Photography has always been about chasing light, but the real magic happens where light collides with darkness. That’s exactly what makes AAP Magazine #56: Shadows such a knockout collection. This year’s edition from All About Photo dives deep into the emotional and cinematic power of shadows, proving they’re way more than empty spaces inside a frame. Shadows create drama, mystery, rhythm, and mood, the kind of visual tension that stops you mid-scroll and keeps your eyes locked on an image.
Leading the pack is Derry Ainsworth from the United Kingdom with his jaw-dropping winning photograph, Highs & Lows. The image captures a bright red taxi slicing through a razor-thin beam of sunlight in the dense maze of Hong Kong streets. Pulled from his decade-long project documenting the city, the shot feels alive, electric, and beautifully cinematic.
Second Place went to Federico Borobio from Argentina for Chronicles of Earthquake, a mesmerizing exploration of Guanajuato’s winding streets where light and shadow dance across textured alleyways. Meanwhile, Bernice Williams from the United States earned Third Place with Shadow Catching, a poetic series focused on silhouettes and the emotional space between darkness and light.
Together, these 25 winning photographs remind us that shadows don’t hide stories, they reveal them.
You can find more info about AAP Magazine:
1. 1st Place Winner: "Highs & Lows" by Derry Ainsworth, United Kingdom
An iconic red taxi passes through a tiny gap of sunlight on a winding road in a dense urban area in Hong Kong. Taken from my new book ‘Highs & Lows: Unique Hong Kong Perspectives’. This collection showcases breathtaking urban cityscapes captured from soaring heights alongside intimate scenes of everyday life taken within the bustling streets. Spanning over a decade of exploration from 2014 to 2025, Ainsworth’s lens reveals the vibrant duality of Hong Kong.
2. 2nd Place Winner: "Chronicles of Earthquake Street" by Federico Borobio, Argentina
Guanajuato is a city full of winding streets, alleys, and passageways, all of which create magical plays of light and shadow that capture the essence of the place.
3. 3rd Place Winner: "Shadow Catching" by Bernice Williams, United States
I have become intrigued and mesmerized by shadows and silhouettes, but the figures that create them are not the main subject of the image. Most of the time, the figures are barely noticeable. These photographs are about the beauty of light and shadow and the effort to find meaning in the space where they meet.
Merit Award Gallery Winners
4. "In Between" by Costas Delhas, Greece
Photography is not just the recording of everyday life. It is the search for the invisible in the ordinary; it is the art of seeing not just what is seen, but what emerges between things. Light and shadow are the two opposing states that define this photographic language. The camera becomes the means by which the photographer stands between light and darkness, observing the world. The light reveals, the shadow implies. Between them there is a space of transition. It is there that In Between photography is born.
5. "Filbert Street Garages" by Tom Zimberoff, United States
This is an homage to the late photographer Max Yavno. My photograph is derivative of his photograph made at the same location in 1947.
6. "The smokescreen" by Jozef Macak, Slovakia
The series explores the quiet tension between light and shadow in the rhythms of everyday life. Faces disappear, gestures emerge, and ordinary scenes become charged with mystery and meaning. Through fragments of presence and absence, the series reflects how much of life is only briefly seen before slipping back into shadow.
7. "Archipelago of Smiles" by Manuel Besse, France
In the heart of Rio, this woman is more than a face; she is the breath of Carnival, a pulse of pure joy flowing through the Cidade Maravilhosa. Amid the intoxicating rhythm of the streets, she embodies the luminous resilience of all those who, with a single gaze, transform the burning asphalt of Copacabana into a royal domain, turning every moment into an eternal celebration of life.
8. "On Vulcan" by Matthew Garbutt, United Kingdom
‘The Time Between Times’ documents the ordinary, yet extraordinary, nature of urban space. Captured ‘after hours’ in backstreets, industrial estates, and wastelands, these images hum with a deep stillness. By stripping away context and clutter, the series shifts the focus to pure aesthetics. Minimalist, front-on compositions reduce the urban space to its essential dynamics: the intersection of lines, the friction between colours, and the weight of a shadow.
9. "Out of the Shadows" by Marika Poquet, France
Although my work explores several photographic genres, the street remains my true playground. I’m drawn to light, its contrasts, textures, and the way it transforms ordinary scenes into something more mysterious. Searching for shadows is less about what is visible than what is suggested. In the city, shadows constantly shift, and I work instinctively to capture these fleeting moments, where forms appear briefly before dissolving back into light and absence.
10. "Midnight City" by Tommi Viitala, Finland
This moment captured on 2024 an escalator in a Helsinki metro station, is a classic example of my style to take photos. I love contrasts and look for them in both light and life in general.
11. "Chaouen, le perle bleue" by Rémy Pinaton, France
Imagining himself in the footsteps of the explorer Charles de Foucauld more than two centuries ago, Remy Pinaton had the rare privilege of discovering Chefchaouen—the Blue Pearl of Morocco’s Rif Mountains—in an almost unreal stillness, as if suspended in time during the Covid period.
12. "Under the weight of Shadow" by Giacomo Sannipoli, Italy
A solitary figure moves through a space shaped by light and shadow, where architecture dominates and human presence dissolves into the space itself. One of the things that draws my attention is the intersection of light and structure: sharp lines, deep shadows, geometries that transform space into something abstract. The human figure enters these compositions as a minimal yet essential element—not the protagonist, but a point of balance, capable of completing and bringing the scene to life.
