Potatoes to Plastic originated after a few weeks of research into the city of Hanoi, in Vietnam. Before travelling anywhere, I always research extensively. I am interested in social topics like affordable housing, minority populations and issues surrounding urbanisation, and…

“CAMREX is based in Sunderland –a city that has a rich industrial history and was formerly a major shipbuilding hub in North East, England. Camrex House was the site of a long-closed paint factory. The project began when I was casting a feature film drama and the project involved extensive work with non-actors and lots of street casting. As part of this process I met up with an ex-drug-dealer in a pool hall in Teesside and he mentioned that after leaving prison he lived at Camrex House: a city-centre hostel with a notorious reputation. He discussed the hostel with a special kind of loathing. Apparently, he lasted about a fortnight at the hostel before he was offered sanctuary in the form of a friend’s sofa. The contempt he expressed as he talked about the hostel stayed with me and after production on the feature was completed, I visited Camrex eager to explore the characters and stories as a photography project.”

Sometimes it is important to find creativity in the moments or situations of the mundane, to create images, stories and to become the observer; Daniel Weigel’s Generation Z is an examination of young men, identify and emotion, a conversation on age and the modern day man.

We’re proud to release our 2019 Annual. AND is an annual selection of some of the best up and coming influential documentary and portrait photographers from across the globe, showcasing in this heterogeneous collection of poignant and inspiring imagery, a response to a shifting culture and change to the way photography is produced, shared and consumed. This is Then There Was Us Magazine’s ones to watch of 2019. This year we have selected 58 photographers from across the world to be part of our first AND annual.

Simon Bray is a Manchester based documentary and landscape photographer who has created several recognisable projects over the past couple years. Alongside shooting photography as a full time job, Simon has released a number of successful books and in 2018 he was invited to produce Martin Parr’s latest commission with Manchester Art Gallery. His project themes touch sensitive topics and this shows within all of Simon’s work. His latest book sees the release of the long anticipated project – Ambient 4 : On Land. In this interview Simon talks about the inspiration behind the project and how he’s gone about self publishing.

This image depicts troops of the 3310th regiment of the FARDC (Congolese National army) preparing to move off in escort of health workers tackling the Ebola outbreak. Taken in Butembo, North Kivu, the current epicentre of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola crisis. Due to years of neglect, community resistance and attacks from rebels have become endemic, affecting the response to the virus, military escort has therefore been necessary for many health missions.

Matt Eich doesn’t really have a discernible practice, in my eyes at least. He could be called a documentary photographer, he could be called a photojournalist, he could be called an essayist, he could be called an abstract fine art photographer.

Addiction is not a choice. Addiction is a complex condition, a brain disease that is manifested by compulsive substance use despite harmful consequence. Over an estimated half a million people in the UK have alcohol dependency, and are in need of specialist treatment. Less than one-fifth receive help.

“I’ve never really thought about the word community outside of it meaning the place where I live and have made my home. We often talk about organising within the community in a political context, but here the word is usually used by politicians to refer to people they actually have no desire to speak to beyond capitalising on a photo opportunity for their next election leaflet.”

I Love You, I’m Leaving is a beautiful project which seems to deal not with loss itself but the ordinary and ever-present fear of loss. It’s true that the black and white helps to enrich the poetic feel, though there is more to it than that. By being forced, or perhaps forcing himself, to slow down and work very differently the entire space around that moment is thought about differently.

The introduction to Lewis Brillet’s Homebound describes the loss of his elder brother, Tuan, in a tragic accident. Not far from where he passes, Brillet’s family began work on a new family home. “An optimistic long-term project we hoped would…

The Moments Between is a photography project that we encourage as many photographers to be involved with. The aim is showcase the moments between, to be honest and intimate about your own lives. A visual and honest representation of our mission statement as they are all issues that each of us have faced in one form or another. If it’s the zero hour job, mental health issues, frustrations or boredom and the mundane, we want you to join our visual diary…

As a Jamaican immigrant in the New York suburbs the mid 90’s was a time where the community was on the brink of gentrification. Marred in economic hardship, the town of Spring Valley had one beacon of hope — the memorial park, situated just below Main Street.

“Good Night God Bless, a phrase often heard in hushed tones. It is these four words, that resonate memories of my beloved Grandfather. Many years after his death his words came to me when I was sleeping, this moment, joint with the birth of the first male in our family in four generations are what inspired me to begin this body of work.”

On the 24th May we launched our first open exhibition, celebrating emerging documentary and journalism work from around the world. In this note from co-directors Jonathan Tomlinson and James Wrigley we discuss our next steps, the future of Then There Was Us and new projects coming soon.

India. Far-flung and famous for its food, colourful festivals and fast-growing population, the Asian Subcontinent has unsurprisingly become a popular destination for holidaymakers, entrepreneurs and big-businesses alike. It’s a country where perilous mountains give way to golden sands as visitors traverse, baffled and bewildered, through countless countless cultures, languages and climates.

Sin & Salvation is a standalone body of work within The Invisible Yoke series in that it forced Matt, a photographer who prefers the immediate and accessible, to spend seven years returning to the area to photograph.

There will always be subjectivity when thinking about the past. Whom upset whom, the uncle we don’t talk about, the rose tint of nostalgia always making an appearance. We cannot understand our past unless we understand embracing the unknown and speculative thinking. In what way does thinking about the past change how you see the present. How do certain stories alter the remembrance of the past?

Born in 1959 in Vienna, Austria. Robert Rutöd has pursued a career in what most people dream of as a creative. An early pursuer of painting eventually led to working on short films, where he wrote and directed various films over nearly a 20 year span. With an internal passion for photography, Robert had been working on different projects throughout his whole career. In 2004, he returned to photography full time and began working on both short and long term projects. We got to chat to Robert around his career and his latest long-term project, Fairy Tales.