AAP Magazine #55 - WOMEN 2026
Women
Announcing Winners and Merit Awards
Winner's Gallery
Silvia Alessi
Afghan Hairdressing Student, Pakistan
Pakistan. An Afghan refugee student at a hairdressing school poses with scissors, her face covered for safety.
First Place winner
$500 Cash Prize
Italy
Afghan Hairdressing Student, Pakistan
Natalya Saprunova
Ancestral heritage
Galina Lazareva, 80, a renowned Evenki craftswoman, lives in a wooden house in the village of Iyengra in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia. She takes care of her great-granddaughter alone. For the child, she sewed a vest made of reindeer skin, carefully decorated with traditional embroidery, - a way of passing on Evenki knowledge, craftsmanship and cultural identity to the younger generation.
Second Place Winner
$300 Cash Prize
France
Ancestral heritage
Angelika Kollin
Cynthia
In many societies, women like Cynthia carry the invisible architecture of family life and community, holding together children and grandchildren with a strength that is rarely celebrated or acknowledged, yet deeply felt.
Third Place Winner
$200 Cash Prize
United States
Cynthia
Merit Award's Gallery
Somenath Mukhopadhyay
Colorful Burden 1
Through this series of staged shots I have tried to debunk the apparently colorful world of women who are burdened with the stress of water round the clock. Shot in a mine of China Clay (kaolin), which is considered to be one of the most hydrophilic substances, these photographs bring a strong parallel to the women’s urge for water and water is a mirage they live every passing day. Their heads are adorned with colorful burden.
Somenath Mukhopadhyay
India
Gianni
Untitled
Carmelo Hospital, Chokwe. Children's ward. The anguished gaze of the mother looking anxiously at her HIV-positive child admitted to the paediatric ward
Ron Cooper
Keepers of Faith & Tradition: Elder Women of Rural Romania #5
These portraits depict elderly women living in small rural villages in Romania, whose lives have been shaped by faith, tradition, labor, and endurance. Many are widows, and most have seen their children leave for cities or abroad, yet they remain deeply rooted in the Orthodox customs and rhythms that define their communities. Their faces, lined by time and experience, reflect resilience, devotion, and quiet strength.
B Jane Levine
Missha
Candid Street Image
Aline Smithson
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Virginia (Argentina), from OF TWO WORLDs: Portraits of Immigrants in Los Angeles
These portraits honor the diversity of Los Angeles while remaining deeply personal. I turned to immigrants who are already a part of my life: neighbors, students, friends and I asked them to hold or wear something they carried with them on their journey to the United States.I witnessed the complexity of living in two worlds in a time when immigration has been politicized, weaponized, and reduced to statistics. To recognize the immigrant story is to recognize America itself.
Donna S Gordon
Vanessa, Embrace. Cambridge, MA. 2025
From the series, "In the Garden." Portraits of women, each with a garden element, meant to refute the steretype of Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Archival digital image. Made with my Fuji X-T5.
Donna S Gordon
United States
Alain Schroeder
Chains of Madness 2
Indonesia, Java Island,
S., (48), is a patient from a mental heath center,
she is walking around in the women section of the center, during heavy flooding, she likes cooking and working with friends.
Mandyjo
Untitled
Mandyjo
United Kingdom
Justin Roque
Untitled
Justin Roque
France, Metropolitan
Oscar González
Sunset in Centro Habana
A woman in Centro Habana stands in the doorway of her solar, watching the sunset (April 2025)
Leonie van der Helm
Self portrait from the series: 'Naked with the Truth'
‘Naked with the Truth’ explores the body as a carrier of memory. Trauma is not only something that happened in the past; it lives on in the body, shaping how we feel, move and exist in the present. Emotions such as fear, sadness and anger can surface without clear origin, yet they are deeply rooted in lived and inherited experiences. ‘Naked with the Truth’ invites the viewer to see and confront the inner self, in all its fragility and resilience.
Leonie van der Helm
Netherlands
Sebastian Sardi
Choritra, 18
Choritra, 18, works in the brick kilns in Nepal. She makes about 7 USD a day and carries 24-30 bricks on her back in and out of the kiln all day from 7AM to 5PM.
Nina Nelson
Bowlero
This work captures the vibrant satisfaction of cohesive colors, the eye candy of shapes and lines, and the narrative curiosity of the woman waiting in front of a bowling alley.
Nina Nelson
United States
Valentina Sinis
The Last Butterflies
Havals walk inside one of the caves. These women fight to dismantle the patriarchy, saying: “Before the rifle, fight yourself; before the war, fight in life.” They come from different lives but feel united. They all insist that love is not about becoming a man’s slave. Fornthem, the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan have shaped how they understand their struggle and their communal life.
Beth Stahn
Grandma's Jello
A nostalgic spread of jello. Inspired by vintage cookbooks.
Beth Stahn
United States
Jelisa Peterson
At Her Window
A woman looks out her window as the world passes by her.
Nosy be, Madagascar
Jelisa Peterson
United States
Mary Dondero
Untitled
Mary Dondero
United States
Oksana Zhila
Self-portrait
Every time I take a self-portrait, I ask myself the same question: can I truly reveal who I am? It is always a quiet battle between the longing to be seen and the fear of exposing my true self.
Ingetje Tadros
Young Fulani beauty draped in shawl and silver
A young Fulani girl stands adorned with a large traditional earring and a softly draped shawl. Her jewelry reflects heritage and identity, while her calm gaze carries both youth and quiet strength. Among the Fulani of Niger, adornment is more than beauty—it expresses lineage, pride, and cultural continuity across the Sahel.
Leonor Benito de la lastra
"Ella"
No espero que mi trabajo aporte temas sino estructuras desconocidas de imágenes. Así es que hago las fotografías que únicamente yo puedo hacer. Mi trabajo bajo las fotografías de mujeres constituye fragmentos y me ofrece, entre otras cosas, la oportunidad de una puesta en relato mínima de una evocación o una emoción.
¿No puede ver una su trabajo como una experiencia física, corpórea, en una habitación especular donde no se busca, sino que se encuentra? ¿No hay aquí una poética del proceso? Esa
Leonor Benito de la lastra
España
Clark James Mishler
Mother and infant, Anchorage, Alaska
Kaity Reiley, walks with her seven-month old daughter Beatrice and her dog, Jack, Anchorage, Alaska.
Cheryl Clegg
Nyah
"Title IX helps me to do better everyday."
Thank You!
