Congratulations to the awardees and a big thank you to all who entered.
First place prize of US$500 goes to Lisa Murray, second place is Aurora Stenersen and third place goes to Meera Lehr. Finalists are Arrayah Loynd, Glish Group, Panos Charalampidis & Mary Chairetaki, André Ramos-Woodard, Mari Masouridou, Ai Mizobuchi and Diane Meyer.
We received entries from photographers around the globe including Angola, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Ukraine, UK, USA and Vietnam.
The ten shortlisted artists represent a diverse array of backgrounds and artistic visions. There are some familiar faces, chosen as their work embodies the spirit of see-zeen.
Although we selected only ten finalists for the award shown here, in the weeks ahead we will showcase over 30 additional noteworthy entries on our Instagram account @seezeenphoto, so stay tuned.
Enjoy the ten finalists and keep an eye out for future award opportunities.
A special thanks to our guest judge Frank W. Ockenfels 3.
Guest judge
Acclaimed photographer Frank W. Ockenfels 3, our guest judge, is an American photographer, artist, and director celebrated for his portraits of famous celebrities like David Bowie, Jared Leto and Lady Gaga. He is also known for his promotional photography for films and tv such as Breaking Bad, Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean as well as his music videos, and campaigns for brands like Nike and Converse. In 2024, his solo exhibition Introspection at Fotografiska New York showcased his creatively experimental journey that spans decades and that continues to inspire today.
winner
lisa murray
The Portrait, an Expression of Identity
Text by Angie Carrillo Torres
Think about it: how many portraits of ourselves do we have? Analog ones? Surely enough to tell our story from childhood to the present. Digital ones? Probably too many to remember. Not to mention those of our family and friends, we may have a plethora of portraits that carry deep and symbolic meanings about our lives.
The portrait, before defining it in terms of its characteristics, must undoubtedly be recognized as a tradition without limits that is still very much alive and through which we have been able to preserve the memories of generations. Its definition describes “a representation or delineation of a person, especially of the face, made from life, by drawing, painting, photography, engraving, etc”. Through these means, the essence of humanity has been captured as a biographical and anthropological trace of an incalculable number of individuals throughout the world. Thanks to the forerunners of photographic portraiture (dating back to 1830), it is possible to imagine the appearance and characteristics, not only physical but also contextual, of relevant historical figures; the portrait has contributed and will continue to contribute to the ethnological study of the human being.
A couple of centuries ago, owning a portrait was a mark of status. Times have changed, and today, owning a portrait is within reach for most, thanks to digital cameras and connected devices. While the medium has evolved, has the essence changed? The act of portraiture produces and reproduces unique but also very recurrent narratives, and perhaps the reason for this is simply that we are human, and although the peculiarities of each era are very different from each other, we essentially have characteristics that remain common.
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second place
aurora stenersen
third place
meera lehr
What's evident is the evolution of methods and resources in portraiture and photography overall. Today, we have numerous tools that can alter the reality captured in a portrait at the moment it's taken. The portrait is then a representation of a "pseudo-reality" as it is manipulated to convey a specific interpretation. But when we talk about a self-portrait in the digital age, we encounter an even more altered reality. Now, filters and effects are seamlessly applied to faces, transforming real features-a phenomenon we've come to accept as part of our daily routine. We've moved from a desire to capture everything to a tendency to conceal, to the point where we sometimes struggle to recognize our own faces. Self-portraiture has become commonplace, almost an obsession with the self, fueled by these transformative tools.
The advent of smartphones in our present day, and the ubiquitous use of apps like Instagram and Snapchat, has meant that portraiture has come to shape not only how we see ourselves but how we communicate in our daily lives - From the Wallace Collection.
