December 2019 | The Independent Photographer

OPEN CALL Awards December 2019

Winning Photographer Rosa Mariniello

Winning Photographer Rosa Mariniello
Title: “Mercedes” - Havana, Cuba 2018
Vitiligo is a long-term skin condition characterized by patches of the skin losing their pigment.
Mercedes, 42 years old is posing in her house. The first Vitiligo marks appeared on her elbows and legs by the age of 35, after her grandmother’s death. Now Vitiligo took over 90% of her body. She used Cuban treatments with good results but in the end she gave up the treatment as she was fed up of applying the lotion every day. Now she puts black makeup on her face in order to camouflage the white skin.
© Rosa Mariniello
Second Prize Giulia Savorelli

Second Prize Giulia Savorelli
Title: “Terroni’s Before the Procession” - London, UK
“Il Quartiere” , as it is referred to, is a triangle between Farringdon, Clerkenwell and Holborn where the Italian ghetto used to be, and where today a large part of the community still resides and gathers. Part of ongoing project started as a response to Italy’s increasingly hostile position on immigration, from policy makers to a (saddening) majority of the public. Through a series of portraits this project aims to explore, and trace the history of, Italian immigrants in London today. - From ongoing project “Il Quartiere”.
© Giulia Savorelli
Third Prize Stuart Chape

Third Prize Stuart Chape
'Tonle Sap and Chong Kneas village', Cambodia
Aerial view from a helicopter of Tonle Sap lake and Chong Kneas village in the dry season, Cambodia.
Tonlé Sap, literally large river (tonle) ; not salty (sap), is a seasonally inundated freshwater lake that is connected to the Mekong River. They form the central part of a complex hydrological system in the Cambodian floodplain.
© Stuart Chape
Finalist Hilda Champion

Finalist Hilda Champion
“Tree in Winter”
On the first day of snowfall a delicate white dusting covers the landscape. The leaves are still showing colors, pleasantly contrasting the white of the snow.
© Hilda Champion
Finalist Khanh Phan-Thi

Finalist Khanh Phan-Thi
From series "Vietnam from Above"
A woman is drying incense sticks, a process in making incense. Vietnamese believe that incense is a tool to connect the living with the spirits. When people burn incense, they can talk to spirits and pray.
© Khanh Phan-Thi
Finalist Sandra Mickiewicz

Finalist Sandra Mickiewicz
“Ernie”
Ernie comes from a Gypsy family living in the UK. I met him at the Dereham Horse Fair near Norwich. The day before I went to photograph the fair, the weather was bad and the whole field was covered in mud. It didn’t stop Ernie to run around the field and ride on his horse. He was all covered in mud. Before he washed himself, I asked him to pose for me. He then took two of his dogs as he wanted to have a picture with them.
© Sandra Mickiewicz
Finalist Leon Düllberg

Finalist Leon Düllberg
“Fjallsjökull” - Iceland 2016
© Leon Düllberg
Finalist Nicole Cambré

Finalist Nicole Cambré
“The Road to Kigali” - Beyond the visible light.
Image taken with an infrared converted camera , creating a winter landscape in Africa.
© Nicole Cambré
Finalist Sandra Ramos

Finalist Sandra Ramos
“Twins”
© Sandra Ramos
Finalist Jessica Cantlin

Finalist Jessica Cantlin
“Emeralds No. 2”
“Emeralds No. 2” is part of a series of photographs that explores the ephemeral quality of light and color in regions that are susceptible to transient weather conditions. In Northeast Brazil, the LenÁÛis Maranhenses is a range of coastal sand dunes that is isolated and temperamental. Though desert-like, it rains 47-inches per year, creating a vast system of fresh water lagoons. Every dry season, the water evaporates and harsh winds cause the dunes to shift. As part of my continuing study of the role that weather plays in how we experience a landscape, these photographs are my testimony to the incredible fragility of the earth as it confronts climate change.
© Jessica Cantlin

Theme: Open Call / Competition Judge: Alessia Glaviano

With no explicit lead, the Open Call competition is designed to invite photographers of all ages, backgrounds and experience to share with us their best images.⁠

Join us over on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where we’ll be sharing all our favorite images from the competition. Congratulations to all the talented photographers who made it to the final!

Finalists

1ST PRIZE: Rosa Mariniello

“Mercedes photographed by Rosa Mariniello is a beautiful image, wonderfully lit and composed and most of all it is an image about empowerment. The chromatic ensemble is joyful and powerful. In the upper side of the photograph, the color of the headscarf gracefully matches the color of the walls framing the beautiful face which becomes the chromatic punctum of the image bringing out, by contrast, the other half of the photograph where the skin tones compose a wonderful drawing together with the blanket. The subject is powerful and proud, her pose, as well as the angle of the photograph, is reminiscent of Tiziano and Velazquez’s Venus and Francisco Goya’s La Maja desnuda which gives an extra layer to the image.” – Alessia Glaviano

2ND PRIZE: Giulia Savorelli

“Giulia Savorelli’s “Terroni’s Before the Procession”, is a wonderful portrait, very well composed, beautifully lit, and with a strong narrative quality. We could come up with hundreds of different stories about the subject, the intensity of his gaze, his style, the details that peep out…a watch, the blue of the jacket’s lining and then there is the way he holds the cigarette which forms a line with the other cigarette in the image, a blurred one, and there goes another story…” – Alessia Glaviano

3RD PRIZE: Stuart Chape

“When it comes to documenting the impact of human life on our planet, photography is one of the most powerful and vivid instrument available to man. It is a tool that allows us to understand, discover and marvel at the beauty residing in our habitat. This magnificent aerial view point of the Cambodian floodplain not only presents the grandeur of our ecosystem, but also the beauty residing in the possible balance between man and his environment. With arrows shaped fishing net seemingly connecting the natural world and provide food to man’s floating village. A stunning reminder of interconnectedness” – The Independent Photographer Editors