Butterflies and Caterpillars

January 31, 2022

The body of work takes a closely intimate look at the contemporary drag scene in the United States. It’s a photographic examination that looks at the notions of identity and how we construct the self in a space different from society’s pre-established gender-specific roles and expectations.

Recent Stories

Appalachia. Mountaintops to Moonscapes
Appalachia, Virginia is mainly known for two reasons. The first is that it’s an incredibly resource-rich territory; it supplies two-thirds of the nation’s coal reserves. Coal is an outdated energy source, which is damaging to the environment as it’s slowly being phased throughout the whole world in
Alan Gignoux
Uprooted
Where the food we buy in the supermarket comes from, how it is produced and how it can be?
Timo Knorr
Coastal Mammoth
The 2011 tsunami caused an unprecedented amount of damage, chaos and grief. Everyone in Japan was affected in one way or another. The Japanese government soon began to erect a gigantic wall at the cost of billions in the northeast region of the country after the earthquake that caused the tsunami.
Pengkuei Ben Huang
English Journey
The book ‘English Journey’ by the Bradford author J. B. Priestley was published in 1934 it was an account of his travels across England. It’s a study of contemporary England at the time and its influence had reached far beyond the literary world. It’s claimed that it has
John Angerson
Last day of school
Marko Risovic has turned his lens to his home country of Serbia to illustrate this trend. The images are strikingly different from what one would expect from a typical school photograph — it’s a decrepit environment and there are hardly any smiles. Far from the ideal happy atmosphere to foster happy childhoods and promote learning.
Marko Risovic
Ebbing Away of Identity with the Tides
Sushavan Nandy, based in Kolkata, focuses on the climate catastrophe, society, culture and the crises experienced by humankind collectively. He enjoys working on long-term photographic projects as it allows him to delve deep and explore issues in depth rather than simply scratch the surface; he has been published by the Guardian, CNN, New York Magazine, Vogue India, British Journal of Photography, and many others. As a young child Nandy experienced the effects of climate change. He lived in Jal
Sushavan Nandy
Casitas
The project exposes the living conditions that Puerto Ricans have to endure such as natural catastrophes, limited government support and unstable electric service. Although the series began in 2013, it wasn’t until 2017 when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico that Saldaña realised the series is something more than just a personal project — it is a testament of the residence of the local population.
Annie Y Saldana
A frightening lull in anticipation of the unknown
Imagine being there, in full absence of clarity what's going to happen next minute, hour and day. Is there a future? If so, how does it look? The whole world can not answer this question facing a tyrannous psycho, a hostage of his own crimes on a global scale, entangled in his own lies. All we admire, adore and pray for the Ukrainian people whose will for freedom is the most inspiring thing these days.
Emanuele Mei
Black Eyed Dog
The author opens up about his own struggles with Black Eyed Dog — A Photographic Healing Process. It was born out of a breakdown, a complete shutdown of his nervous system which made him find himself in a dark, gloomy place, one which he has never visited before.
Benedict Stenning
One Hundred Yards From Home
A photographic exploration of family relationships and an inquiry into connection, history and the fragility of the tie between mother and daughter.
Cheryl Newman

mnngful Originals

mnngful Members

Stefanos Kouratzis
CY
,
Nicosia

Multidisciplinary photographer living and working in Cyprus since 2000. At the age of 13, he develops a strong interest in Photography when he was handed a Kodak Instamatic. He loved so much the way that light was captured on film that he decided he wants to be a photographer. Due to developing and printing costs, he starts drawing rough sketches, prior shooting, and experimenting with different medium sizes, cameras and techniques. His works can be found in books and private collections in Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Brazil.

Conrado Velasco
IE
,
Kilkenny

Photographer and Art Director born and educated in Manila, Philippines. Presently divides time between Kilkenny, Ireland & Berlin, Germany.

Paco Poyato
ES
,

Visual artist with interest in issues related to the current consumer society and globalization. His aim being reflecting how these two concepts alter his closest reality, understanding globalization as the loss of the individual’s identity, in favor of a model that responds to criteria closely linked to the control of power and banality. To date, his work specializes in delving into the reality of different human groups that are created around a common cause that identifies them as such. A vision characterized by photographing human collectives that have shared common experiences that, in some way, serve to build, mark and also define the individual identity of its members.

Stephen Leslie
UK
,

Film director, screenwriter and photographer based in London "About 20 years ago I started to take photographs with a small point and shoot camera. What began as a simple way to keep visually alert in between directing jobs soon morphed in to a daily diary of images and eventually became an obsession I've been struggling to contain ever since."

