The Stunning Winning Images of AAP Magazine 39 Shadows

We are thrilled to unveil the names of the 25 exceptionally talented photographers who have been selected as the winners of 'AAP Magazine #39: Shadows.' Representing 16 diverse countries spanning 5 continents, these artists have captivated us with their remarkable vision and mastery of light and shadow.

Renowned photographer Diane Arbus once wrote, Photography is not about the things we see, but the shadows they cast. Indeed, mastering the interplay of shadows in photography is an art form suffused with mystery, magic, and timeless allure. It evokes a sense of nostalgia, weaving narratives that are as unique as they are compelling.

In this 39th edition of AAP Magazine, our quest was to explore both the poetry and power of shadows, and the twenty-five selected photographers have eloquently captured these nuances in their work.

The Winner is Shinji Ichikawa (Japan) with the series 'The Old Man With an Umbrella'

This work, created in 2020, commemorates the significant milestone of my father’s 80th birthday. It captures him at the intersection of life and death, infused with my own feelings of anxiety and fear as I witness his journey. The stark silhouette of my father holding an umbrella against the vibrant red and black backdrop emphasizes the contrast between life’s fragility and its resolute continuation. The umbrella stands as a symbolic haven from life's uncertainties, serving as a metaphor for protection and support in his path.
www.shinjiichikawa.com
@shinjiichikawa22
Al about Shinji Ichikawa


The Second Place Winner is Fabien Dendiével (France) with the series 'Monte Amiata Complex'

This series of photos is a short immersion in the Italian building Monte Amiata designed by architects Carlo Aymonino and Aldo Rossi. I had to work fast because I didn't have much time. I tried to capture the colors and shadows of this incredible building as best I could. I'd love to go back and explore every detail. It was summer and the weather was very hot. People were napping. The building was completely empty of people. I love taking this kind of photo, playing with shadows and colors, it's a never-ending game. To do this series I used two medium-format cameras and a large format 4x5 camera.
www.fabiendendievel.com
@fabien_dendievel
All about Fabien Dendiével


The Third Place Winner is Tommi Viitala (Finland) with the series 'Hunting Shadows'

This street photography was taken from Budapest, Hungary. It was a really sunny day in February 2023 when I was bypassing this one hallway and noticed really sharp shadows in the walls and when I just waited a couple minutes I saw this person going down and then I got this shot. Street photography at its greatest — surprising moments and shadows that will never happen again.
tommiviitala.com
@tommiviitala
All about Tommi Viitala


Merit Award recipients
Natalie Christensen (United States)

Navigating the uncertainties of midlife, I’ve begun to consider the time I have left to live, and how I want to live it. I could remain in the comfort of the familiar routines I’ve built, or I could venture into a less comfortable unknown that offers possibility and expansion. The uncertain space between these two choices is a demanding place to be, an uneasy transition that’s universal to the human experience but feels solitary when it’s happening to oneself. Deliberating the pros and cons of either path, I realize that I’m caught in a binary way of thinking, controlled by the dilemma. Yet the ethos of our culture nudges me to decide and act.
Looking at my surroundings, I’m drawn to capture scenes that embody these internal states: Encounters between seemingly opposing forces, objects that run parallel but never meet, moments of despair inextricably combined with fleeting illumination. In times of internal balance, I can float, breathe, and endure the tension of opposites. While clarity is something I long for, I’ve come to recognize that the tension of not knowing is not a problem to be solved, but rather, an unexpected source of inspiration and expression. Each day is a new lesson in my tolerance for ambiguity: to not know how things will turn out, and to accept being suspended in the state of becoming.
All about Natalie Christensen


Jonathan Jasberg (United States)

