Inside the Composite Studio — Studio Notes Edition
Read time: 7 minutes
Edition: January 2026
Good morning from behind the scenes đź–¤
This is Inside the Composite Studio — a monthly field report from the working studios of today’s leading fine art image-makers (especially the ones building worlds, not just capturing them).
No tutorials. No step-by-steps.
Just what’s changing behind the curtain.
Let’s step inside.
January’s mood feels like memory-with-teeth: artists are leaning into archives, family history, and institutional spaces—then treating them as raw material rather than “documentation.” We’re seeing a tug-of-war between two instincts: strip it back (quiet, reflective bodies of work) vs scale it up (festival programs, biennials, major museum-facing commissions). Even when the work isn’t “Photoshop composite” on the surface, the thinking is: layering time, layering meaning, building an image-world the viewer can enter.
What changed:
A lesser-seen black-and-white body of work (rural Ireland, early 1980s) is being foregrounded in a major exhibition context.
What’s different:
A “before-the-famous-style” moment gets treated as primary, not a footnote
Black-and-white isn’t nostalgia here—it’s structure (attention, rhythm, restraint)
The archive is positioned like a fresh release: “new to us” counts as new energy
Studio Commentary:
Composite artists can steal the strategy even if the medium differs: mine your own older material (sketches, failed edits, unused plates, abandoned concepts) and re-present it as a deliberate chapter. Archives aren’t leftovers—they’re leverage.
What surfaced:
The 10th edition is pushing photography into installation logic—domestic sets, constructed environments, and narrative sequencing across dozens of shows.
Notable details:
Lee Shulman uses vintage slide archives staged as a lived-in environment (“home” as display system)
Danilo Zocatelli turns portraiture into transformation and reconciliation
Sylvie Bonnot leans into process/object hybridity (photo-artifacts, material feeling)
Studio Commentary:
This signals a big thing for composite culture: the image is increasingly treated as a room, not a rectangle. The “final” isn’t just a print—it’s a viewer path, an atmosphere, a container for time.
What’s being used differently:
A major veteran is emphasizing contemplative work (landscape, sculpture studies, stillness) alongside legacy war imagery—without glamorizing impact.
Clues from the studio:
The exhibition framing highlights quiet bodies of work, not only the loudest chapters
Ethical reflection becomes part of the presentation, not an afterthought
A sense of “looking” as practice—less performance, more presence
Studio Commentary:
For compositors: this is permission to let stillness be the flex. Not every piece needs maximal surrealism. Sometimes the most powerful “composite move” is reducing elements until only the pressure remains.
What’s evolving conceptually:
The 2026 biennial commissions are being positioned as a major “new work pipeline” for photographic artists—visibility tied to fresh production.
Pattern notes:
New commissioned work announced for Lola Flash
Houston-based artists Shavon Aja Morris and André Ramos-Woodard also commissioned
The frame is global + local: “global visions” anchored in place
Studio Commentary:
This reflects a larger movement: institutions want photographers who can build a body of work with a thesis, not just deliver single hits. Composite artists already think in worlds—this is a structural advantage if you package it as a series with stakes.
What’s being tested:
Lenscratch’s New Beginnings exhibition is explicitly spotlighting work made recently—artists expanding practice, experimenting with subject matter and technique.
Why it’s interesting:
A curatorial theme that rewards transition (not mastery)
The “new” is framed as a legitimate aesthetic: curiosity, awkwardness, risk
It’s a public stage for early pivots—exactly where trends start
Studio Commentary:
Unfinished work is where tomorrow hides. If you want to stay ahead, watch what artists post before it becomes their signature. “Beginning energy” often becomes next year’s dominant look.
Five more month-relevant moves worth clocking:
Open-entry momentum: Center for Photographic Art opened its 2026 Members’ Juried Exhibition call (Jan 1–Feb 9), reinforcing juried shows as a serious visibility route.
More CPA opportunities stack up: CPA’s rolling “calls for entry” ecosystem keeps the submission pipeline active year-round (signals how competitive attention has become).
January exhibitions as “study syllabus”: Wallpaper’s January exhibition round-up spotlights photography-forward shows (e.g., Zofia Rydet and Joy Gregory), a useful map of what curators are rewarding right now.
Editioning becomes a public topic: Lenscratch is publishing on editioning photographic work—more creators are talking market structure, not just images.
Portrait prestige stays hot: Glasstire flags the rescheduled National Portrait Gallery show “Outwin 2025” opening Jan 24, underlining portraiture’s continued institutional pull.
Across these studios, we’re seeing:
Archive as engine — old material presented like new work (and received that way)
Photography as environment — installation thinking, not just image thinking
Professionalization of the pipeline — commissions, juried exhibitions, editioning conversations: infrastructure is part of the art now
Next month, watch for who turns “transition” into a clean new chapter: artists moving from single-image statements into bodies of work that feel like rooms you can walk through. Also watch the quieter shift: photographers speaking more openly about how work circulates (editions, juries, commissions). Not to copy—just to notice what the ecosystem is rewarding before it becomes obvious. 🖤