Urban landscapes

I love the sense of space within this photograph of skaters in Malaga and the beautiful juxtaposition of the shadow area in the foreground, and the bright sunlight of the background - you can almost feel the heat of the Spanish sun in this photograph. The curve of the concrete riverbed leads the eye through the composition. I feel it could benefit from a slight crop though, possibly on the far left side of the frame, so that the composition curves cleanly out of the frame. Also, it’s a shame that the roof of the towerblock with the blue sun shades at the back of the composition is cropped, it would have been nice to see the entire shape of the roof with the mountains behind.

As an architectural photographer I’m always slightly cautious of photographs where the vertical elements of the architecture are converging, or leaning backwards, as happens when the camera is tilted upwards, but this photograph breaks these conventions very successfully. I love minimalness of this composition, the simple architectural forms broken up by the dramatic lighting. For me, possibly the steel grey sky is slightly overworked but it lends a good balance to the metallic façade. The crane successfully leads the eye through the composition and the inclusion of the two small people is a strong narrative element.

I love the format of this photograph and it suits the space perfectly. It’s a difficult place in which to shoot because of the areas of highlight and deep shadow. The composition leads the eye conveniently into the central area of the photograph. Arguably though, the colour manipulations of the graffiti are slightly overdone - I would have liked to see a more subtle colour shift. I also would have liked the two skateboarders on the right-hand side of the photograph to be more central in the frame. Overall though, a very successful photograph of a difficult subject.

The architecture of this footbridge creates a very strong form within this photograph. I like the almost B&W nature of the photograph combined with the orange of the ‘don’t worry’ graffiti. I think the composition needs to be slightly reworked though to reduce the distraction of what is seen in the background, perhaps shooting through the concrete legs or shifting the camera towards the right.

Although possibly more of a suburban than urban landscape, this photograph beautifully combines a reportage style within a landscape composition. It reminds me of Chris Killip or Tony Ray Jones, British school documentary photographers from the 1970s. The sunlight - perfectly captured in the hanging washing - creates a beautiful compositional foil to balance with the shadows on the ground. The off-center positioning of the young father and baby makes this a very elegant composition.

This is another example of a photograph that successfully combines reportage style within an urban landscape photograph. The low-level viewpoint provides an unusual framing of this iconic London building. It also has the advantage of eliminating all the surrounding buildings, creating a beautifully minimal composition. The two people within the frame are perfectly placed and have a slightly 80’s documentary feel, although it's obviously a contemporary photograph.

This Maltese street scene is simply gorgeous. The colour palette with its subtle shades of cream and blue gives the composition a beautiful coherence. The positioning of the pink balcony in the far right of the frame works well as a lead into the rest of the composition. I like the effect of the perspective combined with a shallow depth of field to ‘soften’ the image towards the left of the frame. I would personally have tightened the photograph by making a vertical crop on the far left of the frame, on the right of the dark blue balcony to make the composition more contained.

The idea to photograph Boston tower blocks through a window reflection is a very good observation but for me it doesn’t quite work due to the wide-angle distortion of the window frame. It also doesn’t appear to be in sharp focus, which is a shame as it has the potential to be great observational photograph.

The strong tonal contrast within the photograph makes a good juxtaposition with the shadow of Berlin’s TV tower and I love the ideas of absence and presence that the powerful shadow suggests. I’m pleased that there is still detail within the shadow areas of the photograph, and that it's possible to read the architecture within it. Too often there is the temptation to make these shadow areas a dense black tone. I do think the photograph would benefit from a slight crop though - there is a small white element creeping in at the bottom right of the frame and it could also be tightened up slightly at the top.

I love the unusual viewpoint of this photograph, it's very reminiscent of Russian Constructivist photography. The chaos of the scooter crash, people and other traffic is given a compositional elegance in being shot from above, and the horizontal line of shadow also works well to help visually divide the onlookers from the participants. The one thing I would crop out would be the bright yellow wheel creeping into the frame on the bottom right side - its bright colour distracts from an otherwise balanced colour palette within the photo.

I love the lonely feel of this photograph. The figure walking is perfectly positioned - it would have been too obvious to place him centrally. The lighting on the foliage on the left is very elegant, and softens an otherwise tough urban environment.

This is the winning image because it has all the essential ingredients for a fantastic photograph: great composition, interesting lighting and a sense of narrative. The photographer has managed to capture the people within the photograph in perfect positions within the frame, the two women and their pushchairs creating an aesthetic balance with the child behind them - you can almost hear their cries for the child to hurry up! The tower blocks in the background in bright sunlight juxtaposed against a stormy grey sky – it all adds up to a very beautiful and typically London scene.

This photograph of a run-down house in south London shows great observation for texture within a photograph, and I love the almost metallic feel of the waste ground in front of the old house. Compositionally it would benefit from tightening up, however - the photograph is trying to show us too much. The subject is the white semi-detached house so that needs to be given more emphasis and the alignment of the house needs to be more parallel to the frame.

This is a great example of a historical urban landscape! It shows that not all urban landscapes have to be tough and gritty shots of a city. This is another example of the benefits of shooting from an elevated viewpoint. I love the colour palette of this photograph, the subtle tones of red and orange. The inclusion of the photographer on the bottom right gives the photograph a sense of narrative and creates a good compositional balance. I feel that it could benefit from a slight crop though: the balcony element that is creeping in at the bottom left of the frame, and I’d also be inclined to crop out the person in black just exiting the frame, slightly above on the left, as both elements weaken an otherwise strong composition.

I love this square format and graphic composition of an out-of-season holiday village in Devon. It reminds me of Robert Adams’ landscape photographs of suburban housing estates. It might have benefited from being shot from a slightly higher angle so that the wall at the front of the composition is less dominant.

I think the slightly overexposed nature of this photograph (assuming it's intentional) works very well to represent the futuristic streets of Tokyo. It also reminds me of Walter Niedermayr’s photographs, of whom I’m a huge fan. I love the strong perspective of the road dissecting through the centre of the photograph. As a straight-line-obsessed architectural photographer, I would have straightened up the verticals of this photograph, although doing this in Photoshop may loose the green trees at the bottom of the frame which would be a shame.

The idea for this photograph is excellent and the observation and juxtaposition of an old shopping trolley and city landscape is very interesting. Unfortunately, the top line of the shopping trolley is exactly in line with the city and horizon behind, and it's also slightly unsharp. All that needs to be done is for the photograph to be taken from a slightly higher viewpoint, thereby creating space within the centre of the frame.

This photograph of a Dubai beach is excellent for its observance of the juxtapositions of tourists, camels and tower blocks etc., but it needs to be more precisely framed and waiting for the camels to move away from the blue beach buggy in the background would have been preferable. The main concern I have, though, is the cropping of the tops of the tower blocks in the background - it’s a small issue but the inclusion of the tops of the blocks would have created a fantastic shape in the sky.