American photographer Harry Giglio, author of the shot Approaching Storm, is the Winner Overall of the 2020 edition of URBAN Photo Awards, Single Photos section. The Up There project, by Italian author Beniamino Pisati, wins the first prize in the Projects & Portfolio section.

The final podium of the eleventh edition of URBAN was unveiled on Saturday 24 October 2020 at the award ceremony of the contest at the auditorium of the Revoltella Museum, during Trieste Photo Days international festival. President of the jury Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, live streaming from New York for a long and interesting speech (you can rewatch it here), announced the winners and motivated their choices.

“What I like about this photograph is the sense of disconnection”, says Alex Webb of Harry Giglio's work. “A man—perhaps a cobbler in front of his shop—calmly reads his newspaper on a quintessentially American street, while a shaft of lightning streaks across the sky in the background. Once can’t help but think: How can this man be utterly unaware of the drama behind him?”

“This photo”, continues Webb, “also embraces a fundamental characteristic of photography: the medium’s innate ability to bring together disparate elements—seemingly contradictory notions—within a single frame.” 

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Rebecca Norris Webb about the Beniamino Pisati's Up There project says: “Like the work of Luigi Ghirri and of his close friend, Gianni Celati—the latter born in Sondrio—Beniamino Pisati’s photographs of the Valtellina Valley in the Alps share a deep affection for the Italian landscape. Looking at Pisati’s photographs, one can’t help but wonder if we’re glimpsing a vanishing world—with its cows, whose cheese tastes of the alpine grasses they feed on, and its farmers, whose traditional hats echo the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Through Pisati’s eyes, it’s as if we’re seeing this remote, rural landscape for “the first and last time,” to quote Ghirri.”

Street photographer Nick Turpin, juror of the Book Award section, was also in streaming from London to comment on the winning project he chose from the over 160 competing: Journey to the Lowlands by Valeria Sacchetti, present at the award ceremony, an evocative journey in white and black in the lowlands of Emilia.

For the second year in a row, Belgian photographer Alain Schroeder, who was also present at the awards ceremony, was named the Best Author of the URBAN Photo Awards. A dutiful recognition for the quality and versatility of his numerous projects set in the four corners of the world (three of his reportages about the two Koreas are on display at the Civic Museum of Oriental Art in Trieste until 6 January 2021).

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Rebeka Legović was also awarded for her photo of the UniCredit Tower in Milan Porta Nuova in the special prize New Buildings, born from the partnership between URBAN and Matrix4Design and dedicated to the icons of architecture that have changed the face of cities in the last ten years. The winning photo was selected by Matrix4Design editor Andrea Boni and photographer Federica Nardese. “The artist,” they say about their choice, “has tried her hand at representing an iconic building, symbol of great urban renewal, revealing her ability to find a new point of view, moving away from what has already been seen to propose her personal surrealist vision”.

We would like to thank all the partners who have made this fantastic edition of the competition possible and who have supported us in the realization of the numerous exhibitions. In particular, the Municipalities of Trieste, Aquileia and Cormòns, Think Tank Photo, Stroppa, FAB Lab / Innova FVG, Matrix4Design, Imaginario Gallery and the Krakow School of Art and Fashion Design.

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URBAN 2020 Photo Awards / Final Ranking

• Winner Overall - Harry Giglio (USA) - Approaching Storm
• 1st portfolio - Beniamino Pisati (Italy) - Up There
• Best Author - Alain Schroeder (Belgium) 

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Single Pictures. Theme: STREETS 

• 1st place - Harry Giglio (USA) - Approaching Storm
• Honorable Mention - Szymon Lewinski (Poland) - Untitled
• Honorable Mention - Dimpy Bhalotia (India) - Urban Animal
• Remarkable Reward - Biancamaria Monticelli (Italy) - Havana Blue
• Remarkable Reward - Maude Bardet (France) - Untitled
• Remarkable Reward - Rodrigo Roher (Spain) - L'illa

Single Pictures. Theme: PEOPLE

• 1st place - Bart Heynen (Belgium) - United Nations From The Series Gay Dads
• Honorable Mention - Marzena Hans (Poland) - Untitled
• Honorable Mention - Salvatore Favia - (Italy) - Battesimo In Puglia
• Remarkable Reward - Azim Khan Ronnie (Bangladesh) - Incense Workers
• Remarkable Reward - Eduardo Citrinblum (Argentina) - Untitled
• Remarkable Reward - Forrest Walker (USA) - Line Up
• Remarkable Reward - Giuseppe Ulizio (Italy) - Untitled
• Remarkable Reward - Roberto Malagoli (Italy) - Tra i campesinos di Vinales

Single Pictures. Theme: SPACES 

• 1st place - Piotr Trybalski (Poland) - Gymspace
• Honorable Mention - Angiolo Manetti (Italy) - Colored Cubes
• Honorable Mention - Andrea Cicchetti (Italy) - Stay Home
• Remarkable Reward - Rosetta Bonatti (Italy) - Modern Arabesque

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Single Pictures. Theme: CREATIVE 

• 1st place - Francesco Pace Rizzi (Italy) - Beyond The Wall
• Honorable Mention - Ted Lau (Hong Kong) - Gymnasts
• Honorable Mention - Joseph Ford (United Kingdom) - Untitled
• Remarkable Reward - Andi Abdul Halil (Indonesia) - Two Dimension

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‍Single Pictures. New Buildings special prize

• 1st place - Rebeka Legović - UniCredit Tower, Milano Porta Nuova 

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Projects & Portfolios

• 1st place - Beniamino Pisati (Italy) - Up There
• Honorable Mention - Federica Zucchini (Italy) - Lessico Famigliare (Family Glossary)
• Honorable Mention - Md Enamul Kabir (Bangladesh) - Coexistence
• Honorable Mention - Vincenzo Montefinese (Italy) - Stuck In Serbia

‍Projects & Portfolios. Civici Musei special prize

• 1st place - Julia Runge (Germany) - Shebeen Queens
• Chiara Panariti & Gianfranco Ferraro (Italy) - Cronostasi
• Thiery Romain (France) - Requiem Pour Pianos
• Antonio Tartaglia (Italy) - Fishing For Plastic

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URBAN Book Award 

• 1st place - Valeria Sacchetti (Italy) - Journey To The Lowlands
• Honorable Mention - Toby Binder (Germany) - Wee Muckers - Youth Of Belfast
• Honorable Mention - Grzegorz Wójcik (Poland) - Touch Of Woodstock