Composition Spotlight — May Edition
Our monthly selection of emerging artists to put on your radar.
Each month, we feature emerging artists who are among the paid readers of Compositionally Inclined.
This is our selection of the strongest images from each submitted work, through Composition's sensibility. The following collection is a testament to our talented audience, whose work is in conversation with the visual themes we curate across our platform.
20 by Timofey Abel
This is Abel’s debut monograph, showcasing a blend of documentary imagery and fashion editorial styles. Inside the book are portraits of models and artists documented through transitional periods of their lives.
The presentation of the book through its marketing materials shows the edition in various settings throughout small-town and suburban America. It places the work in a different world entirely. The color presentation of these product photos creates a striking contrast to the black and white portraits presented inside, mirroring the transitions that the content inside documents.
You can purchase the photobook online at Odesa Publishing.
LODI T.V.B. by Virginia Pollastrelli
Lodi is the name of the neighborhood in Milan where Virginia resides. The series is a collection of photos of the neighborhood, viewed through Virginia’s unique perspective.
The compositions are almost disorienting. The decisions she made around what to capture paint a picture drastically different from the romanticized version of Milan most visitors carry. It opens up an interesting tension between how a place reads when you grew up there versus passing through it as a visitor.
See the rest of the series here.
Hope in the Making by Ian Schultz
Schultz traveled from New York City to Budapest to document the youth of Hungary during the historic defeat of autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán by a pro-democracy, anti-corruption opposition movement.
There's an energy to these photographs that puts you in the street with them. This generation grew up under a system they never thought would fall, and these photographs capture the moment it did.
You can see more of Schultz’s work on his website.
autological by Rufus Dalby
This project is from Dalby’s final portfolio of his third year at Falmouth University in the UK. It examines control both as a subject and as a methodology.
It’s clear that the aesthetics borrow from digital advertising, which is inherently designed to command attention. The work holds you at a distance. What results is a question around artificiality: when everything is composed with no imperfections, what is left that’s real?
You can see more from autological here.
HERD by William Brown
From Brown’s words, “I visited them every day, and in return they nurtured me.” Beginning as a project documenting the familiarity and tenderness amongst the collective herd of livestock in Brown’s hometown, Brown found himself developing a bond with the animals over three months.
The series captures the intimate relationship between animals and humans through the texture and treatment of the images. The decision to document this experience through black and white film deeply emphasizes the emotional connection Brown developed with these animals.
You can see more of the series on his Instagram.
Submissions for June’s edition are open exclusively to paid subscribers.
White Sand, Brown Skin by Gabriel Baytion
Taken on a trip to Boracay, Philippines, Baytion captured the island’s rhythm through its landscape and residents.
Serving as an encapsulation of the people of the island, the photographs read as a postcard sent from someone curious about a way of life much different than their own.
More from the series here.
A Step Closer to Love 3 by Jared Buschang
A painting made from acrylic paint, oil stick, and cut canvas, A Step Closer to Love 3 was developed in an artist residency in Cartagena. Originally, the painting in the top left was drying overnight when sand flies got onto the paint and created the treatment shown. Pleased with the result, Buschang took the original painting and composited it onto another painting, resulting in this piece.
The way that Buschang was able to incorporate visually different styles into one work creates a composition that reads intentional, even with such a varied range of treatments. An extremely difficult balance to strike as a fine artist. Knowing the origin, the process only emphasizes that complexity.
Take a look at more of Buschang’s work on his website and contact him for commissions via his Instagram.
Intervals by Aliya Bhorat
Made across Saudi Arabia and Oman, Intervals focuses on moments of rest and observation within spaces designed for movement and gathering.
These specific selections were photographed in Mecca, quite possibly the most significant place for this work to exist. Here, the photos lead you to question the lengths to which these subjects went to reach this destination, and the relief they must feel.
See more of the series on her Instagram.
Casa Ceaușescu by Iulia Dancila
A visual series that places women who work in Romania's red light district inside the former private residence of Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania's last communist dictator.
The choice of location is what makes this work particularly moving. Ceaușescu's regime was built on control, in particular, of the bodies of women. The women here are a direct line from that turbulent history to the present day. The residence is a space that would have been inaccessible under the past regime, and now it’s being reclaimed.
