The 2025 Analog Sparks International Film Photography Awards have once again illuminated the captivating power of film, showcasing a diverse array of stunning images from across the globe that reaffirm the enduring allure and profound creativity inherent in analog processes.
The world of photography continues to evolve, yet the timeless appeal of analog processes holds a unique and powerful magic. The 2025 Analog Sparks International Film Photography Awards stand as a resounding testament to this enduring allure, celebrating the best in film photography from around the globe. This year’s competition, the third edition, garnered record-breaking participation with over 1800 submissions from 61 countries, underscoring the vibrant global resurgence of film photography in the digital age, as highlighted by AOL.com.
Founded by photographer Réka Kóti, the visionary behind the popular @analog_sparks Instagram community, these awards are dedicated to discovering, showcasing, and promoting talented film photographers worldwide. The competition is open to professional, amateur, and student photographers, accepting everything from classic black-and-white and instant prints to alternative techniques like collodion. The philosophy extends beyond recognition, aiming for long-term collaborations, art residencies, and exhibitions across Europe, as detailed on the Analog Sparks Awards official website.
Meet the Visionaries: Photographers of the Year
The Analog Sparks Awards recognize exceptional talent across various categories, crowning a Photographer of the Year and a Discovery of the Year, alongside other major category winners.
Photographer of the Year: Peter Varsics
Hungarian photographer Peter Varsics was honored as the Analog Sparks Photographer of the Year for his captivating series, “Ghosts of Pannenhuis.” This project masterfully captures fleeting human presence within the striking, retro-futuristic architecture of the Pannenhuis metro station in Brussels, transforming commuters into ghost-like figures haunting a stark architectural dream. Shot on Cinestill 800T film, Varsics’ work explores the eerie beauty of transit and the tension between permanence and passage.
Discovery of the Year: Rachel Jump
Rachel Jump, a student from the United States, received the “Analog Sparks Discovery of the Year” award for her profound work, “Everyone is Icarus.” This deeply personal body of work delves into the aftermath of her father’s genetic test results, which revealed a hereditary disorder. The project explores family efforts to provide comfort and resilience, guiding each other through newfound clarity and confronting how lineage shapes identity.
Diverse Stories Through the Lens of Film
The awards feature eight main categories: Architecture, Fine Art, Human, Lifestyle, Nature, Photojournalism, Technique, and Zines & Photo Books. Each category brings forth unique perspectives and celebrates the distinctive characteristics of analog photography.
Architecture: Stories in Stone and Light
In the Architecture category, Yvonne Hanson’s “Cacophony” from Canada earned 2nd place. This series captures bustling metropolitan areas at night using 35mm film and multiple exposures, creating an impression of nightlife as experienced in memory—a jumble of sights, neon signs, and shop windows.
Rose Shoshana from Mexico also achieved a Gold Winner for her piece “Babel” in the architecture category. Additionally, Carlos Ruiz Galindo from Mexico presented “Rammed,” a series capturing the contrast between architecture and its environment, specifically highlighting a house in Valle de Bravo built with rammed earth walls.
Fine Art: Exploring Depths and Dualities
Kyle Hoffmann of Australia was named Fine Art Photographer of the Year for “Waratah.” Part of his larger “Fossil” series, this image explores the human mind’s struggle with the vastness of time and our inherent fragility, featuring prehistoric plants as tangible reminders of temporal limitations.
In Fine Art, Nuno Serrão from Portugal secured 2nd place for his series “Icebergs,” an ongoing project comparing people to icebergs and contrasting a “dopamine-driven society” with a parallel world that resists constant stimulation. This body of work encourages introspection and belonging without joining in.
Renan Nascimento’s “Portion of Life” from Brazil received a Bronze winner, depicting the reflection and magical movement of water, symbolizing life’s mysterious and fluid course. Rose Shoshana also earned a Silver winner for “Mexicana,” a fashion story shot on local streets for an edgy analog vibe. Marta Berzina’s “Inside, Out (From The Series)” from Latvia explores the dualities of human experience: the visible and concealed, internal and external.
