Street Macadam Awards
Edition#3
Street Macadam is presenting the 3rd edition of the “Macadam Awards”, a street & documentary photography contest.
This competition will be organized from Friday 15th of May to Wednesday 15th of July -Midnight (UTC +1)
The results of the competition will be communicated on Friday 31 of July 2026.
This is open to amateur and professional photographers from around the world who are at least 18 years old at the time of the registration.
The theme of this contest: “Echoes of the Street”
This contest is dedicated to Street & Documentary Photography.
Wherever you are in the world, we invite you to send us your most beautiful Colors or Black & Whitestreet photos.
This year marks a major step forward.
Street Macadam has expanded its jury, bringing together renowned photographers and experts from 13 different nationalities.
Street Macadam continues to be one of the very few international contests offering some of the lowest entry fees, making it possible for photographers everywhere to take part.
And for the selected photographers, the opportunity goes far beyond awards.
🏆 Winners will be exhibited internationally — twice: in Rome (Italy) and in Querétaro (Mexico)
Among all the photos submitted by entrants to the competition, our jury panel will choose the 3 winning photos and 20 «special mentions».
Our international jury reserves the right to disqualify a participant from the competition if they do not comply with the rules and conditions of the contest.
By registering you agree to all rules and conditions of the Macadam Awards Contest.
Contest Information
Please read it before to register
-
To enter the photography competition, you will need to follow the link on the home page and carefully follow the instructions of registering, creating your account and paying the fees- which will only only be possible by following the instructions on the registration form.
Registration and participation fees are:
1 photo : 8,00 €
2 photos : 14,00 €
5 photos : 29,00 €
6 to 10 photos : 35,00 €
Registration fees will not be refundable regardless of the outcome of your photo(s) in this competition.
If you prefer to make the paiement by PayPal
- Send us a message or email to inform us - we will send you the steps to follow.
Email: street_macadam@etik.com
-
All photo submissions must be made online.
Photos must be sent in JPEG/JPG forme and the file size must not exceed 2MB. The long side of the photo must have a maximum size of 2000 pixels.
The files must be renamed with Last Name, First Name and progressive number (if several photos are sent)
Exemple:
Smith_Laura_1.jpg
Smith_Laura_2.jpg
Smith_Laura_3.jpg
Any photos not following this renaming will be automatically disqualified.
-
Each participant retains the copyright of the photos they send.
By participating in the competition the author declares that the photos sent are his property.
Registration and completion of the form by the participant authorizes the competition organizers to use the images submitted for promotional purposes related to the photography competition, including publication on the competition website, on social networks and in videos.
-
Both color and black-and-white digital-or-analog (film) images are accepted.
Post production is permitted in order to optimize the image. We allow modifications related to brightness, contrast, texture, color temperature and tone in the case of a conversion to B&W.
Removal of particles or dust on the captor is also permitted.
Photographs must be realistic and not excessively modified, under penalty of exclusion from the competition.
It is permitted to crop photographs, but not to add or remove objects or people.
The use of generative AI through any type of software to modify the content of the photograph or any part thereof is not permitted.
Photograph must not contain any signatures or watermarks.
Photographs cannot have any type of frame.
Photographs with sexually explicit, abusive or defamatory content will not be accepted.
Photographs submitted may have been taken from January 1st, 2023 until Now.
Photos taken before 2023 will not be accepted or considered.
We will ask the 3 winners to send us the file (raw- or original jpeg file) as proof that the photo has not been altered by the addition of an element or massive post-production..
-
The images will be judged anonymously by our jury.
They will not know the names or any details of the participants. On the basis of this judgment, the finalists will be chosen.
Each of the 12 judges ( from round 1) will choose 5 photos from all the photos received before the 8th of July.
These photos will then be shared on our Instagram page under the tag « Editor’s Pick ».
All photos up to the closing day of the competition will also be submitted to our jury for the final vote.
Then the 6 international Jury of Honor, will then designate the 3 winners and the 20 honorable mentions.
-
The finalists' images will be published on the competition website and included in a photography exhibition in Italy (Roma) & Mexico (MX Festival) .
At the sole discretion of the internal jury and the organizers, some non-finalist photographs may also be published on the event website.
