A burst of Colors in AAP Magazine 27

We're delighted to reveal the names of the 25 talented photographers who won AAP Magazine #27: Colors.

Everything around us is an array of colors, from the green grass we walk on to the blue sky above. The world we see is anything but black and white. What would our world be like if we could not see color?

Colors are one of the many things that play a part in our daily lives, whether we know it or not. In fact, research has shown that colors can portray many different feelings, moods, and even thinking. No wonder photographers are fascinated by colors.

For this 27th edition of AAP Magazine, we were looking for work that would celebrate colors. In the end, we chose twenty-five photographers (as it happens a majority of women!) from 15 different countries and 5 continents. Their color palette is diverse: bold, vibrant as well as pastel, or even monochromatic but each time their conscious choice adds to the photograph's esthetic appeal and conveys sensory pleasure.

The Winner of AAP Magazine 27 Colors is Christine Fitzgerald (Canada) with the series Captive

The photographic prints are from my CAPTIVE series. The series reflects both the struggle and resilience of captive parrots and our fascination with the exotic. These beautiful and intelligent birds live in two worlds – the natural world that is hard-wired in their genome, and a human-constructed world. They typically have survived multiple traumas. Many are removed from social flocks in their natural environment, and they are put in isolation in cages. They are frequently “relinquished” from one foster home to the next, often sold on social media. Others are trafficked illegally and bred for profit. With their incredible longevity, many parrots outlive their owners. They are remarkably clever, have brilliant colors, and their extraordinary mimicry of speech has made them humanlike; thus, their immense popularity as pets. Nevertheless, at their core, they remain wild.

I used photographic printing methods from the late 19th century to handprint my series. These photographic prints are tricolour gum bichromate impressions on palladium printed on archival rag.

The Second Place Winner is Edita Bizova (Czech Republic) with the series ‘Essence of Beauty’

The main focus in my work always was to make women look and feel beautiful. I see all women that way so it was easy for me. The harder part - even for the pictured women - was the comments that men sometimes have for the images - I hear that women are only beautiful if they spent this and that time doing their hair and makeup or other silly stuff. I don´t believe that. I see beauty in different ways - and I believe that the essence of beauty is not in the makeup or hair routine. I´ve decided to do an experiment - what if I hide women's hair under a swimming cap. What if the makeup I put on them is none or minimal? Is she still beautiful or did I take away the essence of her beauty? I will still light them and pose them like I would for my beauty image. I want them to look powerful, confident, and beautiful. I wanted the series to be bright and colorful. To show that the beauty I see is in the spirit, and not in the makeup. The rest of the image is quite minimal, focus is on the beauty and color combination aspect.
All about Edita Bizova

The Third Place Winner is Thaddäus hozzography Biberauer (Austria) with the series ‘Dreamscapes”

All about Thaddäus hozzography Biberauer

Merit Gallery
Kelly-Ann Bobb (Trinidad & Tobago)

The editorial entitled “Musing of Boscoe” is influenced by the paintings of the contemporary Trinidadian painter Boscoe Holder. The Black Imagination and utilizing fashion as a vehicle to highlight our culture and to reference ourselves, has led to this series of images.
All about Kelly-Ann Bobb

Gavin Libotte (Australia)

The Seeker represents everybody who walks the path to knowledge, He is dwarfed by the presence of the city, the industrial age of modernity. He must stay true to his humanity and try not to be seduced by the everyday distractions of technology. The red represents life, courage and a passion for the ultimate knowledge that frees us from our cravings and aversions.
All about Gavin Libotte

Anne-Claire Vimal du Monteil (Canada)

Etymology is sometimes deeply poetic. Photography means “drawing with light” from the greek words phōtós and graphê. This extraordinary meaning inspired the aesthetic research behind this series. I chose to use solely the primary and secondary colors of light: red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow. I am always looking for minimalism and harmony with three ideas in mind: simple shapes, at least two dominant colors, dark and intense tone.

