The New Talent Behind the Lens

Twenty-six of the nation’s most promising unknownfashion photographers are highlighted in the latest issue of Surface magazine. The project, called the Avant Guardians, was created by the San Francisco-based magazine two years ago to give unknown American fashion photographers a shot at success at home. Most young photographers head to Europe, where magazines promote newcomers more eagerly, said Riley John-donnell, co-publisher and creative director of Surface.

The project’s creators say it shows that emerging practitioners, schooled in computer technology and raised in a multimedia world, are producing new twists on traditional fashion photography. (Several images are featured in the accompanying layout.) Among the chosen photographers are two L.A. freelancers, Amanda Friedman and Alia Malley, a USC film school graduate.