Across seven issues of Light & Paper, seven artists offered seven ways of seeing. Rodrigo Rangel de Alba, Carlos Rivera, Joe Griffin, Carolina Madrigal, Francisco Malave, Jorge Sotomayor, and Kelly Sommer each brought a distinct rhythm and vision. Together, they remind us that photography matters not only for what is seen, but for how it is felt. “Seven Ways of Seeing.”

Photography is not an act of taking, but of being present. Light & Paper was built on this belief, valuing patience, attention, and care. This year reflects that practice, inspired by Rodrigo Rangel de Alba, who visited all 197 countries not for completion, but for presence. Between Departures honors photographers who help us see the world with humanity, without borders, and with deeper understanding.

Rodrigo Rangel de Alba spent thirty‑four years crossing all 197 countries, not to claim the world, but to let it shape him. Through beauty, fear, kindness, and division, he learned that true citizenship is earned through presence and listening. He carries forward the encounters that changed him, grateful for a world that taught him belonging over ownership.

Hahnemühle Agave is more than paper—it carries history. Made from resilient agave fibers, it offers a matte, organic surface where images feel absorbed into the material. At LUX Photo Lab, Agave brings warmth, depth, and subtle emotion to every print, grounding photographs in texture, tradition, and sustainability.

Printing on Hahnemühle Agave invites a quiet, grounded attention. Its matte, natural‑fiber surface softens detail, warms color, and deepens blacks with gentle subtlety. At LUX Photo Lab, Agave transforms images into calm, tactile prints where mood, texture, and atmosphere take precedence over gloss or intensity.

Kelly Sommer reveals the extraordinary in everyday moments. From Chicago’s shifting light to fleeting human gestures, her work embraces softness, honesty, and quiet emotion. She photographs with conscience and curiosity, turning ordinary scenes into poetic reflections. At LUX Photo Lab, her prints become tangible stories—small truths held in light, shadow, and memory.

Kelly Sommer’s photographs whisper rather than shout, revealing the city as a living, human ecosystem. She balances structure with empathy, capturing geometry, reflections, and fleeting gestures with quiet sensitivity. At LUX Photo Lab, her work becomes a study in rhythm, stillness, and dignity, roof that beauty often lives in the subtle moments between footsteps and light.

Jorge Sotomayor didn’t plan to become a photographer; he was studying engineering when a neighbor’s video studio changed his path. What began as curiosity became a calling. Today, he moves fluidly between video and photography, capturing presence over perfection. With quiet humility and constant growth, his work reflects a life shaped not by certainty, but by saying yes to the unexpected. “Photography came to me by accident… and ended up capturing me completely.”

Jorge Sotomayor’s images pulse with real life, fleeting, unscripted, and sincere. Guided by instinct and empathy, he captures emotion in motion, presence over spectacle. His work blends the patience of photography with the rhythm of film, revealing stories mid-sentence. Whether documenting weddings or moonlight, each frame invites us to slow down and feel the moment before it fades.

Color isn’t fixed, it breathes with the surface it touches. On glossy paper, it dazzles; on matte, it softens into velvet and distance. Paper tone adds warmth or clarity, shaping emotion and presence. What we see on screen is only a draft; color comes alive on paper. Choosing the right surface isn’t just technical, it’s intentional. Each texture gives color a new way to speak, turning data into feeling, and image into experience.

There is a softness to truth, human, not fragile. Hahnemühle Bamboo 290 gsm, crafted from sustainable fibers, brings warmth, depth, and quiet beauty to every print. Its natural tone enhances skin and light, making it ideal for portraits shaped by emotion. Printing on Bamboo is an intentional act, rooted in honesty, sustainability, and touch.

Photography, at its best, reveals not only what we see but how we live. For Francisco Malave, the act of photographing is inseparable from the act of being present with people, whether in a nightclub at 2 a.m. or at the heart of the streets, his images are less about freezing moments than about transmitting the energy contained within them.

Some images demand a stage as luminous as the stories they tell. For those moments, paper is not simply a surface but a partner in performance. Hahnemühle Photo Rag Metallic offers exactly that, an extraordinary blend of fine cotton tradition with a pearlescent coating that transforms light itself into part of the print.

Some photographers look for silence; others seek out the storm. Francisco Malave belongs to the second kind. His lens finds humanity where it burns brightest, on the streets, in the clubs, in the midst of protest and spectacle. He photographs people not as static subjects but as living characters, radiating confidence, vulnerability, humor, and defiance.

or much of photography’s history, prints were expected to be flat—quiet windows onto the world, faithfully holding their images in two dimensions. But some photographs resist confinement. They carry a charge that asks for more: more depth, more presence, more life. Metallic papers answer that call.

In August, Lux Photo Lab had the honor of sponsoring our ambassador Rodrigo Rangel de Alba’s very first exhibition and talk at The Ivy Hotel in Chicago. Rodrigo, who in May completed his extraordinary journey of visiting all 197 countries in the world, presented not only a milestone in travel but a deeply human body of work now gathered under his new brand, RRA 197.

Carolina’s earliest encounters with photography were fueled by curiosity and a love of visual storytelling. She would lose herself in the vivid imagery of magazines. By the time she reached high school, she was actively experimenting and snapping scenes with her phone and the digital cameras that were beginning to shape her love to tell stories through her lens.

Carolina Madrigal’s photography lives in two worlds. In one, there is the deliberate pace of film, the solid weight of a Canon AE1, the mechanical click of its shutter, the anticipation of waiting to see what a roll will reveal. In the other, there is the immediacy of digital, the versatility of her Canon RP, the freedom to adapt on the fly, the satisfaction of seeing an image seconds after it’s made.

When an image calls for both depth and subtle warmth, the choice of paper can make all the difference. Hahnemühle Bamboo Baryta offers a rare balance: the smooth, natural base tone of bamboo fibers paired with the luminous depth and tonal separation of a baryta coating. The result is a print surface that feels organic yet powerful, an ideal match for photographs that blend softness with impact.

In fine art printing, paper is more than a surface, it’s a storyteller in its own right. The choice between a smooth, glossy sheet and a richly textured matte isn’t simply aesthetic; it shapes the way we read and feel an image.