After featuring the Travel, Wildlife and Animals, and Nature categories from the 2025 Chromatic Awards, we’re now turning to another powerful part of the competition: the People category. Dedicated to color photography, the Chromatic Awards brings together work by both professional and amateur photographers, celebrating images that use color in expressive, memorable, and visually striking ways.
In the People category, that focus shifts toward human stories, emotions, traditions, work, relationships, and everyday life. The awarded photos featured in this selection capture people in a wide range of settings and circumstances. Some images feel intimate and personal, while others document cultural traditions, labor, community, movement, and hardship. Together, they show how much a single human-centered image can reveal when composition, color, timing, and emotion come together.
Scroll down to see the photos, and don’t forget to upvote the images that stood out to you the most.
#21 “The Grace In The Chaos” By Stefano Lotumolo
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Professional Division
Location: India
Description: “During the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest spiritual gathering ever recorded by mankind, in India, on the banks of sacred rivers I captured this shot, where two eyes, before dawn, emerge from an incredible chaos of people.”
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7points
#22 “Keeper Of Memories” By Reinhold Bader
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Professional Division
Description: “The Spanish lady is the keeper of a lifetime, surrounded by memories of love, loss, and joy. The flowers hint at small pleasures, the cigarette a quiet defiance. In the portrait from decades past, her youthful beauty lingers, a reminder of who she was and who she has become. Her room is more than a space—it is a testament to a life fully lived.”
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7points
#23 “My Thoughts, Words, And Deeds” By Pekka Ala-Pietilä
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Amateur Division
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6points
#24 “My Cup Of Tea” By Pekka Ala-Pietilä
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Amateur Division
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6points
#25 “Pride Domination” By Alvaro Diaz
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Professional Division
Location: San Diego, California, USA
Description: “Captured during the San Diego Pride Parade, Pride Domination portrays a group of participants wearing pup masks and harnesses beneath the bright California sky. The image freezes a moment of intensity and play, where desire and defiance coexist. Through their vibrant masks and confident stances, these figures transform the public space into a stage of empowerment and self-determination.
The photograph explores how visibility can become a political act — one that celebrates difference while confronting the boundaries of normativity. The dog masks, a symbol often misunderstood or fetishized, here become expressions of identity, vulnerability, and belonging. Under the umbrella’s blue reflection, they appear simultaneously shielded and exposed, echoing the tension between protection and openness that defines much of queer existence.
Color plays a crucial role in the narrative. The dominant blues evoke both serenity and resistance, while the reds inject a pulse of vitality and provocation. The photograph’s composition — balanced between symmetry and spontaneity — invites the viewer to engage with these bodies not as spectacle, but as subjects reclaiming their right to visibility and expression.
Pride Domination belongs to an ongoing photographic series documenting the performative dimensions of Pride parades in California and Mexico. The project seeks to reveal how gestures, costumes, and public presence create a collective choreography of identity — one that extends beyond celebration to assert dignity, intimacy, and resilience.
Ultimately, this image is a tribute to those who inhabit their truth without compromise, transforming the street into a living archive of freedom, desire, and color.”
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6points
#26 “Backstage” By Samuel De Román
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Professional Division
Description: “Model image taken backstage before the Adlib Ibiza fashion show at the 2025 edition of Madrid es Moda.”
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6points
#27 “Friendly Game Of Dominos In Havana Centro” By Barry Crosthwaite
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Amateur Division
Location: Havana, Cuba
Description: “In 2013, UNESCO recognized the cultural significance of Cuban dominoes by inscribing it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This acknowledgment highlighted the game's role in fostering social bonds, preserving traditions, and promoting a sense of identity and continuity among the Cuban people.
Today, dominoes remain an integral part of Cuban life, with the distinct sound of shuffling tiles and lively banter echoing through the streets. It serves as a reminder of the resilience, camaraderie, and cultural pride that define the Cuban spirit.”
Today, dominoes remain an integral part of Cuban life, with the distinct sound of shuffling tiles and lively banter echoing through the streets. It serves as a reminder of the resilience, camaraderie, and cultural pride that define the Cuban spirit.”
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5points
#28 “Boli Khela - Traditional Wrestling Game” By Mohammad Shahriar Foisal
3rd Place Winner in the People Category, Amateur Division
Location: Bangladesh
Description: “Jobbarer Boli Khela is a traditional and very old wrestling game in Bangladesh. It’s a lively and exciting event that brings energy to both the wrestlers and the audience. People from all over the country—and even from abroad—come to watch it. The game includes strong throws and intense grappling that create a thrilling atmosphere. As the wrestlers use force and smart moves in the ring, the crowd gets more and more excited, cheering loudly with every action.”
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5points
#29 “Backstage” By Samuel De Román
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Professional Division
Description: Model image taken during the backstage before the Adlib Ibiza fashion show at the 2025 edition of Madrid es Moda.
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5points
#30 “Second Nature” By Pekka Ala-Pietilä
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Amateur Division
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4points
#31 “Red Point” By Tomasz Rykała
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Amateur Division
Description: Photo taken during a competition for young rescuers on the Baltic Sea.
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4points
#32 “Loneliness” By Jacek Chachurski
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Amateur Division
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4points
#33 “Soil Is Our Mother 13” By Dimitris Sideridis
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Professional Division
Location: Maharashtra, India
Description: “Pravin Mali (12) while sleeping on the floor and around Gangavesh Talim's pit. Maharashtra, India.”
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4points
#34 “Portraits Of Man In Nightclub Corridor In Madrid” By Edward Olive
Honorable Mention in the People Category, Professional Division
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4points
#35 “Looking Out” By Orna Naor
2nd Place Winner in the People Category, Professional Division
Description: “Children from Bnei Brak, and ultra orthodox city in Israel, looking out from the window of their school.”
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4points