12 Winning Images From The “Minimalist Photography Awards 2023” That Captured The Elegance Of Simplicity
In a world filled with constant noise and complexity, minimalist photography offers a refreshing escape. It distills the essence of a subject to its simplest form, creating powerful and evocative images through the art of reduction.
The “Minimalist Photography Awards 2023” celebrated this art form by recognizing photographers who masterfully captured the elegance of simplicity. Here are some winning images from the competition that exemplify the beauty of minimalism.
#1 “Ashored” by Martin Annand (United Kingdom). Minimalist Photographer of the Year and Long Exposure Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
#2 “Bike Shadow” by Francesco Luongo. Aerial Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“Aerial view with a biker shadow mixed with urban geometries, taken in Livorno, Italy.”
#3 “Blue Window” by Michael Jurek. Architecture Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“Interior design and Bauhaus architecture of the House Gropius in Dessau, Germany.”
#4 “Art of Everyday Live” by Klaus Lenzen. Open Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“Claddings of windowless gable walls can be very diverse. Whether made of metal, plastic, slate, or roofing felt, they reflect the highly individual taste of the homeowner and create for me special works of art of everyday life.”
#5 “X ing” by Glenn Homann. Street Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“Removing elements from the urban environment allows us to see between the details and appreciate shapes, colors, and spaces.”
#6 “Presence” by Luke David. Conceptual Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“Growing up in the closet, I only ever let certain parts of myself show through. I felt like I was made up of 3 parts. The one I revealed, the one I let myself feel, and the one that was secret & unknown. I would reflect only certain parts of myself back to others. I tried to merge seamlessly into my surroundings. Like a mirror, keeping everything hidden behind the surface. As an adult, I find myself adopting the same patterns. Segmenting myself and only revealing those parts that fit. Alone and making images in the landscape, I feel free of it all. There is nothing there but me and it.”
#7 “2050-293” by Patricia Van de Camp & Marc Heesterbeek. Portrait Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“The works of Van de Camp & Heesterbeek start with portrait photography and end with abstraction. Portrait photos are carefully deconstructed and assembled back together again. The intent of the photo or the identity of the person portrayed is no longer relevant; there is only the image. As reversed painters, they take out the irrelevant details of photography to get to the essence of the image. Every once in a while, a fictitious object is added. The identity and form of the person portrayed are remixed. The result is images where the black and the white live their own lives. The original portrayed persons are still recognizable but are now part of a larger whole, albeit stripped to the existential minimum in a balanced composition.”
#8 “Geometric Compositions” by András Gáll. Abstract Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“Basic shapes in a spatial context. Interaction between light, shadow, tone, and shape.”
#9 “Phantom Waters” by Jonathan Knight. Night Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“This dark, minimal collection showcases a series of waterfalls photographed at night. Rather than present a complete image, I present the outline of a view and invite the viewers to compose the image on their own: to interact with the work psychologically and physically to fill in the voids left behind. The resulting vision is partly real and partly based on the viewer’s own making.”
#10 “Hottest place on Earth” by Folker Michaelsen. Landscape Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“In summer months, the Dascht-e Lut desert in Iran is known as the hottest place on earth. Among huge sand dunes, the specialty of this hostile part of our planet are unique sandstone rock formations called Kaluts. For my photography I focused on the graphical elements the desert provides.”
#11 “Cloudy day” by Guido Klumpe. Fine-art Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“In this series clouds are the stars. Sometimes shy, sometimes cheeky-without clouds, the pictures would tells different stories. German photographer Guido Klumpe’s work includes abstract, minimalist, and street photography. Born with a severe congenital visual impairment, he perceives the world differently. Guido sees cities as urban landscapes, landscapes consisting of shapes, colors, light and reflections. He uses perspective, a particular point of view, and the poetry of chance in the old tradition of street photography, to create his compositions. This way, he creates a “stage” in which passers-by act as protagonists. His work highlights the mystery and absurdity of urban spaces while simultaneously revealing its hidden beauty. In his work, he investigates how we perceive dimensionality and is particularly interested in the moment of transition, when by reducing the optical reference points, three-dimensional architecture dissolves into a two-dimensional plane, lending many of his images an almost painterly quality. Considerations that arise during this process include the importance of information that helps establish a distinction between the foreground and background, and the type and number of objects involved.
Guido’s work has won numerous international awards, has been widely published, and is included in many solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe.”
#12 “Ashored” by Martin Annand (United Kingdom). Minimalist Photographer of the Year and Long Exposure Photographer of the Year
Image source: Minimalist Photography Awards
“This collection of images from the coast of the UK and further afield are born from the love of long exposure photography and the coast. As a child, a trip to the seaside was always an exciting prospect, an event, an adventure. These feelings still stir now when I head to the coast with my camera. The anticipation of what’s to come. Trying to find interesting subjects before time and tide swallow them up forever. Not always having the time I’d like to devote to my photography, I have tried to create a more timeless feel to my images. Stripping back to basics often leaves only a main subject discarding any clues or leaving only hints on time and location. I’ve never wanted to document what I’ve seen, only to create my version of it. I use color as opposed to monochrome as I find color more of a challenge, but I try to keep colors subtle and limit the color palette.
I see myself as far from a finished article as a photographer. I hope that what I have learned so far goes to producing some aesthetically pleasing images that others enjoy as much as I enjoy creating.”
Got wisdom to pour?
I enjoyed that. Thank you, Saumya Ratan.
As well, I feel you were very selective. Appreciated! I wasn’t overwhelmed as I can be with other sites that feel the need to cram in 38 + more photos of minimalism. Which would be irony at it’s best. Quality, not quantity. Again, thank you for finding some wonderful photos of the subject.