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An online publication that
strives to build a proud COMMUNITY OF DIVERSE VOICES.

About

ABOUT PEARL PRESS

An online publication that strives to build a proud community of diverse voices. Pearl comes from the founder's grandmother's Yiddish name, Polina. The founder's grandparents were both artistic and creative in everything they did. Her grandfather, a writer and painter who always wanted to capture his muse, Polina, in the most beautiful of ways.

It was important to them to have many artist's voices celebrated and heard in their life. The founder wanted to continue this passion for art through Pearl Press by growing a community of artists who are looking to uplift one another.

CURRENT ISSUE

Round Trip

Making our way back to familiar places, people, and parts of the self that have shifted with time. A project revisited finds new meaning; a renewed relationship offers steady ground.

A round trip is not just about going back—it’s about noticing what’s changed in the meantime. It’s about the distance between then and now, and the tender recalibration that comes with it.

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SUBMIT YOUR PIECE

Send an email with your written or visual work; include your (1) name, (2) bio, (3) titles and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF and keep under one page. There is no max or min amount of work you can send, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected.

Every issue will have a concept that you can interpret in anyway you would like. Some work from each issue will be displayed on @pearl.press as well, so include (4) a website and (5) Instagram handle! Thank you and happy submitting!

OPEN CALL: TBD

FOUNDER

Delilah Twersky

A fine arts photographer and creative writer who focuses on documentary work and personal projects. Delilah works primarily with medium format film and tries to find ways of having a hands on approach with her work whether it be printing in the darkroom or scanning. Her work has been published by Dashwood Books, Waif Magazine, Aint-Bad, and Sissy Screens. Pearl Press has been interviewed by Chill Subs and is listed in their database. If you want to collaborate, shoot her a line.

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An updated ‘how to submit’ post is here! If you’re interested in submitting to Pearl Press, swipe or keep reading.

Send an email to contact.pearlpress@gmail.com with your written or visual work; include your name, a short bio, title and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi and sent as jpegs. If possible, avoid sending as wetransfer as those expire faster than I can check them. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF.

There is no max or min amount of work you can send, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected.

Every issue will have a concept that you can interpret in whatever way you would like. Some work from each issue will be displayed on @pearl.press as well, so include a website and Instagram handle if applicable.

If ever you have questions about the submission process, don’t hesitate to write me. Thank you and happy submitting!
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Kody Zenger (@kodyzenger) is a photographer and cinematographer living in the US Virgin Islands. He began his career in 2010 traveling with NGOs, photographing and telling their stories, which lead him all around the world. As time and tech went on, video also became a big part of the job, and cinematography became Kody’s main focus. After working for several years at various in house production companies, it became clear it was time to go freelance full time.

“This work was photographed in the US Virgin Islands. I moved there in 2020 during Covid, with my wife and two young children. We moved into a tiny upstairs apartment, in a house with my brother and sister-in-law, their three children, and my mother and father-in-law. My work as a cinematographer had been shut down, and the warm Caribbean outdoor life sounded like the perfect option for our kids. We committed to a year, but stayed for nearly five.

The project is about escapism, at the core of it. There are few places in the world that it is so on display. From the billionaires that come into dock their $300M yachts, to the Virgin Islanders struggling to make it and escaping through music and festivals. Or the restaurant workers, many trying to leave behind a troubled past or the couples/families that got stale in the normal life in the states and they move to the Caribbean in hopes to reignite their marriages or connect more deeply with their kids. In many way there is an undercurrent of pain here. You have to be willing to see past the smiles and the sunshine and the crystal clear water. Sure, maybe this is everywhere but here the PLACE ITSELF, 9/10 times is what people hope to be their painkiller. That’s what makes it so interesting. For me it was never that.”

Check out Kody’s work and others in the Round Trip issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/round-trip (link in bio)
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Suzi Grossman (@dr_suzz) is a lifelong lover of nature; and plants seem to make their way into every aspect of their art. Suzi works in many mediums including photography, cyanotype, gouache painting, and 3D printing. They are currently working towards their MFA in photography from MassArt. Suzi lives in Somerville, MA and is active in the local art scene.

“These images are from a larger body of work called “Namesake” in which I revisit and rephotograph my grandfather’s house in Ohio. This set of images focuses on the stairs in his house, an architectural backbone that witnesses change over the years. Over the years, my grandfather does projects, the family visits and helps take care of the house, the wall paper disappears, and finally the house is readied to be sold after my grandfather passes away.”

Check out Suzi’s work and others in the Round Trip issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/round-trip (link in bio)
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Introducing Issue No. 25, Round Trip. Check it out at pearl-press.com/round-trip (link in bio) *best view on desktop*

Making our way back to familiar places, people, and parts of the self that have shifted with time. A project revisited finds new meaning; a renewed relationship offers steady ground. A round trip is not just about going back—it’s about noticing what’s changed in the meantime. It’s about the distance between then and now, and the tender recalibration that comes with it.

Cover image: Taelyn, Louisville, Kentucky, 03.31.22: @natesmallwood
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[in reference to being a flight attendant]
@dustyphotoboy: A lot of times I do bring my camera with me. Although sometimes I feel it’s as inspiring to experience a place by taking it all in without pulling out the camera. You see the world in a different way if you don’t have your camera. Those thoughts during the times without my camera create future images.

