The spectacular Kazakhstan Pavilion from Expo 2020 Dubai, which is painted in polka dots, has the Moon hovering over a dip. The photograph, titled Joker Smile, was taken in the United Arab Emirates by Jordanian photographer Muhammad Almasri, who also won first place in the Siena International Photo Awards 2022’s Architecture & Urban Spaces category.
Buildings are supposedly lifeless objects, according to the caption on the picture. The Moon completes the face of this brick Joker. “However, as an architectural photographer, the author thinks it is exactly the opposite. The title of this image tells a different story: the one of a polka-dot building with a smiling roof.
Almasri was thrilled with the recognition since although having won 32 international prizes for his previous work, he had never come in first place. He announced his accomplishment on Instagram with the Arabic comment, “Now, officially, a person from the city of Zarqa becomes the first Arab to earn the title of greatest architectural photographer in the world at the Siena International Photo Awards.”
Woman From Evia, a photo captured on Greece’s second-largest island by Greek photographer Konstantinos Tsakalidis, is the overall winner. The image depicts the 81-year-old Kritsiopi Panayiota’s desperate expression as flames approach her house during the forest fires that ravaged the nation in the summer of 2017 and caused significant damage.
The photo, which was chosen from among tens of thousands submitted by individuals in 140 countries, is on display in Siena, in the Tuscany area of central Italy, together with winning photos from the other 12 categories, through November 20.
For his photograph of Angelina Jolie coated in bees, which was published in National Geographic to highlight the actress’s campaign for World Bee Day, Winters won the Fascinating Faces and Characters category of the Siena International Photo Awards this year. Jolie’s body was sprayed with the queen bee pheromone to draw the bees, and she stood still for 18 minutes without getting stung.
Photographer Rahat Bin Mustafiz won first place in Journeys & Adventures for his image Work, which he captured at Nagarbari Ghat, one of Bangladesh’s most significant river ports. The port receives imports of fertiliser, cereal, coal, and cement, and the quantity of bags moved determines how much the port’s employees are paid.