This is one of my favorite awards of the year. You don’t have to be a photography enthusiast or professional to appreciate the stark creativity and talent of the participants, and the winners often come through with some of the most awe-inspiring images. Created by Iranian gallerist Hossein Farmani in 2003, the International Photography Awards has provided a global platform for some of the most talented photographers in the world, pros, and novices alike, and this year’s winners have just been announced.
Grand Prize Winner: Wild Carrots, by Anne Mason-Hoerter
Category Winners:
Fine Art: “Wild Carrots” by Anne Mason-Hoerter
Street Photography: “School Run, Rwanda” by Benjamin Buckland
Nature: “Wallace Flying Frog” by Shin Leong Teo
People: “Rice Growers” by Jacopo Maria Della Valle
Technology—Machine: “The Urban Semiconductor” by Youngkeun Sur
The theme for 2020’s single-image contest was movement, and thousands of photographers participated on a global scale.
“The idea that everything moves, changes, and evolves, is such a great concept to explore through photography. It’s been inspiring to see how photographers of all levels of expertise have captured this concept in its many forms — universal, abstract, human, and machine. Even though it seems the whole planet has almost come to a standstill, through these images we see that life goes on and moves forward,” Hossein Farmani, the IPA’s president and founder, said in a press release. [2]
The Movement Photographer of the Year Award went to Anne Mason-Hoerter from Germany, and her intricate shot of “Wild Carrots” blooming at night truly deserved first place. It was original, incredible, and took the idea of “movement’ to a whole new level. Her photo also won first place in the fine-art category.
Second-place in the fine art category went to Patricia Burra from Italy, titled, “Almost Free”. It was a stunning image of a dancer powerfully surging forward in sync with a horse, both dressed in flower-print tights.
Third-place in fine art went to Ugo Riccardi from Italy, titled “Giant’s Causeway and figure, Northern Ireland”. His photo featured a man standing at the peak of Giant Causeway, an ancient part of Northern Ireland dotted with over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns.
First-place in nature went to Chin Leong Teo from Singapore who captured the “Wallace flying frog”, a photogenic, brilliantly-colored frog often found in Malaysia and western Indonesia.
Claudio Piccoli from Italy snatched second-place in nature. She captured a stunning image of a dog playing fetch with its owner in the water, with the sky displaying lovely morning colors in the horizons.
Third-place in nature was Jean-Christophe Girard Lemay from Canada who captured “Surfacing”, a detailed image of a beluga whale blowing air just before it hit the water surface.
@ Jean-Christophe Girard Lemay
First-place in the people category went to Jacopo Maria Della Valle from Italy. This photographer captured an interesting image of rice workers in China using their hands and baskets to harvest, which is a quite shocking scene since China is a global hub of industrialization.
Second-place in people went to Ken Browar and Deborah Ory from the United States for capturing “Night Journey”, a photo of 6 dancers performing the piece “Night Journey”, choreographed by Graham and based on the Greek myth of Oedipus and Jocasta.
Third-place in people went to F. Dilek Uyar who captured “The dusty and arduous journey of sheep herds in Bitlis.”
First-place in street photography went to Benjamin Buckland for “School Run, Rwanda,” an insane image of a father ferrying his children to school on a fast-zapping bicycle.
Second-place in Street photography went to Dimpy Bhalotia for her image of “flying boys” in Varanasi, India.
Third-place in street photography went to Canada’s George Stastny who captured “momentum”, a well-timed image of a man walking across alternating white and black caret stripes on a wall. His legs were clad in black trousers and one leg was synced so perfectly with a black stripe on the wall that it seemed to disappear.
First-place in technology/machine went to Korean photographer Youngkeun Seur for his photograph titled “Urban Semiconductor”.
Richard Seymour from the United Kingdom won second-place in technology. His photo was an image of a replica Porsche Type 64 at the 2020 GP Ice Race at Zell am See, Austria. The vehicle became one with the surroundings as it revved up a haze of ice and dust against the light and grey background.
Christiaan Van Heijist from the Netherlands won third-place in technology for his picture titled “moonlight over the Atlantic”. In his description of the almost unreal landscape, he wrote, “About to cross 30 West, halfway a stormy Atlantic Ocean when the radiant moon ascents above the horizon. Blinding out most stars, the bright lunar spell adds a touch of magic to the world around me.”
References
- “IPA Announces Winners of One-Shot “MOVEMENT” Photography Competition!” Pro Bee. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- Photo Awards. Retrieved June 8, 2020.