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Trapped in Repetition

Tomohiko Funai

Japan

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Gravity appears to fail inside a structure. By reversing orientation, the photograph unsettles spatial certainty and invites the viewer to reconsider how much of “up” and “down” exists only in the mind.

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Nominee

Orientation Lost

A self-portrait caught between mirrors and time. Repetition becomes a structure, and the body is briefly held inside it. The image asks whether identity is something we move through, or something that quietly loops around us.

Honorable Mention

A body suspended in front of a drawn image, aligned through color rather than context. The photograph explores how visual harmony can momentarily blur the boundary between representation and presence.

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Chromatic Alignment

Beneath a quiet sky and mirrored slabs of concrete, a coven floats in eerie unison—identical, motionless, entranced. Cloned not by science, but by magic, they hover as if mid-ritual, their brooms still beneath them. The silence is deafening, yet filled with invisible whispers.

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Synced by Spell

Multiple reflections of the self appear in the mirror, creating a labyrinth of identity. Light and shadow blur the line between seeing and being seen, challenging our sense of reality. The image asks: Is this the real me—or merely an illusion? A record of the self, suspended in uncertainty.

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Fractured Gaze

I rise before a lone torii, where the sea falls silent and the sky holds its breath. In Shinto, the gate invites the sacred—in this still moment, I offer myself, mid-ascent. A self-portrait of quiet surrender, between the seen and the invisible.

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Island of Ascension

What if gravity was reversed? Self-portrait levitation photograph.

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Bronze

People’s Vote Award

Reversed Gravity

Each door takes you to a different part of the maze. What colored door would you choose next? Self-portrait levitation photograph.

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Silver

Game of Maze

Self-portrait, non-photoshopped levitation photograph.

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Wagasa Gravity

Self-portrait levitation photograph. Koinobori are carp-shaped streamers.  Families with boys fly Koinobori outside in honor of Children’s Day on May 5.  The carp is believed to be a lucky fish symbolizing life success so that families fly Koinobori wishing for good health and growth for their boys.