"I owe graffiti for introducing me to the fine art world."

When the Internet began to become an increasingly necessary tool for business and I was still running the photo agency, I was oft peeved by the graffiti artist named Retna for having the same name as my company and showing up accordingly in search results. Licensing images to the press ensured we always had a pretty good presence if you Googled 'Retna' but as time has gone by the graffiti artist has won, and my old agency returns solely because they own the URL.

I'm happy to hereby contribute to the artist's ongoing success, and I actually rather like his work. Plus, he says he got the name from a Raekwon song, which is a better story than any I used to make up if asked.

Opening at Amador Gallery in midtown NYC on September 13 and running until November 19th, 2011, is an exhibition by Lars TunBjörk. It looks to be most entertaining.

"Amador Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition of color photographs by internationally renowned Swedish photographer Lars Tunbjörk, featuring works from 1988-2002. This exhibition in many ways constitutes a trilogy, focusing on an investigative arc that Tunbjörk has examined through a series of lauded photo-books: Landet Utom Sig (Country Beside Itself), Home and Office."

Nick Brandreth is a freelance photographer in New Jersey. He studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology, whose graduating class I used to welcome to my photo agency each year, prior to my departure in 2006. I was always impressed with the work and the well-rounded skills they learned from top profs Dennis Defibaugh and Doug Manchee. Nick is a contributor to various publications including the Wall Street Journal. He has a self-portrait in the About section of his website, something I live in hope for.

Onion © Ajay Malghan

Ajay Malghan hadn't been in touch since last year, when I looked through some very different, very personal work of his. I had been impressed with his attitude towards a grave diagnosis followed by multiple surgeries (see his light-hearted statement here.)

Studying hard in the interim, and taking advantage of rapidly-disappearing resources (a photo store going out of business; the impending removal of color darkrooms from his school) Ajay produced this camera-less series of fruit and veg - his statement on humans' modification of the natural world around them.

"Naturally Modified deals with how our intake has forced us to modify our crops in order to keep up with our methods of consumption. By altering genes and modifying these crops we're altering nature without fully understanding the consequences. There's a reason the cycle of corn (and other crops) takes as long as it does and I think we're opening up a Pandora's box by speeding up the process.

Nature has developed its cycles over thousands of years and we've managed to alter (them) in the last couple of decades... Our imposition on nature is distorting the line between what is needed and what we construct to support our needs. This is why (in this series) a lemon is purple or an onion is red; because with genetic modification, pesticides and fertilizers, they're no longer what we thought they were." Ajay Malghan

Ajay plans to make this body of work his thesis and aims to present large, mounted prints.

View the full screen magazine photo feature.

This is an important project that deserves your backing if you are in any way concerned about or interested in the business of incarceration in the United States. A nice lad from the north of England, now living in Seattle, Pete Brooks ardently brings illuminating photographs and true stories to our lives.

"I believe the United States needs to pursue large-scale prison and sentencing reform. We must stop warehousing people and be creative with rehabilitation. Prisons in the US are socially and economically unsustainable. As they exist, prisons are a liability ... and they are ignored."

aCurator just wanted to post something glamorous after a strange weekend.