©Boglárka Éva Zellei, Furnishing the Sacred No. 2., Érd, Hungary

1st Place Winner

©Mike Whiteley, Lady, Iowa City, IA

1st Place Winner

On this American holiday dedicated to giving thanks, I want to thank our wonderful readers for their support, for being part of my photography family, and making the the world a better place by being visual truth tellers. And to our writers and staff, so much gratitude. And now I hand the post over to our terrific juror of Seeing is Believing, Drew Nikonwicz – Aline Smithson

Image-making often has less to do with what we include in the frame, and more to do with what we don’t. Studio photography, for example, relies on an aggregate of scenery and lighting apparatuses we know are there, but cannot see. This often shapes the way we read photographs. If we aren’t lost in the scene presented, photographs invite us to infer what is beyond the immediately visible. The more questions an image leaves unanswered, the more I find myself enjoying it.

I especially chose these two images for this very reason. In very different ways, they seem to do the same thing for me. I feel they leave me with more questions than answers. There seems to be just enough space surrounding this baptismal font to make it strangely opulent and yet uncomfortable. Who felt compelled to bring Reba out here, and why?

I spent more time interrogating these images’ integrity than I did revelling in them. In my scrutiny, I was hoping to find some detail that would help me trust (or not) the images. Maybe photographing is believing, but only if you’re the one pressing the button. That would explain why we haven’t stopped photographing sunsets. – Drew Nikonowicz

©Mary Mellett, Not A Sunset, Streetlamp At Midnight, Ramapo NY

©Mary Kocol, Rainbow Over Somerville, Somerville, MA

©Alexander Diaz, Untitled, Saint Augustine, FL

@Alexandr Polyantsev, On the banks of the Neva, Saint-Peterburg, Russia

©Andy Mckay, Pelican Air, Costswold Wildlife Park, UK

©Arnaud Teicher, Burned land – Wildfire project, Provence, FR

©Brian Orozco, Untitled (Shadow), New Haven, Connecticut

©Carlotta Valente, Dawn – Monte Igno, Marche, Italy

©Kevin Hoth, Helicopter, Boulder, CO

©Larry Torno, Something Big, Next to Something Little, St. Louis, MO

©Lorena Endara, Once Upon A Time, Los Angeles, California

©Nick Tarasov, UFO field message detected in Russia 13 September 2018, 19.07, Saint Petersburg, Russia

©Olivia Chaber, Temporary Enlightenment, Vancouver, BC

© Rachael Hulme, Grass is Greener, Baltimore, MD

©Sally Ann Field, Audition Here, Hollywood, CA

©Wayne Swanson, The Chicago River, Chicago, IL,

©Thilo Rohländer, o.t., Dortmund, Germany

©Tianxi Wang, Fire, Island

©Vincent Bezuidenhout, Wild Waters, ‘Facing north towards O.R. Thambo International Airport this water park in Boksburg was reserved for the use of the ‘white’ population during the apartheid era’.

©Thomas Wilder, Seeing Amnesiac, Providence, RI

©Yorgos Efthymiadis, Lamps, La Rippe, Switzerland

© Lisa Fischer, warm, Dortmund