1ST PRIZE: Haluk Safi

“We like photographs that take us somewhere we’ve never been before, images that are surprising, enlightening, enigmatic, or amusing. Sometimes it’s the subject itself that’s engaging, sometimes it’s the vision of the photographer—and most often it’s a bit of both. In Turkish photographer Haluk Safi’s photograph, it’s not just the fantastical nature of the puff of smoke clouding the man’s face that intrigues us visually, or the way the plume echoes the moody sky in the background. It’s also the way the smoker seems lost in a fog of his own thoughts, worlds away from the tender family scene unfolding nearby.” —Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

2ND PRIZE: Olesia Kim

“Sometimes photographs give the viewer an uncanny sense of being there—a heightened sense of immediacy and intimacy. In this image by Russian photographer Olesia Kim, we are drawn in so close to this complicated, layered scene of women, it’s as if we are part of the gathering. Kim’s street photograph verges on the edge of chaos, yet somehow holds together visually—reminiscent of the still point in a dance—and each time we revisit the image, we can almost hear these women’s voices, we can almost imagine this London street brought to life.” — Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

3RD PRIZE: Sakulchai Sikitkul

“A perfectly timed street scene revealing the photographer’s intuition and a great eye for composition. Although children’s playgrounds are notoriously “busy”, to say the least, Sakulchai Sikitkul successfully creates a vivid yet well-balanced photograph where multiple stories are temporarily connected through an invisible thread, all in a single frame.” – The Independent Photographer Editors