Dark body: the grim history for the best black-and-white images from around the world

Publishing LensCulture summed up the results of the contest Black & White Awards, international awards black and white photography. The final got 39 authors from 23 countries. The recognition was awarded to documentary work, abstraction, landscape shots and self-portraits, many of these hidden stories are quite dark and even bloody.

Series "homeland" photographer Ming Lee focuses on how the nature of China is changing as the movement of progress. The author explores the Three gorges region, located on the Yangtze river, the country's government since the beginning of the Millennium has begun to transform the appearance of Hubei province, building hydroelectric power plants, factories and entire cities. A similar situation is happening in other areas of China.

A year and a half ago, Aaron Gonzales was the victim of a gas explosion at home. He suffered burns on 30 percent of his body, and when for the first time after the incident, I looked in the mirror, unable to recognize themselves. Photography became Aaron's way to cope with the trauma in his self — portraits he depicts a situation through which passed during the recovery period, being consumed by depression and fear.

A native of Iran, Enayat Asadi went with a camera in Afghanistan in 2011 when the West began to withdraw troops from the country and curtail military missions. Most often, the lens Asadi got the refugees in his country, according to various estimates, of the war illegally ran more than 1.5 million Afghans. Through Iran, they are in search of a better life trying to get to Europe. This path is full of dangers — many find themselves in slavery, victims of violence and looting.

The picture shows two refugee rest before crossing the Eastern border of Iran. Then their way, perhaps, will be in Turkey and from there to Greece, and then, to the North of Europe.

Agnieszka Sosnowski was born in Poland, educated in the US, but life decided to link with agricultural Iceland. With psychological difficulties, waiting for any immigrant who helped her to cope local women, who began to Agnieszka personification of power and community. The women of the Icelandic farms and villages and is dedicated to her series "the myth of the woman." In some works the frame appears itself Sosnowski — so she externalizes his involvement in a new home.

Before Chaddy Smith was annoyed that his photographs of landscapes often do not pass on what he had seen the beauty. He solved this problem with the help of a triptych of one object is Smith shoots from different angles, thereby trying to convey a more complete and accurate picture of the nature.

Prefer to work with collages and abstractions Indian photographer Madhavan Palanisamy became the winner of the award with the series, "My dad and other animals". Father Palanisami, writer and literary critic, in old age, is faced with serious diseases.

The work of Danish photographer Bebe agterberg exploring the endless confrontation of politics, media environment and civil society. His series "Actors rule the world" affects three aspects of the TV series "Seventeen moments of spring" created by the cult spies and the activities of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

Series "When the house allows you to remain the" Sahrai Charmin dedicated to the Muslim Rohingya people. In 2017, over 700 thousand representatives of this ethnic group have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh, fleeing ethnic cleansing. Charmin is trying not only to show the lives of refugees, but also to tell the world their full of pain and grief history.

Photo — 25-year-old Cenoura, the younger brother who was killed by the military in her eyes.

The protests in Hong Kong attracted to the region and a lot of filmmakers, journalists and photographers who want to capture the violent and spectacular clashes between citizens and police. For the Kwun HEI Whether the series "Extradition" is much more personal — like a local, he considers it his duty as detailed as possible to capture this historic confrontation. Are the photo was taken the day before the third reading of the bill on extradition, which the region's unrest began.

Indian Enamul Kabir engaged in street photography, exploring animals in urban and rural scenery. In this photo taken in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, the author sees fairytale motif. "This horse is not actually a horse, and Raven not a crow," says Kabir.

Poet and writer Dmitry Prigov lamented the fact that I spend my whole life washing dishes, and the photographer Silvia Konior the same feelings about Laundry.

Series "Purgatory" photographer Ignacio Iturria dedicated to the Palacio salvo, the house in Montevideo, Uruguay. However, to identify this built in the early XX century monument of architecture in the work of Iturrios hardly possible — the author explores the building through its inhabitants, whose life is pretty much in contrast with the grandeur of the Palacio salvo, the architects conceived as the embodiment of "the divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri.

In "the pleasure Garden" photographer Andres Arango the modern woman returns during the Venus of the Paleolithic, in the lens they appear ancient goddesses. In other projects Arango, who for the sake of earnings is also engaged in shooting weddings and maintains a law practice explores themes such as fear and death.

Modern man, who by their biological and cognitive abilities are no different from our ancestors who hunted the mammoths and engaged in the gathering, is trapped in the concrete jungle, but the change of scenery does not change the fact of its existence, the name of which is the fight for or against the change, said Alexandros Vrettakos.

In a series of "Eternal recurrence", the author States that, despite the evolution and constant change of environment, life is cyclical, representing a repetition of the same situations.