Mona Singh (India)

Who doesn't like colors? Well we all do...but these women are considered a curse and have lost the joy and privilege of having colors in their lives. These are the widows of Vrindavan, the abandoned and forgotten souls in one of the holiest cities of India. Thousands of them have made this city their home and the place is known as 'The city of widows'. Sitting cross legged in a dingy room with a noisy fan, plaster peeling off the walls, watching her favorite Bengali serial on an old T.V. set, Purba (name changed) greeted me by saying 'Radhe Radhe', the only popular way to greet in Vrindavan. She left her family in Bengal and came to the Widows Ashram in Vrindavan after her husband’s death. Many others like her in the room have either been abandoned by their families or have decided to stay away from the societal pressures and people ostracizing them. Breaking the age-old rigid Indian tradition, these widows celebrate Holi, the vibrant festival of colors at the ancient Gopinath temple. Soaked in colors, they throw rose and marigold flower petals at each other and dance with joy. It is a blissful experience for all. It is mesmerizing to see such a sight. Their white saris turn bright and colorful. It is like getting revived in the most tender way.
All about Mona Singh

Joanna Madloch (United States)

Amanda is a part of an ongoing candid photography project called Liminal Streets, which depicts visual phenomena that embody the notions of ambiguity, transition, and uncertainty. My photographs pay homage to our grounding in primeval stories and our connection to the collective mythical past. I photograph everyday streets, but my images reveal the multiplicity of meanings embedded in our visible reality.
All about Joanna Madloch

Hardijanto Budiman (Indonesia)

That afternoon I went to exercise in a club house near home. Across the locker room there is a swimming pool for the children. When I was walking back home I accidentally saw an interesting view on that pool, I grab my camera and took some snapshot! and here it is the photo.

Carol Foote (Australia)

This series of images was an exploration of the city I reside in, documenting the buildings around me using a graphic and minimalist approach. My aim was to produce a more abstract and flamboyant interpretation of the architecture that surrounds me.
All about Carol Foote

Klaus Lenzen (Germany)

Waste can also have a special appeal when it is presented in a creative and artistic way.
All about Klaus Lenzen

Marek Boguszak (Czech Republic)

Maybe due to my background in mathematics, I like abstraction: pure forms expressing the core qualities of reality. Sand dunes are the most fitting material for my work. Taking a picture is just the beginning of the path. It is a search for photographic Equivalents in which simple lines form a new imagery, which evokes fresh associations and meanings, which in turn stimulate emotions freed from the original recorded object.
All about Marek Boguszak

Damian Lemański (Poland)

The Strongest is an ongoing work about employees of the city cleaning services - strong physically, as well as mentally, because in order to do this job one has to face certain stereotypes, and the work they do does not receive the due respect. Inadequate waste decomposition has implications for extreme climate change, poisoning the air and the ecosystem. The first step toward better waste management is to sort and recycle waste. The photos show the WIKOM Korsze crew that cruises the neighborhood with garbage trucks and cleans up the Korsze municipality in Poland. Ever since I was a little boy, I have had great respect for the people who do this work. I want to show the face of this profession, often underestimated, which many take for granted. I want to give due respect to those who do this hard and so much needed work.
All about Damian Lemański

Wendy Stone (United States)

I love playing with colors and light, and I also love dress-up play, especially with masks. I decided to combine these interests into an ongoing series titled Wolf Pack. In the series, I use members of my wolf pack: my sister, my son, and my two dogs, Sasha and Marius. To set the stage for our mischief in this particular photograph, I hung Moroccan-styled curtains with their beautiful colors on our clothesline. I then put my camera on a self-timer, threw on the wolf mask, and ran into the frame. We had a lot of fun that day, especially the dogs, as they got lots of cheese if they stood still.
All about Wendy Stone

Joe Buergi (Switzerland)

The shipyards along the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital are a flurry dangerous boat breaking and rebuilding. The facilities, which employ around 15,000 workers at around $5 a day, work to both break down massive shipping vessels as well as create new ships from the parts. Workers can be seen torches and welding equipment to tears huge pieces of metal from the vessels, sans eye, hand, or face protection. Other workers will be found scaling the tall ships on ramshackle ladders or strolling along the high edges of the ship decks, the only thing to keep them from falling is their own balance. Injuries are common on the site, but the buzz of activity doesn’t stop.

