All About Photo Magazine #49 B&W photo winners All About Photo has revealed the winners of its latest competition, AAP Magazine #49: B&W, celebrating the timeless art of black and white photography.
According to All About Photo, the winning artists "offer a global perspective on the enduring power of monochrome. "
We were drawn in by the creative compositions and striking use of light and shadow in many of the winning photos. In this slideshow, we share the top three winners, along with some of our favorite Merit Award recipients. To learn more about the contest or see the complete gallery of winners, visit the contest website.
Which photo stands out to you? Let us know in the comments!
1st place winner
Photographer: Astrid Verhoef (Netherlands)
Title: Balance
Description: The artwork ‘Balance’ was shot in March 2025, at the beautiful Peninsula de Jandia, Fuerteventura, Spain. For all my artwork, I’m exploring my relationship and connection to the natural world, usually portraying a figure that always seems to linger somewhere between the natural and an artificial element, preventing her from truly connecting. Like a trace from the world she can’t leave behind.
I am used to working solo to experience my personal connection to the landscape in the most profound way without any distractions. Even though I treasure that connection and it works very well for me this way, at rare occasions I do want to work with an extra model. This particular posture is the result of movement, dancing together. It did change the experience: a dance of balance showing a connection with each other as well as with the landscape. We are one and opposites at the same time. Contrast and connection, trust and dependence. Feeling a force of nature within and around ourselves, strength and balance in the volcanic landscape where barren meets beauty.
2nd place winner
Photographer: Antonio Denti (Italy)
Title: Harder Lives (near Zagora, Morocco)
Description: Souvenir makers at work on the edge of the Sahara Desert, as in the small town nearby, their families live on. ''Harder Lives'' is part of a wider project called ''Everything and Nothing'' that tries to capture the moving essence of the little lives - our little lives - in the backdrop of the global economy and of a massive new industrial revolution in very different settings. In this case, a small village in Morocco that used to live off minimal (dates, palms, small herding, minor caravans) and now shifted to global tourism as all kinds of people travel there from all places in the world to see the magic marvels of the Sahara.
3rd place winner
Photographer: Lynne Breitfeller (United States)
Title: Stacy and Miss Kitty
Description: This image, “Stacy and Miss Kitty,” is from “People I Know,” a collection of portraits created in the early to mid-nineties of friends, family, and acquaintances. Some are candid, and others are performative. These photos bring me back to earlier times and help me visualize my early adult years and how people come in and out of our lives, and how some stay. Each holds a place in the catalog of my memory.
Merit Award
Photographer: Florian Kriechbaumer (Germany)
Title: Colossal Legacy
Description: Craig is one of the last remaining Super Tuskers on earth - elephants whose tusks weigh over 100 pounds each and literally scrape the ground. At 53, he’s no longer a youngster, with maybe a decade of natural lifespan left, but carries himself with a calm, imposing presence. During my trips to Amboseli’s incredible landscapes, I had several encounters with him while documenting the ecosystem and the work of the rangers protecting it. In the past years, three big tuskers have been killed after crossing into Tanzania, where trophy hunting and human-wildlife conflict are ongoing threats. Craig has been leaving his Colossal Legacy for over five decades, but it is up to us to ensure his successors will be able to do the same.
Merit Award
Photographer: Ylva Sj (Sweden)
Title: I see only what I want to see
Description: The image ”I see only what I want to see” symbolically describes people who turn a blind eye to all facts and stubbornly cling to their own version of reality.
Merit Award
Photographer: Monika Maroziene (Lithuania)
Title: Masquerade
Description: My artistic practice merges my scientific expertise with a love for photography, creating a unique art form that I see as a type of alchemy. I incorporate pine tree resin into my prints, adding warmth and durability while preserving the images, symbolic of my Lithuanian roots and my connection to the natural world. My work often features black and white photography, evoking a sense of calm, solitude, and reflection, complemented by touches of resin that transport viewers to sunny, nostalgic days. Through these images, I explore themes of memory, identity, and the poetic irony of life, inspired by the landscapes of the Curonian Spit and my lifelong fascination with the mysterious, powerful presence of women and nature.
Merit Award
Photographer: Klaus Lenzen (Germany)
Title: Steam IV
Description: The exhaust cloud from the quenching tower of a coking plant at a steel mill in Duisburg, Germany, develops an impressive dynamic. Soon, new clouds form, hour after hour, day after day. As part of a long-term project, I captured these impressive clouds from various perspectives.