Check out Dustin’s work in Issue No. 24 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/dustinrandallkeirns
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@delilaht: What brings you to nature?

@dustyphotoboy: Nature has always been something that I’ve been drawn to, like a magnet. I keep going back to it. Even if I try to leave it alone for a little while, I end up revisiting what it feels to be a human in the landscape. I’m interested in the balance that nature holds that keeps everything running and in check. It’s also an ever changing and evolving place. Water is another pivotal part of the work. The fact that the Colorado Rockies collect the snow that runs into rivers and tributaries that so many people rely on, makes it such an important place. There are big pipes under the mountains as well that pump water from one side of the mountains to the other. I find that super interesting, and just generally water rights in Colorado. That is where the idea for ‘Melt’ came from in the first place. But it is definitely present in ‘Poems for Colorado.’ There are some images I took in a canyon on a body of water called Morrow Point Reservoir. This water feeds into the Gunnison River which is a tributary of the Colorado River. In this canyon there is a remote campsite and to access it you have to paddle 2-3 hours, depending on the wind, to get to. Back in the day the canyon wasn’t dammed and there used to be a railroad here that ran along the banks of the river. I’ve seen historic images of it and find it super interesting to take photos in the same place in this canyon full of water that was dammed to hold water. In a warming world, water might become the most precious resource and Colorado is super important for lots of surrounding states in this regard.

Check out Dustin’s work in Issue No. 24 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/dustinrandallkeirns
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[in reference to being a flight attendant]
@dustyphotoboy: I love to climb mountains because of the perspective, I’m sure it comes from being in the air so much. My favorite routes for looking out the window are the ones from Colorado to the West Coast. Flying over the Colorado Rockies and the Sierras always has me peeking out the window between beverage services. I have found amazing places to hike and mountains to climb by seeing them from the sky and then looking at how I can access them on the ground.

Check out Dustin’s work in Issue No. 24 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/dustinrandallkeirns
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@delilaht: Can you tell me a little bit about your beginnings as an artist?

@dustyphotoboy: I started photographing when I was around 13. My grandfather was an amateur photographer, and he was a really big influence on why I picked up the camera. He always had the newest, greatest camera and the newest, biggest lens. And so I got a lot of interaction with his collection as a young kid. We’d go into the mountains and really beautiful places in the American West and just go take photographs. And that’s how I started with photography. As I became a little bit older and started to play around more with certain subjects, I decided that’s what I wanted to do as a career. So I went to New York City and attended the School of Visual Arts for photography, where I found a community of other photographers who were also very passionate about what they were doing. I felt like I had found my place in the world.

Check out Dustin’s work in Issue No. 24 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/dustinrandallkeirns
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SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: The concept for Issue No. 25 is ‘round trip.’ Thinking on this through the lens of revisiting a place, a person, a body of work. What are you coming back to as of lately? Are you seeing a change in yourself or your work? Have you traveled somewhere more than once and have wanted to capture its shift? Has someone special come back into your life? Send in old work, new work, anything that might feel right.

Send an email to ‘contact.pearlpress@gmail.com’ with your written or visual work; include your name, a short bio, title and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF. There is no max or min amount of work you can send, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected. Every issue will have a concept that you can interpret in whatever way you would like. Some work from each issue will be displayed on @pearl.press as well, so include a website and Instagram handle if applicable! Thank you and happy submitting!

Deadline: March 10th
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Introducing Issue No. 24, a solo issue featuring an interview and work from Dustin Randall Keirns (@dustyphotoboy). Check it out at pearl-press.com/dustinrandallkeirns *best view on desktop*

Dustin Randall Keirns is a fine art photographer based in Denver, Colorado. Inspired by the landscape, he photographs nature to better understand our relationship to the planet. Since returning to Colorado in 2015, he has made the state’s backcountry a central protagonist in his work, capturing the raw wilderness and natural abstractions that he witnesses on his adventures. Dustin creates imaginative dramas of epic landscapes that explore where humans and nature intersect. This intersection often begins with roads that lead us to trails, granting us the opportunity to experience wild places. Through these adventures we gain insight into our intrinsic connection to the environment and what it means to live on Earth.
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Jeremy Ackman (@ackj17), originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, joined the Ohio National Guard after high school, serving deployments in Kosovo, New Orleans, and Iraq. After marrying his wife Rachel, they moved to Boston, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts Boston. In 2014, Jeremy pursued graduate studies at the Hampshire Institute of Art, earning a Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 2016. His work has been showcased in New York, Boston, Chicago, Black and White Magazine, and the Phoenix Art Museum. Jeremy now resides in West Orange, NJ, with his wife and daughter.

“For a summer I was able to document three different summer camps. Photographing a summer camp is about capturing the raw energy and joy of childhood. It’s a balance of candid moments, playfulness, and the freedom of outdoor spaces. Letting the spontaneity and spirit of the kids and their friends unfold naturally in each frame, preserving the essence of summer adventure.”

Check out Jeremy’s work and others in the Sport issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/sport
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Christian Delfino (@christiandelfino) is a Brooklyn based photographer b.1987 in Sarasota, Florida. He loves to get lost with his camera in unfamiliar places while the sun is low.

