The Urban Photo Awards has announced its 2023 finalists, settling on a collection of visually arresting images of city life from photographers worldwide. Here’s a handpicked selection of the images still in the running to take out awards this year.
Photographs are organized into themed categories – streets, people, spaces, and creative – and run the gamut from moody black-and-whites to color-saturated moments in time and brain-bending artistic pieces.
![Urban Photo Awards. Finalist, Streets. "Sorrento" (Italy)](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/661cb52/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1402+0+0/resize/1369x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0a%2Fa2%2F16defe7444c88f93b49f4b8f780a%2Fantonio-sarno-sorrento.jpeg)
Many of the photos are a celebration of human strength, vulnerability, or wonder. A balding man’s windswept white hair mimics the clouds he’s gazing at. Three maiko, apprentice geishas, sit in a taxi in Kyoto, waiting for their driver. A tourist on LA's Hollywood Boulevard gets directions from Superman. A solitary woman dressed head-to-toe in red walks unhurriedly past a thundering fountain in Paris.
![Urban Photo Awards. Finalist, Streets. "Tre Maiko A Gion" (Italy)](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/ce2462e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1330+0+0/resize/1440x958!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc2%2F75%2F18a5c4bf4863a92abaa96ca14eb3%2Ffabrizio-bonifazi-tre-maiko-a-gion.jpeg)
Images of spaces that don’t feature people (or feature few people) still have a living quality about them expressed through their symmetry and scale.
![Urban Photo Awards. Finalist, Spaces. "Pendulum" (Russian Federation)](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/bdcad81/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1330+0+0/resize/1440x958!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F16%2F68%2Feb06b4ff43878f66426ba078174c%2Fevgeniya-strygina-pendulum.jpeg)
Whereas photographs in the creative category push boundaries, sometimes into the wonderfully absurd, such as the image of a poodle sitting in a car, waiting for its owner to finish making repairs.
![Urban Photo Awards. Finalist, Creative. "Repair" (Netherlands)](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/12176b7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1388+0+0/resize/1383x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc0%2F59%2Fd295598e4786a4346611ac65a714%2Fmarcel-van-balken-repair.jpeg)
Unlike previous years, the jury’s rankings of this year’s finalists remain a secret; the images appear alphabetically, sorted according to the photographer’s name.
The winner’s shortlist will be announced in mid-September, followed by the unveiling of the winners during the Trieste Photo Days festival from the 27th to the 29th of October, 2023.
In the meantime, take a look through our gallery for more highlights from 2023’s finalists.