UPY 2025

UPY  Black & White - Highly Commended
'Cold water siren'
Cecilia Velázquez

The muse, Marién, and myself, wanted to shoot together and create for the sake of creating.Nowadays most creators create just to post on social media and they forget to just have fun. We wanted to experiment underwater and trust the process, we knew the outcome would be good (to our standards at least) but none of us knew prior to the shooting what images would come through. Marien is an actress, hence she is very easy to direct and very confident in front of a camera, so after almost 30 mins freediving in very cold water, we both started having goosebumps and then it’s when the magic happened. I remember asking her: can you stand the cold for a little more? To which she replied yes, and I just gave her one more direction, “hug yourself and give me your most daunting and provocative look” and voilà!

Judge's comment: Deceivingly basic at first glance, the longer you look the more the details of Cecilia’s considered composition draw you in. The limbs guide you around the frame, as you absorb the texture of the skin, the thoughtful eye contact and the indentation caused by the nail. Absorbing art.
Alex Mustard