“Hydrators is a series of images captured at the NYC 2023 Marathon around the 16 mile mark. Having just crossed the Queensboro bridge, passing the halfway mark, and landing in the middle of Midtown Manhattan, many runners are feeling it. These stations where runners can hydrate became all I could focus on whilst I shot the Marathon for my first time.”

Check out Christian’s work and others in the Sport Issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/sport
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Judith Hornbogen (@judith_hornbogen) lives and works in Leipzig. She studied audiovisual art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (BFA 2006). Her photos are almost exclusively analogue works. The books “Hasenbrote” (2023) and “Nosferatu / Phantom Pain” (2024) were published by Benschop Books (Denver, Colorado). GUP Magazine selected her as one of the FRESH EYES Talents 2023.

This work is titled, ‘Termální bazén, Karlovy Vary 2023.’ Judith’s works can have narrative features, but also linger on the threshold of abstraction and combine these two poles within the work groups. Humorous and bizarre aspects repeatedly meet disturbing or strange imagery. The result is a balance through which the unusual corresponds with the banal and a feeling for reality and existence becomes tangible.

Check out Judith’s work and others in the Sport issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/sport
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Victor Isaac Alvarez (@victorisaacalvarez) is an Ecuadorian-born, Los Angeles-based photographer. He graduated from Brown University with an Honors Visual Art degree in 2019. While his decade-long involvement in Muay Thai has heavily influenced his early photographic direction, Victor’s personal photographs ultimately serve as documents of his lived experience. Leaning heavily towards portraiture, his work is often about identity, love, and a longing to discover more of both.

‘Untitled (Bekah, after)’ is a portrait of fighter Bekah Irwin, still in the ring, after one of her kickboxing fights in Houston, Texas.

Check out Victor’s work and others in the Sport issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/sport
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SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: The next issue of Pearl Press will feature only one photographer OR a collaboration between two! Send in 20-30 pieces with a one page bio and description of your work. There is no concept to adhere to. You will also have an interview within the issue and promotion of your work on Instagram. Use this as an opportunity to send in a body of work you’re proud of OR a collaborative body of work with another photographer. In the case of two photographers sending in a project, you will both be interviewed for the issue.

Send an email to ‘contact.pearlpress@gmail.com’ with your written||visual work; include your name, title(s), one page bio and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF. Feel free to send more than 30 pieces, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected. Include a website and Instagram handle! Thank you and happy submitting!

Deadline: January 5th
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Introducing Issue No. 23, Sport. Check it out at pearl-press.com/sport *best view on desktop*

Creating moments of triumph, heartbreak, and humanity, sports are one of the most intimate escapes. The beauty is in the unity. Its innate pursuit of excellence, an intensely communal experience to most, where personal narratives unfold.

Cover image: Untitled: @charlottedrury
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Manuel A. Elías (@stgrapho) is originally from Peru and began his photographic journey during childhood. With his Communication Sciences degree from the University of Lima, he moved to NYC in 2005 to pursue his career as a photographer. Manuel’s practice, with a strong impressionism influence, explores the mystery within the familiar, using light, color, and texture to create ethereal, meditative scenes.

“These images are pieces of a bigger puzzle that allow me to explore — in this case, during the golden hours — the ways I can replicate sensations I have while facing a sunset or sunrise when closing my eyes: the orange hues I still can see, the breeze that buzzes around my ears, and the warm light hitting my face. It sparks moods more than memories, transporting me to a time when I used to daydream more.”

Check out Manuel’s work and others in the Golden Hour issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
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SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: The concept for Issue No. 23 is ‘sport.’ Creating moments of triumph, heartbreak, and humanity, sports are one of the most intimate escapes. The beauty is in the unity. Its innate pursuit of excellence, an intensely communal experience to most, where personal narratives may also unfold. Send in old work, new work, anything that might feel right.

Send an email to ‘contact.pearlpress@gmail.com’ with your written or visual work; include your name, a short bio, title and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF. There is no max or min amount of work you can send, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected. Every issue will have a concept that you can interpret in whatever way you would like. Some work from each issue will be displayed on @pearl.press as well, so include a website and Instagram handle if applicable! Thank you and happy submitting!

Deadline: October 31st
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Rona Bar and Ofek Avshalom (@fotometro.art) are a photography duo living and working in London, UK. Drawing on a storytelling-based approach to the photographic medium, the two are continuously striving to engage viewers from all backgrounds in a journey into their visual world. Suspended between fantasy and reality, the factual and the bizarre, their universe immerses whoever comes across it in a blend of surreal visions, daily experiences, and artistic references which all contribute to making their signature style and aesthetic vocabulary so naturally captivating. Turning the lens onto themes such as identity, individuality, and relationships, their practice wants to be a mirror for the infinite facets of the human experience, pushing the boundaries of gender, race, and sexuality among others.

“’Ezekiel in the golden hour’ is part of our project ‘Proof of Existence’ which involves the creation of various characters, each with their unique personality and world, captured in everyday locations and situations. The project’s theme is to normalize the weirdness within us, celebrating our differences and showcasing that they exist in all of us; we’re all strange characters who are a part of society. The project blurs the line between reality and fantasy, combining the documentary and the staged. The creation process of this project allowed us freedom, being a true embodiment of creativity and self-expression. These characters fearlessly showcase their unique identities and break free from societal norms and expectations. We hope their willingness to challenge the status quo inspires you to tap into the boundless potential of your own human spirit for creative expression and individuality.”

