This Englishman doesn’t take pictures. He tries to catch lightning in a bottle and then take a flick of that. With his second book, he’s coming pretty close to pulling it off.

Today Josh Cheuse’s ‘80s snapshots are iconic, classic and intimate markers of the birth of a nation. Not that he saw it coming.

Long before Jay-Z was trading text messages with Barack Obama, Clay Patrick McBride had the idea to put Hova in the Oval Office.

You know that face you make in the mirror that you think is so sexy? It is. But this Grammy-nominated photographer and director wants you to know there’s a sexier one.

Sometimes you need images that meet the eye and go beyond it into realms of ritual and dream and subconscious meaning. Sometimes you need Barron Claiborne.

He’s gone from film to digital, from Britain to Brooklyn. What hasn’t changed is his ability to make a moment worth all that it’s worth.

He’s captured famously polished album covers for everyone from Jay-Z to Nas to Eminem to Lil Wayne, making him your favorite rapper’s favorite photographer. His images are simultaneously dirty and lustrous— and always real. It only looks easy because Mannion makes it look easy.

He’s done 11 videos for Rihanna, provided the visuals for Jay-Z’s all-black everything, helped Beyoncé get bodied while pushing you to the left…and he takes some mean Snoop Dogg photos.

Michael Lavine has been working editorially, redefining his visual style into a more classic look, yet retaining his iconic and graphic sensibility. A list of regular clients includes Vogue, Esquire, Town and Country, Outside, People, Lucky, and Bust.

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