WINNERS

Echos / Out of Control

  • Photographer
    Joanna Smieja, Poland
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention

Made with broken analogue cameras, these images embrace chance instead of precision. Accidental double exposures, light leaks, and overlapping frames became a metaphor for relinquishing control. Once I believed life could be shaped through planning and certainty. When that illusion collapsed, I became consumed by "what ifs" and alternative paths. These photographs trace a personal journey from the need for control toward acceptance of unpredictability and the possibility of becoming whole.