Check out Rona and Ofek’s work in the Golden Hour issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
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Renee Paiement (@reneepaiement) is a traveling, Minneapolis based artist, working in the medium of analog photography. A graduate of the Columbia University MFA Directing/Screenwriting program, Renee is a trained and practiced visual creator. Renee’s camera sees the sweetness, the longing, and the beauty of life, as it moves ever forward. With expressive light and a full palette, she photographs this delicate existence.

“’Days of Heaven’ explores the heavenly quality of our simple, earthly lives. Those instances when things appear utterly divine. And we feel regret for all the time we spent reaching for something else. I let light narrate the stories of my super saturated worlds. Shooting everywhere from Cuba to my backyard, I witnessed the bold beauty of the wonderful, and the quiet beauty of the ordinary. Big, sensational moments belong side by side with the humble and precious. Like things seen through the golden lens of nostalgia, my photos have a kind of wistfulness, a human response to life’s endless rhythm of coming and going. It is the duality we live by, and it has always been hard to accept.”

Check out Renee’s work and others in the Golden Hour issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
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Cassie Jain (@cassie.jain) is a photographer, art historian, and educator. She recently completed her MFA in Photography & Related Media at SUNY New Paltz, and holds a BA in Art History from Vassar College. Her practice is rooted in analogue photography and in the tactile and ritualistic possibilities of image-making. Most recently, her research celebrates ephemeral party spaces, particularly those rooted in queer aesthetics and theory, and friendship as sites of self-expression and tenderness.

The title of this image is ‘Mommy Hasn’t Cut Her Hair Since the Pandemic.’ “The world is difficult and tiring and yet something pushes us to stay. We embellish and adorn ourselves, and create something out of nothing, no matter how ephemeral or futile. We love and lose and recreate these spaces with those we trust and those who understand the need for them to exist. I make pictures because I don’t know how not to. Derek cracks a whip to celebrate the dead. Gokul dances capoeira on the Rail Trail, and teaches class in an empty gymnasium. Maggie dances in the woods when she’s angry and upset. Eilif and I paint our nails on the edge of their bed. Max and I throw ‘darkroom parties’ when we develop a roll of film.

This is what it looks like to be tender — vulnerable to the good within the darkness.”

Check out Cassie’s work and others in the Golden Hour issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
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Elisa Michelet (@elisamichelet) is a French Californian artist based in Tokyo. With a background in design, her work explores how digital or natural processes interact, play with or break form. She is also interested in the relationship between humans and technology. An avid film photographer, she enjoys documenting places. Having grown up in the Northern Sierra Nevadas in California, her infatuation with the natural environment is present in her work, as is her fascination for human-built environments.

“Unkai 雲海 is the title of this photograph. The quiet and bare feeling of being above the tree line is enchanting—paired with unkai views (sea of clouds in Japanese), it’s entirely sublime.”

Check out Elisa’s work and others in the Golden Hour issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
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Benjamin Littler (@thereluctantastronaut) is a photographer currently living in Salt Lake City, UT. He grew up in Syracuse, NY and spent much of his life wandering around the United States finding people and collecting memories. He has been shooting since he was a child when his grandfather stuck a Pentax K-1000 in his hands and taught him how to really see. Benjamin still works exclusively with film whether it be medium format, 35mm, or Polaroid.

“When All The World Was Green” is the title of this photographic series.

“These photographs were taken during times of hope and despair, living in poverty and lawlessness, loving with full abandon. They are friends that grew and adapted, some married, had kids. Some divorced, some died, some figured out how to live in this brutal world in a healthier way and some still struggle to keep the light of life illuminated. Some were personal flames whose relationships taught me more than I could ever know. Some are people that stand by my side now daily and some wandered off and I may never cross their path again. I love them all. This was before the weight settled and when all the world was green. I think we must always be living in the golden hour since change is perpetually just in front and before we know it, upon us. When I look at this collection of work I am transported and I hope that it can do the same for you. Though you do not know these people I hope that you can see a glimmer of your past through the friendships, lovers and family.” - Benjamin Littler

Check out Benjamin’s work and others in the Golden Hour issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
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Larena Nellies-Ortiz (@lalifish) is a Mexican-American and German poet and photographer from Oakland, California. Her photos and poetry have been featured in Libre Literary Magazine, Wordpeace, Bitter Melon Review, Local Wolves Magazine, 3Elements Review, Stonecoast Review, Change Seven Magazine, Sun Magazine, The Indianapolis Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Eunoia Review and are forthcoming in The Ilanot Review, Dulcet Literary Magazine, and Sunlight Press.

“Chimera is something that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve. I always feel both a sense of awe and fear of missing out during golden hour. With or without my camera, I am often filled with a frantic wonder, wanting to capture and remember the quality of light, how everything turns to honey, how the beauty is made even more tangible because it is fleeting. This collection captures that impossible desire to hold time still.” - Larena Nellies-Ortiz

Check out Larena’s work in the Golden Hour issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
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Introducing Issue No. 22, Golden Hour. Check it out at pearl-press.com/goldenhour
*best view on desktop*

Much like the sun, we are constantly in a transitional period. A small window where we can decide to let things go or take action before the sun sets or rises and a new day begins production. A time to appreciate the beauty around us in its ravishing glow; a warmth that holds us.

