[imagesource: International Portrait Photographer]

When looking at portrait photographs I can’t help thinking of the word ‘sonder’.

It’s a word that captures a rather obscure emotion, the beautiful realisation that every living being has a life as complex as your own – that they experience pain, suffering, happiness, and life just as vividly as you do.

With that word in mind, let’s explore the 101 professional and amateur photographers from around the world who made the cut for the International Portrait Photographer of the Year competition, via The Guardian.

Besides a chance to grab a share of $10 000 (roughly R143 000) in cash, the main prize was getting their photographs published in the International Portrait Photographer of the Year Awards book, which is seen above.

This year, the competition received 948 entries. To be sure of a place in the top 101, a photographer needed to get a score of at least 82,67% from the judges.

The inaugural winner of the International Portrait Photographer of the Year is Australian Forough Yavari, whose portrait titled ‘Solitude’ won The Portrait Story category as well as the overall prize:

That’s thirteen encounters with sonder, right there.

Forough’s other photograph, ‘The Loneliness of Grief’, also won second prize in The Portrait Story category:

For the Character Study category, the first place winner was Zay Yar Lin from Myanmar for the photograph ‘Tribal Identity’:

A young Suri boy, his face painted with white clay, is surrounded by women who have decorated their arms with bronze bracelets. The tribe in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia maintains important symbols of tribal identities, such as face and body painting. The shapes and colours convey strong bonds and meaning.

In the above category, Forough Yavari took second place, and Brian Cassey (also from Australia) took third for his photograph titled ‘Bonn Mariee: Asking the Question‘:

Bonn Mariee – born just over a couple of decades ago with an innate curiosity, red hair and freckles.

Thailand’s Jatenipat Ketpradit was awarded second place for ‘People of the River’ in the category for The Family Sitting:

This is a Karo tribe family; father, mother, two sisters and two brothers. The tribe, who live along the Omo River in east Africa, incorporate rich symbolism into their rituals by using ornate body art, headdresses and body scarification to express beauty and significance.

The third Australian born winner is Nancy Flammea who claimed third place in two categories.

For The Family Sitting category, this is her photo titled ‘A Quiet Connection’:

Lastly, we’ll contemplate sonder along with the first place winner for The Environmental Portrait category, Switzerland’s Josef Bürgi, with his photograph ‘The Mundari Cattle Herder’:

For more head over to The Guardian, or check out the digital flipbook at the bottom of the competition’s website.

[source:guardian]