Foreshadows of the Past is a thought-provoking photography series that explores the intriguing interplay between visibility and suggestion through the use of shadows. Each photograph cleverly manipulates shadows to reveal hidden layers and alternative narratives within seemingly straightforward scenes. Some images align the subjects and their shadows to tell a congruent story, such as a photo of a man holding belts, with his shadow morphing into a cowboy holding a rope, seamlessly linking present and past personas. Others introduce elements entirely absent from the visible subjects, like a photograph of two men passing a rope, where the shadow reveals a camel being loaded onto a truck, or an image where the shadow of a blackbird is echoed by the actual bird in a similar stance beside it. The series title itself plays on the concept of foreshadowing, hinting at the deeper, often unseen stories that lurk beneath the surface. This collection not only challenges our perceptions of reality but also invites viewers to ponder the seen and the unseen, urging a deeper engagement with each image's layered narrative.
All about Jonathan Jasberg


Luca Regoli (Italy)

The picture was taken in Puglia Italy during the summer time. The charm of the sea and the mystery of the shadow creates a sort of lightness of life.
All about Luca Regoli


Bernice Williams (United States)

Photography is the process of capturing light, and with light comes shadows. Although my favorite subject is abstract architectural imagery, I tend to photograph whatever catches my eye or imagination. I enjoy “shadow catching” and many times find the shadows more interesting than the elements that originally created them. The arrangement of shadows often looks like an abstract painting that can transport me to another world.


Jo Ann Chaus (United States)

Conversations with Myself explores shifting notions of the self. The sense of time is not linear; the past intervenes and destabilizes the present. Vintage references, from objects to clothing, signal personal history and bring time forward. The mirror is a portal to a liminal space where the repetition of self-regard creates infinite possibility. The photographs are “still,” but the psyche is in motion.
In this work, the complexity of being a modern woman is explored. There is a sorrow for what might have been otherwise, but a glory in experiencing what is possible through a radical engagement with oneself and the creative impulse.
All about Jo Ann Chaus


Robbe Maes and Reynout Dekimpe (Belgium)

'The Snackbar' is a cinematic photograph of a self-made scale model. It displays a typical, yet fictitious snackbar in Belgium. This work is part of the series Welcome to Fieldkapelle in which the artists portray a picturesque world of collective childhood memories.
All about Robbe Maes and Reynout Dekimpe


Giancarlo Zuccarone (Italy)

Morocco is full of highly intense and expressive elements: colour is saturated and dazzling; light reveals and is warm; and shadow is the invisible and the projected. Shadows and lights infuse the daily routine of the Moroccan people, who live in the medina, the old town, under a sun that shines high and mighty over the horizon and over the sharp architecture. Shadows give shelter and somehow project everywhere: downward, upward, leftward, rightward, and to the centre, even in playful graphical shapes. Often the shadows that envelop or are about to envelop the depicted characters acquire a symbolic strength.To me, these shadows embed what remains private of the local people, the reality that there are vast limits to the gaze of the stranger. The shadows enclose an unknown force; a mysterious condition... Sometimes, the light takes over this force, and prevails as a mystical and symbolic presence. Other times, the light reveals beautiful urban details and life scenes; and turns on incredible vivid colours.
'Maroc mon amour' is the idea of a travelogue that can forever preserve all these brief and fleeting moments captured in photographic images.
All about Giancarlo Zuccarone


Elina Abdrakhmanova (Dutch)

In the vibrant embrace of a summer day, a portrait captures the essence of a freckled beauty. Under the radiant gaze of the sun, her face becomes a canvas adorned with delicate constellations of freckles, each one a testament to the warmth of countless sunlit days. The sunlight, casting its golden hues igniting strands with fiery highlights. Shadows dance across her features, playing a mesmerising game of light and dark, accentuating the contours of her face. Her features, alight with the intensity of summer's brilliance, hold a glimmer of mischief and wonder. They reflect the boundless energy of the season, sparkling like sunlit waves on a tranquil sea. In this moment, she is a symphony of light and shadow, a testament to the beauty found in the simplest of summer pleasures.


Michael McIlvaney (United Kingdom)

The process of urbanisation has led to the seemingly accidental development of random shadow areas where structural elements cause differentials in the balance between light and dark. This candid image was made from the exploration of this phenomenon.


