FIRST PRIZE – COLBY BLOUNT
 

“The photograph suggests a dramatic scene is occuring which is supported by a beautifully orchestrated narrative. The dense horizon, the dramatic clouds looming above, the figure draped in red fabric, and the purring of the vehicle in the background – all of which pull you in visually. Whether this scene is real or imagined, I am curious what happens next.” – NEIL KRUG

Photographer statement – “From a series taken during a safari excursion in Kenya and Tanzania.”

SECOND PRIZE – MAX STURGEON

“Amidst this bustling train station, the noise and activity disappear into the darkness so that all remains is a figure staring directly into camera. The storytelling and composition are dramatic, and the splash of color on the figure is stunning.” – NEIL KRUG

ROBERT ROSINSKY

“In his statement Robert talks of entering into a dreamlike trance to make his slow shutter speed works, and it’s a state that he perfectly translates to the visual form. Comprised of a palette of colors you might imagine couldn’t exist in a single frame, bleeding into one another in the horizontal plane, it has an uncanny quality – immediately recognizable as a sea and sky, and yet quite apart from our mental images of such a landscape. Empty, unending and inviting, there is something hypnotic about it – an abstract interpretation of the ocean that both surprises and mesmerizes.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “The process of taking these pictures involves scoping out a location along the shore to set up the tripod/camera. Then, while focusing my gaze on the horizon, I enter a meditative dreamlike state that often lasts up to several hours. I generally take only a few pictures during that time. Depending on the interplay between sky, sea, sunlight, and my state of mind, the exposures last anywhere from seconds to minutes. I print the images large so as to envelop a viewer. I’m attracted and influenced by color field paintings of the 1940s to 1960s. Except rather than paint, I’ve chosen to use light.”

AMINA STELLA STEINER
 

“Working with a limited palette of yellows that accentuate her subject’s skin condition, Amina’s portrait is a celebration of difference, of loving our uniqueness and individuality in a world where ‘society’s attitude towards deviations from the norm is merciless’. Almost all of us will relate to that in one way or another, wishing to fit in rather than stand out, dreaming something about our physical appearance was different. And yet here her subject Bianca, with her mottled skin and piercing eyes, exudes a confidence and comfort within her own skin. It’s a wonderful message, executed in a thoughtful and effective way.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “Bianca. People are judged and condemned because they do not live up to certain ideals. But what is normal? What is different? And when did we allow ourselves to give away the freedom to answer these questions ourselves? Society’s attitude towards deviations from the norm is merciless. And we are part of that society. And precisely because this is the case, we have the opportunity to change it from within. But first, we have to recognize again the beauty and uniqueness that constitutes “being different”.”

ALEXEY KIM
 

“Shot with tight framing and under a monochromatic red light perfectly complementing this couple’s intimate moment, this image captures the intense emotion and energy of a club night – the clamour of bodies, both the connection and anonymity of the crowd. It’s all the more resonant after the pandemic, a scene that will provoke emotion in all of us, be it nostalgia, nervousness, or impatience to be back on the dancefloor.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “This image was taken in 2020 during Valentine’s Day party in New York City’s Webster Hall. This was the last large party in the city and the attendees couldn’t have predicted that just in a few short weeks the whole world would be crippled by the coronavirus pandemic. For me, this photo represents how human connection can be disrupted in a blink of an eye- one moment you show your care by sharing a kiss and the next you are staying six feet away not to harm someone you love.”

ANNA DIMITROKALI
 

“Low to the water, Anna creates a wonderfully immersive image full of the rich blues so synonymous with her home country of Greece. While simple in subject matter and execution, it’s a visual feast – with the textures of clouds, haze-covered hillsides and soft-focus waves of sea, and the gradation of blues, from the top to the bottom of the scene. Land, sea and sky combine to create a relaxing vision of monochromatic beauty.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “From the series Every Shade of Blue. “A few years ago one of my friends from India while landing in Greece told us “I can’t believe how blue your sea is”. I told her that Odysseas Elytis, our Nobel winning poet wrote “God, how much blue do you spend so that we can’t see you exist”. This year on 25 March Greece celebrated 200 years of its modern state independence. These pictures are a tribute to my homeland. Blue is the most prominent colour.”