Cover image: Sundown At Poplar Vale (2021): @rileycgoodman
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Disha Patil (@disha_shadow) is a photographer based out of New Delhi, India. Her work explores the introspective element of photography, directing her gaze on herself and surroundings to navigate through life. She finds her sense of self through the process, tracing her identity as a woman and how that exists in the real world.

Check out Disha’s work and others in the Self-Portrait 2 issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/self-portrait2
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Roni Aviv (@roniavivi) is a visual artist, based in New York. Aviv works with photography, text, and installation to give form to a psychological space of re-processing experiences. Aviv holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. Her work has been published and exhibited internationally.

“‘Left Hand Pain / Movement Studies, 2023’ is a series inspired by physical therapy exercises and Edward Muybridge movement studies, I move between gentle stretches and extreme stretches that may be harmful. Using the historical reference as a scientific point of reference, the search for proof, and verification by a machine that may create a viable image of the internal

I deal with our societal tendency to under address the individual pain and trauma, considering both physical and mental implications. In the photograms, I contact printed laser prints of original texts. “easily bruised, easily pinched, easily distressed… it is not real, It is not worth noting, mentioning, or dealing with, and sometimes the most painful thing is the one you don’t consider a thing.”” - Roni Aviv

Check out Roni’s work and others in the Self-Portrait 2 issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/self-portrait2
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Lidewij Mulder (@lidewij.mulder) is a photographer from The Netherlands currently based in New York City. She received her BFA in Photography from The University of Applied Photography in Amsterdam. Lidewij grew up in a small village in Groningen (NL), where she found stories in everything around her from a young age. Nothing fascinated her more than uncovering the depth of a narrative. After 10 years of living and working in Amsterdam as a freelance photographer and for a production company called Hazazah, Lidewij moved to New York City where she attended the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism program at The International Center of Photography.

“Being obsessed with your body, wanting to be as skinny as possible, or vomiting after meals: these are still common perceptions of eating disorders. Many people are unaware that eating disorders go beyond anorexia and bulimia, and a stigma remains. I, too, once upheld this taboo. After high school I developed an eating disorder after I lost sense of control: plans were falling apart and loved ones passed away.

Overwhelmed by emotions, I sought control through food. What began innocently became an obsession. A tipping point was when I cried over mayonnaise on a wrap. This led to getting diagnosed with an “unspecified” eating disorder.

The more I talked about it, the more I learned I wasn’t alone. I felt ashamed for my initial shame and decided that if I wanted the stigma to change I had to start with myself. Because I often struggled to find the words to describe my experience of having an eating disorder, I started expressing it metaphorically through imagery. This series is a personal exploration of the emotions tied to concealing a difficult-to-comprehend illness. It delves into hiding your true self while letting the world believe they know you. It captures the feeling of having an invisible outlook, the infinite fragility beneath the surface, and how freeing yourself from the old leads to a stronger new beginning.” -Lidewij Mulder

Check out Lidewij’s work and others in the Self-Portrait 2 issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/self-portrait2
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Anh Nguyen (@minhanhnguyenn) is a Vietnamese photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work explores how cultures shift and adapt outside of their original contexts, through unpacking rituals around food. Anh completed the Documentary and Visual Journalism program at the International Center of Photography in 2024.

“’Bitter Melon’ is part of a long-term project, The Kitchen God Series, which uses the imaginative landscape of myth and cultural rituals around food to look at how young Vietnamese people create homes of their own in New York City. This personal exploration shows how my generation finds ways to make traditions part of our lives, a process that involves unpacking family and personal relationships, all complicated things that only an all-knowing Kitchen God would see. My memories of bitter melons growing up were that they were spiky and hard to eat, yet that discomfort was contrasted with the fact that I was taught to always eat what I was offered. The word for bitter melon in Vietnamese is “khổ qua” which translates to “the passing of a bitter life.”” - Anh Nguyen

Check out Anh’s work and others in the Self-Portrait 2 issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/self-portrait2
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LIMITED EDITION POSTCARDS: Get yourself or a friend a beautiful postcard with 1 of 5 photographs from photographers @matt_moment, @lidewij.mulder, @alma.servain, @quinceyspagsphoto, @roniavivi. All photographs are featured in Issue No. 21 of Pearl Press, Self-Portrait 2. Only 20 postcards for sale total with a limit of 1 per customer. We’re already halfway out of stock! Get your postcard before they run out. Who doesn’t like receiving mail?

Fill out the Google Form in our bio.

$5 per postcard.
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Quincey Spagnoletti (@quinceyspagsphoto) was born in Syracuse, NY and currently lives in Boston, MA. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University in Art & Art History where she was the recipient of the Gary M. Hoffer Prize for Excellence in Photography. Her project, “In the Spare Room,” was featured at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Visual Arts, in LaCrosse Wisconsin. She is a graduate of the Post-baccalaureate certificate at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) at Tufts University and is currently a candidate for the MFA at the SMFA at Tufts University.

