Saying the Winners of AAP Magazine #49: Black &…

Each of those gifted photographers has delivered beautiful monochrome photographs that remember the depth, nuance, and timeless great thing about black and white images.

Selected from a variety of submissions from throughout the globe, this version brings collectively photographers from 11 nations spanning 3 continents, providing a compelling take a look at the emotional energy and artistic prospects of the black-and-white format. From traditional road images to experimental wonderful artwork, documentary to conceptual storytelling, the chosen works discover identification, silence, reminiscence, distinction, and composition in breathtaking methods.

The successful photographs in AAP Magazine #49: B&W show the flexibility of black and white images as each an expressive and narrative software. Some artists emphasize texture and type, whereas others lean into stark lighting, abstraction, or deeply private themes. Whether shot on analog movie or via fashionable digital strategies, the work resonates via its readability, emotion, and artistry.

In addition to being printed within the print version of AAP Magazine, the winners obtain worldwide publicity, featured on All About Photo’s web site and throughout social media channels with a world viewers of images professionals and lovers. This alternative is a significant recognition of their expertise and an inspiring step ahead of their photographic journey.

We hope you’ll discover as a lot inspiration in these photographs as we did.
Black and white images stays as related and highly effective as ever — and these artists show it.

The Winner is Astrid Verhoef (Netherlands) with the picture ‘Balance’

The paintings ‘Balance’ was shot in March 2025, on the lovely Peninsula de Jandia, Fuerteventura, Spain.

For all my paintings I’m exploring my relationship and connection to the pure world, normally portraying a determine that at all times appears to linger someplace between the pure and a man-made ingredient stopping her from actually connecting. Like a hint from the world she will’t go away behind.

I’m used to working solo to expertise my private connection to the panorama in probably the most profound method with none distractions. Even although I treasure that connection and it really works very properly for me this manner, at uncommon events I do need to work with an additional mannequin. This explicit posture is the results of motion, dancing collectively.
It did change the expertise: a dance of steadiness exhibiting a reference to one another in addition to with the panorama. We are one and opposites on the identical time. Contrast and connection, belief and dependance. Feeling a pressure of nature inside and round ourselves, power and steadiness within the volcanic panorama the place barren meets magnificence.

Working intuitively throughout the framework of the overall theme inside my work (exploring fashionable humankind’s place within the pure world in a metaphorical trend), this paintings is for now thought-about a ‘single image’. It isn’t (but) a part of a sequence, but it surely is likely to be a part of a sequence but to take form.


All work is lens-based and don’t include any AI generated parts. Photography takes place in landscapes on location. Basic Photoshop instruments have been used, resembling colour /distinction changes, and collage strategies (if wanted for the specified last picture).

Models: Didi Marie Krahmer & Astrid Verhoef

astridverhoef.nl

@astrid_verhoef

All about Astrid Verhoef

The Second Place Winner is Antonio Denti (Italy) with the sequence ‘Harder Lives”

Harder Lives © Antonio Denti

Souvenir makers at work on the sting of the Sahara Desert, as within the small city near-by their households dwell on. ”Harder Lives” is a part of a wider challenge known as ”Everything and Nothing” that tries to seize the shifting essence of the little lives – our little lives – within the backdrop of the worldwide economic system and of an enormous new industrial revolution in very completely different settings. In this case a small village in Morocco that used to dwell off little or no (dates, palms, small herding, minor caravans) and now shifted to international tourism as all types of individuals journey there from all locations on this planet to see the magic marvels of the Sahara.
@antclick
All about Antonio Denti

The Third Place Winner is Lynne Breitfeller (United States) with the sequence ‘People I Know”

Stacy and Miss Kitty from the sequence ‘People I Know’ © Lynne Breitfeller

This picture, “Stacy and Miss Kitty”, is from “People I Know”, a group of portraits, created within the early to mid-nineties of buddies, household, and acquaintances. Some are candid, and others are performative.
These pictures convey me again to earlier occasions and assist me visualize my early grownup years and the way individuals come out and in of our lives, and the way some keep. Each holds a spot within the catalog of my reminiscence.

