1ST PRIZE: MARIO SCHNEIDER

The rich, warm light and the subject’s unwavering gaze immediately drew me to this photograph. Although the street lies just beyond the car window, its presence is felt in the glow of the streetlights, creating a scene that feels at once intimate and cinematic. – SHANA LOPES

The image is soft, sweet, and warm, and allows the subject to tell the story. There is nothing forced on the viewer either; you are free to follow the subject’s gaze, take in the mood, and add your own interpretation to the story. It feels like a scene from a movie, and one can’t help but wonder what happened next. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Chanel, New York, US.

2ND PRIZE: PIERLUIGI MESOLELLA

At first glance, this picture recalls the joyful chaos of a crowded summer afternoon. Its vibrant pastel palette and carefully balanced composition bring a sense of order to the bustle of this scene. There is a playful humor in the way the beachgoers echo the colorful buildings behind them, making people and architecture feel part of the same pattern. – SHANA LOPES

It’s always surprising to see our cities transformed into holiday destinations and their inhabitants into sunbathers. The scene seems surreal and almost comic, as if two worlds have overlapped unintentionally. Nevertheless, there is a good dose of harmony, too, which only emphasizes the idea of city transformation for the summer. The deep depth of field, crisp colors, and sharp edges produce a very appealing composition. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Summer scene. A summer street scene on the seafront of Boccadasse, Italy, 2021.

VASCO TRANCOSO

What an astonishing perspective and interesting composition! A mundane moment becomes a glamorous scene in which strangers are movie stars performing the roles of their lives. Powerful leading lines lure the viewer in and get them lost in a faraway vantage point. Amazing use of contrast and color to create an atmosphere that feeds all the senses. Well done! – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Inspired primarily by the philosophy of street photography, I try to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary everyday life, through a graphic interpretation of the urban kaleidoscope. A search for miracles at the whim of light, providing scenarios of accidental surrealism. The strange in the rituals of daily life. Beyond the prominence of color and the interplay of light and shadow, I try to uncover stories, humor, enigmas, and mysteries within the frames.

GLENN HOMANN

This is the ultimate background of our urban existence. An exquisite graphical composition, with contrasting lines, colors, and shapes, the photograph denotes a clear artistic voice and aesthetic approach. It is playful, artful, and appealing. It may belong to any city, and still it makes you want to go there and explore it for yourself as if you’ve never seen so much color and joy anywhere. – LIFE FRAMER

MICHELE DALLA FONTANA

This melancholic upside-down reflection, red like a scar, is a profound insight into urban life. It’s intense and cinematic, conveying a strong feeling of loneliness and isolation. The street reflects, absorbs, and provides companionship. A simple yet effective composition, with minimal visual elements and a story to fill a hundred pages. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Solitude in Scarlet, New York.

NICHOLAS COMPTON

The photograph brings joy to the street, providing a safe place where the subject can express themselves freely. It’s a powerful image, an environmental portrait that stays with you and reminds you of the wonderful explorations of childhood, when everything was a toy and a discovery. The slightly low angle is a good framing choice because it empowers the subject and opens a fresh, bright perspective upon them. – LIFE FRAMER

LODI PERTOVT

Tradition and culture give a city a special flavor. It may be a shape, color, or attitude. It may be the scent of spice or flowers. It may be the nonchalance and openness in the face of death. This black and white composition transports the viewer to a place where tradition is the rule and people are proud of their ancestors and culture. The three-layer composition creates a fascinating timeline through history. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Luchadores, Day of the Dead Festival. Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

ERIKA HOWARD

The photographer has chosen wisely a literal approach to “our city is the mirror of our existence” and captured multiple reflections of the web and flow of urban life. The result is a potpourri of moments, each unique in its way but all part of the shared experience. The composition is complex, multi-layered, and well-balanced, guiding the viewer from one scene to another and encompassing so much of the environment and its inhabitants. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Urban Reflections, Benin.

KEVIN SMITH

There are many ways to tell the stories of a place, and portraiture is one of them. It is a very special approach: complex, enigmatic, and thoughtful, a radiography of souls to explain the frame they’ve built for themselves. The lights in the background add depth and perspective, allowing the subject to show up on the stage that is their city. The portrait is warm and considerate, discreet and revealing, honoring and honest. It makes you wonder, does the city make the people who live in it, or do the people make the city they inhabit? – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Face New York is an ongoing portrait project made on the streets of New York City. The work is built from brief encounters with strangers whose presence, expression, gesture, or sense of self briefly rises out of the city’s constant flow. Rather than telling specific stories, the photographs focus on moments of recognition and human complexity. Taken together, the images form a collective portrait of New York through the people who animate it: confident, vulnerable, eccentric, private, defiant, and alive. The project explores the tension between anonymity and individuality, revealing the extraordinary range of human character that exists within everyday public life.

