Real life is not black and white.
Polaroid has always been led by human connect
As our world becomes increasingly hyper-digitized, it’s critical that we preserve a core pillar of photography: Empathy; the ability to see things from someone else’s perspective.
Magnum and Polaroid have teamed up to find and mentor the next generation of Imperfectionists seeing life not as only black and white, but all shades of gray. Through this digital exhibition, discover how our 10 open call winners have used the Polaroid medium to explore stories of subcultures, topics, professions, beliefs or movements that are often overlooked or misunderstood.
Jakub Stanek
Poland
This is the story of my struggle for love and my attempts to rebuild parenthood on new, fairer grounds.
In a personal journey into the depths of fatherhood, Jakub Stanek strives to understand why, despite his full commitment to his son's life, the system still perceives him as a secondary parent solely because of his gender. Stanek questions why fathers are so often marginalized and what societal mechanisms contribute to this perception.
Collaborating with his 10-year-old son, Stanek is working to restore his son’s childhood, which was brutally interrupted by dramatic events, and to create a new visual language that challenges and reconstructs the image of fatherhood in today's world. This project immerses him in emotions—from frustration and helplessness to depression—and allows him to reflect on how these feelings shape his relationship with his son.
Stanek asks himself questions about the nature of masculinity and fatherhood, presenting himself as an imperfect yet deeply committed father who is trying to build a bond with his son in a world full of contradictions and difficult questions. Existential reflections on growing up and communication difficulties intertwine with images that attempt to capture his son's world—a world where adult conflicts entangle children in their gears.
D. M. Terblanche
South Africa
I Should Have Burnt More Cars’ is a proposed narrative documentary project in which I aim to explore the internal world of living with late-diagnosed autism, drawing on my own experiences.
D. M. Terblanche
D. M. Terblanche has been working on a narrative project in which they explore the internal world of living with late-diagnosed autism, drawing from their own experiences.
Set in the context of a new country, away from the familiarity of the global south, Terblanche worked with self-portraiture, reflecting on having once written “autism is a loneliness for which I now have a name, after years of living in mistranslation”. This held true in Bonn, Germany, where their usual way of reading people, using body language and intonation, failed them without the proper contexts.
The underlying tones of this set of images is both exacted self-compassion and a rough-beaten mischievousness from the exhaustion of arriving in a new place as someone already an outsider – seeking beauty and form in the little pains.
Mengwen Cao
China
IDareU2FeelRadio: ‘I love you, but I have to say goodbye’
As Mengwen Cao prepares to leave New York temporarily for the next chapter of their life, they wanted to create a ritual that honors the people and places that have shaped them. Due to the Chinese diaspora, Cao has constantly navigated belonging, and this farewell carries both grief and love; a testament to the connections they’ve built.
Through collaborative portraits, Cao has invited friends and family to visualize their future selves and write affirmations for our collective future. These wisdoms feel like an anchor in uncertain times. By facing the act of saying goodbye through these shared, intimate moments, Cao has created space to realize that perhaps this period isn't as scary as it seems: Grief is part of love's cycle, and this project has allowed them to embrace that.
Maria Beatriz de Vilhena
Portugal
This is a project about identity, memory and the geography in between.
Maria Beatriz de Vilhena
Maria Beatriz de Vilhena is investigating her roots along the Portuguese-Spanish border in a rural and pagan backdrop. Retracing familiar footsteps, searching for traces in a common geography, and the characteristics of this ancient territory.
Vilhena was only there once, as a child, in a failed attempt to reconnect with the family. She returned now with her parents, only to see the farm sold, and no more traces besides the family nameplate on the cemetery.
This story is part of a longer narrative about family myths and tales for Vilhena. The starting point of this investigation was her great-grandfather, the last family member born in Galicia. “From his family's farm, he saw the river, and on the other side Portugal, so he decided to leave at age 14 never to return.”
Natela Grigalashvili
Georgia
In the industrial town of Chiatura, Natela Grigalashvil documents the lives of miners and local residents, focusing on a community shaped by economic decline, social challenges, and environmental degradation. Once a center of manganese production, Chiatura now bears the marks of industrial decay. Through these photographs, Grigalashvil depicts the realities of those who continue to live and work in this difficult environment, offering a direct portrayal of a town grappling with its industrial past.
Through these photographs, I depict the realities of those who continue to live and work in this difficult environment, offering a direct portrayal of a town grappling with its industrial past.