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shortlisted
arrayah loynd
The definition of portraiture and its purpose has also shifted. It used to be that portraits were part of the private life of a family, especially wealthy families, and only a few people could see them. Today, we all have portraits, and although some photographs remain within the family circle, many others are shared on social media. Modern portraits are like a blank canvas for creativity and artistic expression. With all the new technologies and means of creation, we now have more dynamism, interactivity and experimentation. This evolution reflects a state of portraiture that moves from private to public, from static to dynamic, from traditional to experimental, and from collective thought to individual expression. In the entries for see-zeen’s portrait award we see a range of these possibilities at play.
We can't overlook the most recent innovation in art: the integration of artificial intelligence, which is profoundly influencing portraiture. The capabilities now available were seen as utopian just a few decades ago. We can make portraits of the deceased come alive and move. We can visually alter age, race, even gender. We can create portraits of people or characters that do not exist, from scratch. We can even enhance the technical features of an image, something that was previously only possible thanks to industry professionals. Many of us wonder, where is the limit? Is it useful? Or, on the contrary, is it a threat to society? These are questions that only time can answer.
Now, as a new tool and an uncharted territory for artists, AI supported by GANs has been further expanding the prospects of self-expression and artistic investigation. The distinguishing technology of the 21st century for making art will probably be AI. If AI is used for sinister purposes by the wrong hands, they can be seamlessly turned into weapons of harassment, fraud, political misinformation, and propaganda, which are all warnings about the potential dangers of misrepresentation using deep learning networks and AI powered by them. (Gülaçti et al., 2021, pp 263.)
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glish group
panos charalampidis & mary chairetaki
Today, in most countries around the world, people are fortunate to enjoy a high degree of "freedom" in expressing their ideas, especially in nurturing and refining their creative, artistic and critical faculties. This freedom allows them to explore different forms of self-expression and to push the boundaries of traditional art. With the autonomy and capacity we possess, we are not only creators but also curators of our own narratives through the manipulation of our portraits and photographs. This empowerment opens up a vast array of creative possibilities where our imagination knows no bounds and the tools at our disposal are limited only by our creativity. Today we are constantly engaging with a global audience that thrives on digital media, shaping our interactions and influencing our perspectives. This dynamic interaction defines the landscape of portraiture in 2024, where the fusion of technology, creativity and individual expression creates a rich tapestry of visual narratives that reflect the diversity and dynamism of our contemporary society.
In more experimental artistic practices, we encounter fully authentic photographic identities. Different faces with a range of mutating meanings.
In the winning portrait In Deep by Lisa Murray, symmetry and dichotomy are manifested. Two tones - two parts - two states; black and white, head and torso, wet and dry. Something is playing in our minds with this image, something doesn't seem to be in its place. How is the subject positioned? Is there a body of water in the composition? What are we really looking at? The eye sockets and the brightness of the top of the head provide clues to the true perspective. The truth is that this portrait can be confusing, disorienting, or even unsettling, which is why it is so peculiar. The protagonist's gesture in this portrait is imposing and unfamiliar, there is no closeness or empathy, although there may be a message towards the intimate and confidential aspects of himself.
andré ramos-woodard
mari masouridou
The opposite can be seen in the photo So I’ll Let My Branches Reach by second place winner Aurora Stenersen where there are a few more elements we can familiarize ourselves with and feel the everydayness. The subject's action, their undisturbed expression, and the warmth emanating from the colors throughout the photograph connect us to a somewhat more "homely" environment. This kind of portraiture, with themes of daily life, are the scenes we've already seen depicted in paintings from centuries ago, showing us that we maintain a very human quality that persists despite the passage of time.
As artists, we often seek complexity, capture what has not been captured, strive for innovation and originality. But it's interesting how we reconnect with our uniqueness in the ordinary. These kinds of narratives remind us of works like James Joyce's "Ulysses" or the recent film "Perfect Days" by Wim Wenders, where the ordinary is the norm; we see how inhabiting the ordinary is already a powerful act that we often take for granted.