-
By completing the registration form, all participants accept the provisions of French législative decree of June 20, 2018 relating to the protection of personal data and the European General Regulation (GDPR) ont the protection of personal data.
Participants authorize the competition organizer to use their data for the competition or for legal and associative reasons.
Personal data will be used by the organizer to communicate the result of the competition and for future competitions.
Winners & Prizes
1st prize
Ricoh GR III Street Edition
24,2 Mpx - 28 mm f/2,8
(Value: 1049€ )
+
Black PRVKE Backpack 31L
+ Photography Bundle
(Value: € 344,00)
2nd prize
ROGUE Aegean Blue Sling 9L
(Value: €179,00)
3rd prize
ROGUE Black Sling 6L
(Value: €159,00)
The 3 winners will be exhibited at the 4th edition
of "MX Street Photo Fest"at Querétaro - Mexico
23 October-23 November 2026
The 3 winners will be exhibited at the 4th edition
of "Rome Photo Festival" at Villa Altieri in Rome, Italy
02-03-04 October 2026
The 3 winners & the 20 honorable mentions
will be published in
"revue EPIC #19" in December 2026
revue EPIC will offer a copy to each winner*
A French publication- 184 pages (ad-free), internationally recognized for the quality of its reportage.
*Shipping costs will be covered by the photographers.
The 3 winners & the 20 honorable mentions
will be highlighted in a special article on the
All About Photo homepage.
Jury of honor
-
Matt Hall
Cliftonville -UK
Matt Hall is a creative photographic style ranges from minimalism to abstraction with other common themes being suggestion, obfuscation, texture and the human element.
Primarily known for his contemporary candid street photography, Matt’s images have been exhibited and collected worldwide and have also been featured in many online and printed publications.
“Street photography is about immortalizing a split second for the viewer, there’s nothing before and nothing after that moment.”
“It’s a photographer’s job to distill that moment into something extraordinary, whether in terms of narrative, or visual splendor. If not, it’s lost forever. Forgotten”.
Finding and framing those moments is something Matt does with aplomb, and he’s mindful of its need, too. “The world is changing so quickly,” Matt continues, “it’s important to document these moments, no matter how small. That way future generations can learn about how our lives were. I personally love looking through old images of years gone by, and I want people to keep on doing that.”
Website: https://www.the13thsecond.co.uk/
-
Valérie Six
Nice -France
Valérie SIX is a French photographer based in the south of France.
Switching to photography after a career linked to China and then the creative industries, she transforms the daily tumult into a vibrant celebration of colors and shapes. In her artistic quest, she delicately tackles the gloom that colors our days, shedding new light on scenes that many would consider ordinary.
Her carefully crafted compositions play on contrasts and frames in which passers-by become involuntary actors in a play that they are unaware of. Her images are invitations to fight against emotional and visual grayness, to look beyond the obvious and discover the poetry hidden in the shadows and lights of our environments.
Rewarded by numerous prizes, jury of international festivals, her images have been widely shared on social media, exhibited around the world (Paris, New York, London, Arles, Miami, Milan, Nice, Arles...) and published in numerous photo books and magazines, in France and abroad.
-
Craig Whitehead
Cambridge -UK
Craig Whitehead, widely recognized by his online moniker @sixstreetunder,
He’s a prominent British street photographer whose work is celebrated for its cinematic quality and painterly aesthetic.
Transitioning from a background in illustration, Whitehead applies a graphic sensibility to the urban environment, prioritizing intricate compositions, layered textures, and a sophisticated use of color that often draws comparisons to pioneers like Saul Leiter.
His style is characterized by a “fine art” approach to the mundane, frequently utilizing tight framing and shallow depth of field to isolate fleeting, atmospheric moments amidst the chaos of the street.
Beyond his personal practice, Whitehead is an influential educator in the photography community, sharing his expertise through global workshops and his instructional book, “Find Your Frame”, where he encourages photographers to look beyond the obvious to find extraordinary visual stories in everyday life
Jury of honor
-
LIsandra Alvarez
La Havana -Cuba
Lisandra is a professor of typography and photography at the Higher Institute of Design (ISDI).