Natela Grigalashvili
Aleruchi Kinika
Nigeria
The Complexities of Womanhood
Aleruchi Kinika’s approach to the theme of “Real life is not black and white” is centered around women – as friends, mothers and beings. “There's more to being a woman than all these but they are my focus subject.” says Kinika.
In each frame, Kinika introduces different people, mothers, babies, friends and individuals. Her idea was to get women in their elements and their thoughts. Their clothing was intentional in some frames to blend in the background or to draw the viewer's eyes to the brighter white, a guiding light to what lies in the shadows. A really young mother and her child and another mother the baby looks up to. A series of portraits that express gentleness and joy, worry and pain. Friends helping each other and gossiping one lazy afternoon. Reaching for the flower that signifies peace and hope. The use of movement to express unrest and/or freedom.
Stefan Pavić
Serbia
Born in Kosovo but raised in Dimitrovgrad, Stefan Pavić’s connection to his birthplace was shaped by summer vacations spent there after the conflict of 1999. For 15 years, Kosovo remained a distant memory until Pavić returned to Novo Brdo, a place where Serbs and Albanians live together.
Through Pavić’s photography, he captures the essence of this community: a shepherd tending to his flock, a priest from Draganac Monastery, workers in the local municipality, and locals going about their daily lives, the only remaining shop in the village of Prekovce. This project reflects not only the changes in Kosovo over time but also the enduring strength and unity of its people, living in the hope of a peaceful future.
This project reflects not only the changes in Kosovo over time but also the enduring strength and unity of its people, living in the hope of a peaceful future.
Stefan Pavić
Jaír Fernando Coll
Colombia
“I call this project: ‘Samara, a Zika’s Daughter’.”
Back in 2019, Jaír Fernando Coll documented the life of Samara, a girl with Zika-related microcephaly in Cali, Colombia. This condition causes Samara to have a 97% disability, forcing her to cope with delayed physical and neurological development, severe spasticity, lack of musculature, and other symptoms.
Now at 7 years old, Samara’s family continues to strive to provide her with a dignified life despite a condition that will last throughout Samara's existence. In opening a new chapter in this documentary project, Coll photographs their journey in Black and White Polaroids, in which the family intervened with drawings and scratchings to illustrate how they bring color to Samara's life.
This is more than a story about a girl and her mother Eliana, her sister Briana and her father Jean Paul: it's a project that points to a pandemic that provoked more than 2,400 cases of congenital syndrome in Latin America in 2016. This event is almost forgotten by the media and public health system throughout the continent, so Samara's piece of life is a reminder that we cannot leave these families unattended.
Jed Bacason
Philippines
‘Love Mum.’
When Jed Bacason was a little boy, he always looked forward to the letters his father sent from Saudi Arabia. They were usually sent in a large envelope with individual letters for Jed, his mom, and his two siblings. Sometimes, Bacason’s father included photos that showed how his life was going as an overseas Filipino worker. His family would write back, often including a few of their own recent photos, and often a list of things they wanted him to bring home when he returned for vacation. More than anything, though, they were excited just to have him home.
Those letters were a source of joy for Bacason, but as a child he didn't fully understand the longing his father was expressing in his words. It's only now, as a parent himself, that Bacason truly gets how hard that distance must have been for his father.
Having been an overseas Filipino worker in Dubai for more than ten years, and as a dad, Bacason has met many other parents in the same situation. And now believes that, while technology has made it easier to stay connected through quick messages or video calls, some emotions are better conveyed through a handwritten letter or a photograph. Something tangible that carries more of the heart behind it.
For this project, Bacason asked five Filipino mothers working in Dubai, whom he personally knows and has been friends with for years, to write heartfelt handwritten letters to their children, pouring their love, longing, and hopes onto paper. Using a Polaroid camera with black-and-white film, Bacason hoped to capture the emotion behind their words in their portraits.
Once the project is finished, Bacason is mailing these letters and portraits to their children—a small way to help bridge the distance, be it physical or emotional, and remind them of the love their mothers hold for them.
Mohamed Hassan
Egypt
'Witnessing Wales' is a long-term study of community and nationhood, created through a series of journeys across the country. Mohamed Hassan’s work contains both landscapes and portraits, the latter made collaboratively with multiple communities; from newly arrived refugees to members of historic choirs.
Ultimately, the work forms an allegorical tale for finding a sense of belonging within the story of Wales today.
Mohamed Hassan