While I Was Sleeping

May 18, 2023

While I Was Sleeping is the third part of a trilogy of projects that came out of that shift (the other two being After the Fact and Endless Plain). These projects, by and large, use documentary techniques and the resulting images look like documentary photographs, but they are not intended to document an event.

Recent Stories

Calais Migrant Camp ‘The Jungle’
Back in September 2016, Aaron Chown set out to document the Jungle Camp in Calais where asylum seekers reside before attempting to enter the United Kingdom. The photographer highlighted the humanitarian migration crisis that engulfed the continent 5 years ago and decided it’s appropriate and important to remind us of the situation on the 5th anniversary of the demolition of the camp.
Aaron Chown
Hors-Jeu (Offside)
When we think of homosexuality, the world had made huge leaps in recent years. Gay marriage is now legal in the US and the UK, protections from discrimination exist in law, gay people are allowed to adopt children — events that we have come to accept as normal, as they should
Hannah Cauhépé
In-A-Gadda-Da-England
National oddities and peculiarities were the starting point for Edward Thompson’s project In-A-Gadda-Da-England. Born and bred in the U.K., he offers his viewers the perspective of an insider who had spend his whole life surrounded by British culture
Edward Thompson
The Palaces of Memory
Stuart Freedman has the kind of experience in photojournalism that the word “expansive” hardly does it justice. Born in London, he has been a photographer for just over 30 years now and his photography has been published in the likes of Life, National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, Der Spiegel and The
Stuart Freedman
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
Uprooted
Where the food we buy in the supermarket comes from, how it is produced and how it can be?
Timo Knorr
Balaganza
A spotlight on the drag queens in the only gay bar in Lithuania. Forcedly hidden from the public eye in the post-Soviet country, these performances seem too deliberately shocking for the part of the society.
Milda Vysniauskaite
Beach Boulevard
Brian O’Neill is an Illinois-based sociologist and photographer whose work looks at the human condition and society’s relationship to nature. He investigates the various meanings of “industry” and how it affects local communities and environments. Beach Boulevard, his first photographic publication, is a small spiral-bound book in a small edition of 100. Rather than probing the typical documentary question “what’s going on here” it delves deeper and wonders how we actually got to our current sta
Brian O'Neil
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
Branches of a Tree in Winter
Zak Dimitrov moved to London in 2015 and by 2018 he had been on over 100 dates. The man he was going out with at the time, Reggie, turned out to be, as cliche as it sounds, his photographic muse, partially caused by practicalities as he had very little spare time, all of which was spent with Reggie, and he had to take pictures for his final MA project.
Zak Dimirtov

mnngful Originals

mnngful Members

Nicola Lewis-Dixon
UK
,
Preston

Multidisciplinary artist based in Preston, who comes from a predominately photographic background and has just completed a photography MA at UCLan. Lewis-Dixon’s work is autobiographical and considers the social construct of women’s lived experience and shifting identity in today's society. Lewis-Dixon’s approach is research lead, highly expressive and conceptual in her visual output. Lewis-Dixon’s work explores and tests multiple methodological processes such as documentary, experimental, alternative darkroom processes, embroidery and most recently multi-sensory installations requiring video and soundscape. In her most recent work, Nicola takes us on her own healing journey, reclaiming her body following cervical cancer and hysterectomy. Both projects ‘Goosebumps’ and ‘Healing with Nature’ are ongoing as they are used therapeutically to rediscover her own broken alienated body and heal.

Nieves Mingueza
ES
,

Artist, based in London. Her conceptually driven and intimate practice often interweaves images with research, documentary photography, archival material, collage, text, film, and installation. Bridging the space between the personal and political, she explores and activates the archives to address social and gender issues. In 2019 her first monograph book was published by IIKKI books editorial. Her work has been exhibited widely including installations at Royal Academy of Arts, Saatchi Gallery, Copeland Gallery, Tate Britain (UK), Fondazione Giorgio Cini (IT) and PhotoEspana (SP), among others. Mingueza’s work has been reviewed by multiple magazines as Der greif, Lenscratch, Blind, L’oeil de la Photographie, Metal, All About Photo, Analog, Yogurt, fisheye, Witty and Lensculture, among others.

Floriana Avellino
IT
,

Sean McDonnell
UK
,
Londoon

I've been practising street photography since the 1980s. A south Londoner by birth pre-occupied with the West End in black and white on film. Lockdown was an epiphany for me. I started documenting my neighbourhood to raise money for food banks with books and working with local community groups.

Jim Mortram
UK
,

Social Documentary Photographer and the creator of these photo stories: Small Town Inertia.

Gianluca Urdiroz
UK
,
London

Image maker and researcher based in London, UK. Whether it’s fathers & sons, humans & nature, or lockdown and the psyche, my work explores the dynamics between two elements.

Stuart Freedman
UK
,

Commercial, editorial and travel photographer based between New Delhi and London working worldwide on a range of consumer brands with/without art direction.

Annie Y Saldana
PR
,
San Juan

Fine Art photographer, educator, curator. Founder at PRISMA Art Projects.

Daniel Hinks
CN
,

Documentary photographer constantly fascinated by the human condition. I take on stories that I genuinely believe in, something that can pique my interest and curiosity, turning that energy outwards into creating a substantial body of work and concentrating on the resilience of the human spirit. I have a profound belief that the still image can change people’s minds. Even in today’s forever changing, fast-paced world of now! Gaining access to my subjects is imperative as it helps to achieve clarity and provides me with an opportunity for creative freedom.

Edwin Ndeke
KE
,
Nairobi

Humanitarian, portrait and documentary photographer based in Kibera, Nairobi "My work focuses on socio-economic, cultural, political and environmental issues depicting a wider spectrum of life."

Vera Hadzhiyska
UK
,
Portsmouth

Multi-disciplinary artist and curator based in Portsmouth, England. Her practice is informed by the study of migration, cultural and national identity, history and collective memory. Her work begins autobiographically, tracing family narratives and shared traumas. Through the use of photography, archival documents, audio and video installations Hadzhiyska examines historical and political events in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, their impact on people’s lives and identity.

Louis Sartori
UK
,
London

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

Dafna Talmor
UK
,
London

Artist and lecturer based in London whose practice encompasses photography, spatial interventions, curation and collaborations. Her photographs are included in public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Deutsche Bank, Hiscox and in private collections internationally. Her first monograph — Constructed Landscapes - published by Fw:Books was released in October 2020 and longlisted for the 2021 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award.

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.

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.

Stories worth seeing

mnngful is a platform supporting independent documentary photography & photojournalism.
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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.

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