Vol. 2 - Book - Page 404
Sony Europe Imaging Ambassadors
Albert Dros (Netherlands)
A professional since 2012, Albert’s work can be described as vibrant
and colourful with a hint of fairytale. His landscapes have often been
described as having a ‘Lord of the Rings’ quality to them while his
cityscapes are crystal clear and sharp. As a perfectionist he always
tries to capture a certain moment or scene in the best possible way,
spending time to get the shot he wants. He calls himself a ‘modern’
photographer and loves new technology, always trying to keep up
with innovations. That’s where he says Sony is a complete fit for his
ethos and personality. His work has been featured in Time, National
Geographic and the Huffington Post and his projects range from pure
landscape work to artistic abstract approaches in which he is trying
different things with photography. He believes it important to have no
boundaries in expressing an artistic vision.
Chris Schmid (Switzerland)
Sony Ambassador and represented by National Geographic Image
Collection, Chris Schmid, has dedicated his life to documenting the
natural beauty of our planet. His photographs are an invitation to
discover the world with wide eyes and vibrant enthusiasm. His aim is
always the same: to approach nature right at its heart in order to raise
awareness of the fragility of our earth and inspire action to preserve
it. Specialising in wildlife and documentary photojournalism, the
quality of Chris’ work is reflected in the widespread recognition he has
received. His photographs have been published in magazines such as
National Geographic, BBC and GEO, and he has won numerous awards
for his photography. But these prizes have never been his motivation.
His tireless efforts to document and protect the few remaining areas
of wilderness are fuelled by a love for the natural world and a desire to
protect what’s left. Chris is deeply committed to wildlife conservation
and works closely with WildAid, an environmental organization based
in San Francisco with the aim of reducing demand for illegal wildlife
products. Chris is also a contributor to the Remembering Elephants and
Remembering Great Apes projects and the Born Free Foundation
fund-raising book and exhibition, illustrated by the world’s finest
wildlife photographers.
Alin Popescu (Romania)
Alin is a self-taught photographer and started shooting in 2003. He is
a proud father of three and his dedication to his family led him down
the event photography path for his professional career, telling other
people’s stories through his natural, reportage-style images. He also
shoots landscapes in both colour and infrared and recently dived into
the amazing world of wildlife photography. A keen blogger, he also
writes camera reviews and pieces about food and travel. He has won
numerous awards both nationally and internationally.
Floris Smeets (Norway)
In pursuit of his dreams, Floris moved from the Netherlands to Norway.
With a background in ecology, he has since 2014 worked full-time in
nature photography. Norwegian nature is his playground, where he
mainly focuses on wildlife and landscapes. With a high respect for
nature, it is of great importance that his pictures are taken in natural
situations without disturbing the wildlife or altering the scenery. With
his pictures he tries to capture the natural beauty in a way that it is not
just a captured moment, but which also tell a story. So far, his work has
been featured nationally and internationally in magazines, newspapers
and exhibitions.
Kaisa Lappalainen (Finland)
Kaisa is a wildlife photographer from Finland whose main interest is
mammals and birds. She photographs animals all over the world and
also leads photography safaris in Africa. Kaisa is always interested in
observing nature and trying to learn more about animals and their
natural behaviour.
Ole Christian Salomonsen (Norway)
Ole Christian Salomonsen is a passionate landscape photographer
living in the arctic north of his homeland Norway. His region, Tromsø,
is situated directly beneath the aurora oval, giving spectacular views of
the aurora borealis, even during periods of low activity. The equinoxes
of autumn and spring also offer stunning light along with the midnight
sun every summer. Ole also shoots time-lapse sequences of the aurora
and has had his work featured in media all over the world.
Francis Bompard (France)
An all-terrain professional photographer for 40 years, Francis Bompard
has covered more than 700 stages of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup,
more than 18 FIS Alpine ski World Championships and nine editions
of the Olympic Winter Games. He has also been engaged for the past
three years with WWF France for the protection of elephants.
His favourite picture? The one he’ll do tomorrow!
Jan Tichy (Czech Republic)
Jan Tichy is a self-taught creative photographer based in Prague,
Czech Republic. He started as a landscape photographer travelling the
world, but during the last few years he has mainly been photographing
people - weddings, portrait sessions or on the streets. He likes to be
the invisible photographer, the guy that always has a camera hanging
over his shoulder that walks around unnoticed, trying to capture his
models in a natural and genuine way. He also enjoys cityscape/urban/
architecture photography. The beauty of Prague inspires him and drives
him to capture its unique spirit, where the majestic is mixed with urban
brutalism and modern architecture. Jan is obsessed with vintage lenses
and is always exploring ways of how to take advantage of their unique
character in his photography.