Pawel Pilch (Poland/USA)

The Spanish missions in the Americas were Catholic missions established by the Spanish Empire during 16th-19th centuries in the period of the Spanish Colonization. The central building of each newly established mission was its church. Made of adobe with walls 3-7 ft thick, they not only played crucial role in establishing visual dominance over the terrain but also became a formidable stronghold during frequent uprisings of native population. Combination of local and foreign esthetic plus region specific building practices created a unique colonial iconography. This image is part of larger photographic study called “Shapeshifter”. It chronicles Spanish Colonial Churches of Native American Pueblos in Central New Mexico. After long and complicated history some Pueblos have integrated these architectural masterpieces into their “landscape” of daily life. Others never did, leaving these beautiful structures, empty and unattended.
All about Pawel Pilch


Asako Naruto (Japan)

A bird's-eye view of a Slim Giant played by two accidental actors on the street. (Or maybe I should say “They Might Be Giants”, like the duo from Brooklyn).
All about Asako Naruto


Mariana Basurto (Mexico)

In an era where nations clash over dominion and might, there lies a purer, untouched spectacle of joy and freedom. There are places where children chase the simple ecstasy of being young, their laughter piercing through the somber narrative of global strife. Invisible to us may be their faces, their origins, the hue of their skin, or the gods they pray to, yet their message is clear and transcendent. It beckons us to ponder the legacy we're crafting for this new generation. These young spirits, unburdened by the world's scars, could be the architects of change. Their innocence, their play, is a reminder of the hope and renewal they represent, urging us to envision a world worthy of their dreams and their boundless potential.
All about Mariana Basurto


Julio Marchamalo Amado (Spain)

I like to see the city as a complex ecosystem, similar to a leafy forest or jungle, where its surroundings are as important as the people leaving in it. I like to compose images where the city light interacts with the surroundings and characters to compose complex and interesting images. For me the city is just but a big ecosystem where I can play with light and shadows.
All about Julio Marchamalo Amado


Tebani Slade (Australia)

I photographed this scene while walking the streets of Madrid in early 2021. And although covid restrictions where easing, I found there was still this sense of caution and fear, but at the same time a sense of hope and the possibility of normality in the not too distant future. This image reminds me of that time....Circles of hope rising out of the darkness.
All about Tebani Slade


Andrew Keedle (United Kingdom)

This series is about trying to interpret familiar sights of the City of London in a way that hopefully makes the viewer pause in a moment of recognition and contemplation. Daily, vast amounts of people stomp through the City on their way to their workplace; focussed on their path, cocooned in their music and oblivious to their surroundings.
I personally have a love/hate relationship with the City. It’s thrilling, exciting with so much visual potential; but it’s claustrophobic, overwhelming and over stimulating at the same time. Some of those feelings come through in the images.
Captured on my walks to and from the train station and the office, timed so that the early or late light gives scope for multiple exposures on my plastic, zero control film camera. I try to ignore the “science” of photography and absorb the potential using the lights, lines and shapes to create something recognisable but arresting.
I’m a mostly film based photographer. Of all sizes and formats from 35mm to Ultra Large Format. Mainly black and white but dabbling with colour. During the height of COVID I spent a considerable amount of time embracing Trichrome photography, the art of making colour images from black and white film. I coined a phrase “Colour from Movement” after falling in love with the psychedelic colours that can be induced from using Pinhole cameras and several minute long exposures with subjects that are in motion.
All about Andrew Keedle


Mahendra Bakle (India)

In the expansive sand dunes of Phan Rang, Vietnam, children exude pure joy as they play amidst the golden sands. Bathed in the soft morning light, intricate shadows dance across the landscape, painting a stunning tableau. From the vantage point of the drone, their laughter reverberates against the dunes, immortalizing a fleeting moment of carefree innocence. As an aerial photographer, capturing the interplay of light and shadow, and the playful antics of the children, is a source of endless fascination and joy.
All about Mahendra Bakle


