Emmanuel Rosario (United States): NYC Punk Scene

Thousands of photography projects and single images were submitted this year to the LensCulture critics’ choice awards from over 140 countries around the world. There were 44 winners, with the 10 images here selected by more than one judge. This image is from an ongoing series about the current punk rock scene in New York City. To see all 44 winning projects visit LensCulture.com

Kazuaki Koseki (Japan): Summer Fairies

Kazuaki Koseki: ‘For this series, I explored himebotaru, or fireflies, in the summer night forest. They are like the twinkling of stars in the sky. I have been observing the ecology and habitat of himebotaru in the forests of Yamagata prefecture for many years’

Gloria Oyarzabal (Spain): Usus Fructus Abusus – La Blanche et la Noire

Jim Casper, editor-in-chief of LensCulture: ‘This rich and complex work attempts to interrogate ethical issues related to colonisation, rights of ownership, the plunder on display in museums, cultural art and artefacts, and stereotypical prejudices and biases. The ongoing project consists of several formal, narrative and discursive layers, and it poses a lot of critical questions that deserve attention. The diptychs and staged images capture your attention immediately, then reveal nuance as you dig in deeper’

Chiara Wettmann (Germany): Stateless

Ghofran, 16, is Syrian. Her children grow up stateless in Lebanon. Stateless people are not protected by any state or law. They cannot vote. They cannot register their children at birth. State education and health systems often remain closed to them. Opening bank accounts, signing contracts, travelling – this is almost impossible without a passport. This is the reality for more than 60,000 people in Lebanon, who pass on their statelessness to their children despite coming from families who have lived in the country for generations

Lys Arango (France): The River Ran Black

Former miner Oscar Iglesias holds a wooden cage with his canary in front of a mine entrance. The miners really did them into the tunnels to alert them to dangerous gases such as methane. If present, the gas would kill the canary before them. Today these yellow birds remain an important symbol in the Asturian mining basin

Constance Jaeggi (US): Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home

This series shows the Mexican tradition of escaramuza, all-female precision horse-riding teams who execute exacting manoeuvres while riding sidesaddle at high speed and wearing traditional Mexican attire. ‘I spent 2023 travelling around the US photographing and interviewing escaramuzas and learning about their way of life. The work explores the roles of family, immigration and gender dynamics within escaramuza and charrería culture in the US, drawing historical parallels to the soldaderas who fought in the Mexican revolution’

Kyosei Yoshiike (Japan): Salvage

Kyosei Yoshiike: ‘Tokyo is a city that is constantly being destroyed, built, and destroyed again. This cycle reminds me of rapid cell division, and how it brings about repeated changes in form. Tokyo seems to have given up on having any memories. When the scenery that once existed is gone, I lose connection to the memories and feelings that I previously had there. Eventually, I even forget what I was trying to remember. Through photography, I salvage fragments of those landscapes that are hidden at the bottom of my mind’

Luuk van Raamsdonk

(Belgium): My Sweet EloraLuuk van Raamsdonk: ‘In the late autumn of 1970 my grandfather disappeared without a trace. No one knew why he left or where he went. After three months he returned without an explanation for his absence. Earlier this year I started digging in the family archive for pictures and documents. I found out that my grandfather had an affair in Elora, Canada, a small village 115km outside of Toronto. I decided to visit. My Sweet Elora dissects the complicated nature of family dynamics and looks at intergenerational trauma by using this personal story as a case study’

Sujata Setia (UK): A Thousand Cuts

Sujata Setia: ‘Derived from the ancient Asian form of torture known as lingchi, A Thousand Cuts is a photographic study of patterns of domestic abuse in the south Asian community. I have borrowed the metaphorical meaning of lingchi to showcase the cyclical nature of domestic abuse. The continuous act of chipping at the soul of the abused is expressed by making cuts on the portrait of the participant’. More images from A Thousand Cuts can be seen here.

Lauren Kaigg (UK): Loop

Loop attempts to visualise missing pieces, exploring conflicting emotions that can arise when contemplating the unknown. Even in what we might consider empty or void, there is a possibility of hidden substance and meanings. By blurring the boundaries between what is real and imagined, Loop both questions and reveals subtle mysteries that exist within the everyday