Separation

February 16, 2022

The European Union, or the Council of Europe as it was known when it was founded in 1949, brought in tremendous change to society permeating its very core. The benefits were of economic, cultural and security nature but some also argued that it erased their national identity. One of the biggest improvements, though, was that one could travel, live and study in a place different from one’s birth country unhindered — it has never been this easy to meet, fall in love with and settle in with people

Recent Stories

Missed Care
The referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU was one of the most divisive moments in modern history — back in 2016 and ever since then, the country felt more polarised than ever before with a clearly growing sense of “us” and “them”. People were either unable to or would refuse to see some of the good points that the other side was making. The Remain side was branded “Project Fear” as they were providing predictions of what would happen. Some of these didn’t happen, but others, unfortunately,
Gianluca Urdiroz
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
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
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
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
Merlion Memories
Darren O’Brien’s project takes this fragile idea of the nature of memory as its starting point. He accompanied his partner on her return to Singapore, where she spent six years as a child, eighteen years later.
Darren O'Brien
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
Metropole
Once the Metropole or mother city at the heart of a vast global empire, London is now the dominion to a new world power. Subject to the flows of global finance and whims of markets, the city has become little more than an investment opportunity for multinational developers and overseas investors. Metropole records the brutally disorientating effects of this by documenting these legions of new corporate and residential blocks as they are constructed and occupied.
Lewis Bush
Front Yard
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.
Ashima Yadava
Chance Encounters in The Valley of Lights
Chance Encounters in the Valley of Lights tells the story of an unsolved extraterrestrial case from 1980s Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Photographer Rik Moran combines original imagery with never-before-seen archival material to investigate the possible alien abduction of PC Alan Godfrey. In illuminating one of small-town England’s most unlikely protagonists, Chance Encounters unearths another other-worldly mystery along the way.
Rik Moran

mnngful Originals

mnngful Members

Amy Romer
CA
,

Documentary photographer, journalist telling compelling stories that elevate issues around human rights, social justice and the environment – particularly climate change. That’s why I’m passionate about helping social purpose organizations tell powerful stories through photography and video.

Marko Risovic
RS
,
Belgrade

Documentary photographer based in Belgrade. After working for years in traditional photojournalism outlets, he became a freelancer in 2010. Since then he has concentrated on long-term projects about youth, social (in)justice and distribution of power in the Balkans. Marko is interested in intimate narratives about vulnerable social groups and individuals that reflect a wider social discourse. He believes that the language of photography storytelling still can shape the perception of the wider population and decision-makers, thus contributing to the continuous search for a better, more equal and sustainable world. Marko was chosen as one of the participants in the World Press Photo Masterclass for young photographers from Southeastern Europe in 2010. He has been a regular contributor to National Geographic Serbia magazine since 2007, and a contributing photographer to The New York Times and Le Monde for years. Marko is founder of the Serbian photo collective Kamerades and a member of The Association of Serbian Applied Artists and Designers (ULUPUDS). He holds an MA degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the University of the Arts in London. Marko is currently in the Mentor Program of VII photo agency.

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.

Milda Vysniauskaite
LT
,

Designer and photographer, after her studies at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, she continues her professional career back in Lithuania. She works with themes of gender, LGBTQ+ and masculinity. The main subject of her photographs is the male gender and social constructs around it.

Yassen Grigorov
UK
,
London

Documentary photographer steadily establishing himself as an artist to follow and invest in, both in his home country of Bulgaria and in the United Kingdom, where he's based, having graduated with First Class Honours from the BA Photography course at the University of Westminster. His artwork is consistently featured in a variety of print and online publications and exhibitions, and his most recent project, "Exemplary Home" has won a second-place prize in its category at the prestigious 2020 International Photography Awards, third in the BECA Photography Awards, and has featured in the artist’s first solo show at KO-OP, Sofia.

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.

Roxana Alison
UK
,
Manchester

Mexican-British photographer based in the United Kingdom with a socially driven focus whose work explores themes of place, belonging and identity. The personal experience is often my departure point to explore universal issues concerned with the human condition. Roxana has worked in the fields of photography and education for the past fifteen years and have extensive experience working with young people and underrepresented communities.

Verity Adriana
UK
,

Visual artist who uses light, installation and photography to investigate the phenomenology of the metaphysical and existential. She has been a practicing and exhibiting artist for over a decade. Adriana was born in Hull, UK, and grew up around the world wherever her mother found work, including Spain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Adriana returned to Hull independently at the age of 14 to see herself through her final years at school and went onto establish herself in the regional arts community.

Keith Osborn
UK
,
Fakenham

I have been making photographs professionally for over 12 years. I focus on self-initiated documentary and art projects, combining that with commercial work for business, charity and non-profit clients.

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.

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.

Elena Kalyuzhnaya
RU
,
St. Petersburg

Documentary photographer based in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Student of Academy of documentary photography “Fotografika” in Saint-Petersburg. Originally from a small town in the south of Russia, Elena appreciates the authenticity of the rural area and its traditions. The human place in society, PTSD emotions, and life in post-war and problematic regions are the main topics of her work. Elena’s work was published in Dodho Magazine, Takie Dela, Republic, and Regnum publishing. Elena is a silver prizer of Budapest international Contest 2020 in the student category. Also, her work was a part of the Ariano Film festival.

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.

Hussain Ali
UK
,
London

British-Iraqi documentary photographer based in London. His work is rooted in our connection to the land and social identity. He is interested in documenting stories that inspire us to consider our relationship with nature and wildlife.

James Hopkirk
UK
,
London

Documentary photographer, journalist. Began his career as a local newspaper reporter in Kent before moving to The Sunday Times and ITV. Spent six years as Editor of IdeasTap, a charity that helped young people to build careers in the arts and media. As a freelance writer and photographer James worked on stories in Afghanistan, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, India, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda.

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