Virginia Hines (United States)

Beckoning to travelers through the gloom of night, colorful neon signs were a fixture in American cities from the dawn of the automobile age in the early 20th century until the ascendancy of the interstate highway system mid-century. Today few of these relics remain and their atmospheric glow often illuminates places that are well past their prime. They stand as enduring monuments to an optimism and proud individuality that belong to an earlier age. On a dark night I find it hard to resist photographing these remnants of a bygone time.
All about Virginia Hines

Svetlin Yosifov (Bulgaria)

In the Mundari cattle camps, kids are doing most of the daily work. Kids collect the fresh cow dung and put it into piles which are then set on fire. Those fire are useful as they repel the (extremely) numerous and voracious flies and mosquitoes of the South Sudanese countryside.
All about Svetlin Yosifov

Yves Léonard (Belgium)

This photo was taken in my “packshot” studio. I love minimalism and drawing with light, it's my Sunday afternoon hobby. I played with the light and the placement of the flowers for over 3 hours (and +/- 250 photos) to obtain the perfect sharpness and exposure. The dark side on the left gives this minimalist aspect that I particularly like.
All about Yves Léonard

Fabrizio Alzati (Italy)

I've always been fascinated by colors, clean geometries and open spaces. My photographic projects have always evolved based on these three elements. From the almost impressionist light of Netherlands to the more intense one of Italy, passing from the nuances of the Japanese seasons to the Egyptian atmospheres. This specific collection I wanted to call “Waiting for the colors” it is a gallery of moments, sometimes waited for hours, where color is predominant and conditions the whole scene.

Joseph-Philippe Bevillard (Ireland)

I photograph this young teenage girl at an Irish Traveller wedding in North Ireland. I noticed the contrast of the bright red lip and yellow dress against her dark false tanned chest while the crucifix glittered between the two color layers. Irish Travellers are very elaborate when celebrating all special occasions.
All about Joseph-Philippe Bevillard

Benjamin Pawlowski (Germany)

A photographic conversation with people from London, Brighton and Bristol in May 2022.
All about Benjamin Pawlowski

Cynthia Dickinson (United States)

“Inland Elegy” is one of Cynthia Dickinson’s images from her current series “Racing Towards the County Line”. It is not a camera’s record of a place. It is very much a record, as most of her work, of the emotional commentary of a personal, private moment found in a northern Minnesota forest. “Inland Elegy” along with two other photographs are being published in AAP magazine’s current issue “Colors”. They are from a collaboration with Dale Kakkak, a member of the Menominee Nation in Wisconsin. Both the images and Kakkak’s word texts speak to how each seeks to see and feel the spirits of the heart of the worlds they encounter.

Callie Eh (Switzerland)

Every image takes us on a journey, like the golden sand dunes in the desert at sunset, a magical celebration of nature's beauty
All about Callie Eh

Sandra Frankel (United States)

A firestorm of light burst across the Fourth of July sky at the CMAC amphitheater, Canandaigua, New York, awing those gathered for the annual celebration of the birth of our democratic nation. I loved the warm reds and yellows of the fireworks set against a cool, deepening blue sky, and how that light painted a warm glow on the hillside and created a red halo around those watching the display. The accompanying patriotic music performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra stirred a strong emotional response, reinforcing our nation's core values and support of our Armed Forces and Veterans dedicated to protecting our democracy. To me, the vibrancy of colors in the image reflected the symbolic strength that our American flag conveys world-wide.

Michelle Simmons (United States)