Someplace / Not Here / Still There, But Not

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Yiorgos Michael, United States
• Website
  https://www.ymkollective.com/
• Instagram
  @ymkollective

The series explores the emotional residues of alienation, anonymity, and societal restraint. With a blend of constructed portraiture and abstract observation, the images suggest inner states through staged gestures, symbolic fragments, and elusive spaces. Influenced by surrealism, performance, and post-documentary strategies, the project reflects on what remains when a self is stretched across time and place-someplace somewhere. The sequence resists narrative closure, aiming instead for a psychological arc that hovers between presence and disappearance. www.ymkollective.com/somewhere-someplace

Yiorgos Michael is a self-taught visual artist whose photography explores themes of aging, identity, and emotional tension. Working between post-documentary and studio practices, he creates image essays that stage metaphorical scenes in intimate, constrained spaces. His work blends the emotional atmosphere of Pictorialism with Moholy-Nagy’s abstraction and the psychological depth of Francesca Woodman and Duane Michals. He also writes bilingual poetry as a parallel practice.