Play in Colors by Zahraa Al Hassani
In 'Play in Colors,' Zahraa Al Hassani captures the vibrant essence of a school craft project—hand-painted eggs created by her niece. Drawn to the abstract possibilities of the colorful objects, the photographer utilized a long exposure of 60 seconds to explore light and texture. By isolating these domestic subjects, she transforms a simple household craft into a sophisticated study of form and hue. The image is award-worthy for its ability to elevate everyday items through intentional technical execution, demonstrating a keen eye for abstract composition and a masterful control over lighting conditions.
Khushwant Singh Chauhan
Born in India, khushwant Singh lives in jodhpur, Rajasthan. Completed 12th grade in 2018. He is currently doing his graduation in science stream. And also doing advanced diploma in Photography and cinematography. Having passion of travelling and photography.Trying to capture the whole world with his camera. Love to capture street portraits with some new ideas he is having in his mind since his childhood. Current Location Jodhpur, India Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mr._silent10/ Best Achievements & Exhibitions 2nd place in photo of the day at pixta. Award Winner Photo of the Day Camera Canon 1300d Lenses and Gears 50mm lens, gopro
Resonance Score Breakdown
Transparency Note: The resonance score (13.0/20) is calculated based on social engagement metrics collected before the award announcement.
Expert Photography Reviews · 6
The Hum of Painted Shells
The smell of vinegar and dye always brings me back to the kitchen table of my childhood, where the air felt thick with the sharp, acidic sting of color. My fingers would be stained for days—a permanent, patchy indigo or a stubborn, bruised magenta that refused to scrub away.
Read the reflection →The Quiet Bloom of Play
There is a sacredness in the way a child approaches the world. It is not a search for meaning, but a simple surrender to the act of being.
Read the reflection →Reviews & Comments
Share your thoughts about this award-winning photograph. Your reviews contribute to the community engagement score.
Sixty seconds for a still life of painted eggs? It’s an ambitious gamble. Most would have settled for a quick shutter, but Al Hassani clearly sat with the light until it surrendered. I’ve spent enough hours shivering in the dark to appreciate that kind of stubbornness. It’s a quiet, deliberate piece of work. One suspects she didn’t just find these colors; she waited for them to breathe. It’s a rare, earned stillness. I quite like it.
Before the eye identifies the eggs, a strange, static hum settles in the chest. The sixty-second exposure bleeds the colors into a soft, bruised blur that feels like a half-remembered dream. It’s disorienting. I find my pulse slowing, trying to match the stillness of that long, patient light. When I return to it, I don’t see craft projects; I see the quiet, fragile persistence of color against a backdrop of Baghdad’s heavy, enduring shadows.
Sixty seconds of stillness. Zahraa didn’t just capture eggs; she invited the light to linger until the colors bled into a soft, meditative hum. I’ve spent my life waiting for the sun to touch a mountain, but here, the patience is domestic, quiet, and deeply intimate. It’s a rare grace to find such vastness in a small, painted shell. Honestly, it makes me want to put my camera down and simply breathe with the light.
Sixty seconds of exposure turns these painted eggs into ghosts of a domestic ritual. It’s a haunting stillness. Al Hassani doesn’t just capture color; she forces it to bleed into the encroaching void. I’ve stared at these fragile, blurred spheres until the darkness felt heavy, almost suffocating. It’s a brave refusal to let the light tell the whole story. When the shadows finally swallow the edges, you realize the craft project has become a meditation on absence.
Most entries this year relied on tired documentary tropes, but this piece succeeds by stripping away the context of Baghdad entirely. By dragging a sixty-second exposure across these painted eggs, Al Hassani creates a blur that feels like a fever dream. It’s a brave choice to abandon sharp focus for pure abstraction. I’ll admit, the soft, bleeding edges genuinely unsettled me. It’s rare to find such quiet, domestic intimacy transformed into something so hauntingly permanent.
The chromatic vibration here recalls Morandi’s hushed still lifes, yet it’s electrified by a sixty-second exposure that bleeds the pigments into a soft, tidal blur. I’m genuinely moved by how these hand-painted eggs lose their domestic banality, dissolving into a hazy, cerulean-and-ochre atmosphere that feels like light filtered through stained glass. It’s a gorgeous, painterly surrender to abstraction, where the hues don’t merely sit upon the surface; they breathe, they pulse, they’ve simply become light itself.