www.lynnebreitfeller.com
@lynnebreitfellerphoto
All about Lynne Breitfeller

MERIT AWARD GALLERY

Russ Rowland (United States)

Wonderland © Russ Rowland

I used to assume it was snow I cherished to {photograph}. But over time I’ve come to appreciate it is snow storms that obsess me, notably after darkish.
The extra snow forecast, the extra excited I get. New York City by no means appears extra magical, irrespective of how late the hour or how far I stroll.
All the conventional guidelines and logic of metropolis life are blown apart, and all of the imperfections are blanketed, abstracted or rendered anew.
www.rrsnapshop.com
@russrowland
All about Russ Rowland

Julia Dean (United States)

Shabbat from the sequence ‘On the Streets in Los Angeles’ © Julia Dean

I used to be with my pal and co-director of our Street L.A. Collective, Dan Sackheim, cruising down the road in my automotive in search of one thing fascinating to shoot. Dan was on his cellphone after I noticed some nice mild in opposition to a synagogue on Beverly Blvd. There was a parking spot proper in entrance, so I pulled in, obtained out and stood on the street between two automobiles and waited for individuals to stroll previous the wall. No one might see me. Just a few individuals walked previous the temple, one after the other. I waited patiently, with my digital camera to my eye, with this precise composition, when these Orthodox Jews got here out of nowhere and into my body, earlier than going inside to watch Shabbat.
juliadean.com
www.streetla.org
www.thelaproject.org
@juliadean_la_streetshooter

John Carey (United Kingdom)

James Martin, Chewton Glen from the sequence Chefs in Lockdown © John Carey

On March twenty first 2020, in response to the Covid 19 pandemic, the UK Government compelled eating places to shut their doorways. This was an unprecedented second in time.
After a time spent locked down at house with my household, I began to consider how a lot of my life I spend in eating places.
I began to consider what was taking place contained in the eating places themselves. How have been they left after the ‘final’ service ? What have been they like now ? These heat, welcoming locations have to be chilly, deserted, uncared for, deteriorated ? and what concerning the cooks themselves?
I had no work, no revenue and I needed to be inventive. So determined to {photograph} cooks of their eating places, to inform a narrative as a metaphor for the lockdown expertise throughout the restaurant business. The isolation, the neglect, the vulnerability, the uncooked emotion, the social distancing. It was a self-motivated, self-funded challenge, so I utilized for a mortgage and began.
I wanted to take a special photographic strategy from my ordinary type. I needed these portraits to be ‘of the time’. Most of my work is in color, however the color had been drained from the eating places, I normally ‘light’ portraits, however I didn’t need to add any layer of gloss/shine, the lights had actually been turned off.
I needed the pictures to be actual, uncooked and fully stripped again. I additionally needed the cooks to be nonetheless, very nonetheless. The world of eating places had briefly stopped and I needed that mirrored within the cooks stance. There was no service that day to consider, so I needed them to be current and replicate on the scenario they have been in, that we have been all in.
www.john-carey.com
john-carey.shop
@johncareyphoto

Lorenz Berna (Italy)

Light Through the Rift from the sequence ‘Shadows of the Sacred’ © Lorenz Berna

Shadows of the Sacred is my private journey into the traditional rock-hewn
church buildings of Lalibela, Ethiopia. In these timeless areas, I’m drawn to the
interaction of sunshine and shadow—how a single beam can reveal the quiet power
and dignity inside.
This {photograph} captures a fleeting second of contemplation: a younger woman
wrapped in silence and custom, her gaze illuminated by the identical mild that
has formed these sacred partitions for hundreds of years. Rather than doc rituals, I
search genuine, unposed encounters that specific religion as it’s actually lived—
intimate, susceptible, and resilient.
Through these black and white sequence, I invite viewers to witness the on a regular basis
spirituality that endures in Lalibela, and to expertise the enduring energy of
silence and devotion in a quickly altering world.
lorenzberna.com
@lorenz.berna_photo
www.facebook.com/LorenzBerna
All about Lorenz Berna

Margaret Halaby (United States)

The Looming Dark from the sequence ‘Solitary Spaces’ © Margaret Halaby

This picture, The Looming Dark, is a part of a sequence I name Solitary Spaces, pictures of abandoned areas – in nature, by empty buildings – portraying locations that resonate with our emotions of aloneness in an attractive, however detached world.
1x.com/ygram