Merit Award
Photographer: Giuseppe Cardoni (Italy)
Title: The Magic of the Circus
Description: The circus is a large extended family which are all more or less related to each other, held together not only by affection but also by the great passion for their Art. My main interest was to tell more about the atmosphere than the performers by focusing on the moments of preparation, pause, concentration, rather than the show, which is, however, mentioned. In this way, it seemed to me to preserve at least in part the mystery and the magic that captures the spectator when the curtain opens.
Merit Award
Photographer: Kevin Lyle (United States)
Title: City Life 20472
Description: Cities are often full of drama, some more than others. The intensity of the drama within city life is balanced by simple, less dramatic vistas that may provide food for thought, humor, comfort or wonder. I present some of these simple observations.
Merit Award
Photographer: Elena Donskaya (Russia)
Title: Young Woman
Description: Inspired by the Renaissance-era painting Portrait of a Young Girl by Petrus Christus.
Merit Award
Photographer: Ralf Dreier (Germany)
Title: Niendorf Bathing Jetty
Description: The project "Two Minutes by the Sea" is a spin-off from the overarching project "By the Sea," which is about long exposures of coastal regions with an exposure time of two minutes. The resulting minimalist black and white images show the viewer an unusual view of the sea. The simplicity of the images, in particular, focuses the eye on the main motif, but at the same time leaves enough space to prevent it from appearing too dominant. As a result, the pictures move away from reality and encourage the viewer to use their imagination, giving them the opportunity to combine what is actually depicted with their own emotions and thoughts, resulting in a very personal visual experience for each viewer.
Merit Award
Photographer: Yanitsa Genova (Bulgaria)
Title: Trapped in the Frame
Description: Half-Visible is an attempt to enter into harmony with the world. The photographs were taken over ten years. What unites them is street photography, partial visibility, and the geometric arrangement of everyday life. I point the camera at what changes my inner world. I am capable of looking at everything, both the most terrible and the most beautiful. I am here.
Merit Award
Photographer: William Ropp (France)
Title: Ethiopia, the singular man
Description: William Ropp's black-and-white work in Mali, Senegal, and Ethiopia transcends simple documentary portraiture. It is an introspective quest for the other, a dive into the intimacy of African faces, rendered with rare visual and emotional intensity. At the crossroads of photography, shadow theater, and classical painting, Ropp reveals souls rather than bodies. Ropp does not simply photograph faces: he seeks to capture what he calls the inner presence of his subjects. Through a play of light and shadow, he extracts a form of silent poetry, often timeless. His black and white is deep, almost charcoal-like, and exudes a sense of suspended time. The faces seem to emerge from a dream or a distant memory. He thus creates a universe between reality and fantasy, often tinged with melancholy.
Merit Award
Photographer: Beamie Young (United States)
Title: Mobius
Description: The rich tonalities of a black and white image have always been a source of inspiration to me. In my quest for organic patterns in nature, I am drawn to the play of light I observe in the gardens around my home. The negative space in each image is as important as the plant itself and creates an important counterpoint to the leaves.
Merit Award
Photographer: Luciano Gerini (Italy)
Description: At the end of the 19th century, Rome became the capital of Italy. It therefore needed new government offices, more factories, more workforce, warehouses, general markets, energy suppliers, and so on. A new area transformed into a well-organized site with a dense network of connections to serve the new Rome. It took decades, of course.
After over a century, some structures have become obsolete due to new technologies and growing needs. The municipality and landowners want to reuse all these buildings and open spaces, preserving as much of the old forms and styles as possible. The power plant has now become a museum, the area used as a gas depot has been transformed into an event space and offices, and the large butcher's shop has become a mix between a museum and an exhibition space. Of course, some things have been lost, such as: the atmosphere of the old great market at dawn with its lights on and handcarts, the tumbling of the enormous gas tanks that changed the skyline of the area, the traffic of trucks, etc. It might be interesting to know that in Roman times, there were docks and warehouses here for Roman ships sailing along the river, where goods arrived from distant countries to supply the city.
So, what am I doing here, taking photos? This is my city, and I have a degree in geography, so the real question is: why has everything worked so well here since ancient times? What have we lost, and what could the future hold for this place? Can photos bear witness to the change? I'm working on it.
. dpreview.com2025-8-12 16:00