Martina Pavloska (Macedonia)

'Echoes of Memories' captures the ephemeral essence of nostalgia through a series of four poignant Polaroids. Each image reveals a sun-kissed girl, her presence intertwined with the play of light and shadow. In the first frame, a haunting hand's shadow falls upon her, hinting at forgotten touches. The second picture depicts her silhouette against a wall, a silent echo of her past. Shadows dance across her face in the third, cast by the window, as if memories themselves are painting her features. Finally, in the last image, she appears submerged in shadows, a metaphorical reflection of fading recollections. Through these evocative compositions, Echoes of Memories invites viewers to ponder the transient nature of reminiscence and the lingering traces it leaves behind.


Julia Nathanson (Canada)

I’ve always been mildly obsessed with the colour spectrum. To this day I compulsively organize my kids’ markers or my cookbooks in the 'proper' order. It satisfies and calms me. The city’s colours are no different. They surprise and delight. They play off each other, matching and contrasting in unexpected, pleasing ways. Assembled in the right manner, they can offer a healing sense of balance.
All about Julia Nathanson


Clarice Barbato-Dunn (United States)

Gregory’s Desert is a series of photographs inspired by spending time at an urban farm on an arboretum. Making monthly visits to the farm to photograph, I was captivated by a sense of layers of time. The trees spoke of a place left to be nothing but itself.


Nirav Solanki (United States)

In the early mornings of farming, the trees talk with their natural beauty of colour, shadows, perspective and scale.
All about Nirav Solanki


Lorenzo Vitali (Italy)

Le Corbusier said: “Architecture is the skilful play of volumes under the light”. Every built work, in its existence, tends in fact to have conscious or unconscious relationships with light which is therefore, even in its absence, an element of every architectural work. Regarding the architecture of the sacred places of Christianity, regardless of the historical period, on a very personal level I have always had the feeling that the management of light (and therefore of shadows) has been wisely modulated in order to create highly impacting atmospheres. on the human soul. Even the volumes, often “enormous”, the majesty and, frequently, the magnificence of the structures initially generate a feeling of “disorientation”: one can feel lost and small in large multidimensional spaces, sometimes even oppressed. If in the believer the brightness that descends from above, the height of the aisles with the translucent walls of polychrome stained glass windows, the altar placed in the East suggest religious spirituality, the desire to rise, in an atheist like me all this generates at first a feeling almost of alarm, which pushes me to seek “refuge” in the shadows. Often in the cool stillness of the shadows another world opens up to my eyes in which I begin to calmly observe those details that I had not become visually aware of in a first overview. And it is in the observation of these forms, modeled by light and shadows, in which artistic references, curious expressions of religiosity or more generally compositions dictated by the light-matter interaction are often present, in which my gaze is often lost. Here I reach an inner peace nourished by a form of spirituality that could be defined as “atheist” in which in the end I find the human that expands in time and space into a sort of infinity. This spirituality is for me an “open space”, without churches and without dogmas imposed by an ecclesia. Mystical shadows, the smell of fresh. Symbols of hope, threatening shadows. Peace and restlessness intertwine in the heart and guide the eyes where they want to go. Our mind, pregnant with memories, pierces deep darkness. Nothing can hide anymore, lights and shadows, equally legible, tell their stories.


Liliane Schwab (Switzerland/Canada)

I created “ Diga, My Shadow” my series with a plastic camera and BW film. After a 2 hr mountain hike, i found myself on a big dam with nothing there except me, my shadow and blue sky. I shot the only BW film i had with me. A year later i decided to go back with the same camera, more BW film with the same weather condition, and having fun creating more interesting shadows in this isolated place.


The top three winners will receive a prize of $1,000, and all winning photographs will be prominently featured in the All About Photo Winners Gallery and published in the printed issue of AAP Magazine #39: Shadows.