Elena Donskaya (Russia)

Young Woman © Elena Donskaya

Inspired by the Renaissance-era portray Portrait of a Young Girl by Petrus Christus..
@aledons55

Yanitsa Genova (Bulgaria)

Trapped within the body from the sequence ‘Half-visible’ © Yanitsa Genova

Half-Visible is an try and enter into concord with the world. The images have been taken
over ten years. What unites them is road images, partial visibility, and the geometric association of on a regular basis life.
I level the digital camera at what modifications my interior world. I’m able to taking a look at every little thing, each probably the most horrible and probably the most lovely. I’m right here.
www.yanitsagenova.com
@yanitsagenova
All about Yanitsa Genova

William Ropp (France)

Ethiopia, the singular man from the sequence ‘Dreamt recollections from Africa’ © William Ropp

William Ropp’s black-and-white work in Mali, Senegal, and Ethiopia transcends easy documentary portraiture. It is an introspective quest for the opposite, a dive into the intimacy of African faces, rendered with uncommon visible and emotional depth. At the crossroads of images, shadow theater, and classical portray, Ropp reveals souls somewhat than our bodies.
Ropp doesn’t merely {photograph} faces: he seeks to seize what he calls the interior presence of his topics. Through a play of sunshine and shadow, he extracts a type of silent poetry, typically timeless.
His black and white is deep, virtually charcoal-like, and exudes a way of suspended time. The faces appear to emerge from a dream or a distant reminiscence. He thus creates a universe between actuality and fantasy, typically tinged with melancholy.
william-ropp.com
All about William Ropp

Klaus Lenzen (Germany)

Steam IV from the sequence ‘Steam’ © Klaus Lenzen

The exhaust cloud from the quenching tower of a coking plant at a metal mill in Duisburg ( Germany), develops a formidable dynamic. Soon, new clouds type, hour after hour, day after day. As a part of a long-term challenge, I captured these spectacular clouds from varied views.
www.klauslenzenphotographie.com
@klenzen53
All about Klaus Lenzen

Sebastián Machado (Mexico)

Untitled #3 from the sequence from the sequence Ashes from the Riverbed © Sebastián Machado

Ashes from the Riverbed stems from a household custom of scattering the ashes of our useless within the backyard and apantle—a canal that runs via my childhood house. Created by submerging photosensitive paper in water below moonlight, the photograms invoke absence somewhat than signify it. These photographs carry traces of a ritual course of formed by mild, sediment, and reminiscence, proposing images as a gesture of mourning and belonging.

In my childhood house, a household custom says that the ashes of our useless are scattered within the backyard and the apantle—an irrigation canal—that runs via it. Ashes from the Riverbed stems from that story to create a sequence of photograms. By moonlight, immersed within the stream, I expose photosensitive paper with vegetation, sediment, and water to a beam of sunshine. The ensuing photographs don’t search to signify absence, however to invoke it—to attract it from the depths. These are imprints of overlapping temporalities: mirrors the place matter was touched by these now not right here, but nonetheless with us. They hint a route into the realm of the useless. The photograms carry the marks of probability—my fingers holding the paper, the trembling of water, the sediment left behind. This visible essay proposes the photographic picture as ritual: a conjuring of suspended presences. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez writes: “We have still not had a death. A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground.” This sentence lingers in me as a query about belonging, grief, and territory. In many pre-Hispanic cultures, it was frequent to bury the useless beneath the house, anchoring ancestry and mourning to on a regular basis life. Today, loss of life has been displaced—hidden away in cemeteries, sanitized, and made invisible in home area. This challenge asks: what would it not imply to convey loss of life again house? To “plant” it not as one thing morbid, however as a seed of reminiscence—a gesture that roots us to a spot, to a narrative, to those that got here earlier than us. This challenge explores the picture not as proof, however as gesture. Not as illustration, however as invocation. The photograms bear the residue of a ritual course of—gestures formed by water, mild, and the nocturnal panorama—the place reminiscence meets the invisible. By returning to the water that runs via my household’s land, Ashes from the Riverbed turns into each a farewell and an anchoring: a state of affairs of mourning, the place absence isn’t erased, however held, submerged, and made seen.

