Street photography is a whole different kind of magic — the kind that hits you right in the gut because it’s raw, unfiltered, and full of real life. And this year’s 2025 AAP Magazine Awards totally delivered. We’re hyped to introduce the 25 photographers who crushed it, representing 15 countries across 5 continents, all bringing their own flavor, instincts, and cultural rhythm to the streets they roam.
These winning lens-masters didn’t just take photos — they captured the heartbeat of towns and cities around the world. They froze those blink-and-you-miss-it moments that tell us who we are, how we move, and how our everyday chaos somehow forms its own kind of poetry.
For this 52nd edition, AAP Magazine went hunting for images that reveal the soul of a society. And the winners gave us everything: a lone figure rising above a packed crowd, men pushing a beat-up green taxi across wooden planks, surreal diptychs bending urban reality, and scenes filled with humor, geometry, grit, and color. Whether shot across the world or right at home, each frame hits with its own emotional punch.
What makes this collection so dope is how different each photographer’s vision is. Some lean into bold colors, others work in timeless black-and-white. Some chase symmetry, others go for raw human expression. But every single shot proves one thing: street photography is a delicate dance between intuition and discipline. You’ve gotta feel the moment coming, lock onto the details, and fire the shutter at that perfect split-second when light, movement, and human truth collide.
Choosing just 25 was brutal, but the final lineup is packed with strange, beautiful, unforgettable moments. Trust us — you’re gonna love exploring them just as much as we did.
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#1. First Place Winner: "MahaKumbh: World’s Largest Gathering" by Savadmon Avalachamveettil, Ireland
"A once-in-144 years phenomenon. Ash-smeared Hindu holy men (Naga Sadhus) charged into India’s most sacred river Ganges at dawn on the first most significant bathing day of the Kumbh Mela festival. An extraordinary display of human unity, spiritual energy, and collective consciousness."
#2. Second Place Winner: "Tides of life" by Jozef Macak, Slovakia
"This series traces the uneasy intimacy between people and water. A relationship marked by necessity, resilience, and quiet harm. Across Bangladesh, rivers reflect this same tension: lifelines turned fragile, ecosystems pushed to the edge. This series offers a glimpse into that reality where water nourishes and betrays, and where its spirit persists against the slow ache of environmental neglect."
#3. Third Place Winner: "Dislocated Presences" by David Masoko, Netherlands
"Dislocated Presences is an ongoing series of urban diptychs that lingers in the unnoticed moments of city life. By pairing candid street scenes, the work reflects on anonymity, displacement, and the quiet choreography of human presence. Each image resists narrative resolution, instead offering a trace — a fragment suspended in time."
Merit Awards
#4. "Stamford Hill" by Francesco Fantini, Italy
"A group of Orthodox Jewish boys in their neighbourhood of Stamford Hill, North London, on the eve of the Passover holiday. They are burning chametz, leavened food forbidden during Passover, as a symbolic and literal purging of leaven before the holiday begins."
#5. "Jump for Joy" by Danielle Goldstein, United States
"When we walk around densely populated areas of the world its easy to see only their sheer vastness: the architecture, the infrastructure, the commerce, the sensory onslaught and the incessant supply of humanity. That staggering, impenetrable vastness is what makes these areas of the world both endlessly fascinating and incredibly infuriating; and it’s easy to get wrapped up in the blunt, visceral emotion that the hugeness of these cities evoke in us."
#6. "Don´t know where to go from here" by Pekka Välitalo, Finland
"I like to shoot everyday life in the streets focusing on urban landscapes with interplay of light and shadow. I try to create an emotional narrative that feels introspective, poetic and brings a sense of quiet contemplation."
#7. "National Gallery, London" by Bartosz Michalik, Poland
"National Gallery, London, 2024. A visitor in an open-back dress sketches before “Susanna at her Bath.” Her posture echoes the model’s turned back and backward glance, creating a quiet dialogue across centuries between observer and image."
#8. "Balloon Vendor" by France Leclerc, United States
"In Dhaka, overcrowded trains are a crucial part of daily life. But once a year, during the Bishwa Ijtema—the world’s second-largest Muslim gathering—the crowds grow beyond what seems possible. Pilgrims pour into Tongi from all parts of Bangladesh, drawn by three days of prayer and sermons by Islamic scholars."
#9. "Venice Beach" by Gail Just, United States
"On a late February afternoon, Venice Beach (Ca) was hosting an “underwear” running event. Despite the flamboyance and energy of the runners, it was the bystanders that caught my camera’s eye."
#10. "Chasing Colours" by Derry Ainsworth, United Kingdom
"From my new Hong Kong book ‘HIGHS & LOWS’ showcasing Hong Kong from unique perspectives – a mix of aerial cityscapes and intimate scenes of everyday life in the streets."
