SIENA, Italy – “The Lake” by Iranian photographer Masoud Mirzaei is the overall winner of the 2021 Creative Photo Awards, the international contest of creative and artistic photography of Siena Awards, an international visual arts festival. The photo was shot at Lake Urmia, the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth, located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan. It was selected among tens of thousands of images submitted by photographers from 137 countries. The Creative Photo Awards competition includes 17 categories for contemporary photographers, whose innovative approaches to photography challenge the viewer’s expectations and offer surprise and delight at every turn. The winning images for each category will be showcased at the exhibition “I Wonder If You Can” during the Siena Awards Festival, from October 23rd to December 5th.
The photographic Festival Siena Awards 2021 will showcase solo and group exhibitions that will collect extraordinary shots arriving from all over the world, and offer workshops, photo tours, seminars, conferences, screenings, and guided tours to discover the Sienese territory.
The main guest of the Festival will be Steve Winter, for the first time in Italy, with “Big Cats,” the largest retrospective ever on his career as a National Geographic contributor.
The solo exhibition of Brent Stirton and the exhibitions of the photographic awards “Siena International Photo Awards” and “Drone Photo Awards” will also be part of the Festival.
Here are previous posts from 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020.
More info: creative.sienawards.com | festival.sienawards.com
#1 Robbie (1st Place In Portraiture)
With his image “Robbie,” Steve Wise from Perth (Australia) is the winner of the People category. The shot pays homage to the tenacity of Robbie, a young man who was burned all over his body following an accident when he was 4 years old, during which he also lost his fingers.
“Robbie was burned in an accident in his bedroom when he was 4 years old. It resulted in burns to 95% of his body and the loss of his fingers. He has had a tough life but continues to work hard and live as normal an adult life as possible.”
Image source: Steve Wise
#2 A Mother’s Love (Highly Commended In Animals/Pets)
“A young swan mother briefly closes her eyes while watching over one of her signets which has recently taken to the water for the first time.”
Image source: Lynn Emery
#3 Deep Forest Fairies (Commended In Nature And Landscape)
“‘Himebotaru’ living in the summer night forest, females cannot fly, only males, firefly which is an indigenous species of Japan, fly around the summer forest while repeating a blink of a short time, reminiscent of Christmas illumination. Sight is fantastic enough to forget the awe of the night forest. It is the shining brightness of life of only 10 days in the summer. And forests are living things, and they are precious things that people cannot threaten.”
Image source: Kazuaki Koseki
#4 The Lake (Photo Of The Year)
“Lake Urmia, the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth, is located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan.”
Image source: Masoud Mirzaei
#5 Medusa (Commended In Nature And Landscape)
“This incredible oak tree, reputed to be 500 years old, with branches reaching out reminded me of the serpents on Medusa’s head. The image was shot in Infra-Red to accentuate the contrast.”
Image source: Chris Upton
#6 Rembrandt Still Life (1st Place In Still Life)
“I like the light Rembrandt draws on his paintings very much. And it seems this light is perfect not only for the portraits Rembrandt draws so magnificent. It is ideal for the still life picture too.”
Image source: Olga Rudenok
#7 Mahi (Commended In Fashion)
“A red saree, heavy jewelry, and red roses on hair are a staple of a traditional Bangladeshi wedding. This fashion is constant for many years.”
Image source: Mohammad Zia Uddin
#8 Chameleon In The Bedroom (Runner Up In Animals/Pets)
“Blue panther chameleon camouflaged in a bedroom against a blue vintage floral wallpaper background. Shot on Hasselblad H5x with mixed lighting.”
Image source: Jo Sax
#9 Priceless (1st Place In Animals/Pets)
In Pets, “Priceless”, a portrait of a rhino shot in Germany by photographer Pedro Jarque Krebs from Peru earned the top prize. The photographer intends to turn the spotlight on the often improper use of rhino horns and launch an appeal in favor of a species increasingly endangered by poaching.
“$60,000 USD a kilo, that’s what a rhino horn costs on the black market. More expensive than gold. But life is priceless. Unlike elephant tusks, which are made of ivory, rhino horns are made of keratin, the same material as nails. But the ignorance and superstition of some humans give it non-existent medicinal properties. As in everything, as long as there are buyers, there will be sellers. This will only end in education.”
Image source: Pedro Jarque Krebs
#10 Lace Dance (Highly Commended In Beauty)
Image source: Manfred Karner
#11 Lucciole Sotto Le Stelle (Commended In Nature And Landscape)
Image source: Stefano Pellegrini
#12 Elks On The Mountain Top (Commended In Open Theme)
Image source: Haihong Xing
#13 African Flower (Runner Up In Portraiture)
“Little African girl processed in the painting of the artist Eelke Jelles Eelkema who lived from 1815-1839 in The Netherlands. The dress is made of recycled plastic.”