www.sebastianmachadocom.com

@shompiro

All about Sebastián Machado

Thibault Gerbaldi (France/United States)

The Path to Adulthood © Thibault Gerbaldi

Among the Hamar of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, the bull-jumping ceremony marks a younger man’s passage into maturity. Over a number of days, clans collect, rituals unfold, and the neighborhood performs its half—girls singing and dancing, elders observing, friends making ready. In a world accelerating towards homogenization, these photographs seize a society holding quick to its personal definitions of identification, power, and belonging. They remind us that amid digital noise and disappearing nuance, custom can nonetheless supply which means—and resistance—to the erasures of modernity.
www.tgcrossroads.com
@tg_crossroads
All about Thibault Gerbaldi

Florian Kriechbaumer (Germany)

Colossal Legacy from the sequence ‘Ivory Sentinels’ © Florian Kriechbaumer

Craig is likely one of the final remaining Super Tuskers on earth – elephants whose tusks weigh over 100 kilos every and actually scrape the bottom. At 53, he’s now not a teen, with possibly a decade of pure lifespan left, however carries himself with a peaceful, imposing presence. During my journeys to Amboseli’s unimaginable landscapes, I had a number of encounters with him whereas documenting the ecosystem and the work of the rangers defending it. In the previous years, three large tuskers have been killed after crossing into Tanzania, the place trophy searching and human-wildlife battle are ongoing threats. Craig has been leaving his Collosal Legacy for over 5 many years, however it’s as much as us to make sure his successors will be capable to do the identical.
theflore.com
@djflore
All about Florian Kriechbaumer

Eric van den Brulle (United States)

Reincarnated Tibetan Monk from the sequence ‘Black & White” © Eric van den Brulle

To {photograph} in black and white is to strip the world all the way down to its important truths. Without the distraction of colour, mild and shadow develop into language, texture turns into emotion, and type speaks with quiet readability. Black and white images isn’t a discount—it’s a distillation. It invitations the viewer to see extra deeply, to really feel the load of silence, the heart beat of stillness, and the soul of a second suspended in time. It is timeless, unflinching, and deeply human—a permanent meditation on distinction, nuance, and the facility of simplicity.
www.evbphoto.com
@eric_van_den_brulle
All about Eric van den Brulle

Ralf Dreier (Germany)

Niendorf Bathing Jetty from the sequence ‘Two Minutes by the Sea’ © Ralf Dreier

The picture was taken in November within the seaside resort of Niendorf on the German Baltic coast. The season was lengthy over, and as an alternative of individuals in swimwear, all you would see have been thick winter coats. The planks had been faraway from this bathing jetty, maybe to be saved or refurbished over the winter.
The challenge ‘Two Minutes by the Sea’ is a spin-off from the overarching challenge ‘By the Sea’, which is about lengthy exposures of coastal areas with an publicity time of two minutes. The ensuing minimalist black and white photographs present the viewer an uncommon view of the ocean. The simplicity of the pictures particularly focuses the attention on the principle motif, however on the identical time leaves sufficient area to forestall it from showing too dominant. As a outcome, the photographs transfer away from actuality and encourage the viewer to make use of their creativeness, giving them the chance to mix what is definitely depicted with their very own feelings and ideas, leading to a really private visible expertise for every viewer.
galerie-farblos.de
All about Ralf Dreier

Giuseppe Cardoni (Italy)

The Magic of the Circus © Giuseppe Cardoni

The circus is a big prolonged household by which are all kind of associated to one another held collectively not solely by affection but in addition by the good ardour for his or her Art.My principal curiosity was to inform extra concerning the atmospheres than the performers by specializing in the moments of preparation, pause, focus, somewhat than the present which is nonetheless talked about. In this manner it appeared to me to protect at the least partly the thriller and the magic that captures the spectator when the curtain opens.
All about Giuseppe Cardoni

Prescott Lassman (United States)

