10th Annual International Photography Competition

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s 10th Annual International Photography Competition at FMoPA!

This year we received many hundreds of entries and votes for our competition and our jury category winners are displayed below.

Make sure you check out winners in each category: People/Portraits, Places/Landscapes/Drone, Documentation/Photojournalism, Still Life, Abstract Photography, Conceptual Photography & finally People’s Choice.

Best In Show

First Place: Fazilat Soukhakian – “Queer In Utah”, Erin & Amy, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

The new generation of LGBTQ+ Mormons in Utah is changing the course of its historic struggle between their sexual identity and the conflicts with their religious beliefs, by publicly acting on their sexuality while some of them still practice their faith. Despite the Church’s strict teachings, they are determined in their pursuit of love, each taking their own path by either enduring through the scrutiny of their surroundings or taking a step away from the Church. Generally, the social framework of the LDS Church has resulted in a path of dilemmas and self-doubt for many people looking to make the hard decision whether or not to act on their desires. This project aims to take a look at some of those paths taken and the struggles that are endured by many of the brave millennials that are persistent in their quest for self-discovery and affirmation.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Fazilat Soukhakian is an Iranian artist, photographer and scholar. She has received her BFA in Photography from the University of Tehran (Iran), and subsequently started her career as a photojournalist. In the US, she received her MFA, and a Ph.D in Architectural History and Visual Studies from the department of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. Fazilat transitioned into the world of academics, complementing her art practice, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University. She considers herself a visual storyteller who observes and records her concerns regarding social and political issues that surround her as a means for social change and justice. Her work reflects on contemporary issues concerning gender inequality, gender segregation, and the loss of national identity. Her photography projects have been shown throughout national and international exhibitions and she has received a multitude of awards and recognition.

People/Portraits

First Place: Fazilat Soukhakian – “Queer In Utah”, Erin & Amy, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Second Place: Laura Pannack – Jack at Sheepwash, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

A vast wasteland stands between the two estates. ‘Tibby’ ; it’s cul de sac of residential houses curls around a small playground. Kids push prams with their hands above their heads or zip past on bikes. Through a narrow alleyway you enter the Cracker rolling grass lined with blackberries and stinging nettles. Motorbikes, peds and quads bark loudly everyday and at all times. The boys race them until they burn out, perfecting the art of the wheelie. Horses are usually kept in the back gardens or local stables and are just as popular. The girls nestle around small fires despite the baking summer sun. On my second trip I discovered an entirely black Cracker, sporting the occasional patch of grass that had escaped a burning. On the adjacent side lies ‘The Lost City Estate’. Most of the boys meet at Jack Barrett’s bars (a metal fence that lies to the opening of the field). They perch and exchange stories, cigarettes and zoots alight referring to each other affectionately as ‘Mush’

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

My art focuses on social documentary and portraiture, and seeks to explore the complex relationship between subject and photographer. I am driven by research led, self-initiated projects that push me both as an artist and as an individual. I need to question what I don’t understand and access worlds closed off to me. I am drawn to adventure, I want to roam and play with the limitations and dynamics of photography as an art and as act. I largely shoot on analogue film allowing the process to be organic rather than being predefined by fixed ideas, thus removing additional pressure on the sitter. I try to understand the lives of those I capture and to present them creatively. I am a firm believer that time, trust and understanding is the key to portraying subjects truthfully, and therefore many of my projects develop over several years. This particular approach allows a genuine connection to exist between sitter and photographer, which in turn elucidate the intimacy of these very human exchanges. My images aim to suggest the shared ideas and experiences that are entwined in each frame that I shoot. My work aims to tell and inspire stories. I want to connect and emotionally engage with you.