Image source: Reiny Bourgonje
#14 Gypsophila (Commended In Beauty)
“The English calls the gypsophila ‘baby’s breath.” And in Germany, this plant is known as the ‘bride’s veil.’ According to the legends, a girl who was forced to marry an unloved man turned into a sprig of gypsophila right in front of the altar.”
Image source: Natalia Polomina
#15 The Sound Of Solitude (1st Place In Music)
Eric Politzer, from the U.S., won Music with “The Sound of Solitude” which represents a concert hall in a defunct Havana movie house. The shot is a tribute to Cuba and to the music that has always animated the Caribbean Island nation.
Image source: Eric Politzer
#16 Poems For Sisters (Commended In Portraiture)
“I really love Surreal world! I use photography as a medium to express my imagination in pictures. Inspired by a Historical movie about Royal Princess in the Joseon era 1392 – 1897 ( Korea now ) at that time Princesses in the Palace wear Traditional outfits named Hanbok. I try to mix Traditional elements with Surreal touch into the Photograph.”
Image source: Hardijanto Budiman
#17 Girl With Feather (Commended In Portraiture)
“High-End Fine-Art Portraiture is as simple, puristic, authentic as possible. It is important to me to avoid any distracting elements and to concentrate only on the essentials.”
Image source: Levente Kovacs
#18 Composed (1st Place In Beauty)
Australian photographer Robert Piccoli is the winner of Beauty with “Composed,” an intimate exploration of the concept of beauty, envisioned as a condition of peace and serenity of the body, mind, and soul.
“In this image, I wanted to explore the concept of beauty from within. Beauty is a state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled. It is essentially, part of your body, mind, and soul. She emanates a sense of equilibrium.”
Image source: Robert Piccoli
#19 Two Seasons (Highly Commended In Nature And Landscape)
Image source: Lorenzo Nadalini
#20 In Waves (Highly Commended In Nature And Landscape)
Image source: Tomas Tison
#21 Unbreakable Bond (Highly Commended In Animals/Pets)
Image source: Pedro Jarque Krebs
#22 Torii (Highly Commended In Nature And Landscape)
Image source: Jun Epifanio Pagalilauan
#23 Dark And Decadent (Highly Commended In Food And Beverage)
Image source: Valeria Bismar
#24 Plenty Of Starlings (Commended In Nature And Landscape)
“Every day in the evening at the sunsets, thousands of starlings looking for a place into the reed to spend the night. Therefore they are making beautiful shapes in the sky.”
Image source: Franke De Jong
#25 Palm Grove (1st Place In Nature And Landscape)
German photographer Hans Wichmann earned the top spot in Nature with the image “Palm Grove,” shot from a deck of a cruise ship on the Nile River in Egypt.
Image source: Hans Wichmann
#26 The Flying Bride (1st Place In Wedding)
“The Flying Bride,” shot in London by British photographer Soven Amatya, won the Wedding category. The photo was taken on the occasion of a Jewish wedding during the Horah, a dance that usually ends with the spouses being thrown into the air.
Image source: Soven Amatya
#27 Legacy (Commended In Experimental)
Image source: Cheraine Collette
#28 The Fork 28 (1st Place In Abstract)
Filippo Drudi from Italy won the Abstract category with “The Fork” shot in Savignano sul Rubicone (Italy). The work offers a symbolic homage to the fork, an everyday object that he defines as “sinuous, elegant, feminine and symmetrical, but also threatening and seductive and with almost abstract geometric characteristics”.
“I like forks, I’m fascinated by them. Sinuous, elegant, feminine, and symmetric, yet menacing and seductive. I wanted to look deep into it and find out its many personalities. In this photograph – part of my project ‘The Fork’- I wanted to bring out the geometric, almost abstract qualities of this daily object.”
Image source: Filippo Drudi
#29 Eternit (1st Place In Architecture)
Norwegian photographer Ingun Alette Maehlum won in Architecture with “Eternit”. The photo testifies to the existence of buildings still built with cement mixed with asbestos, despite the material being banned in Norway since 1978.
“Eternit boards were the perfect building material. The cement mixed with asbestos was supposed to be maintenance-free and became very popular, particularly along the coast where the weather can be rough. In the seventies, it was discovered that asbestos was highly dangerous when handled. In Norway, it was forbidden in 1978. Still, there are eternit board houses spread around the country.”
Image source: Ingun Alette Maehlum
#30 Innocence (1st Place In Conceptual)
In the Conceptual category, photographer Jairo Alvarez from Argentina won with “Innocence,” shot in Puan (Argentina). The image intends to make us reflect on the path to take when no road seems marked or when trapped in our own thoughts, we are unable to see the surrounding world.
“Where to walk when no path seems clear? Or is it that trapped in our thoughts we are not able to see the infinite possibilities of the landscape?”
Image source: Jairo Alvarez
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