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Purification

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João Coelho - 2024 Black & White Photo Contest |  2nd Place Winner | Non-Professional

João Coelho

Angola

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Water is part of their life. They were born and grew up with it right there beside them, inviting them to get to know it, to feel good in it and promising them the best memories. Memories made of sensations, emotions and feelings that make them forget the world outside

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Honorable Mention

The blessing water

They are men, women and children like us, but they belong to a world where every day they fight the battle for survival in a dump. But even in the harsh conditions in which they live and work, they show how there is always a place and a time for love, and how despair has to be a vain word

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Silver

Love and despair - A tale of resilience

It is at the end of the day that the dump resembles a post-apocalyptic scenario. The atmosphere is heavy, almost palpable, interspersed with the living flames of the fires spewing toxic fumes that mix with the warm evening air. It is the time of the scavengers, the last hope at the dump

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Gold

1st Place

Scavengers

During the day the dump was eagerly scavenged by men, women and children. There was hardly anything left that could be rescued.  But eyes used to the darkness and the toxic fumes , can still rescue pieces of a world they are not a part of and remind them what color life is made of

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The red shift

This series intends to depict the strength and resilience of Angolan women. Every day they face a destiny of survival, working hard to feed their children. Despite these circumstances, they play the role of mothers in an exemplary way even under the weight of fatigue.

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Bronze

Resilient mothers

Another day spent at the dump where they live and work, scavenging the spoils of others to survive. It is in the evening that disappointment and despair overwhelm them. The despair of a mother and a father who do not know how they will feed their child.

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Despair

Indifferent to an army enraged by the invasion of its territory already conquered and taken for granted, this man disputes scraps of food with the flies. It could be an apocalyptic scenery in which only insects and a few fortunate human beings would have survived

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Discovery of the Year

The kingdom of flies

An old motorcycle tire and a stick is all they need to invent a game around the campfire and pull out few moments of joy on this plain, made of dry land, dust, and heat, and where the fragile huts that sprinkle the horizon denounce another game that is played here every day: the survival game

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The wheel game

Nudity here is natural, like the air and water that tenderly welcomes them from an early age. What really counts is pure freedom in the constant search for the joy and pleasure they draw from every play

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International Discovery of the Year

The freedom of nudity

This series depicts the conditions in which a group of young people work in a ship graveyard in Angola. After removing pieces weighing hundreds of kilos using only their hands and the strength of their arms, they have to carry them to the beach, fighting against the waves and currents of the sea

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2nd Place

The iron quest

They are children like all the others, but these seem to have been predestined to a cruel and unjust fate. They were born and live in a dump. The vacant, sad look in their eyes shows that they are no longer real children and that their world seems to have been forgotten by all of us

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Children of a forgotten world

Despite the uncertainty of the future, it shows a remarkable resilience in which love is not an empty word and is able to stop time and lend enormous beauty to a desolate landscape

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Love and despair

Here, toys have to be invented, or simply reinvented with the right amount of imagination and ingenuity. A bike rim and a simple stick of the right size are enough for him to create something new to have fun with in this surreal workshop, indifferent to the desolate scenery that surrounds him

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The toy workshop

There's little left on the plain strewn with steaming garbage, but there are still little things that make little Maria's eyes sparkle! They are scraps of metal that weigh only a few grams, but here they are real treasures because they can be swapped for a few coins to buy food and water

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Little Mary's treasures

They know there is another shore on the other side, but only their imagination can see it. They contemplate it, while the almost palpable silence of the heavy blanket of fog is interrupted only by the zzzuum of the cars that dare to challenge it

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Zzzuum

A mother and father have spent the day scavenging through the garbage, finding everything they can to survive on an already barren plain. But disappointment and despair are upon them. The despair of a father and mother who don't know how they're going to feed their child

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Nominee

He was born and lives in a dump, a gloomy world where toys have to be invented with the right amount of imagination. A bike rim and a simple stick are enough to give birth to something new and exciting, reminding us that children can be children even in the worst places in the world to live

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How to be a real child

On a deserted beach, a group of believers gather with their pastor to be freed from the evil spirits that have taken hold of them and purified in the waters of the sea. On this day, the beach witnessed a merciless battle against evil, a fight waged with weapons that no human science can explain

A group of men work in a ship graveyard, pulling hundreds of pounds of metal out of the water and selling it for a measly 150 dollars a ton. It's a titanic battle against giants that have fallen asleep at the bottom of the sea, that they can only win with strength, courage and teamwork

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Taming a giant

Thirty centuries later, this mother and her children are literally living in the Iron Age. They scavenge through scrap metal looking for pieces of metal to exchange for food. Daughters have to be premature mothers in this skeleton playground, where children strive to be children

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The Iron Age