20 Exceptional Photographs Crowned Winners At Tokyo International Foto Awards 2023

The 2023 TIFA winners are in—now it’s your turn! With the submission deadline approaching on September 30, this is your opportunity to showcase your best work. TIFA offers more than just recognition: winners receive cash prizes, have their work exhibited throughout Europe, and gain extensive media exposure.

Don’t miss the chance to be celebrated on a global stage—submit your photos and let your talent shine!

More info: tokyofotoawards.jp | Instagram

20 PHOTOS

#1 "Phantom Forest" By Takahiro Gamou

This is a dammed lake formed by the temporary accumulation of melted snow. Normally, the area is overgrown with trees, but for a limited time, a phantom forest appears on the surface of the water. It is a paradise as well as a phantom water forest, where birds and people can be seen nesting.

I have started photography in 2013. Because I wanted to preserve the beautiful night view of Nagasaki, which I visited on a trip, in photographic form. In the beginning, I mainly photographed night views of cities, but later I became fascinated with nature photography. I am currently on a quest to capture the scenery of Chiba, where I was born and raised, and other places in Japan. I confront photography from both analog and digital perspectives.

#2 "Fulmini E Saette" By Giuseppe Russo

This photo represents what nature is capable of doing.

#3 "Loving Lions" By Jacques-Andre Dupont

2 young adult lions having a tender moment with one of the tribe's kittens.

Jacques-André Dupont is a passionate Montreal photographer whose work focuses on wildlife and nature. His work has been featured in several major media like Canadian Geographic, National Geographic, Africa Geographic, Wildlife Photographic, Outdoor Photography, Paris Match, the London Telegraph, China News, La Pravda, etc. His pictures have been selected/or won several photo competitions internationally. And they have been exhibited in several countries around the world. With his photography he only wants to achieve one simple goal: bring the beauty of nature into light.

#4 "Heron And Sailboat - An Encounter Of A Special Kind" By Ursula Bué

On some days everything seems to be arranged for the photographer, the warm light, a soft haze, fine colors, an overwhelming atmosphere, the composition of subjects, and last but not least a large egret, strolling curiously but calmly between the shore and the sailboat and thus underlines the tranquillity of the first morning light. The photo was captured in Germany at Lake Constance in the autumn of 2022.

#5 "Vestigium" By Roberto Conde

#6 "Children Of The Earth" By Delphine Margau

What does our inner child tell us, and if
we let him speak, may he reveal to us the stories that make us but that we forget. He knows. Break down the wall of silence, of terror, and find him, and save him. And if the photo could show what escapes us, be the medium of our souls, play with the invisible.

Her eyes are wide open towards life, Delphine Margau walks between her shadows and finds the light each time. From vibrant scenes out of time to paintings with a romantic aesthetic… the work of the cosmopolitan French photographer is tinged with black-and-white, invisible visions. His pictures summon the strange and the serious. They pose a poetic act. Fragile and powerful, Delphine Margau is an artist pierced by the stories that precede her. Her art has taken root in the urge to express and, from her infinite inner spaces, she finds the crack to connect with her light.

#7 "Darkness" By Jean Charles Ouvrard

#8 "The Ghost Of Asaro" By Jatenipat Ketpradit

Mt.Gurupoka of Papua New Guinea is the
land of ghosts! They emerged slowly from the trees. Scary heads were attached to grey bodies. Abruptly, they vanished and reappeared behind you like a ghost. They were Asaro Mudmen, Indigenous warriors residing in the high valley along the Asaro River, Papua New Guinea

#9 "No Limits" By Daisy Seilern

This series is a colorful mix of world
class artists. My work consists of magical images that reflect my very personal life motto: "No Limits". For two years I photographed unique athletes, dancers, acrobats, and yogis. Fantastic personalities who often risk their lives for very little pay. These stars know no limits when it comes to merging with their bodies, driven by the iron will to surpass themselves.

After years of experience photographing babies and children, Daisy Seilern started looking for new challenges. The artist specialized in the photography of various artists, to create something special whilst challenging her limits. Her spirit of adventure and creative thought is worth particular admiration. The Austrian-born Daisy Seilern studied photography at the 'Instituto del Arte – Lorenzo de Medici'. After this, she worked as a journalist for BUNTE magazine at BURDA. Since 2012, the mother of 3 has been self-employed and has successfully established her business.

#10 "The Birth Of Light" By Ottavio Marino

My photographic project The Birth of
light is the report in images of the "Living Nativity Scene" a traditional event of the popular culture of the country where I live, in Calabria, in southern Italy. It is a choreographic and scenographic representation that tells the story of the birth of Christ. I took care of the direction and direction of photography of this event mainly asking myself one thing. Where does light come from? What are its breaths and how does it react when it encounters people things or environments? This project is inspired by the light of the Italian Baroque painters.

#11 "Mother Earth: Nevertheless She Persisted" By Diana Cheren Nygren

I feel an awe in the face of open landscapes and humanity seems small and insignificant. There have been thirty-seven epochs in Earth's history. We have been part of two. I mounted scenes of human habitation behind acrylic and affixed them within sweeping desert landscapes. The images push out onto hand-painted frames, alluding to the next chapter in the planet's history. In spite of human activity, the Earth continues to transform. Its inhabitants cannot escape its permanence, and the power it has to shape their existence. As nature reinvents itself, can we adapt with it?