The Human Element: Portraits of Life
Toby Binder from Germany was named Human Photographer of the Year for “Youth of Belfast.” This poignant series illustrates how past conflicts in Northern Ireland continue to affect daily life, particularly young people, through physical and ideological divisions.
Jose Girl from the United States received 2nd place in the Human category for “Them,” a portrait shot with a medium format analog camera. Eduardo Solís’ “Guadalupe V” from Mexico was a Bronze winner, featuring compelling portraits of a neighborhood character with distinctive features.
Alyona Nikolaeva’s “Between Us” from Italy delves into the complexities of friendship between girls, capturing moments of peace, unity, and quiet tension, revealing the joys and vulnerabilities of connection. Fabio Bonatti’s “The Beauty Of Simple Moments,” also from Italy, showcases his passion for photographing people in their everyday environments, capturing the understated beauty of life.
Lifestyle: Capturing Everyday Narratives
Matteo Gallucci from Italy was recognized as Lifestyle Photographer of the Year for “If These Streets Could Have Talk.” His project documents his three-year journey walking the streets of Rome and New York with his Rolleiflex, noticing the film passing through his lens and capturing the homeless, the rich, and the crazy, all sharing their feelings and emotions.
Seunggu Kim’s “Better Days” from the Republic of Korea earned 2nd place, observing Koreans’ leisure spaces and their adaptation to a fast-paced lifestyle with community-based trust, striving for coexistence. Simone Morelli’s “Indian River” from Italy received a Silver, depicting the Ganges River as a sacred and vital symbol. Enrique Mattiacci’s “White Hot” from the United States was a Bronze winner.
In other lifestyle-related entries, Sam Tse’s “The Basketball Game Under The Sky” captures a simple moment of two people playing basketball beneath a bright blue sky in Oakland, 2025. Sebastian Siadecki’s “Oasis” explores encounters with strangers at gas stations, truck stops, and highway rest areas across the United States, highlighting spaces marginal yet central to American culture.
Kostis Karampinas’ “Granules” from Greece takes viewers on a visual odyssey through rural Greece, conveying granules of solitude, abandonment, and curiosity where time appears to stand still. Pascal Kueng’s “Less Is More” from Switzerland embraces warm, soft, and washed-out tones to enhance the nostalgic feel of film, preferring cameras like the Contax RTS and Fuji GS645 Wide.
Giulia Degasperi’s “The Last Milk” from Germany captures the final days of the alpine pasture season in Switzerland’s Blenio Valley, a time steeped in transition. Flavia Mazzoni’s “Fragments Of Italy” offers an analog journey through Italy, from silent Dolomite peaks to sun-drenched southern coasts.
Nature: Raw Beauty Through a Film Lens
Hengki Koentjoro from Indonesia was celebrated as Nature Photographer of the Year for “Gibbon Falls,” an early work using a large format 4×5 inch camera at Yellowstone National Park, capturing the majestic falls with remarkable tonal depth.
Oran Greier’s “Lyrics” from Germany earned 2nd place in Nature, focusing on lyrical abstractions of living and dead plants through macro photography. Clyde Butcher’s “Gaskin Bay” from the United States was a Gold winner, capturing the sculptural quality of mangroves in the Everglades, highlighting their eventual disappearance due to hurricanes.
Other Gold winners in Nature include Peter Juhasz’s “Vortex” (Joshua Tree, CA) and Tom Beldam’s “Song of the Sea” (United Kingdom). Gigi Guldas’ “Tales We Don’t Tell” from the United States secured Silver, exploring hidden stories and unspoken emotions beneath everyday moments. Dave Hebb’s “My Life as a Dream” from the United States received Bronze, using expired film to emphasize light, shadow, and texture, tapping into a subconscious dream-like state.
