
& Finalists
picks
I love the warm, late-afternoon light in this photograph by Brad Jones, and the way the beachside setting acts like an impromptu theater stage, with each of the “characters” lost in their own summertime daydreams or peaceful mundane activities. This moment transports me and makes me smile.
I have been a fan of Éléonore Simon’s photographs from Valparaiso for a while now, so I was pleased to see them entered into the LensCulture Street Photography competition this year.
I love the mystery, surrealism and complications she makes in her photographs, there is still one that I can’t quite work out!
I think the most important thing that seduces me about these images is the sense of mystery that they evoke, after looking at these slices of life I want to get on the next plane to Chile and see this magical place for myself, or is it magic that Simon has made in this place? Probably a bit of both.
I greatly admire someone actually living in a far away place and not just jetting in and out as a tourist. You can sense from looking at Éléonore’s photographs that she completely belonged here. Excited to see what she produces next.
This makes you do a double take. The cotton candy face is surreal and scary, but it’s also a little funny. Miroslawski’s dark humor comes out in this image. It’s what I like to see in street photography.
This photograph by Maude Bardet was a standout for me as I reviewed the many great submissions to this contest. Anchored by the central woman and her elegant shadow, the image instantly draws you in and invites your eye to travel around the frame. The diagonal line on the wall enlivens the composition further, as does the fact that everyone in the picture appears to be looking in a different direction. The gorgeous light and color palate add yet another level of delight to this fine photograph.
In this series Neil Johansson has photographed people through the scarred and marked panels of bus shelters and phone booths in a way that creates an abstract interpretation of life on the street. There is a certain randomness in the way that people become disconnected from the spaces they exist in and in the way that their presence becomes almost secondary to the colours, shapes and textures that his approach introduces. Inevitably some images succeed far more than others — Residue, Glance and Red were my particular favourites — not least because the quality of abstraction is heightened by the distortions imposed by the particular panels through which he photographs. For me, it was a fresh view of the street — still playing with movement, light and shadow but opening up the potential for a new way of interpreting our interaction with the everyday.
Reuben Radding’s street photography effortlessly captures the energy and bustle of New York City, offering the viewer a glimpse into the life of a city that often serves as both backdrop and character in its own story. With a raised finger and towering posture, the photograph commands us to stop and engage in conversation, taking in the layered scene and the story that’s about to unfold.
I really admire the poetic otherworldliness of this work. The photographer's artistic observations evidence such a unique view of the world around them and the consistency of each image's aesthetic means they work beautifully as a collection.

Fiona Shields has over twenty years’ picture-editing experience across a range of newspaper titles and has served as picture editor of The Guardian for the last nine. She recently took up the role of Head of Photography for the Guardian News and Media Group. Throughout her career, she has been involved in the coverage of some of the most historic news stories of our time: 9/11, conflicts around the world, the Arab Spring and much more. Besides her work at the newspaper, she’s delivered talks at photo festivals and to students of photojournalism. She has judged the Sony World Photography Awards, the UK Picture Editors Guild Awards, and the Renaissance Photography Prize among others. Most recently she served as a nominator for the Prix Pictet and joined the jury of the highly regarded Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.

Matt Stuart is a British street photographer, and a member of the UP street photography collective. As well as making his personal work, he works as a commercial photographer and leads street photography workshops.
Stuart's book of street photography, “All That Life Can Afford” (2016/20) includes photographs made in London from 2002 to 2015. His second book, “Into the Fire” (2020) explores living off-the-grid in Slab City, California.
Matt’s work has been published in a number of survey publications on street photography including the 2010 book and traveling show “Street Photography Now” and the seminal street photography bible “Bystander” by Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck. Matt has recently published his own best selling book, “Think Like a Street Photographer” which explains his thoughts, ideas and process on the subject. Matt’s work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Europe and the US, as well as included in group exhibitions in France (Arles), Britain (including at the Museum of London, which acquired his work for its permanent collection, and which travelled to the Museum of the City of New York), France, Bangkok and Stockholm.

Eslah Attar is a visual storyteller from the suburbs of Ohio where she studied photojournalism and documented immigration in her community. Prior to joining The New York Times as a photo editing fellow, she worked at National Geographic as an associate photo editor. Before then, she worked at National Public Radio as a photo editor and photographer.

Dewi Lewis Publishing is a partnership owned and run by Caroline Warhurst and Dewi Lewis. Founded in 1994, its photography list has an international reputation and has included books by leading British and international photographers such as Laia Abril, William Klein, Martin Parr, Simon Norfolk, Fay Godwin, Tom Wood, Sergio Larrain, Frank Horvat, John Blakemore, Paolo Pelegrin, Simon Roberts and Bruce Gilden. Dewi Lewis was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 2004 and in November 2009 he was awarded the inaugural Royal Photographic Society Award for Outstanding Services to Photography. He was awarded the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Publishing at the World Photography Awards in April 2012.

Currently serving as the Creative Director of United Photo Industries, Sam Barzilay is also the co-founder of Photoville, a photographic gathering that has rapidly become one of the largest and best-attended photography events in North America. Sam is also one of the founding producers of the T3 Photo Festival in Tokyo, Japan.
Sam holds a Master in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster (UK), where his studies focused on curatorial and photo-editing practices. Over the past decade, he has worked alongside some of the best and brightest minds in the global photographic community in pursuit of developing new audiences for photography. He is interested in devising methods of presentation that further amplify the power of photographic storytelling to help increase public awareness and bring about social change.

Samantha Clark is a photo editor at National Geographic, where she commissions and produces photography for the print and digital editions of the magazine. Prior, she worked at NPR, KQED, and Pier 24 Photography. She also features and writes about photography for NPR’s The Picture Show. She holds a masters in journalism from UC Berkeley.

Jim Casper is the editor-in-chief of LensCulture, one of the leading online destinations to discover new contemporary photography from around the world. As an active member in the contemporary photography world, Casper loves to meet with photographers and talk about photography. He curates art exhibitions, publishes books, conducts workshops, serves as an international juror, nominates photographers for key awards, and is an advisor to arts and education organizations.

Melissa O’Shaughnessy is a photographer based in New York City. Her work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions and publications, and is also included in the book “Bystander: A History of Street Photography” and the recently published “Women Street Photographers”.
She is a member of UP Photographers, a collective of 25 international street photographers.
Her first monograph, “Perfect Strangers: New York City Street Photographs”, was published by Aperture in October, 2020.
