Every year, Aesthetica Magazine showcases exceptional emerging photographers and world-renowned names. 2025 was no different. We’ve shared some of today’s most exciting talent, from otherworldly landscapes to striking portraits. Here, we bring you a selection of lens-based artists from across the year.
Reuben Wu’s (b. 1975) images are instantly recognisable. The artist is a National Geographic photographer, known for painting with light. Wu uses drones and long exposures to draw halos around mountains, or render glowing geometric shapes above landscapes, including glaciers, deserts and salt flats. Shimmering white veils drop down from the sky, creating the illusion of a barrier between worlds.
From the macro to astrophotography and long exposures, Bevil Templeton-Smith is often constructing devices to capture a difficult shot. His pictures blur boundaries between science and art. They’re made using a Leitz Orthoplan research microscope, originally manufactured in the 1970s, which is adapted to fit a digital camera. There is a sense of movement, with curves that sweep, twist and explode upwards.
Sanja Marušić (b.1991) is a Dutch-Croatian artist, based in Amsterdam, who builds otherworldly images in which collage, painting and photography collide. The artist travels extensively, capturing performances where figures – often Marušić alone in costume, sometimes accompanied by others – move through surreal landscapes. Mirrored cubes, triangle headdresses and glittery bodysuits create a space-age look.
Jordevity is Jordan Diomandé, a photographer and director from Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Several years ago, he made the shift from modelling to photography. Sine then, he’s developed a stand-out collection of portraits – driven by the goal of bringing his personal visions to life. Diomandé has a masterful command of natural light, often shooting at golden hour or capturing sunlit reflections off water.
In Topographies of Fragility, a series nominated for both the Prix Pictet 2025 and the Aesthetica Art Prize in 2022, Ingrid Weyland (b. 1969) depicts forests, mountainscapes and icebergs, spanning the Arctic to Cape Horn. Each landscape scene is overlaid with a creased, twisted version of the same location. Weyland says: “It at times feels like a tribute and possible farewell to the havens these places provide.”
The Canadian artist’s surreal and ethereal scenes are united by a neon colour palette and masterful use of haze and shadow. Characters – who are invariably suffused in an eerie glow – open mysterious doors, hover above stairways or drive to unknown destinations. Baran says: “I find a lot of joy in having those limitations – in duct-taping lights to fishing rods, or building spotlights out of flashlights and cardboard.”
Chou Ching-Hui’s (b. 1965) Animal Farm is a series of large-scale, diorama-like scenes, which holds up a mirror to contemporary society. The Taiwanese photographer takes cues from zoos – their connotations of voyeurism and entrapment, he says: “it’s a metaphor for the cage of modern life.” The staged works tackle many of the big issues facing the world: mental health, reproductive rights, capitalism and technology.
“The history of landscape photography is rife with men behind cameras attempting to offer the definitive view of a particular land feature,” says Terri Loewenthal (b. 1972), referencing the now-iconic images of Yosemite National Park taken by Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins. “As a woman seeking to reimagine the genre, my work overlaps multiple vantage points and shifts colours into oversaturated hues.”
In her self-portraits, Margeaux Walter camouflages into the landscape: she can be spotted taking a nap on a lakebed, eating candyfloss amongst fields of purple flowers or reading a book in lush greenery. In these performative photographs, the boundaries between home, office and the outdoors blur. Everyday objects, including curtains, chairs and mirrors, are taken out of their usual context.
Stained glass colours, glowing pools and blue skies. Stephanie O’Connor’s mercurial nature images depict people, plants and landscapes blending into one another. Swimmers emerge from underwater, breaking surface tension. On land, figures stare out into the setting sun, whilst trees and grasses bathe in otherworldly light. Themes of belonging, imagination and memory are key to O’Connor’s work.
Australian photomedia artist Tamara Dean (b. 1976) makes evocative portraits in which figures immerse themselves in nature – swinging from branches or hiding amongst blossoms. The images are a reminder that we are not separate from our surroundings. Dean explains: “To see ourselves as different from the ecology and ecosystem of our planet is leaving humanity unprepared for the world we are shaping.”
Digigrams highlights the materiality of digital photography. Here, the artist damages camera sensors through scratching and drilling. The subsequent pictures are abstractions that record traces of destruction. Some resemble the famous colour field paintings of Mark Rothko, whilst others criss-cross like intricate plaid fabric. Bright hues smear and glitch across the frame, or dissolve into speckles and noise.
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Image Credits:
1. Sanja Marušić, Singles, (2020). Image courtesy of the artist.
2. Image courtesy of Reuben Wu.
3. Bevil Templeton-Smith, Banner III, (2023). Image courtesy of the artist.
4. Bevil Templeton-Smith, Columna IV, (2024). Image courtesy of the artist.
5. Sanja Marušić, Friends or Enemies, (2018). Image courtesy of the artist.
6. Jordevity, Earth, (2023). Location: Los Angeles. Models: Alexis Carey & Yun Thomas. Image courtesy of the artist.
7. Jordevity, Blue Sky, (2021). Location: Los Angeles. Model: Yun Thomas. Image courtesy of the artist.
8. Ingrid Weyland, Topographies of Fragility I, (2019). Image courtesy of the artist.
9. Image courtesy Carter Baran.
10. Image courtesy Carter Baran.
11. Chou Ching Hui, Animal Farm No. 8, (2014). Image courtesy of the artist.
12. Terri Loewenthal, Psychscape 602 (White Rock Canyon, AZ), (2018). Image courtesy of the artist.
13. Terri Loewenthal, Grottos 9 (Ute land), (2024). Image courtesy of the artist.
14. Margeaux Walter, Backstage, (2022). From Don’t Be A Square. Image courtesy of the artist.
15. Stephanie O’Connor, from Never Tire of Looking at the Stars (2024). Images courtesy of the artist.
16. Stephanie O’Connor, from Reigning Toward Aries (2024). Images courtesy of the artist.
17. Tamara Dean, Tickled Pink. From the series High Jinks in the Hydrangeas, (2020).
18. Tommy Goguely, from Digigrams (2023-Present). Image courtesy of the artist.
19. Tommy Goguely, from Digigrams (2023-Present). Image courtesy of the artist.
