Jacques Henri Lartigue | The Belle Époque photographer

Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) was a French photographer and painter, known for his photographs of automobile races, planes and female Parisian fashion models.

His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics.

Born in Courbevoie in western Paris to a wealthy family, Lartigue started taking photographs when he was seven.

He photographed his friends and family at play - running and jumping; racing home-built race cars; making kites, gliders as well as aeroplanes; and climbing the Eiffel Tower.

Billy Kidd, 1980 | Fine art Photographer

Billy Kidd is an American self-taught photographer born in Panama City, Florida.

- "When I was six years old we sold everything in a garage sale.

I made an impressive $20 selling my He-Man action figures, Castle of Grayskull, G.I. Joe's and every little thing I had.

I thought it would be fun to put my money in a small wooden box and bury it with a long white string tied to it coming out of the dirt, it would be my buried treasure. I never found the money".

Louis Vert | Paris 1900: Les Petits Métiers | Musée Carnavalet

Louis Vert (1865-1924) was a French photographer best known for his photographs representing Paris and small businesses.

Some are also in the Musée Carnavalet, which covers the history of Paris.

Stanislav Aristov / Станислав Аристов, 1982 | Flame art

Russian🎨 photographer Stanislav Aristov / Станислав Аристов, better known by his moniker Pol Tergejst is an artist from Ekaterinburk, in Russia, who decided "to play with fire", literally. He uses flame shapes to create some kind of flame-shape paintings, he composes different images of them. All this involves a lot of photographing.

Aristo made a splendid series of images with matches between 2010 and 2013. It's after taking part in a themed "line of life" photo contest from Formula foto that the idea of using lighted matches came to him.

The "stroke of genius" or as Stanislav said himself: "it's not the first idea with one things that shows another things :)" reminds us all the poetry that has fire in the collective unconscious. Thanks to Stanislav for giving us some of his time answering our questions and for sharing with us his work.

The Art of Photo manipulation

Photo manipulation dates back to some of the earliest photographs captured on glass and tin plates during the 19th century.

The practice began not long after the creation of the first photograph (1825) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce who developed heliography and made the first photographic print from a photoengraved printing plate.

Patrick Le Hech (French, 1965)

Illusionist photographer Patrick Le Hec'h began his training at the École d'Art Graphique Corvisart de Paris. On his release he worked briefly as an illustrator and graphic designer before accepting the artistic direction of a communications agency.

Inspired by the romantic and surreal, is detected in its early creations of the atmosphere that are visionary painters: Giorgio De Chirico 1888-1978, Tanguy, Bocklin, Delvaux and René François Ghislain Magritte, 1898-1967.

Invited to present his paintings at galleries renowned Parisian Avenue Matignon, rue du fg St Honore, at the Grand Palais, as well as Monte Carlo, Cannes, Palm Beach, Chicago or New York, his work now recognized as contained in number of private collections, earned him awards on the occasion of major arts events.

Mike Savad | American photographer

Mike Savad is an photographer. His style of digital manipulation of images and the addition of color to old images, to achieve that personal cyberpunk effect is fantastic. Mike has achieved a unique style that makes him recognizable all over the world.

"Mike Savad: Photo realistic is what people think of first. There are many themes, flowers, porches, and local Suburban Scenes, some city, some urban.

My style is not really photography and not really a painting.I create images that resemble paintings, a cross between Rockwell, and the paintings of the Renaissance.

I don't like plain photos. I found that over time every photographers work will look the same. Its hard to set yourself apart from everyone else if your work looks like everyone else's".

Carsten Witte (German photographer, 1964)

The Hamburg native photographer Carsten Witte has an extensive portfolio ranging from fashion, beauty, advertising and art. He specializes in black and white photography and believes that all his photo's hold a story.

Carsten Witte Studies of Visual Arts and Photography at FH Bielefeld, Internships and assistances to several Photographers. Collaboration with photographer Angela Bergling from 1987-1995.

"Starting with Editorial and Campaign Photography I turned towards Art in 2004. Several exhibitions since then all over the world".