. “People come here and take pics of ruin porn and that is a photo showing movement forward.”

The 30-year-old graduated from Cass Tech and UM. He said he’s proud to shine a spotlight on the Motor City.

“My hope is people pick up this book and say ‘I wanna go to Detroit. It looks like the most exciting city in the world,’” Tetteh said.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of “Only in Detroit,” they’re available in the furniture store Throwbacks Home in Capital Park.

The 2023 International Photography Exhibition features 40 photos taken by Buckeyes all around the globe. Vote now for People’s Choice Awards in each of the three categories: People, Places and Arts & Culture. The People’s Choice voting closes on November 6 at 12 p.m. EST.

Vote by liking the images on Facebook or Instagram.

The photographs in the 2023 exhibition were taken overseas in 20 different countries by 35 Ohio State students, staff, faculty, visiting scholars and alumni. The exhibition features a diverse selection of images captured in Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, France, Georgia, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Uganda.

The Buckeye photographers featured in the exhibition are from nine countries including: Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Georgia, India, Iran, Mongolia, Taiwan, and United States. The photographers include ten undergraduate students, ten alumni, seven staff members, six graduate students, one visiting scholar and one faculty member.

FUJIFILM medium format bodies have attracted quite the cult following and for good reason. Their latest flagship model in the GFX range is available for purchase, but how does it hold up in street photography?

The FUJIFILM GFX100 II is the latest in the GFX line-up and it has some Fuji disciples drooling over it. Ever since the launch of the original GFX100, I have been enamored with the range and I shoot with my GFX 50R regularly. The 50R was the second medium format body I bought after an old Hasselblad, but I love the look and feel of shooting with that large sensor size. So, why did I say “how does it hold up in street photography?”

Well, medium format shooting (and I’ll leave the debate of whether the GFX is “true” medium format for the comments) is generally a much slower workflow. Medium format bodies are rarely intended for use as a sports photography camera, but rather studio work, architectural, and landscape. Street photography can be slow and considered, but often, you need to snap quickly and be on the move. So, this video by Tyler Stalman puts the GFX100 II through its paces more than you might expect of a street photography test shoot!

What did you think of the results? Are you interested in getting this new flagship GFX? Share your thoughts in the comments.

John Benton-Harris, who has died aged 83, was a US street photographer best known for his photo essays of the English. His output was prolific – by his own calculation, between 1960 and 2006, he shot nearly 2.5m images – and he believed that what he knew, thought and felt was no less important than what he saw. He always worked to reveal something of his own experience in the moments he captured with his camera.

His solo exhibitions included Old Masters Were Young Once at the Serpentine Gallery, London, the show that launched him in 1971; England, St Patrick’s Day, Streets of NYC, at the Photographers Gallery, 1981; and Out for the Day, at the Midland Arts Centre in 1997.

He was part of the group show Derby Day 200 at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1979, and also co-curated two major photographic exhibitions for the Barbican, American Images: Photography 1945 to 1980 (1985) and Through the Looking Glass (1989).

Benton-Harris was particularly interested in the people who attended St Patrick’s Day celebrations in his native New York, and returned repeatedly to photograph them. A collection of these images was published in 2019 as St Patrick’s People, one of five small-format books recently issued by Cafe Royal that also included The English (2018), Walking New York 1961-1981 (2020) and Walking London 1965-1988 (2021).

Other projects included Americans in Europe, exhibited at the Santa Fe Centre for Photography in 1983; and Children of the Troubles, shot in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. A good selection of his work from England and New York was published in Creative Camera Collection 5 in 1978, and he was supportive in the research for and the making of the 2019 film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay, about the founder of Creative Camera magazine.

Benton-Harris preferred to work outside the editorial establishment, as a freelance rather than in staff jobs or for an agency. He never really enjoyed being told what to do by a commissioning editor, and preferred to work things out for himself.

He was born in the Bronx, New York, one of 12 children of James Harris, a grocery clerk, and his wife, Mary (nee Rowan). Originally wanting to be a pilot or an actor, John found his calling as a photographer after seeing Edward Steichen’s Family of Man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955. He adopted as his professional name the double-barrelled Benton-Harris to make his surname more distinctive

Having started his career as an industrial photographer with the Sinclair Oil Corporation, Benton-Harris began studying the following year at Alexey Brodovitch’s influential Design Laboratory classes, with sessions and late-night conversations held by “the Brod” in an off-Broadway automat and at Richard Avedon’s Upper East Side studio. Brodovitch would always stress the importance of self-discovery and remind his students not to imitate others.

Brodovitch’s students also included at various times Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand, and Benton-Harris’s close friend Tony Ray-Jones, with whom he shared a New York apartment and a photographic philosophy. Both would have an approach in mind when something interesting started to develop before their cameras, and had a kindness about them, with a rich visual language to express their ideas.

