Having spent time looking at some extraordinary photography, my conclusion is that no other medium has the ability to so quickly transport you to another place, real or imaginary. Even in hyper-realistic painting and film, the artist or director is always present, but with stills you feel alone in the landscape. In this issue, our secret collector talks to specialist photography dealer Richard Kalman, and disagrees with the late art critic John Berger. We interview Dyl Blaquiere, CEO of Sedition and Muse Frame, a digital art platform and display business, to get his advice on buying into the medium. While Silke Lohman surveys the Sussex auction houses, from Art Deco to ModBrit and mid-century furniture and craft.
Jessica Wood
Man in flight… pre-splash
Andy Lo Pò, Tombstoner 9, 2022
11×14, Hahnemuehle Photo Rag paper
Edition of 15. £395+VAT
The remarkable Tombstoner series
captures Brighton locals as ‘they were
jumping, dropping, turning, twisting,
and somersaulting into the sea.’ Lo Pò
describes how ‘by removing certain
elements within the frame, I wanted
to elevate them to angelic status for
the very brief time they were in the
air.’ He has had his work exhibited in
the National Portrait Gallery as part of
the Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize,
as well as the Creative Review
Photography Annual, the International
Photography Awards, and received
a Getty Images Prestige Grant.
cranekalmanbrighton.com
Purple pose
Joe Puxley, Untitled, 2021. From £250
The star of this young photographer from Lewes is rising fast. At just 20-years-old Puxley was named ‘Undiscovered Photographer Of The Year 2022’ at the Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards. His vibrant, iridescent images capture the energy of music, youth, fashion and festivals, so it’s no surprise that Vogue, DAZED, The Face and The British Journal of Photography have all snapped him up. Puxley held his first solo exhibition, Collective Effervescence, in July 2023, with support from Adidas Originals, and it drew 650+ visitors to its opening reception. A new series drops on September 1, with prices around £250. Buy a print while they are still affordable! joepuxley.com
A pair of chip thieves
Chris Harrison, 3.20pm, 3rd June 2018. Archival pigment print on 315gsm matt cotton rag paper. From £35 (unframed)
The Brighton-based street photographer is known for capturing the quiet moments of everyday life. Here, two seagulls are captured on Brighton Pier poised to swoop on tourists’ chips. His work has been featured in The Sunday Times Magazine, aired on ITV News, and used by Penguin Random House. He’s won over 20 international awards and exhibited around the world. Harrison’s first first book, Sideshow, was published in 2024.
Colour splash
Joseph Ford, Chromatic Oasis 6, 2023. Prices from Crane Kalman.
Offbeat optical illusion has become something of a calling card for Ford since his photos of custom knitwear blending into backdrops (Invisible Jumpers) went viral. He’s also worked with the likes of Adidas, Disney and Starbucks, been placed in museum collections, and published by Princeton University Press. The Chromatic Oasis series, photographed at a waterpark on the Red Sea coast, has won or been nominated for several awards, including: Art Directors Club New York 2025, D&AD 2025, Applied Arts, Canada 2025, Association of Photographers 2024, Trieste Photo Days, Italy 2024 and the Spotlight Awards 2024. cranekalmanbrighton.com
Wild blue yonder
Hattie Hambridge, Turning 4, from the series In Blue Lands A2 photographic print. £150
This Hastings-based photographer-filmmaker’s work is ‘in a world of its own’: a mix of nostalgia, self-discovery, experimentation and movement. Alongside her photo and cyanotype prints, she creates animations that combine performance with image making to capture ephemeral moments. Hambridge is also a contributor to ROSA, with a series on outsider artists (see ROSA #13).
An autonomous nude
Lily Gutierrez, Self-portrait, A0 Limited edition of 5. £800
The work of this Hastings-based artist and writer draws deeply on personal experience, particularly friendship and loss, influenced by her close friendship with the late Peaches Geldof. She is founder of Story Time and co-founder of Anti Perfection Club, projects that aim to reclaim the idea of play over the pursuit of flawlessness. Her photography is focused on female autonomy.