Budapest International Photo Awards Winners Of 2021, And They’re Truly Powerful (20 Pics)

"This is the submerged forest in Lake Shusenko. Lake Shusenko is so beautiful."
Photograph: Hirotaka Shindo

"Two migrant girls mourn during clashes between refugees and riot police on the Greek Island of Lesbos on February 3, 2020 in Mytilene, Greece. Refugees protested against the terrible conditions in which they lived inside the Moria refugee camp. Moria was the largest refugee camp in Europe, providing temporary shelter to around 20,000 asylum seekers before the fires and its final abandonment in September 2020."

Photograph: Ivan Romano

"During my expedition to the volcanic area of Fagradalsfjall in southwestern Iceland, it was the first photo just after the first contact with lava and the ubiquitous poisonous gas. Volcanoes are a rare opportunity to observe the complete transformation of the landscape. Places that were only recently valleys and meadows became hills, craters and lava fields. Being there was a great experience."

Photograph: Filip Hrebenda

"The history of the Soviet Union is a clear example of how propaganda shapes the worldview, values and way of life of a person. We, who were born in the Soviet Union, sincerely believed in the values that we were inspired in early childhood. And only during perestroika [the reformation movement] we discovered the Other World."

Photograph: Svetlana Melik-Nubarova

"I have spent a year capturing all these mysterious and beautiful images of the universe, including galaxies and nebulas. Every image was shot for at least 25 hours, which means multiple nights per final image. Most of the images were taken at a dark site located in west Texas. Every night I watched the stars while my equipment is working, it makes me think of how tiny we are as human beings, and how little colour and luminosity we can perceive with our eyes."

Photograph: Zixiong Jin

"In the far north of Russia, on the Taymyr peninsula, indigenous peoples continue to live according to the traditional way of life. They wander from place to place with their herds of deer. They spend all year in the tundra from birth to ripe old age, except for the time when children leave to study in boarding schools. It was surprising for me to learn that they are not hostages of the situation, they have a choice. Many families have apartments in settlements, but they do not want to live in them – choosing to roam the endless expanses."

Photograph: Yulia

"Floods in South Sudan have triggered food insecurity across the country. About 1.3 million children suffer from acute malnutrition, exacerbated by the spread of malaria and drinking water made unsafe by the floods, which have affected a million people since July 2020. Jonglei state is at the heart of the devastation. This project documents the devastation on three levels: natural disaster, food insecurity and loss of dignified living."
Photograph: Peter Caton

"What if we could see sound? We would be immersed in amazing shapes drawn by acoustic waves in space. Thanks to Cymatics, we can go beyond the limits of our senses, and visualize the patterns created by a sound frequency on a fluid’s surface. The Resonance photographic project is a tribute to the secret beauty of Nature by showing the fascinating shapes generated on water by natural objects’ sounds (both Earthly and astronomic), which draw in front of the camera’s lens the invisible symphony of reality. Photos here presented: Magma, Stalagmite, Geyser, Fire, Snowstorm, Beluga, Blu whale.

Simone Arrigoni (Rome, 1973) is a classical pianist, freediving world champion (21 world records) and an award-winning photographer (FIOF Italian Photography Ambassador in China 2017 & Underwater Photography Festival Ambassador) with more than 100 awards in the most prestigious international photo contests, publications and worldwide exhibitions (China, Crimea, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Singapore, UK, USA)."

Photograph: Simone Arrigoni

"Modern Indian society seems to be not able to modify some aspects belonging to the most orthodox Hindu culture, according to which a widow no longer has any right or social utility, and loses her identity when the husband dies. Kicked out of houses, they are banned from all social moments of life. A phenomenon that crosses all social classes, doubly enclosed within the walls of the ashrams and the cultural prisons of a society that prefers to make them invisible rather than questioning themselves."

