“FACE OF THE EARTH”
ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS
“The Earth is Art, The Photographer is only a Witness” – Yann Arthus-Bertrand
We are delighted to present the results of the first monthly theme of Life Framer edition V – THE FACE OF THE EARTH. We asked you to share your views of the natural world and man’s influence on it, and the resulting images, testament to incredible photographic talent, capture views from the four corners of our mesmerizing planet.
You can discover the winning images below and join the discussion on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Congratulations to all the talented photographers featured, and thank you to everyone who submitted their work.
FIRST PRIZE: SAGE SZKABARNICKI-STUART
“This scene is epic and cinematic, and at the same time charmingly home-made, the textured grain and brilliant night sky evoking that near dream-like state that can come with the freedom a vast open landscape provides. There are perhaps two interpretations to be made – on the one hand, it can be seen as a celebration of the human connection that technology enables, the phones creating their own constellations underneath the distant stars, symbolising the vast distances across which we can now communicate. And on the other it warns of that all-powerful hold these screens have over us, distracting us from the present moment, the subjects here almost worshipping their devices, holding them aloft like idols to a new god. It’s this inherent dichotomy – an image that conjures grand themes with a few friends and simple props – that makes it so captivating.” – Life Framer
SECOND PRIZE: DONELL GUMIRAN
“The image of a herd of camels traversing the desert has become something of a visual cliché, but here Donell takes that same premise and produces something fresh, poetic and dreamlike. The animals stand sharply captured in the distance, but they’re secondary to the swathes of soft color – the expected browns and tans, but also peaches and pinks. It’s the type of image that summons a feeling as much as it does a place.” – Life Framer
MICHAEL MEISSNER
“Landscape and travel photography has the power to transport us to magical and surprizing places, and this image does just that. The thick milky blue water and unexpected viewpoint grab your gaze at first, and then the boy appears, anchoring the image with a sense of scale in what could otherwise be misinterpreted as a distant satellite view of a coastline. Details emerge – the bright plates of food he carries and the similarly colored petals scattered behind him – but it’s what’s not shown that gives the image its strength; where he is going and where he has come from out of sight. Michael shares with us an unorthodox view into a beautiful moment of serenity.” – Life Framer
MARIE LUKASIEWICZ
“As man’s influence on the world has increased, so too has the definition of landscape photography – once language to describe the documentation of a natural wilderness, and now increasingly a study of the effect humans have on it, continually reshaping our environments to support our existence. Here what at first appears to be a serene view of nature, is in fact a massive man-made reservoir, the little hut sharing our view, diminutive in comparison to the huge landscape beyond it. It’s interesting that something that has such a dramatic impact on plant and animal life, can seem so benign. Marie captures hues both soft and bright, giving a gentle, painterly treatment to a spectacular vista.” – Life Framer
GAVIN JAMES
“I was drawn to the bold framing of this image, the expected focal point inverted so that the two protagonists are softened with blur, and the sparse and arid hills behind them are captured with focused precision. The effect it has is to create something highly atmospheric – the harsh heat is palpable from their neckerchiefs and sharp shadowing, but it is not them specifically that matter, rather the place that they are in, and as a viewer we’re transported into that moment too, trudging along a desert valley floor with them, shading ourselves as best we can from the blistering overhead sun.” – Life Framer
LUCA TOMBOLINI
“Luca presents a flawless desert-scape – the soft pink hues and windswept and rippled contours of sand creating something serene and meditative, almost heavenly. It’s a single moment that could exist anywhere on the immense spectrum from now back to the beginning of time. Nature slowly shaped by the elements and untouched by human hand.” – Life Framer
ALANA PERINO
“The men climb this near vertical path in an ungainly fashion, almost like toy soldiers placed in position by a child’s hand. In Alana’s statement she describes her work in exploring America’s heritage sites as fenced-in attractions for docile consumers – “curation disguised as preservation” as she eloquently puts it – and there are ideas of that here: the wooden ladder in place for the more adventurous to climb, but its very existence reminding us that this environment has already been tamed for our enjoyment. The off-natural coloring of the image subtly continues that theme – things aren’t quite as natural as they might seem.” – Life Framer
ALESSANDRO ZANONI
“In the age of urbanisation, the face of the earth can now be described as effectively by cityscapes as it can by mountains, forests and deserts. Here, Alessandro’s simple framing and muted color palette describe the rapid regeneration of China – the relatively low-rise buildings in the foreground with their earthy coloring and co-existence with nature, rapidly replaced with towers of glass and metal – like great obelisks to human progress. It appears as though they might stretch on forever, and in a sense they do. It’s an articulate document of our age.” – Life Framer
LUCA BRACALI