Louis Sartori
UK
,
London

Independent Photojournalist and Writer focusing on matters of cultural obscurity, documenting groups/spaces on the borders of popular recognition.

Sushavan Nandy
IN
,
Kolkata

Documentary photographer based in Kolkata, working primarily with Barcroft Media. His work focuses on issues of climate change, human crisis, society, and culture. His works have been published in various international publications which include The Guardian, Daily Mail, CNN among many. Sushavan lives in Naihati town in West Bengal, India and is currently working on long-term photographic works.

Cheryl Newman
UK
,
London

Artist and independent curator of photography living in London. She recently completed and MA in Photography Arts at the University of Westminster (Distinction) Her personal practice explores her history though archive and family images and the environment of memory For the past three years she has been working with the Gaia Foundation to commission and curate We Feed the World, a photographic global adventure documenting the lives of family and peasant farmers for an exhibition which premiered at the Barge house Gallery, London, in Autumn 2018. She curated 209 Women, one of the highest profile exhibitions of 2018 in which all the female MP’s in the UK Parliament were photographed by women photographers to celebrate 100 years of suffrage and which moved to Open Eye Gallery Liverpool in February 2019 and is now part of the Parliamentary Art collection. For more than fifteen years she was the Photography Director of the award-winning Telegraph Magazine where she raised the profile of the magazine and commissioned intelligent and inventive photography worldwide.

Edward Thompson
UK
,

Documentary photographer focused on various subjects over the years covering environmental issues, socio-political movements, subcultures, everyday life and the consequences of war. He had a life-changing experience with an early apprenticeship with the Russian photographer Sergey Chilikov, whom he met at the Arles Photography Festival in 2001. That summer Ed stayed with Sergey in Paris and learnt the value of shooting everyday life, eating fried fat and drinking red wine. Sergeys friend Gueorgui Pinkhassov told him how photographing the everyday can allow you to touch at something great. And it did.

Nikita Ghate
UK
,
London

I’m a London based Architect turned photographer. My work, although not limited to, tends to heavily explore ‘place attachment’ between people and the built/un-built environment around them. I like to deeply observe and capture the brilliance of everyday life, that we sometimes tend to oversee.

Isaac Kirby
UK
,
London

London based-photographer and copywriter originally from the Australian town of Snake Valley.

Max J
CY
,
Limassol

Documentary and street photographer from Cyprus. Founder of mnngful, The Phooks. Author of TheIslandArchive.com.

Marc Wilson
UK
,
Bath

Documentary photographer working on long-term documentary projects, such as his previous work, completed in 2014, ‘The Last Stand’ and his current work, ‘A wounded landscape’. Marc tells stories through his photography, focusing at times on the landscape itself, and the objects found on and within it, and sometimes combining landscape, documentary, portrait and still life, along with audio recordings of interviews and sounds, to portray the mass sprawling web of the histories and stories he is retelling.

Alex Micu
UK
,
London

London-based, Romanian-born photographer working in the documentary and reportage space. With an honest, raw and often timid approach, Alex creates images for both editorial and commercial clients. His work was published in Evening Standard, Portrait of Humanity, Rankin's 2020, Cheese Magazine and Postall.

David Lintern
UK
,
Kingussie

Photojournalist and writer working across the outdoor and environmental sectors, with over a decade of experience creating stories for organisations and magazines including National Trust for Scotland, Visit Cairngorms, John Muir Trust, BBC, the Guardian, Slow Ways as well as most of the UK outdoor press. I’m particularly interested in the links between place and people, and between natural and cultural history. David also works privately as a photo tutor and guide across the Highlands, and the author of The Big Rounds.

Alan Gignoux
UK
,
London

Documentary photographer born in the United States and now based in London. Gignoux has been working as a professional documentary photographer with photographic agencies and independently since 2000. He also works as a cameraman on documentary film projects. Recent film work includes “We made Every Living Thing from Water” and “A Letter from Venezuela.” His award-winning work has been exhibited all over the world.

Stories worth seeing

mnngful is a platform supporting independent documentary photography & photojournalism.

Thanks to passionate storytellers, we learn about matters that otherwise stay neglected. Stories that matter, but have not been covered enough are captured and told by passion-driven photographers and journalists.

They create because they care about the world they live in and tell us about matters beyond our eyesight.Their work is often driven by pure enthusiasm, fuelled by own beliefs and dreams for a better world. That's why such independent work is worth special attention.

mnngful is here to support the meaningful stories they tell.

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