This year closes with an expansive sense of possibility, where reflection sharpens our vision for what comes next. As we look back on the creative breakthroughs, experiments and challenges of the past months, we also look forward to new ideas. This issue embraces that in-between moment, a space to pause and celebrate how contemporary art and photography reflect our world and imagine its future.

Inside this issue we feature three exceptional artists. Anastasia Samoylova’s immersive photographic practice captures environments under pressure – from flood-prone communities to the sensory over- load of urban landscapes. She invites us to consider how place, politics and memory intersect. Mean- while, Brooke DiDonato bridges photography and sculptural installation, exploring materiality, form and the body in ways that reveal the subtle poetry of everyday objects. Andoni Beristain, hailing from the Basque Country, channels vivid colour and careful composition to navigate themes of loss, vulnerability and human connection. Together, their work traces a shared preoccupation with perception, presence and transformation – looking back at what shapes us whilst envisioning what might lie ahead.

The photography featured in this issue continues that conversation. Cig Harvey, Ingrid Weyland, Jorde- vity, Klaus Vedfelt and Marco Wilm each interrogate how the camera negotiates cityscapes, nature, identity and imagination. Complementing these voices, our cover image by Sarah Doyle serves as a focal point for this ongoing dialogue, pushing the boundaries of experimentation through colour play. Finally, the Last Words go to Ersin Han Ersin of Marshmallow Laser Feast on Of the Oak, an immersive, multichannel installation commissioned by Royal Botanic Gardens and now on view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It is a work that perfectly embodies the same duality of endings and beginnings that frames this issue. It reminds us that art, like the turning year, is always a cycle of reflection, renewal and possibility.

Cherie Federico