She received a honorary mention from Alfredo Sarabia in Sarabia de la Havana in the Biennale de la photography in 2020, she was also a winner of the National Photography Competition for the 40th anniversary of the Center for Psychological and Sociological Research, Cuba (2023). Second prize from Leica Women Street Foto Project and Women Street Photographers (2024).
She works with an analog technique (35 mm y 120 mm) and digital.
-
Leleo Lopes
Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais - Brazil
Leleo Lopes is an internationally recognized street photographer.
Emphasizing the fluidity of images, he avoids excessive explanations and embraces silence in observation. Reflecting on the indefiniteness of the act of photographing, of being and being present, he concludes by valuing appreciation without labels and understanding others through images.
-
Hersley-Ven Casero
Dumaguete City - Philippines
Hersley-Ven Casero is a multidisciplinary visual artist and street and documentary photographer with more than 20 years of photographic practice.
His work examines everyday life through long-term observation and the relationships between people, space, and chance, articulated through his ongoing Catch A Moment series.
Casero is a graduate of Foundation University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Commerce major in Marketing and was awarded Artist of the Year. He was the first Filipino artist to receive a sponsored residency at the Chalk Hill Artist Residency in California, USA. He is also the author of the photobook All in Good Time. His work has received significant international recognition through major street photography awards and has been widely exhibited and published across Europe, the United States, and Asia. Beyond his personal practice, Casero is actively involved in workshops and community-based art initiatives that encourage creative freedom and shared imagination.
Jury - Round 1
-
![Beatriz Boblitz]()
Beatriz Boblitz
Fortaleza - Brazil.
Beatriz Boblitz is a photojournalism,
she has traveled to several cities in Brazil, mainly in the state of Ceará, in search of stories that touch her in a very unique way: seeing in the unusual or the banal a moment to translate the reality of the daily lives of people she has never seen in her life, but who, in some way, she recognizes. Beatriz searches for the identity that represents the history, the place and the trajectory of the experiences of each character she encounters in her travels.
-
![Tim Krupar]()
Tim Krupar
Pittsburgh - USA
Tim Krupar is an internationally recognized street photographer.
He loves seeing the magic in the mundane, delighting in finding interesting light, strong contrast, colorful/textured backgrounds, and playing around interesting surfaces to shoot through (and also at times thinks it's a real blast to use a flash!) Above all else, he believes that the process of making photos should be an enjoyable one, where "doing it for the love of it" serves as the fuel that can most reliably sustain our commitment to growth and development in the pursuit of making more compelling images.
-
![Citali Medal]()
Citali Medal
Mexico City - Mexico
Citlali Medal
Co-founder of the Mexico Street Photo Fest, jury member of the Paris International Street Photo Awards (PISPA) 2025 and Rome Photo Lab 2026, and curator for Street Photography Brazil and Visions of Art. Her work has been featured in international platforms and communities, including publications in Eyeshot Magazine (Issue #12, dedicated to Mexico) and Docu Magazine, where she published her zine Colores de Cuba.
She has participated in collective exhibitions in Mexico, Russia, Australia, France, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, and Portugal, and in 2025 received the “Women Leader” award in the cultural field in Mexico, granted by the Inter American Institute for Research & Teaching Human Rights.
Her photography explores color in dialogue with light and shadow, portraying human figures as anonymous silhouettes and capturing fragments of movement that preserve mystery and presence.
-
![Victor Djaja]()
Victor Djaja
Jakarta - Indonesia
Victor is an architect and street photographer whose work explores the intersection between urban form and human presence.
Deeply influenced by architecture, design , and visual culture, his practice is rooted in observation — of spaces, structures, and the subtle interactions unfolding within them. His images are shaped by a strong attention to geometry, lines, colors, and the ever-changing quality of natural light.
Through street photography, Victor seeks to capture quiet, often overlooked moments of everyday life. His work reveals a delicate balance between structure and spontaneity, where architectural elements frame human gestures and fleeting scenes.
By transforming ordinary details into visually compelling compositions, he invites the viewer to reconsider the familiar — uncovering poetry, rhythm, and meaning within the urban environment.
-
![Virginie Blanc-Brude]()
Virginie Blanc-Brude
Nice - France
Virginie’s photographic work explores zones of transition: between presence and disappearance, silence and movement, human and animal.