“When I look back at my childhood and how I was raised I am confronted with ideas and notions on how a woman is supposed to act and “perform” for society. Through my pictorial and arts-related explorations of womanhood, I strive to push back against the traditional norms that have dominated my upbringing, in the process highlighting the challenges of my own internalizations of a woman’s role and my attempts to disrupt and unlearn what I have inherited. Beginning with personal narratives and conversations with the maternal figures in my life, I set out to construct my own perception of space, and inheritance, based on memory. I incorporate human-scaled objects and props, the stuff of childhood and growing up, to ornament this investigation of perception. It is my intention to have the viewer question my intentionality and awareness, to wonder about where I am situated in the narrative of the work.” - Quincey Spagnoletti

Check out Quincey’s work and others in the Self-Portrait 2 issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/self-portrait2
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Kat Shannon (@katshannon) is an artist and educator working across photography, text, and video. Driven by the desire to continually examine the complex role photography plays in our lives, culture, and collective memory, her work uses the image as a tool to explore notions of intimacy, connection, and community. She is currently based between São Paulo, Brazil, and Orlando, Florida. In 2017 Kat co-founded the collaborative artist collective Memory Foam through which she curates exhibitions, publishes and collects artists’ books and zines, and produces an artist interview series called “Artists Eat Ice Cream.”

“These two self-portraits are part of an ongoing work which examines motherhood and queer family building. In these images I use the camera as a mirror and shared gaze to witness myself in the roles I carry as both an artist and mother to my young daughter. I am interested in photography as a tool to create as much as to document, and with these pictures I engage in the long lineage of self-portraiture in order to reclaim, with both autonomy and ambivalence, the home and domestic sphere.” - Kat Shannon

Check out Kat’s work and others in the Self-Portrait 2 issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/self-portrait2
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SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: The concept for Issue No. 22 is ‘golden hour.’ Much like the sun, we are constantly in a transitional period. A small window where we can decide to let things go or take action before the sun sets or rises and a new day begins production. A time to appreciate the beauty around us in its ravishing glow; a warmth that holds us. Send in old work, new work, anything that might feel right.

Send an email to ‘contact.pearlpress@gmail.com’ with your written or visual work; include your name, a short bio, title and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF. There is no max or min amount of work you can send, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected. Every issue will have a concept that you can interpret in whatever way you would like. Some work from each issue will be displayed on @pearl.press as well, so include a website and Instagram handle if applicable! Thank you and happy submitting!

Deadline: August 9th
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Introducing Issue No. 21, “Self-Portrait 2.” Check it out at pearl-press.com/self-portrait2
*best view on desktop*

This is the second of the ongoing series of self-portrait issues; a reflection of who we are and what we are growing to become. Let’s be vulnerable in a world where we are being taught to fear ourselves. Let’s show off the faces behind Pearl Press.

Cover image: Untitled, 249-365: @alma.servain
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Naomi Liechty (@naomi.liechty) is an artist based in Chicago, IL. Their practice plays with photography, bookmaking, collecting, and collage.

Liechty has been photographing from a place of sadness, humor, rage, and grief. These images reflect a careful examination of the world spinning around them.

Check out Naomi’s work and others in the Elegy issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/elegy
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NEW MERCH: The Pearl Press T-shirt in black! Get them while they’re hot. Thank you in advance for your support.

Black T-shirt with White Oyster Illustration by @delilaht. S-2XL.

Link in bio + on the main site.
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Nanci Milton (@millietonanci) is a visual artist born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and currently living in the Pacific Northwest, who works with various lens-based processes from which to build images that often go through multiple stages of development before the final image is reached. She works across both analog and digital formats often using the image as a base, a starting point, an open-ended question. She is the daughter of an artist and writer, and her work combines those threads. Her formal training is in theater, modern dance, literature and history, all of which influence the visual narratives she builds.

“These images, this series, form a song of mourning, of memory, of loss, and recovery in the remembering. It is a metaphorical and conceptual and somewhat fictional narrative, a remembrance of my mother, her battle with Alzheimer’s disease…moments, from the past, possibly, not possibly, hers, and last days.” - Nanci Milton

Check out Nanci’s work and others in the Elegy issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/elegy
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Colleen Fox Breen (@colleenfoxbreen) is a writer and film photographer from Texas whose work often revolves around movement, memory, time, and the natural world. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University, and a BA in Literary Journalism from Hampshire College. When she’s not writing or in a darkroom, she can be found on a mountain peak or in a river, or playing with her dog, Quill.

‘Preserved Presence’ is a series of Colleen’s grandmother’s home taken immediately after her death. She lived the final twenty years of her life in this home, first with her husband, and then for five years on her own. Colleen had been visiting her there since she was a young child. She believes that the spaces we live in reflect who we are, how we spend our time, and what we value, so on the day of her funeral, Colleen photographed her home. From the perfume she used to the dolls and the puzzles she made, these photographs represent both an absence and a presence. Her grandmother cared deeply about presentation, so in a way her space was performative, and yet, there are telling objects— details which revealed her in her final years. Within three days of her funeral, her possessions were cleared out and distributed amongst the family. But in these photographs, they remain as she last knew them. They hold the remnants of her life exactly as it was lived.

