1st Place Award in the “Joy” category (Fall 2021). Photo by Will Pippin (United States).

Joy – Award Gallery

Single photographs that reflect the human experience of joy.

We are proud to share with you the award-winning photographs from our 10th international competition celebrating the very best in documentary family photography.

Award winners were chosen during the final round of judging recorded live from our three judges’ locations at the time in Miami (USA), Victoria (Canada) and Denver (USA). The final round of judging in its entirety was subsequently streamed online over three days from January 24th-26th, 2022. Viewers had the opportunity to watch the unfiltered discussions and constructive feedback as winners were collectively chosen by esteemed judges Carl-Philippe Juste, Jenna Shouldice and Kirsten Bethmann.

The following award-winning photographs have been through two rounds of critical review and selection. Congratulations to the winners!

Top 10 awarded photographs by Will Pippin, Debrani Das, Agata Szymanowicz, Agata Szymanowicz, Adina Davidson, Paula Janka Meisel, Saikat Mukherjee, Allyson Klein, Thiago Cintra Braga and Maggie Devereux.

Honorable Mention photographs by Adina Davidson, Aneka Schwerdtfeger, Flavia Felgueiras, Julia Rose-Greim, Katie Haslam, Laura Gutierrez, Manasi Gadkari and Markus Morawetz.

(click or tap an image to view award details)

Our preliminary round guest judges evaluated every single submission we received and selected thirty or less of their favourite photographs per category to move forward to the live-judging round as finalists. Our deepest thanks to Irmina Walczak (Poland), Julia Chang-Lomonico (United States) and Zun Lee (Canada) for their hours of dedication during this process. Congratulations to these photographers who were nominated as finalists for consideration during the final round of live judging.

Finalist photographs by Agueda Sanfiz, Alexa Delisle, Alexandra Bagley, Alexis Minnis, Alice Chapman, Ana Backhaus, Aneka Schwerdtfeger, Angie Gray, Ashley Waters, Bobbi Barbarich, Danielle Jacobson, Diana Hagues, Emma Collins, Ewa Brykowska, Georgia Gouvalari, Gerrit De Heus, Giuseppe Cardoni, Hanna Hnatsiuk, Hezy Holzman, Irati Ayerza Ganzarain, Jasmine Leonard, Joey Solomon, Julia Rose-Greim, Karolien Servranckx, Katarzyna Cypryś-Ławniczak, Kate Elliott, Katrina Meehan, Kelly Meier, Larry Toh, Lavinia Nitu, Liliana Ranalletta, Manasi Gadkari, Manoel Augusto, Maria Fernanda Fernandez, Marisela Alanis, Matthew Cohn, Megan Macdonald, Mia Davies, Michaela Strivens, Milene Van Arendonk, Mirella Lukens, Nimai Chandra Ghosh, Nimrod Mankovski, Oleksii Potianok, Paula Gerein, Pranab Basak, Prescott Lassman, Rafael Nascimento, Ruth Toda-Nation, Sandra Stokmans, Sarah Hall, Shannon Christy, Sherry Tong, Sofia Moraga, Tabea Hörnlein, Talya Arbisser and Xiaoman Cai.

(click or tap image collage to a view larger )

Re-watch the live judging for this category

Stream on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.

Did you submit to our Fall 2021 Call For Entries? If so you will be emailed with a unique promo code to access the archive for free! If you did not submit and would like to watch/rewatch the judging a purchase option is available.

The Documentary Family Awards is an international competition in search of the insightful and meaningful ways that documentary photographers explore the interpretation of family.