Third Place: Aubrey Richey – Sister and Beetles, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

My sister, Emily, stands outside of an auto body shop. Taken with a Hasselblad 501C.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Aubrey Richey is an artist based in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. She is working towards her BFA in Photography from The University of the Arts which she will receive in 2020. There is a fine line between fact and fiction in Aubrey’s work: she documents her personal life with the humans closest to her, but each of her images are staged and controlled. Her photographs are based on true stories and come from the heart – a heart that yearns to nurture like a mother would but sometimes just watches from the sidelines instead. Aubrey has always had a child in her life (from her little sister to her partner’s daughter), but she has never been a mother herself. She is constantly watching coming-of-age stories unfold around her while engaging with her own as well. With her childlike sense of curiosity and alarm, Aubrey captures the world around her with emphasis on vibrant colors and emotions. The oddity of life both excites and frightens Aubrey the way it would a child. She believes there is a bit of that childlike curiosity and alarm in all of us, and she tries to portray that side of the subjects she shoots, for she believes it is a beautiful thing worth holding onto.

Honorable Mention: Josh Aronson – Evergreen (Two Boys), 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Evergreen (Two Boys) from the series ‘La Divina Florida’, exploring and documenting a new aesthetic of youth culture, contrasting with preconditioned narratives of youth in Florida, while offering a hopeful and joyous counter visual..

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Josh Aronson (American, b. 1994) is a photographer based between Brooklyn, New York and Miami, Florida, working across many genres to visualize youth culture with an honest gaze. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Northwestern University in 2016. In 2017, at the age of 23, Aronson became one of the youngest photographers to publish portraits in The New York Times for Tyler Mitchell’s appearance in the Style section. The following year he opened his first solo presentation, With Mine Dyed Blue, at the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts in Russia. In 2019, his first American solo exhibition, I Thought About Posting This, opened at Congruent Space Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. Aronson is regularly published in avant-garde magazines, commissioned by prominent fashion houses, and called upon by international beauty brands to create photographs and campaigns. His work has been published in The New York Times, Dazed, Teen Vogue, Allure, Document Journal, The Financial Times, Vogue Italia and i-D.

Places/Landscape/Drone

First Place: Attila Balogh – Larung Gar, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

First snow in Larung Gar Buddhist Institute

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Attila Balogh is an award-winning photographer based in Shanghai. Born in Hungary, he’s been living in China for over two decades. Besides landscape, architecture and street photography, he’s doing editorial and event photography for an international clientele. His photos have been featured in Elle, GEO, The Independent, Time, The Guardian, London Evening Standard, Business Insider, MSN, Conde Nast Traveler, Daily Mail, Financial Times, South China Morning Post, Shanghai Daily, China Daily and other major publications. Panasonic Ambassador, member of the Association of Hungarian Photographers.

Second Place: Ovi D. Pop – Nature bleeding, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Once a bustling settlement nestled in a picturesque Romanian valley, the village of Geamana was wiped from the map to make room for a toxic dumping lake, yet traces of the stubborn little town still dot the landscape.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

I was born in Oradea on the 9th of April, 1973. I have been a photographer for over 20 years. I prefer portraits, nudes, aerial and street photography. I had managed to issue seven illustrated editions of the Bihor County monography, which contain about 1.000 photographs, illustrating the most representative sites in the county. I also issued six editions of the Travel Guide Book of Bihor County, two editions of the Oradea Mea, Comitatus Bihoriensys album, many postcards, pocket books, which reflect his photographic activity. In 2013 my photographic activity took a turn towards artistic photography and I managed to become an E.FIAP/s artist (Excellence of the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique), managing to obtain 1050 prizes (290 gold medals/1st place/trophies) in 71 countries! I had several individual photography exhibitions in Oradea, Cluj Napoca, Valea lui Mihai, Hajduszoboszlo (Hungary) – 2013, 2014, Bruxelles – 2013, 2014, Cernăuţi (Ukraine), but also group photography exhibitions in Cluj Napoca, Bucharest, Szeged, Budapest, Bratislava, Kosice (Slovakia), Monteviarchi, Cernăuţi and Ujgorod (Ucraine), Chişinău (Moldavia), Kolkata and in Shenzen (China). From 2016 I started the first authorized Photo School in Oradea with the authority of the Ministry of Work and the Ministry of Education from Romania.

