The Route Photography Gallery

Italian wildlife photographer Marco Ronconi (b. 1984) has cultivated a lifelong affinity with nature since childhood, a sensibility that gives a poetic essence to his photography. His journey into photography began in 2015. The artist’s motivation arises from an admiration for the perfection inherent in nature—its balance of complexity and simplicity. Within a few forms or subtle atmospheres, nature evokes vast emotional and imaginative landscapes.

For Ronconi, photography is a realm of evocation rather than representation—a process defined more by exclusion than inclusion, where meaning emerges from restraint. His compositions embrace the subtle fluency of emptiness, inviting the viewer into a dialogue with silence and space.

He conceives photography as an aesthetic act of expression, transcending its documentary boundaries to become a medium of visual meditation and introspection. Rooted in a world of imagination, his practice bridges two passions—visual expression and the poetic essence of the natural world. In his philosophical approach to wildlife, Ronconi honours the fleeting beauty of nature and the brief, elusive moments with wildlife, portraying them with serene simplicity. Through a delicate harmony of light, atmosphere, and natural phenomena such as snow, ice, and fog, his imagery seeks to distill emotion rather than describe form. Working primarily across the northern hemisphere, Ronconi constructs a visual narrative of nature’s serenity and mystery, where minimalism becomes a form of reverence.

Ronconi’s work has been published widely and presented in solo and group exhibitions through Europe.

Tahir Özgür’s photographic practice is enhanced by his journalistic background, through which he cultivates a narrative visual language rooted in observation, empathy, and truth. His images express an equilibrium between the poetic and the documentary. Each work of him becomes a self-contained story where light, timing, and human expression converge. Rather than extending his narratives through motion as in cinema, Özgür condenses the essence of lived experience into a single, resonant moment — transforming the photograph into a visual novel of ordinary lives. His investigative approach contributes his work documentary character while simultaneously questioning the boundary between looking and seeing. Centring on human stories across Asia, Özgür gives visibility to the “unseen” and dignity to the overlooked, using light not merely as illumination but as revelation.
His acclaimed photography The Child earned the Grand Prize at the Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA- 2011), while his photography story “Last Nomads: Migrating to a World of No Tomorrow” was published and awarded by National Geographic in 2008, marking the beginning of his recognition on the global stage. In 2010, he was awarded the distinction Excellence FIAP (EFIAP) by the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique. A year later, his series The Mountain Villages of the Black Sea was acquired for the Hahnemühle Collection during the company’s 425th anniversary competition and showcased in the Photokina exhibitions across twelve countries. Same year, Özgür received the Grand Prize at HIPA, dedicated to the legacy of Ansel Adams. Another iconic photography, Miner’s Lunch, together with seven photography work from his project “Altitude -750 / Mineworkers”, was exhibited at the opening of the Ruhr Museum in Germany, emphasizing the quiet heroism of labour and endurance. The same year, he was awarded the FIAP Gold Medal.
Born in Antakya, Turkey in 1964, Özgür initially pursued journalism serving as a columnist, editor, and executive director within several of foremost media institutions of the country for over three decades. Photography, once an extension of his journalistic practice, lately transformed into his life’s passion. Since then, he has been photographing people to narrate their stories.
Özgür’s artistry has been recognized repeatedly at the prestigious Golden Camera awards, where he claimed the title five times and received the Golden Camera distinction in 2015. His body of work has been presented in over thirty solo and group exhibitions and international biennials across France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, the UAE, the USA, China, Canada, and Turkey.
Tahir Özgür currently lives and works in Amsterdam, continuing to capture humanity’s quiet stories with a vision that bridges journalism, art, and poetry.

Salih Güler’s artistic philosophy is grounded in the principle “less is more.” Embracing simplicity as an aesthetic and conceptual anchor, the artist explores the purity of form and origin in his practice. For Güler, beauty resides in the essence of simplicity.
Through his photographic lens, Güler articulates his own perception of reality, maintaining uncompromising precision in both technical mastery and aesthetic refinement. His minimal compositions come alive with the presence of living beings, creating a vital connection between the viewer and the image. This radical minimalism amplifies the emotional resonance of his works: through the interplay of light and shadow, stillness and movement, Güler transforms his subjects into ethereal forms that seem to flow within the luminous space of the frame.
Beauty lies at the core of his visual language as the metaphysical essence of existence. True to his minimalist sensibility, Güler refrains from extensive verbal interpretation of his works, believing that the photography itself must embody and communicate the totality of expression.
His works often explore into the spiritual and psychological dimensions of womanhood. Each photography unfolds as a meditative exploration of feminine identity — a poetic dialogue between form, emotion, and mystery. The images function as both aesthetic contemplation and homage, celebrating the enigmatic grace and depth of women. Güler’s technical precision and deliberate use of monochrome tones evoke simplicity, timelessness, and emotional intensity, guiding the viewer toward introspection and empathy.
Salih Güler held his first solo exhibition, Dance of Light, in 2004. His subsequent series include Salt Lake (2016), Backstage (2017), and Project12 (2018).
Born in 1959, Güler initially pursued a career in economics before dedicating himself fully to photography in 2002. He lives in Istanbul.

The photography works of Istanbul-born French–Turkish photographer Niko Guido have been exhibited in more than forty cities across Turkey and around the world. His works have appeared widely in national and international publications, and his influential contributions to nude photography have earned him notable recognition within the global photographic community. The acclaimed French publication Nude Art Today, regarded as an important reference work for nude photography, painting, and sculpture, featured a two-page selection of Guido’s work in its 2008–2009 edition.
Guido’s artistic practice is deeply shaped by extensive travel and cross-cultural engagement. In 2008, he photographed across South America, later developing projects in Haiti, Cuba, Japan, Myanmar, India, Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. His photography has appeared in National Geographic, among other distinguished outlets. His Haiti Project, produced in collaboration with UNICEF, culminated in a dedicated exhibition, while his work for “Doctors Without Borders” and “Leave Us Alone” has been shown in 32 cities worldwide, underscoring his commitment to humanitarian-oriented visual storytelling.
Beyond his individual practice, Guido is the founder and driving force behind large-scale collaborative photography initiatives such as “14 Cities,” “I’m Istanbul,” and “From Woman’s Eyes,” each realized with the participation of hundreds of photographers. His contribution to contemporary photographic discourse was further recognized in 2013, when he received the Jury’s Special Award at the FIAP World Cup.
Through his wide-ranging work across many countries and cultures, Niko Guido uses photography to connect people, explore ideas, and inspire shared experiences.