She photographs suspended moments, precarious balances where something surfaces without ever fully revealing itself.No clamor, but a gentle restraint where the image suggests more than it asserts.
She does not seek to tell a story, but to create a spiritual atmosphere, a feeling that envelops reality.Her gaze does not narrate; it opens, it uncovers. It brings forth a poetry that trusts in the sensitivity of the viewer, who will understand what is at play in the interval, in the blanks, in the unspeakable.
She moves through urban spaces, attentive to forms, movements, and almost invisible presences. At times, she probes with a harsh light that makes the shadows dance; at others, she lets blur soften, dissolve, like pastel tones washed out by time. It is in this oscillation—between sharpness and dissolution, edge and softness—that the atmosphere is born.
Her photographs reveal an unnoticed world where human, space, and light meet in a fragile balance. The heart of her work lies in the infinity of details and nuances captured by her lens—those small nothings that make everything shift.
-
![Ivan Herrera]()
Ivan Herrera
Bogotá - Colombia.
He has participated in numerous collective and individual photography exhibitions, and has received several awards for his work.
He studied photography and biology in Bogotá, where he works as a photographer and audiovisual producer.
He is a curator of Street Macadam, and received several awards for his work, including the Santa Fé Gallery Exhibition Grant (Bogotá 2013), the City of Bogotá Photography Award (2018) and the National Photography Award (Ministry of Culture of Colombia 2021).
As a director of photography, he participated in the fiction feature films “La defensa del dragón” (premiered in Cannes, 2017) and “Malta” (2024).
-
![Daniela Spina]()
Daniela Spina
Buenos Aires - Argentina
In 2018, a trip to Hong Kong sparked her passion for street photography, transforming her perspective and photographic approach.
She worked as a photojournalist for PlayGround Mag. In 2021, she was selected for a Vist Projects scholarship to study with photographer Yael Martínez.
She was selected by Observatories Urbanos for the exhibition and book Anthology of Latin American Street Photography (2023), and in 2024 she exhibited in the exhibition about Argentina's World Cup victory, "Now We're Hopeful Again," at the House of Culture.
She also served as a juror for the Fotonautas Ibero-American photography competition in 2024, and The Buenos Aires Street Photography Festival in 2025.Last year, her photos were part of an advertising campaign for the Sky brand that was on the streets, in newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom.
She joined the Street Macadam team, where she contributes to interviews in English and Spanish and works as an editor. -
![Antonio Ojeda]()
Antonio Ojeda
Seville - Spain
Antonio Ojeda is an internationally recognized street photographer
He has participated in group exhibitions in different cities in Spain and other European countries, as well as individual exhibitions (9 Editions of the Photo Atoud Sud Festival 2019 - Nantes, France; Festival Negativo Foto 2022, Badajoz; Bar Galería “El Canguro Violeta ”, Piedrabuena, Ciudad Real 2022).
Also in 2022, within the PhotoEspaña programming, he participated in the exhibition “Phantasia – Photography is Magic – The New Spanish Photography” in New York.
At the end of November 2023, the Samarcand publishing house published its first photobook “Callegrafías”.
-
![Valeria Cunha]()
Valeria Cunha
Lisbon - Portugal
Valéria Cunha is a street and documentary photographer whose work explores the quiet poetry of urban life.
Driven by a search for meaning within everyday moments, she focuses on the interplay of light, shadow and human presence, revealing subtle narratives that often go unnoticed.
She is the founder of Visions of Art, a community dedicated to promoting contemporary photography and fostering dialogue between artists. Valéria works as a producer and curator of exhibitions, and collaborates as a curator with several international street photography galleries on Instagram.
She also host some of the English Lives for Street Macadam.
-
![Murat Harmanlikli]()
Murat Harmanlikli
Istanbul - Türkiye
Born in İzmit, Turkey, Murat Harmanlikli is a street and portrait photographer
He’s deeply inspired by human presence, literature, and the layered narratives of urban life. Since 2016, he is maintaining a focus on the poetic rhythm of the streets and the emotional depth of human expression.
