1ST PRIZE – LOC BOYLE

“I was immediately attracted by the special point of view and the beautiful composition made up of human bodies. The photographer has great control of composition and tonality. A group of unidentified naked bodies, but there’s nothing sexual about this image. It’s a celebration of the beauty of the human body without using the cliché of “beautiful naked women”.” – PIXY LIAO

Photographer statement – I like to feel all the contrasts that can be perceived through our bodies – beauty, strength, delicateness, power, stillness and movement all within both the male and female form. Fascinatingly ugly things which can bizarrely be beautiful at the same time. I like to be intrigued and mildly confused and that’s how I want my audience to feel when viewing my images.

2ND PRIZE – HYSTERIA CLEVERCLOGGS

“I really like this image. It’s oddly beautiful. It reminds me that we humans are actually really weird, both outside and inside. I know some people might have a problem with this image because this is not a straight photograph. But I think when you have infinite possibilities of digital manipulation with a photograph, it’s even harder to know when to stop when it’s at a sweet spot. I think this image composition is at a very sweet point that can stroke my emotions.” – PIXY LIAO

Photographer statement – When I got a new phone a couple of years ago, I played around with it and made these. All bits of my body, cut up and pasted in my phone, edited on Instagram and left there. It still keeps blowing my mind that you can do all this in your phone. When you are overwhelmed by technology, making a few collage photos in your phone feels easy and very, very satisfying. Even more so when you can’t even remember how you did it.

TYLER GOLDFLOWER

“Moving in unison with the swirling water around them, and with their glistening shawls giving the image a painterly quality, these women evoke something haunting and otherworldly. Weightless bodies moving in the flow. Tyler’s esoteric statement talks of exploring “our inner workings and desires”, and it’s true that there’s an intangibility to the appeal of this image. An aesthetic treat.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – The water offers us a dream-like version of reality, although rooted in the physical and real, the water removes the boundaries of gravity allowing bodies to flow freely in a dream-like suspense. Sometimes from the corner of our eye just out of focus we glips a more abstract version of reality. Buried beneath our conscious selves, just beneath the surface is the river of the unconscious, carrying our deepest inner workings and desires.

These phantoms of the mind have long been the source of spirituality and religion. Down the ages we have sought to understand these mysteries through stories, myths and legends. From cave paintings of animistic deities to the myths of ancient Greece, we have sought to understand these universal and fundamental inner workings that make us human. Through play and intimacy we come to further understand the fundamental human desire for connection that drives the way we navigate the world, that gives us magic and purpose for living.

WILLIAM RICE

“With a diagonally composed shoreline that draws the eye from subject to subject across the scene, William presents a serene image shot in austere black and white. Each of the boxers along with the horse and rider -perhaps the trainer?- occupies their own space in the frame, resulting in a montage-like feeling to this depiction of seaside training. A precise shot, and an interesting interpretation of the theme.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – This photo was taken in January 2022 on a trip to Ghana. This is the main beach in the capital city of Accra, where I was watching a local boxing club training on the beach.

KIRSTEN ADLER

“A powerful image charged with emotion, Kirsten’s portrait captures something of the exhaustion and all-consuming nature of cancer treatment. Employing a short depth of field to hold focus on the subject’s hand and bald head, and heavy frown lines, she creates a sense of confinement and isolation. An image that you feel.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – An image that tries to capture the condition in the corners of the body and mind when it hurts the most to live through cancer treatment.

ANICA ARCHIP

“There’s something beguiling about this minimalist female nude, titled simply Winter Blues. A siren on the rocks. The pale pastel blues and soft curves of skin draw the viewer in, but the abrupt boundary between body and background -the former in focus, the latter heavily blurred- hints that all is not quite what it seems. It’s a gorgeous image, all the more intriguing for this unusual digital manipulation.” – LIFE FRAMER

KAROL WYLOT

“Confronting the reality of ageing -of the skin slackening and wrinkling, of hair growing grey and growing where it didn’t before, of blood vessels and blotches surfacing- is not easy for any of us, and there’s a multi-billion dollar industry that would have us believe we can combat it. Photographers like John Coplans and Cindy Sherman have sought to approach it head-on, to celebrate rather than shun this inexorable reality, and Karol’s image strikes us as another, albeit more subtle, take on this theme. Painting his subject in gorgeous reflected light, as they survey themselves in a mirror, it’s a stark and honest take on the changing body.” – LIFE FRAMER

JOSEPH SMITH

“Even before reading Joseph’s statement, the context to this image is obvious. The workshop environment comes across as intimidating and unforgiving and so when noting the subject’s missing limb and circumspect expression it doesn’t take a huge mental leap to process what has happened. But that bluntness is no bad thing, powerfully conveying both the fragility of our bodies and of the moment itself – how life can turn on a dime, and how we shouldn’t take our health and physical wellness for granted. Returning to such a scene is a brave thing to, let alone allowing a photographer to capture the moment for posterity. It speaks to his ultimate strength and resilience.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Photographer statement – On the 3rd of June 1974, just 15 minutes before clocking out of work, my friend Tony, then aged 16, lost his right arm in a freak accident at the pasta factory where he was employed. 46 years later, I asked him if I could make a portrait of him next to the machine he was working on on that fateful day. The factory had long closed down and left in disuse but Tony made the necessary arrangements so that we could shoot this portrait. He also gladly accepted to have his portrait taken to show his nude torso and amputation. I could feel the poignancy of the moment as the memories came rushing back across Tony’s face.

