© James Lewin - The Land That Made Us One MonoVisions Awards 2026
The winners of the MonoVisions Photography Awards 2026 have been announced. The international photo competition is all about black and white photography, with prizes for individual photos and series in architecture, documentary photography, fine art, nude, landscape, portrait and street photography.
The big winner of the series is the British photographer James Lewin The Land That Made Us One. In this series he brings together Maasai portraits and African wildlife in carefully constructed black and white images. The series is not only about beauty or nature conservation, but also about the way in which traditional living environments and wild landscapes are connected.
James Lewin: The Land That Made Us One
Lewin works a lot in East Africa and uses his photography to draw attention to vulnerable ecosystems. In The Land That Made Us One he does not place people and animals opposite each other, but next to each other. Each image is made up of two photographs taken in the same location and under similar lighting and weather conditions: a wild animal in its natural environment and a Maasai person whose life is intertwined with that landscape.
The result is monumental, but not distant. The images resemble a timeless portrait, in which people, animals and landscape seem to form one shared history. According to Lewin, not only wild animals are threatened, but also the traditional ways of life of communities that have depended on nature for generations.
Dutch prize winner
There is also a Dutch name among the award-winning photographers. Juliette Bongers from the Netherlands took second place in Fine Art Series with ODE Stories. Her black-and-white series explores identity as something fluid and experiential, with layered portraits, fragments and silent moments that suggest more than explain.
Those who want to view more recent international prizes with Dutch input can also read about the Hasselblad Masters 2026: two Dutch winners.
The series was made in 2025 in Amsterdam, Ibiza and Paris. Bongers, trained at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, works with subtle edits, double exposure and stillness. That closes ODE Stories fits well with the broader strength of the MonoVisions Awards: black and white not as a nostalgic effect, but as a means to concentrate form, atmosphere and meaning.
Architecture: Brutalism in Transit
In the Architecture Series category, the first prize went to Mark Stevens from Australia with Brutalism in Transit. His series was made in Uji Station near Kyoto, a station built in 1995 by architect Hiroyuki Wakabayashi.
Stevens focuses on the power of brutalism architectural photography: concrete, rhythm, light and repetition. The round openings, curved shapes and rough concrete structures transform a functional station space into an almost sculptural environment. The sleek black and white approach particularly emphasizes shape, texture and light.
Documentary look at Afghanistan
The first prize in Photojournalism Series went to Rodrigo Miguel Abd from Argentina with Afghanistan in a new light. After the American invasion of 2001, Abd worked in Afghanistan for a long time and learned to photograph there with a traditional Afghan camera, a handmade device that also functions as a darkroom.
In 2023 he returned with that almost disappeared photographic process. His series explores how daily life in Afghanistan has changed following the withdrawal of American troops and the return of the Taliban. The slow, analogue working method gives the series a different tone than fast news footage: direct, but also concentrated and quiet.
Nude: My home tastes like almonds
In the Nude Series category, Alessandro Manzotti, born in Italy and working between France, Belgium and Italy, won with My home tastes like almonds. The series is based on the concept of solastalgia: the homesickness you can feel while you are still at home, because a beloved place is changing beyond recognition due to climate change or ecological damage.
Manzotti uses nude, self-portrait and non-professional models not as decorative subjects, but as carriers of vulnerability and connection with a place. The images are personal and poetic, with a clear underlying layer of ecological unrest.
Single Image
Two images also stand out in the singles section of Fine Art. Martin Kocjan from Serbia won first place, Black & White Fine Art Photo of the Year 2026, with At the Crossing. A single figure with an umbrella moves through a stark black-and-white intersection, in which form, direction and choice become almost graphic.
Monika Zemojtel from Poland took third place in the same category with Edge (see image above), a lonely figure at the edge of water and rock wall, small under a dark sky.
The full winners gallery can be viewed on the website MonoVisions Photography Awards.
