“HUMANS OF
THE WORLD”
ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS
“When we’re connected to other people, we become better people”. – Randy Pausch
We’re delighted to present the results of our Humans of the World theme, judged by Amy Kellner, Photo Editor at The New York Times.
What does it mean to be human today? With over 7 billion people on the planet – 7 billion intertangled sets of circumstances, happenings and aspirations – it’s a question of impossible complexity, far too vast to be answered in 20 images. And yet these images, from photographers all over the world, at least give a glimpse into human experience today. From a commune in London to a basement workshop in Vietnam, via the shores of Zanzibar and the forests of Mexico, we witness imagination, ennui, hardship and awe. They remind us of just how diverse our experiences are, but also – through themes of community, parenthood, love, work and travel – our prevailing similarities and the restorative, positive power of connection.
Congratulations to the selected photographers, and thank you to everyone else who submitted. You can join the discussion on Facebook and Instagram.
FIRST PRIZE – ALEX ROBERTSON
www.alexmrobertson.com / @alexander__robertson
“There’s something satisfying about seeing people in their spaces. This room has a lot of interesting details that makes me want to look at the photo for a long time; it’s almost like I’m reading the photo. Is this nude man a clothing designer AND a gymnast? (See the dress forms and gymnastic rings?) The description says that this is in a peanut factory turned squat in East London, and that it’s part of a series documenting the few remaining communities of warehouse dwellers before they disappear due to gentrification. It sounds like a fascinating project and I would like to see more.” – Amy Kellner
SECOND PRIZE – MONÍK MOLINET
www.lapistolademonik.com / @lapistolademonik
“There was no information accompanying this photo, but I’m guessing it is part of a fashion shoot. I don’t think it is the same person photoshopped; I think it’s twins. It’s a very weird photo, also sinister, and it made me laugh, which is refreshing in the realm of fashion. It reminds me of Untitled #122 (1984) from Cindy Sherman’s fashion series. I happen to keep a postcard of that photo on my desk. I think about it a lot.” – Amy Kellner
MARC RESSANG
www.marcressang.com / @marcressang
“Taken from Marc’s series Transcendent, he presents a portrait of an Indonesian Bissu – a person of the “fifth gender” who as someone ‘gender-transcendent’ typically takes on the role shaman or priest in society. Photographed with delicate natural light, there’s a gorgeous interplay between bright colors, texture and shadow. That, and the way in which his subject seemingly meets his gaze with caution, creates an atmosphere that is quiet and ethereal, in a setting that doesn’t quite reveal itself. It’s an apt treatment of a subject and their societal norms that are unfamiliar to most of us, as well as a reminder that our recent history’s narrow definition of gender is not the way it has always been.” – Life Framer
HOANG LONG LY
www.lylongphoto.com / @lyhlong
“Hoang presents a tender moment between father and son that is brilliantly captured, offering an insight into a modest existence – the man working skilfully to make a living for himself and his family, and keep the world moving in his own small way. The young boy lovingly holds his dad and watches attentively, captured through the screen he works on to create a frame within a frame, cleverly grounding them amongst the precarious, towering stacks of broken televisions. It’s a wonderful, unassuming moment that speaks to family, technology, legacy, and the understated form of entrepreneurship of many living in life’s margins.” – Life Framer
AZIM KHAN RONNIE
“Azim captures the quite remarkable organized chaos of a train station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as crowds of commuters and travellers try to find a spot to board the departing trains. His aerial view emphasizes the astonishing scale of the scene, and the black and white treatment provides a visual simplicity through which to survey the masses of detail. It highlights the magnitude of our species that is almost unfathomable – thousands of individuals, each with their own circumstances and motives, coalescing in one place just for a moment before they scatter in different directions, only for the cycle to repeat itself, endlessly again and again.” – Life Framer
ABIGAIL GORDEN
www.abigailgorden.com / @acgphotos
“This is a lovely, understated moment that seems to capture something emblematic of modern life. Both men here crave for connection – but one finds it in the other, in human contact, while the other finds it online, detached from the world around him. An intimacy and a distance at once. The sea is often used to represent separation and isolation, and here with the glowing lights in the background there is something that speaks of both vastness and nearness as young people grow up in the world.” – Life Framer
PAVLOS EVANGELIDIS
www.wantok.photos / @wantok.photos
“Perfect framing and eye-catching colors make for an engrossing scene, as these “Zanzibar girls” fish at low tide in the Zanzibar Lagoon for oysters, scallop and soles. It’s a fascinating snapshot of life in one corner of the world.” – Life Framer
NIMROD GETTER
“Captured in low natural light and with a subject which defies exact placement in time, this image has a painterly, timeless quality. Quiet observers to the scene, we see a mother-to-be seemingly absorbed in worry, with the modest surroundings and the bowl of (we assume) money – its curved shape alluding to her pregnancy – suggesting a basis for those concerns. Our reading is that it captures something of the overwhelming feelings of bringing new life into the world – possibility and reality, hope and apprehension.” – Life Framer
LANDON PALLIAN
www.landonpallian.com / @landonpallian
“This is an intense and arresting frame, with the girl’s wide-eyed and cautious stare holding our attention. With a protecting arm around her brother, against a sparse backdrop that suggests a modest existence, she has a maturity that belies her age – a hint of the harsh environment they have had to grow up fast in, in a Cambodia that Landon describes as a “dusty land of hope and sorrow”.” – Life Framer
TITUS POPLAWSKI
www.tituspoplawski.com / @tituspoplawski
“This is a somewhat enigmatic image – subtle, poetic and mysterious. Cast in a sliver of light that meets our subject’s eye, we’re asked to question what we see, and what she sees – what she’s drawn towards. It’s visually satisfying, and thought-provoking, in an oblique way.” – Life Framer
ANDREA ILLÁN
www.andreaillan.com / @andrea_illan
