Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    ยฉ Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPAโ€˜s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions.  She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
ยฉ Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
ยฉ Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? โ€“ In May weโ€™re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    © Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPA‘s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions. ย She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
© Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
© Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? – In May we’re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    ยฉ Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPAโ€˜s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions.  She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
ยฉ Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
ยฉ Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? โ€“ In May weโ€™re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    © Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPA‘s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions. ย She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
© Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
© Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? – In May we’re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    ยฉ Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPAโ€˜s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions.  She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
ยฉ Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
ยฉ Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? โ€“ In May weโ€™re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    © Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPA‘s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions. ย She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
© Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
© Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? – In May we’re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    ยฉ Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPAโ€˜s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions.  She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
ยฉ Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
ยฉ Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? โ€“ In May weโ€™re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    © Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPA‘s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions. ย She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
© Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
© Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? – In May we’re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto
Winners: Emerging Talent | The Independent Photographer

Emerging Talent Award March 2021


  • color portrait of a young boy with sky reflection by Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    Winning Photographer Junko Akita

    โ€œCabin lifeโ€ - Norway
    From an ongoing documentary project focused on my family life during holidays spent at our traditional mountain cabin in Norway. There are lots of joys, excitements, happiness spending intimate time with the family, but this is not always the case especially for children of modern age standing against tradition-loving parents. As being foreign and living in Norway this is still a special way of having a holiday (basic cabin with no electricity and running water) but many can associate with the emotions involving family life. ยฉ Junko Akita
  • Color portrait studio photograph by Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    Second Prize Sirli Raitma

    โ€œCoexistenceโ€ - From โ€œEHAโ€ series
    . โ€œEHA is a series of portraits of my mother, portrayed in a series of unusual situations, poses, and attire. Eha was born in Estonia in 1950. Widowed, suffering from epilepsy, and lacking great command of English, Eha stayed tightly involved in our lives. In 2015 Eha began to suffer from depression. Life became bleaker. Something had to be done. I came up with a plan to give her something new to focus on, beyond her new procession of doctorโ€™s appointments and medications. The โ€˜EHAโ€™ project was born.โ€ ยฉ Sirli Raitma
  • underwater color portrait of a sealion by Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    Third Prize Matthew Bagley

    โ€œBubble Lionโ€ - Port Lincoln, South Australia
    โ€œItโ€™s easy to imagine an image. The alignment of perfect moments when light and composition collide. When you are waiting it feels like a lifetime away and when you are in the moment it feels like time stands still. Will your capture ever live up to what you had built in your mind before you got in the water. Before the two-hour boat ride. Itโ€™s easy to forget the energy that gets put into capturing moments. To understand what an image means to its creator. The mix of emotions of enjoying being in the moment whilst still feeling the crazy hunger to capture what you have visualized so many times before. Will you do it justice. Iโ€™ve watched them move. The way they interact play and express emotion. Before I came to the moment, I knew what I wanted silky smoothness of fur the humanistic expression in their eyes but above all the bridge between air and water the trail that connects them to the surface. A small moment in the underwater world where they feel understood and appreciated something I can take with me in an image. Now you have my insight into this image hopefully you can feel the bridge that connects us to the surface when you are underneath.โ€ ยฉ Matthew Bagley
  • Color portrait photograph of a naked woman by Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    Finalist Fleur Louwe

    โ€œAnonymous Memoriesโ€
    Self-portrait about classical art versus photography. A sculpture was anonymous, a painting could arise from fantasy. But how real is photography? What we know for sure is that the photographer and model were present at the same time. And sometimes they are one and the same person. ยฉ Fleur Louwe
  • color landscape photograph of Plitvice lakes in Croatia by Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    Finalist Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ

    โ€œPlitvice lakes Winter fairytaleโ€ - Croatia
    Plitviฤe Lakes National Park is a 295-sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. Itโ€™s known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. The latter is the site of Veliki Slap, a 78m-high waterfall. After a night of abundant snowing, I was fortunate to capture the iconic waterfalls with a rarely seen face. ยฉ Jaka IvancฬŒicฬŒ
  • color portrait photograph of a woman at window by Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    Finalist Julia Fullerton-Batten

