Artdoc Photography Magazine

Artdoc is an international digital magazine dedicated to the world of photography. The name Artdoc refers to our vision of art photography and documentary photography. The two fields have merged, and contemporary photography is a blend of both. Artdoc brings photography as the visual storytelling medium of our time. Artdoc Photography Magazine publishes engaging and high-quality portfolios of established and emerging photographers. Moreover, Artdoc publishes critical essays about the theory of photography.

The inner lens reveals personal realities

Silk Veil Through the Trees • In Elsewhere, Charlotte Schmid-Maybach reimagines the photographic landscape as something tactile, layered and quietly otherworldly. Blending lens-based imagery with the intimacy of hand stitching, she threads metallic and cotton fibres directly into her prints, transforming paper into richly textured, tapestry-like works. A second image, printed on silk gauze and suspended above the surface, introduces a veil of mist that softens and deepens the scene. The result is an imagined terrain poised between memory and myth, where trees, folklore and fragments of nature take on a dreamlike presence. Schmid-Maybach’s intricate interventions dissolve the boundary between document and invention, inviting viewers to look closer—and step gently beyond the visible.

Rose Water

Emotional layers of pain, anger, and brutal history • An intense red brush of paint covers the barren trees, which appear like skeletons in a lonely landscape. In another photo, we see a blue hue over a distorted landscape, with scratches, ink spots, and indistinct dark spots. Australian artist Aletheia Casey layered these aesthetic elements over original documentary photographs to convey an emotional message about the wildfires and Australia’s brutal past.

Rethinking Iconography in Contemporary Photography • Throughout Western art history, symbols have played a crucial role in how images convey meaning. In religious painting, the symbolism was fixed and widely understood, grounded in doctrine and repeated motifs. The seventeenth-century still life translated these symbolic meanings into tangible objects, linking moral messages to everyday items while maintaining shared codes. Over time, this sense of stability declined as modern art movements moved away from traditional symbols toward individual expression. In this changing environment, photography emerged within a culture at ease with ambiguity, which further transforms the meaning of symbols. The transition from enforced clarity to interpretive freedom highlights the shifting function of icons in our visual culture.

In the Wake of Memory and Emotional Change • In Surface-Level Ghosts, VJ Martin combines his roles as a psychiatrist and artist to create work influenced by memory and emotional change. His years of helping patients navigate uncertainty inspire him to include unpredictability in his photography. Techniques like film soup, double exposures, light leaks, and scorched prints distort the images, letting accidents shape the outcome. This series emphasises atmosphere as much as subject, with moments that oscillate between beauty and discomfort. Martin’s photographs explore the delicate line between experience and memory, urging viewers to consider how perception is affected equally by emotion and fact.

La Loba

Sculptured Assemblages & Psychological Installations • Yi Hsuan Lai’s photography explores the space between the body and the environment, where physical form serves as a canvas for psychological expression and negotiation. Through staged interactions with discarded and synthetic materials, she creates images that blur the lines between sculpture and photograph, surface and depth. Her work reflects themes of femininity and belonging, expressing an embodied visual language influenced by emigration and personal experience....