Bronze in Fine Art/Architecture

Right place at the right time: the photographer spent quite some time waiting for anyone to pass in front of this colourful entrance area in Amsterdam. In the end a dog proved to be just right

By Paul Brouns

Gold in Architecture/Historic

By Vincent M.

Gold in Portraiture/Culture, 2nd Place winner in Portraiture
The sun beats down, there is no shade, and the smell is unbearable. Another day on Indonesia's uncovered landfills.
Bantar Gebang is South East Asia’s largest open surface landfill. The pit at Bantar Gebang contains an estimated 39,000,000 tonnes of rubbish. Scavengers scrape the freshly dumped loads in an attempt to collect plastic or uncover valuables and are paid 6000Rupiah/kg, which equates to 40p a kilo. People move from all over central Java to work In Bantar Gebang, known as Pemulung (Scavenger). Many Pemulung live in small houses out of wood reclaimed from the dump.
By Tom Barnes

Gold in Architecture/Interior, 2nd Place winner in Architecture

Time spreads expand in these interiors. Time speaks, remains. To be present and portrait it, unifies present and past. An instant of eternity. Take your time inside, stare at these spaces surrounded by outdated walls calmly. Feel peace, and serenity, recreate what once happened; forgotten lives, memories, and past glories. Something is not perceptible to our eyes: its apparent vacuousness is coming to life; crevices give way to emerging roots, shrubs, and trees. Decay is beauty. Take your time and receive peace.

By Lorenzo Lumeras

Gold in Advertising/Food

Even though the macarons seem to be floating in the air, a dynamic photograph, they are, in fact, on a flat surface.

By Chang Chia Chen (Jane Chang)

Gold in Nature/Earth, 2nd Place winner in Nature
I am fascinated by the aerial view of water on its pathway during the natural tidal movements. The Kimberley region in Western Australia has some of the largest tidal variations in the world, upwards of 10+ meters and the difference between high and low tide can be quite dramatic and spectacular.
Photography has been the majority of my working life in one form or another. After many years working for other companies, I now photograph for myself; both fields have given me a lifetime of joy.
By Mathew Beetson

Bronze in Special/Street Photography

Pigalle district is infamously known for being the Red Light district of Paris, and home to the renowned Moulin Rouge.

By Joel Odesser

Bronze in Architecture/Buildings
The building has bright colors, fresh walls, and is full of vigor. Located in Jiulongpo District, Chongqing.
By Li po-Yi

Gold in Special/Smartphone Photography, 1st Place winner in Special

If you are a tiny creature and are the target of many deadly predators, you have to find an excellent defense strategy. In this, the starlings are true masters: coordinating their movements within large flocks, they dance in the sky in unison, pretending to be a single entity that confuses and escapes its predators’ hunt.

I took in long exposure their flight in the autumnal sunsets of Rome, allowing designs to emerge in the sky as if the starlings were a myriad of pencils in the hand of a single painter.
Simone Arrigoni is a classical pianist, Freediving World Champion (he set 20 World Records in the sea, lake, under the ice, and with dolphins), and award-winning photographer.

By Simone Arrigoni

Curator Selection
Traveling to the desert, I stumbled upon a camp of gypsies on their way from Sistan to find low-paid work in Khorasan. Opposite to traditional Iranian nomads, these people are characterized by their poverty, toughness, and at times immoral demeanor. They allowed me to take photographs for a few minutes and I focused on capturing the living conditions of the many children in this camp. Small work-worn hands, ragged shoes, and plastic patches on tents tell the story of their lost childhood.
Since 2000 Basim Ghomorlou (born 1984 in Iran) has traveled to Iran’s natural, urban, and rural areas to capture a country in transition. His work was shown in solo exhibitions in the Iranian Artists’ Forum (Khane Honarmandan) Tehran, the Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art, and galleries around the country. In 2011 he was the first photographer in Iran to organize a photo exhibition in a remote village in Khorasan, where he has taken photographs regularly for ten years.
By Basim Ghomorlou

Curator Selection

Portraits of miners at the Pniówek coal mine, 40 km southwest of Katowice, the capital of Silesia. The region contains numerous active coal mines guaranteeing the supply of coal from which Poland draws 80% of its energy. Job security, good salaries, early retirement, and, in many cases, family tradition make this an attractive occupation. Still, the profession is in an inexorable decline as many of the mines are not profitable.