Check out Colleen’s work and others in the Elegy issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/elegy
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Want to be in the next Pearl Press? Our current open call is for self-portraits. Deadline is May 25th by midnight. Check out the last open call post for more information. Details on how to submit are below.

Send an email to contact.pearlpress@gmail.com with your written||visual work; include your name, a short bio, title and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF and keep under one page. There is no max or min amount of work you can send, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected. Every issue will have a concept that you can interpret in whatever way you would like. Some work from each issue will be displayed on @pearl.press as well, so include a website and Instagram handle if applicable! Thank you and happy submitting!

Photographers from the Pearl Press community featured in this reel:
@lawrenceagyei
@qloait
@sabinerovers
@josephinebinder
@vanessaluzx
@sanchezvmurray
@jaistoor
@morganne_loves_you_forever
@sarahpfohl
@lorens.lens
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Elizabeth Hopkins (@eahopkinsphotography) discovered her passion for photography in 2015 during a road trip across the Midwest. She is currently enrolled in a master’s program in photography at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Skidmore College. In her practice, she explores themes of liminality, transience, and the peculiar melancholy of the everyday. She is currently working on a project about family, memory, and loss that blends her own photographs with archival imagery.

“The Water Will Carry Us is an ongoing project propelled by grief and love, in the wake of my father’s passing from Stage IV cancer. His death upended my family’s sense of stability and our faith in the future. In making these images, I grapple with our unsettled new reality in the hope that, with my camera, I can process the ephemerality of life with grace. I blend archival family pictures, portraits of my father during our last months together, and images of the aftermath in a nonlinear narrative, upsetting notions of chronology, of a neat “before” and “after.” The grief I feel resists structure and denies closure; instead it flows with the elusiveness of water. Sometimes it comes on suddenly like a rogue wave. I try to make sense of my disorientation through the act of photographing myself, my mother, my father’s belongings, the emptiness he left behind, the sea, transient reflections, and fleeting light. I search for a visual manifestation of my headspace in the world around me. I grapple with the impossibility of trying to carry my dad’s totality with me as time pulls me callously forward. I hope these images elicit reflections on what meaning we might find following profound loss, and how our relationships continue in the way we honor each other after we pass.” -Elizabeth Hopkins

Check out Elizabeth’s work and others in the Elegy issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/elegy
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Will Baldwin (@willvsboredom) is a photographer born and raised in the American South currently based in Nashville, TN. Specializing in autobiographical documentation, his work seeks to unravel peculiarities and exceptional occurrences discovered through personal experiences. His work delves into the essence of human connection by blending emotions and observation into thought-provoking narratives.

This image is titled, “The Lodge.” These images aren’t of a unified series, but instead collected from various periods of transition. They are memories recorded from growing pains, excitement, anxiety, and grief. Through these quiet moments, I think back to formative times with my late Grandfather, finding brief isolation, and personal growth through restarting.

Check out Will’s work and others in the Elegy issue of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/elegy
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SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: The concept for Issue No. 21 is ‘self-portrait.’ This is the second of the ongoing series of self-portrait issues. Let’s be vulnerable in a world where we are being taught to fear ourselves. I want to show off the faces behind Pearl Press. Send in old work, new work, anything that might feel right.

Send an email to contact.pearlpress@gmail.com with your written||visual work; include your name, a short bio, title and description of the work. If you are sending visual work, make sure it is at least 300 dpi. If you are submitting written work, please send as a PDF and keep under one page. There is no max or min amount of work you can send, but keep in mind that only some of the work might be selected. Every issue will have a concept that you can interpret in whatever way you would like. Some work from each issue will be displayed on @pearl.press as well, so include a website and Instagram handle if applicable! Thank you and happy submitting!

Deadline: May 25th
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#pearlpress

Introducing Issue No. 20, “elegy.” Check it out at pearl-press.com/elegy - *best view on desktop*

A nod to Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. A story about a mother telling her three grown daughters of her life as a young actress, early love, and married life. It explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart around you. Some describe the work as elegiac. A mourning, grief, and honor for those who have passed.

Cover image: Moonrise, Brooklyn, @amaberns
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@delilaht: What message were you aiming to convey through the process of cutting and taping the photographs to the yellow lined pages?

@lena__warnke: The notebook came from an estate sale from a house down the road. We just found this notebook, we liked the yellow paper, and we were like we need a notebook for the project. With no intention at all for how to use it.

@lucie__march: We were like maybe we’ll just write our darkroom notes in it or whatever.

@lena__warnke: This is where the dog comes in in an important way. Our time was relatively unstructured in some ways but in other ways every day was very structured because we had this dog; and the dog would wake up at a certain time, we had to take care of the garden, and then we would go to the darkroom. We couldn’t leave the dog alone and so only one of us could be in the darkroom at a time-

[…]

Check out Lucie and Lena’s work in Issue No. 19 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/lucieandlena
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@delilaht: Being on that property and not having too many other places to have your focus, did you have memorable moments? Or even routine moments that are feeling memorable now looking back?

[…]

@lucie__march: But then there was another moment- this photo made it in. It’s a butterfly resting on Lena’s shoulder. It was almost an opposite moment to the bear because this butterfly just landed on one of us and spent the whole afternoon on our faces and on our shoulders. It was a very, very prolonged moment of contact with another species. And then, we were kind of thinking about what we’re going to call this project. What are some ideas that are in this work? Then the Tick Check arose. We were literally tick checking each other every night for safety, and finding lots of ticks. The tick tally was high at the end of our stay.