13. "A place in the shadow" by Alfredo Diano, Italy
Joal, Senegal: in the dazzling, colorful landscape, the blazing sun invites contemplative stillness and calm. Sheltered by the shade under the canopy, the man points with solemn calm – his arm outstretched and steady – to a distant elsewhere hidden from view, and his profile against the light appears to be smiling.
14. "The shadow of the torero" by Jens Hoffmann, Germany
We had actually gone to Spain to photograph the Easter processions in Zamora. On our way back to Madrid, we passed through Peñaranda and saw posters advertising bullfights on the same day. It was an experience full of intensity, energy, and grace.
15. "Shadows on the wall" by Klaus Lenzen, Germany
Shadows cast by architectural details onto gable walls sometimes create works of art in their own right, striking the viewer with their regularity.
16. "New York Afternoon" by Colin Page, United Kingdom
The presence of shadow is the absence of light, yet one cannot exist without the other. I am drawn to reduced compositions with rather fewer elements than more, especially when visiting in a visually overwhelming city.
17. "Out of the Dark" by Hendrik Wolf, Germany
I am fascinated by genuine moments, small details, and the interplay of light. Whether portraits, special occasions, or creative projects: my aim is to create images that don’t appear posed, but rather show personality and tell a story.
18. "Mall Shadows" by Ave Pildas, United States
To date, I’ve made more than fifty PaperMovies, all with the intention of forming a connection between frames that implies motion, narrative, and the passage of time. These sequence shots utilize a method of establishing a consistent architectural plane, then breaking it up with the organic shapes made by people who enter the frame.
19. "S Atlántida" by Demetrio Jereissati, Brazil
Atlántida, once a glamorous resort on the Uruguayan shore of the Río de la Plata, now exists mostly in its own shadows. The ballrooms are quiet. The ramblas wait for a summer that no longer comes the way it used to. Eladio Dieste’s Cristo Obrero rises from this same shore — undulating brick, light entering through gaps that were made to be felt, not explained.
20. "Madagascar Dreaming" by Margo Ryan, United Kingdom
A man carrying a sack of charcoal on his way to the market in the central highlands of Madagascar his shadow falls on the colourful battered textured background.
21. "Teddy in the Kitchen" by Wendy Stone, United States
The work in this series is from my home and front yard. I enjoy looking for light and shadows at different times of the year. In the springtime, I take everything off the blue wall in the kitchen and wait for a person or dog to get into the frame. For the photo of Teddy, I convinced him to climb onto the coach with treats. I enjoy using objects from around my house to add color to the photographs.
22. "Stuck in the Middle" by Mary Kay Kirsner, United States
This series uses shadows as a compositional element to create a strong graphic frame. The image, “Stuck in the Middle,” The two horsemen moving in opposite directions create a dynamic, and the shadow balances the frame. (National Youth Rodeo, Des Moines, Iowa. 2025)
23. "What Is Missing When the Gaze Is Gone?" by Ludovic Viévard, France
In our collective imagination, shadow is a place of danger, where monsters and hidden figures dwell beyond the reach of light. Yet it also invites the imagination, revealing beauty through concealment. This series presents six portraits across three situations — celebrating, sheltering from the rain, and protesting.
24. "Shadow Play" by Sarah And Lucy Jenkins, Australia
A captivating aspect of drone photography is the ability to create shadows that become the focus of the image. Ball Point was conceived with a close connection between the photographer and the subject. This basketball court has been used for many images in our portfolio, and using the drone in the portrait mode it was a matter of precise placement and timing to create the shadow. The final result is a unique, striking and ultimately playful image.
25. "The Edge of the Sea" by Rupert Chambers, United States
I create intimate, intertidal landscapes within the threshold between sea and land — the liminal in the littoral. On the Pacific coast, twice each day it is sea, and twice each day it is land. It belongs to both; it belongs to neither. In it I find organic structure, shape, shadow, texture, tone, color and motion, constantly recreated, recombined and recomposed. Beyond the subconscious imprint of Turner, Monet, Homer and Wyeth, I owe an obvious intellectual debt to California Impressionism and to the West Coast Photographic Movement.
FAQs:
What is AAP Magazine #56: Shadows?
AAP Magazine #56: Shadows is a photography competition edition by All About Photo focused on the creative use of shadows in visual storytelling. It celebrates photographers who transform light and darkness into emotional and cinematic works of art.
Who won the AAP Magazine Shadows Awards 2026?
Derry Ainsworth from the United Kingdom won First Place for his photograph Highs & Lows, a cinematic urban image capturing a red taxi moving through dramatic sunlight and shadows in the streets of Hong Kong.
Why are shadows important in photography?
Shadows add depth, mystery, structure, and emotion to photographs. They help shape composition, guide the viewer’s attention, and create storytelling elements that make images feel more dramatic and visually unforgettable.
What themes are featured in the winning photographs?
The winning images explore urban life, silhouettes, architecture, street scenes, textures, and emotional narratives. Each photographer uses shadows differently to create atmosphere, tension, and unique visual experiences.
What makes the AAP Magazine Shadows edition special?
This edition highlights how shadows can become the main subject rather than a background element. The collection features diverse global perspectives and showcases photography that feels intimate, artistic, cinematic, and deeply expressive.
