Image via Complex Original
With the popularity of online tutorials, inspiration boards like Pinterest and Tumblr, and free portfolios like Flickr—not to mention the endless reach of the Internet—it's never been easier for budding artists to study photography. Still, in a world crowded with efforts and accolades, some rise to the top. Here are The 20 Best Photographers Under 20 Right Now.
Mikael Aldo
Age: 19
Location:Bekasi, Indonesia
Mikael Aldo’s photographs are dark and imaginative, exploring questions of identity, fantasy, and storytelling. His work has been featured in Wolipop, My Modern Metropolis, and Wolipop, My Modern Metropolis, and Limmie Magazine.
Hannah Altman
Age: 19
Location: Pittsburgh
Hannah Altman’s work explores feminism, social justice, and gender. Her series “And Everything Nice” uses glitter, juxtaposed with images of distress, to highlight the restrictive standards of beauty imposed on young women.
Olivia Bee
Age: 20
Location: Brooklyn
Olivia Bee’s photographs deal with the touch of memory and the beauty of everyday life. Her photos are at turn contemplative, magical, and stirring. Her work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and on Vogue.com, among other places.
Brendon Burton
Age: 20
Location: Portland, Ore.
Brendon Burton’s photography explores the vast wildness of an untamed natural landscape. Figures flit in and out, but humans are mostly present in their traces—a tangle of hair blown in the wind, a chair left on a porch and overgrown.
Oliver Charles
Age: 19
Location: London
Oliver Charles seeks to create emotional and whimsical stories through his work, drawing on his imagination and the inspiration of the natural landscape. His clients include Defcon Recordings and Goose Lane Editions.
Alex Currie
Age: 18
Location: Buffalo, N.Y.
Alex Currie’s photographs intend to evoke an emotional connection in the viewer. He focuses on conveying a story within a single frame, leading to strong compositions and thoughtful lighting decisions. His publications include PhotoVogue, Mashable, and Refinery29.
Peyton Fulford
Age: 20
Location: Georgia
Best known for her series “Abandoned Love,” where she collected anonymous confessions from strangers and photographed the text as banners in various locations, Peyton Fulford’s work is colorful and fresh, tinged with melancholy.
Ann He
Age: 18
Location: Stanford, Calif.
Ann He’s fashion photography doesn’t skimp on the details. Her style is distinct but wide-ranging, featuring a sophisticated play of light, framing, and color. She’s shot for Vogue Girl Korea and Elle Girl Korea, and her clients have included Nike and America’s Next Top Model.
Zev Hoover
Age: 15
Location: Natick, Mass.
Zev Hoover’s playful photographs explore what it means to be a small person in a big, wonderful world. He caught the attention of the press with his series “littlefolk,” and has since continued in the same vein, placing tiny figures in a wide, textured landscape.
Lissy Laricchia
Age: 20
Location: New York
Lissy Laricchia’s photographs are dreamy and magical, blurring the line between fact and fiction. They convey a fantastical imagined space, an escape from the daily grind. Her work has been featured in various books, publications, and in gallery shows.
Noorann Matties
Age: 20
Location: Baltimore
Noorann Matties’s film photos document her life and her friends in the legacy of Nan Goldin and other photographers. Her photos are tender, evocative, and honest.
Yuliana Mendoza
Age: 19
Location: Italy
Also known as Silence Effects, Yuliana Mendoza takes moody, atmospheric portraits that blur and obscure aspects of the body. Her work plays with abstraction and the surface of the photograph, asking: What does it mean to take a portrait?
Raul Romo
Age: 20
Location: Los Angeles
A fashion photographer by trade, Raul Romo’s images are stylish, sexy, and fresh. He’s photographed for countless magazines, including C-Heads, Dazed, Bare Essentials, and Nylon Singapore.
Paola Rojas H.
Age: 20
Location:Bogotá, Colombia
Paola Rojas H.’s sophisticated portfolio displays a young photographer with an eye for the intersection between beauty and unease. Her work encounters, antagonizes, and explores the body and its myriad descriptions.
Felicia Simion
Age: 20
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Felicia Simion’s photographs are at once haunting and grittily beautiful. Her fashion photography overlaps with the atmospheric dreamscapes that she creates for herself. Her work has been featured in innumerable publications, including National Geographic, Vogue Beauty, and Popular Photography.
Alex Stoddard
Age: 20
Location: Los Angeles
Alex Stoddard’s photographs are edgy and dark, telling multiple narratives in a single frame and featuring a cast of charismatic, mysterious characters. His clients include Columbia Records, Universal Republic Records, and American Repertory Theater.
David Uzochukwu
Age: 17
Location: Brussels
David Uzochukwu’s photography creates somber narratives in a bright universe, pairing pops of color with moody portraits and imaginative settings. His technique is masterful and his images subtle: mysterious without being over the top.
Berta Vicente Salas
Age: 20
Location: Barcelona
Berta Vicente’s photography features dramatic lighting and staging, culminating in emotive portraits and tense, evocative scenes. Her elegant work has landed her the cover of Time Out Barcelona, along with a number of other publications.
Wiissa
Age: 19 and 20
Location: New York
Wiisa, or the duo of Vanessa Hollander and Wilson Philippe, shoots stylish, sunny, retro-inspired fashion photography. They shoot exclusively film, which lends their work a hint of nostalgia for a time neither of them have lived, but can certainly evoke.
Max Wolens
Age: 19
Location: Stanford, Calif.
Max Wolens shoots charming, crisp still life with a humorous edge. His work pops with color and clarity, and his awards include first place in Adobe’s 1st Annual Teen Photo International Contest.