Competition Winners

This winners collection celebrates the work of all award 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 Junko Akita
Winning Photographer Junko Akita
“Cabin life” - Norway
From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. © Junko Akita
Second Prize Sirli Raitma
Second Prize Sirli Raitma
“Coexistence” - From “EHA” series
. “EHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctor’s appointments and medications. The ‘EHA’ project was born.” © Sirli Raitma
Third Prize Matthew Bagley
Third Prize Matthew Bagley
“Bubble Lion” - Port Lincoln, South Australia
“It’s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride.It’s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. I’ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface.A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.” © Matthew Bagley
Finalist Fleur Louwe
Finalist Fleur Louwe
“Anonymous Memories”
Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. © Fleur Louwe
Finalist Jaka Ivančič
Finalist Jaka Ivančič
“Plitvice lakes Winter fairytale” - Croatia
Plitviče Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. It’s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. © Jaka Ivančič
Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten
Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten
“Suzie during Lockdown” - London, England 2020
From the series “Looking Out from Within”. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldn’t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. © Julia Fullerton-Batten
Finalist Alessandro Malaguti
Finalist Alessandro Malaguti
“Migration” - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their “chum”, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. © Alessandro Malaguti
Finalist Boyang Hu
Finalist Boyang Hu
“Surreal kami” - Luoyang, China
Editorial portrait work - 2020 © Boyang Hu
Finalist Conrad Golovac
Finalist Conrad Golovac
“The Faroes” - Faroe Islands
Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. © Conrad Golovac
Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard
Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard
“Kathleen and Bridget” - Dublin, Ireland 2020
Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. © Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

– Theme: Emerging Talent / Competition Judge: MaryAnne Golon

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

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1ST PRIZE: Junko Akita

“The child in a cabin window with the reflection of the magnificent Norwegian landscape beyond is a gorgeous metaphor for both childhood and identity. Beyond the extraordinary light and composition, the gaze and expression captured here at once combine innocence and strength. Locking eyes with this girl through her sister, the photographer, is a powerful experience and a privilege.” – MaryAnne Golon

2ND PRIZE: Sirli Raitma

“This series of Eha, an older person suffering from depression, is sublime. This particular portrait, with the modern device and clothing adorning a regal white-haired woman, is a profound statement regarding technology and aging. The soft lighting and curls against the alien devices and red lips are truly haunting. The creativity and love that created this series through the artist is a wonderous experience and memorable feat.” – MaryAnne Golon

3RD PRIZE: Matthew Bagley

“Mathew Bagely’s subaquatic portrayal of a sea lion is truly astonishing, a somewhat surreal, and deeply cogitative image that effectively articulates the rare poignancy of the moment. Profoundly moving, it perfectly expresses Bagely’s intense appreciation of his subject, whilst engendering the same sense of joy and awe, as all great depictions of the natural world.” – The Independent Photographer Editors

Judged by: MaryAnne Golon
MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweekly’s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPA‘s (National Press Photographer’s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions. She was twice selected for American Photo magazine’s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

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.

$ 24.000
Cash Prizes
International
Exhibitions
Global
Exposure
Open to all
Photographers
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Color film portrait photograph of a young woman by Michelle Marshall

THEME: Portrait Deadline: 31 May 2021

"In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody."
- Henri Cartier-Bresson

Portrait photography has one of the oldest and most interesting histories that harkens back to the early days of the medium. Through portraits of iconic figures or ordinary people, we discover a deep interest in others.

Recent works or gems from your archives, classic or experimental, and through any kind of storytelling: we want to discover the most powerful and captivating images of today’s portrait photography. We are open to all interpretations and want to see faces that gaze right into the soul!

1st Prize: $1000 · 2nd Prize: $600 · 3rd Prize: $400