In 1963 Benton-Harris received his draft papers for military service. He was posted to San Pedro, California, after basic training, and then to Vicenza, Italy, as a US army photographer. In 1965, he took leave to cover the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in the UK, where he met Jane Gaffney. The couple married the following year and Benton-Harris settled permanently in London, working as a staff photographer for the short-lived London Life magazine, which concentrated on capturing the cool of the swinging 60s.

From London he began his pilgrimage around England, and developed a visual passion for the country that would never leave him, though he was also convinced that the English never cared for photography as much as he did, especially the art establishment, whom he believed were “always busy seeking newness”.

After working for various publications, he gave up on calling himself a photojournalist, and instead referred to himself as a “visual sociologist”. He had come to believe that photojournalism was long dead in the US, and had never existed in the UK where, he thought, magazines did not treat the photographer as anything approaching an equal.

Benton-Harris was a teacher and a visiting lecturer on photographic courses at a variety of institutions, including Trent Polytechnic (Nottingham Trent University) in the 70s, the School of Documentary Photography in Newport, south Wales in the 70s and 80s, and latterly the London College of Printing (later the London College of Communication, UAL). In 1987 he was appointed adjunct professor of photography at the University of Michigan.

His critique of his pupils’ work was ruthless, but never personal, as I found out myself, as a student on the photojournalism course at the LCC in 1995. The work ethic was hard: shooting every day, developing your film, and then printing contact sheets in the darkroom for a late afternoon appraisal. JBH, as he was affectionately known to his students, would welcome you into his office, with his alluring South Bronx accent, wearing what looked like a pair of welding goggles, but were magnifying glass lenses attached to a leather-lined headband, to cast critical eyes over your contact sheets, with a red chinagraph pencil in hand.

He once tore up my contact sheets and threw them out of the window – they were bad, and probably deserved it. But it really was nothing personal – he bought me a pint in the Coach & Horses the next day, as if nothing had happened.

Benton-Harris never retired, living in Croydon, south London, and continuing to shoot pictures and work on book projects until shortly before his death.

He is survived by Jane and their three children, Emma, Mark and Jessica, and five grandchildren, and by seven of his siblings.

We attended the unveiling of Lavazza’s new calendar, a project that takes us into an uncharted Africa, brimming with energy, experimentation, and a forward-looking spirit influenced by its culture and the diverse communities that inhabit it. Three photographers collaborated on this year’s calendar: Thandiwe Muriu from Kenya, Aart Verrips from South Africa, and the latest addition, Daniel Obasi, whom we had the privilege to interview. The theme of Africa as the birthplace of coffee remains strong, linked to the Giuseppe and Pericle Lavazza Onlus Foundation, founded in 2004 and now involved in thirty-three projects across three continents. With Nigerian roots and a holistic approach to photography, Daniel Obasi is a creative talent who seamlessly blends fashion styling, cinema, photography, and art direction to create captivating and distinctly African narratives. Here’s our interview with him.

How did you first get into photography?
I started photography because of my background in design, and for a while, I also dabbled in fashion styling. That’s when I got into photography. Additionally, I had an eye for certain subjects, and the practice of photography attracted me in a unique way. Working with other people was often challenging for me, so I decided to learn how to take photos on my own to share my exact vision with the world. For me, it’s more about a concept and an idea, which is at the core of my holistic approach to creativity.

How do you manage to blend art direction, fashion photography, and your work as a director?
By approaching each practice in a holistic way and considering them as one, it’s easier to navigate. I don’t think of them as separate components but rather focus on the end goal.

How do you apply Afrocentrism to fashion photography? Can it be seen as the primary vehicle for promoting messages of inclusivity and cultural appreciation?
Absolutely. The concept of Afrocentrism and photography go hand in hand, and in this context, we can also recognize fashion as an art form. Moreover, you can see how it’s all connected to a certain cultural background. There’s also another aspect that brings a bit of your history into it. Of course, it’s not what’s needed in every shot, but in some cases, it gives you a good idea of the process behind the photos I take.

How did you accept the commission for Lavazza’s calendar project?
On an ordinary day, I received an email from Lavazza’s team. I waited for a week and then decided to propose the concept of working together, of unity. Everything started from the photos that depicted the young people together on the beach. I’m a big fan of simplicity, and sometimes the most astonishing images come from the simplest ideas. These images, which centralize the theme, are, in my opinion, the most powerful because beneath all those layers, the simple idea of working as one shines through.

What are your primary sources of inspiration in photography, cinema, and fashion?
My inspiration always changes depending on where I am. Currently, I’m more interested in architecture and composition, so I’m trying to improve the way I use space. I’m studying Bauhaus, Gothic architecture, and the movement. Additionally, choreography and contemporary dance – actually, all forms of dance – are a significant source of inspiration for me. Love, the idea of being loved, losing love, and being in love also fascinates me greatly at this moment.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has just announced the winner of its annual ‘Reflections of Research’ photography competition. The competition challenges BHF-funded scientists to showcase their heart research through the use of amazing images.