His work is rooted in quiet observation, empathy, and storytelling. He is heavily influenced by literature, believing that the inner worlds of fictional characters and the visual atmospheres of novels are just as powerful—if not more so—than photographs in shaping imagination and reflecting one’s personal vision. As a modern-day flâneur, he sees the act of walking through crowds not only as a way of connecting with the city but also as a path to endless photographic discovery.
His work has received recognition through various international awards and features, including honors from LensCulture, The Independent Photographer, Life Framer, IPA, All About Photo, Eyeshot Magazine, etc.
Currently, he is working on a long-term book project titled “Istanbul, in the Flux of an All-Embracing Moment,” a visual exploration of the city's fragmented yet deeply intertwined human stories.
-
![Marci Lindsay]()
Marci Lindsay
Washington DC - USA
Marci Lindsay is a street photographer living in Washington, DC. She is part of the DC Street Photography Collective.
She's had a love for street photography since she was a young child, long before she knew it had a name, after seeing the book ‘The Family of Man.’
A few years ago she took up the challenge of photographing in the streets herself. She says, “I am drawn to ordinary people doing ordinary things. To me, it’s all extra-ordinary—emotion, gesture, connection, and humor. We humans are so much more the same than we are different, and hopefully my photos remind people of that.”
She has been exhibited internationally and she’s a curator for Street Macadam. She curated an exhibition and companion book of street photography by women, ‘Half the Sky,’ in 2024.
-
![Kai Hsiao]()
Kai Hsiao
TaÏwan
He has been fascinated by photography since his teenage year and played with his father’s old Yashica camera and developed and printed his own photos.
His passion for photography has never diminished, even during his busiest career days.
10 years ago I wrote a photography textbook about composition, then started my workshop to teach after the book was published. Eventually, I found that street photography is the one I can demonstrate my composition rules. I then bring the ideas into teaching materials and have been teaching street photography for several years.
Street Photography is now not only my hobby, but also my life. I live and breathe with it.
Our Partners
RCEFOTO.com
Is Italy's largest marketplace for GUARANTEED USED photography.
RCE Foto was founded in Padua in 1965 as a photo shop, evolving over the last ten years into a franchising chain with shops in most regions of Italy and abroad in Germany, France and Lithuania.
There are currently 17 shops operating under the RCE Foto sign.
In the RCE shops we sell all brands in the photographic sector both new and used.
RCE shops purchase the material, which are inspected following strict procedure. They are then tested one by one before being put on sale with a 2-year warranty.
WANDRD
Founded by Ryan, Spencer, and Austin Cope in 2015, WANDRD is now a tight-knit team of 11 people, delivering bags to explorers, creators, and individuals in over 100 countries.
WANDRD, a company that exists to inspire people to get out there and live a passionate life.
Mexico Street Photo Fest
México Street Photo Fest (MXSPF) is the most important international street photography festival in Latin America, a meeting point where photography is not only exhibited, but shared, discussed, and experienced collectively.
The festival brings together photographers, collectives, and audiences from around the world, fostering learning, cultural exchange, and a strong sense of community through exhibitions, talks, workshops, photowalks, portfolio reviews, its international competition, and a wide range of public activities.
Rome Photo Festival
Rome Photo Lab is an international street photography festival that transforms Rome into an open-air visual laboratory.
A project that runs all year round, through open calls, curatorial activities, and ongoing dialogue with the international photography scene, reaching its peak during a three-day photography event held over the October weekend, the beating heart of the entire program.
At the center of the festival is the platform RRoma Street, a key reference point for a global community of photographers and enthusiasts, from which the entire project is born and developed.
revue EPIC
A narrative magazine that tells the world through images
EPIC magazine is published twice a year — 184 pages of beautifully crafted print, soft to the touch and rich in scent, dedicated to telling the world through images, to better understand it and appreciate it more deeply.
A documentary, narrative, and poetic publication, free from the constraints of current events and resolutely independent.
A space for freedom.
ALL ABOUT PHOTO (AAP)
is a free and independent print & online magazine that has become one of the most vibrant portals of photography on the web.
Since its creation in 2013, All About Photo also presents an international perspective on contemporary photography, with an eye toward beauty, artistic significance and timeless quality.
https://www.all-about-photo.com/