Guardians

• Prize
  Gold in Architecture/Bridges
• Photographer
  Ulana Switucha

Concrete coastal defences are an ingrained part of the Japanese seascape. These seawalls and wave breakers are guardians that protect the population, create safe havens for vessels and dissipate erosion, from tides, typhoons and tsunami. The lines and forms of the structures and beacons create a visual and visceral interplay of darkness and light and of danger and safety. The immensity of the ocean dwarfs the enormous man-made guardians, diminishing them to shapes in the water. I used long exposure photography, to silence nature’s power and calm the dark waters, if only for the moment.

Ulana Switucha has photographed throughout Asia for over 30 years and currently resides in Hong Kong. She creates evocative landscape, portrait and documentary photographs working in both colour and black and white. Influenced by a Japanese aesthetic, there is an evolving minimalist style and contemplative peacefulness in her recent work.