Third Place: Raf Willems – Floating People, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

People in innertubes, attending a concert on the lake

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Raf Willems is a Belgian photographer who started to use drone technology to create images that show the world from a unique angle, putting subjects in a new perspective. As the owner of Drone-LasVegas.com his commercial work has been published by JWT, CNN-Travel, DJI, NBC, Time, The Telegraph, Conde Nast, Esquire, Viacom, Thames & Hudson. His artistic aerial photography has been exhibited in Miami, Las Vegas, Austin, Athens, Paris, Palm Springs, Portland, Siena….

Honorable Mention: David Rosen – Dovercourt lighthouse, 2020

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

The Essex coast can be treacherous for shipping. For hundreds of years, there have been many attempts at providing safe passage for shipping. During the Victorian era, a series of unique lighthouses were constructed which still stand today. These lighthouses are a gift for photographers and offer the perfect subject for long exposure minimalism. This image was taken with a 17-40mm lens, several ND filters and an additional graduated filter. The exposure was kept to 2 minutes to ensure a smooth rendition of the sea. Overall I tried to capture the loneliness of the lighthouse, using the post structures to provide a leading line into the main subject.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

I fell in love with photography at the age of 13. It has been a lifelong passion ever since. I look to create strong emotional images that tell a story. The advent of digital has been a revelation for me. It enables creativity and has elevated photography in my view to a more dynamic and innovative art form. I am particularly interested in long exposure and use it to create high key fine art photographic images. We live in a complex and cluttered world where visual respite is rare. Fine art photography uses negative space to create a sense of calm, allowing the viewer to focus on the main subject without distractions. With the advent of Photoshop fine art photography has flourished. Often the process requires not just a pre-conceptualisation of the final creative concept, but the expertise to be able to handle and master complex post-processing. I find both parts of the creative journey highly rewarding

Nature/Science/Animals

First Place: Daniel Kariko – Sun Room Corner, August 26th [Owlet Moth], 2016

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

This project is an investigation of our relationship to suburban landscape through micro images of locally found insects and other arthropods. My images utilize the combination of Scanning Electron Microscope and optical Stereo Microscope, in order to achieve a “portrait”-like effect inspired by the tradition of 17th Century Dutch Masters. Insects find way into our homes no matter how vigilant we are in our effort to keep the nature on the outer side of our windowpanes. During my inquiry into suburban experience, I started recording the indoor wildlife consistent with the environment my subdivision occupies. As we keep expanding our subdivisions to the outskirts of towns, we inhabit recently altered environments. This anthropomorphic presentation of our closest, often invisible, co-habitants in a humorous way, is an invitation to consider the evidence of the human impact on the landscape as we constantly redraw boundaries between us and the natural environment.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Kariko is a North Carolina based artist, and an Associate Professor of Fine Art Photography in School of Arts and Design at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina. Kariko is currently serving as an Assistant Director of the ECU School of Art and Design, and the Coordinator for the Undergraduate Programs. Kariko’s images investigate environmental and political aspects of landscape, use of land and cultural interpretation of inhabited space. He worked on several long-term photographic projects in his native Serbia, recording the aftermath of the war in Balkans. Since 1999 Kariko documented the endangered wetlands and dramatic changes in the landscape in Barataria- Terrebonne region of South Louisiana. His other projects include documentation of foreclosed housing in Florida during the 2008-09 real estate crisis, and scanning electron microscope portraits of locally found insects. Kariko’s work has been shown nationally and internationally in galleries and museums, as: Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groeningen, The Netherlands; Yixian International Photography Festival, Huangshan City, China; Manchester Science Festival, UK; Rewak Gallery, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Edinburgh International Science Festival, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia; Rijeka Foto Festival, Croatia; Fries Museum, The Netherlands; Festival della Scienza di Verona, Italy; Photon Gallery, Vienna, Austria; Royal Albert Hall, London, UK.