    โ€œSuzie during Lockdownโ€ - London, England 2020
    From the series โ€œLooking Out from Withinโ€. Covid-19 came. Life changed. Probably irrevocably. I felt numb. Couldnโ€™t stand around helpless. I decided to document the new daily existence of millions. I advertised my idea on social media and through my local paper in West London. The response was enormous. Imprisoned in their home, they gaze forlornly out of their window onto a different desolate world outside. ยฉ Julia Fullerton-Batten
  • color photograph of a nenet child and reindeers in the yamal peninsula by Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    Finalist Alessandro Malaguti

    โ€œMigrationโ€ - Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
    Located in Siberia, the Yamal Peninsula is one of the most inhospitable places on earth due to its extreme weather conditions where temperatures often drop below -40 degrees. It is in this frozen wasteland that the Nenets settled over a thousand years ago. A community of reindeer herders, leading a nomadic life. Nenets live in their โ€œchumโ€, the name of their reindeer skin tents, that are disassembled and reassemble during migrations periods while looking for mosses and lichens which reindeer feed on. Although many of them carry on ancient traditions, over the years fewer and fewer decide to stay. Young people who have the opportunity to study in the city, hardly miss returning to live in the tundra. Another factor that threatens Nenets livelihood is the recent local economic development due to gas extraction (1/3 of the gas from all Russia is extracted in the Yamal Peninsula). All these problems force Nenets to change migration routes, creating new hardships. ยฉ Alessandro Malaguti
  • artistic fashion studio portrait of a woman by Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    Finalist Boyang Hu

    โ€œSurreal kamiโ€ - Luoyang, China
    Editorial portrait work - 2020 ยฉ Boyang Hu
  • landscape color photograph of the faroe islands by Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    Finalist Conrad Golovac

    โ€œThe Faroesโ€ - Faroe Islands
    Clouds silently drift over the sharp cliffs of the Faroe Islands as snow-capped mountains climb out of the blue water in the distance. ยฉ Conrad Golovac
  • color street photograph of two girls in Ireland by Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    Finalist Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

    โ€œKathleen and Bridgetโ€ - Dublin, Ireland 2020
    Kathleen and Bridget are sisters, standing outside a bonfire. Irish Travelers are known for collecting scrap metals. They melt the covering of copper wires prior to a trip to the Recycling center to earn extra cash. ยฉ Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Finalists

Jury's Feedback

  • color portrait photo of MaryAnne Golon
    ยฉ Washington Post

    Judge: MaryAnne Golon

    MaryAnne Golon is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne was the director of photography at Time Magazine and a senior photography editor there for more than 20 years. Before joining The Post in 2012, MaryAnne curated Look 3: The Festival of the Photograph and help guide the 2-year product build of a digital asset management system for a major non-profit organization. Golon was also director of photography at Time magazine where she co-managed the international newsweeklyโ€™s photography department for more than 15 years. Golon has received multiple awards from the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) and NPPAโ€˜s (National Press Photographerโ€™s Association) Best of Photojournalism competitions.  She was twice selected for American Photo magazineโ€™s list of the 100 most important people in photography.

Giacomo Carlini
ยฉ Giacomo Carlini

Open to All Photography

Be part of a vibrant community: The competition award is a unique opportunity to gain exposure and provides a platform to celebrate the very best of contemporary photography.

Open for entries

potrait color photo of woman by Olga Urbanek
ยฉ Olga Urbanek
2024 Portrait AWARD

Win $2000 Cash Awards & International Exposure

Do you have a keen eye for capturing the essence of your subjects? โ€“ In May weโ€™re seeking images that showcase the power of portraiture across all styles!
  • Win $2000 in Cash
  • International Exhibition
  • Shared on +756K IG network
  • Free Portfolio Account
Submit Photos
Deadline: 31 May 2024

Previous Winners


Previous Edition 2022/2023


PAST EDITIONS

2021/2022 Edition

2020/2021 Edition

2019/2020 Edition

2018/2019 Edition

2017/2018 Edition

2016/2017 Edition

Instagram

Follow @theindependentphoto