The winning image ‘Paths of the heart’ was taken by Dr Marina Strocchi, and shows a map of muscle cells in the human heart.

“In our research, computer models help doctors understand so much more about diseases of the heart. By simulating how electrical activity spreads through the heart, following the direction shown in the picture, to then trigger a heartbeat, we can predict how specific patients will respond to treatments to personalise and adjust how we care for them” said Dr Strocchi.

The BHF funds ground-breaking research that aims to eradicate heart and circulatory diseases around the world.

Shortlisted – A broken heart

What could be two intricate butterfly wings are in fact the two halves of a rabbit heart in recovery, several weeks after a heart attack. A powerful MRI scanner was used to build a 3D representation of the heart and split it in two to reveal the inner structure in amazing detail. The upper and lower chambers of the heart, the heart muscle, and the network of fibres inside the chambers can all be seen. 

People who have had a heart attack are more at risk from dangerous heart rhythms and sudden death. This may be because of scarring of the heart tissue after an attack. By studying how scarring interacts with the heart muscle and the electrical signals in the heart, Michael Freeman (University of Glasgow) hopes to find out why this risk increases. This could allow doctors to identify those at high risk of a heart rhythm problem.  

Shortlisted – Have a heart

In this image, the web of fibres and deep blue circles show different parts of heart muscle cells dyed with fluorescent molecules. Each circle is the nucleus of a cell, the control centre that contains the genetic information. Each green tendril is a filament of the protein actin, part of the machinery that allows the heart to contract during the heartbeat to push blood out and around the body. 

Shortlisted – A close-up view of vascular first aid kits

The image shows a blood vessel in minute detail. The white streaks are the edges of the cells that make up the lining of the blood vessel, known as endothelial cells. Each blue oval is the genetic information at each cell’s centre. The constellation of green, yellow, and red points are storage sites for von Willebrand factor (VWF), a molecule that the cells release to create blood clots when the vessel is damaged.  

Shortlisted – Development and Remodelling of The Human Fetal Valves

The colours and patterns in this image show the human heart after 12 weeks of development. Congenital heart disease affects at least one in every 150 live births in the UK. The knowledge gained by observing hearts develop is being combined with the vast amount we already know about CHD development in mice. The researchers think that a better understanding of how CHDs develop can lead to targeted treatments for the conditions.  

Shortlisted – A window into the heart of artificial intelligence

This bright neon representation of a heart has actually been created by the AI image generator Dall-E, from the sentence ‘An image of the heart from a computed tomography scan, digital art’. Whilst able to create a stunning image, the AI has made a few mistakes in the anatomy and structure of this heart, most noticeably in the branching pattern of the blood vessels.  

Shortlisted – The glue that holds your life together

This picture shows the inside of the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the human body, taken at 8000X magnification using an electron microscope. In it, we can see the individual fibres of collagen within the walls of the blood vessel. This protein acts like glue in the wall of the blood vessels, giving them the strength needed to withstand the high pressure of blood as it is pumped around the body.

A swelling or building of the blood vessel is called an aneurysm. If the blood vessel gets too large it can burst, leading to internal bleeding. Ruptures of the aorta are responsible for over 4,000 deaths a year in the UK. The team at the University of Leicester hopes to find ways of preventing this by studying how collagen differs in different areas of the aorta wall. 

Shortlisted – The radiant microvascular realm

The red mass at the bottom of the picture are cells on the outside of a mouse’s blood vessel. The green bodies attached like leeches are called mast cells, a type of immune cell responsible for controlling blood flow and inflammation. 

Research by Dr Loïc Rolas focuses on the interaction between blood vessels and immune cells, the closeness of which is shown by this image. He has discovered a number of ways in which this close relationship becomes more dysfunctional as we age.

Shortlisted – The embryonic human heart

This is a side view of a human heart and lung shown after 56 days of development. At this stage, the heart is only 2mm in size. Using a fluorescent microscope we can see the boundaries of the heart muscle (green) and the heart valves (red). 

Supporter’s Favourite – Seeing through the heart

Fantastic bursts of light in this image highlight blood vessels around the outside of the heart and areas of the electrical system at its centre. This system is visible as the tangle of fibres in the middle of the image.

The two larger glowing areas are the atria – the top two chambers of the heart – and the branch around the outside on the left of the image, is a coronary artery, which supplies blood to the heart muscle.  

Overall Winner – Paths of the heart

This multicoloured structure, generated by a computer model, is a map of bundles of cells that together make up the heart muscle. These bundles, each shown by a separate line, transmit the electrical signal that causes the heart to beat.

Each line in the image indicates the direction the electrical signal travels. The signal starts in the two top chambers of the heart (the atria) and moves to the bottom two (the ventricles).

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