From Wildlife To Portraits: 40 Award-Winning Photos Shared By The reFocus Contest

Silver in the Wildlife Category, Professional Division

“Between flight and stone, a macaw casts its shadow across the ancestral cliffs of Chapada dos Guimarães. More than an absence, the shadow becomes an extension of being, revealing the bond between life, territory, and time.”

Gold in the Event Category, Professional Division

“I was photographing the bridal party with the Highland cows, chasing a cleaner angle against the sky, when a bridesmaid’s bouquet wandered just a little too close. The cow saw its moment to get a taste of the flowers. It was a close call but the flowers survived.”

Silver in the Aerial Category, Professional Division

“Seen from above, Vietnam unfolds as a tapestry of color, craft, and tradition. These scenes reveal enduring practices passed through generations, where everyday labor becomes a vibrant expression of cultural identity.”

People's Vote Award in the Wildlife Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Wildlife Category

“A young red fox launches between mounds in evening backlight, caught at full extension for a brief second where behavior, light, and form align.”

Gold in the Nature Category, Professional Division

“A scientist collects black soldier fly eggs inside an aviary to examine them (France). Black soldier fly are use to produce flour and oil for animal feed.
A market estimated to be several billion $ by 2030, as well as significant ecological gains in terms of deforestation and intensive aquaculture.”

Gold in the Travel Category, Professional Division
People's Vote Award in the Travel Category, Professional Division

“A traditional cormorant fisherman prepares his lamp before sunrise on the Li River in southern China. The practice of fishing with trained cormorants in this region dates back more than a thousand years and remains closely associated with the dramatic Karst landscape around Yangshuo and Guilin.”

People's Vote Award in the Underwater Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Underwater Category, Professional Division

“Turtle visiting the cleaning station off of Puako, Hawaii.”

Bronze in the Nature Category, Professional Division

“Storm hits the Felgueiras lighthouse, Porto, Portugal. One of my favorite Wave Series shots - under heavy skies the sunset light reflections in the exposed side of the waves makes every shot different here.”

Silver in the Street Category, Professional Division

“A young girl chases a balloon across the colorful playground of Choi Hung Estate in Hong Kong.”

Overall Contest Winner, 2nd Place
Gold in the Underwater Category, Professional Division
Bronze in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division

“Emerging from the darkness of a cenote cave, we entered an underwater garden alive with colorful water lilies and fish. The sudden contrast transformed the scene into a dreamlike world, where light, color, and life replaced the silence of the cave.”

Gold in the Architecture Category, Professional Division

“It is said that buildings are lifeless subjects and inanimate objects. As an architectural photographer, I have always looked at buildings from a different perspective. I tried to extract stories of faces formed through buildings, with the help of some elements in the sky and the sky itself.”

Gold in the Street Category, Professional Division

“This photo aims to convey the strange order within an unexpected street scene, where geometry, color, and human movement turn a moment of chaos into something almost composed. No one was hurt.

Captured in Chicago on a Minolta X-700 with Portra 400 film.”

Bronze in the Aerial Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division

Nominee in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division

“A herd of impalas gathers on the plains of Serengeti. Seen from behind, individual animals merge into a single visual form. The repeating patterns of bodies, tails and horns reveal the strength of collective behavior, where survival depends not on the individual, but on the unity of the group.”

People's Vote Award in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category
Nominee in the Wildlife Category
Nominee in the Travel Category

“An Arctic paradise Svalbard Archipelago. The effects of decades of poor environmental policies are becoming increasingly clear. What once seemed distant is now tangible and real. It is increasingly evident that the world’s climate is warming and that the Arctic ecosystem is changing radically.”

Silver in the Underwater Category, Professional Division
Bronze in the Wildlife Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Minimalism Category

“With a powerful sweep of its pectoral fins, the stingray vanishes into the blue , leaving a swirling cloud of sand. This burst isn’t just beautiful—it’s survival. By disturbing the seafloor, the ray creates a visual barrier that confuses predators and hides its swift escape. An ocean-floor illusion!”

Overall Contest Winner
Gold in the Fashion & Beauty Category, Professional Division
People's Vote Award in the Fashion & Beauty Category, Professional Division

“Every creative’s journey is colored with different events and emotions that shape them. Every incident encountered opens them to a new level, which in turn makes them who they are.

