1st Place: Life On Earth by Lorenzo Poli

Science and religions may all fall short in explaining the incredible miracle of life which, through millennials of evolution, has transformed barren land into a living planet.
 
 Mother Earth has been regarded by humans through the centuries as a fertility goddess; water is the most incredible terrestrial element, with all living beings depending on it to thrive. Water is the common denominator of the living world.
 
 There is an untamed world between sacred and magic, where the essence of life is safeguarded by silence, where the outer and the inner world coincide. This is what I am seeking to photograph.
 
 As philosopher Alan Watts said: “Each one of us, not only human beings but every leaf, every weed, exists in the way it does, only because everything else around it does. And If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.”