As we've seen, portraiture and other forms of photography are now mediated by digital manipulation. The possibilities offered by these digital mechanisms make possible what was once impossible. We see a striking proposal in the portrait The Number You Have Dialed is Not Available by third place winner Meera Lehr: a kind of "double portrait" in an unreal and illusory context. Contrasting with the background, a close-up with a very distinct orange color focus steals the viewer's attention. The gazes of the "double individual" do not seem to meet; one appears open with an inviting gesture, while the other remains still, without expression. This scene raises questions about the understanding of the "self".
One interpretation leads us to reflect on the complexity of self-perception. What does the encounter with oneself really mean? Does it suggest a confrontation between opposing aspects of the personality? The works by Stenersen and Lehr are an example of what photography embodies today. From the spontaneous to the calculated and completely intentional, made possible by digital intervention.
ai mizobuchi
diane meyer
The photograph by Glish Group raises questions about the preferred settings for portraiture. In a traditional context, photography often seeks coherence in common and attractive places, while in the niches of audiovisual media, the exploration extends to unconventional spaces for photography. In this case, we see a woman in a kitchen. Without any visible changes, a scene is depicted, perhaps work-related, somewhat routine, with a subtle touch of chaos in the background and a soft light accentuating the woman's face. Photography, with its documentary nature, captures these kinds of memories and the unique individuality of the most mundane experiences.
In the somewhat unintelligible panels Causes and Consequences by Arrayah Loynd, we see the nude silhouette of a woman's body in five different poses that demonstrate a multifaceted and flexible character. Her identity is hidden behind an intervention that looks very analog; splashes of color and inks almost like watercolors blur the face to a point where it's difficult to recognize. The second image in the sequence is scratched with a contrasting blue color compared to the reddish and yellow tones of the entire composition. It also specifically encloses the center of the woman's body. We think about the current context, the naked body of the female figure, as a political instrument against sexual objectification.
The "blurring" effect reappears in the portrait Fluid Self by Mari Masouridou, this time only on the face. It has the appearance of an old image that has been subjected to certain processes in order to decontextualize it. As a point of comparison with contemporary portraiture practice, the image leads one to think under the premise of "hiding everything," quite literally. The photograph Cornucopia by Panos Charalampidis & Mary Chairetaki is therefore ambiguous. It's revealing and yet not. There are no elements that suggest a profound interpretation, which is puzzling and enigmatic.
Disneyland II by Diane Meyer is intervened manually, using weaving constructions inserted in the important parts of the photograph. There is an aura of nostalgia in this one that references childhood. Similarly, childlike features are projected onto the small paper and pencil drawing in André Ramos-Woodard’s You Should Already Know, or at least they resemble sketches from some of our childhoods. Unlike the previous images, we come across narratives that involve interpersonal/intimate relationships or interactions in the social sphere. The drawing remains a mystery, seemingly depicting two people in different locations. Does it want to tell us something about the bond of those in the photograph?
The photograph by Ai Mizobuchi is interesting for its text/image composition. ID-manam_m24 (part of a typological work) is likely a pseudonym typically used by digital natives in profiles on platforms like Instagram to maintain anonymity. The theme of portraiture as digital expression in the era of communications is a topic that has been reiterated throughout the text. The image is contextualized in the digital universe, where photos and names are part of an online profile, albeit outside of social media and more in an artistic realm. It's also a reminder of how our stories intertwine with the digital space, shaping how we present ourselves and relate to others in the modern era.
Works Cited
Gülaçti, İsmail & Kahraman, Mehmet. (2021). The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Photography and Painting in the Post-Truth Era and the Issues of Creativity and Authorship. Medeniyet Sanat Dergisi. 7. 10.46641/medeniyetsanat.994950.
Robert, Brian (2011) Photographic Portraits: Narrative and Memory, Forum: Qualitative Social Research. Volume 12, No. 2, Art. 6.
The Wallace Collection, Portraiture Introduction - What is a Portrait and How to Read One. (pp. 2)