Alexis Rosenfeld (France)
Professional photographer and diver, Alexis discovered diving when
he was eight and never looked back. His universe is under the surface
of the Earth. Trips and expeditions come one after another all year
long, and he is always searching for new adventures and stories to tell.
His career allowed him to share Captain Cousteau’s latest expedition
to Madagascar, to follow a large part of the epic of Comex and to
participate in exceptional adventures such as the discovery of Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry’s plane. Alexis is published by major media in France
and internationally.
Ilhan Eroglu (Turkey)
Based in Izmir, Turkey, Ilhan Eroglu studied Fine Arts at university. After
having his own successful business for a few years, he decided to
follow his passion for photography and started travelling around the
world. He taught himself to be one of the most talented and wellknown landscape photographers in Turkey.
Javier Aznar (Spain)
Javier is a professional photographer specialising in wildlife. He has
a degree in biology and is a member of the International League of
Conservation Photographers (iLCP). Through his photographs he tries
to educate and sensitise the world, showing the beauty of the smallest
and generally most hated and unknown beings. His photographs
have received numerous international awards in contests such as the
Wildlife Photographer of the Year, as well as in other contests. Javier
is represented by the National Geographic Creative agency, and his
photographs have been published in different international journals.
In addition to taking photographs, Javier conducts workshops and
photographic trips in countries such as Ecuador and Spain.
Burak Barutçu (Turkey)
Burak Barutçu, born in 1979, has over 15 years of experience as a
cinematographer and director and his résumé includes TV commercial,
fashion, music videos and awarded short films. He is an expert on
time-lapse videos and the production of time-lapse equipment, thanks
to his background as an engineer. His time-lapse work for cinema and
television takes him all over the world and he has recently been a part
of the production of documentary filming for Turkish Radio Television.
Eager to share his passion for technology, he has been making a radio
programme about new technology every week for TRT Radyo since
2010 and teaching digital photography in İFSAK since 2005. Barutçu is
also the co-founder of ‘Eight Interactions & Productions’ with friends
who love to work together.
MEP in Paris and Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. He is engaged in
educational activities, regularly lecturing at universities and teaching
workshops internationally.
Andrea Frazzetta
Italian-born Andrea Frazzetta is a documentary photographer and
contributor to The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic
Travel. He grew up in Milan, where he studied art and architecture.
A week after graduation, he visited the Amazon rainforest to
photograph a small NGO and from that moment decided to devote
himself entirely to photography, using it as a means for discovery and
story-telling. His work has taken him all over the world and he has
had his photographs published in The New York Times, Newsweek,
National Geographic Magazine, Geo, The Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, L’Espresso, and Vanity Fair. He
has exhibited at The International Photographic Festival of Arles,
the Noorderlicht International Photofestival, Visa Pour l’Image – the
International Festival of Photojournalism of Perpignan, and Cortona
On The Move International Photography Festival. Andrea’s work has
also been recognised through several photography awards: the Yann
Geffroy Award for his story ‘Obama Village’, the PDN photo annual
for his work on the African Cinema commissioned by The New York
Times Magazine, the American Photography for his work from Tokyo,
published by Newsweek, and the PX3 – Prix De La Photographie Paris.
In 2017, his work from Danakil was among the winners of the PND
Photo Annual, The American Photography and The Fence and is the
recipient of a Gold Medal – Feature Story Category – from the Society of
Publication Designers of USA.
Tomasz Markowski (Poland)
Tomasz Markowski has been a sports photographer in his native
Poland for over 20 years, and since 1999 he has worked for the oldest
and most popular Polish sport newspaper Przegląd Sportowy. He
also photographs a wide range of global sporting events such as the
Olympic Games, European Football Championships, Cross-Country
Skiing competitions and Ski Jump Cup as well as covering the famous
Tour de Pologne bicycle race.
