The 2014 CBRE Urban Photography Awards have been announced.  As one might expect, the awards carry with them all of the ambiguity that the word “urban” carries with it.  Cities are brilliant monuments to human achievement and creativity.  On the other hand they often grow at the expense of the “unseen,” of the crawlers.

This year’s top winner is Marius Vieth for his image “Mask of Society,” so beautifully composed.  The chaos of a modern city, how they verge on being unlivable, is captured in Carlos da Costa Branco’s picture of a traffic policeman dancing in the street in Lisbon.  I love the vague expression on the face of the woman in the car behind him.This was the winner of the Europe, Middle East and Africa prize.

The Asia Pacific award went to Ly Hoang Long for his picture of workers mending nets in a factory in Bac Lieu in Vietnam.  Here the ambiguity begins.  It is my favorite.  The dominance of the cobalt blue and the composition are just stunning.  But the immensity of the task at hand seems daunting, and the faces of the workers buried beneath their hats are hidden.  They are nameless. And speaking of hidden, a disturbingly gorgeous work is that of Sarah Scarborough winner of the 13 to 15 year old category.  It was taken in Venice and is  called “A Distant Silhouette.”

Ms. Scarborough’s picture completes the path to ambiguity for us.  It is truly and richly in the tradition of Jacob Riis’ “Children Sleeping in Mulberry Street.” and John Thompson’s “The Crawlers.”  The descent into Hades is completed by Sujan Sarkar’s image of an Indian sewer worker.  In the end the words that come to mind: “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate.“*

* (“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.“) Durante degli Alighieri (1265-1321)  La divina commedia, Canto III, line 9.