Poland, one of the largest coal producers in Europe, is also one of the most polluted countries. The EU recommendation of carbon neutrality by 2050 seems out of reach.

By Alain Schroeder

Gold in Nature/Flowers, 1st Place winner in Nature
I am a keen amateur photographer, used to take lots of photos in my travels.
This touching story began during quarantine, which deprived us of a single movement. My husband started to give me flowers bought from old ladies—pensioners, not grown for sale, but simple wildflowers, collected in the garden and, unfortunately, subjected to rapid withering. To extend their life, the idea of freezing the wilting process was born. Inspired by the work of the great artists, I thought out the harmony of composition in this frozen chaos and it turned out to be completely unpredictable and exciting art.
By Olga Volianska

Silver in Fine Art/Architecture

The school used originality to re-plan and reshape various slides, including 7 rainbow slides, 2 15-meter tunnel slides and 2 spiral slides. There are also recreational facilities such as rocking horses, trampolines, rotating discs and slides.

By Li Po-Yi

Gold in Portraiture/Other

The Gambia is a popular holiday destination, but few tourists know of the dark underbelly of 'The Smiling Coast of Africa'. From 1994-2017 President Jammeh ruled the Gambia as his fiefdom, crushing opposition & dissent with brutality. He ordered his hit squad & intelligence agency to carry out tortures, assassinations, disappearances, and acts of sexual violence with impunity. The portraits & testimonies are part of an ongoing series to tell the stories of the victims & resisters of a dictatorship, to expose the extensive human rights abuses, as a tool of advocacy, and to create a historical archive.

By Jason Florio

Curator Selection

China has launched a campaign to eradicate Uyghur culture in Xinjiang. This includes placing 2 mil people into concentration camps. China contends the camps are for training & to combat Islamic extremism. Leaked documents show they’re being used for crushing the native population. In 2019 I visited 8 towns in Xinjiang & witnessed the cultural liquidation. This essay focuses on the destruction of the housing & businesses that made up the ancient Silk Road cities & show how they have been replaced with Potemkin villages, theme parks & artificial bazaars that lack any traditional character & history.

I am a photographer with a background in social work. I use my pen and camera as grassroots tools to help raise awareness for underserved populations.

By Amy Siqveland

Bronze in Advertising/Beauty, Silver in Book/Other

“Art Beyond Beauty” is a photographic book project born from a collaboration between Italian beauty and fashion photographer Camilla Camaglia and Israeli award-winning makeup artist Einat Dan. The book is a collection of creative makeup photography that shows how a face can be used to create art. The book's purpose is to let the world know that makeup is an art form, just like any other form of visual art.

By Camilla Camaglia

Gold in Advertising/Self-Promotion
The image was created in my home studio while in self-isolation during the 2020 pandemic and was used in an email campaign to stay in touch with my creative contacts.
Jens Kristian Balle is originally from Ødis, a small town in the tiny Kingdom of Denmark. After discovering photography, Jens soon moved to North America to pursue a career in fine art and commercial photography. He now resides in Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada. His photography is still strongly inspired by his Scandinavian roots with a clean and graphic style.
By Jens Kristian Balle

Gold in Press/Political, 1st Place winner in Press

Nine years have passed in March since the democracy movement that began in Syria in 2011 turned into a war.

What was initially a simple structure of Syrian government forces vs. rebels has been replaced by an influx of various forces from outside the country.

On October 9, 2019, Turkish forces began to invade Rojava, an area of effective Kurdish control across the border, as if waiting for news of President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops, announced three days earlier. Turkey, Russia, U.S., ISIS, Kurds, and Syrian Forces are in. Now, the war in Syria has entered a new phase.