@lena__warnke: We have a tally for us and the dog.

@lucie__march: So we were thinking about this relationship between our bodies, the ticks, the deer that we were seeing all the time on these early evening walks down the road. And how there was this ecosystem of transference happening between us and the surrounding flora and fauna. Also, we were like “we have to get a picture of a deer” and we got a lot of bad pictures of deer. And we learned that wildlife photography is very hard. The few animals that we did manage to capture decently were either dead or just wanting to hang out with us like the dog or the butterfly.

Check out Lucie and Lena’s work in Issue No. 19 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/lucieandlena
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@delilaht: In what ways did your relationship impact the vulnerability captured in the photographs?
Lucie: There’s not a lot of inhibition that might normally be present when you’re photographing someone, especially perhaps not fully clothed. There aren’t the usual barriers to that.

@lena__warnke: Also in the same vein, because we’re spending a lot of time together, the camera is just kind of hanging out with us, and so there aren’t necessarily boundaries between “now we’re making photographs or making art” and “now we’re not.” These things just extend into each other. A lot of our work is not like we’ve intentionally carved out time to take photos - sometimes we do that- but a lot of the time the camera is just there, and then a moment happens and we grab the camera.

@lucie__march: I think for this specific project we kind of were able to really live that way because we were at a work trade residency where we were sort of house sitting, taking care of a garden and a dog. There was a darkroom there and this beautiful rural landscape. We just had a lot more freedom to loosen the boundaries between “now we’re working”, “now we’re doing this.” The whole thing just kind of flowed together.

@lena__warnke: We were pretty isolated which I think did contribute to the project because we were really able to be present with the place and with each other, with the work. It was just us and the dog that we were taking care of.

Check out Lucie and Lena’s work in Issue No. 19 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/lucieandlena
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@delilaht: Do you feel that this is most of your process with photography? The slowness of it and watching it through?

@lena__warnke: That’s a huge part of our individual and collaborative process. Working with film and having that period of waiting between when you press the shutter, when you develop the film, and when you make a print. That slowness is really important, at least for me.

@lucie__march: You always say [Lucie to Lena] “what’s the difference between looking at something and taking a picture of it. Or just looking at something for a long time.” Which we think about a lot. There’s something interesting about this time we had there though. On the one hand it’s film, so you have to wait a little while until the roll is done, but because the darkroom was 30 feet from the house, we would shoot and process almost in the same day, and then we would be printing the next morning. We were able to see the work that we were making as we then continued to make pictures. So the work began to inform itself in a way that I find it doesn’t with film because you have to wait so long to get your negatives developed or you don’t have access to a darkroom. Whereas here we were pasting things up on the wall right away and putting things into the notebook. The joy of the moment was we just had nothing else to do but be there. And to have this container around the images, like a spatial and temporal container -I don’t think any of the pictures were made more than 20 feet away from the house, they were on or around the property.

@lena__warnke : I think that container also guided this project. We didn’t have specific intentions going into the residency for what we wanted to make, we just knew we were going to make some work together. We decided what the container for that work would be: the time and the space in which it was made. Which is such a luxury to have that container that we don’t usually have.

Check out Lucie and Lena’s work in Issue No. 19 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/lucieandlena
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@delilaht: Are there any particular stories or narratives behind individual photographs in this series that you’d like to share?

@lena__warnke: It’s hard to pin down individual moments. There’s one photograph that’s a meadow lit up at night. There are actually two photographs like that, one with flowers up close and grass up close, and one with the broader scene of trees. We took that photo because we came home late at night, we parked the car, I don’t even remember who was driving and who pressed the shutter-

@lucie__march: -or where we were coming from, no idea.

@lena__warnke: But there was just this moment where we parked, but we hadn’t turned off the headlights yet, and we saw the whole meadow illuminated in front of us. We had a camera with us. Then we spent ten minutes photographing -

@lucie__march: - blades of grass basically. It’s sort of a microcosm of our whole stay there. We were just able to stretch out these moments that are normally transitional moments. You come home late, you turn off the car and go inside, that’s it. But we were able to just sit with each thing that was happening and unfolding in front of us. Then be like “okay let’s make a picture of this.” Stretch out those moments and really have that slowness.

Check out Lucie and Lena’s work in Issue No. 19 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/lucieandlena
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@delilaht: How did you navigate the balance between being both subject and photographer in this series of intimate photographs?

@lena__warnke: So we’ve been working together for a while, basically since we’ve been in a relationship, and I think we work together in a way where I don’t even distinguish being subject and photographer anymore because we both take turns being in front of and behind the lens. It’s really a very intuitive flow. All of our pictures are collaborative regardless of who is pressing the shutter.

@lucie__march: I think we’ve done some work together and in our own practices too, about de-centering the maker, removing the boundaries between subject and maker, and trying to question that individualization of the maker as the owner of something. I think both of our individual practices are pretty collaborative even outside of our work together. It feels pretty natural to extend that to this project.

Check out Lucie and Lena’s work in Issue No. 19 of Pearl Press at pearl-press.com/lucieandlena
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