The winners of the 2021 Mobile Photography Awards (MPAs) have been revealed with Liu KunKun taking the Grand Prize and being named as MPA Photographer of the Year.
The annual Mobile Photography Awards launched in 2011 and the 2021 winners are the 11th year of the awards.
Liu KunKun shot all of his winning portfolio with an Apple iPhone12 ProMax smartphone.
The 2021 MPAs were judged by a panel of six – they were:
- Rodrigo Rivas (past winner, freelance photographer and Category Expert of Photography & Video at creative community Domestika)
- Evgeny Tchebotarev (co-founder and CEO of NFT marketplace Sloika.xyz)
- Dominika Koszowska (past winner, doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland)
- Dan Liu (past winner, independent photographer & visual artist)
- Glenn Homann (past winner and iPhone photographer)
- Manuela Matos Monteiro (author and artist founder of New Era Museum)
The winners of all the categories of the 2021 Mobile Photography Awards can be seen below:
Grand Prize & MPA Photographer of the Year
Winner – Liu KunKun
The Grand Prize and 11th annual MPA Photographer of the Year went to Liu KunKun for his series of eight images (shown in a collage above).
The judges commented, ‘As we always seek to do at this time, we reward what we find to be the most consistently excellent, original and compelling set of images submitted to the MPA this year. The work of Liu KunKun fits that description.’
Liu was also praised for ‘a great mastery of geometry and perspective’ by MPA Jury Member Rodrigo Rivas.
Liu KunKun calls himself a, ‘non-professional freelance who shoots everything. I work with people.’
It’s said that he often finds photographic inspiration in his native city of Shanghai.
Photo Essay
Winner – Vince Keresnyei for Free from Panic
Keresnyei revealed, ‘I met Adriann, who is suffering from panic disorder like me. She took down the medicine after two years and trues to stand on the ground and establish her panic attach free world without pills. Living with a mental health problem is a constant fight. Sometimes you are strong enough to go to battle with yourself and sometimes not. Pills can help when you don’t have solid ground under your feet but there is always a will to live without medicine. She lets me photograph this whole process with the ups and downs.’
Second place in the Photo Essay category went to The Mass Ave Project by Jeff Larason. In third place was The Olive Harvest by Alessandra Manzotti.
Architecture, Design & Still Life
Winner – Kuanglong Zhang
Black & White
Winner – Svetlin Yosifov
Landscapes & Wildlife
Winner – Shinya Itahana
Macro & Details
Winner – James Peck
People Photos
Winner – Anh Vu Do
Portraits & Self-Portraits
Winner – Angelica Loustaunau
Silhouettes
Winner – Jason Liu
Street Photography
Winner – Roy Pan
Darkness|Noir
Winner – Wai Ying Kwok
Travel/Adventure & Transportation
Winner – Azim Khan Ronnie
Visual FX & Digital Art
Winner – Erika Brothers
Water|Snow|Ice
Winner – Junbiao Cai
Find out more
To discover more about the MPAs got to the Mobile Photography Awards website.