Second Place: Diego López Calvín – La Galera Beach, Almeria. Spain 2015

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

10 hours exposure at “Cala Galera” beach showing the Winter sun at Cabo de Gata Natural Park, Almería, Spain.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Diego López Calvín. Soria, Spain 1965. Degree in Information Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Independent photographer and visual artist based in Madrid, he carries out editorial commissions and reports for different media, producers and advertising agencies. He has published his works in the main newspapers and magazines of the country. Professor at the Public University Rey Juan Carlos. He has spent more than twenty years practicing pinhole photography, photographic techniques of the XIX century and very long time exposures. He develops artistic projects and teaches workshops using alternative processes of photography in relation to astronomy, geolocation and collective participation through working groups in social networks. The inventor of SOLARIGRAPHY together with the Polish photographers Slawomir Decyk and Pawel Kula who launched the “Solaris Project” in 2000. It combines the origins of XIX century photography, internet and modern techniques of the digital image, with the aim to show the paths of the Sun in its apparent movement on the celestial vault over different latitudes of the Earth.

Third Place: McCullers and Montalvo – Barrier island, study no. 028, 2018

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Wet plate collodion.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Charles A. McCullers Charlie is a working photographer from Atlanta. He matriculated from the University of Georgia with a BFA, and the Savannah College of Art and Design with an MA; he is currently pursuing an MFA in photography. His work continues to be published and acknowledged, most notably by the Tate Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC, the High Museum in Atlanta, and on behalf of the Sir Elton John Photography Collection. Charlie also serves as principal photographer for Atlanta Ballet, a position he has held since 2000. Cecilia A. Montalvo Cecilia was born and raised in Miami, and today lives in Atlanta. After graduating from the University of Virginia, she worked at The Phillips Collection, Smithsonian Magazine, and for Harvard University at Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington, DC. She holds an MFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. McCullers and Montalvo are represented in Atlanta by Jackson Fine Art.

Documentation/Photojournalism

First Place: Anton Ivanov – Iyad, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Iyad was very lucky, if it’s correct word, he left the room for tea in the kitchen when the bombing with explosive fragments arrived. And usually he was resting on this couch, above which is now a reminder of the wounds of war. But many families, including its neighbors, were less fortunate. Christian city of Scalbia, located in the immediate vicinity of the war conflict line in the north of the province of Hama. And the victims of mortar blind shelling are peaceful innocent people.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Anton Ivanov more than 15 years engaged in black and white film photography of medium and large formats. – Participant of exhibitions of analogue photography in Russia, Germany, France, Japan, USA and Italy. – He is one of the founders of the Art of Foto project and the art director of the gallery of the same name in St. Petersburg. – Participated in workshops on manual printing and toning in Germany with companies Heiland Electronic and Moersch Photochemie. Participant in the master class Black and White Fine Art Printing by John Sexton (USA). – After developing the films, Anton prints black and white photographs by hand on silver-gelatin baryta paper at the darkroom. Anton feels this is the best way to convey the artistic value of his work, so that the viewer fully understands the feelings and ideas that were with him at the time of shooting. – Photo expeditions: Member of the expedition “Journey to Russia” (2013) Member of the “Disappearing Tribes” expeditions (Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, 2017). Twice he climbed Elbrus mount with the flag of the Art of Foto gallery and a large format film camera (13×18 cm). The result of these photo expeditions was a personal exhibition “Elbrus. Two peaks” (2019).

