The Exposure One Awards Revealed 38 Stunning Black-And-White Photos From Its 2026 Contest

A Nile Crocodile resting in still, shallow water. The reptile's jaws are reflected in the water, making an almost perfect mirror image of its toothy mouth.

From the 29th floor of a SoHo hotel, I watched a summer storm move across Manhattan. For a single instant, lightning found the city's tallest towers at once, revealing the raw power of nature against one of the world's most iconic skylines.

The Owl You Always See. There was an owl, silent and black as the night, who seemed to be everywhere you looked. Sometimes on a branch, sometimes behind a window, sometimes shimmering in the water.

Sawarna is on the South coast of Banten, West Java, Indonesia. It has a raw and unique coastline. Karang Bokor is one of the most dramatic cliff viewpoints in Sawarna with one tree hanging on the edge of the cliff that gives a gorgeous minimalist image for black and white photography.

A hanging textile casts a rigid shadow across a rough wall, turning a domestic fragment into a study of weight, absence and light. Cloth, cord and plaster become a quiet geometry, where the smallest suspended object seems to hold the room in tension.

A woman and her cat near a night market in the streets of Ho Chi Minh city.

One afternoon I met a man on the Atlantic City, NJ, Boardwalk. He said his cat did tricks. He placed him on a skateboard and pushed him down the boardwalk. From the front with a low angle, and a 24mm lens, I made this film photograph. The man accidently walked by, and the cat shut his eyes.

This series plays with the rhythm of repeating architectural forms - the presence of birds in single images shifts the composition from a study of structure to a dialogue between scale and space.

The oldest huts in Antarctica on Ridley Beach at Cape Adare built by the Norwegians for Borchgrevink’s expedition in 1899. The Living hut and the Store hut still stand as if built within the last ten years. The same cannot be said however for the hut to the right, built by the British for Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1911 which has not weathered the storms.

Studio portrait with Zac Purton - record winning jockey in Hong Kong with over 2000 wins.

Written in Water, waves inscribe fleeting patterns across black sand, only to erase and rewrite them. Viewed from above, the shoreline becomes an abstract field of light and darkness—a meditation on impermanence, rhythm, time, and nature’s endless cycle of creation and erasure.

For over 13 years, I have photographed Irish Traveller children as they grew from childhood into adulthood. Now the journey continues as I photograph their children—a new generation born into the same close-knit community, carrying forward its traditions, identity, and sense of family.

The Bixby Creek Bridge is a famous concrete arch bridge on California State Route 1 in Big Sur. Opened on November 27, 1932, it stands 260 to 280 feet high and spans 714 feet. It is one of the tallest single-span concrete bridges in the world.

Captured through a wet, condensed windowpane, a solitary dog peers into the dark. This monochrome study explores isolation, longing, and quiet patience, transforming a fleeting moment into a moody, fine-art canvas.

A vessel rests alone in dark waters, held to the rocky shore by a single fragile line. Seen from directly above, the scene becomes a study of isolation, scale and connection.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others - Nelson Mandela.

Suspended for an instant against the darkness, a cockatiel opens its wings like a fan of light. The monochrome frame transforms a fleeting movement into a study of rhythm, grace, and quiet determination.

Tiny juvenile fish living inside the bell of a moon jellyfish.

A visual response to the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi. An aesthetic characterized by finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, or simplicity. Conceptually, I capture fleeting fragments of impermanence with an aesthetic that embraces simplicity and imperfection.

8x10 B&W film, no Photoshop! To create this series of 20 photographs, I designed and built some specialized equipment, and using these equipments, along with special techniques, I created the illusion of floating rocks in the photos without the use of any digital tools, like photoshop or Lightroom.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Black and White book project. One afternoon south of Strasburg, PA, I happened upon a one room schoolhouse with an Amish Softball game in progress. It felt like I had gone back 150 years in time. The Amish don't use cars or electricity and live on small farms.

The struggle for dominance between twins as to who is the elder.

From above, distance erases scale and the sea loses its horizon. Alone vessel moves away from the U K coast as an offshore wind farm slowly disappears into the haze. For a moment, sea and sky seem to become one, leaving only traces of human presence between them. Photographed from the air, UK, 2026.

A hanging textile casts a rigid shadow across a rough wall, turning a domestic fragment into a study of weight, absence and light. Cloth, cord and plaster become a quiet geometry, where the smallest suspended object seems to hold the room in tension.

Where Seeing Begins explores the space between seeing and being seen. Hands conceal and reveal, while vulnerability and strength coexist. What remains visible is not identity, but presence – a quiet encounter beyond appearance.

Thousands of supporters filled Holloway Road as Arsenal's championship parade passed through North London. Photographed from an elevated viewpoint, this image documents the scale, atmosphere and collective emotion of a community united by a historic sporting celebration.

This body of work explores the tension between rapid industrial development and the loss of undeveloped land in my local community. Through photographs of warehouses and the remaining landscape, I examine how growth reshapes both the environment and a sense of place.