“There’s a simple beauty to be found in this image on the streets of Boa Vista, Cape Verde – in the deep colors, the stillness, and the chance encounter with these two girls, equal parts intrigued by and unsure about Andrea and her lens. It’s a wonderfully atmospheric and slice of daily life.” – Life Framer
MIKE RUGGIERO
“Mike’s work focuses on the “anonymous citizens of whichever city I happen to be in at the time” and this image, an interesting response to the topic, explores the concept of anonymity and surveillance in the urban realm, and the idea that physical and emotional closeness are two very different things. Showing two such citizens alone in separate carriages, it is the centrally framed eye that hold our attention, its wide and unblinking stare symbolic of those ideas.” – Life Framer
ARSENIY NESKHODIMOV
www.neskhodimov.com / @neskhodimov
“Arseniy presents a portrait of a person who has undergone gender reassignment surgery – something that is not only a societal taboo in their home country of Vietnam, but also illegal. By using a formal sitting, channelling the solemn tones and posture of historical portraiture, he gives sombre acknowledgement to what they must have to endure, and also knowingly subverts the historical precedent – presenting someone on the margins of society in a way that would have been reserved for royalty, the celebrated and the wealthy. The black studded band on his subject’s wrist is the only clue that this is a contemporary image, and a subtle, wry nod to their sense for rebellion against the norm, even in this context. It’s a wonderful portrait that celebrates individuality and personal liberty, while recognizing the unfortunate hardship that goes with it.” – Life Framer
DENIS VEJAS
www.behance.net/denis_vejas / @neskhodimov
“Here we see a cargo train cutting through the Sinaloa valley in Northern Mexico, with a number of undocumented migrants using it as their means to reach the US. The gorgeous colors and immersive viewpoint give a sense of wild and romantic adventure, at odds with the reality – that this is a dangerous and desperate voyage. Taken from Denis’ long-term project Direction North, it provides a captivating perspective into one of the key global themes of our modern world – one that is debated as an abstract concept by politicians on rostrums and in interviews, but has very real and human impacts on those like this anonymous traveller.” – Life Framer
JØRGEN JOHANSON
“The density of people in this scene, the deep colors, and the way they’re illuminated by a shaft of natural light gives the image the quality of a baroque painting – full of life and drama. It feels like a privileged moment we witness, as this family – as Jorgen’s statement tells us – gather in the kitchen on a cold winter day in a village in the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan. It’s a fascinating insight into daily life and community.” – Life Framer
KAROLIINA KASE
www.karoliinakase.com / @karoliinakase
“Images that comment on technology and our relationship with it – more often than not unhealthy – are very common, and so while Karoliina’s portrait offers nothing unique, it is nonetheless absorbing. Shot with a close intimacy, her subject filling the frame and oblivious to her presence, it has a gorgeous soft tone, and provides comment on how young people navigate the world in a non-judgemental way. The white light of the screen that highlight’s this girl’s face is a portal – to what exactly it’s unclear, but to somewhere else, something different, and that’s something fundamental to growing up.” – Life Framer
MYRIAM ABDELAZIZ
www.myriamabdelaziz.com / @myriamabdelaziz
“What does it mean to be American? That’s the question that Myriam set out to answer on a roadtrip across the country when she was asked as an immigrant to file for citizenship, and that became the project from which this image was taken. There’s something quietly arresting about it – the slight over-exposure, the empty landscape except for her central subject, sat a little awkwardly and looking off into the distance, seemingly out of kilter with her surroundings. She seems creative and idiosyncratic, but not quite comfortable, be it in herself or her environment. It conveys a sense of the country as it is today, diverse because of its immigration, and yet not at ease with it. A place in a liminal state.” – Life Framer
SIMON O’DWYER
“This is not an easy image to digest. It depicts Shock Thy, a homeless man Simon befriended, who was badly burned in a motorbike accident and now begs on the streets of Cambodia. The strange treatment Simon uses – muted colors, a heavy grain and an ambiguous background – is unusual, but is respectful of his subject; artful, deliberate and far from the tourist snapshots to which Shock might be routinely subjected. It provides a glimpse into a life of incredible hardship, and one that can’t be trivialized but that Shock seems to navigate with positivity. “You’ve made me look handsome” he said when Simon gave him a print. “Careful or I won’t make any money”. It’s a wonderful glimpse of the human spirit.” – Life Framer
ALEX LLOVET
www.alexllovet.com / @alexllovet
“Taken during a period of family isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Alex eloquently describes photography as an “escape valve” and an opportunity to “express my fears in the context of this global crisis without forgetting the privilege of being able to romanticize [its] effects”. The result is a wonderfully witty and creative portrait of sorts, that encapsulates so much. The choice to shoot in black and white, the stillness and the despondent boy in the painting give a sense of melancholy, of stasis and boredom, as well as the privilege Alex mentions. But that gloom is counteracted by a playfulness and creativity, making do with what’s available. It’s this duality that makes the image so enthralling – a brilliant impression of how so many of us are coping during the pandemic.” – Life Framer
ORIANA CAPRA
“In this deeply personal and affecting portrait, best absorbed alongside the eloquent accompanying statement, we see Oriana’s great-grandmother on her deathbed – a quiet moment shortly before her death, peaceful but charged with emotion. It asks questions of our relationship with dying, a subject that for most of us is best uncomfortable to discuss, and at worst taboo. Shot with a care and dignity, it presents this passing as “an awakening and humbling experience” as Oriana puts it, reminding us of the fragility of life, but also of it being something celebrate, particularly at the age of 103. The natural light that pours into the room evokes a sense of lightness and transition. It’s a quietly powerful and important response to the theme of Humans of the World.” – Life Framer
