27 Striking Winning Photos from the LensCulture Black & White Photography Awards 2025

Black and white photography just hits different — it’s raw, it’s emotional, and it has that timeless swagger no amount of color can replace. Every year, the LensCulture Black & White Photography Awards remind us why monochrome remains one of the most powerful storytelling mediums out there. And the 2025 winning images? Yeah… they’re next-level. These photographs aren’t just pretty pictures; they’re full-blown stories carved out of shadows, light, grit, and pure human experience.

What makes this year’s collection so killer is how wildly diverse the submissions are. You’ve got documentary shots that stop you mid-scroll, intimate portraits that feel like they’re breathing in your direction, and creative, off-the-wall conceptual work that proves monochrome is still evolving fast. Some artists lean into old-school darkroom vibes, while others remix digital craft with handmade alternative processes. No matter the approach, each photographer taps straight into the emotional voltage of black and white — the kind that grabs you by the collar and won’t let go.

LensCulture has long been a platform known for lifting unique voices, and this edition is no different. The winning photographers, jurors’ picks, and finalists represent cultures and corners of the world that might never cross paths in real life, yet all collide here through the universal language of light and shadow. That global mix is what makes the 2025 lineup so special: every frame feels personal, yet majorly relatable.

On top of worldwide recognition and cash prizes, the top winners will also score a prime exhibition spot in New York during Spring 2026 — a dream gig for any artist pushing their craft to the edge.

Dive in, explore these striking images, and let them spark something inside you. Inspiration is kinda guaranteed.

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#1. Series Winner – 1st Place: "Buzkashi" by Todd Antony

"Buzkashi, which translates to “goat pulling” in Persian, is the wild, brutal sport of Tajikistan shared by its neighboring countries. Think polo—but with a headless, eviscerated goat standing in as a ball, hundreds of riders, and no formal teams. Rooted in the nomadic cultures of Central Asia and played for hundreds of years, riders, or ‘chapandaz,’ battle for control of the goat while dodging rivals, and the occasional whip or elbow.""

#2. Series Winner – 2nd Place: "You Can’t Enter the Same River Twice" by Francisco Gonzalez Camacho

"This project explores the concept of impermanence, the futility of becoming and the landscape as an agent of transformation. An unknowable rhythm unfolds; forms bend, break, emerge, dissolve, neither whole nor undone. Traces persist within the drift; shifting patterns, unfixed entities, hidden layers of impermanence lie beneath.

Nothing holds. Nothing stays. Growth and ruin intertwine—a pulse of becoming and unraveling, between absence and presence, the landscape in flux. The surface fractures, shifts, unseen forces, all caught in the current, fleeting, surrendering to the flow—panta rhei, everything flows."

#3. Series Winner – 3rd Place: "Dancing Your Dream Awake" by Anita Andrzejewska

"This is a visual journey through space and time, inspired by the idea of life as pilgrimage. The book’s motto, a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Book of Hours, speaks of venturing to the limits of one’s longing to discover life and experience all it has to offer: both beauty and terror."

#4. Single Winner – 1st Place: "Patience" by Kartikeya Manan

"A man hangs onto an open window in search of some respite from the mid-summer heat of an overcrowded bus. This photographs comes from a project that explores the daily commute of public transport users in New Delhi."

#5. Single Winner – 2nd Place: "Silent Dialogue" by Nina Hauben

"This project marks a slow shift—a passage from stillness to life. The boundaries between memory and reality begin to dissolve; absence takes on form and silence becomes a language of its own."

#6. Single Winner – 3rd Place: "Weston Skater (Emma in the Doorway)" by Kennon Guerry

"An homage to & reinterpretation of Edward Weston’s 1936 image, Nude (Charis in the Doorway)."

Jurors’ Picks

#7. "Sheep Drive in Tusheti" by Maurice Wolf

"Maurice Wolf’s photo story of a sheep drive in Tusheti, Georgia captures the textures and moody atmosphere of this yearly winter ritual. He layers the story with spectacular scenic mountain views, dark stormy weather, and the humble details of a dinner table in the shepherds’ hut. His choice of black and white make this story feel even more timeless."

Selected by: Jim Casper, Editor-in-Chief, LensCulture,The Netherlands

#8. "Grace" by Scott Offen

"I selected Scott Offen’s Grace for its wonderful ability to transform a lifelong relationship into a visual language of shared authorship and mystery. Through Grace’s presence in the landscape, the series reframes aging, solitude, and femininity with depth and reverence. It is a very powerful and poignant body of work."

Selected by: Rachel Barker, Co-Founder and Director, Stanley/Barker Publishers, United Kingdom

#9. "L’Ame des Objets" by Karine Joly

"Karine Joly’s work moved me deeply because of its striking simplicity and strength. The technique she uses makes you wonder whether you’re looking at a drawing or a photograph, yet the softness and timelessness of the image keep pulling you in. Her work lingers, inviting you to look again and again."

Selected by: Roy Kahmann, Photography collector, specialist and owner, Hungry Eye Gallery, The Netherlands

#10. "Blue Collar Workers of Bangladesh" by MD Tanveer Rohan

"Every now and then in life we have to lift a stack of bricks with our heads. This photograph captures that recipe perfectly. A great burst of energy and a balance of speed and strength."

Selected by: Ray Potes, Founder, Editor, Photographer, Hamburger Eyes, United States

#11. "Steel Framed Stories" by Jozef Macak

"For Jozef, what made it for me is the way the stiffness of steel and the structured settings frame these very human situations. You can feel the efforts required by the hard work, and yet still the presence of life. The aesthetics of the blacks are also striking."

Selected by: Stéphane Magnan, Director, Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, France

#12. "Untitled" by Juul Kraijer

"We all seek connection—through our work, our relationships, and the world we move through each day. Juul Kraijer’s Untitled (portrait with butterflies) evokes that impulse for me, reminding me of several of my favorite portraits of women."

Selected by: Anna Walker Skillman, Owner/Director, Jackson Fine Art Gallery, United States