Cristiano Ostinelli (Italy)
Italian-born Cristiano Ostinelli is the founder and owner of
Ostinelli Studio Destination Wedding Photographers. He began his
photographic career in 1995 as a reportage photographer and made
a name for himself in several international competitions. He has since
photographed prestigious weddings all over the world - in Europe,
USA, Russia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and the United
Arab Emirates, always with his spontaneous, creative and extremely
refined style. He’s a member of the WPJA Wedding Photojournalist
Association USA and ISPWP USA, Fearless Photographers USA and WPS
UK. He still works as a photojournalist and has had his work published
in international newspapers such as the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The
Mirror and Daily Star. He is active in wedding photography and in the
field of photojournalism has travelled to Japan, India, USA, Bangladesh,
Morocco and Tunisia. As a photojournalist he has published articles
in international magazines such as the Daily Mail, The Telegraph,
The Mirror and the Daily Star, to name a few. He is the only Italian
contributor of the prestigious US magazine, Grace Ormonde Wedding
Style and has won many prestigious awards including Photographer
of the year 2013, Wedding Photojournalism Association - WPJA USA /
Photographer of the year 2014 - WPS UK / Photographer of the year
2015 - WPS UK / First place in MyWed 2016 / Photographer of the
year 2016 - WPS UK / Photographer of the year 2017 - WEP Spain /
Photographer of the year 2017 - ISPWP USA.
Davide Monteleone (Italy)
Davide Monteleone is an artist and a visual journalist working on
long term independent projects using photography, video and text.
He has devoted himself to the study of social issues, exploring the
relationship between power and individual. Known for his specific
interest in the post-soviet countries, he has published books on this
topic and his projects have brought him numerous awards, including
several World Press Photo prizes, and grants such as the Aftermath
Grant, European Publishers Award and Carmignac Photojournalism
Award. He regularly contributes for leading publications all over the
world, and photography projects have been presented as installations,
exhibitions and screenings at festivals and galleries worldwide
including the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Saatchi Gallery in London,
Bertrand Bernager (France)
Born in Paris in 2000, Bertrand Bernager has made the city his
playground as a photographer. It was during a trip to Japan at the age
of 14 that he discovered a passion for photography. He soon became
interested in long exposure photography, and it’s still a technique he
practices almost daily. His work focuses on architecture and street
photography, trying to capture the magic of the world’s largest cities, in
which he delivers a colourful and modern vision of the world through
dynamic and vibrant compositions. You can also find him in the early
morning streets of Paris capturing the sunrise or at the top of a rooftop
at the golden hour.
Alex Farinelli (Italy)
Computer scientist and self-taught photographer, Alex inherits the
passion for photography and motorbikes from his father and uncle.
He started his photo career shooting cycling, collaborating with a
group of photographers during cycling events in Umbria, as well
as with Umbria cycling federation. In 2011, he attended the MotoGP
World Championship as a photographer for the first time, and he
immediately fell in love with this world. In 2012 he started collaborating
with photo teams, and in 2013 he began collaborating with the pilot
Danilo Petrucci and the Giampiero Sacchi team. Since 2014 he has
collaborated with the Milagro agency, the most important photo
agency in motorcycling at European and international level, led by
Gigi Soldano and Tino Martino. Thanks to the experience acquired in
the field, to the different approach he uses to represent the world of
motorcycling and to the collaboration with Soldano and Martino, Alex
is working today with all the top MotoGP teams, including Yamaha,
Honda, Ducati and Suzuki, as well as with top riders such as Valentino
Rossi, Danilo Petrucci, Maverick Vinales and many more. He’s acutely
aware of the fact that without his family support, he couldn’t have
reached such an outstanding role.
José M. Mercado (Spain)
From a very young age José had a great passion for music and painting,
and both passions led him to discover photography as an art form. As
a hobbyist, he practiced photography through his teenage years, but it
wasn’t until he turned 30 that he decided to pursue it as a career. He is
a self-confessed obsessive when it comes to lighting and composition,
taking in everything around him, particularly shadows - ‘You get to
know what kind of light has generated it, where it comes from and
where it dies.’ He covers both editorial and sports photography and
his work has been published through many Spanish agencies and
media. Tireless in his search for the interpretation of art, he began his
first big photographic project in 2016, based on classical paintings – an
interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper.
Steffen Boettcher (Germany)
Steffen Böttcher lives and works as a photographer in Buchholz – a
small town near Germany’s infamously metropolitan Hamburg.
His groundbreaking career as an internationally accomplished
graphic designer set him en route to become an established
marketing consultant, whose concepts and strategies gained
global acknowledgement. In 2005 he turned his lifelong passion
for photography into his livelihood and has since been working
as a celebrated and sought-after portrait, travel and reportage