Photograph: Valter Darbe

"In March 2020, I was on a volunteering trip in Congo, Kimpese. Here is a leprosy colony... Leprosy can be cured if discovered in time, but unfortunately many do not notice in time. Gabriel is already 75 years old, he has lived here 20 years. Still hoping, many were healed and gone. But unfortunately society excludes them, they think evil spirits have invaded them. Who is denied. There is hope for recovery, but there is no hope of being welcomed back into their family.

I am 32 years old, Hungarian woman. I was born and raised in Romania. I am a passion traveller, during my travels I look for people's real face, life, past, future... I connect all my travels with volunteering... so my main goal is helping."

Photograph: Emese Balázs-Fülöp

"By compositing together old and new family photographs, this series enables generations to reach each other across time. Driven by personal longing, the images make real those things I hold dear. But in doing that, they address universal experience, interrogating the way in which family relationships and history play a role in shaping our sense of ourselves and our place in the world. They suggest that the present, in each of us, contains both the past and the future. This series portrays the layered process of becoming, and the complex interweaving of time, place, and identity."

Photograph: Diana Cheren Nygren

"My ongoing series of New York fire escapes is an uplifting tribute to the rhythm of this fascinating city. To me the fire escapes and the facades behind them are very characteristic for New York. On one side they are abstract compositions, but at the same time the stairs and windows behind provide a tangible reference to the human scale."

Photograph: Paul Brouns

"What remains of their finery? Blown away marble, disembowelled fireplaces, torn hangings. These great houses have lost their glory. However, lurking in the shadows, astonishing wood and cast iron monsters with lacquered skin display their toothless smiles with ivory reflections. These pianos are the soul of the place, too heavy to be moved."

Photograph: Romain Thiery

"People are often afraid of insects. The insects are akin to creatures from other parallel dimensions or sci-fi movies. The insects’ physiology, superpowers, and the way of life are different from that of humans. I tried to show the true essence of beings from other dimensions using negative images of the original photos."

Photograph: Irina Petrova

"Heralded by the arrival of the nyale, mythically revered sea worms, the Sumbanese celebrate a spectacular spear fight on horseback at the end of each rainy season. Pasola, a war ritual played to celebrate the rice planting season. Captured in 2020 @ Sumba Barat, Indonesia."

Photograph: Wolfgang Weinhardt

This is a Japanese bridge called Meiko Triton in Nagoya-shi. I expressed by a monochrome. Photograph: Hirotaka Shindo

"For this series Holfeld has focused on the the Calpe housing estate La Muralla Roja by iconic architect Ricardo Bofill. Built in 1973, La Muralla Roja is a postmodern apartment complex in Manzanera, Calpe, Spain and is ranked as one of Ricardo's ten most iconic works. The Space Between employs Holfeld's distinctive visual language to assemble the architectural surfaces he encounters as painterly abstractions. Through his lens and borrowing from the clean, vivid clarity of modernist painting, Holfeld transforms his studies into striking compositions of colour and geometric form.

Born in Dublin (1984), Daniel Holfeld grew up in Ireland and graduated with a BA [Hons] degree in photography from Dublin’s Institute of Technology in 2008. Holfeld has always gravitated towards large open spaces, developing a passion and admiration of the complex language of architecture. Earlier in 2020, Holfeld debuted his new series The Space Between in the Royal Institute of Architecture of Ireland and later returned to London to show the series in the Royal Institute of British Architects. RIBA acquired editions in to their permanent and prestigious Robert Elwall collection."

Photograph: Daniel Holfeld

"A small but strong dryer for hair."

Photograph: Štefan Csontos

"A series of buildings in Europe in different shapes, form and textures."

Photograph: Gino Ricardo

"Drunken Scottish football fans in the west end of London to celebrate Euro 2020. Thousands of Scottish fans headed to Leicester Square, where they wore their country’s shirts, kilts, waved flags and set off smoke bombs ahead of watching the match against England which ended in a 0-0 draw, enough to keep Scotland in the tournament. Supporters had been urged not to travel to London unless they had a ticket or had organised somewhere to watch the game."
Photograph: Jeff Gilbert

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