Jeff Mermelstein

A photographer with a direct and distinct vision, Jeff Mermelstein can grab your attention and hold you in that one instant of happenstance which everyone else missed. Once described as “an absurdist with a sense of humour” it is easy to connect to “funny humanity” but harder to refine on the dramatic composition and impossible light which seems to recall divine intervention rather than street-style spontaneity. Mermelstein is a bit of a legend in the field with his images appearing in magazines like Life and The New Yorker, and looking at them now, it’s like he’s the narrator in the very best New York novel. (Text from It's Nice That)

Jazmín Berakha

Jazmín Berakha, a Buenos Aires-based artist, composes delicate embroideries in a simplified style often reserved for drawing. A punch of color and pattern here and there strike the perfect balance with the pencil-thin body outlines. Her subjects are not overwhelmed by pattern, bundling up in one or two distinct articles at a time. Berakha will be exhibiting at Heskin Contemporary in New York City until July 2nd, 2011.

Carine Brancowitz

Carine Brancowitz is a French illustrator who began working as a junior art director in fashion and trend. Her simple lines have shown up in numerous magazines, websites, and blogs. Most recently, she's worked in apparel, doing a tour tee for Phoenix. She uses a limited palette, and brings in intricate patterns to create rich compositions. Her subject matter takes inspiration from fashion but has the sense of a deeper mood or story underneath.

Laura Laine

Laura Laine is a 24-year-old illustrator based in Helsinki. Her work reminds me of art nouveau artists Gustav Klimt and Aubrey Beardsley. Recent clients include Zara, The New York Times T magazine, Tommy Hilfiger, Elle Girl, the Guardian, I.T Post magazine, Iben Hoej, Wunder and Daniel Palillo.

Jim Coverley

Jim Coverley makes extraordinary works out of pillowcases and nails, which, like the work of a careful surgeon, are transformed with stitches, cuts and folds into sculptures which have both an emotional and symbolic resonance. The body is central to Coverley's art as he abstracts manages to extract the essence of pain or emotional states of being, and recreate them in troubling, three-dimensional forms. His work initially looks extremely delicate and decorative but on closer inspection it becomes increasingly disturbing, deliberately putting the viewer in an uncomfortable position. In previous works he has rendered a child's pillowcase the site of trauma and nightmares by modifying it with strange, disconcerting forms. Coverley hangs the sculptures directly onto the walls using nails, pinning the works as if the artist were performing some kind of 'rudimentary surgery'. These works play on the dualities between pleasure and pain, attraction and repulsion.

Eleanor Bowley

Eleanor Bowley is an illustrator who uses stitching and trimmings on recycled fabrics to create her soft, yet graphic images. Her work is grabbing the attention of the fashion world, as she's been commissioned to accent a line of Urban Renewal clothing with her personal details.





   

Jack Siegel

Jack Siegel has contributed to Nylon magazine and photographed the Urban Outfitters look book and is known for his talented and candid photographs of his absurdly good-looking and often famous friends. Siegel's cult blog The Skull Set documents his daily life, showcasing his fresh and laidback photographic style which effortlessly engages both the subject and the viewer.

Eleanor Hardwick

Eleanor Hardwick was born in Oxford, England in 1993. She became interested in photography at the age of twelve when she began to take photos of collectable Japanese fashion dolls. The hobby then progressed into a passion for portraiture and fashion. Having been dubbed the 'Teen Queen of Flickr' by the likes of Dazed & Confused, The Independent, The Guardian and numerous style blogs, 16-year-old Eleanor Hardwick divides her time between studying for her GCSEs and creating surreal dreamscape-style images.

Favouring post-production techniques, Hardwick shoots on a Canon EOS 400 and distorts images to look like fairy tales with a disturbed edge. Hardwick has photographed Bat for Lashes and up-and-coming musical talent Dan Black.

Veronica Ballart

Veronica Ballart's illustrations combine fashion with the intimate world of the individual, and with it, create a dialogue between public and secret life. Travel, music, nature, fashion and everyday life are Ballart's inspiration. With very sensitive figurative drawings and soft, blurred and watery colouring, Veronica Ballart has created a feminine and romantic style. The use of delicate objects such as feathers, origami or make-up, combined with her beautiful fragile characters, creates a melancholic beauty with an emotive storytelling aesthetic. Her work has appeared in fashion magazines such as Plaza, Damernas Värld and Fashion Tale.

Georg Oddner

Georg Mirskij Oddner was one of Swedens greatest photographers from the 20th century. His career spans more than five decades. The variety of his work is endless and the subject matter boundless. Georg once said, "Everything is subject matter—the key is to express the subject so that you acquire a relationship to it."

His pictures exude careful thought and humanism, respect and human closeness. All this shines through his pictures and makes him so unique as a photographer.

Yehrin Tong

Yehrin Tong is an illustrator currently working in central London. Her work appears in everything from editorial to album covers to clothing (Maharishi's SS08 line). Rarely using more than one color, her illustrations are bold, rich in geometric repeat textures, and hyper realistic. Her typographic work evokes a lot of movement. Tong works mainly in Illustrator and Photoshop using a Wacom tablet to achieve a freehand quality. Her hard drive has become her sketchbook.

Fashion is a huge influence on her work. For example, beading and needlework in clothes is a meticulous element that Tong shows clear appreciation for. Tong says, "I try to produce illustrations that people would want to possess, in the same way you'd want to own a beautiful piece of jewellery. I think, 'how would this type look if I wore it?' Or 'how would that dress detail work on my typeface?' For figurative work, I look to dance for ideas; I find dancers in flight particularly transfixing. It translates to typographical work too, giving it a more emotive edge. In terms of subject matter, drama, strength, beauty and sexuality - I want them all coming across in my pictures."

On the subject of what she enjoys working on the most, Tong says, "It would have to be any one of the fabric patterns - I really enjoy designing them. It's a very nerdy thing to enjoy but I love the puzzle-solving element to some of the more complex ones. I'm a big fan of puzzles in general and maths equations etc. I'm not saying I've solved Fermat's Last Theorem or anything but the idea of problem-solving, motifs, perfection and order within chaos are all things I hope people can spot in my work. There's nothing more satisfying than when a pattern slots together perfectly and appears balanced and cohesive."