#11. "Surveillance" by Alon Goldsmith, United States/South Africa
"Captured on the Venice Beach Boardwalk at the height of the COVID-19 shutdown, Surveillance reflects a moment of quiet tension and unexpected connection. Against a wall freshly painted over in what I call “COVID Brown,” a man and his dog glide by on a skateboard—the man masked, the dog locking eyes with the camera."
#12. "Colors" by Giedo van der Zwan, Netherlands
"This picture I took during a workshop with ShootLike a Local that I was conducting in Madrid. It was evening in May and I was walking to a meeting point where I would meet the group after an assignment when I passed this scene. I saw the light on the wall, the bags in the window, the letters on the wall and the shadows of two men playing around."
#13. "City Barbie, New York" by Pelin Guven, Turkey
"New York is the great daylight stage, alive with sirens and steam, cab yellows and reflections, the quick rhythm of movement, grit and light. In this series, I let light do the talking. Pink glows where shadow softens, color interrupts routine, and people drift through the frame like passing thoughts. I don’t chase stories; I let them come to me. Each photograph is both discovery and surrender to what the city gives."
#14. "Flying High" by Denise Pensky, United States
"While at a Santeria dance demonstration, I initially focused on the costumed dancers, And then I turned around and saw these young boys leaping on and off a bench. They were having such a good time together – not a care in the world, confident, literally jumping for joy. This was such a happy moment and I remember hoping that they would never lose their spirit."
#15. "Downward Dog" by Jay Calderon, United States
"These are attempts at expressions of the indecisive moment, the momentary pause that comprises individual experience. My hope is, like the ellipses, they hint at something more or that something has been left unsaid."
#16. "Slow Ride" by Eric Davidove, United States
"The Slow Ride series is about the art of going nowhere in style. From toy lowrider classics to theme-based convertibles, these tiny vehicles, and their even tinier drivers, prove that it’s not about the destination, it’s about the vibe."
#17. "Reading the newspaper in Washington Square Park" by Jaejoon Ha, South Korea
"I’ll never forget my walks in New York this summer! I spend both sorrow and joy in Washington Square Park."
#18. "Incognito" by Chris van Dolleweerd, Netherlands
"This image is part of my ongoing Incognito serie. In a world where everyone seems to be constantly visible, there is a fascinating beauty to be found in the unnoticed, the inconspicuous, the anonymous. This serie is a visual journey through moments of silent anonymity, in which the everyday person, unrecognizable and undirected, is captured in its purest form."
#19. "Silence in B-Flat" by Shay Lari-Hosain, United States
"Silence in B-Flat critiques the individualistic surveillance-centric natures of the built environment, investigates localized histories through dreamlike layering and sequencing, and plays with time by blurring the boundaries of verisimilitude in a photograph."
#20. "Sergey to smoke a pipe" by Igor Gladkov, Russia
"Sergey loves to smoke a pipe. He looks like he came out of a Van Gogh painting. In St. Petersburg, residential buildings built in Tsarist Russia resemble wells. There are abandoned houses, and homeless people live here. At the very bottom of St. Petersburg wells. These people have their own history, biographies."
#21. "Night Blues" by Asako Naruto, Japan
"Night descends upon Madrid. A faint tremor runs through the silence, where unspoken words seem to linger. I listen to those quiet murmurs and imagine the stories that were never told. I consider myself a street photographer, yet I am drawn less to the decisive moment than to scenes where time appears to pause—moments of introspection suspended in stillness."
#22. "Beyond the Glass" by Gabriel Marcos, Venezuela
"This series is the result of wandering the city while exploring my own inner streets. I never set out to define a place or a theme; I simply observed and collected fragments that resonated with something already within me. Through faces, reflections, and silhouettes, a sense of fragmentation and estrangement took form—feelings long present, now given shape. But far from offering answers, these images opened new questions. These images are those questions."
#23. "By the empty pool" by Justin Roque, France
"I had gone to the northwest of France for a few days to take photos in the port of Le Havre, the largest port in France. During this stay I wanted to go for a walk in Deauville a little further south to change the atmosphere. I had very little time there, so I decided to go directly to the Deauville boards by the sea."
#24. "Away" by Fabrizio Intonti, Italy
"In the era of pervasive communication, of continuous and hyperactive interaction with our peers, a question arises again: who are others, truly? Hell is other people, Sartre replied, meaning that the gaze of others objectifies us, fixes and crystallizes us into a representation."
#25. "Puebla" by Nicola Balestrazzi, Italy
"Catholic tradition and symbolism are still very strong in Mexico. From North to South, being either religious events and festivals such as the Passion of Christ and the Day of the Dead or being simply a square, a street, or the numerous churches all around, the cross is the most omnipresent symbol in Mexico. This street photography project showcases all the crosses I have come across in all the different surroundings I found myself in, on the many occasions I have visited the country."