Arrested Protestor and Horse from the sequence Resist’ © Prescott Lassman

These images are from a sequence documenting protests, marches, and different acts of resistance in Washington, D.C., my hometown. While the scenario depicted by the images appears bleak — with an array of presidency forces overwhelming the protestors — the protestors themselves stay defiant. In the present political scenario, this sort of persistent defiance, irrespective of how small or seemingly insignificant, is especially vital.
www.lassmanlenswork.com
@lassman_lenswork
All about Prescott Lassman

Alex Gabchoug (United Kingdom)

Behind Those Eyes from the sequence ‘Street Portraits’ © Alex Gabchoug

About the picture: I met this gentleman while perusing a neighborhood cake and occasional store for inspiration for a meals images challenge. I used to be struck by the look in his eyes and his weathered expression.
He was comfortable for me to take his portrait in alternate for a espresso!
www.acg-photography.co.uk

Monika Maroziene (Lituania)

Masquerade from the sequence ‘Amber Coast’ © Monika Maroziene

My inventive observe merges my scientific experience with a love for images, creating a novel artwork type that I see as a sort of alchemy. I incorporate pine tree resin into my prints, including heat and sturdiness whereas preserving the pictures—symbolic of my Lithuanian roots and my connection to the pure world. My work typically options black and white images, evoking a way of calm, solitude, and reflection, complemented by touches of resin that transport viewers to sunny, nostalgic days. Through these photographs, I discover themes of reminiscence, identification, and the poetic irony of life, impressed by the landscapes of the Curonian Spit and my lifelong fascination with the mysterious, highly effective presence of girls and nature.
www.monikamaroziene.com
@monikamaroziene_
All about Monika Maroziene

Beamie Young (United States)

Mobius from the sequence Leaf Forms © Beamie Young

The wealthy tonalities of a black and white picture have at all times been a supply of inspiration to me. In my quest for natural patterns in nature I’m drawn to the play of sunshine I observe within the gardens round my house. The damaging area in every picture is as vital because the plant itself and creates an vital counterpoint to the leaves
beamie.smugmug.com
@beamie2
All about Beamie Young

Luciano Gerini (Italy)

Decommissioning of an Age © Luciano Gerini

At the top of the nineteenth century, Rome grew to become the capital of Italy. It due to this fact wanted new authorities places of work, extra factories, extra workforce, warehouses, common markets, vitality suppliers, and so forth. A brand new space remodeled right into a well-organized web site with a dense community of connections to serve the brand new Rome. It took many years, after all…
After over a century, some constructions have develop into out of date on account of new applied sciences and rising wants. The municipality and landowners need to reuse all these buildings and open areas, preserving as a lot of the outdated kinds and kinds as potential.
The energy plant has now develop into a museum, the world used as a fuel depot has been remodeled into an occasion area and places of work, and the big butcher’s store has develop into a combination between a museum and an exhibition area.
Of course, some issues have been misplaced, resembling: the ambiance of the outdated nice market at daybreak with its lights on and handcarts, the tumbling of the large fuel tanks that modified the skyline of the world, the visitors of vehicles, and so on.
It is likely to be fascinating to know that in Roman occasions, there have been docks and warehouses right here for Roman ships crusing alongside the river, the place items arrived from distant nations to provide the town.

So, what am I doing right here taking pictures? This is my metropolis, and I’ve a level in geography, so for me the true query is: why has every little thing labored so properly right here since historic occasions? What have we misplaced, and what might the long run maintain for this place? Can pictures bear witness to the change? I’m engaged on it.
@geriniluciano

Kevin Lyle (United States)

City Life 20472 from the sequence City Life’ © Kevin Lyle

Cities are sometimes filled with drama, some greater than others. The depth of the drama inside metropolis life is balanced by easy, much less dramatic vistas that will present meals for thought, humor, consolation or marvel. I current a few of these easy observations.
www.kevinlylephotography.com
@klyle2006
All about Kevin Lyle

Ylva Sjögren (Sweden)

I see solely what I need to see from the sequence ‘A type of loneliness’ © Ylva Sjögren

The picture ”I see solely what I need to see” symbolically describes individuals who flip a blind eye to all information and stubbornly clings to their very own model of actuality.
ylvasjogren.fotosidan.se
@ylva_sjogren
All about Ylva Sjögren