MINDAUGAS MESKAUSKAS

“A fabulous concept for a series – depicting the feet of pilgrims who walked barefoot to Santiago de Compostela, as Mindaugas explains in his statement. The tight composition creates a fascinating perspective -the foot and road surface rendered in tactile detail, the forward motion tangible and the veins suggestive of the path trodden- and the wet collodion execution requires a patience and determination fitting of the pilgrims photographed. That the image was taken in the studio during lockdown, when such pilgrimages were difficult to undertake, adds another interesting dimension. 2Feet tell us much more about a person than we think” Mindaugas suggests, and we’re inclined to agree.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – This series consists of two dozen photographs of the feet of male and female pilgrims, made in wet collodion with a large format camera. All the feet are those of pilgrims who walked to Santiago de Compostela, all in the same direction, all with the same composition, differing only in the texture of the environment. All the photographs in this series were taken in a photo studio during the quarantine period, when it was almost impossible to travel, and the pilgrims were very much affected by the fact that in 2021, the year of St James, travel to Santiago de Compostela was restricted. This series is also an attempt to present a portrait of a person without showing his face. Feet tell us much more about a person than we think.

CELESTE KNIRKE ARNSTEDT

“”A plastic fantasy” is a phrase that resonates in Celeste’s poetic statement. Through the advent of social media one could argue that the pressure has never felt greater to look a certain way, and as such a host of tools have become readily available to augment ourselves – from user-friendly tools to touch-up our selfies, to the normalization of cosmetic surgery. Celeste’s image speaks to these ideas – her subject adorned in a plastic mask which may have a specific purpose not explained here, but otherwise symbolizes the idea of facial augmentation more generally. It feels cold, clinical, strange and sad – the white tshirt and backdrop further stripping the character -the quirks and uniqueness- from her sitter.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – From the series What does possession mean to you? I reflect on the matter of belongings. Working with recognizable objects, contemporary trends and familiar scenarios, I examine how single images relate to each other through sequencing. Feeding on shiny green apples while taking part in a plastic fantasy we search for authenticity in a fabricated world of socially constructed desires. You were still present in that moment, in the position of possessing. Searching for self validation while being caught up in a capitalist society. What does it mean to gain ownership of something and how can it so easily lead to either flourish or complete destruction? I investigate the link between the world of consumption and the volatile moment of desire.

ALFONSO VIDAL-QUADRAS

“Pushing the boundaries of the body as a sculptural form, Alfonso finds an unlikely beauty in his non-normative -as he puts it- sitter. He presents their body as weather-rounded stone or a mound of molded fluid – more akin to the abstract work of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore than the bodily ideals of the Greek classicists. It’s a frank study of shape and texture which asks interesting questions of “aesthetic perfection”.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Photographer statement – From the series Forma. This series explores the body from a state of prejudice-free curiosity. Nude is one of my main themes and the choice of non-normative subjects seeks new ways of looking at the body and deepen in the ‘hardware’ of the human being, contained and -perhaps- also defined by its body. Blurring the limits between still life, portrait, abstract photography and classic nude, I find myself in a space where rules seem to disappear and where I can investigate with fascination the possibilities of aesthetic ‘imperfection’ as the main subject.

ALI HAMOUDA

“Ali’s image is immediately recognizable as an eye, but the detail within it become a strange, alien world when seen at this scale. The follicles of the eyelashes become flora, the white becomes wind-scarred desert planes, and the iris becomes rolling sand dunes, disappearing into the inky black abyss of the pupil. It’s arresting to see something so familiar in a new light, and a testament to the vast wonder of the human body.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Photographer statement – From the series Our Body’s Secrets That We Don’t Know About. For my macro experiments, I chose to explore the human eye with an ultra macro lens. A technical challenge as any move ruins the shot. Yet, I ended up with a great shot of my friend’s eye. He discovered the beauty of his body, that he has been holding with him since he was born.

