In Pictures

Portland's 'Avenue of Roses' wins LensCulture Street Photography Awards

  • 1 July 2020

A series showing the "rampant urban growth" of Portland, in the US state of Oregon, has won the LensCulture Street Photography Awards 2020.

A view of a misty street at night with neon motel sign Image copyright Kevin Fletcher

Kevin Fletcher's photos were taken along a single street known as the Avenue of Roses, less than a mile from where he lives.

"I am drawn to the sublime beauty and stories that exist in places like this, places so normal, so daily, and so banal that we tend to overlook them," Fletcher said.

"The Avenue of Roses used to be the rural outer edge of the city.

"However, consistent urban growth has tsunamied right up to and over it, creating a taught rope of pavement compressed on both sides by gentrification and increased housing prices.

"It has also become a socio-political line that divides the inner portions of the city, epitomised by 'green' modernisation and increasing wealth, from the perimeter neighbourhoods that don't benefit in the same way."

Other winning images show the liveliness of society before lockdowns began in many parts of the world.

Jim Casper, editor-in-chief of LensCulture, an online publication dedicated to contemporary photography, said: "Great photographs and series from 'normal life', just a few months ago now, seem charged with new poignancy as they reflect the liveliness and excitement of human interactions before street life stopped for a while."

Here is a selection of pictures from the 39 other winning photographers, chosen from hundreds of entries from 19 countries.

Second-place series: Wee Muckers - Youth of Belfast, by Toby Rinder, from Germany

A group of youths and adults congregate in a residential street Image copyright Toby Binder

Toby Binder has been documenting the daily life of teenagers in British working-class communities for more than a decade.

After the Brexit referendum, he focused his work on Belfast.

Third-place series: Subordinate, by Michael McIlvaney from the UK

A view onto a street pavement showing a man lying on the ground Image copyright Michael McIlvaney

"These images aim to demonstrate, whether actually or conceptually, the daily collisions between one's inner private self and the everyday reality of urban city living," photographer Michael McIlvaney said.

"They form part of a project intended to explore the metaphors associated with this tension: vulnerability, alienation, subordination, fear, threat, isolation, infringement and intrusion."

First-place single: Untitled, by Gabi Ben Avraham, from Israel

People celebrating at night with bonfires Image copyright Gabi Ben Avraham
Image caption Lag b'Omer celebrations, a festive day in the Jewish calendar

Second-place single: Anonymous, by Stuart Paton, from Italy

A view through a window into a cafe Image copyright Stuart Paton
Image caption Photographer Stuart Paton's "vain quest for an elusive dolce vita"

Finalists

A group of Jewish people gather next to a building Image copyright Barry Talis
Image caption Spread Eagle, by Barry Talis, from Israel
A sacred cow in a street in India Image copyright Elizabeth Brooks
Image caption The Cow and the Tailor Shop, Rajasthan, by Elizabeth Brooks, from the US
Crowds gather in Paris as the Notre Dame cathedral burns in the background Image copyright Cyrus Cornut
Image caption Notre Dame de Paris, 15th of April 2019, by Cyrus Cornut, from France
Two women are seen out shopping in the street Image copyright Hugo de Melo
Image caption Untitled 01, Coney Island, by Hugo de Melo, from the US
Two men in the street next to a subway station Image copyright Hugo de Melo
Image caption Untitled 02, Penn Station, Manhattan, 2019, by Hugo de Melo, from the US
A young woman with dyed hair looks at her mobile phone Image copyright Dougie Wallace
Image caption East Ended, by Dougie Wallace, from the UK
A group of people are seen in a street in London Image copyright Dougie Wallace
Image caption East Ended, by Dougie Wallace, from the UK
A family watch a plane land at an airport Image copyright Laird Kay
Image caption Planespotter Portraits No. 13, by Laird Kay, from Canada
People perform acrobatics on the beach Image copyright Moises Levy
Image caption Giant, by Moises Levy, from Mexico
The window of a wedding dress shop lit at night Image copyright Sebastian Steveniers
Image caption Sumadija, by Sebastian Steveniers, from Belgium

All photographs courtesy LensCulture

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