In Kaleidoscope, I paint the complete story of creatives using colors - from finding themselves to becoming whole.”

Bronze in the Photojournalism Category, Professional Division

“Round Trip: An Endless Border” explores migration along the U.S.–Mexico border. Through everyday moments, crossings, barriers, and waiting, the project examines how people navigate a landscape shaped by enforcement, uncertainty, family ties, and the constant movement between two countries.”

Overall Contest Winner, 3rd Place
Gold in the People Category, Professional Division

“The photo was taken on a street in El Cotillo, Fuerteventura. Its minimalist strength lies in a simple composition. Bold color planes and geometric forms evoke Piet Mondrian’s iconic paintings, with their colorful squares and harmonious balance of form and color.”

Gold in the Aerial Category, Professional Division

“Hutt Lagoon sits as a natural wonder of the world but also a source of beta carotene that is “farmed” from a section of the lake, a fascinating mix of nature and human interaction.”

Gold in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division

“A stunning drone capture of East Java’s volcanic giants emerging from a low sea of clouds at sunrise. The golden light hits the crater rims of Bromo and Batok, while Mount Semeru looms in the background, a small plume of ash trailing against a vibrant orange and blue sky. A masterpiece of scale.”

Gold in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division

“Minimal Cargo” transforms the harsh industrial environment of Tehran Customs into calm, minimalist compositions. Using mobile photography, I highlight geometric structures, subtle human presence, and the quiet balance hidden within an otherwise heavy mechanical space.”

Gold in the Wildlife Category, Professional Division

“Bear catching salmons, Alaska.”

Nominee in the Aerial Category, Professional Division

“A farm placed on Tuscany Hills that from above, it appears like an hearth.”

Bronze in the Nature Category, Professional Division

Silver in the Aerial Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division

“A single red truck drives down the center of a busy shipyard full of containers in Hong Kong.”

Bronze in the Architecture Category, Professional Division

Bronze in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division

“(Peru) Bleeding Blues is the culmination of a two-year pursuit to a remote red lake in the Peruvian Andes, first discovered on Google Earth. What began as a filmed expedition became a solitary return, where I spent six days alone at high altitude above the lake to create this work.”

Gold in the Film/Analog Category, Professional Division

“During the warm months, the pool is filled with Atlantic seawater and the high dive becomes an object of ascent and daring. In the off season, roped off and forbidden, it waits quietly for the return of swimmers and the arrival of summer.

Photographed on medium format film with a Rolleiflex 2.8F.”

People's Vote Award in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division

“This series reveals ice caves from Argentina, Canada, and Iceland, all of which have since disappeared. Reaching them required trekking miles through remote wilderness. From inside, their openings reveal the mysterious nature beyond, forming quiet passages between the cold chambers and the unknown.”

Nominee in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division

Nominee in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Architecture Category, Professional Division

“I was attracted by the red chairs and the shadows of the architecture in the image taken in an old monestary in Spain.”

Bronze in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Fine Art Category

Silver in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division

Bronze in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division
People's Vote Award in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division

People's Vote Award in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division

“A shallow mirror of water covers the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, blending the sky and desert into an embrace of stars and saltwater touched by a veil of airglow.”

Gold in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division
Silver in the Still Life Category, Professional Division

“Illegal dumping in Portugal. At four hidden sites. I gather abandoned household objects and rebuild four rooms from what was not wanted anymore. Once lit and photographed, these discarded things are seen again as useful, identifiable and as a home. It shows how humans abandon what they once loved.”

Gold in the Still Life Category, Professional Division

“Invisible Portraits presents still lifes as portraits. Books, instruments, vessels, and everyday objects become carriers of memory and human experience. Rather than depicting a person directly, the series explores the traces of presence preserved in the things we leave behind.”

Gold in the Abstract Category, Professional Division

“An exploration of the ocean as a space of movement, transformation, and wonder. Layers of color and organic forms dissolve familiar references, inviting the viewer to move beyond recognition and into sensation. The work reflects the fluid and ever-changing nature of the underwater world.”

Gold in the Portrait Category, Professional Division

“In 2014, I collaborated with a group of migrant children in Beijing to create portraits highlighting their harsh living conditions. More than a decade later, in 2025, I revisited the project by photographing the now-adult participants, who had since relocated to various urban centers across China.”