Yellow cap paired with a blue satin shirt, Grace Jones has arrived at The Savoy. Her thumbnail has a tiny red crown stamped on it. It is 1981 and Sharon Smith is doing her rounds as a camera girl in the Midtown Manhattan club, when she approaches Grace with her Polaroid. It was not the…
Early on this year at Something Curated, we introduced the ‘my best photograph’ series, where we ask a photographer or visual artist we love to share an image that means a lot to them – and to tell the audience the story behind the image. We’ll continue this into 2025, inviting some of the industry’s most…
I made this picture in Vienna some years ago while I was there for a shoot. I was waiting for someone to turn up to have their picture taken and wandered off distracted and saw this butterfly. I always thought the picture was equal parts pretty, romantic, and sad. It’s flying gracefully surrounded by beautiful…
Shining a light on the often overlooked details of day-to-day life, Paris-based photographer Marc Alexander Shelly’s sensitively composed images seek to reframe the ordinary. Following documentary projects shot in Morocco, India and Egypt, Shelly recently ventured to Grand Cayman with the goal of capturing a photographic essay, exploring the daily routines of the Caribbean island’s…
I always come back to this photograph whenever I’m asked about my favourite image. Taken in the summer of 2016, before I truly understood photography, it remains a foundational image in my portfolio nearly a decade later. For me, it captures the essence of my work: moments that are joyful, spontaneous, and authentic. I have…
This photograph has no special story. It’s plums in a bag, a little bit of the end of summer preserved as a reminder of what’s around the corner when it’s coldest. But I remember seeing them in the bag, wondering how the flash might bounce off the folds in the plastic so I snapped it…
Describing herself as a “professional noticer,” Sirui Ma is a London-based photographer whose practice explores the beauty of the mundane. Born in Beijing and subsequently raised in London and New York, Ma’s images gently probe her experiences of living in the West through a multicultural lens, broaching topics of presence and community. Captured over the…
Kobe Bryant, 2015 As I sat on the plane from London to LA I couldn’t stop wondering why I’d been commissioned to shoot Kobe. I kept thinking: surely there’s someone in LA who would do a better job than me and cost considerably less in travel. As those thoughts played on my mind, I took…