Association of Photographers Awards – winners

The winners of the 39th Association of Photographers Awards have been announced. The awards recognise and promote professional excellence, technical ability and talent at all stages of a photographer’s career

Environment, silver winner: Wilding by Samuel Hicks

For this series, Hicks wanted to shoot images that touch on the subject of rewilding, as if a person has created their own personal wild space, and to show areas of a city that have become slightly derelict and taken over by nature. All of the images in the series were shot in different locations in East London, including Brick Lane Station Park, Pedley Street in Shoreditch and an old car factory in Honor Oak

Emerging Talent Award, gold winner: The Beholder Group Portrait by Ruth Samuels

Samuels feels that, historically, black women have been held to western/caucasian beauty ideals and considered to be lacking; whether being judged too dark, too muscular, not having “delicate” enough features, or having undesirable hair textures, she feels black women are disparaged in mainstream media. Samuels’ series is intended to communicate the beauty and worth of the many women who have been made to feel inferior

Environment, joint gold winner: The Digital Volcano by Tom Parker

Mount Ijen in eastern Java became infamous for the horrendous working conditions endured by those mining sulphur. Now Ijen has become a social media sensation, particularly in China. Thousands of tourists climb the mountain every night and descend into the crater. Armed with gas masks and other instagrammable outfits, the tourists have replaced the miners and voluntarily pose in the toxic vents of poisonous sulphuric gases. The volume of tourists makes mining the sulphur almost impossible; instead, the miners now use their carts to push and pull tourists up and down the mountain. Parker’s series documents the bizarre world that the internet has created

Documentary, silver winner: Life on Jura by Hannah Maule-ffinch

Maule-ffinch documented family life on the remote Isle of Jura in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, offering a glimpse into an alternative lifestyle, along with a family’s daily routines and intimate moments. The children and dogs roam freely, with just one school, pub and shop serving the community, while the ferry service is often disrupted by bad weather, keeping the islanders delightfully isolated

Open award, winner: The Descendants of Black Civil War Combatants by Drew Gardner

Gardner recreates portraits of some of the world’s most famous historical figures featuring their direct descendants. After in-depth research tracing the direct descendants and verifying their lineage, the famous portraits are recreated with painstaking attention to the smallest of details, from sourcing the period costumes and props to the authentic backgrounds

Sport, silver winner: Horseman by Will Cornelius

Inspired by the early work of Eadweard Muybridge, Cornelius photographed jockey Kanane Francis to capture those elusive moments when rider and horse become one in dramatic fashion, exposing the mastery of their craft

Best personal work, gold winner: The Mountain That Eats Men by Nigel Riches

A study of the young miners that work on the Cerro Rico mountain near the Bolivian city of Potosi. The miners work in a rarified atmosphere at an altitude of nearly 5,000m, mining mostly zinc and tin where previously vast amounts of silver was mined. Rough estimates suggest 8 million men have died since the site opened in 1545, and it remains the most dangerous mine in the world

Discovery Award, winner: Lesley Lau

Three teenagers sitting on the edge of a pier on the Kent coast before their next jump into the sea. Lau’s work explores human behaviour and decision-making, and how this is shaped by individuals’ surroundings and cultural norms. As a committed campaigner on environmental issues and social justice, she is also keen to incorporate these themes into her work. [• This caption was amended on 28 September 2024. An earlier version used the caption from a different entry by Lau that was taken in the Czech Republic.]

Projects, gold winner: Defying the Myth by Carol Allen-Storey

Allen Storey’s work looks at the complexity of parenting and caring for a child with severe disabilities. Parents must make decisions that determine the wellbeing of their children, from surgery and therapies to education, employment and housing, she observes. They must also become experts in negotiating the bureaucracy of public institutions, which demand that they prove their need for assistance. Allen-Storey feels the situation is worse for those who face the dual stigmas associated with single-motherhood and raising a child with disabilities, who are often treated as social outcasts exploiting the welfare system

Environment, joint gold winner: The Cycle, Masima Nagar by Ian Kirby

The Cycle is a not-for-profit organisation which believes that everyone deserves access to clean water and a safe toilet, and that access to these things enables women and girls to thrive. It provides water, sanitation and hygiene services, building eco-toilets, clean water tanks and hand-washing facilities in schools and communities where they either do not exist or are too squalid to use. Under their three pillars – water, women and world – The Cycle works to uplift entire communities through the empowerment of women. Kirby’s pictures from Masima Nagar in India record the organisation’s work as it prepared to commence a new project in the village

Lifestyle, silver winner: Michael Wharley

Wharley’s picture, shot for Bristol Old Vic theatre, is designed to capture the atmosphere of youthful joy, companionship, abandon and the delicate nature of nascent sexuality that characterises the play Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the co-writer of the Oscar-winning film Moonlight

Discovery Award, project winner: Manchestuhhh by Owen Peters

Peters documents the vibrant yet dwindling rollerblading scene in Manchester and the spirited individuals within this tight-knit community of friends. He aims to capture the resilience and determination of these skaters as they push their own limits, mastering new tricks and embracing the freedom that rollerblading brings against the backdrop of Manchester’s urban landscape

Fashion and beauty, gold winner: Fatima by Rocio Chacon

Chacon’s portrait of Fátima – a young, black, independent Muslim woman – is designed to subvert stereotypes and contribute to a new iconography about what it means to be a black Muslim woman

Sport, gold winner: Rodeo by Nick David

Celebrating the widely forgotten history of black western heritage in the USA, David photographs rodeo life, the culture and community in Oaklands, California

Documentary, gold winner: Flying Stars by Todd Antony

The civil war in Sierra Leone (1991 to 2002) not only killed more than 50,000 people, it also led to thousands of innocent civilians having legs, arms or hands forcibly amputated by rebel soldiers or removed by landmines. Antony’s film looks at the Flying Star Amputees, a group of football teams whose players are victims of civil war amputations, and shows how football has brought them a level of joy, confidence and hope for a better future for disabled people in Sierra Leone

Portrait, gold winner: Nyha by Liam Arthur

Nyha was shot for a campaign about a cancer medicine used in adults and children aged one month and older to treat acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a type of blood cancer. It is the most common type of leukaemia to affect children. Due to the sensitivities around shooting children who have the condition, the team used a model and prosthetics to create the effect of hair loss suffered by patients undergoing the cancer treatment