Front Yard

May 18, 2023

The front yard is as much a metaphor as it is a space. Homes reflect the material successes of their inhabitants, their aesthetic tastes, and concrete the ties that bind family, lovers, and friends. When the shelter-in-place order was announced in March and time came to a proverbial standstill, I turned to my community to make portraits of people in their front yards.

Recent Stories

Kibera
Edwin Ndeke’s body of work focuses on Kibera — one of the largest urban settlements in the world which is situated on the periphery of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital with a population of approximately 2.5 million. Poverty, disease and crime are not uncommon when discussing Kenya and Africa in
Edwin Ndeke
Fire Corps
The concept (and practice) of voluntary work brings out the best of people. Volunteers not only don’t get paid, they also give their time, passion and effort to a cause that they believe is worth fighting for. Johan Brooks presents us with the story of the Fire Corps — groups
Johan Brooks
Interior Design in the Age of Extinction
Conrado Velasco is a photographer and art director born and educated in the Philippines. He currently divides his time between Ireland and Germany and here we present you his body of work Interior Design in the Age of Extinction. By Velasco’s own admission, he tends to look at the environment in zoos as a theatre for the uncanny, exuding the sense of something being ever so slightly off. They are “illusory spaces” devoid of the natural habitat and surroundings of its animal occupants — there ar
Conrado Velasco
Cinematic Decline
With Cinematic Decline — a continuation of Butler's 2019 series and book Odeon Relics — the author traces the remnants of what once were brand-new, purpose-built cinema venues, incongruous with their surroundings back then, and some of them are still so even now. The key point of difference here though, is that none of these buildings continue to screen films, instead they showcase the cinematic afterlife bingo, pubs, churches and dereliction.
Philip Butler
The Steel Plant Mothers
Wilfully ignoring the pleas of the local and national population, the Ilva plant, Europe’s largest steel plant, is portrayed as prioritising profit over people's lives.
Valeria Mongelli
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
London '82
Sunil Gupta enrolled at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London in the early 1980s. Having access to colour negative printing at the college, the young photographer began to roam the streets of the Big Smoke searching for the epicentres of queer life — Earl’s Court, King’s Road,
Sunil Gupta
Azerbajiani Stories
In Azerbaijani Stories the photographer Onur Tatar had created what he calls composite portraits. These are the stories of ten people from Azerbaijan combined with their portraits and images of places of significance. As Tatar says, topography, or the arrangement of both natural and artificial physical features of an area,
Onur Tatar
Soul Calling
Soul Calling is a collection of photographs taken between 2016 and 2019 along the coast of Northeast Japan.
Pengkuei Ben Huang
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

mnngful Originals

mnngful Members

Barry Rosenthal
US
,
New York

Fine art photographer and sculptor. He studied photography at the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio and at the Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, New York with notable photographers Emmet Gowin and George Tice. Barry‘s fine art images can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Springfield Museum of Fine Art Springfield, Massachusetts. Barry is a resident of Lower Manhattan, along with his wife and daughter.

Timo Knorr
DE
,
Hamburg

Documentary photographer focused on the photographic research of groups that move in a field of tension of the social conflicts of the current time. I am looking for the questions: How do we want to live today, how do we want to eat and how can we make our world a little bit better.

Johan Brooks
JP
,
Tokyo

Documentary and street photographer based out of Tokyo, Japan. Born in the UK, he grew up in NYC, and eventually found his way to Japan where he has been living for over 10 years. He is a member of the VoidTokyo photography collective. His photography is on permanent display at the Crunchyroll HQ in San Francisco and was recently exhibited at Terranova House in Tokyo.

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.

Valeria Mongelli
IT
,

Documentary photographer and journalist based between Belgium and Italy. In her documentary research, Valeria focuses on social and environmental issues, the outskirts, and the underground. Valeria's work has been published internationally at Le Monde, El Pais, Le Vif / L'Express, Il Sole 24 Ore, The Diplomat, Asia Times and other outlets. Her work is distributed by Studio Hans Lucas, a French agency partner of AFP, Reuters, Redux, Contrasto, and others, and Zuma Press.

Zak Waters
UK
,
London

Photographer, Founder of CAMERA & Course Leader in FE Photography & Multimedia.

Melanie King
UK
,
Ramsgate

Multi-Disciplinary Artist. Co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. Melanie is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a practice-based PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art. She is represented by the Land Art Agency. To purchase original prints, you can visit the Land Art Agency and Argentea Gallery websites. Books are available via the website store, and monthly limited edition postcards are available on Patreon.

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.

Pengkuei Ben Huang
CA
,
Toronto

Documentarty photographer based in Toronto, Canada. His early interest in history and geopolitics inspired him to undertake international politics studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California in the US. Upon discovering photography as his passion, he relocated to San Francisco and earned his BFA at Academy of Art University. He was selected as one of the finalists for The Scotiabank Prize in 2007 at Magnum Workshop Toronto under the mentorship of the renowned photographer Larry Towell. Since then he has taken an interest in utilizing photography as a medium to form a visual narrative that explores the relationship between humans and their surrounding environments.

Benedict Stenning
FR
,

Documentary photographer whose work is primarily concerned with investigating peoples experiences with their proximal surroundings. Benedict is interested in the relationships we as human beings form with our environs and each other while seeking to subvert perspectives; identifying and capturing liminal spaces to form narratives and provoke an emotional response. Benedict was brought up with the arts from a young age and has an innate appreciation for the powers of story telling. His grandfather, Moran Caplat CBE, was General Manager at Glyndebourne opera house in the Sussex countryside for over 30 years and his father was a stage manager at the BBC and later an associate producer in film.

Jim Mortram
UK
,

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

Arun Khadayat
UK
,
London

I am an experienced photographer with a passion for capturing the essence of a moment. My expertise leis in range of photography styles including Fashion, Portrait, Events, Product, Commercial and Sports photography. I have excellent technical skills, a keen eye for details, and the ability to conne

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.

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.

Anne Erhard
UK
,
London

Photographer based in London, UK born in Munich, Germany. Anne is currently studying at MA Photography Arts, University of Westminster and has previously graduated Photography, London College of Communication, Art & Design Foundation, London College of Communication.

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.

Read more