FRANCESCA ALVANDI
 

“Francesca’s long-distance aerial shot of sunbathers on a beach has an unreal quality emphasized by the flat angle and lack of shadows, almost evoking an intricate painting or patterned wallpaper or fabric. Dappled with spots of bright color against the pale sand, it offers a quirky insight into the summer ritual of so many of us, each occupying a little pocket of available space. It would look fantastic printed large-scale, for the viewer to pour over the details as well as enjoying the whole.” – LIFE FRAMER

RACHEL TURNER
 

“You could easily argue that the technicalities of this image are all wrong – the subject and slice of a wooden fence are caught awkwardly in the composition, never mind out of focus, and the horizon line sits neither centrally nor obeying the rule of thirds. And yet it works wonderfully. This rule-breaking acts to create an urgency and immersion to the scene – we feel the adrenaline and carefree-glee as Rachel’s subject races towards the impossibly bright field and sky, her not far behind. It has a momentum, an infectiousness that is hard to resist.” – LIFE FRAMER

LINDSEY RICKERT
 

“There’s a rich history of flowers and plants in the visual arts, symbolic of ephemerality and decay, purity or promiscuity, or simply in showing beauty for beauty’s sake. Lindsey adds a modern twist to the tradition, capturing this leaf in stunning detail and using the complimentary colors of pink and cyan to highlight its sensual shapes and add a synthetic element in tension with the natural form. The result is arresting – exploratory art that leads to a fresh and alluring aesthetic beauty.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – From the series Otherworldly Botanicals. “A series born at the start of the pandemic. I found myself feeling lost and disconnected at the sudden inability to photograph or be near people. Searching for a creative outlet to help me cope, I looked out my window one afternoon to see my Four ‘O Clock plant had started to bloom. These beautiful flowers bloom in late afternoon and lose all their petals by the following morning. I quickly clipped a few of them and rushed into the studio to play, approaching them as I would a portrait of a person. As the weeks carried on more subjects began presenting themselves as they came out of their winter dormancy and the series was born. Each image is created in camera using the power of studio lights covered in gel paper to get the rich and saturated colors you see.”

GIANLUCA ATTOLI
 

“Gianluca captures one of those understated moments which while not unordinary is nonetheless very engaging. The glow of orange between these parked lorries is quietly alluring, compelling us to step into the gap and feel the warmth of the early morning light. It’s a fantastic example of using complimentary colors to create impact, and it’s a branch of photography that should be commended because it’s accessible to us all – no exotic location or complex set-up required, simply using a keen and creative eye to find moments of beauty in the everyday.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “A single stand-alone shot that wasn’t made for any specific project, although I believe it shares the same fundamental moods and “objects of interest” of my work – the “ordinary beauty” of human-altered scenarios.”

ANDREA ILLAN
 

““The secret beauty that is latent in the scene of everyday life” is a fitting descriptor for this image. Laundry hanging on a washing line is a sight we’ll all be familiar with, and yet there’s something special here – in the interplay of light and shadow, the bright flowery fabrics depicting natural life where none other is present, and the draped trousers and stacked bricks like accidental sculptures. Everything is awash in a subtle pink glow from strong low Cape Verde sun. This simple urban mise-en-scène, despite the lack of any people in sight, feels comforting and alive with life and character.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – From the series Boa Viagem. “Hanging laundry, Boa Vista, CV 2020. Each place is unique for the visitor because no two looks are the same, no two days are the same, no one minute is the same as the previous one or the next. This is about showing all the symbolic meaning behind the most everyday things, capturing the most common things and making them unique. Discovering to the viewer the secret beauty that is latent in the scene of everyday life.”

SASHA ELAGE
 

“Sasha describes his work as visual poems, and it’s an apt phrase for this image. The scene of a wooden jetty leading out to sea may have become something of a visual cliché, a shorthand used by the travel industry to convey peace and tranquility, but by omitting the horizon line and shooting with a harsh flash that paints the wooden slats like a color chart blending from green to blue, Sasha creates something as unusual and ethereal as it is soothing and grounding. It’s an idiosyncratic interpretation of a scene that many photographers would have framed in a far less interesting way.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “Colors are an essential part of my work as a photographer even when the conditions are difficult especially at night. These pictures tell something, but what it exactly is, I can’t put my finger on it. I think it’s up to you to decide and decipher, it’s like a poem or rather a visual poem. You really never want to explain a poem anyway.”

JOSUE SILVA
 

“Aerial photography has become more accessible in recent years with the advent of low-cost drones, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy genre to get right. This image works so well because it’s not only aesthetically pleasing, but also tells us something of the world we inhabit – of the minerals we exploit from the earth’s crust, and of the myriad patterns in nature, this dried up delta echoing the branches of a tree and in doing so highlighting the fragile relationship between water and life. The dark shadows that cut diagonally across the frame like stitches through fabric add another layer of intrigue. Are they people? Markers of some form? We’re eager to know more.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “Tree of Life – Over millions of years, rising temperatures have caused water to disappear across the earth, leaving scattered dry lakes and paving the way for thriving excavation. Today, mining yields several tons of minerals annually. Each dry lake contains their own unique color combinations based on the types of materials it contains.”