Second Place: Melissa Ianniello – Maria Laura Annibali, 74 years old, and Lidia Merlo, 72 years old, Rome, 2018

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Maria Laura and Lidia have known each other for 17 years. Their love blossomed at a mature age, but it struck like a classic bolt of lightning. It was Lidia who won over Maria Laura: on top of a relentless courting full of sweet nothings and poetry, she wrote a dedication to Laura one night on the front wall of her house: “Laura, I am passionately and hopelessly in love with you”. From that day on, they began dating, and soon after they became an official couple. Recently, they got married in a civil union.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Melissa Ianniello (Naples, 1991) is a documentary photographer who lives in Bologna. After graduating in Philosophy, she pursued her photography training, which was mostly self-taught, through periods of studying in Bologna and New York, with photographers such as Michael Ackerman, Carolyn Drake, Erica McDonald and Davide Monteleone. Her artistic research is based on two main subjects: the role of the individual in the modern-day metropolis, and themes related to gender and sexuality. She has been selected twice (2014, 2017) as one of the winners of the annual Call For Artist competition as part of the international Cheap – Street Poster Art festival. In 2018, she began her long-term project entitled Wish it Was a Coming Out. With this project, she won the “SI FEST Lanfranco Colombo Prize” and was selected as a finalist for the “Marco Pesaresi Award”, the “Voglino Prize ”, as well as the “Gran Premio Lumix Portfolio Italia Award”. In 2020, she won the first edition of “Biennale della Fotografia Femminile” and was selected as a finalist for the “Italy Photo Award”

Third Place: Christian Bobst – Washing Ritual, 2018

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

On June 17 2018, a follower of the Layene Brotherhood enters the washing room at the house in Ngor in Dakar, where allegedly holy water springs from the ground. Another follower of the brotherhood fills pots with the water from a copper pipe. On the wall over the pipe is a painting of the face of Seydina Issa Rouhou Laye (1909-1949), who was the son of Seydina Limamou Laye (1843–1909), the founder of the Layene brotherhood. The personality cult around the founders of the Brotherhood and the Marabouts plays an important and unifying role amongst all Sufi orders in Senegal. Limamou Laye claimed that he was the Mahdi, the reincarnation of the Prophet Muhhamed and that his son Issa was the second coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore the Layenne unite Elements of Islam and Christianity in their beliefs.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Christian Bobst (b. 1971, Switzerland) originally studied graphic design. For almost 15 years he worked for major advertising agencies in Switzerland and Germany. In 2010 he started working as a freelance documentary photographer. Since then he has produced numerous photo reports and assignments in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America. His work has been published in magazines, daily newspapers and online media such as GEO, Stern, The Guardian, National Geographic, Die Zeit, NZZ, LensCulture and 6mois. Christian has won numerous international and national photo awards. In 2016, he won the 2nd prize of the World Press Photo Award in the Sport Stories category, in 2020 he was awarded at the POYi, in 2017 at the NPPA as well as with the vfg Swiss Photo Award and the photo prize of the canton of Solothurn and many more (see list below). Christian Bobst lives in Zurich and is a member of the photo agency laif in Germany

Abstract Photography

First Place: Vincent Dupont-Blackshaw – Sport Lines #1, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Lines and curves of stadium tracks create an abstract painting (Varsity Stadium, Toronto)

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Vincent Dupont-Blackshaw has been working as a professional photographer for the past two years. Trained in the arts, he lives between Paris and London. His work takes him across the world, seeking stories of new places to share with his audience. From these travels he brings back unique memories of the moments he captures in new places. “I look for moments that are quietly unique. Often an isolated thing or person in an environment that on first glance is ordinary but on second glance tells a subtle story. Light plays an essential part of how I see that story being told, creating a mood and provoking feeling in each image. As a travel photographer, I strive to catch the essence of the place I am in at that exact time. My role is to tell a story of that place for people to connect with.”

