Amazing Award-Winning Photos By Siena Creative Photography Awards

The 2022 Siena Creative Photo Awards, a global platform for artistic photography, has released the winners of this year’s competition recognizing visionary artists using photographic processes and images.

Unlike other photo competitions, the Siena Creative Photography contest, which is part of the Siena Awards, an international festival of visual arts in Italy’s Tuscan city of Siena, aims to redefine the art of photography by setting no rules on post-production work on the images. Only the final effect counts and the results are beyond stunning.

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“What matters is your unique vision and your skills in translating that vision into exceptional and original work,” the contest explains on its website. “Show us how you’re pushing the photographic medium, experimenting with different techniques or creative approaches to bring your ideas to life.”

Founded in 2015, the internationally prestigious contest open to all photographers, professionals, enthusiasts and new talents from around the world honors contemporary photographic skills in 17 categories from Animals and Architecture to Nudes, Still Life and Experimental.

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Overall Winner

This year’s overall winning photo, selected from tens of thousands submitted by photographers from 128 countries, is called The False Illusion, created by Portuguese photographer André Boto.

The image comes from Montijo, Portugal, and shines the spotlight on pollution, a problem that although affecting everyone is too often underestimated, ignored or covered up.

The winning photo, along with the finalists and winners of the 17 categories of the 2022 edition, will be on display at the Siena Awards Festival to be held in the city of its birth October 1 to November 20, 2022.

These are some of the remarkable winners in the fashion, nude, portraiture, experimental and beauty categories.

Nudes and Portraits

This tribute is undoubtedly playful and ironic, with only two elements in common: the torso and the wooden box. The back and arm of a naked person in a wooden box, no face or clues visible. The nameless person is in contrast to the 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting ‘The Death of Marat’.

“I have both a desire to see myself and not to see myself,” said Nishizaki. “I tried to express that those conflicting emotions coexist in the human mind.”

Like an alien that dematerializes in a ray of light, a nylon tube can’t hide the dancer’s beauty even as it hides her contours.

This photo tries to reveal the relationship between a woman’s pursuit for perfection and her body, contrasting the hidden part of the body with the polished nail art, prying and understanding this latent relationship.

Is it possible to actually hear the sound of eyes? This work was created by following the pure space for communication between the subject and audience — eliminating clothes from the body, creating freckles, using green as a symbol of nature. All these elements combine to maximize the glance of the subject into the eyes of the viewer.

This photo is dedicated to the dead children of Ukraine — specifically girls, some of whom will never be brides. The model, Nastya, is a refugee from Cherkassy, Ukraine.

“I like to do portraits inspired by Dutch Golden Age paintings,” Pascual explained. “I usually use soft lighting in my photographs. At present, I investigate the portrait and the correspondence between the internal and external features of the subjects portrayed, including people and animals.”

“How will you look like 50 years from now?” Budiman asks. This question inspired me to create the sequel of the”Poem For Sisters” photo series. This “experimental” portrait is a blending between traditional and contemporary, between ancient elements and Surrealism. I try to express an “imaginary world” in my mind about people who live in the Joseon era, 1392 – 1897 (the last dynastic kingdom of Korea) through this photo series.

Fashion and Beauty

Body expression and geometry, a junction of lines and shapes that convey a unique beauty. A perfect harmony of the body and the minimal simplicity of the photo.

This photo is a personal project for Tarantini, focused on a dress and headdress made entirely from newspapers. “We are so much at the mercy of the media, news, fake news, that ‘they make us a tailored suit,’” the photographer said.

“I really love Surrealism as medium to express my ideas into pictures,” said Budiman. “This photo tells of a girl who dreams about living peacefully in a home by the sea.

A person’s life goes from birth to death, from childhood to old age, from flowering to withering…The experience of life is like this circle from small to large, growing and moving forward step by step.

A dancer from Guinea’s Bissau Tribes prepares for the carnival. Although all parades were banned due to the pandemic, traditional dances still were held in hidden locations, reflecting the importance of traditions for these populations. The care taken in the clothing of this dancer and the creativity in combining simple cloth sheets testify to the innate aesthetic sense of this African population.

The feather is usually from the wings of birds but here they are used as a headdress forming a heart shape, echoing the title of the image, Heart-Shaped Wing.

I’m fascinated by the idea of women’s beauty. In the words of Sophia Loren, nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.

“I was inspired by Kintsugi, the Japanese art of healing which is a true inspiration on how we should view our past and present, and teaches how highlighting our flaws makes us better and more unique,” explains Sahebi.

Amazing Experiments

“An ant colony can consist of several million individuals” said Howell. “Yet they all play their role to ensure the success of the continuation of their community as a whole. This image is my attempt to show the intricate relationship that the littlest of creatures share, and how everyone plays an important role, even the little guy who is last to arrive. The creation of this image required an amount of patience I didn’t know I possessed.”

The photo was taken in a home studio combining two expositions that talk about the personal separation between fiction and reality.

This is a warning about the extinction of several animal species, reversing the role in which animals extinguish men and presenting some dramatic and shocking scenes. The image was inspired by the fresco “The Damned,” the Orvieto Cathedral work by Luca Signorelli.

An image that emphasizes femininity, beauty, fragility, but above all pride and strength. The thorns are a symbol for self-protection.

A surreal, symbolic look at evolution and creation. “From the ancient pyramids to modern architecture, our buildings have evolved driven by the creation of new life,” said Hammer. “New life itself begins with an egg inside a female fertilised by a sperm. We are drawn into temptations often by low-hanging fruit where umbrellas symbolize trees.”