Michael Kenna

White Copse, Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan. 2004

Michael Kenna's work holds the common element: Silence. It is a heavy, impenetrable sort of silence that makes you forget about your own existence. I love his Hokkaido series 2004,2005, and 2007. Minimalism aesthetic in photography couldn't be more beautiful. Visit his website: http://www.michaelkenna.net/

Jill Greenberg

I saw her End Times series at MOCCA featured as a part of 2007 Nuit Blanche in Toronto. The details of these impeccable prints are breath taking. Probably most well known for her mokey portraits series, her other works are as equally impressive. Jill Greenberg is a Canadian artist who was born in Montreal and bases her practices in United States. Slick lighting, technically dead-on portraits. More works at her portfolio website : http://www.manipulator.com/

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson, from Twilight series

I have been looking at his work for over a year now and he is still my favorite contemporary artist. Even though I searched for his website obsessively for past few months, I still couldn't find an "official" website that is dedicated for his works only. However, you can google his name for image search, and you could find some of his work (not the best condition) It is also definitely worth it to look at them in book format if you ever have chance to browse through them in book store. (highly recommended) As you can tell by looking at image, his work is based on large production scale (has over 60 people to work on his image), by large scale I mean as big as that of movie production. I like his twilight series. His use of narrative, mis-en-scene are just great. There are some of information about his works and bio on this page.

Ninagawa Mika

A Japanese artist who pushes color photography to its limits. Her vibrant colors are something that I haven't seen anywhere else. It sort of sticks on you for a while after seeing them. Visit her website.

Isabelle Hayeur

Jade 2004, Isabelle Hayeur

She was featured in Prefix megazine, and that's how I came to know her work. Combining digital montage and actual labour of installation, she creates landscape that is almost transitory and imaginary. The idea of new space seems to be the big trend in landscape(or pseudo-landscape) photography...I like her Model Home series. But her other works are quite fascinating too.

For her complete works and bio, visit here.

Julia Peirone

ROWANBERRIES2003 Lambdaprint 120x50 cm

Her digital collages are interesting. Probably one of my favorite contemporary artists in these days, her practice in photography is very diverse. The image above is from series Reconstruction of Presence. However, I like her Night Spot series as much. You can see her complete work and biography here.

Atta Kim: On-Air

Atta Kim, ON-AIR Project, New York Series, Park Avenue, 8 Hours, 2005, © Atta Kim

I am currently looking at Asian artists, and Atta Kim seems to be doing very well. I saw his other series and became interested in. His ON-AIR Project is interesting to look at, because the sites that he photographs - Times Square is one of it - looks deserted at a glance, but soon I realized that it is not empty. It was the time that washed out all the movements within the frame, leaving only traces. You can see the images for ON-AIR Project here.