COVER STORIES
Latest on ZERO.NINE
Die Schlange (The Snake)
With her project Die Schlange, photographer Nancy Jesse presents a hauntingly intimate and cinematic portrayal of life within a surreal architectural organism. The vast Berlin housing complex has been built above a motorway and contains over 1,000 apartments. Her use of light and framing evokes a dreamlike, almost dystopian atmosphere—subtly echoing the building's strange, pulsating core.
Fists of Hope
Fists of Hope, a quietly powerful photo documentary by Olaoluwa Olowu, follows the life of Janet, a young female boxer fighting to rise in Ghana’s male-dominated boxing scene. Set against the raw backdrop of Jamestown, this project captures not only the physical intensity of her training but also the emotional endurance required to survive invisibility, poverty and systemic neglect.
Urban Reverie: The Argall Edition
In the bustling corner of an East London industrial estate, where concrete sprawls beneath cash n carry skylights and graffiti climbs rusting bridges, fashion finds unexpected beauty. Urban Reverie is a love letter to a gritty contrast—lace brushing steel, vinyl gleaming against brick, softness swaggering through spaces never meant for softness.
Mi Faddi
Mi Faddi by photographer Aisha Hanan Buhari is a poignant series of conceptual portraits featuring her siblings. Exploring themes of protection, family and privacy, the work reflects the challenges of living in the public eye. Rare nautilus shells are physically placed on top of the images, symbolically shielding the subjects and emphasising their preciousness in both personal and universal contexts.
Liminal Spaces
In her series, Katherine Flynn explores the beauty of liminal space—those transitional states found in abandoned landscapes and within ourselves. Working from a desert junkyard turned creative lab, she repurposes found VW mirrors and doors to frame her images, transforming discarded objects into vessels of memory, stillness, and reflection.
People Watching: Pretzel Cage
With the launch of his new photo studio in Hackney Downs, portrait artist Matt Ford introduces People Watching—an ongoing series of short video portraits featuring the individuals he photographs in the space. We are proud to present the first film featuring performance artist Pretzel Cage.
From the Shadows
The return of The Horrors feels nothing short of a rebirth. Twenty years after they first emerged on London’s fringes, the band unleashed their sixth studio album, Night Life, last March—and promptly embarked on their first full-scale tour in nearly a decade. From intimate basement gigs to sold-out theatres from Madrid to Manchester, frontman Faris Badwan and bassist Rhys “Spider” Webb sat down with us to reflect on sleepless walks, political urgency and the creative alchemy that has kept them vital two decades in.
At Work
Photographer Kip Harris brings At Work to Place M Gallery in Tokyo, showcasing four decades of environmental portraiture. From Morocco to Peru, his images celebrate the quiet dignity of labour, capturing craftsmen, street vendors, and everyday workers immersed in their element. The exhibition runs May 26 – June 1.
America
Photographer Magdalena Correa presents a powerful selection of photographs at Tönnheim Gallery in Carabanchel, Spain. The exhibition revisits her most emblematic projects in Latin America, portraying remote communities through an immersive and poetic lens that captures both the rawness and surreal beauty of life on the margins.
Baltic ATM: Breaking Barriers
Baltic ATM, the annual programme from North London’s Baltic Studios, supports eight emerging musicians with pro-grade recording tools, mentoring, and industry connections. The 2025 edition just ended, and we talked to studio founder Orlando Leopard and all eight artists to find out why initiatives like these are so important for young musicians.
In the Quiet Heart
In the Quiet Heart is photographer Amaan Ali’s personal take on summer camp — not just the fun and games, but the quieter moments that often go unnoticed. His images are tender and observant, capturing kids on the edges: lost in thought, drifting away from the crowd. There’s a stillness to them that lingers — a quiet honesty that feels rare and real.
Paradise
Paradise by Gian Marco Sanna is a haunting visual reflection on humanity's estrangement from nature. Through stark imagery and silence, the project explores our descent from harmony to destruction, questioning freedom, consumerism, and the illusion of progress as we drift further from the origins that once defined our existence.
Fencing Without Limits
In a quiet corner of North London, where tradition meets dedication, Salle Paul Fencing Club has been shaping champions and nurturing a love for the sport since the early 1930s. Stepping inside the club on a buzzing weeknight, the energy is palpable—fencers of all ages sparring across metallic pistes, blades clashing rhythmically in a blur of movement. At the centre of this hub is Pete Eames, the Club Secretary, who offered an insightful look into Salle Paul's unique philosophy, its deep history, and its inclusive approach to fencing.
Why am I sad
“Why Am I Sad,” published by Kehrer Verlag, is Dana Stirling’s moving photographic meditation on depression, memory, and healing. Through quiet still lifes and deeply personal reflections, Stirling invites readers into an honest exploration of mental health, where photography becomes both a question and a lifeline.
3 Minutes read
Daydream
In this intimate exploration, Maria Harris-Sutton explores the delicate intersection of the material and spiritual worlds. Her photographic series, Daydream, captures the ethereal space between these realms, offering a personal reflection on memory, spirituality, and the elusive moments that shape our understanding of self and connection.
...but so many good things happened to you!
Through cutting, folding, and weaving old family photos, the artist explores how joy and trauma intertwine. This tactile reworking of images reveals how even our happiest memories are shaped—and sometimes undone—by what followed them.
Beauty – Frontwoman
Eyeliner as iconography. In Frontwoman, shot in Barcelona’s El Gótico, beauty becomes attitude. This story explores eyeliner not just as makeup, but as a fashion statement—bold, lived-in and unapologetic. From ancient rituals to runway reinvention, the eyes take centre stage in a tribute to music, movement and aesthetic rebellion.
Poetry, Pain & Power
Winona Oak’s music moves like a storm—tender, raw, and powerful. Raised on the Swedish island of Sollerön, she brings poetic intimacy to everything she touches, whether it’s dance-floor euphoria or quiet grief. In this candid conversation, the singer-songwriter opens up about growing up in isolation, the healing power of poetry, creating her alter ego OAKS, and how art became her lifeline after loss.
Iron Curtain
In Iron Curtain, Polish photographer Natalia Kepesz travels from Estonia to Ukraine, tracing the emotional and psychological impact of war and proximity to Russia. Through powerful portraits and quiet observations, she captures a continent on edge—where young people adjust their dreams, elders recall past horrors, and borders quietly reshape everyday lives.
In case you missed it
Elegos
Elias Yannas Tsigounis is the winner of the inaugural ZERO.NINE Award, selected at the Cluster Photography & Print Fair 2025. His series Elegos focuses on Elias’ understanding of death as a transformative experience, following his attempt to understand his father’s passing. Elias’ work is dreamlike and abstract, but there is a physicality to the construction of these images that set his work apart. We spoke to Elias about what his work means to him.
Faith in Transition
In a remote valley of Northwest Pakistan, Danish photographer Laura Riis documents a quiet transformation. Her project captures the personal and cultural complexities of religious conversion among the Kalash—a small indigenous community navigating the tension between ancestral traditions and Islam. Through tender, intimate portraits, Riis explores faith, identity, and the difficult choices faced by a new generation.
ICONS – Margaret Bourke-White: The Indestructible
Margaret Bourke-White was one of the most fearless, intrepid photographers that has ever lived. To call her anything else would be an understatement for a photographer whose work confronted some of the greatest injustices of the 20th century. Some put her capacity to be in these places at the right time down to a matter of chance. Was it?