The Scent of Summer
We asked what this phrase meant to you. We asked you to share your images and wow...you did indeed! This is a stunning collection.
Sun, sand and sea are but a part of what this season means to us around the world. There’s romance, resignation, trust, defiance, relaxation, action, protection, calm and exhaustion. All of this and more. The cacophony of life.
I studied these beautiful images, the majority of which were taken by the sea; understandably. Something struck me as significant about many of them. No matter how strongly they depict the scent of summer, they also depict human emotions.
No surprise really, for an image to offer a scent it needs to be emotive; often through the power of body language. Through our species’ use of ARMS and HANDS. I saw the first 10 images in this way:
Hands in her hair as she showers, post bathing. Lover waits with arms limp. Grace and latent energy.
Dog walker’s arms almost a mimic of the iron man. Gravity the winner.
Arms seem invisibly bound as the girl’s hair is pulled by her pet dog. Trust evident.
Arms almost a sign of belligerence as the sisters regard the photographer’s intrusion.
Arms in wonderful repose. One propped behind head, the other gently paddling the water. A man as relaxed as can be, it seems.
Hands moving to wipe eye, other to clutch headgear and another to clutch daughter’s as water drenched bathers depart.
Powerful arms clutching in safe grip or holding aloft the children caught in dramatic wave.
Arms spread wide for trapeze balance of the gymnast beneath the pier.
Arms spread wide in glorious exultation of the sun’s rays.
Arms hanging limp in despondent fashion, exaggerating the weary shoulder droop of bather.
And so these wonderful and varied scenes continue.
A real insight into the summer, it’s mood, it’s SCENT.
Some of our photographers live in climates of almost perpetual summer, others still know the seasons but the earth chooses to offer an inverted view. Sincere apologies to our friends far enough down in the Southern Hemisphere who had to contend with a Summer Challenge in their winter. So following the theme of arms and hands for one in particular... abrazos Cumpa.
Keef Charles
A challenge in which to express the essence of summer in the middle of winter during this icy and unforgettable August 2020; a few degrees south of the Tropic of Capricorn? I confess that I have felt it as a double challenge and claim compensation for those of us who are still going through the winter and were subjected to face such a dilemma. But imagination, a virtue that in these times of pandemic has been reborn day by day, has come to save us and here we were showing from every corner of our vast-little world what each of us considers to be the essence of that season...where the sun wants to burn us. But there we are: defiant, scantily clad, on beaches, seas, rivers, mountains, cities, villages ... celebrating life loudly, sweating the joy of being alive, dreaming that sooner or later this confinement will end and we will reach that chimera of full happiness that Summer always symbolized.
Pacho Coulchinsky
The image that won is the image from which the idea of this challenge was born. I am happy that she got so many votes, because I think it is really the one through which you can smell the scent of summer, which is sweet, but also smells of sweat and above all of freedom. Love.
Summer is the moment when the body frees itself from the burdens of clothes and the soul from the commitments of life. Where the sky comes close to us ...
It doesn't matter if the images are in colour or black and white, because the scent goes beyond the colours. And it always comes, bringing with it joy, melancholy, lightheartedness or, sometimes, pain
Batsceba Hardy
Among 150 images our Batsceba Hardy, Bogo Pečnikar, Delfim Correlo, Edita Sabalionyte, Fabio Balestra, Frans Kemper, Keef Charles, John Gellings, Irina Escoffery, Nadia Eeckhout, Neville Fan, Theodoros Topalis have voted for these photos
Winner:
Lola Minister
Second place
Third place
Fourth place
One vote each
Jay Tanen
Ardie Santos, Alan Roseman, Alfredo Rodríguez, Andres Cesar, Batsceba Hardy, Bogo Pečnikar, Bruno Lavi, Chris Anderson, Corinne Spector, Dov Oron, Dzung Viet Le, Eyal Izhar, Fabio Balestra, Frans Kemper, Giuseppe Cagnetta, Goutam Maiti,Gunther Kroma, Harrie Miller, Irina Escoffery, Kanad Khadka Chhetri, Keef Charles, Lola Minister, Louise Yates, Maia Assan, Marci Lindsay, Martin Ingber,Michael Wels, Nadia Eeckhout , Never Edit, Neville Fan, Niklas Lindskog, Ohad Aviv, Orna Naor, Pacho Coulchinsky, Patricia Kerkhofs, Patrick Merino, Petros Kotzabasis,Rainer Neumann, Richard Keeling, Richard Keshen, Roberto Bartolini, TakashiTachi, Tamar Ganor Zandman, TaTo Estralday, Victor Borst, Vladimir Takac, Yona Elig
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