Read about the project here. See Dancila’s Instagram and her production studio for more.
Europe Through a Viewfinder by Devon Luxton
These images follow Luxton’s experience through Europe as a Floridian studying ballet professionally in Amsterdam. Serving as a personal memento before his departure, the series captures sporadic moments throughout the past four years of his studies.
The intimate nature of the images hits a personal note through their visual arrangement. Luxton’s sentimental perspective reads through in each individual shot, making this an extremely compelling time capsule that any future family would be lucky to inherit.
See the rest of the series here.
Cultura de Boteco for The Orange Brand by Victor Mayer and Ghiuliano Rolo
Inspired by the aesthetic of Brazil’s “futebol raiz,” this campaign for Brazilian skate shop The Orange Brand reflects on the visual legacy of vintage Brazilian national team jerseys through a contemporary lens.
Shot inside a traditional bar in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the backdrop carries nostalgia, in contrast to the saturated colors and styling. The result is an homage to the history of Brazil's football culture, reinterpreted for the present day.
See the full campaign here.
Alignment by John Merizalde
This narrative short film follows the protagonist, David, through his developing, complex relationship with Alina, an AI assistant. What starts as a relatively innocent dependency unravels into a consuming fixation that leads him down a path of schizophrenic levels of mania.
The clinical color grading and sharp cinematography give the film a precision that mirrors its subject matter. David's unraveling draws parallels to the current state of AI in society, where the distinction between reality and the digital world is becoming harder to hold.
You can revisit the film here. Take a look at the rest of Merizalde’s directorial work here.
Submissions for June’s edition are open exclusively to paid subscribers.
Siblings by Joseph Brockwell
Made during Brockwell’s first semester at Savannah College of Art and Design, Siblings presents urban infrastructure as analogous to family members. Throughout the series, these inanimate objects share proximity, shape, and function in public spaces.
Made on a broken Pentax K1000, the imperfection of the process echoes the concept itself. The concept stays with you because of what it's asking you to see.
See more work from Brockwell on his Instagram.
Moneymaker by Devon Solwold
A short film that follows Stella, a 10-year-old at the center of her family's growing social media presence. On her birthday, she’s forced to participate in a staged birthday surprise that will be live-streamed to their massive audience, and the cracks start showing in real time.
Solwold extended the world of the film beyond the screen, creating fictional social media pages for the Price Family and commissioning artwork as marketing assets, including the video painting shown here by Matias Lopez.
See the short film here.
IARE by Tamar Sabashvili
An ongoing series that began with Sabashvili’s first photograph and has no intended end. The work documents everything in its path, objects worth noticing that tend to vanish without intentional curiosity. The treatment finds something worth preserving in the gray and mundane.
The extensive ongoing nature of this project is the most intriguing aspect. It will look completely different in ten years, and that’s the point.
More of her work on Sabashvili’s Instagram.
American Corruption by Nate St. Louis
Shot on a road trip across rural America in 2023, these images in this series weren't originally meant to look like this. Faulty storage drives corrupted the files after the fact, when St. Louis revisited them years later.
The resulting product is difficult to separate from the subject matter. The subjects he chose to photograph take on an entirely new meaning when viewed this way. The accident reads as commentary.
See St. Louis’ photography work here.
River/Sea by Tal Elkayam
A film composed of short videos, shot on iPhone, across the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast. The film serves as a documentary view into daily life in the area through the lens of a bystander.
Elkayam provides a unique perspective, allowing the viewer to come to their own conclusions based on what is being presented to them. It provides a magnified glimpse into how everyday life manifests from the point of view of the people who reside there.
See more of his work here.
Chicas en Verano by Magali and Micaela Cristoforo
The series captures young women in summer, not with nostalgia or warmth, but through something closer to restlessness. It examines the particular unease of being between childhood and adulthood.
The discomfort manifests in the imagery. The mental state of the subject bleeds through in the way she contorts her body, and the tension transfers to the viewer.
More of Cristoforo’s work here.
Thank you to every artist who submitted work for this first edition.
Submissions for June’s edition are now open.
Exclusively for paid subscribers. Paid membership includes priority consideration for a standalone feature across Composition’s full audience.
Paid members who each received a full feature this month:
I’m honored!
everyone in here goated