We enjoy searching for artists to feature in our main articles which not only fit with our theme but also have something different, special and engaging to share and the Celebrate edition is shaping up to be something rather wonderful! Make sure you check out our Edition 2 Cover winner if you haven't already seen it!
In Edition 1 - Quarantine we shared Glenn Dene's beautiful but haunting photographs from the UK's NHS front line, fighting Covid during lockdown.
And Kirsty Larmour's emotional story of abandoning her family's campervan travels to embark on a long journey home to England from Pakistan with borders closing all around her.
So here we are, working on Edition 2 and we are so happy to announce that yet again, the first two artists we approached both wanted to be involved in our Celebrate edition!
First up is Creative Soul Photography - a husband and wife duo from Atlanta, USA who create the most beautiful portraits in their studio. They celebrate and empower black girls through both their AfroArt series and their Black Princess project with designer & HMUA Lachanda Gatson.
"The AfroArt series is a recognition and celebration of the versatility of black hair and its innate beauty. The purpose of this series is to illustrate the story of our royal past, celebrate the glory of the here and now, and even dare to forecast the future. With this series, we aim to empower children of color to embrace their natural curls and the skin that they’re in."
"The mission was to redefine and re-imagine the traditional princess with our own dash of style, culture and swag."
Both projects, and their other work, are absolutely stunning I'm sure you'll agree. We can't wait to find out more about them, their art and their brand new book, GLORY.
"With stunning images of natural hair and gorgeous, inventive visual storytelling, GLORY puts Black beauty front and center with more than 100 breathtaking photographs and a collection of powerful essays about the children. At its heart, it is a recognition and celebration of the versatility and innate beauty of black hair, and black beauty. The glorious coffee-table book pays homage to the story of our royal past, celebrates the glory of the here and now, and even dares to forecast the future."
Next up is Meg Loeks, a mum of four from Michigan, USA. Meg shares timeless lifestyle photos of her beautiful children in and around their rural home.
We're excited to be sharing Meg's Norman Rockwell project - a celebration of the artist that as she puts it herself: "I have a deep love and appreciation for all of his work, so much so that a good portion of our home is decorated in his replicas."
Meg celebrates her favourite artist by recreating his paintings in her photographs and we're aware that at least two of her images include Christmas references (as well as celebrating the everyday) so it's perfect for our publishing date and theme covering at least two of our categories! Isn't it wonderful how this theme is open to interpretation in so many ways.
Again, in Meg's words: "Norman Rockwell was most famous for his depiction of daily life in American culture which is one of the many reasons I’m drawn to his work and capturing the everyday. His incredible art celebrated youth, diversity, patriotism and human rights."
Update: We've now also added macro photographer, Anita Kram to the line up! Anita takes the most beautiful images in nature using bokeh to it's full effect with Lensbaby and vintage lenses. She'll be sharing a tutorial with us about how she creates her stunning, almost abstract, images of dew so we can all give it a go ourselves. Aren't her spiderweb photos truly gorgeous!
General submissions open TOMORROW and we cannot wait to see what you guys send us! We'll be posting here tomorrow with guidelines and categories you can submit to. We'd love to feature more projects, articles and tutorials this time (as requested by those who filled in our feedback form).
We hope you'll agree that this edition is shaping up to be even bigger and better than our first! We have now opened pre-orders if you want to secure your own copy at our special price before we go to print. Expected dispatch is December 1st 2020.