Competition Winners

This collection celebrates the work of all winning photographers capturing life in its most vivid forms. These unique and international artists constitute the best of the photographic scene and we are very proud to share their work.

Winning Photographer Sameer Al-Doumy

Winning Photographer Sameer Al-Doumy
Title: "Another Face of War"- Douma, Syria
Syrian Umm Mohammed and her husband drink coffee at their destroyed home in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, on March 23, 2017. Um Mohammed, who is originally from Aleppo, lives with her husband who due to an airstrike injury lost the ability to walk. She farms chicken as a source of food and income.
© Sameer Al-Doumy
Second Prize Sujan Sarkar

Second Prize Sujan Sarkar
Title: "Young Dreamers" - West Bengal, India
© Sujan Sarkar
Third Prize Davide Preti

Third Prize Davide Preti
Title: "Madonna del parto" - Cameroon
This portrait is part of a long-term project on the consequences of war. In this case, the civil war in Cameroon that started two years ago. Candice rests on the bench after traveling over a thousand kilometer to give birth in the hospital of Édea. The village is located near Bamenda, in the English-speaking part of the country. Due to the war between the separatists ‘Amba boy’ and the army, the area is under siege, the roads are almost all blocked, there are numerous checkpoints and food and drugs are in short supply. For this reason, she decided to travel for almost two days to reach a safe hospital.
© Davide Preti
Finalist Hanne Van Assche

Finalist Hanne Van Assche
Title: "дачный, Lena" - Udachny, Russia
This portrait is part of a documentary about a diamond mining city in Yakutia, Russia. “Udachny” is the name of the city, which is translated as lucky because the first Russian diamonds were found there. the series is a portrait of “Udachny” and an homage to its proud inhabitants leaving under harsh climatic conditions in the far north of Russia.
© Hanne Van Assche
Finalist Azin Haghighi

Finalist Azin Haghighi
Title: "Coal miner" - Abouzar, Iran
A coal mine worker in the Kalariz mine, Semnan province in Iran, takes out his helmet. He works 4 days a week, and his home is about 150 kilometers away from this mine. The miners dig deep into the mountains, working in dark, narrow passageways, where the risk of toxic gases and cave-ins is permanent: a very stressful and dangerous workplace.
© Azin Haghighi
Finalist Chris Beadle

Finalist Chris Beadle
Title: "Pesc-y Pelicans" - New South Wales, Australia
Captured while watching the daily pelican feed during on visite at ‘The Entrance’ in Australia. The tones and colors within the image complement one another so well. I also like the energy that is created by the tight crop, making you feel like you’re in amongst the action.
© Chris Beadle
Finalist Connor Noll

Finalist Connor Noll
Title: “Parker in her bed" - From "Runway project"
© Connor Noll
Finalist Koral Carballo

Finalist Koral Carballo
Title: “The mystery of disguise" - Veracruz, Mexico
Octavio Lopez, an Afro-Mexican artisan disguised as the “negros” of Coyolillo, in Veracruz, Mexico. This tradition refers to the fact that slaves from a hacienda in Veracruz were freed once a year and, on that day, they held a party to celebrate their freedom. Three hundred years later, that celebration has become a carnival that reminds us of the slave trade history in Mexico.
© Koral Carballo
Finalist Thanasorn Janekankit

Finalist Thanasorn Janekankit
Title: Untitled - ⁠Thailand⁠
© Thanasorn Janekankit
Finalist Luca Marianaccio

Finalist Luca Marianaccio
Title: "404 Not Found⁠"
The city as the result of a creative act or construction could be the result definitive of a metaphysics where man “Encounters nothing but himself” and, in meeting, he begins to be afraid. “404 Not Found” is a story in pictures interested in scenarios that we perhaps consider negative but that in the future will be normality: in this sense, our blame on the future could be a hypocritical forgetfulness of the present.⁠
© Luca Marianaccio

– Theme: Emerging Talent / Competition Judge: Elizabeth Krist

The Emerging Talent Award is designed to bring exposure and discover the best upcoming photographers of all ages, backgrounds and working in all photographic fields. Fine art, landscape, street, documentary, portrait, still life: There were no boundaries and we wanted you to release your creativity in as many inventive ways as you could imagine!

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: 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

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.