Born in Bangkok and trained at the Pacific Northwest School of Photography, Phillip Tawanchaya travels regularly with his Leica to world cities for his day job as a flight attendant. His work ranges among landscapes, cityscapes, photojournalism and portraiture, capturing urban moods and the people in them both internationally and at home here in Chicago. got2photo.com

Jim Meacci: Hard to track down. Suspected to have lived in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, Pittsburgh, PA, Rochester, NY, and Brescia, Italy, he can be spotted in the landscape, collecting stories from people, camera in hand, with a piano on his back. He loves to sing, make pictures, and write about it all. jimmeacci.com

Photography, as I view it, is a distillation of reality into a personal vision: a subtractive process.

This project has been my mirror - an attempt to deconstruct the illusions that make up our reality. I document my experiences, capturing scenes and split-second details as I see them, trying to share the diversity of the world I experience with the audience. Seeing with the camera is the best way I have found to feel close to the earth. My photography is an essential manifestation of my aliveness.

Visit Hector's website here

After working as a commercial artist, a young Rudolph Janu saw photographs by Cartier-Bresson and was so impressed that he decided on the spot to become a photographer. Janu’s career included commercial, architectural and magazine photography but by far his favorite was his street photography – capturing people in unguarded moments.

“Photography is a continuing visual engagement with life. What I see as a photographer is what I see as a man. My photographs are my journals, a measure of my response to life. The concept of expressing a total idea or sentiment in a single photograph is impossible to achieve. It is only through a constant re-working of what I feel to be the one or two truths of existence that anything approaching this ideal of a total statement can emerge."

"Bob's first professional assignment was to shoot a solar eclipse for the American Astronomical Association in 1972, and he worked freelance until he joined the Miami News Bureau in 1982. After leaving Miami he returned to freelancing, producing photos for brochures, CDs & vinyl, and websites, as well as black & white images for publications including the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. In 1997 he began shooting art projects; the photos on display here are from several of these collections. Bob’s work is currently on display in the Marquette Park Pavilion and The DePaul Art Museum. Bob shoots with a variety of gear in various formats, and Leica equipment has figured prominently in his images.

"Conversations with Strangers" is an exhibit of portraits taken across the US, from rural New Mexico to New York City, but mainly in northwest Indiana. DiBiase engages subjects directly and makes photos during these conversations, which may last a couple minutes or several days. Endlessly fascinated by faces, eyes, and texture, DiBiase seems equally curious about what two strangers choose to share with one another – how quickly trust can develop, or how guarded we can each be. DiBiase’s images are a product of these brief relationships between two strangers – the photographer and his or her subject.

David Spielman has traveled the globe with his cameras and has published three books: Southern Writers, Katrinaville Chronicles, and most recently When Not Performing (a collection of portraits of beloved New Orleans musicians, when not on stage). New Orleans is home for Mr. Spielman – his gallery and darkroom are located in the middle of the Garden District in a century-old skating rink. He remains influenced strongly by Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

John Fraser works within the disciplines of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, and Photography. Fraser’s earliest exhibited work was his photography, the primary focus of his practice from the mid-1970’s through the mid-1980’s. His early and current photographs are color compositions of forms, shapes, marks, and surfaces found in the built world that are in a state of flux, as affected by the passage of time.

Michael Steinberg has been an avid Leica photographer for more than 25 years. His love of photography is a perfect complement to his love of traveling. FACES OF THE WORLD is an exhibition of photographs of Michael’s travels to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Israel, Spain and India. Michael currently serves as the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of NW Indiana in Munster, Indiana.

Michael Sullivan is a Leica photographer based in Madison, Wisconsin. Drawn primarily to street photography, Michael cut his Leica-teeth during the 2011 protests in Madison, which he covered extensively with a Leica M8. Michael’s primary motivation for the making pictures is to document life’s journey. His website is www.newnormalphotography.com.