Individually, these artists' photographs are a means for reckoning with trauma, deepening and transforming the art of the portrait, relying on traditional practices to explore and experiment and take risks, among myriad other ends. Collectively, they have dedicated themselves to photography as an art form, one that still has the power to alter the way we see the world—and as you’ll see in their answers, as an integral part of their lives, as fundamental as breathing.

These photographers treat images like diaries, manifestos, recipes, and field studies. They dispatch from nightclubs, restaurant kitchens, crowded beaches, and rural outposts. And they argue for everyone’s chance to be seen.