/ 2025 / Portraiture / Self-Portrait

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Irina Ebralidze , Finland

Loneliness is not just the absence of people. It’s when the empty chair across from you no longer holds expectation. When you stop glancing at the door, hoping someone will walk in. When silence no longer weighs on you but becomes a backdrop, as familiar as the patterns on old wallpaper.

At first, you wait. Then you grow used to it. And then you realize you’re no longer waiting—and that scares you less than it used to.