Contemporary portraits

This was my first place pick. It instantly struck me; The subject, the tonality... There is a narrative there about young men and war and a feeling of someone looking out from the past. I really couldn't fault it. Congratulations.

I picked this image partly because of the brave use of light and shadow. It's simple content and composition keeps it accessible without loosing a sense of mystery. It feels like a fragment of a story. Elements glowing out at you from the darkness.

This image has a natural painterly quality, that I love. There is an almost Polaroid quality to it, which elevates what could have been quite a mundane picture otherwise. The subject, the styling and the posing are all really well executed.

It's hard to make post techniques like this work. But there was a graphic nature about this image that really worked for me and reminded me of some of my early influences such as Peter Beard and Dan Eldon. It has the quality of an image from a photographers journal that's been stuck down and hand tinted. Great use of composition and a lovely palette