By Yusuke Suzuki

Gold in Press/Feature Story, 1st Place winner in Press
The number suffering from hunger could go from 135 million to more than 250 million. For Bangladesh, it has become a human and food crisis catastrophe. Housemaid Hamida Begum, who is now out of work, said, “We only have forty Taka (50 US Cents) at home. We have to drink poison if we cannot go out for work. Who will save us from hunger?” The suffering of approximately 7 million slum dwellers around Dhaka city is multiplying due to a fall in income and price hikes of consumer goods. Their empty food storage and remaining little food supply can not save them from starvation in the coming days.
Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a documentary photographer and visual artist. He is currently pursuing a Certificate of Higher Education in History of Art at the University of Oxford and studying an MA in Photography at Falmouth University. Hasan holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism from Ateneo de Manila University and graduated in Film & Video Production from UBS Film School at the University of Sydney. He was nominated for many international awards and won several photographic competitions worldwide. His photographs have been published and exhibited internationally. He is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and represented by Redux Pictures, USA.
By Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Gold in Fine Art/Nudes
In the beginning, we all lived peacefully together in a place called paradise.
But over time, humans grew further apart from the animals.
In this series, we wonder how things could have been if we didn’t leave paradise,
is there still a way to return?
Is there a way to create anew?
Will we find a way?
The model, landscape, and animals (in their natural habitat from a safe distance) are photographed separately and form the elements for each composition. The photographs are united by digital manipulation, usually by many hours/days of hand-drawn digital/painting.
Cheraine Collette, born in the Netherlands, graduated in 2015 in Photographic Design at the Fotovakschool University of Applied Photography. Cheraine is an emerging international award-winning fine art photographer, by combining contemporary photography and new perspectives of the natural world with digital painting and photo manipulation, with a focus on capturing the world’s beauty and oneness.
She photographs fauna in their own natural habitat, in the hope to make the audience more aware that fauna can be left in peace for the final photographs.
By Cheraine Collette

Bronze in Architecture/Other Architecture

LE HAVRE celebration of the 500th.

By Franz Sussbauer

Bronze in Advertising/Food

Studio shot of a cherry tomato and two forks with reflection.

By Leka Huie

Gold in Press/War, 2nd Place winner in Press
It was launched on October 9th, 2019 as ‘Operation Peace Spring’ and with the goal to create a 50-km-deep safe zone in North-East Syria between Turkey and the Kurdish self-autonomous area of Rojava.
With the abandonment of the American forces and the apathy of the West, Turkey’s incursion instead left a belt of destruction, devastation, and death. In two weeks, more than 100,000 had fled homes and villages, soldiers and civilians became victims of claimed white phosphorous attacks, while ISIS prisoners escaped captivity and left the region once again unstable and in uncertainty.
By Thea Pedersen

Gold in Special/Special Effects, 2nd Place winner in Special

In a confusion of overwhelming sensations, such as persistent hallucinations and memory distortions, the question of whether my presence is real is haunting me. I keep asking myself the same questions: What is existence? What is non-being? The touchable film as the physical material has the character of eternity, while the images on the film's surface are momentary, which can exist only at some moment. With these two media, through my work, I can be existing one in my nonbeing's world by presenting two specific concepts, permanence and the sense of momentary.

By Jeong Hur

Curator Selection
The Upper East Side of Manhattan is considered New York City’s most affluent neighborhood. White-glove buildings, designer boutiques, Museum Mile, and ladies who lunch are some of the images associated with UES. The area covers 59th to 96th street from the East River to Central Park cut by avenues such as Park and Fifth. Most people have lived here for years and would not dream of leaving. When asked how they wanted to be photographed, the responses were astonishing: naked, dressed like a maharaja, in bed, etc. This series depicts a microcosm of life on the Upper East Side in NY City.
By Alain Schroeder

Silver in Advertising/Product
The motive is to create simplistic visuals that are directly understood by Chinese of all ages while conveying the Mid-Autumn Festival, where families re-unite to gaze at the full moon.
By Alice Ching Wai Ngan