Second Place: Don Agnello – 17- Jax FL, 2017

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

ARCHITECTURAL ABSTRACTIONS
This series came about, while traveling through some of our most modern cities, I began to notice the repetitive forms and reflective surfaces inherent in many of the high rise structures and “glass towers”. I saw these as abstractions which I found interesting and challenging to the eye.
I compose the images by isolating the repeating forms, geometrical angles, reflective surfaces, and the many incongruous shapes that can be observed in the modern urban highrise landscape.
The juxtaposition of these elements, sometimes compressed by a shallow depth of field, sometimes shooting from an unusual angle, sometimes slightly altering the lighting, color and contrast, creates an abstract composition which reflects my concept and challenges the viewer.
In this way I create “Art from Architecture”.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Self taught yet visually obsessed is how I describe myself. Although I’ve worked in many mediums, expressing my vision through photography and the pigment print process most satisfies me. My work tends to be a reflection of society and the constructs we have created. Recording images from daily life is what I do, and the urban landscape is my palette. From this I glean snippets of street life, the kooky and chaotic elements of a visual barrage we experience every day, and the aesthetic beauty found in Architecture.

Third Place: David Querol – Blackout 26, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

The adaptation to change. Unexpected and blunt, a new hard and hostile environment where the rules of the game are unknown are suddenly imposed and nothing seems to fit. Any power of decision has been lost on what is going on around you, which leads to disappointment while remembering a kinder and more predictable past. Memory then becomes the refuge facing the impossibility of a new reality that constantly mutates. The fact of inhabiting a place that no longer generates confidence, unadjusted, will be accepted at the end, focusing effort on minimizing the damages that the arrival of new changes could generate.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Arriving from another discipline such as architecture, my interest in photography led me to study the ELISAVA Master of Photography and Fine Art Photography at El Observatorio, both in Barcelona. Since then I have been spending my time between personal projects and my professional activity as a freelance photographer. I have had the opportunity to participate in various festivals such as DocField, Art Photo Bcn, PHotoEspaña, PA-TA-TA, Fine Art Igualada and Photogenic. My personal projects are based on subjects such as absence, time and memory.

Still Life

First Place: Arnaud Montagard – Ketchup & Lines, 2018

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

The lights are creating lines on the table, turning the picture into an almost abstract painting but the symbolic diner’s dressing ketchup and mustard refocus the viewer on where we are, a diner in Pennsylvania.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Arnaud Montagard (b 1991) is a French photographer, he currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. His photography focuses on composition and details, creating a cinematic atmosphere. With an emphasis on a minimalist aesthetic, his photography creates a new angle to an ordinary detail.

Second Place: Vincent Dupont-Blackshaw – Yellow Jumper, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Sometimes the hotel room is sufficient for the trip. Sometimes, it’s enough to sit and watch the sea from the window.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Third Place: Vadims Pjatrikovs – BROTHERS, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Brotherhood. Twins. Connection. Bond. Family.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Still-life photographer and light painter, Vadims Pjatrikovs is well-known for his style and the way of controlling the light. Having over 15 years of experience as a professional photographer, he has been working on different commercial and still life photography projects in London, UK, for the last 10 years. Vadims is an artist at his core. He started out as a painter and fell in love with the creative process from day one. He always admired still life paintings from the 17th century, but as a painter, he was looking at how he could speed the process up, as making a single painting took a lot of time. Vadims has tried different techniques and methods and one day decided to try photography as a tool to achieve the result. Once he tried it, he realized that photography was his true passion. Vadims went on to study photography as a craft and founded his own photography studio “PHOTOPORTRAYAL” in 2009. Having switched over to photography, he has never looked back. He sees photography as the next generation of his passion for art, and in a relatively short period of time, Vadims earned the respect of artists and photographers. There is always something new and innovative happening in Vadims’ world. And what makes his style recognizable today is this special oil painting look of his photography artwork.

Conceptual Photography

First Place: Ana Zibelnik – A stone falls faster than a feather, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

From the “We are the ones turning series,” 2019.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Ana Zibelnik (b. 1995, Ljubljana) is a photographer currently based in the Netherlands. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2018 and is currently working towards an MA degree in film and photographic theory at Leiden University. She has developed, published and exhibited her work both independently and under the axis of If Slovenia Were and lately within the 2nd cycle of PARALLEL – European Photo Based Platform. In 2019, she won the Verzasca Nera award for her series We Are the Ones Turning and was selected as the GUP New Talent of the year 2020, as well as a Haute Photographie 2020 Talent. She is the recipient of the City of Ljubljana’s scholarship for talented students.

