PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY VALERIA TOFANELLI

For September 2022, 2 photos shared the first place for photo of the month, as voted by BME members. This is the first of the 2 photos, by Valeria Tofanelli.

Some words from Valeria about the photo:

“I was walking in the evening along the beach of Ostia the day after a violent storm had destroyed most of some bathing establishments. The landscape was surreal, especially if I think about how those places are in summer. Many workers had started to clean the area to rebuild the bathing establishments and towards the end of the day I saw this man who was still cleaning a restaurant from the debris brought by the sea. I took several photos to fix that moment, after which I greeted the man and continued on my way.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY DIMITRIS MAKRYGIANNAKIS

Photo of the month for August 2022 by Dimitris Makrygiannakis, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Dimitris about the photo:

“The story of this photo is not that exciting. One of those “I pass by something, I see and I shoot” photos. More interesting is the fact that from the very beginning I shot it, I was annoyed with the small sign with the social media links of the street artist. I wished I could use the erase tool and get rid of it, but I am not really into erasing things from my photos. So since I thought that the rest was very interesting, I decided to keep the photo and post it online. After that I realised that I could at least send the photo to the street artist and so I did. It is not usual we can know who the people we are shooting are, so finally this sign served a good purpose I think.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY DIMITRIS MAKRYGIANNAKIS

Photo of the month for July 2022 by Dimitris Makrygiannakis, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Dimitris about the photo:

“I made this photo in a recent photo trip in Prague this May. Was the 5th day of the trip and although all previous days I was taking the tram passing just outside my apartment to reach the areas of the city with most photographic action, this certain day I decided to do something different. Walked all the way from my apartment to reach a spot of the Vltava river I never been before, just to see something new. The walk was about 3 hours and it honestly felt like a wrong decision. Passing through uninteresting residential areas for all those 3 hours, I started thinking the photographic day was lost. And then I reach the river. And the first thing I see is this swan mother with her 7 babies. The energy inside my body and mind changed, I could feel the change, I could feel that something was going to happen, but I did not know exactly what. I just waited there looking at them and trying not to disturb. At a certain point I made a step forward, not knowing exactly why. That scared the mother, and she started opening her wings to make the babies move inside the water. It all happened too fast. I made 4 frames, and this will stay forever. My first thought was that there was a meaning for those 3 ‘‘meaningless’’ hours of walking. This photo is one of the most meaningful of my ongoing swans project. I would probably be happy enough if this was the only good photo of the whole trip.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY NIKITA TERYOSHIN

Photo of the month for June 2022 by Nikita Teryoshin, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Nikita about the photo:

“I took this picture of the legendary cat Iphigenie by accident during a portrait shoot with the french artist Melissa Mayer Galbraith, who is currently one of the scholarship holders at the Artist Residence Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Germany. When I saw the picture, I had to crop Mrs. Galbraith exceptionally out of the frame to concentrate on Iphigenie, a 16 years old very special cat - also a symbol of the Villa.

...and btw. the right ear is a stain on the wall.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY BARRY TALIS

Photo of the month for May 2022 by Barry Talis, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Barry about the photo:

“This photo is a part of my ongoing "pilgrims" series. Finally back to shooting it this year after a 2 year break.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY EFI LONGINOU

Photo of the month for April 2022 by Efi Longinou, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Efi about the photo:

“On my first walk in the city aquarium, enchanted by the unimpeded movement of beautiful captive fish on their glass borders, I took many photos. After a while, however, I lowered the camera because I felt that this way, I did not enter their world, and I did not observe them, but instead, I collected photos that I may never look at again. Only then did my walk begin to make sense. At one point, I saw a ray swimming flapping its wings in a bird-like motion, and then a girl moving with him, excited. It was like a dance between them that lasted quite some time and set my mood and made me laugh. When the girl extended her hand towards it, I picked up the camera and took this photo.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY TC LIN

For March 2022, 2 photos shared the first place for photo of the month, as voted by BME members. This is the second of the 2 photos, by TC Lin.

Some words from TC about the photo:

“I was wandering the alleys of the port city of Keelung, Taiwan when I spotted this oddly shaped old building with its lights of various colors in the blue light of dusk, cables and wires spilling from its orifices. Buildings here are often contorted into interesting shapes due to owners wanting to utilize every part of irregularly shaped plots of land. A man in the window in a helmet and one glove off in order to smoke lent the scene a sense of scale as well as an idea of the people who live there.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY ZISIS KARDIANOS

For March 2022, 2 photos shared the first place for photo of the month, as voted by BME members. This is the first of the 2 photos, by Zisis Kardianos.

Some words from Zisis about the photo:

“I'm attracted to these nondescript landscapes, these non-place spaces. We pass them by with our car every day but we hardly ever give them a second glimpse or even wonder what they conceal let alone feeling the urge to wander around in a quest for the unexpected. A photograph can be real and lie at the same time. It represents the illusion of reality and as a result it is open to a multitude of perspectives. It's all part of photography's most treasured assets. Its descriptive dexterity, its ambiguity and delusion.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY EFI LONGINOU

Photo of the month for February 2022 by Efi Longinou, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Efi about the photo:

“I took this photo in a park outside of Berlin that hosts many animals. There I saw flamingos for the first time in my life. I immediately wanted to photograph them. The first photos were just for the memory until my glance fell on the glass with their reflection, creating the illusion that the fences and their boundaries no longer existed.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY GUSTAVO MINAS

Photo of the month for January 2022 by Gustavo Minas, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Gustavo about the photo:

“Long road trips make me bored, but lately, as I'm usually in the passenger's seat, I've been trying to photograph along the road to pass the time, including some elements of the car in the composition. Now and then I also fire the tiny flash which came with my camera, just to see how the pictures come out. This was the case here. I used a long exposure too, and I guess the light from the flash bounced in the mirror and hit Priscila's face. When I first posted it, some folks commented saying that it reminds them of David Lynch's Lost Highway, which is not a bad thing at all.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY LUKAS VASILIKOS

Photo of the month for December 2021 by Lukas Vasilikos, as voted by BME members.

Some words from Lukas about the photo:

“This photo is part from an ongoing project shooting with expired film. In the middle of pandemic and lock down the only people that I could take photos was my family or I tried to make some portraits outside of the house. When I saw the contact sheets, I liked the look of the child and it seemed to me there was photographic interest here.”

PHOTO OF THE MONTH BY TC LIN

Photo of the month for November 2021 by TC Lin, as voted by BME members.

Some words from TC about the photo:

“After a long hiatus, I was on a photowalk with some of my students, who were gathered around a TV film shoot in a stall in an unassuming neighborhood just south of Taipei's Songshan Airport. I kept walking up the road and spotted this vendor cleaning up after closing shop for the day. At the time I'd thought I would have liked to have been closer, but he was only in the doorway for a brief moment as I was passing so this was the only shot I could get. But I actually prefer the way he is framed by the empty stalls and the strong afternoon
sunlight reflected off the metal surfaces and wet concrete.”