In the birthplace of Western civilization, there exists a sharp contrast, a kind of life that is numbly ignored by the general public. These forgotten corners of the city are the festering sores in our overwhelmingly capitalist society, and they are a source of shame for people of vast wealth.

These residents might come from a humble background, or perhaps they are simply social dissidents who refuse to accept common values. Though their living conditions might be poor, the hearts of their inhabitants are not. Laurent Nicourt not only discovered these people and their experiences with a photographer’s eye, but he also presents them to the viewer in an appropriate manner.

There is a lot of information in Franky Verdickt’s photographs of urban scenes in contemporary Taiwan. The photos are distinguished by their controlled (cool) color and bright night-time lighting. They artfully blend a hyperreal sharpness of focus with the blur of speed. And, finally, the isolation of the humans in these scenes makes them seem small and insignificant amidst the soaring scale of the surrounding architecture and infrastructure. The way these pictures are made, Taiwan feels like a sci-fi, alien place — a cold, impersonal and hostile environment where individual humans seem rather unimportant. It is telling, then, that the artist’s statement is rather political, too, finding metaphorical meaning in the feeling of isolation one can experience on the streets of Taiwan, compared with the political limbo that the state of Taiwan finds itself in relation to mainland China and the rest of the world.

Lucia Herrero’s series Tribes is a fascinating study of groups of ordinary people enjoying themselves on a day out on the beach. The images are clearly collaborative, and the individuals involved are fully engaged in the process. The use of lighting and the backdrop of sea and sky evoke echoes of the studio portrait, as do the formal poses that many of the groups adopt. And, of course, there are props—umbrellas, chairs, coolers, body boards, bags and beach towels—but these are the everyday paraphernalia of a day on the beach that we all know. And so whilst the images are clearly constructed, they convey subtleties of human interaction, of friendship and family, that we can all relate to as a direct reflection our own experience.

Alex Liverani has created a striking series of triptychs, each filled with stolen moments captured around Japan. This work is both whimsical and grounded in tone. With clever framing and masterful editing that never feels contrived, each triptych can stand on its own or live within a rich, evocative series. That, to me, is a rarity.

This photograph by Niki Gleoudi is magically mysterious, sensuous, and graphic. Niki has a whole series on beach life, and this is one of her best. It is not pedantic nor condescendingly descriptive, which would render it boring. That is the beauty of this image.

We are not quite sure of the relationship between the two men, yet there is an implied intimacy and affection. The layered juxtaposition of the unicorn float and the boat in the background allows our eye to travel around inside the picture, yet keeps us circling back to the man in the foreground. As today’s astute photographers often embrace a visceral visual literacy, Niki hits the mark.

This image brings an interesting new point of view from which to consider the life of the city street. While shooting from overhead is not, in itself, new, the searing lateral light has rendered the shadows more explicitly familiar than the figures themselves. This creates an ambiguity, since the image appears to exist simultaneously in two different perspectives. The cobbled patterns of the piazza set the figures into a highly idiosyncratic field, which the colorful geometric forms of the rectilinear awnings and curving garden disturb and animate the edge of the frame, energizing the whole.

I selected Untitled by Anais Perry as my juror’s pick because the photograph is uniquely affecting. From the first moment I saw it, I was struck by its power. The image looks clear, but when you look closely, there is something disturbing as well. It looks like fiction, but we cannot know for sure. The scene is classic: a young couple hiding away together. Perhaps they believe they love each other. But where are they? Who is the third figure in the background? These doubts in my mind and the unsettling composition of the scene give the image tension, as if Perry captured a moment “just before” something monumental will happen.