1ST PRIZE: Sameer Al-Doumy

“This couple drinking coffee with quiet calm in the aftermath of the violence that destroyed their home says so much to me about resilience in the face of loss. I also appreciate the composition– the wife and husband each framed by a breach in the walls, the shadowed weight of their bodies positioned together in the center of the frame, giving the image a visual stability. In one opening, the world lies in ruins, and through the other it seems intact, fields green with hope. The gray, almost monochromatic tones reinforce the sober tone. There is a power in the intimacy they share, even as they are connected with the uncertain world beyond them.” – Elizabeth Krist

2ND PRIZE: Sujan Sarkar⁣

“The sheer exuberance of youth at play is contagious, intensified by the splashing water and the unrestrained athleticism. The joy of a scene like this is universal, fed by nostalgia for our own childhood or by memories of seeing our children completely caught up in the excitement of a game. The action is artfully framed by the inner tube of the onlooker who has stopped to watch and is given an extra abstract dimension by the reflections on the surface of the water. The photographer, too, is at play.” – Elizabeth Krist
 

3RD PRIZE: Davide Preti

“The emotions captured in Davide Preti’s portrait of a young pregnant woman resting on a hospital’s bench, exhausted after a perilous journey across a war-torn country in order to protect her baby, are universal and reach to us all deeply. It speaks of resilience, of pain and power. The quiet and careful composition speaks volumes while holding us silent and pensive. One cannot help but think of the holy virgin carrying and protecting life. All of humanity in an image, with photography as a vessel.” – The Independent Photographer Editors