“This is a wonderful and dramatic scene, illustrating the natural landscape as something both ferocious and nurturing, to be simultaneously feared and to be cherished. Here the elements are wild and uncompromising, and as this lady tends to her animals, we get a glimpse of her existence – no doubt hard but with a backdrop of the Earth’s immense beauty that can only come from living in its outer reaches.” – Life Framer
KIRSTEN APRIN-FITZGERALD
“This is a wonderful urban trompe l’oeil; the high billboard mimicking the sky it’s held in, disguising itself like a chameleon when its job should be to stand out and catch the eye. It’s this subversion of ideas that’s so appealing – for a moment putting aside the opportunity to sell us things we don’t need, and instead reminding us of the beautiful simplicity in a clear blue sky. Kristen’s framing, routing the viewer in an urban place but keeping it featureless and non-descript, works well – the billboard like a portal to escape urban drudgery, held aloft and just out of reach.” – Life Framer
ALYSON BELCHER
“This image has a stark beauty – in the grain, the monochrome treatment, and the patterns and textures that reveal themselves as the eye scans across its surface. It also confounds – are we looking at a distant aerial view of a scarred landscape, or the texture of its surface in microscopic detail? It’s this ambiguity that holds the viewer. Alyson reveals the truth in her statement – it is in fact a close up of ice formations during an unusually cold winter in Oregon, one of many details that would evolve as the water thawed and refroze each day and night. That there’s an aching beauty in details so fleeting, and so easily overlooked is powerful.” – Life Framer
ANNA SIGGELKOW
“This is a minimal and satisfying composition, aligning layers of natural and man-made elements into an abstract and playful collage, the sharp geometry and bubble-gum color palette evoking the photographic language of Franco Fontana’s abstract landscapes. It’s fun and surreal, existing somewhere between reality and pure expression.” – Life Framer
LAURA BARRON
“This is gorgeous, experimental art that combines photography with digital manipulation – the soft focus and layering creating something abstract and ethereal, like the way the memory operates; some elements sharp, others blurred and distorted. This is apt, given the context Laura provides in her statement – the image coming from a series that seeks to explore longing and nostalgia after she returned to her home country of Mexico after a 10-year absence. She takes an unusual and creative approach, and the result is stunning.” – Life Framer
CAMILLE DELBOS
“This is an effective juxtaposition – the huge cargo liner partially obscured by a barren dune-scape, the bright colors and logos of the shipping containers at odds with the brown sand. The world represented at its most simple and complex in a single frame. I think of these huge vessels drawing lines across the face of the earth, travelling almost incomprehensible distances to deliver goods around the world. Camille contemplates that enormity in a playful and unusual way.” – Life Framer
RICHARD LOA
“This is a gentle and unassuming depiction of European countryside, but it’s strength is in that subtlety – the careful framing, the soft, muted coloring, and the two lone trees adding weight to the composition, like eyes on the landscape. It has a sort of timeless quality – the type of scene that would have so many times been committed to canvas with oil paint by the Old Dutch Masters. It’s not an image that clamors for attention, but one that slowly takes a hold, and its deeply satisfying for that.” – Life Framer
ANOUK VAN KALMTHOUT
“Anouk creates a new and enthralling world – this fiery red seam like a scar or gash on an otherwise immaculate white landscape, the red liquid simultaneously alluring and disturbing. Perhaps this naked, vulnerable man represents what’s pure, and the fluid around him what his forefathers have tainted. Or perhaps it’s just an alien world to be enjoyed rather than interpreted, born from a wild and playful imagination. It’s ambitious, experimental and spellbinding, and that’s to be relished.” – Life Framer
GUILLAUME FLANDRE
“Here topography is captured as art – the textures, contours and gorgeous orange light that washes across the top of this peak more important to the photographer than providing a sense of location, scale or human context, or a horizon line to give the image an obvious gravity. Guillaume’s lens artfully describes a menacing wilderness – it feels untouched and truly remote. Stark, uncompromising and beautiful.” – Life Framer
JOACHIM HILDEBRAND
“In Joachim’s image these monumental shards of asphalt bare scars of human intervention – neat white lines that once guided and partitioned, now fragmented and incomprehensible. The tight framing suggesting an endless wasteland of urban detritus. May it be an ode to the inexorable march of time and entropy of the natural world; where everything trends towards chaos, and all matter reverts to dust. All traces of mankind on the Earth’s landscape set to one day disappear. It stood out for being a creative and left-field response to the theme.” – Life Framer
ANTONIO MASSOT MASCARO
“Fire can ravage the earth and here Antonio captures its raw power – awe-inspiring and terrifying. What makes this image work so well is the coloration and compromised viewpoint – there’s much more to see just out of view. And the questions that the details pose too – why the road seems to rise almost vertically, a trick of perception perhaps, and what of the homes just off frame, their post boxes visible? The fire seems so destructive, and yet the frame has a strange calmness. That forebodingness is electrifying.” – Life Framer
VASSILIS TRIANTIS
“I’m drawn to the tonality of this image – black, white and very little in between – capturing the purity of the surroundings where this small group of trees cling together against a barren snowscape and seemingly infinite white sky. Like a desert oasis, it’s an island of life in a vast nothingness, and it’s captured with an assured eye. The silence is tangible.” – Life Framer
