"Street photography begins with honesty. It doesn't wait for perfection or performance. It asks us to notice what everyone else walked past"
Award-winning street photography of one of the world's leading photography awards of its kind, featuring striking black-and-white candids and vibrant shadow plays
Dimpy Bhalotia, Co-founder and Creative Director of Pure Street Photography, emphasizes that street photography fundamentally revolves around honesty. The core of this art form isn't about waiting for perfection or attaining performance; instead, it urges us to observe the unnoticed, things that others overlook. Since its inception in 2020, Pure Street Photography Awards have established themselves as one of the world's leading competitions solely dedicated to street photography.
This year, the prestigious awards have revealed their winners for 2026 – eight remarkable street shots, both in color and black and white. Following the immense success of last year's exhibition in Mumbai, which saw over 25,000 visitors in six days, this year's winners' photographs will be showcased alongside 158 finalists' images at Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, India, from November 20 to 22.
Among the winners, Daniel Kashi from France has been awarded the Open Category Grand Winner for a striking image captured at one of France's most prestigious horse derbies, "Prix de Diane", held in Chantilly during June 2025. The judges were particularly impressed by the abstract nature of the reflection in the photo, noting the complex atmospheric clash of activity and the surreal, Daliesque quality created by the band of clouds at the top of the frame. Fiona Shields, Head of Photography at The Guardian, was the judge for this category.
In the Black and White Category, Cesare Simioni from Brazil clinched the Grand Winner spot with an image titled "Soul Beneath the Paint". This photograph was taken at the heart of the Lambe Sujo and Caboclinhos Festival in Sergipe, Brazil, in October 2025. The judges were impressed by the humanism displayed in the photo, appreciating the powerful depiction of a young boy's resilience, pain, and beauty – traits inherent to street photography as Dimpy Bhalotia often emphasized.
Rui Palha, an internationally acclaimed street photographer, delivered the judges' comments for this category.
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