AAP Magazine Announces The 25 Winning Shadow-Themed Photographs

In his search for shadow, Hugo Thomassen found light. It is not the play of light that intrigues, but the richness of shadow. The bottles are what they are, yet they inadvertently evoke associations. Are we looking at a nocturnal cityscape with figures? Are we witnessing a chance encounter, a moment frozen in time, or simply an elegant composition with one or more bottles as the photographic subject? The bottle as a shape. The image is meticulously constructed, layer upon layer. Although the associations may suggest coincidence, the composition itself makes no such assumption. It is rich in its simplicity. Each line is deliberate, considered. So much is expressed through so Little. The photograph distils the bottle to its purest form. It lays bare its essence. An idea. Is it truth that we see? Reality being exposed? Or are these simply shadows created by shapes? It is this that Thomassen plays with. Is it a single photograph or a picture composed of several images, a multitude of shots? In a sense, the photographic image is attempting to transcend the flatness of the paper. Photography is the means by which Thomassen explores the world. He exposes order in chaos or reveals an event through an ordering. He is the author of a visual story. His work is a narrative without words. It is exciting without incident, an ode to emptiness, stillness, and shape. The bottle as the bearer of meaning.

Redwood Falls, Minnesota

The photo of the street corner in Minnesota was taken in the winter of 2024 during a long road trip in the Midwest. I drove through small towns in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota. It was a dangerous trip, as the blizzard blew very hard and the temperatures were extremely cold. Alone in the car, I stopped when I saw something I liked. The cold was so intense that I only had a few minutes to take a photo. Once I arrived at the Badlands National Park I went back to Chicago where the last step was to preserve the film from the X-rays at the airport.