The 40th AOP Photography Awards are open to all AOP Accredited Photographer and Assisting Photographer members.
© Todd Antony
© David Clerihew, GOLD Winner – 2025, 40th AOP Photography Awards
Judged by:
Congratulations to GO:LD Winner – David Clerihew
Sponsored by Genesis Imaging
America: Capturing America’s Gun: Paradox Through a Lens.
A journey to capture the essence & contradictions in the American ethos, focusing on gun culture juxtaposed against the backdrop of escalating violence involving firearms. Painting a picture of modern America – one where the right to bear arms is fiercely defended, even as bullets rip through America’s social fabric, I engaged with individuals from every walk of life, offering $5 per portrait. This transaction served as the perfect icebreaker, met with a mix of confusion, surprise & amusement. “You want to pay me $5 to take a picture of me?”
Representing the rich tapestry of American society, across 100+ portraits, from laundromats to biker garages, art shops to Vegas backstreets, each portrait another narrative. Landscapes emerged naturally, highlighting the light, commonplace & quintessentially American scenes.
The stark reality of gun violence is evident. Each visit coincided with a mass shooting, serving as a cold reminder of the risks associated with high gun ownership. In 2021, 48,830 lives were lost to gun-related violence, more than the death toll of Americans in the Vietnam War. Inspired by artist Cornelia Parker, my physical act of breaking the image surfaces with bullets was my way of breaking the 4th wall & adding further dimension.
Navajo Fireman
Police Man, Willams, Arizona
Mike, Las Vegas
Apple & Cream, Las Vegas
Unknown Man, Texas
Howard, Chef, Portland
TJ, Street Cleaner, San Francisco
Jessica, Student, Navajo Reservation
Receptionist, Texas
Bones’, Shop Owner, Las Vegas
Crossing San Franciscco
Motel Pool, Las Vegas
House, Williams, Arizona
Las Vegas Desert
Road to Vegas
Motel, Las Vegas
American Flag, Austen Texas
Drain Cover, Utah
Telegraph Pole, Marfa
Marfa, Texas
© David Clerihew
@davidclerihew
A Photographer & Director known for his obsession with capturing movement. He has worked with the world’s top athletes and actors across a wide range of commercial and art projects.
Congratulations to SILVER Winner – Sebastian Nevols
Sponsored by Genesis Imaging
The Sick Rose
The Sick Rose is a creative enquiry into disease and decay, created by PHOTGRAPHER and makeup artist Victoria Poland . Together, they delved into the unsettling world of medical illustration, challenging traditional perceptions of disease and decay. Through photography and makeup artistry, they revealed the unexpected beauty within these themes. PHOTOGRAPHER and Victoria worked to elevate the images from mere representation to something more expressive and thought-provoking. They invite the viewer to confront the realities of illness in a way that feels both visceral and human. The Sick Rose offers a tactile experience of the human body’s fragility, merging artistic expression with scientific accuracy. Their work pays homage to the tradition of medical illustration while offering a fresh, empathetic perspective on disease. This series of images is named after the book that inspired the project “The Sick Rose” – a collection of medical illustrations from the late 18th century through to the early 20th century. Medical illustrations became obsolete with the creation of photography. In this series, we bring modern techniques of lighting and use of colour to recreate the illustrations.
Makeup Artist – Victoria Poland
© Sebastian Nevols
@sebastiannevols
Sebastian Nevols is a UK-based photographer known for his cinematic, emotionally driven imagery across key art, portraiture, and editorial work. With over a decade of experience, his photography blends narrative clarity with refined visual composition, often distilling complex ideas or characters into a single compelling frame. His work is shaped by a deep understanding of tone, story, and human presence, making it particularly resonant in campaigns that require both sensitivity and impact. Whether working in culture, healthcare, or entertainment, Sebastian brings a thoughtful, collaborative approach to creating images that define and elevate the identity of a project.
Returning to Tbilisi after a 23-year absence, the city resonates with the echoes and smells of resilience, this work bookends the protests from 1991 to 2024. These images aim to portray a complex narrative of Tbilisi’s indomitable spirit—a city that, entrenched in its struggles, attempts to reframe hope and assert a strong national identity while ambitiously eyeing EU membership. This project captures not mere moments in time but a reflection of both the past and the current realities surrounding Rustaveli Avenue, juxtaposed against the imposing parliament building, which stands as a reminder of the persistent tensions with authorities influenced by the looming presence of Russia.
Through this lens, I sought to encapsulate both the dignified quiet of protest and the everyday lives of the citizens of this remarkable nation. Despite taking 23 years to bring this project to fruition, the similarities and unchanging visual references documented reveal a deep-seated thread of defiance and a yearning for independence that is woven into the very fabric of the Georgian psyche, and a reminder to us all how much effort is made and required to keep democracy alive.
I embarked on a journey to capture the essence and contradictions inherent in the American ethos, with a key focus on its gun culture juxtaposed against the backdrop of escalating violence involving firearms.
This project seeks to paint a picture of modern America – one where the right to bear arms is fiercely defended, even as bullets rip through America’s social fabric. The portraits were the starting point. I engaged with individuals from every walk of life, offering $5 for each portrait. I found that this transaction served as the perfect icebreaker, met with a mix of confusion, surprise, and amusement – “You want to pay me $5 to take a picture of me?” Through over a hundred portraits taken against plain backdrops, I endeavoured to give representation to the rich tapestry of American society. From laundromats to biker garages, art shops to Vegas backstreets, every portrait taken was another narrative, rendering a homeless man not by his misfortune but by his individual essence.
