AAP Magazine Selected The Winning Images In Honor Of Women And Breaking Stereotypes

"I met Josephine in the inner-city slums of Lusaka, Zambia. She was sharing how she lost her husband, daughter, and son-in-law to HIV/AIDS. Without any job or source of income, she is now faced with taking care of her grandchildren. There was a brief moment when she stopped sharing and I was able to capture that moment. Although this image shows the sadness that comes with the situation, for me, Josephine reflects the courage and strength that is needed to face them. This is a powerful visual representation of the human spirit."

"This project attempts to illustrate that despite the diversity seen worldwide in people's appearance, traditions, and norms, most of us share strong common core values. I have found that there is no better place to see these commonalities than by looking at women's lives. Women everywhere are driven by the same concerns beginning with a love for their family and community. Though daily activities vary dramatically from one part of the world to the next, I have seen women working hard everywhere, showing incredible determination and strength, to provide a better life for their people. We are all part of the same sisterhood."

"One can be gracious at any age. Wherever you live, whatever life you lead, however simple, if you love yourself it will show – you will beam with beauty. Don’t wait for later! Now is the time to adorn yourself with your special possessions."

"Guangxi Province, China. In a little village, this woman invited me to step into her house. A tiny, dark, spare house with a wall darkened by the burning of a wooden stove, and with just a window from where the weak light of a cloudy day came in. The old lady while we were trying to speak bent toward the light as to get some kind of inspiration to find the right word that we both could understand."

"The suggestive choir made up of over 350 women dressed in black and with their faces completely covered, accompanied by the local musical band, sings the Stabat Mater by Jacopone da Todi to express all their torment and pain. The project is part of a broader research concerning the intensity and passion with which some populations of Southern Italy live their religious faith during Holy Week."

"My latest photography project is called “Face of My Town: Urban Portraits - NYC Edition.” I have lived in New York City for over 25 years and have always been asking myself: what keeps me here for so long? Is it cultural richness, the career opportunities this city can offer, or maybe the ability to experience most of what the world can offer without leaving the city? I guess everything at once, but one thing became certain to me: I fell in love with the people, the way they look, the way they dress, the way they talk. It is hard to find another city in the world with such, or similar diversity within its population. This is what my project is about, just walking the streets and capturing people with my camera religiously. The result is something in between street photography and portraits of people in the vulnerable state of everyday life."

"A teenage Irish Traveller girl attended a popular horse fair in Galway, Ireland. Like many girls and women from the traveling community, they proudly wore makeup, hair extensions to add volume, gel nails, false tan, eyelash extensions, large jewelry, high heels, and elaborate clothing. Many are married between 16 and 18 years of age and have children within the first year of their marriage."

"The Red Purse is about loss and transition and my experiences when I became a young widow. I struggled with sadness, conflict, and guilt. I was grieving the loss of my own identity along with the loss of my husband. I felt numb, raw, and exposed then suddenly felt very sexual and alive. Anything was possible. These in-congruencies were confusing. My wants and needs had been neglected during his long illness. I was ashamed of my new desires. Shortly after he died, I bought a red purse, which sat on my dresser for years. I knew I needed to have it, but I did not know why. I never used it. I see now it was a reminder of what I needed in my life as a woman; something feminine, frivolous, and out of character. It gave me permission to fantasize about who I could become during this transition."

"Over three million people live in the settlements of Mukuru and Kibera on the outskirts of Nairobi. In terms of land area to population, they are perhaps the most crowded places on earth. Extreme poverty, malnutrition, HIV, cholera, and sexual abuse are prevalent. UKO FITI is an attempt to understand the role that women play in these communities and to show the importance of respecting and harnessing their power to make a change. Mark Chew is a working Photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. His current clients include Australia’s leading universities, peak tourism bodies, airlines, corporations, hospitals, and charities but despite having a successful career in commercial photography for over 30 years, he has always been aware that the important work is usually unrelated to making a living. As time goes by, the attempt to return to the values of authenticity and truthfulness becomes more important. But it’s not a linear journey. As we progress down this path we find we are really only arriving at the place we set out from many years before. The danger for documentary photographers is that they can become didactic. This is what I saw, so this is what you should think. In his personal work, Mark attempts only to ask the questions, and in finding a response, the viewer is hopefully in some way enriched."

"This is an image of my mother from one of my daily visits."

"My mother passed her beautiful porcelain doll down to me, Delicate Dolly. I got into heaps of trouble when I gave Delicate makeup with some magic markers. Thirty years later I passed her down to my own daughter who wasted no time in pulling off one of her arms. Our connections to our ancestors and our descendants often feel stronger than our connections to those around us. I often wish my children knew my grandparents. These are portraits of my children as the product of a history of lives lived and intertwined, each affecting and shaping the other. This series interrogates the role of family relationships and history in shaping our sense of ourselves and our place in the world. I have composited my old family photographs, photographs I took of my children as they grew, and images of the New England landscapes in which my children and I grew up. With these compositions, generations reach for each other across time. I exist in the tension of the space between those who came before me and those who will come after. The project is driven by a longing for connection that makes real those things I hold dear, and by anxiety around individual responsibility in passing on family history."

Through my travels around the world, "I'm always fascinated by the beauty in the power of women and the power of their beauty. This collection contains pictures from Israel, Brazil, Romania, New York, Crete, Cuba, China, and Guatemala. All of them, with all their expressions, strong and intriguing women."

"I live in a dream house built in 1940 too small and weary to be considered desirable. Life is going by quickly. I have lost people close to me and not, in ways unexpected or if expected, naively I did not see coming. I know I will not live in this house forever. Hopefully, it will outlive me, but I wonder if part of me will outlive the house. In this time of instability, especially during Covid, despite so much suffering, many realized how much value and mental benefit could come from household activities, rejuvenating the idea of home and health. There was hope this would bring positive change. With a sense of the collective sadness of the present times, I’m interested in sharing a poetic orientation towards healing."

"In my portraits, I am looking for honesty and vulnerability. I believe that vulnerability makes us nicer human beings and that this makes the world a little more friendly and more understanding. People who show themselves vulnerability give others the confidence that they themselves may be who they are. I am most fascinated when I can see the opposite qualities of a person at the same moment. I find this exciting because people are complex. I hope that the portrait touches something of the viewer himself."

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