In his photo essay “A Star in the Sky” photographer Thomas Lekfeldt accompanied the Danish girl Vibe and her family. Vibe was diagnosed with a cerebral tumor at the age of five and died two years later. In sensitive and intimate images Lekfeldt documents a family life between hospitalizations and chemotherapy, joy and sorrow, hope and despair. Capturing this plethora of emotions without the intention of being tear-jerking, Thomas Lekfeldt presented a very touching and emotional series.

Selected by Sophia Greiff on August 24, 2010

The seeds of the Mum project were planted when I injured both my hands, and was forced into a different sort of homecoming, retreating to my childhood home in North Texas to recuperate. While trying to fill my time with something other than learning to open doors with my feet, strains of the high school marching band lured me to my alma mater’s Homecoming Game. Confronted by stands packed with cheering Mum devotees, I immediately realized an opportunity to not only reconnect with the optimism and energy of my own teenage mythology, but to deconstruct and document the Mum praxis.

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 19, 2010

The “Cuba: Campo Adentro” series is an accidental discovery in 2002 as I traveled west from the Havana hustle, searching for a short weekend break in the beautiful valley of Vinales, Pinar del Rio province. I attended a cockfight high in the hills and the next day I followed a campesino home and felt I had entered a museum diorama. I knew I must return and for the next several years I traveled several times each year to live and work with the campesinos and their families, who subsisted with no modern conveniences. ‘Campo Adentro’ is translated metaphorically as deep within the countryside. I had no intention to disturb life within el campo. Working from the raw, simple details, I set out to create out a poetic portrait of daily life of tobacco farmers and their families.

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 13, 2010

In the summer of 1999 my older sister Maija was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she was only twenty years old. Her prognosis was not good. With the help of different treatments and a strong will she was able to extend and periodically enjoy her life. In November 2007 Maija was hospitalized again. This is when I started to document her and the rest of my family in hospitals and at home. The following months where to be her last, for she passed away at home in April 2008.

Selected by Recommending Viewer on May 3, 2010

Bliss Street, is inhabited by 6 women and one man; first comes Alba, my grandmother, who in her 104th year is the healthiest and sharpest person at the house, then there is Olga, her daughter and official owner who is 71 and lives through the eyes of her mother, through her memories of her life in Colorado and the stories that her walls tell. She spends her time organizing a room that does not want to be organized. Teo (54), her brother is the youngest son of Alba, he has been struggling with diabetes for decades; he spends a lot of time in solitude.

Selected by Diederik Meijer on April 30, 2010

I began shooting ‘Days with my father’ about a year after my mother died. The purpose became clearer, as time progressed. It was to make a still film. An abstract assortment of linked recollections. My father’s stories, and how he told them. His eyes, when he was going to say something funny. His white hair, in the afternoon sun. I wanted to remember the personality that shone through the haze of his fading memory. And I wanted to revel in his humor, that had remained hidden for years in the strong shadow of parenthood. I wanted to record all of this, before he died. To document the love between us, and by reflection, the love we both had for my mother.

Selected by Hannamari Shakya on April 21, 2010

What I find interesting is that I guess the majority of us expects a different world view from Dvir, being a descendant of Israel. But he does the opposite. His choice is to use his professional life as a photographer to get close. And by getting close in images he shows me the world and growing up of people that he is supposed to call ‘the enemy’. He gives me hope with his portraits and even very literally in his words when I quote Natan Dvir:

“If I, a Jewish Israeli man, have been accepted and was allowed into my subjectsʼ personal lives – so can other.”

Selected by Margo de Beijer on April 7, 2010

Forgetting is not an option in the seemingly eternal and interwoven conflicts of the Middle East. Increasingly finding myself distanced from hard news, I am drawn to the humor and contradiction prevalent within the diversity of Middle Eastern culture(s). I want to provoke the audience to reflect on regional social issues, stereotypes, and realities. The perpetual images of blood, suffering, and conflict are not the only defining characteristics of the Middle East.

Selected by Margo de Beijer on April 1, 2010

Selected by Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer on March 24, 2010

Glen Erler: Family Tree is a project about the loss and rebirth of my family. I moved from Southern California to England fourteen years ago and while visiting family members back home, I started photographing the people and places that were important in the shaping of who I am today.While I’ve been living in England, many of my relatives on both my fathers and mothers sides have passed away. This made me realize the impact death has on the lives of those remaining.

Selected by Gordon MacDonald on November 27, 2009