Street Seen - Young DCPOTY

It's amazing the difference an unusual angle can make to the view of a city - and the pictures we take of it. This looking-up viewpoint works perfectly to draw our gaze skyward and to notice things we might otherwise ignore. I love the lines created by the telegraph cables, and how they lead us up into the top right corner - and then how they are broken by the gigantic bird lifting off with its wings spread. The other birds stand out with their natural shapes, and man is merely a sideshow to all the action going on above him. This is a brilliantly observed picture that works really well.

If street photography is about humans, human behaviour and humans in their environment, this picture has it all. Whether these two ladies have just comes from bingo or the shops doesn't matter because it looks as though they have just come from mass - which is exactly where we'd expect them to be. The numerous crosses in the background lend this scene a deeply holy atmosphere, but somehow their dark glasses suggest mobster mothers from a Hollywood mafia movie. I like how close the photographer has got, as it gives us a real connection with the ladies and makes me feel as though I'm right there with them. Very effective, well done.

What a perfectly simple picture. It's just about one thing, and it get's that message across at lightening speed. The photographer gives us nothing else to look at other than the girl's shadow and the girl herself, so there's very little danger we'll look in the wrong place. The line between the wall and ground is a powerful device not only for cutting the frame into two graphic shapes, but also for drawing us into the picture. The composition works very well to produce a picture that is beautiful to look at, and which tells its story really effectively.