Bronze in Portraiture/Culture / 2025 / Portraiture / Culture

• Prize
  Bronze in Portraiture/Culture
• Photographer
  Ilona Schong, Netherlands
• Website
  https://ilonaschong.com
• Instagram
  @ilonaschong

These photos were taken in traditional Romanian houses. The history of those traditional houses is inextricably linked to that of its residents. This was the place where they were starting a family of their own, where there was constant activity, laughter, crying and also fear, as Romanian history knew harsh times. Like their residents, these homes bear the marks of time — a time that is slowly disappearing. The traditional houses are about to be abandoned, and like their last residents, they will take their stories with them...

My name is Ilona Schong and I am a photographer based in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. Whether it was in my father's darkroom during my childhood, or the piles of photos I took during holidays and our children's early years: always I loved to photograph. Since eight years, I have started to approach photography more seriously. I specialized myself in landscape photography, but recently I have been starting to broaden my horizon, as I'm deeply interested in cultures and the story behind a persons life.