Gold in Fine Art/Collage
Yin is characterized as inward energy that is feminine, still, dark, and negative. On the other hand, yang is characterized as outward energy, masculine, hot, bright, and positive.
The two opposites of yin and yang attract and complement each other. Yin elements can contain certain parts of yang, and yang can have some components of yin. These works are composed of the illuminated bamboo forest image and its B&W reversed image which is inspired by ink-wash painting, Suiboku-ga.
Takeo Hirose was born in Kyoto, 1962. After graduating from Hitotsubashi University, he worked for several famous food companies.
He started studying photography in earnest in 2011 when Japan suffered from a huge earthquake disaster.
Through the earthquake, he understood that the beautiful sceneries are not eternal but actually very fragile, and noticed the importance of taking photos of the Japanese beauty.
His production concept is to express the world of traditional Japanese paintings and ink paintings with modern Japanese sensibility and photo technology.
By Takeo Hirose

Gold in Special/Night Photography
After 2000, the oil resources of Lenghu Town began to dry up. In 2008, the petroleum geological team made its last attempt and drilled an exploratory well in Oberang. Turns out, only a high-pressure boronized hot spring was found at a depth of 1,700 meters underground. A red river flows out in this special administrative area with an area of ​​17,800 square kilometers; only the executive committee and some low-yield gas well employees and vendors have fewer than 1,000 people who insist on seeking rebirth. The oil town was gradually submerged in the historical.
By Dawei Li

Gold in Nature/Other
A series of macro portraits of insects taken with two retro manual focus lenses, which were made in 1982, connected by a filter ring adapter. Each image was obtained by focus stacking tens or hundreds of shots.
By Irina Petrova

Bronze in Nature/Water

Baskunchak lake is one of the saltiest in the world. It is located in the arid steppe of Russia. Geologically the lake is a dent on the top of a giant salt dome, going deep into the Earth for ten kilometers.

By Evgeny Stetsko

Bronze in Nature/Flowers

Reimagining Nature is a digital photography collage project building wholly new imagery using objects from nature.

By Erin Derby

Silver in Nature/Flowers

"Flowers with fresh and vivid color bloom season and season.
I take photos of flowers that are colored in Japan’s beautiful season by inspiring individualistic figures.

I add Japanese taste to them to express as if they are special lives in a labyrinth."

By Maki Amemori

Bronze in Special/Special Effects

This photo captures an abstract composition created through an overlay photography technique, focus stacking software, and editing in Photoshop.

By Frantisek Rerucha

Gold in Architecture/Bridges

As humans, we are always on the hunt for perfection. We’re searching for it in all fields of life, and if we can’t find it, we create the illusion of perfection through our imagination. Structures like bridges are supposed to be perfectly symmetrical, but the reality might be different. Although with slight adjustments, we can justify our brain and construct our own truth of perfection. Your eyes can see what your brain thinks. Did you notice that you’re looking at a perfect illusion? Photos are showcasing mirrored details of the Chain and Liberty Bridge in Budapest.

By Anna Illes

Gold in Portraiture/Self-Portrait

"I started this series of self-portraits at the start of the lockdown in Paris due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. I wanted to explore this surreal world I suddenly found myself in, which wavered between fact and fiction. I gathered inspiration from the present and the past, from paintings, photographs, cinema, fashion, social media & the daily news as well as observations from my everyday. Each photo has taken me on a journey of exploration & becoming and has provided not only a structure and a playground to my days in lockdown but a way to connect with those on the other side."

By Julia Katharina Keil

Curator Selection
IF WALLS COULD SPEAK is a glimpse into the besieged hopes, harsh uncertainties, and blunt realities—but also the enduring dignity—of Central American asylum seekers forced into a cruel and dangerous waiting game by the "Remain in Mexico" policy. The individuals and families in these photographs have experienced unthinkable traumas and faced impossible decisions. I hope that every person who views my photographs can begin to understand the odysseys many have undertaken to provide a brighter future for themselves and their children—only to be mistreated and sent back across the border.
Ada Trillo is a fine art photographer based in Philadelphia, PA, and Juarez, Mexico. Trillo holds degrees from the Istituto Marangoni in Milan and Drexel University in Philadelphia. Trillo’s work is concerned with human rights issues facing Latin America. Trillo has documented forced prostitution in Juarez and the recent migrant caravan attempting to reach the U.S.

By Ada Trillo

Silver in Advertising/Self-Promotion

A family, a tradition, ostracism, frustrated generational change, monotony, comfort zone, deficiencies, broken dreams... this is DECAY, a self promotion that wants to convey the sensations of a life that is not your life.

