A dramatic take of a skilled skateboarder at Los Angeles’ Venice Beach Skate Park earned top honor and a $10,000 prize in the Global Cement and Concrete Association Concrete in Life Photo of the Year 2024/25 program. “My image is a tribute to the way concrete, when embraced by creativity and passion, fosters connection, dreams, and boundless potential not just in skate parks, but in communities across the world,” says photographer Henrik Hagerup, whose composition celebrates ultra-smooth concrete bowls inspired by the abandoned swimming pools underpinning the 1970s southern California skateboarding scene.
Venice Beach and many of the other 20,000-plus Concrete in Life Photo entries, notes GCCA CEO Thomas Guillot, “Highlight concrete’s positive impact on our lives right across the planet. Whether it’s the bridges, railways and roads that we travel along or the homes, offices and schools we inhabit, concrete is a truly versatile material. Our competition gives anyone with a smartphone, as well as professional photographers, the chance to show just how essential concrete is.”
Entries were submitted from every continent and included images of skyscrapers and the modern urban world, plus key transportation, water resources and coastal protection infrastructure. Some photos also show more intimate human interactions in villages and playgrounds or exquisitely designed architecture.
“These images highlight the importance of concrete in the breadth of our lives,” observes competition judge Diane Hoskins, global co-chair of San Francisco-based architectural giant Gensler. “Great design of our buildings and infrastructure is enabled by the important properties of concrete.”
“Concrete is all around us and has a beauty that might not always be obvious to some people,” adds fellow judge Chris George, Digital Camera World content director. “The Concrete in Life global photography competition continues to prove it is possible to take stunning shots of architecture and the manmade environment that show off the beauty of this universal building material.”
In addition to the Venice Beach image, four other Concrete in Life Photo category winners were also announced, each receiving a $2,500 prize: Urban Concrete, Avar Sadath for “Urban Flow,” set in Dubai; Infrastructure, Wentao Guo for “Structure as Aesthetics,” captured in the Washington, D.C. subway; Concrete in Daily Life, Wellington Kuswanto for “Bedok Jetty” in Singapore; and, Beauty and Design, Artemio Layno for “Broken Building” in Amsterdam. People’s Vote, chosen by the public with a $5,000 prize, went to Mohamed Raj for “Fluttering Through Life” in Pondicherry, India.