Dmytro Trush’s “Echoes Of Nature: Flora In Ambrotype” from Ukraine offers a unique perspective on nature, using the antique ambrotype technique to capture botanical forms with striking clarity and tangible volume. Johanne Nyborg’s “The Forest Is Teaching Me” from Norway reflects on the human-nature relationship, emphasizing our place as one species among tens of thousands in the forest. Benito Drebing’s “There Should Be A Forest Here” from Germany addresses the increasing vulnerability of German forests to climate change, with impacts becoming more visible each year.
Mickael Pouliquen’s “Death Valley” from France offers an intimate journey through the scorching landscape of the Valley of Death, where time appears suspended, and elements become a language of their own.
Kasia Jedrych-Waniek’s “No One Is Coming To Save You” from Poland explores what it means to be fully exposed to the raw forces of nature, stripped of societal conditioning and illusions of control.
Patrick Betthaus’ “Croatia” from Germany showcases a series shot in the Šibenik area, using an Olympus Superzoom 70G on Fomapan 400 film.
Technique: Pushing the Boundaries of Process
Bill Hao from Canada was awarded Technique Photographer of the Year for his ambitious “Rocky Mountains on Wet Plate Collodion.” Hao created an extra-large format camera (32×48 inch) and converted a 50-seat tour bus into a mobile darkroom to capture breathtaking landscapes using the wet plate collodion process, which requires immediate development after exposure. His work highlights the devastating impact of wildfires on the Canadian Rocky Mountains, with half of Jasper destroyed in July 2024.
Joss Sánchez’s “Echoes of Eternity” from Mexico secured 2nd place in Technique. This image reveals petrified waterfalls, framed by mountains and clouds, with a red filter transforming the scene into a surreal vision. Yasuhiro Shioka’s “Vanity” from Japan and Lukasz Spychala’s “House of Memories” from Poland were both Gold winners. Spychala’s work uses double exposure to enliven spaces decorated in the style of the Polish People’s Republic, evoking ephemeral silhouettes of former residents.
Lilyan Aloma’s “Commuting” from the United States received Silver, utilizing toy cameras and multiple exposures to photograph moving scenery during her solitary commutes as a caregiver, embracing serendipity and the mystery of unknown results.
Photojournalism & Zines: Documenting and Sharing
Daria Troitskaia from Italy earned Photojournalism Photographer of the Year for “Crazy Horse Paris.” Shot in 2024 with a Leica M7 and Ilford HP5 film, this series documents the behind-the-scenes environment of Crazy Horse Paris, examining the preparation and dedication involved in each performance.
In the Zines and Photo Books category, Yu Hsuan Chang from Taiwan won with “G-Book 女子冊 — Not Only One Way Beauty.” This meaningful photography project, launched in 2016, aims to capture the daily lives and inner stories of diverse women in Taiwan.
Megan Sinclair’s “Tunnels Of Refuge” from the United States involves a three-spread handmade book, examining the compulsion to safeguard emotion through physical layering of hand-cut prints, allowing readers to explore and unveil text and altered images in a tactile experience.
The Enduring Allure and Future of Film
These award-winning images collectively champion the deliberative, tactile art of film photography. They remind viewers of the incomparable texture, tonal depth, and serendipitous imperfections that only a chemical process can provide. As Réka Kóti aptly shares, unlike the unlimited nature of digital photography, analog challenges photographers to make each image count, as it’s often only possible to take an image once. This intentionality, coupled with the unique aesthetic qualities of film, continues to captivate artists and enthusiasts alike.
With exhibitions scheduled across Europe in House of Lucie galleries in Athens, Ostuni, and Budapest, the Analog Sparks Awards not only celebrate these winning artists but also affirm the vibrant and growing global community dedicated to analog photography. The awards stand as a beacon for film photographers, providing a global stage to showcase their work and ensuring that the magic of film continues to inspire for generations to come.