The landscapes emerged naturally as I pursued these portraits, highlighting the light, the commonplace, and the quintessentially American scenes. Whether it was the transformative effect of light on a drain cover or the solemn ambience of roadside services, the beauty in the ordinary emerged as a metaphor for the American narrative. Amidst this exploration, the stark reality of gun violence becomes evident. Each visit of mine coincided with a mass shooting, serving as a cold reminder of the risks associated with high gun ownership. In 2021 alone, 48,830 lives were lost to gun-related violence, a figure that surpasses the death toll of Americans in the Vietnam War.
The physical act of breaking the surface of the images with bullets was my way of breaking the 4th wall. Having been inspired by Cornelia Parker’s work, where you can change the face of a physical object into something different, they create more dimension to the work.
The Sick Rose is a creative enquiry into disease and decay, created by Sebastian Nevols and makeup artist Victoria Poland . Together, they delved into the unsettling world of medical illustration, challenging traditional perceptions of disease and decay. Through photography and makeup artistry, they revealed the unexpected beauty within these themes.
Sebastian and Victoria worked to elevate the images from mere representation to something more expressive and thought-provoking. They invite the viewer to confront the realities of illness in a way that feels both visceral and human.
The Sick Rose offers a tactile experience of the human body’s fragility, merging artistic expression with scientific accuracy. Their work pays homage to the tradition of medical illustration while offering a fresh, empathetic perspective on disease.
This series of images is named after the book that inspired the project “The Sick Rose” – a collection of medical illustrations from the late 18th century through to the early 20th century. Medical illustrations became obsolete with the creation of photography. In this series, we bring modern techniques of lighting and use of colour to recreate the illustrations.
I have a real fondness for the Cambridge Estate. As kids we viewed the flats as a playground, using the connecting walkways to traverse from one end to the other, taking delight in our feet never touching the ground.
Then came a period of neglect, with film and TV companies regularly using the estate as a backdrop to their crime dramas, because of it’s run-down aesthetic.
I have a deeper history here. Some of my family lived in the small Victorian terraces that were bulldozed to make way for the modern tower blocks.
Now the mid-century estate is being demolished, and replaced with 21st century high-rise. Despite promises there would be no more tower blocks. Once again communities are being displaced, people and their possessions are being uprooted, together with plants and trees established here over fifty years.
My parents split up when I was around 6 years old so my dad was not around as much as I would have liked when I was growing up.
As an adult I now understand that he would have loved to be around more but sometimes relationships end. When I did get to spend time with him he was (and continues to be in his own unique way) a caring father and grandfather.
12 years ago I was delighted to find I was to be a father myself and, at the time I made a conscious decision to be a present dad, to be around for my kids as much as possible.
So through choice and, to a certain extent, circumstance, I became what some may call a stay- at-home dad, taking on a large portion of the childcare in our household.
Throughout this time I have been documenting, from the incidental to the monumental, almost every step of the journey. As you can imagine, this mounts up to quite an archive! It’s been a mammoth task to edit 11 years and 2 children down to 20 images but I hope this selection gives at least a small sense of the immense joy I’ve found in fatherhood.
The edit opens with a self portrait in scrubs on the day our first child was born and ends with a very recent picture of my son baking with my dad at his house in Wales.
Marking the 60th anniversary of The Sunday Times Magazine 1965 Special Issue on ‘The North’, Arts Council England has provided the major funding for this year-long documentary project which builds on the work of John Bulmer, whose evocative images of the north of England, featured in the ’65 Special Edition, became a cornerstone of British documentary photography.
Once synonymous with heavy industry, northern towns and cities are now leveraging a greater diversity of employment and are striving to become vibrant cultural hubs. They are embracing their rich industrial heritage and creating new communities and identities. Commercial innovation, the emergence of hi-tech industry, new retail, leisure, and visitor attractions, are leveraging economic growth.
This commission – awarded to a single photographer – is the largest ever ACE-funded photography project documenting the north of England. More a ‘documentary’ than an ‘arts’ project, the ambition is to capture the evolving and contemporary identity of ‘The North’ through the unique vision of a single photographer.
The project will create a national archive of over 4000 photographs and, as a homage to Bulmer’s pioneering colour work, it will be shot on Phoenix 200, an experimental 35mm colour film designed and manufactured in the north of England by Harman Technology. This ‘quirky’, grainy, high contrast, colour-saturated film provides an analogue aesthetic that simultaneously harmonises with Bulmer’s 1960 colour photographs while affording a unique character to this modern interpretation of what has become an iconic photographic legacy.
‘The North Revisited’ revisits the towns and cities photographed by Bulmer to document this redefining of the North, recording and celebrating the diverse communities for which the northern counties are now home. But the project does not turn a ‘blind eye’ to the problems and challenges that still exist and with which so many former industrial communities continue to struggle.
The AOP Photography Awards are known as the ‘Oscars’ of the photography world. They celebrate excellence in the creative photography and image-making industry.
This is your chance to be seen by leading commissioners and names within the photographic industry.
Check out our 39th AOP Awards FINALISTS and WINNERS
