The Best Pictures Of 2021 Siena International Photo Awards Have Been Announced, And They’re Truly Powerful

We got an interview with one of the members of the Organising Committee of The Siena International Photo Awards—Maria. She told us about the main goal of SIPA: "Our goal is to create a family of photography enthusiasts and lovers and to give them the possibility to live a unique experience in a unique city like Siena."

Maria also told us more about what keeps them going and inspires them to keep organizing these competitions: "We are inspired by the passion of photographers participating every year from all over the world (participants from 160 countries.)"

This year The Siena International Photo Awards got over 48,000 submissions. Maria shared what was different about 2021: "Every year the contest is different and new, thanks to the strong images submitted and this year's Photo of the Year is an excellent example of it.

"The winners are selected by an international jury of professional photographers and journalists. The jury is independent and we only see the final results. The winners, according to the result obtained, get a money prize, free hospitality in Siena, the Pangea Prize."We asked Maria what makes a good photo and a good photographer: "

A good photo is the most direct and powerful way to communicate a message to the world. A good photographer is capable of making good photos!"

The categories in the 2021 competition were: Journeys & adventures, fascinating faces and characters, the beauty of nature, animals in their environment, architecture & urban spaces, sports in action, story-telling, documentary & photojournalism, street photography, underwater life, and short documentary film. Every single one of them had their own winner as well as the overall winner of the whole contest, who was Mehmet Aslan.