GAVIN DORAN

“Pausing life on the busy city streets for just a moment, Gavin presents a fantastic street portrait of this arresting character – the slogan on his tshirt seemingly capturing his attitude quite perfectly, and the intricate tattoo on his head exemplifying the extremes of devotion and self-expression that people go to. The body is a canvas, and the artworks and clothing that can adorn it don’t get much more unambiguous than this.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Taking “Jesus is watching over you” to the next level. What a beautiful piece. Albert and I got to chatting and he said it was created by a famous West Coast tattoo artist who unfortunately passed away.

GREG MO

“It’s a shame that Greg provides no statement or title alongside this image as we’d love to know more about what’s depicted – are we seeing a man and his successor? His idol? Or just some idle play? Either way it’s a creative, playful image that conjures ideas of history, lineage and expectation, the pinks of this young man’s flowing backdrop echoing that in the framed portrait, and adding a real pop to the image.” – LIFE FRAMER

KEN BUSLAY

“Today’s children are of a generation whose lives and development will be documented like no other – the cellphones of parents packed with daily images all the way back from birth. Such ubiquity of images therefore makes it harder to produce one that resonates with a broad audience – that communicates something worth saying to those beyond the parents, family and friends. While Ken’s image certainly isn’t unique, it has this quality – conveying the magical beauty and fragility of new life in these cupped, crown-like hands, the immense responsibility to care for and nurture it. Few knowingly made decisions are as life-altering as bringing a new person into the world, which is something the viewer confronts when observing this baby’s delicate features, just moments after entering the world.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Human life in western societies is very separated from what we call nature and point to, outside our windows. When actually, we are a closely connected part of this cycle that all things continuously go through in different shapes. They may be breathing at this moment or a tree, quietly turning what they need to live into the air that so many others rely on to live. Or a rock that may have not changed much in centuries but will eventually disintegrate into dust to take a million new shapes.

Just like life evolved on this planet in millions of years, in one lifetime we humans go from the splitting cell, to the creature leaving the water. We start breathing air, develop consciousness and experience life, become creators of the new before going back to the mother we come from. We are the Universe experiencing itself. I photographed the rise and decay of life in different forms with a focus on our human experience, the attraction, will, aggression, longing, lust and creation of life. But I also invite to relate to the other life forms that we once were and one day will be again.

ELWENA BLOM

“There must be huge hardship in living a life with disfigurements such as these, and so to present oneself to the camera in such an exposed and open state is testament to the resilience and positivity with which the subject must get along in life. The photographic technique -black and white and with an unfussy backdrop that acts to reframe the image into quadrants- is apt, but it’s the subject’s forward-looking expression and those piercing eyes that linger. We’d love to hear from the subject in Elwena’s statement.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – This series shows bodies in a vulnerable state. It shows how strong we are as humans, not just muscle strong but strong to grow and carry other humans or get around life with half a body.

DAN LI

“It’s not right to make assumptions about Dan’s subject -whether we may be viewing be a binary male cross-dresser, a transgender person, or something else- but whichever, it’s fair to say that few groups have faced as much public ridicule than those that present themselves this way. It’s therefore heartening to see someone so comfortable in their own skin and in front of the camera, stood contently in front of this makeshift backdrop – the creases in the sheets and haphazard supporting structure perhaps subtly hinting at the idea that authenticity is more important than perfection. A wonderful collaboration between photographer and subject.” – LIFE FRAMER

VALERIE MCDONALD

“Images like this are not easy to digest – being confronted so frankly by the image of someone at the end of their life can feel overpowering, and perhaps a little intrusive. But it can be argued that it’s important to not shy away from this final part of life, and it’s obvious from Valérie’s statement that this image was taken with a great sense of love and purpose (and, we would hope, permission). The narrow depth of field, focused on Valérie’s mother’s hands, helps to tether us in the moment – one of loss, but also perhaps peace and hopeful resignation. Raw and unflinching, it’s a reminder that the body is nothing more than a vessel for our short time on Earth.” – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – I spent three weeks sitting next to my beloved mother and watched her dying a little bit every day until the 29th of August 2021 when she took her last breath. I watched he body deteriorate very quickly she became small and child like, vulnerable and helpless, I smelt the stench of death. I took this photo because I wanted to remember what death looked like.

SAI MIN HTET OO

“The best candid street shots of New York can feel cinematic, and this is a fantastic example – the intensity in the glare of Sai Min’s subject, his eyepatch, blood-splattered vest, and cigarette and sports bag in hand creating a character fit for the big screen. What is his story? Where is he going and where has he been? Crossing paths for the briefest of moments, Sai Min’s image reminds us of sonder – the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Or perhaps in this case, even more so!” – LIFE FRAMER

MAUDE BARDET

“This image shows the arduous existence some of us have to carve out to make a living – here the hard labor etched on this man’s face and his dusty hands, almost reaching out to the viewer for balance. The juxtaposition between his bent arm and that of the excavator in the background isn’t missed – the body as construction machinery. A creative, unexpected response to the theme.” – LIFE FRAMER