[ PORTRAITS ] A single photograph of a person or group of people that increases the understanding and appreciation of the subject(s). Selfies or self-portraits are acceptable. Submissions do not have to adhere to documentary principles. Alternate processes and digital manipulations are allowed. Each participant is allowed to enter up to 10 images. The images must be taken in 2022.
Soha (nickname), a 22-year-old and Mohammad, a 30- year-old , are a gay couple in the yard of their friends house in Kabul. After a year of waiting for their case to be examined by LGBTQI community defenders, they are now disappointed and have decided to leave Afghanistan illegally and immigrate to Europe. The LGBTQ community has always been discriminated against and has been tortured in the world, but this battle is more unequal in Afghanistan. Where the religious and traditional thinking of society is more involved in homophobia it exposes these people to more mental and physical violence. With the fall of the government of the Republic of Afghanistan in the dark of August 15, 2021, and the rise to power of the extremist Islamic and terrorist group, the Taliban, the situation of these people became far more deadly than before. They are in danger of murder, violence, and sexual slavery by the government. They cannot come to work or meet the basic needs of life in society due to the fear of detection. And they have inevitably taken refuge in a kind of underground life and some have to work as sex workers against their will.
Parkinson's patient Uğur Bagav is seen during a surgical operation at Medipol Mega Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey on January 24, 2022. A brain battery was implanted in the brain of 34 year old Uğur Bagav, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, known as the disease of old age, at a very young age.
From series "Mountain of a ?" which takes a close examination at body image, fitness and visual representation through the medium of portraiture. My experience of bodybuilding has allowed me to discover potentials of my body outside of the rigid gender norms and cultural stereotypes. I attempt to create a similar space with photography: a space where I and my subjects feel free to explore ways which we’d like to be represented, and propose a body image that is negotiated in our own terms.
Eli , 37-years old has shaved her hair to support Iranian women's revolution, the hairs that are around Eli are hers and some of the women’s hair around the world that have been cut to support this revolution. The mandatory Hijab law was approved in 1983 by the Islamic Republic, since then the pressure on women has intensified. After Mahsa Amini was killed by Morality Police in Tehran in September 2022 and the beginning of popular protests, many of the Iranian women cut their hair off with the slogan "Women Life Freedom" as a symbolic movement for protest and struggle. International support for this symbolic movement turned it into a common language without borders and nationality for the cry for equality and freedom for Iran.
A 9-year-old boy stood on the ice-covered lake in northeast China, a popular scenic spot in Qiqihar City. He used a plastic bag to protect himself from Covid. To escape from Covid-19 pandemic, he was taken to less populated hometown by his parents, rather than hustle and bustle Beijing where he lives.
Portrait of a queer Vietnamese person in a Soviet apartment complex. They are dressed in their own stylistic choices and posed as they may, commanding an intense presence. The idea of the contemporary individual living and existing in a still majorly conservative and traditional Vietnamese society poses an underlying threat to its youth- as they are introduced to western liberal ideologies, it poses a particular study on how the youth may challenge the perception of others around them.
