It’s Just an Onion by Silvia Bukovac Gasevic
Captured in 2005 as part of a focused still-life exercise, this image explores the humble onion through the lens of minimalist studio lighting. Using a single Multiblitz 250W studio light paired with a 70cm softbox, the photographer transformed a simple kitchen staple into a study of texture and form within an improvised home studio. The deliberate control of light highlights the delicate, papery layers of the onion, elevating a mundane subject into a compelling visual narrative. This photograph is award-worthy for its masterful use of limited equipment to achieve professional-grade clarity and sophisticated composition, demonstrating a keen eye for aesthetic beauty in everyday objects.
Silvia Bukovac Gasevic
Born in Croatia and currently based in Brussels, Silvia Bukovac Gasevic is a dedicated photographer whose work is deeply rooted in a passion for nature and animal life. As a freelance contributor to multiple international photo agencies, she maintains a relentless pursuit of the perfect, aesthetically resonant moment. Her creative practice is defined by a constant search for beauty in the world around her, a philosophy she carries with her wherever she travels with her camera.
Resonance Score Breakdown
Transparency Note: The resonance score (9.3/20) is calculated based on social engagement metrics collected before the award announcement.
Expert Photography Reviews · 3
The Skin of Memory
There is a specific kind of loss found in the kitchen of a house that has been emptied. It is the loss of the mundane, the quiet disappearance of the things that once anchored a day to the earth.
Read the reflection →The Weight of Layers
We spend our lives peeling back the skin of things, searching for a center that rarely reveals itself. We look for the core, the truth, the solid heart of the matter. But perhaps there is no core.
Read the reflection →Reviews & Comments
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It’s a humble onion, yet one senses the hours spent chasing the perfect fall of light across those papery, translucent skins. Most would have tossed it into a salad; Gasevic chose to study it until the texture surrendered. I’ve spent decades shivering on mountainsides, but there’s a quiet, disciplined rigor here I find deeply refreshing. She didn’t just find a subject; she committed to it. It’s a rare, honest bit of craft.
Most food photography is disposable, but this onion stays with me. Of the thousands of submissions I’ve reviewed, few find such gravity in a kitchen staple. The way the light catches those papery, translucent layers forces you to stop and actually look. It’s a quiet, honest study of form that doesn’t rely on gimmicks. I’d hang this in my own home today. In thirty years, it’ll still be a masterclass in making the mundane feel monumental.
Edward Weston’s Pepper No. 30 haunts this frame, yet Gasevic avoids mere imitation. Using a modest Canon 20D, she finds a tactile honesty in the onion’s papery skin that recalls the quiet intensity of Karl Blossfeldt’s botanical studies. It’s a brave, stripped-back exercise. I’m genuinely moved by how she coaxes such sculptural gravity from a kitchen staple using only a single softbox. It’s rare to see such disciplined restraint in an era of digital excess. Truly refreshing.