USA ILFORD Photo Student Film Photo Contest Winners 2025 Posted On 6th June 2025 To News & Competitions
HARMAN technology is excited to announce the winners of our USA ILFORD Photo Student Film Photo Contest for 2025.
This film photography contest for US students was the first of its kind and produced a large selection of entries making their tough work for the judges to choose the winners. The contest included a category for B&W darkroom prints, that were physically mailed in, alongside a category for scanned B&W negatives with prizes for both High School and College students.
One member of the judging panel, Sissi Lu, said, “I had so much fun (and struggled a bit!) going through all the entries. It’s fascinating to see the potential and the depth of the work from these student photographers. It got me so excited about the future of film photography, especially in black and white!”
Darkroom Print Winners
The Grand Prize Winner for the Darkroom Print Contest is Oliver Boespflug of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Oliver captured the image with Kentmere Pan 400, in 120 format.
We asked Oliver about entering the contest and why he’s excited about his prizes, he said, “I'm really grateful for this opportunity to take part in this competition, it challenged my previous non-existent print making abilities and I had a lot of fun while doing it. This all could not have been done without the help of two of my teachers, Howard Leu and Joseph Mougell, who first informed my of this competition and contributed a significant amount of time outside of class helping me learn how to print. I could not have accomplished this without them.
I'm excited to test out the Pentax 17, as I have not shot any subminiature formats before, along with the different films as I have only tried HP5, FP4, and the Kentmere lineup. For future projects I plan on learning and using a 4x5 camera, so this kit will allow me to fill in a vacant spot of a 35mm/half-frame position in my collection so I can shoot film more causally in a setting where I otherwise wouldn't.
I appreciate the curators for taking the time to look at, and for choosing my photograph. I had a lot of fun making these prints and I hope it inspires more people to print their work as it is an essential part of photography.”
The Runner-Up for the Darkroom Print Contest is Ariana Perez of the College of San Mateo, in San Mateo, California. Ariana captured the image on ILFORD HP5+ in 120 format.
Scanned Film – High School Winners
The Grand Prize winner in this category is Liam Donahue of The Putney School in Putney, Vermont. Liam captured the winning image on ILFORD Delta 400 in 35mm format.
Here’s what Liam had to say about winning the contest, “I’m so glad the jurors liked my submission and it’s such an honor for people that I’ve respected for so long to have reviewed my work. I shoot almost all conventional formats and vastly prefer darkroom printing over scanning and inkjet printing. I don't like to label my style, but I would say most of my work could fall under "social documentary." I love working in unconventional studio-esque settings and working with isolated subjects.
The Runner-up for the High School Scanned Film contest is Zadkiel Mendez Padilla of the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah. Zadkiel’s photo was shot on ILFORD HP5+ in 35mm format.
Scanned Film – College Winners
The Grand Prize winner in this category is Dana Abraham of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Dana’s photograph was taken with ILFORD HP5+ on 4x5 sheet film.
When we asked Dana about winning the grand prize, she said, “I am truly honored and overjoyed. I would like to first thank my photography professor at William & Mary, Eliot Dudik, who prompted me to enter the contest. From my first photo class to now, I have only used ILFORD film, so this prize is very special to me. I plan on going abroad this summer and will use my prizes to document my travels.”
The Runner-up for the College Scanned Film contest is Luka Zukhubaia of Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida. Luka’s photo was taken with ILFORD HP5+ in 35mm format.
Teacher Participation Prize
We also offered a prize to a teacher, drawn at random who had at least 3 students submit entries into the contest and answered a short survey. The winner, Juan Guevara, is a photography teacher at Bridgeland High School in Cypress, Texas.
Here’s what Juan said about winning the prize, which included a film-scanning set-up from Negative Supply : “This is so exciting! My students will be suuuuuuper excited that we won and the supplies will definitely be put to good use! Our program is very film and darkroom heavy and the students love it! I can take pictures along the way and the film scanning stuff will come in handy for next year because of the uncertainty we have regarding the technology we will be provided and the possibility of our scanners being unusable. Thank you so so much for providing this opportunity to the states and our students.”
*We also want to thank the other sponsors who donated fantastic prizes that helped encourage these students to share their photography with us through this competition. We appreciate these brands for supporting young photographers.