2ND PRIZE: ANICA POMMERAY

Amazing black and white tones, beautiful composition, connection of humans and animals exploring the desert together. – MAGDALENA WOSINSKA

There are so many stories in this cinematic tableau. Each interaction is unique, and each pose and expression has a lot to convey. The emptiness of the scenery allows the characters to take the scene and stand out, proving the photographer’s exceptional technical and storytelling skills. There is nothing forced or induced in this frame, and its innocence and naturalness win our hearts. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – In Between. Two boys pause with their camels in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India.

OLIVIA DE VILLAINE

Featuring beautiful colors and lighting, this image paints a portrait of family relationships in an idyllic environment. The frame is carefully curated, containing nothing more and nothing less than what it should contain. The lighting amplifies the focal point and emphasizes the facial expression. Everything falls into place smoothly, creating a warm and touching tableau. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Coline and her daughter Agathe.

MARCELLA MASTROROCCO

If you look closely at this image, you will notice not just one relationship, but many. Everything is connected, the energy flows freely, and harmony blossoms in this whimsical universe. The composition is complex and meaningful, the colors are well chosen, and the decisive moment is spot on. All elements are lovingly holding hands, inviting the viewer into a world of kindness and mutual understanding. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Senigallia, Italy.

KSENIA MIRNAYA

It’s impressive how a straightforward composition with a single subject in a central position conveys such a powerful sense of relationship. The secret is in the child’s gaze, a small focal point that creates a leading line and speaks volumes. The photographer’s exquisite eye for storytelling and very creative approach transformed what would have been a common portrait into a unique narrative and a memorable shot. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Trust.

YAEL BAR COHEN

The picture features a very powerful focal point that catches the viewer’s attention and refuses to let go. It’s fascinating. The contrast and space are well used to enrich the narrative, strengthen the relationship, and put more distance between the subjects and the rest of the world. Even if it is a posed photograph, it has a natural feel to it. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Shared Warmth. Wrapped in fabric and in gaze, the gesture is simple: we keep each other warm in open space.

GEORGE MEIJERS

We form relationships in mundane situations, but also in adverse ones, and in those we don’t fully comprehend.  Wherever there are humans, there are relationships, and their beauty doesn’t end to amaze us. This double portrait may not be easy to digest, but it’s nonetheless touching and revealing when it comes to human capability to connect. Even when we don’t look, think, or feel the same, we are still able to create togetherness and shared experiences. Amazing artistic sensibility. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – In the 1990s, I worked in a centre for people who are mentally impaired. In this own, familiar environment, I then photographed these people and their supervisors, photographs that behave autonomously and can do without captions or explanatory text. They are portraits of people with obvious disabilities, in possession of something that adds to the enigma of human strangeness. I want to ease the pain we suspect at the sight of their otherness. Photographed in their daily environment, I leave people in their own dignity, not resting until I have found the form that most purely touches their being.

The viewer is given plenty of space to fantasize about their lives and freely associate with the meaning of the portraits.

ANAIS STUPKA

We are most vulnerable in our relationships. The closer we get, the more easily hurt we become. The same applies to photography. The closer the photographer gets, the more involved and vulnerable they become. So, it’s daring to place the camera so close to your subject, to fill the frame with their intense emotions, and to risk having yours exposed instead. The ambitious plan paid off, though. The image is raw, innocent, and intense. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Need.

SEB. SZCZEPANOWSKI

The photograph puts intergenerational relationships in the spotlight, quite literally. The lighting design and color accuracy are exquisite and transform the scene into an atemporal story. The black background helps as well because it strips the characters of their environment and leaves nothing but their feelings and amazing connection to shine through. The image becomes a mirror in which the viewer goes back to their similar memories. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Passing It On. Relationships are built in gestures rather than declarations. In touch, in weight, in shared memory, in small acts of care.

This image is from a series observing intimacy across generations, between parents and children, between partners, between humans and animals. Some bonds are quiet and tender, others physical and protective. I am interested in the moment when distance disappears — when bodies lean toward each other, when support is offered without words, when presence becomes enough. Relationships are not grand events. They are everyday acts of closeness.

ANGELIKA KOLLIN

Some relationships are born due to fate. Others are born due to choice. Regardless of their origin, all relationships blossom in the presence of love and kindness, which is all this picture is about. One can see that in the tenderness between the subjects, but also in the photographer’s sensibility and engagement. Background, colors, shooting angle, and lighting are chosen to serve the subjects and make them feel comfortable and protected. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Zikhona and Paru. Portrait of Zikhona with her adopted son, Paru.

LEXI HIDE

Adolescents’ relationships, with their extreme highs and lows, are an intense and challenging subject for photography. The photographers must have more than technical and storytelling skills. They must have the right mindset, compassion, empathy, and the willingness to accept without judging, to photograph without adjusting. It’s what this photographer did in this bright, innocent, and almost nonsensical picture that moves you without knowing why. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – This image is of two sisters, Aleya and Jenna, and is titled Poison Ivy II. It is part of a series titled Sugar for the Pill.

