AAP MagazineA US-based print and digital title focused on fine art and documentary photography published by All About Photo. Each issue is structured around a single theme and is judged by an editorial board through open submissions, with the magazine serving as both a showcase for emerging talent and a platform for celebrities.
Issue 55 focuses on women, both as photographers and subjects. The 25 winners were selected from submissions from around the world, including fine art, street photography, documentary, and portraiture.
overall winner
The outright winner was Silvia Alessi of Italy, whose series the cut It’s a work that makes you stop mid-scroll. A figure sits against a wall blackened by crumbling mold, his face obscured by a roughly cut red cloth mask, holding a pair of scissors with a quiet, deliberately calm expression. At once theatrical and unsettling, it’s the kind of image that photographers spend their careers striving for, at once instantly readable and fully interpretable.
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Is it about censorship, identity, and acts of self-reinvention? Scissors suggest independence. Masks suggest constraints. The tension between the two creates an image. It is also technically impeccable. The exposure preserves the texture of the deteriorated wall while preserving shadow detail on the dark fabric, and the composition places the single visible eye exactly where it is needed.
2nd and 3rd place
Our second-place rival is a series by Natalia Saprunova, a photographer based in France and Russia. northern people This work is the complete opposite of Alessi’s work. Where The Cut was claustrophobic and tense, Saprunova’s images are warm, expansive, and deeply human.
in ancestral heritageIn , a grandmother is sewing on her bed, surrounded by a patterned rug and floral curtains, while a little girl is reading a book next to her. The color palette is rich and vibrant, and the light is truly beautiful. This is documentary photography at its most generous.
Third place went to Estonia’s Anjelika Kolin, whose series you are my mother The piece is shot in black and white and centers on an almost sculptural arrangement of a mother and daughter. The range is beautifully handled, and intimacy feels earned rather than imposed.
Excellence Award Winner
The Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are Somenas Mukhopadhyay (India), Ezio Gianni Muluzi (Italy), Ron Cooper (USA), B. Jane Levine (USA), Aline Smithson (USA), Donna Gordon (USA), Alan Schroeder (Belgium), Mandy Ross (UK), Justin Roque (France), and Oscar Gonzalez (Costa). Rika), Leonie van der Helm (Netherlands), Sebastian Sardi (Sweden), Nina Nelson (USA), Valentina Sinis (Italy), Beth Stern (USA), Jelisa Peterson (USA), Mary Dondero (USA), Oksana Zira (Russia), Ingeche Tadros (Netherlands), Leonor Benito de la Lastra (Spain), Clark James Mishler (USA), Cheryl Clegg (USA).
Eight of the 25 award winners are men, which is no surprise. The idea was to celebrate women as subjects and creators, not to limit applicants. The criteria for inclusion remained the work itself. All winning entries will be featured in the print edition of AAP Magazine #55 Women and online in the All About Photo winners gallery. The top three winners will each receive $1,000.
Important points
Overall, what this work shares is a clear and considered perspective. These images were taken by photographers who knew exactly what they wanted to say before even picking up the camera, and that’s the biggest lesson we can all learn here.
It’s easy to adopt a try-everything approach, especially when shooting digitally. That means shooting 100 frames, adjusting them on the fly, and finding meaning in the edit. And sometimes it works. But the best images in this collection feel deliberate in the best sense of the word. The location, light, subject, and atmosphere all seem to have been considered long before the shutter was pressed.
Let’s take the first shot for Alessi. A rotten wall, a mask cut by hand, and scissors held in such a way. All this is the result of a photographer with a precise idea, the technical skill to execute it, and the patience to get it right. Similarly, Saprunova’s warm, laid-back domestic scenes work because she knew exactly what she was looking for before she walked through the door.
The practical lesson is simple. Before your next shoot, spend more time thinking about the “why” than the “how.” The gear, the settings, the post-processing workflow, they’re all important, but not as important as being authentic. Ask yourself what the image is actually about. If you can’t clearly answer that question before shooting, the camera probably won’t.
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