Winners of the 16th edition of URBAN Photo Awards 2025 revealed

The awards ceremony for the 16th edition of URBAN Photo Awards 2025, held on Saturday, October 25, at Sala Xenia, along the Trieste waterfront, marked one of the highlights of the 12th edition of Trieste Photo Days, in the presence of jurors Paolo Verzone, Denis Curti and Dario De Dominicis.

Now in its 16th edition, the URBAN Photo Awards continues to establish itself as one of the most important photography competitions worldwide, capable of capturing the complexity, beauty, and contradictions of urban life through the eyes of thousands of photographers.

The 2025 edition set a record participation, with 10,685 single images, 643 projects and portfolios, and 90 books submitted by over 5,000 photographers from around the world, reflecting a steadily increasing quality of entries.

Paolo Verzone, President of the Single Photos Section jury, awarded the title of Photographer of the Year to Spanish photographer Luis Olivan Tenorio for his image Porto in May, selected by the jury from among the top-ranked entries in the Streets, People, Spaces, and Creative categories.

Luis Olivan Tenorio – Porto in May

Matt Black, President of the Projects & Portfolios Section jury, selected Mexican photographer Daniel Ramos as the winner of the section for his project Carnival on the Outskirts.

Antonio Denti – Notes from the Edge,  Maurizio Orlando – Daniel, Michele Zousmer – MIS[S]UNDERSTOOD and Shaun O’Boyle – Anthracite Streets are the winners of the Gazes on Existence Special Award presented by Matt Black. The exhibition is hosted in Sala Sbisà – Magazzino 26 and will be open to the public until November 9.

Michele Zousmer, for her project MIS[S]UNDERSTOOD, also won the “TPD Best Author 2025 Edilimpianti Innovation Partner” Award, presented at the Trieste Photo Days to photographers who receive multiple recognitions across the competition’s various sections.

Michele Zousmer – MIS[S]UNDERSTOOD

The Artistic Sensitivity Award, presented by artist Giorgio Celiberti, was awarded to Polish photographer Roland Okon for the image Summer in the City. This recognition celebrates the poetic vision and the ability to translate the emotional and symbolic dimension of urban reality into image.

Roland Okon – Summer in the City

During the evening, other special awards were also presented:

Italian photographer Nicolas Brunetti won the Patricia D. Richards Legacy Award 2025 with the project Inshallah, a touching and powerful narrative exploring the hopes and resilience of young people raised in Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the North African coast. Created between July 2023 and April 2025, the work investigates a state of physical and mental suspension that deeply marks their lives. The Patricia D. Richards Legacy Award is presented annually to the best portfolio submitted by a photographer under 35 in the Projects & Portfolios section, aiming to support and promote the next generation of socially engaged visual storytellers. The exhibition is hosted in Sala Sbisà – Magazzino 26 and will be open to the public until November 9.

The 8th edition of the Civic Museums Award was won by George Tatakis with the black-and-white series Caryatis, which explores the richness and variety of traditional female costumes in Greece. The exhibition is hosted in Sala Selva of Palazzo Gopcevich and will be open to the public until November 23.

The Book Award, selected by Denis Curti, was awarded to Fabio Domenicali for TEREN ZIELONY (Green Zone). Originally conceived as an investigation into the imprint left on Poland by twentieth-century historical events, the project evolved into an inner journey through the country’s solemn and unspoiled landscapes. Images shot between 2008 and 2023 create an intimate narrative that intertwines history, memory, and introspection.

Denis Curti, curator, critic, and a key figure in the national photographic scene, as well as artistic director of Le Stanze della Fotografia in Venice and of major festivals and awards—explained the choice of Fabio Domenicali’s project as follows:

Fabio Domenicali’s project on Poland conveys remarkable visual strength. A raw, almost nocturnal black and white becomes the backdrop for a story that speaks of emotions, contradictions, and the dreams of a country still little known. Domenicali wastes no time on geography: he dives straight into tracing, through images, the lives of men and women capable of conveying intimacy and human warmth. His visual grammar is precise, hinging on the emotional charge of contradictions. The landscape is no longer just a backdrop, but a living habitat that contains tension and vibration. The opening quote from Antonio Tabucchi’s statement is both fitting and evocative: “A place is never just that place: that place is a bit of ourselves. Somehow, without knowing it, we carried it inside us—and one day, by chance, we arrived there.”

Denis Curti

The Press Award 2025 went to Andrea Bettancini for The Sound of Silence. The award, presented by a jury composed of representatives from some of the world’s leading photography and visual culture publications (including Digital Camera World, FRAMES, IL FOTOGRAFO, Street Photography Magazine, and PHOTO.fr) celebrates projects offering a fresh perspective on contemporary reality. In The Sound of Silence, Bettancini listens to the hidden silence within the urban din: a series that transforms the noise of the city into an intimate visual flow, suspended between harmony and dissonance, presence and absence.

Photographer Jason Au won URBAN Photo Arena with his image Shadow Play at the awards ceremony on October 25. The exhibition is hosted in Sala Fittke and will be open to the public until November 2.

Jason Au – Shadow Play

AWARDS

Thanks to our technical Partners, all winning authors received a Stele or a Sigillo created by the artist Giorgio Celiberti, along with a handcrafted shoulder strap by Stroppa.

Additional prizes were offered by FOWA: the Photographer of the Year was awarded a RICOH GR IIIx (X15285), while a PENTAX 17 (X18926) was presented to the winners of the following categories: Projects & Portfolio, Book Award, URBAN PRESS Award, and Arena under 35.

Think Tank awarded the Photographer of the Year with an Airport Advantage Roller, the Projects & Portfolio Winner with a Retrospective 15 Backpack, the Book Award Winner with an Urban Access 15 Backpack, the URBAN PRESS Award Winner with a Retrospective 5 Shoulder Bag, and the Arena Under 35 Winner with a Mirrorless Mover Backpack.

The Patricia D. Richards Legacy Awards winner received a six-month scholarship to attend the Creative Photography School in Krakow.

URBAN Photo Awards 2025 / Final Ranking