Issue #7872: Ones To Watch

Drawn from across four continents, the talent issue returns with 16 names to watch in 2018. Having been selected from more than 500 nominations made by our global panel of experts and tastemakers, The Ones To Watch issue profiles each artist with a dedicated interview, along with comments from the curators, editors, photographers and artistic directors who put them forward.

Among our pick of emerging artists are Martín Bollati, an Argentine photographer taking his cues from fiction, sci-fi and poetry to produce work that is purposefully open to interpretation. Elsewhere, Ulla Deventer’s intimate photographs depict the aspirations and hardships of women working in Ghana’s sex trade. Adél Koleszár’s intense series explores themes of human violence, providing an unnerving look at how brutality shapes both self and society, and Hannah Reyes Morales documents humanity and adversity in her native Philippines.

“Since its inception in 2011, we’ve had ambitions to grow Ones To Watch and give a bigger platform to the selected photographers,” writes BJP’s editor Simon Bainbridge. “What began as an extended feature soon became a whole issue dedicated to emerging talent.” As part of BJP’s aims to broaden its talent programme, this year, for the first time, several artists from the Ones To Watch issue will also be exhibited during Peckham 24.

The artists presenting their work both in this issue and at Copeland Gallery as part of Peckham 24 are Belgian photographer David Denil, who takes cinematic photographs that focus on the after-effects of Ukraine’s civil war; Valeria Cherchi, who offers a personal perspective to a series of historical kidnappings in Sardinia; Rie Yamada, whose photographic reconstructions take an offbeat look at what constitutes the family unit; Phoebe Kiely, who digs deep into her emotions for her singularly intimate and emotive photographs; and Phillip Prokopiou, a photographer forming powerful messages using camp iconography.

The issue and coinciding event also marks the beginnings of BJP’s partnership as founding members of Futures, a new European platform for emerging photography, instigated by Unseen Amsterdam. Each of the members will be creating exhibitions in their home countries in the coming months, before joining together for a show of 10 talents at Unseen in September.

In keeping with our focus on emerging artists and newly discovered work, this issue also picks out four of the best new galleries to watch out for at this year’s Photo London fair. Elsewhere, we profile the 20th edition of Photo España, Madrid’s vibrant celebration of photography in all its themes and forms. In Endframe, we meet Arunà Canevascini, winner of the La Fabrica/Photo London Book Dummy Awards. And we talk to legendary curator, Thomas Weski.