The Iranian Photographer Won The Main Prize Of The Siena 2021 Photography Competition
Recently, The Selected Images Of Siena Creative Photography 2021 Were Published, And Masoud Mirzaei, An Iranian Photographer, Won The Overall Winner Of This Competition.
According to Boredpanda, “Lake” by Masoud Mirzaei, an Iranian photographer, won the overall winner of the 2021 Siena Creative Photography Competition.
This photo was recorded in Lake Urmia, the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth saltwater lake in the world, located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan. The said work was selected from among ten thousand images sent by photographers from 137 countries.
The Creative Photo Awards competition includes 17 categories for contemporary photographers whose innovative approaches to photography challenge the viewer’s expectations and, in addition to the sense of beauty, also use the creativity factor.
The winning images from each group will be displayed at the I Wonder If You Can use exhibition during the Siena Festival from October 23rd to December 5th.
The Siena Awards Photography Festival 2021 showcases solo and group exhibitions that bring together extraordinary photographs from around the world and offers workshops, photography tours, seminars, conferences, screenings, and exclusive tours to discover the territory of Siena.
For the first time in Italy, the primary guest of the festival will be Steve Winter, famous for his experience photographing big cats for National Geographic.
Brent Stirton’s solo exhibition, Siena International Photo Exhibition, and Drone Photo Exhibition will also be part of the festival.
First place in the portrait category
Robbie by Steve Wise
Steve Weiss from Perth (Australia) won the “People” category with “Robbie.” The mentioned photo is a tribute to the tenacity of Robbie, a young man who lost his fingers and burned his entire body in an accident at the age of 4. Wiz said about his photo:
At age 4, Robbie was burned in an accident in his bedroom. This issue resulted in burns to 95% of his body and the loss of his fingers. He has a hard life, But he works hard and lives an everyday adult life as best he can.
The creators of this festival were asked what inspired them to start it. In response, it was said:
Through the Siena International Photo Festival, our project has become one of the leading photography events in the world in less than six years. This happens because we consider the participants of the competition like members of a big family called photography. We gather them in the extraordinary scenery of Piazza del Campo in front of the main historical symbol of the city, the 12th-century Town Hall and the Torre del Mangia. With this method, we show our passion for photography in one of the areas where the most significant number of photos have been recorded.
Honorary winner of the animals/pets category
A Mother’s Love by Lynn Amr
A strong young mother closes her eyes while watching over one of her chicks that has just entered the water for the first time.
Honorary winner of the nature and landscape category
Deep Forest Fairies by Kazuki Koski
The female himbutaro, a species of firefly native to Japan that lives in the summer forest nights, cannot fly, and only the males do. Forests are alive and have precious things that humans cannot threaten. Seeing them is so beautiful that the forest’s darkness is forgotten, and the brightness of Christmas is reminded. This beauty lasts only ten days in summer.
Officials of this competition shared its main goal:
Below is the meaning of our famous crystal statuette, the Pangaea Award, awarded to the winners. The award is a metaphor for perfection, reflection, failure, optical lenses, imagination, and the future. Also, this award symbolizes the goal of the Siena Festival organization in creating new experiences in the days when many photographers from different continents gathered together.
Siena International Photography Festival wants to support, promote and encourage the primary purpose of photography. Like the name of its award, this festival represents all the continents before the drift, when all peoples and nations were the same with each other and their cultures. All these people have come together to support the love of the image, the harmony of light, the sweetness of color, and, ultimately, the beauty of photography.
Photo of the year winner
The Lake by Masoud Mirzaei
Honorary winner of the nature and landscape category
Medusa by Chris Upton
This great oak tree, reputed to be 500 years old, with its long branches, reminded me of Medusa’s head snakes. To highlight the contrast, the photo was taken with infrared.
Siena International Photo Festival started with a small group of “dreamers and lovers” of photography. They explained more about how the winners were chosen:
Images are selected by an international jury composed of the most influential photo editors in global magazines. They typically receive about ten thousand video files per contest from over 165 countries worldwide.
First place in the still life category
Rembrandt Still Life by Olga Rudnok
I love the light that Rembrandt casts on his paintings. This light seems ideal not only for the portraits that Rembrandt paints magnificently but also for still life.
Honorary winner in the fashion category
Mahi by Mohammad Ziauddin
Red sarees, heavy jewelry, and red roses in the hair are staples of traditional Bangladeshi weddings. This fashion has remained constant for years.
In another part, the officials of this festival explained:
We are most motivated by the emotions that images can convey to people and the work that often goes on behind the scenes to capture amazing photos. We hope to be able to give dreams to people through our images; Because the world needs to dream more than ever during the corona epidemic.
They also had some advice for future photographers:
Think big, dream, be passionate and try to inspire people through emotion. It doesn’t matter what camera you use. Nothing else matters.
2nd place in the animals/pets category
Chameleon In The Bedroom (Chameleon In The Bedroom) by Joe Sachs
A blue leopard chameleon is camouflaged in a bedroom against a vintage floral wallpaper background. Photography was done with a Hasselblad H5x camera and mixed lighting.
