This touching and trippy portrait wins The International Portrait Photographer of the Year 2021

The International Portrait Photographer of the Year has published the winners of its 2021 contest. Among many stunning portraits, the title of the overall winner went to Forough Yavari from Australia. Her unusual self-portrait displays not only strong emotions but also great skill in both photography and editing. In this article, we bring you Forough winning image, as well as other category winners that I’m sure you’ll love.

Forough Yavari is an award-winning portrait and fine art photographer based in Brisbane, Australia. After studying art at university, photography turned from a personal hobby into a professional challenge for her. She had multiple painting and photography exhibitions and has won several national and international awards.

The winning photo is titled Solitude, and I learned from Forough’s Instagram post that it was a loss that inspired her to take it.

“Confronting loss is not easy, even impossible. It takes you from being sad to calm, from feeling angry to face loneliness. You try [to] avoid it and resist it and even physically get away from it, but you can’t, and it ages you and hurts you.”

Other than being the overall winner, Solitude also won Forough The Portrait Story Category. Other category winners are Zay Yar Lin from Myanmar and Josef Bürgi from Switzerland.

The contest is open to both professional and amateur photographers from all over the world. The winners share the prize pool of US$10,000 cash, and the top 101 images are included in the Awards Book. Make sure to take a look at the remaining category winners below, and visit The International Portrait Photographer of the Year’s website for more information.