ML: What attracted you to Georgia?

CR: I had the wonderful chance to get to know Georgia under the programme of a residency exchange programme of the Christoph Merian Foundation, Basel. I must admit that I applied for a residency in South Africa and was then selected for Georgia. The jury thought that my approach would be perfect for a stay there. This was my first «prize»! So my journey took me to the city of Tbilisi. I was completely overwhelmed by the recognition - and then by the country and its people.

ML: Were you there with a special concept in your mind?

CR: I wanted to capture the ways in which people reflect their environments. For example inside a bath house, or the tropical institute.

ML: Nurses, bus drivers, firemen, butcher, workers, your subjects seem to be all all belonging to the people. Did you deliberately choose your subjects from this kind of background? Why?

CR: I don’t choose ...

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Julien Besson’s series of Tompkins Square delves into the joys and turmoils of youth in a city. But not just any city, the city of New York. These kids are at the centre of it all, and Besson manages to hang out and capture the moment in beautiful black and white.

IP: How did you find out about Tompkins Square?

JB: I discovered this park in 2016 while visiting the East Village. Tompkins Square Park is a true neighbourhood park, once known as the epicentre of drug dealers, drug addicts and homeless people in New York until the late 1980s.Today it is an ever popular park where you can meet different social classes, artists and outsiders. Children throng in the playground and on the basketball court.

IP: What were you like as a teenager? Do you feel any affinity with the young kids hanging out at the square today?

JB: My photos are a part of me, but I do not want to relate to my past. I feel close to the sen...

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Ronghui Chen is a 30 years old Chinese National. born in Lishui, a small village in Zhejiang province. Currently a MFA program student in Yale School of Art, his work focuses on China’s urbanization, in long term projects, to explore the relationship between China’s urbanization and individual’s experiences. His trilogy “Petrochemical China, Modern Shanghai & Runaway world and Freezing Land” document urbanization in China, the petrochemical industry and theme parks in the context of Chinese consumerism as well as the shrinking cities in northeastern China and their lonely young people

ML: Where did you shoot your story? Is that your birth place, the place you live or did you travel there purposely?

RH: I grew up in southern China with warm weather, therefore I long for the freezing environment in the north. I’m obsessed with a novel called Tales of Hulan River, which is about the declining northeastern region...

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