Dutch, 1893–1945, based in Bergen (NH) · graphic artist and illustrator
Refined woodcuts and ink brush drawings steeped in symbolism, made for a string of literary book illustrations in the 1920s and 30s. Essers’s prints carry a quiet, decorative stillness, shaped by his childhood on Java and later training in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
Website: bernardessers.nl
I hit this amazing cover of Motorhead’s The Ace of Spades by psychobilly band The Reverend Horton Heat.
Chinese, born 1992, based in Shanghai and New York · photographer
Vivid, colour-driven fashion and documentary photography exploring identity and belonging among Xinjiang’s ethnic minority communities. Ma’s images move fluidly between staged editorial and spontaneous street observation, blending fashion, family and cultural memory.
Website: instagram.com/hailunma
Israeli-British, born 1961, based in London · photographer
Cinematic, muted portraits and large-scale landscape work, best known for the Yangtze river series and stark editorial portraiture. Kander’s images share a quiet, subdued tension, whether he’s photographing world leaders or vast, altered stretches of land.
Website: nadavkander.com
Japanese, based in Tokyo · painter and textile artist
Small, intimate paintings of everyday objects, flowers and domestic scenes rendered in a soft, illustrative hand. Akabane’s work turns ordinary moments, a shop counter, a vase, a handful of marigolds, into quiet meditations on memory and impermanence.
Website: akabaneyuna.com