KEF ZHENG
 

“Candy pop pink is obviously the dominant color here, but it’s the way the light pours into the room, casting Kef and their surroundings in a mesmerizing shimmer, that first draws the viewer into this frame. Taken from a series exploring Kef’s identity as a trans artist, they sit center-frame, not fully at ease with this traditionally hyper-feminine bedroom, confronting the viewer with a weary gaze that reveals so much of the inner and outer conflict they must face. It’s a striking, delicately-handled image, touching on ideas of growing up, safe spaces, escapism through imagination and of course gender. Titled She Leaves at Dawn, and with that stunning lighting, it has a dreamlike quality, while speaking to a real and important topic grounded in the now.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – From the series Ballad of Mulan. “We traveled together for twelve years, but we never suspected Mulan was a woman! Influenced by the Chinese folk song of the same name, Ballad of Mulan explores performativity as it relates to my own identity as a Chinese and trans artist. In re-interpreting passages from the original work into my own perspective, the images examine my personal relationships to gender and family.”

WILLIAM MARK SOMMER
 

“Awash with the glow of neon, this image captures a retro, nostalgic vision of the US – of long-distance roadtrips through vast, open expanses that is core to a uniquely American aesthetic, and that so many of us will only have experienced second hand through pop culture and advertising. It’s no surprise it feels so cinematic, and so inviting.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “The Blue Swallow. The neon stretches for miles intersected by concrete dinosaurs, kitschy gift shops, classic diners, and Muffler men; in Route 66: An American Curio, I seek to capture these cultural icons of America’s most famous bypassed highway. By documenting these roadside attractions, I look to show this unique culture that has come to create and inhabit the history of the highway while developing an understanding of this long-standing tradition of the American road trip.”

SALLY MASON

“Abstracting this landscape into a study of color and form, Sally creates a vibrant and expressive scene, bursting with bold, fiery hues. The off-focus results in an image that never quite resolves itself, encouraging the viewer to spend ample time absorbing its soft shapes and textures. It exists at an intersection between reality and expressionism, and that’s an engaging place to be. Redolent of a hot, expansive desert like the Sahara or Namib, who would have thought it was taken on the coast of the UK!” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “Orange Landscape – shot on a day by the coast soon after lockdown restrictions started to ease in the UK and we could finally leave our homes after 3 months.”

FRANÇOIS PERCHERON
 

“Titled simply ‘Laundry in the Congo’, this is a subtle interpretation of the theme, and a lovely glimpse into a daily family ritual. Absorbing the details is a joy.” – LIFE FRAMER

HUGO HEALY

“The otherworldly colors are what first draw you into this image. A golden stream winds through slick, oily black sands, emptying itself and gradually diffusing into an impossibly turquoise sea. It’s as if Hugo has artificially distorted the colors with filters or post-processing, but it is in fact entirely natural, as he describes in his accompanying statement. It feels alien and alluring, and is a reminder of the majesty of the natural world and its unending capacity to amaze.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “Sulphur Beach. Black sand lava beaches mixed with electric yellow glacier rivers. A unique colour contrast flooding into the northern sea. Minerals from the sulphur within Iceland’s lands and glaciers create this colourful yellow water. A stunning sight to see.”

LAURA ZALENGA
 

“A wonderful, unexpected study of shape and form, Laura’s body occupies the empty space in the frame with a seeming effortlessness – a body in complete symbiosis with the landscape. Such elegance belies the difficulty and patience in achieving a shot like this, all the more impressive when you learn that it’s a self-portrait. It’s a creative concept staggeringly well executed, and as her succinct statement describes, a reminder that as the spiritualist Wayne Dwyer put it “when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – “Self-portrait in a poppy field. Well, rather in a small grass verge next to a big, busy highway. But perspective changes life I guess.”

LORENZO POLI
 

“Cutting across this otherwise peaceful landscape like an open wound, the way this line of flames interplays with the deep orange tones of the sky is a thing of beauty. But what are we witnessing? Is it natural or manmade? Controlled or raging wild? It’s that uncertainty, and how it sits with the otherwise tranquility of the orange haze, that makes this image so engaging. We’re eager to learn more.” – LIFE FRAMER