SUSANNE BARTELS

Part reality, part reflection, part imagination, this street shot reminds us that nothing is what it seems. The creation becomes the creator; the observer becomes the observed. Amidst all that is happening in the frame, a wedding ring shines through like a magical object. Abstract, monochrome, complicated, sophisticated, the photographer shows exquisite technical skills but also a deep engagement with the subject and a talent for conceptual art. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Oblique. Photographed through the windshield of a car in the evening light of Munich, this image layers reflection and reality into a single frame. A woman sits in the driver’s seat while the empty passenger seat becomes part of the composition. The facades of the buildings across the street are reflected in the windshield, creating an urban framework that partially conceals and redefines the subject.

JEREMY SKIRROW

Such a colorful and vibrant place is an amazing find for street photography. The moment is perfectly chosen, each element contributing to the image’s overall impact. At the same time, framing transforms a mundane scene into an abstract, geometric creation, in which color blocks and lines put on a show, keeping the viewer hooked. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Blocked. Cholula, Mexico.

DAMIAN CHROBAK

This picture plays on the abstract concepts of belonging and diversity. We look at cities as places for community to grow and for people to feel they belong. At the same time, our crowded settlements make the singularities stand out like nothing else. This playful, bizarre, and unconventional work captures our attention and makes us question what we know about the place we inhabit and the people we call neighbors. – LIFE FRAMER

ENZO TOMASIELLO

When street life literally means living on the streets, the metropolis’s grandiose aesthetic seems like a smoke curtain. In a way, the photographer expands the range of street moments to those that most of us don’t want to see or know about. But if you look carefully, you’ll recognize the pillars of humanity: the sense of home, connection, resilience, and hope. The photographer tells the story as it is, not through a lens of judgment and personal beliefs. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Home Beneath the Highway. Under the weight of concrete and steel, Isabella and Christina create a space of belonging where others see only shelter.

BARRY CROSTHWAITE

A very sensual photograph to depict a very sensual place. The photographer used the quality and available shadows beautifully to wake up the viewer’s imagination. Thus, the image becomes more about the fantasy place you imagine than about a real place, more of a dream than a travel destination. It takes presence, vulnerability, and openness to see and capture the untold stories of a place. Well done! – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – The Girl from Ipanema. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

ABE NOBUYUKI

What a picturesque shot that puts in perspective the sense of community and the inevitable feeling of isolation that we encounter even in, or especially in, the largest cities. United by color and texture, the city seems asleep, calm, and serene. At the same time, through a skillful use of light, the subject seems alone, isolated, rejected. The image strikes a chord, for sure, and one can only admire the photographer’s sensitivity and attention to detail. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Light within a dense. Kampung Warna-Warni, Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Nearly ten years ago, this neighborhood reinvented itself through color, turning a community once facing demolition into a place filled with new possibilities. Standing above the village at twilight, I was struck by a contrast: a landscape united by vivid colors, and a single figure quietly separated by the light falling around them. It was in that tension—between community and solitude—that I found the image.

JAMAR CROMWELL

The city’s multitude of faces caught in the act, a moment like so many others and still unique, evanescent, almost impossible to catch. Seen through the foggy window, our everyday reality seems like a purposefully posed movie scene. Highlights and shadows blend in smoothly, creating drama through contrast and warmth through colors. Although a snapshot, the photographic process is intentional and shows a clear artistic voice. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Glass Half. From Pittsburgh to Bogota and back. The streets are a quilt — asphalt, concrete, brick, gravel — and these are the people caught in its folds and uneven seams. This is what life looks like when you look up.

SHOGO MURATA

For many, the city remains the place of all possibilities. This abstract take on street life invites us to bring everything to the table: beliefs, knowledge, experiences, assumptions, rumors, and so on. Is the city a place for the supernatural, where light can erupt from concrete? The main subject takes the stage, leaving room for just a few mundane objects to remind us where we are. It’s playful and strange, a combination that doesn’t let you look away easily. – LIFE FRAMER

STEVEN JOYCE

A picture of contrasts, the image captures the essence of street life: old and new, stillness and movement, tradition and modernity, a mix of materials and people, patches of sky and earth here and there. The low angle is a good choice because it provides perspective and offers an intimate glimpse. The composition comes together smoothly in the warm sunlight, a reminder of unity and universality. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – This image was captured in Kolkata, India, documenting the city’s vibrant energy, rich culture, and everyday human interactions. Through candid moments of work, movement, connection, and reflection, the series offers an authentic glimpse into life on Kolkata’s streets. Together, these photographs celebrate the resilience, diversity, and enduring spirit of the people who bring the city to life.

MONIKA SCHROEDER

The feeling of a city where people have disconnected, individuality has taken over, and we don’t look each other in the eye anymore. For some, this is how street life looks now. Just shadows, empty carcases walking down the pavement with no recollection whatsoever of those around them. The reduced color palette and high contrast enhance the isolation. The leading lines, which each seems to have another direction, add to the story of our endangered humanity. – LIFE FRAMER

CHRIS YAN

The secret of a good street photograph? Patience to wait for the place to reveal its story, an exploratory spirit to wander the streets looking for nothing in particular, and a good ear to hear the whispers and the passing of time. All these are present in this image, in its mesmerizing composition, imperfect symmetry, and soft colors. This is the bizarre world we are living in and call reality, although who really knows what reality is? – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Walking on the streets of Bologna, Italy.