1st place in the animals/pets category
Priceless by Pedro Jarque Krebs
In the pets category, ” Precious, ” a portrait of a rhinoceros taken by photographer Pedro Jarek Krebs from Peru in Germany, won the top prize. This photographer aims to draw public attention to the inappropriate use of rhinoceros horns and raise awareness for the benefit of an animal species that is increasingly endangered due to illegal hunting.
Each kilo is worth 60 thousand US dollars; This is the black market price of rhino horn. This product is more expensive than gold! But life is more costly. Unlike elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn is made of keratin, the same substance as nails; But the ignorance and superstitions of some people give it medicinal properties that do. Like everything else in the market, there will be sellers as long as there are buyers. This issue ends only with education.
Officials of the mentioned competition explain more about themselves :
Art Photo Travel is a non-profit organization that creates cultural initiatives to expand, promote, and promote monuments, traditions, cultures, and natural beauty worldwide. Designs and projects are not only for those who love art and culture but also attract those interested in the most unknown and less touristy parts of the world.
This event is a cultural awareness-focused approach and is mainly formed to support a better understanding of different places, populations, and people. Three international photography contests are held yearly to create a new opportunity to gather people, photography lovers, and art and culture enthusiasts. The doors of the Siena International Photography Festival, Drone Photo Exhibition, and Creative Photo Contest are open to all photographers, professionals, enthusiasts, and new talents worldwide.
Honorary winner in the nature and landscape category
Lucciole Sotto Le Stelle by Stefano Pellegrini
Honorary winner in the open theme category
Elks On The Mountain Top by Haihong Xing
Second place in the portrait category
African Flower by Rene Bourgogne
The little African girl in the painting of the artist Eelke Jelles Eelkema lived in the Netherlands from 1815 to 1839. This dress is made of recycled plastic.
Honorary winner in the beauty category
Gypsophila by Natalia Polomina
The English call gypsophila “baby’s breath”; in Germany, this plant is known as “bride’s veil.” According to legend, a girl forced to marry a man she did not love turned into a gypsophila branch right in front of the altar.
First place in the music category
The Sound of Solitude by Eric Pulitzer
Eric Pulitzer of the United States won the music category for “The Sound of Loneliness,” which depicts a concert hall at the Havana Film House. This photo is a tribute to Cuba and the music that has permanently moved the Caribbean island nation.
Honorary winner in the portrait category
Poems For Sisters (Poems For Sisters) by Hardijanto Budiman
I like the surreal world! I use photography as a medium to express my imagination in images. This image was inspired by a historical film about a royal princess in the Joseon era of 1897-1392 (now Korea). At that time, princesses in the palace wore traditional clothes called Hanbok. I try to combine traditional elements with surrealism in my pictures.
Honorary winner of the portrait category
Girl With Feather by Lonte Kovach
High-quality fine art portraits are as simple, pure, and original as possible. I need to avoid any distractions and only focus on the essentials.
Honorary winner in the nature and landscape category
Two Seasons by Lorenzo Nadalini
Honorary winner in the nature and landscape category
In Waves by Thomas Tyson
Honorary winner in the animal/pet category
Unbreakable bond by Pedro Jarque Krebs
Honorary winner in the nature and landscape category
Temple Entrance (Torii) by John Epifanio Pagalilavan
Honorary winner in the food and beverage category
Dark and Decadent by Valeria Bismar
Honorary winner in the nature and landscape category
Plenty Of Starlings by Franke de Jong
Every day at sunset, thousands of starlings look for a place to spend the night in reeds and make beautiful shapes in the sky as they fly.
Winner of first place in the nature and landscape category
Palm Grove by Hans Weichmann
German photographer Hans Weichmann won the top spot in the nature category with his image of “The Grove,” captured from the deck of a cruise ship on the Nile River in Egypt.
First place in the wedding category
The Flying Bride by Sovan Amatya
“Flying Bride,” shot by British photographer Sven Amatiya in London, won first place in the wedding category. This photo was taken during a Jewish wedding ceremony in Hora, A dance that usually ends with the bride being thrown into the air.
Honorary winner of the trial category
Legacy by Cherain Collette
First place in the abstract category
The Fork 28 (The Fork 28) by Filippo Droid
Filippo Droid from Italy won in the abstract category with the word “Chantal 28”. This work is a symbolic tribute to the fork, A device we deal with daily. A device that Droodi describes as “muted, elegant, feminine, symmetrical, yet menacing, seductive, with an almost abstract geometric profile.”
I love and am fascinated by forks. As part of the “Fork” project, I wanted to showcase this everyday object’s geometric and almost abstract qualities. I tried to look deep into it and learn about its many characters.
First place in the architecture category
Eternit by Ingon Meelum
Norwegian photographer Ingon Meelum won in the architecture category with “Eternity.” This photo shows buildings still with cement mixed with asbestos, despite the ban on this material in Norway since 1978.
Ethernet boards were the best building materials. Cement mixed with asbestos was supposed to be maintenance-free and become very popular, especially along the coast, where the weather can be worse. In the seventies, it was discovered that asbestos is hazardous; For this reason, the mentioned article was banned in 1978. There are still ethernet houses all over Norway.
