“Although humans see reality in colour, for me, black-and-white [photography] has always been connected to the image’s deeper truth, to its most hidden meaning,” once said Peter Lindbergh, and the winners of the 2025 One Shot Photo Contest could probably be a very good proof of it.
After a year rich with powerful visual storytelling, the Exposure One Awards proudly unveils this year’s most striking captures—an unforgettable tribute to black-and-white photography at its most raw and poetic. Selected from thousands of entries, these images stand out for their daring composition, emotional depth, and exceptional artistic vision.
More info: exposureoneawards.com | Instagram
#1 Timeless Nocturne #4 – Icon | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Sounds like a single note played on a piano, balanced composition with internal dynamics. Сonceptual timeless feminine figure in a graphic minimalist style, sensuality in a surreal majestic geometric idea.
Inspired by Ralph Gibson, Irving Penn, Ray Metzker, Trent Parke, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton.
Image credits: Richard Gibson
#2 Shaggy | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Home is where the herd is.
Image credits: Jodi Schaffan
#3 Another World | 3rd Place In Professionals Category | Contest Winners
Featured here is a top-down drone photograph of a fever of cownose rays approaching a school of menhaden fish. Taken just 150yards from the coast of New York.
Image credits: Joanna Steidle
#4 Up To Here And No Further | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Stefanie Beutler
#5 Veil Of Grace
A great egret draped in breeding plumage of elegant aigrettes curls its neck, giving me just a peek of one eye highlighted in the setting sun. In color, the lores around the eyer are a brilliant green, another hallmark of the great egrets’ breeding season. This image conveys drama and mystery.
Image credits: Janelle Schroeder
#6 Fur-Sister | Silver In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
A portrait capturing a moment between my daughter and our dog which narrates the special relationship they share. It is visible how much love and joy they bring one another and how much my daughter cherishes her precious fur- sister.
Image credits: Natalie Arber
#7 The Rooster’s Crow | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
A rooster crows in La Libertad, El Salvador, where poverty and luxury stand side by side. Smoke rises from burning trash – the only waste management locals have. Despite the area’s tourist appeal, residents still struggle with limited clean drinking water.
Image credits: Jeremy Skirrow
#8 The Last Cormorant Fishermen Of Guilin, China | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
River Li in Guilin, the Cormorant Men fish without the aid of a rod, hook or bait, instead, using a method which was first practiced in 960 AD by using a bird known as a cormorant. Tethered, the cormorant will dive for fish returning to the fisherman on the surface with their prize catch.
Image credits: Randall Hanna
#9 Sierra Rains | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Late Autumn rain showers lash the Sierra Mountains in California, as viewed from the White Mountains. Sept 30, 2011, Canon 5D.
Image credits: Peter Jeschke
#10 Staircase | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Reimer Jappe
#11 Coming Home | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
A small leopard cub perched on its termite mound waiting for the mother to return from a k**l and staring out at the horizon. There was a male leopard in the area which makes you appreciate how even small cubs can survive in adversity.
Image credits: Alexandra Wood
#12 Wonderland 2 | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Russell Rowland
#13 Beneath | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
This image series reflects a complex web of unspoken truths and hidden emotions. This art of concealment protects us, shielding our true selves from the world’s scrutiny. Vulnerability is a delicate, fragile state — one that exposes our innermost fears, desires, and pain.
Image credits: Rohit Rattan
#14 Swamp Idyll | 3rd Place In Non Professionals Category | Contest Winners
Steamy, early morning August.
Image credits: Caroline Peppiatt
#15 Miners | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Each descent into the mine is a battle with death, constantly vigilant against cave-ins and explosions. For meager wages, they can only continue to trade their lives and health for their family’s basic needs, struggling to survive on the edge of poverty and danger.
Image credits: Tsai Tung-Lin
#16 Love Of My Life | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
This is the artist Jan D’Esopo with her parrots, amongst them Campece the white cockatoo and the “Love of her life”. When I entered the scene, the electricity broke down and in the seconds when she called the emergency, the scene was just illuminated by the light of the phone.
Image credits: Susanne Bartels
#17 Sparkling Serpentine Purification | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Building roof taken to capture an Escher like image.
Image credits: Victor Schut
#18 Ballerina | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Renee Giffroy
#19 The Queen’s Wave | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Maria Marriott
#20 Naturally Unfolding | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
At the foot of Wyoming’s Tetons the waning day brings a cast of characters together to mingle for a moment of refreshingly untouched nature.
