The 7th annual Monochrome Photography Awards winners have been revealed, with over 7,000 images from 91 countries submitted to this year’s competition. The overall winner of the professional category is Ksystof Mozyro, who triumphed with his image, ‘Opponents,’ which show as standoff during a Black Lives Matter protest.

“These photographs were taken on 6th June 2020, during the London protest,” he explains. “I found myself in the centre of the gathering, experiencing the whole range of human emotions and observing the uncommon behaviour… Just around 11 PM, after many hours of standing in the crowd, I was taken for the police investigation. The officer interviewed me and checked the ID. Finally, I was able to leave but advised not to return to the city centre within 24 hours as this would result in being arrested.”

The Monochrome Discovery of the Year (Amateur) award goes to Svetlin Yosivof from Bulgaria, for his image ‘Portrait Woman Mursi.’ “The Mursi tribe are an African tribe from the isolated Omo valley in Southern Ethiopia near the border with Sudan,” he explains. “The photo is part of the album ‘Second Ethiopian Tribes Exhibition,’ 2019.

Some fantastic images also made the cut in the Nature category, with the 1st Place Winner – Nature Discovery of the Year 2020 (Amateur), going to Cote Baeza (Chile) for the stunning cloud image, Fuerza Natural.

Another great winning image is Spiral by Wei Jian Chan (United Kingdom), who won the Architecture Discovery of the Year 2020 category (Amateur). You can see the full list of winners here. Entries for the 2021 competition are now being accepted. Full details here.

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