"I love black and white, have no interest in manipulation and I already have all the stuff," writes contender Robert Forlini. Call it old fashioned, but Robert goes out with two solid cameras and photographs the people around him.

Lemonade Stand, Rhinebeck, NY, 2009, from Stand Alone, by Robert Forlini

Of his series Stand Alone, Robert writes:

As a photographer working alone I am always aware of people in isolation. I choose my tools for their simplicity and directness: black and white film, Leica camera, and few lenses. The location can be anywhere and everywhere. In the midst of a massive crowd or waiting for a city bus I see most people separate from the world around them. I have discovered this seclusion in the tourist on a bleak Hollywood Boulevard, the teenager mixing lemonade on a late summer night at the fair or a family moving through an historic sight together but detached by headsets. I am sensitive to an inner sadness that encapsulates their spirit. It's not difficult to track and document that pervasive loneliness but this question keeps haunting me: Why are humans who exist in an over populated and technologically connected world destined to stand alone?

Andrew Jackson's Tomb, Nashville, TN, 2009 from Stand Alone by Robert Forlini

Robert's images (and there are many, with at least thirty years of work on his website) remind me of what drew me into photography in the first place. I first held a real camera when I was about 12. Shortly after, I came across of book of Diane Arbus photographs for the first time and was taken by her narrative portraits. Though Robert's work has less of a narrative arc, each image seems to contain a story. Some series, like Stand Alone (which the two images above are from) are somber and introspective. Others, like Classic Images are more light-hearted.

Expired dog, New York City, 1983 from Classic Images, by Robert Forlini