These are uncertain times. Across the world we see the tremors of war, the rise of totalitarianism, and the tightening grip of extreme right‑wing politics, yet moments of resistance persist. Art reminds us that even in upheaval we can pause, reflect and imagine alternatives. It offers the conversations we need to have and sometimes the ones we must have, shaping spaces where empathy, outrage and hope coexist.

Inside this issue, photography responds to these questions with striking clarity. Steve McQueen: Atlas is at De Pont Museum, where the artist and filmmaker turns to landscapes as witnesses to history, exploring colonial legacies and the traces they leave on terrain and memory. Latitudes at ICP, New York, situates Côte d’Ivoire-based artist Nuits Balnéaires within a dialogue of geography, identity and cultural memory. A new monograph about architecture studio BIG, meanwhile, features standout contemporary buildings. It includes images where light and shadow articulate structure, form and the rhythms of our lived world. These projects illustrate how image‑making maps the emotional and historical landscapes we navigate.

Within this wider conversation, this issue’s photographers explore perception in strikingly individual ways. Linda Westin experiments with texture and hyperreal colour palettes, inviting us to look through portals to other worlds. Harold Ross demonstrates precision, crafting luminous images of trees that reward careful attention, whilst Senay Berhe finds the extraordinary in the ordinary, revealing what often goes unseen. Jane Fulton Alt renders the natural world with intimate clarity, and Chrissy Lush crafts staged domestic scenes filled with tension. Our cover photographer, Tina Simakova, makes portraits that capture the nuances of her subjects. Finally, the Last Words go to Low Kee Hong, on the Ai Weiwei show at Aviva Studios. Across this issue, art and photography remind us why creative practice is indispensable: as a witness, provocation and a vital space to encounter the world differently – perhaps even to change it.

Cherie Federico