1839 Awards announces winners of its 2024 Photographers of the Year contest
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The winners of the 1839 Awards have been announced. The awards crown an International Photographer of the Year and Discovery of the Year. Beyond the overall winners, the contest celebrates the work of Photographers of the Year in 15 categories at the professional level and Discovery of the Year in 14 categories at the non-professional level. You can see all of the winners online at the 1839 Awards Photographer of the Year Contest Winner’s Gallery.
The 1839 Awards are “named after one of the most formative years in the history of photography.” While the first photograph taken by a camera was created in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, 1839 was the year of the formal announcement of the daguerreotype process at the French Academy of Sciences. That year marked the turning point when the medium was first made widely available to the public.
The 2024 Photographer of the Year Contest received entries from 60 countries covering a vast array of subject matter and styles. An international panel of 11 judges, comprised of world-renowned photographers, curators, directors and industry professionals, selected this year’s winners.
International Photographer of the Year: Overall professional winner
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Artist: Logan White
IG handle: N/A
Entry title: Hearts Content Road, Gianna
Entry description: Hearts Content Road refers to a series of surreal and allegorical portraits taken in Upstate New York, exploring the dual nature of fantasy—a realm that provides both escape and excitement, yet harbors its own shadows of uncertainty.
International Discovery of the Year: Overall non-professional winner
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Artist: Matthew Portch
IG handle: @matt_portch
Entry title: Buried Car, CA
Entry description: From an ongoing series, Lost America examines a quiet stillness in a forgotten landscape that is, in a sense, ‘on pause’. Places appear frozen in time, their inhabitants absent or long since departed. Ardently stagnant in appearance, the spaces yearn to instill a melancholic feeling of familiarity.
Professional category winner: Abstract
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Artist: Jay Tang
IG handle: @visualcreature
Entry title: Everyday Landscapes
Entry description: Everyday Landscapes is a series of abstract photographs, created using the shadows of everyday material, like paper and tissues, to form a new perceived reality of painting-like landscapes.
Professional category winner: Event
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Artist: Christiaan Van Heijst
IG handle: @jpcvanheijst
Entry title: An Office with a View
Entry description: Long exposure, wide-angle shots taken from the flightdeck of the Boeing 747, cruising along the upper atmosphere.
Professional category winner: Architecture
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Artist: Jan-Tore Oevrevik
IG handle: @JPJ_FOTO
Entry title: Balones and Stairs
Entry description: The “Balloons and Stairs” is a multi exposure photography, aims to establish a captivating dialogue between light, space, and unexpected elements, represented by floating balloons that bring movement and freely navigate fascinating environments.
Professional category winner: Culture
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Artist: Katelin Kinney
IG handle: N/A
Entry title: Desert Drag
Entry description: This project is a collaboration with local Drag Queens & Kings in Arizona. I wanted to bring attention to drag as an art form and celebrate that it has stretched far and wide even to the edges of the southwest desert.
Professional category winner: Travel
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Artist: Andrew Newey
IG handle: @andrewnewey
Entry title: Honey Hunters of Nepal
Entry description: High in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal Gurung honey hunters gather twice a year, risking their lives to harvest the honey from the world’s largest honeybee. For hundreds of years, the skills required to practise this ancient and sacred tradition have been passed down through the generations.
Professional category winner: Conceptual
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Artist: William Josephs Radford
IG handle: @josephsradford
Entry title: White Knight
Entry description: This series is a visual exploration of love, life, and death, following my father’s passing from a brain tumor. Using a vaseline-coated lens and other experimental techniques, I blur the lines of reality to reflect the transition between this realm and the afterlife.
Non-professional category winner: Wildlife
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Artist: Reed Fowler
IG handle: @reedfowlerphoto
Entry title: Dinner is Served
Entry description: This photo was taken at Brooks Falls in Alaska. The salmon were not jumping much that day, but I managed to capture the perfect shot when one did. From the color of the salmon to the way the bear is lunging with its mouth wide open, there is nothing I would change about my dream shot.
Non-professional category winner: Film/analog
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Artist: Mykola Myronov
IG handle: N/A
Entry title: By the Ocean
Entry description: It doesn’t matter how rich you are, what car you drive and how many friends you have in your life. We are all naked and alone by the ocean. Going to the coast, we become naked and find ourselves one on one with the ocean. Only in such moments we can stop and see who we really are.
Non-professional category winner: Landscape
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Artist: Ross Steensland
IG handle: @rsteensland
Entry title: Tunnel View
Entry description: When planning a trip across the Western United States, I based my route and timelines on my astrophotography bucketlist. And the top of that list was Yosemite. Planning showed that the Cygnus region with all of its red Hydrogen Alpha nebula and the Great Rift would line up right above Tunnel view.
Non-professional category winner: Storytelling
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Artist: Evan Murphy
IG handle: @evan.murphy
Entry title: I.D.
Entry description: “I.D.” emphasizes on queer youth; displaying stories of modern day romantic connections, societal impacts, and self liberation. Through a series of subjects, each frame narrates the journey of an LGBTQ individual navigating the intricate landscape of self and society.
Non-professional category winner: Street
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Artist: Turid Martinsen
IG handle: N/A
Entry title: Pimp Nails in Havana
Entry description: If you walk the streets of Havana, you might discover small nail-shops. They are often located at the bottom floor. In a society where private business are not exactly encouraged, small enterprises are example of female initiative. It is cheap, customers are local, often the neighbour next door.
Non-professional category winner: Still life
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Artist: Astrid Reischwitz
IG handle: @astridreischwitz
Entry title: The Taste of Memory
Entry description: The series explores personal and collective family narratives woven through still life compositions, intertwining threads of home, heritage, and identity. Embroidered fragments from old dish towels from my village in Germany now speak of loss and the gradual disappearance of cultural rites.
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This article comes from DP Review and can be read on the original site.