Second Place: Qingjun Huang – Family Stuff-2, 2019

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Xia Liang’s Story: Xia Liang was born in 1988, graduated from San Francisco Art Academy majoring film edition, master’s degree. He has worked in USA for two years after graduation, and then decided to come back to China for his career. He is one of the many overseas young graduates coming back to China due to enormous job opportunities under rapid development environment of the country. Xia Liang was originally from Baoding, his wife Jiang Jiawen was from Harbin, born in 1989. They met in Beijing and married in 2019, they are living in a rental apartment.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Huang Qingjun, professional photographer. An important contemporaty artist from China. He was born on September 30, 1971 in Daqing, Heilongjiang, China. He has been engaged in photographic art creation for 26 years. In 1998 December, he joined the China Photographers Association, currently lives and works in Beijing. Huang Qingjun’s representative works are Steam Locomotive from 1992 to 2002 and Family Stuff from 2003 to present. Online Shopping Family Stuff and Homeless People’s Family Stuff are two special series of Family Stuff. Huang’s works have won awards such as 2015 China International Press Photo Contest, 2015 London International Creation Competition, 2016 MIFA Moscow International Foto Awards and many more. Various international media, such as the New York Times, Bloomberg, and Wired, have also covered these works. BBC interviewed Huang and his works three times. His works have also appeared in magazines and albums such as Architecture Boston, Business Insider, GEO, Chinese National Geography, Discovery Cultural Geographic Monthly, Guardian Weekend, China Daily, Chinese Photography Magazine, Grazia France, Dutch Weekly Magazine, Vrij Nederland, Dutch Financial Daily, Family Photography etc. Some of his selected works appeared in textbooks published by Oxford University Press and National Geographic Learning a division of an educational company called Cengage Learning.

Third Place: Adrian Wojtas – Full Recovery, 2018

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Cover artwork commissioned for the debut single from Irish singer-songwriter Curtis Walsh. I framed the artist within two visually dissonant worlds; the vibrant open space of his external life and a more bleak, oppressive internal life. When these worlds are represented next to each other, the bold, stark contrast they create brings out the conflict between them.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Adrian Wojtas (Nowy Sącz, Poland, 1996) lives in Dublin, but often works in Paris or wherever assignments may take him. He works with agencies, publications, brands, and labels in Ireland as well as internationally. Often driven by his passions for cinema, art, and design, he uses his colourful and expressive style to tell their stories. Adrian holds a BA (Hons) in Photography from IADT and is also a self-taught designer and retoucher. He is a strong believer that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well, and that an emotional response is the best indicator of truly great work. He loves specialty coffee, owns more novelty socks than plain pairs, can always be found listening to Bonobo, and admires the paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński amongst a million and one other things.

Honorable Mention: Diana Cheren Nygren – Gas Station, 2020

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Two children, alone, wade through the shallows now occupying an abandoned gas station.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Diana Cheren Nygren is a fine art photographer from Boston, Massachusetts. Her work explores the visual character of place defined through physical environment and weather. Place has implications for our experience of the world, and reveals hints about the culture around it. Diana was trained as an art historian with a focus on modern and contemporary art, and the relationship of artistic production to its socio-political context. Her emphasis on careful composition in her photographic work, as well as her subject matter, reflects this training. Diana’s photographs have received numerous honorable mentions from the Lucie Foundation and have been included in a number of juried exhibitions at Subjectively Objective, PhotoPlace Gallery, the Midwest Center for Photography, Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, PH21 Gallery in Budapest, Arlington Center for the Arts, the Griffin Museum of Photography, and the Curated Fridge. A book of her photographs, “Capturing the Light”, was published in 2017.

People’s Choice

Jim Miller – When the Music is Over

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Shoes on dock with splash in river

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

I am a self-taught photographer living in Tampa, Florida.