Image credits: Michael Paul
#21 Flame Of Tears | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Still life of a ripe onion resembling a flame.
Image credits: Frank Proost
#22 Newspaper | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Grzegorz Bys
#23 Strings Of Contrasts | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
As the winter sun set, I wandered a quiet street, captivated by the intricate dance of high-tension cables against the sky. Their stark lines weaved a metallic web, contrasting the fading light. A simple yet mesmerizing reminder that beauty exists in the overlooked, waiting to be seen.
Image credits: Raghuvamsh Chavali
#24 Foodfighting Hares | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Utmost cold night in Norway -30 degrees Celcius. Hares fighting for the food a holiday house owner puts out for them.
Image credits: Karen Kolbeck
#25 Under No Roof | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Hana Peskova
#26 Flying Nets Of China | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Donna Bourdon
#27 Hammerhead Shark In Action | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Levente Rozsahegyi
#28 Through The Eyes | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Ekaterina Vinogradova
#29 Making Round Boats | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
In southern Vietnam, small man-sized round boats are often used as “ferries” to carry fishes from large fishing boats to the shore. These man-sized round boats are first weaved using bamboo strips via interlocking patterns. They are then coated with paraffin for a water-proofed finish.
Image credits: Chin Leong Teo
#30 Behind The Veil | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Sometimes we are reluctant to face our true selves because of our fear, doubt, pain, and failure. But every transformative journey begins with a single courageous step — the moment we dare to look within. The path to self-discovery isn’t just a journey — it’s an awakening to our highest potential.
Image credits: Xidong Luo
#31 The Crooked Cross | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
The roof and steeple of St. Francis Xavier Church in Grand Marais, MN, which was part of a North East Minnesotan Ojibwe settlement from the 1880s-1930s. The perfectly symmetrical roofline is topped by one imperfect feature – a cross that tilts.
Image credits: Leslie Crane
#32 At The Cattle Auction | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
South American Portfolio.
Image credits: Carol Ginandes
#33 Bikers | 2nd Place In Professionals Category | Contest Winners
High contrast, tension, and kinetic energy. BMX riders merge with the geometry of space, creating a rhythm of visual symphony where strength, speed, and architecture blend into a single motion.
Image credits: Jozef Danyi
#34 On The Ice | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Lyon van den Oord
#35 Pause Clope | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
A woman next to Beaux-Arts Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. She wanted to smoke a cigarette but the weather was very windy that day so she had to hide between two walls. This photo shows the exact moment when she lit her cigarette.
Image credits: Thierry Lagnel
#36 Mirror | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Image credits: Grzegorz Bys
#37 Timeless Nocturne #3 – Wind Of The Wasteland | 1st Place In Non Professionals Category | Contest Winners
Sounds like a single note played on a piano, balanced composition with internal dynamics. Сonceptual timeless feminine figure in a graphic minimalist style, sensuality in a surreal majestic geometric idea.
Inspired by Ralph Gibson, Irving Penn, Ray Metzker, Trent Parke, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton.
Image credits: Richard Gibson
#38 Purification | 2nd Place In Non Professionals Category | Contest Winners
On a deserted beach, a group of believers meet with their Pastor to free themselves from the evil spirits that have taken hold of them. The liberation is only complete when they dive into the sea, lovingly led by the Pastor as he invokes God’s presence to witness their purification.
Image credits: João Coelho
#39 A Soul With A Thousand Suns | 1st Place In Professionals Category | Contest Winners
Symbolizing humility, poise, and the fulfillment of wishes, chamomile carries a powerful message of hope and strength. By embracing chamomile’s gentle energy, we can tap into its ancient power to attract love, happiness, and positivity into our lives.
Image credits: Xidong Luo
#40 Silver Whisper | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Wet plate collodion print of Ellie.
Image credits: Alisa Dyundik
#41 Rise Of Bokator | Gold In Professionals Category | Category Winners
Bokator is one of the greatest Angkorian martial arts which Khmer people used to defend in war. This is the performance of Bokator during the event ceremony which takes place in Cambodia.
Image credits: Or Sereiromnir
#42 Kritsa Generations | Gold In Non Professionals Category | Category Winners
Kritsa, Crete (Greece).
Image credits: Kathleen Keays
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