Judges
Courtesy of
Hossein Fardinfard
Faces of Humanity
Hossein Fardinfard
Royal Academy of Art
The Hague
Netherlands
Winner
Hossein (born in Iran in 1985) was initially interested in street photography. His focus eventually shifted to documentary and environmental portrait photography. He was working as a web developer when exchanges with his street photography subjects started to bring him into closer dialogue with the people he passed every day. Fascinated with the contours of the Earth (he holds a BS in cartography, IT and a Master's degree in geomorphology), Hossein felt drawn to study the contours of the human spirit more closely. Questions of identity and social issues continue to orient his work.
He graduated in photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, in 2022.
Barbara
Georgia, Tbilisi
2021
Barbara is a young girl who lives in Tbilisi, Georgia. Due to her hearing problem, she has to use a specific hearing aid that attaches to her head, making her also a shy and introverted person. This issue went even further, where she got more secluded from people around her at school.
After talking to her, we decided to take a picture, showing the hearing aid as a message to those who have the same struggle, saying they are beautiful as they are with or without this device.
For this portrait, I embellished her hearing aid with some petals.