Aesthetica Magazine Issue 131

June / July

Time and place define this issue. Inside, artists and architects examine how we inhabit and interpret the world around us. They share a sensitivity to material, memory and atmosphere, moving between permanence, ephemerality, structure and fluidity. At their core is a fascination with the now, and how it is shaped by history, yet continuously reimagined through creative practice. We invite you to engage with a slower, more attentive way of seeing, and to discover space as something lived, felt and always in flux.

Inside this issue, we look at Kengo Kuma: New Works, which surveys the architect’s latest projects. Known for his rejection of monumentalism, Kuma works at the intersection of construction and environment, privileging natural materials such as wood, stone and paper to create structures that feel permeable and responsive. He foregrounds tactility and lightness, dissolving architecture into its natural context through innovative materials. Now is Now Tokyo, meanwhile, presents the city as a destination for visual culture, as seen through the lens of contemporary image-makers. At Rencontres d’Arles, Jiang Zhi unveils work that meditates intimacy, vulnerability and the boundary between reality and imagination.

In photography, practitioners expand the medium’s possibilities. Daniel Rose constructs images that turn plant and graphic forms into bright, bold collages. Frank Relle captures cinematic landscapes in Louisiana that evoke histories embedded within place. Linda Burris Webster turns attention to geopolitical issues through paper sculpture. Nuno Alexandre Serrão presents cinematic, poetic scenes through layered visual storytelling, whilst Svetlana Talanova engages with natural forms and analogue techniques. Our cover photographer is Tamara Dean, with portraiture submerged by florals. Finally, the Last Words go to Åsa Johannesson with The Queering of Photography in Edinburgh. The show reframes histories of image-making, challenging established narratives and opening up possibilities for representation.

Cherie Federico

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Portraits in Bloom

The boundaries between self and organic world dissolve in Tamara Dean’s portraits, as the artist navigates bright bushes and towering treetops.

Into the Wetlands

Frank Relle travels along Louisiana’s waterways, recording otherworldly images of cypresses by using an intricate lighting system rigged to his flatboat.

Buildings Redefined

Renowned architect Kengo Kuma reflects upon a decade of structures, dedicated to renewing the bonds made between nature, people and places.

Analogue Landscape

Svetlana Talanova makes her works by hand in the darkroom, using photosensitive paper to show how patterns can often recur across humans and plants.

Graphic Playtime

Photomontages by Daniel Rose collide leaves and branches with geometric shapes, offering a fresh new perspective on the Japanese art form of ikebana.

Delicate Vignettes

Nuno Serrão’s minimalist images offer small parts of wider and complex narratives that are united by cinematic aesthetics and a sensitivity to the world.

Enduring Symbolism

A new exhibition as part of Rencontres d’Arles 2026 reassesses the long history of flowers in photography, from a contemporary viewpoint.

Cameras in the City

Street photographers offer an array of different perspectives on Tokyo, a global metropolis that is known for its blend of tradition and futurism.

Sculpted Geography

Linda Burris Webster draws attention to various geopolitical concerns, tearing, twisting, cutting, crumpling and reshaping maps into sculptures.