THE RUINS PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION WINNERS | Archiol News
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THE RUINS PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION WINNERS

14.04.2022, Thu
THE RUINS PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION WINNERS

© Charlotte Collins

The Ruins is a photography competition organized by artuminate in association with archiol, this competition received 133 entries from around the world.

Scroll down to check the winning entries.

First Prize Winner:
Charlotte Collins (Germany)

Tokyo’s Nakagin Tower
The epitome of a modern ruin, Tokyo’s Nakagin Tower stands as a decaying yet defiant island in arguably the world’s most futuristic metropolis. While its future hangs in the balance and deconstruction its likely fate, the cubic agglomeration stands tall despite the rusting façade and netting to catch falling debris. It encapsulates a utopian design ethic, a zeitgeist, and projection of a 1970s vision of what the future of urban architecture could look like. 50 years later and many of those principles still hold true – single unit dwellings, compact living, and functional, minimalist interiors are key characteristics of modern day urban housing design.
In whatever form Nakagin lives on, it leaves behind not a failed ruin but a nostalgic and ambitious icon that dared to be radical, playful, and functional at the same time. Captured here in 35mm film, the photograph presents a ‘ruin in progress’, a building that is buckling under the weight of time but will undoubtedly be preserved in the architectural imagination as a symbol of pioneering Japanese metabolist design. The two faces of the tower presented in this photograph, one in the shadows and the other illuminated by sunlight, acts as a metaphor of a crossroads – a building facing a disassembling of its current form but leaving behind a legacy as a cult design masterpiece.

Second Prize Winner:
Megan Ortinau (US)

Pompeii
Frozen. Purely stopped in a moment in time. I should keep running, but the fear of what I see took over. In this moment, the past, present, and future of this view flashed in my mind. Yesterday, I saw this image while going to get food for my family. It was a happy sight and a beautifully calm day in Pompeii. Now, the volcano is shaking, and the world is on fire. How could an entire town change in a day? The tomorrow, in a month, or thousands of years from now version will be less calm. In the future, there will not be much left. The remains of homes and a town so lively. It will be  just stone, ash, and dust. All three versions of my home continue playing in my mind as people scream at me to move. I hope people who find the remains of Pompeii know the three versions, as well.

Third Prize Winner:
Zindagi M Mavani (US)

Amer Fort
Ruins: A single word that has an ability to take one on a 100s of years old journey in a single moment. These architectural ruin sact as a bridge of tangible and intangible heritage and a window into the lives of people of the past.
To me they are each a time capsule, taking us to the past glory of its lively years and teaching us to stand with dignity no matter what or however many years pass.Ruins are not just one single built structure rather a series of memories, lives and moments that are preserved within this one visually damaged yet mesmerizing vessel. Ruins are silent storytellers with the loudest effect on one’s soul.
This photograph is of Amer Fort (Rajasthan, India), which still stands at the top of the forested hill overlooking Lake Maota. Built over the span of centuries, it is a breathtaking example of amalgamation of Indic and Mughal styles of architecture.
Here, the journey is captured and given importance rather than the destination itself. One can visualize their journey even before starting and the element of surprise is only when they start climbing up and taking in the entire surrounding. These levels of up and down, steps and ramps leading people to the fort while unfolding a new layer of surrounding with every upward step gives one a sense of being one with nature while also guiding them towards their destination.
Thus, defining the journey by capturing the path itself by looking back at how far I had come and how satisfying that journey looked from above.

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Honorable Mentions:
Hanwen Zhang & Cai Yang (China)
Yang Ruan (China)
Vignesh Ramachandram & Lavanya A (India)

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