January 2018 Street Photography Contest Submissions
Dear Streethunters.net Readers,
The first Monthly Theme Contest photos for 2018 have been submitted and we have made our choices. Please keep in mind that the process of choosing a photo from the January 2018 Street Photography Contest Submissions was not easy!
But let’s take a look at all the photos that were submitted and accepted in this Monthly Theme Contest.
ATTENTION: The photos that didn’t meet the Theme or the Editors criteria were not chosen to be in the shortlist. They have been disqualified or removed. If your pic isn’t in the shortlist, don’t get discouraged. Try again next month!
At this moment I would like to thank each and every participant for submitting their photograph. We have a great collection of photos with “Smoking” to show you! This time we had 20 valid submissions which can all be seen below.
The January 2018 Street Photography Contest Submissions
Here are our favourite 20 photos that made it through our strict Editors criteria!
*All images that were not sent in at the correct size, have been resized. This might affect the quality of entries that were sent in very small sizes.
The January 2018 Street Photography Contest editors picks
Every month each one of us Streethunters.net editors picks one photo as a nominee. Here are the photos we chose and the reasons why:
Nominee No1
Analysis by Andrew Sweigart, Streethunters.net editor
“As an ex-smoker, I can sympathize with the plight of the puffer, banished to the streets to indulge in their vice. Hey, I’m not condoning the activity, but I understand. I can remember when you could smoke at work. Hell, even back when I was in high school, students could smoke in the building between classes, in designated lavatories! But smoking, even though it’s frowned upon by many, still has a hint of romanticism in images and motion pictures. Old movies. Private detectives. Sexy and rebellious. Truth is, this bad habit can be an element in some seriously good shots. This image struck a romantic chord in me. It comes across as color noir to me. The woman’s profile, partially obscured by her hair, brilliantly illuminated in the deepest, darkest chunk of shadow within the frame. Her cigarette and the escalating smoke also caught in the light, and all of these are in glorious detail. I believe this image would have rocked in monochrome as well, but the bright bit of red from her coat creates a stronger pull to the character. Absolutely love the shot!”

Nominee No2
Analysis by Digby Fullam, Streethunters.net editor
“A lot of our smoking submissions showed billowing tendrils of cigarette smoke, and hardly surprising – the snowy white clouds create a surreal sight and are a photographer’s goldmine when it comes to depicting smoking. What I really liked about this submission though was that it captured something different, one of the most evocative and sensory parts of smoking – lighting up. The whir and click of the lighter, the flash of flame, the crackle of the paper and tobacco as it catches light, the powerful aroma of the freshly lit cigarette, and of course the pulsing glowing ember. All this is depicted in a photo that’s a textbook example of daylight flash street photography – a slow shutter speed blurring the background to prevent it from being too distracting, the powerful light from the flash lighting the woman’s face and bringing her into sharp focus, and the illuminating the wonderful punchy blue hues in her hair and eye shadow. Great work!”

Nominee No3
Analysis by Spyros Papaspyropoulos, Streethunters.net editor
“The photograph I selected this time round is simply put, beautiful. It is spot on in regards to the brief, the composition is intriguing, the colours are perfect and the possible stories that the viewer could imagine just by looking at this shot are countless. It is one of those photos that just pulls me in and will not let me go. Sometimes words are not enough to describe what you feel when looking at a photograph and I suppose that is why we say that a photo is worth 1000 words. Well done to the photographer and good luck in the final round!”

The winner will win the Feature Interview on the Streethunters.net website and more!
The photograph that wins the Monthly Theme Contest will receive the following prizes:
- The winning photo will be featured on our website in the respective “Announcing the winner” post and will also be featured for 1 month as our cover photo on our Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus pages.
- The Street Photographer that shot the winning photo will be interviewed by our Editorial team and his/her work will be featured on our website and on our Youtube channel.
- At the end of the year we will upload a video presentation of all the winning photos along with narrations by the winners themselves, explaining the story behind their photograph.
Stay Sharp & Keep Shooting!