Diana Cheren Nygren is a fine art photographer from Boston, Massachusetts. Her work explores the visual character of place defined through physical environment and weather. Place has implications for our experience of the world, and reveals hints about the culture around it. Diana was trained as an art historian with a focus on modern and contemporary art, and the relationship of artistic production to its socio-political context. Her emphasis on careful composition in her photographic work, as well as her subject matter, reflects this training.

#12 "When Nature Meets Technics" By Adam Neuba

I have been interested in the photographic interaction of nature and technology for several years. With my pictures I want to take the viewer into a unique and unconventional macro world beyond everyday experience. With each image, the viewer enters a visionary space in which a short story is told about a living being from our technologised environment and in which the two worlds ultimately merge into a unique unity. This results in pictures that have a new aesthetic and mode of expression and allow the viewer to participate in a new kind of emotional experience.

I’ am a Paderborn based amateur photographer from Germany. I have been working intensively with photography for about 15 years. In the course of time, I discovered my passion for the small and inconspicuous things in our world and specialized in artistic close-up and macro photography.

#13 "Persistence" By Peter Zarkob

This photograph tries to reflect "persistence", that inner strength and energy that helps us to overcome the difficulties that appear on the way, and in this way, to reach our goals.

#14 "Wedding Memories" By Peter Morton

My relatives, Betty and Norm, have been
married for 74 years and had just discovered their old wedding photo. They still live together in their own home and Norm drives to the post office and shops. Norm was in the Air Force in World War 2 and afterwards, he flew small planes and sailed boats, which he built.

#15 "Ukraine's Struggle" By Metin Aktaş

Ukraine's struggle demonstrates, how is struggling and trying to live Ukrainian people under the war conditions to us. Civilian people unfortunately died day by day under the Russian invasion. I witnessed these people struggle for life in different parts of Ukraine in 2022.

Metin Aktas photojournalist for Anadolu, an international news agency based in Türkiye. He is still working as a permanent photojournalist from the photo desk in Ankara, which is the headquarters of the agency. Previously, He worked as a photojournalist for Anadolu Agency in Pakistan-Islamabad between 2013-2016. In the meantime, he served in Afghanistan, India, and Nepal for Anadolu. Finally, in 2022, He went to Ukraine to document Russia's war against Ukraine, which turned into the biggest war Europe has seen since WWII. In 2022, he worked for 7 months in total in the regions of the war.

#16 "Human Elephant Conflict In Sri Lanka" By Federico Borella

The Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) in Sri Lanka is an issue that affects both the living conditions of local communities and the lives of these animals, which are increasingly being killed by humans through gunshot wounds, electrocution, traps, and explosive devices. According to recent studies, between 2020 and 2022, 1136 elephants lost their lives as a result of this conflict, out of a total population of just over 7000, making the country have the highest mortality rate in the world. The human toll is equally dire: 399 human deaths, in addition to thousands injured and permanently disabled.

Federico Borella is a freelance photojournalist. Internationally published, Federico has more than 10 years of experience as a news photographer and reportage working for both national and foreign magazines, agencies and publications, including New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Time Magazine, National Geographic, CNN, Stern, Dummy, Days Japan, XL Semanal, NZZ, Alpha magazine, Aftenposten, among others. In 2019 was named in London, Photographer of the year 2019 at Sony Awards 2019.

#17 "Where Hope Bloom" By Romi Hasegawa

There was a full of the spring
atmosphere. I just wanted to capture a moment with this beautiful color and presence. Flower is one of my essentials.

#18 "Swimming In The Ocean Of Consciousness" By Victoria (Vicky) Stromee

There is a concept in eastern thought that God created individual souls in order to experience consciousness of creation. It is said: “Whatever its particular journey, each individual bubble or soul must in the end merge back into the vast ocean of Spirit from which it came.” These works reflect my meditations on souls swimming in the ocean of consciousness. I hope my work brings a momentary pause, a place of reflection on the nature of spirit.

Vicky Stromee was immersed in the transformative power of the arts from an early age. Her obsession with texture, pattern, fluidity, and change became defining life themes that continue to unfold in her work. Painterly influences inform Vicky's unique eye for composition and form, light and color. Her work invites the viewer to pause, reflect, and find a visual respite.

#19 "Madness On The Road" By Roberto Wolfenson

This editorial was made to show how
crazy everyday life can make us. In this case, the model, Ana Claudia Michels, plays a housewife who runs away on the road and these scenes are part of her adventure.

#20 "Playboys" By Robert Yager

“Playboys” is a collection of Yager's provocative images, documenting a
notorious Los Angeles street gang, Playboys 13. Begun in January 1992; a year of rioting, gang warfare, and record gun deaths in LA, the photographs span up until 2003. This historic body of work objectively explores the visual expression and culture of LA gangs, their humanity, and the bonds that keep them together, while also exposing the consequences of their decisions. 144 images, 260 pages. 32x22 cm hard cover. Published December 2022 by 550BC. Such intimate images were only possible to have been photographed from the inside.

Robert Yager grew up in London, England. In 1985, at 21, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue Photography. He started documenting Los Angeles gang members in 1991 and gained considerable notoriety for this work. He became an editorial photographer for publications such as The New York Times Magazine and UK's The Observer and The Independent Magazines. Yager was hired to tour with Van Halen and document David Lee Roth's return to the band in 2007 and 08. Yager was awarded a fellowship by the Aaron Siskind Foundation in 1996 and his work has been exhibited and published worldwide.