Young Photographers Meditate On Life In And Out Of Megacities

Photographer Antoine Bruy spent five years traveling around Europe and the United States looking for communities that have made radical life choices, distancing themselves from consumerism and all the noise of modern life.

He was inspired by "a great desire for independence and a need to understand the world we live in" as he selected the protagonists of his long-term project, "Scrublands."

"Some of them left the city because they had reached a point of no return, others simply because they felt exhausted or utterly convinced that dignity is impossible to achieve in our modern society," according to the young French photographer, who has earned a number of international awards, including the Getty Images Emerging Talent Awards.

"Scrublands" is a collective tale, made up of stories of individuals who society has turned its back on. Bruy is one of four emerging photographers selected for the second edition of "Emerging Talents," an exhibition held at the Officine Fotografiche in Rome from Oct. 23 to Nov. 20.

Spanish photographer Salvi Danés believes that not everyone has the courage to radically change their way of life, and points out Moscow residents in particular. That’s why he chose the Russian capital as a metaphor for limited freedom of thought and movement: He feels that the megalopolis crushes men and women, and keeps them from coming to terms with their own identities. Capturing the reality of life in Moscow allows Danés to explore deeper themes.

“I've always had a love-hate relationship with large cities. I'm not interested in talking about metropolises per se, but rather in investigating how we become absorbed by such a dangerous vortex," Danés explains.

Perhaps there is a way out, a way to avoid being pulled into the bustle of big cities. At least that's the point of view of Chinese artist Jing Huang, who, despite living in the Asian megacity of Shenzhen, has managed to capture the more poetic details of the surrounding urban and natural landscape, drawing inspiration from classical Chinese painting.

"I feel like I'm part of the environment: light, water, animals and people. These are all elements that help me explore the most secret places in my own heart," he says. Huang's work is, in a certain sense, autobiographical photography. 

In "My Place," emerging Georgian photographer Dina Oganova tells her generation’s stories through collecting hand-written letters of youth from Tbilisi, Georgia. They are penned by members of the first generation born and raised in an independent Georgia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Oganova photographed her subjects in their bedrooms: the most intimate place for someone to express their own thoughts, fears and memories. 

The group exhibition "Emerging Talents," part of FOTOGRAFIA, the Festival Internazionale di Roma, was curated by Arianna Catania and Sarah Carlet, and sponsored by Metrophoto and Zerbo, in collaboration with LensCulture, Circulation(s), Huffingtonpost.it and Fotocult.

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This story originally appeared on HuffPost Italy . It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.