Stunning winners from 2018 Siena International Photo Awards
The overall winner of the 2018 Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA), an image of a young refugee - a traumatized Rohingya girl, was captured by Bangladeshi photographer, K M Asad. The photograph beat more than 48,000 entries coming from entrants across 156 countries. Australian photographer, Matt Portch placed third in the Architecture & Urban Spaces category.
In Cox’s Bazar, Asmat Ara looks clearly traumatized after the recent violence which took place in Myanmar, on September 6th, 2017. The previous night she had entered Tenkhali Rohingya refugee camp with her family from Kumar Khali, Myanmar Rohingya state. According to the UNHCR, more than 646,000 Rohingya refugees have fled from Myanmar since August 25th, 2017, most of them trying to cross the border to reach Bangladesh.
Awards were also given out across the 11 categories of the competition, along with the SIPA Best Author of the Year award which went to Tariq Zaidi, a freelance photographer whose work is represented by Zuma Press (USA), Caters News Agency (UK), and Getty Images (UK). In January 2014, Tariq Zaidi gave up a senior corporate position to pursue his passion of capturing the dignity, purity and soul of people, within their own environments. His work focuses on documenting social issues, inequality, endangered communities and traditions around the world. Zaidi was given the title thanks to his powerful stories from Congo, North Korea, Brazil, and Sudan.
Winners’ gallery
Splash of Colors
© Sina Falker. 1st place. Floating Market. Early in the morning before sunrise up to a hundred boats meet at the colorful Lok Baintan Floating Market in Indonesia. It is one of the oldest markets in Asia where the inhabitants still trade from traditional wooden boats.
© Anurag Kumar. 2nd place. Game of Colours. The Holi Festival is a yearly Indian celebration announcing the arrival of spring, with a colorful atmosphere that radiates love and happiness.
© Ugo Galassi. 3rd place. Playgound. The art of regeneration is an urban renewal project through public art and design. Playground is a public basketball court located in Alessandria (Italy) designed by the Italian artist GUE. Public art is a response to urban degeneration. It can contribute to civic identity, has educational value, promotes social change, and encourages economic development. It is a way to transform a space into a place.
Sport in action
© Ajuriaguerra Saiz Pedro Luis. 1st place. Reflection pole vault. The pole vaulter makes his final jump, decisive to proclaim himself the winner of the event. The moment is captured in the reflection generated by the intense rains on the ground.
© Luis Henry Agudelo Cano. 2nd place. Matador de totos. The Spanish 'rejoneador' (bullfighter on horseback), Andy
Cartagena, in La Macarena de Medellín 'Plaza de Toros', is being run over by a bull.
© Dean Mouhtaropoulos. 3rd place. Too many skaters. Sverre Lunde Pedersen of Norway competes in the 10,000m Men's All-around Race, on day three of the ISU European Speed Skating Championships 2017, held at the Thialf Stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
© Alex Livesey. 3rd place. The Light Fantastic. Athletes compete in the Men's 10,000 meters final at Hampden Park during day nine of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Architecture & Urban Spaces
© Fyodor Savintsev. 1st place. Toy houses. This picture of some Russian dachas near the city of Arkhangelsk is interesting thanks to the intense contrast between the colors of the houses and the white snow covering the Russian town.
© Misha De-Stroyev. 2nd place. Henningsvær football field. The football field of Henningsvær, in the beautiful Lofoten Islands in Norway, is considered to be one of the most amazing football fields in Europe, and maybe even in the world.
© Matt Portch. 3rd place. Prada. This picture is from the Lost America series and shows a quiet stillness in a forgotten landscape that is somehow ‘on-pause’. Spaces appear frozen in time, their inhabitants, absent or long since departed. Ardently stagnant in their appearance, the images aim to unlock a moment of reflective contemplation and instill a melancholic feeling of familiarity.
Animals in their environment
© Amos Nachoum. 1st place. Facing reality. A leopard seal got into a lagoon just before low tide. The seal was hiding, waiting to ambush young penguins as they got closer. When a penguin got close enough, the seal moved extremely fast and caught the penguin by its feet dragging it to the open water. I was following parallel to the action. The seal released the penguin twice and the terrified penguin succeeded in escaping, but the seal continued chasing after it, and on the third attempt, drowned the penguin and devoured it.
© Shivang Mehta. 2nd place. The hunt. A young and inexperienced tiger cub attempts to hunt a chital (spotted deer) in Ranthambore National Park, India; but the chital turned out to be too big for this young cub. I captured the moment when the tiger cub was struggling to get the prey down, as his siblings and mother were watching from a distance.
© Tony Wu. 3rd place. Sperm whale herd. The sperm whales pictured here had just emerged from milling around in a gigantic cluster, with many of the whales defecating to such an extent that the water was opaque with secretions. This scene was part of a large, multi-day aggregation comprising hundreds, perhaps thousands of whales.
© Peter Mather. 3rd palce. Arctic fox. I encountered this fox scavenging a Caribou's carcass on the coastal plains of Alaska's Arctic. I spent two hours slowly approaching it until I took this picture from six feet away, as she finished her meal. It was a surreal and unforgettable experience and a rare opportunity to be accepted into a wild animal's existence for a few special hours.
The beauty of nature
© Francisco Negroni . 1st place. El Culbuco. This photograph was taken during a violent night eruption of the Calbuco volcano in the Lagos region, Chile. An incredible dirt storm wraps the fumarole of the erupting volcano.
© Khalid Alsabt. 2nd place. Migration. In the desert of Dahana, in the center of Saudi Arabia, Bedouins migrate with camels from place to place, searching for food and water. I took this picture while a group of nomads was passing us with their camels, creating beautiful shadows in a peaceful atmosphere.
© Mariusz Potocki. 3rd palce. Travelers. A group of Chinstrap Penguins (Pygoscelis Antarctica) is resting on an iceberg. When sailing Antarctic waters you will often see different types of icebergs. Some of these floating islands are great resting places for hunting penguins who can travel many kilometers, before jumping back into the icy water.
Fascinating faces and characters
© David Nam Lip Lee. 1st place. Kid with hand crafts. In Ethiopia, the kids of the Suri tribe are being over-protected by their families. Imagine these metal handcrafts as a jail with a Suri kid locked inside. Young kids are the hope and inheritors of the Suri culture, but the overprotection will marginalize the new generation from the world.
© Tariq Zaidi. 2nd place. Yamea. Yamea, 58, who has been a 'Sapeur' for half a century, brings colour and joie de vivre to his community. He has nine children and works as a bricklayer. His favourite item of clothing is his hat. La Sape, Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Ambiance Makers & Elegant People) is a fashion subculture in the cities of Kinshasa (DRC) and Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo). Someone who follows La Sape is known as a Sapeur.
© Xuejun Xia. 3rd palce. Yi ethnic elder. Wuqi Manuo is a respected elder who lives in the village of Meigu in the mountainous area of Dalaing. He is the head of the Yi ethnic community and occupies a prominent position in his community.
To see more winners from the competition, head to the SIPA website.
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