By Xabier Aldazabal

Silver in Nature/Sunsets
These series explore different sunset colors in different continents that meet the common sensations of the individuality of countries.
By Dimitri Bogachuk

Gold in Advertising/Product, 2nd Place winner in Advertising

Kinesiology taping is a therapy method that was discovered in the 1970s in Japan. Applications of special stretching tapes are popular in sports and help athletes with many issues, such as muscle facilitation, pain inhibition, enhanced healing, improvement of lymphatic drainage and blood flow.

For this project, I teamed up with a professional trainer and physiotherapist to show the aesthetic side of kinesiology taping. Here is everything that I love so much - color, graphics, minimalism, and composition - gathered together in an interesting visual cocktail.

My name is Alexander, and I am a photographer based in Moscow, Russia. The conception of my works is focused on games - optical illusions, eye-tricks, word games, play with different textures, styles, etc.

By Alexander Khokhlov

Gold in Fine Art/Other

Dance meets photography, a dialogue made of words, gestures, and movements that merge together.

My research doesn't aim at the exaltation of the technique and physical efforts that dance requires, or to create dramatic and perfect pictures. I tried to keep it as simple as possible with black and white, one light, and my cheapest camera, because I aim to highlight through the harmony of bodies and the expression of faces, what dancers carry in their soul, each one of them with their own personality, weakness, strength and creative flair.

This is my tribute and vision of dance.

By Massimiliano Mona

Silver in Architecture/Cityscape

Some children's playgrounds located in the courtyards of apartment buildings in Moscow.

By Evgeny Stetsko

Silver in Advertising/Food
Awareness raised for supermarket food that is about to be thrown away: "This continuous project started roughly a year ago when I discovered an immense amount of discarded food which was too old to be sold at the local supermarket. Although it was considered unsellable, I found that through the ageing process, the food started to show its wonderful imperfections and colours."
By Anne Mason-Hoerter

Bronze in Advertising/Other

An art project to get young people reading the classic books. Using very contemporary high fashion wardrobe and the use of very contemporary lighting, makeup, and backgrounds, the team gave these classics a new ultra modern makeover.

By Sandro

Gold in Advertising/Food, 1st Place winner in Advertising

Over the years, fashion photography, portraits, architecture, landscapes, and others have developed enormously. Still, I can't say the same about food photography. Everyone, starting with photographers and ending with art galleries, run away from food photography; they say that food is the basic element and can't become a subject of art.

By Ion Morcodeanu

Gold in Fine Art/Still Life, 2nd Place winner in Fine Art
In their British Food Misunderstood series, Ilka & Franz reinvent six of the most confusing British dishes.
Ilka & Franz are both not British-born or native speakers of English, so they tapped into their own food-related misconception when they first moved to the UK. 'Cream tea was pretty puzzling to me, and for ages, I thought mince pies had meat in them,' says Ilka.
Ilka & Franz shot six still-life images using set design, food styling, simple compositions, and their signature saturated colors to create a head-scratching take on British cuisine.
Ilka & Franz are a German/Austrian photographer duo based in London (UK). Their work blurs the lines between portraiture and still life and is often humorous with an unexpected twist. While their unmistakable use of color is vibrant and bold, their conceptual undertones are often subtle and of child-like naivety. Ilka & Franz draw their inspiration from pop culture, kitsch, and surrealism as they put a playful spin on the ordinary. The duo work on editorial and commercial commissions in the UK and abroad.
By Ilka & Franz

Silver in Advertising/Calendar
Until recently, my perception of the Orient was depicted by the colorful and mysterious existences of Sindbad, Aladdin and Scheherazade. They were amazing and attractive—but at the same time a little bit scary as well!
By Grzegorz Sikorski

Gold in Fine Art/Still Life, 2nd Place winner in Fine Art

In their British Food Misunderstood series, Ilka & Franz reinvent six of the most confusing British dishes.

By Ilka & Franz

Bronze in Fine Art/Still Life

Arrangement of a toy car collection.

By Gene Lee

Bronze in Advertising/Fashion

A photo series for Solstice Magazine.

By Genevieve Charbonneau