My photographs are an attempt for me to remember, but also an attempt to get back into my memories. I am no longer a teenager, but I feel like I am, or I wish to be, maybe. Memories are a lie, nostalgia is a trick. It wasn’t that good; it was plagued by newfound intense emotion I hadn’t weathered to yet. Or maybe it was? In high school, it is easy to have the new best night of your life, and I feel like it happened all the time. I had a very close-knit group of female friends. Every weekend, we would buy bottom-of-the-barrel wine from the minimart on the corner and go down to the beach at night. Later, one of us might be throwing up out of the back of a bakkie a drunk friend was driving. It seems insane now, but it was pure fun then. First love, listening to indie music, and smoking cigarettes with the shower turned on. But also first heartbreak, coerced sexual encounters and expulsion. It was all very dramatic. We modelled our lives after adolescent films such as Palo Alto and, less aggressively, Kids. Reality mimicking fiction. I have been revealed to myself as trying to model my film-like photo scenes after my own adolescence, mimicking reality, mimicking fiction. Wreckless abandonment, lack of embarrassment, maybe there is something great about your prefrontal cortex not being fully formed.

AGATA SZYMANOWICZ

This is what family life looks like when no one is watching. The photographer captured a very intimate and mundane moment in the most candid and honest manner. Without any embellishments or curated framing, the scene unravels as it is, a mix of caring, providing, loving, and educating, a potpourri of interactions and emotions that will change in the blink of an eye. The documentary purpose of photography shines through. – LIFE FRAMER

JORDI ORIOL SERRA

The picture demonstrates how visual weight changes according to the meaning we attach to a certain element and thus how important relationships are in our lives. In this black and white, straightforward composition, the small focal point in the distance should have been invisible or at least insignificant. However, it’s all we can look at because it depicts a relationship. It’s the epicenter of the story, the trigger of our emotions. So simple and so efficient! – LIFE FRAMER

STEFAN KONKOLY

It’s good for us to be reminded that relationships are universal and everyone is worthy of love. This embrace speaks volumes about the profound connection between the two, their unwavering trust, and their mutual respect. The framing and choice of focal point enhance the story and concentrate the viewer’s attention on what really matters. No embellishments are necessary in the face of true love. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Relationships are not only humans – this hand on a forehead becomes a promise: ” I am here – you are safe”.

ANDREA BETTANCINI

Traditions provide a sense of belonging, an ongoing relationship with our ancestors and communities. It’s a common subject matter, so it takes a lot to come up with a fresh perspective and impose a personal style like this. There is something fundamentally traditional here, but also something whimsically modern. The fog and the water blend perfectly, creating a vast open space that makes the group stand out even more. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Kolkata, India. A group of men at a ritual bath.

DAVID HORTON

No one really knows what comes after the couple gets together and walks away into the sunset, but we want to believe that this image is the answer. And for many, it is. Simple and revelatory, the composition allows light to paint the scenery, surface feelings, and create a temporary line that takes us step by step through the couple’s life together, always facing the light in a tight embrace. A lovely portrait! – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Mom and Dad.

MONIA MARCHIONNI

The photograph is intense and touching, a reminder of how important it is to be accepted. The group pose and the included details enhance the story and create a bridge between past and future. Compositionally, good decisions were made, such as negative space to make the subject stand out, soft contrast to highlight the mood, and a central position for harmony and balance. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement –  Mitna From the series No One Arrives Intact – creative portraits made between 2024 and 2025 with unaccompanied minors who arrived in Italy and are supported by the Social Services of Macerata. Shaped by journeys across deserts, seas, and mountains, they carry stories of violence, loss, and survival. Portraiture becomes a space of listening.

Mitna was born in Chad in 2007. He holds in his hands a selfie of himself taken after being brutally beaten in Tunisia by a group of traffickers who wanted to steal the engine of the boat on which he was traveling with other migrants. Losing the engine would have meant certain death, and he defended it at all costs. He dreams of a better life, reuniting with his family of origin, and starting his own family.

Being able to rely on the people who helped him in Italy was essential. Their support gave him strength, direction, and the courage to imagine a future. In Italy, he found connection, dignity, and a sense of home.

ATHANASIOS FITSIOS

What a beautiful parallel between the mountain peaks that have stood side by side for ages and the four people who bond watching them! The multilayered composition takes the viewer gradually from one element to another, giving them time to sink into the story and take in the view. It’s an open invitation to friendship, wandering, and spending time in nature with your best people by your side. – LIFE FRAMER

VILMA PAULIKAITĖ

No words, just feelings. An entire narrative encapsulated in an embrace. This multigenerational portrait stripped of color, décor, and even subject identity puts the relationship in focus above all else. The entire exterior world is blocked out, with light being the only thing allowed in. Even the photographer’s presence is erased, showing an extreme artistic sensibility and engagement with the theme. – LIFE FRAMER

TARA FEARN

The entire universe of a relationship can be contained in something as subtle as a gaze, but also in a touch, a gesture, an action, or an entire environment. There are endless artistic opportunities here. But closeness is probably the most powerful of them, especially for documenting the relationship between a mother and her child. The space is well utilized to make the viewer understand proximity as a way of caring and being present for the loved one. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – Life in Suri. A mother in her daily work, while carrying her child, reflecting the seamless rhythm between labour and caregiving. The image captures the quiet strength and continuity of care that exists within everyday life. Relationships with child, food, and culture.

Relationships in the Suri tribe explores the quiet gestures that connect us – touch, proximity, and shared presence. These portraits reflect the universal bonds between parent and child, between generations, and between individuals whose lives are intertwined through care, guidance, and belonging.

Through moments of stillness, the series invites viewers to recognise the familiar language of connection that exists across cultures, reminding us that relationships are felt as much as they are seen.