25 Award-Winning Photos Show the Power of Color in Photography
All About Photo Magazine unveiled the winners of its latest competition: Colors. The 25 prize-winning photographers demonstrate how powerful color can be in images, whether it’s vibrant, subtle, or minimal.
The overall winning image is a strong example of how impactful color can be even when it is subdued. Irish photographer Trevor Cole’s winning image, “Pastoral Peoples and Practices,” is much less colorful than some of the other awarded works, which helps tell the story of the photo.
“The peoples of the Ilemi triangle (the Omo valley of Ethiopia, Central and Eastern Equatoria and Northern Kenya) are all pastoralists,” the photographer explains. “The Mundari gather the fresh dung each morning, dry it and use it to fuel their fires. The ash from the fires is then used to massage their Ankole Watusi cows to mitigate against bites from tsetse flies and mosquitoes. They also veneer themselves with ash for the same reasons, hence they appear ghostly as they herd their cattle and fade into the nebulous haze of smoke generated by the fires.”
“Color is everywhere — in fleeting light, in urban chaos, in the quiet balance of nature,” All About Photo says. “It can soothe or provoke, draw us in or push us away. Beyond its visual appeal, color carries emotion, memory, and meaning, shaping how we experience life itself.”
The second-place winner, Laurin Strele of Austria, employs color in a much more vibrant way. Their winning shot, “The Yellow Man of Aleppo,” comes from the series “Colors of Resilience.”
The third-place winner, Palestinian Abdelrahman Alkahlout, shows a large group of people praying, many wearing colorful shirts, next to the wreckage of a destroyed building.
Each of these top three winners receives $1,000 cash. Alongside the three winners, 22 other photographers received Merit Awards for their submissions. These 22 photos are featured below.
Merit Award Winners
NSFW Warning: One of the awarded images below includes partial nudity and sexual innuendo.
