Capturing the Heart of the Sea: Life at Sea 2025 Winners Announced
The ITF Seafarers’ Trust is proud to announce the winners of the Life at Sea 2025 Photography Competition, revealed today on World Maritime Day.
The winning images, submitted by seafarers from around the world, offer intimate and unfiltered visual stories from aboard ships, reflecting the beauty, challenges, and realities of life at sea.
When Nature takes command – 1st prize
Parwaz Mukadam
In first place is Indian seafarer Parwaz Mukadam, who created the powerful image ‘When Nature takes command'. He said of the image: "In the vastness of the ocean, danger can rise without warning. A waterspout forms ahead, reminding us no matter the size of the ship, nature always has the final say."
The Voyage of Dreams – 2nd prize
Arthur Calipayan
Second place is ‘The Voyage of Dreams’ submitted by Arthur Calipayan from the Philippines who put his portrait on the wall of a Seaman’s Club during his time at sea: “On this wall at the Seaman’s Club in France, every photo is a vessel—each face a sailor on their own voyage across life’s vast ocean. These are not just portraits of strength or sacrifice, but of dreams set adrift on distant tides. I placed my photo among them, as one of many navigating the same sea—each wave carrying us closer to the shores we quietly long for.”
On the Top – 3rd prize
Nguyễn Hùng Cường
‘On the Top’ was awarded third place. Taken by Nguyễn Hùng Cường from Vietnam, it shows crew members dwarfed by a ship’s massive funnel, standing resilient against the brooding sky.
Judges also awarded Highly Commended to two stunning portraits - Malcom Serrano’s ‘The Climb’ – a real seafarer as superhero shot and Vincent Dwight Rafil’s ‘Steel and Salt’ a powerful image in black and white.
The Climb – Highly commended
Malcom Serrano
Steel and Salt – Highly commended
Vincent Dwight Rafil
Also Highly Commended was the deceptively calm seascape - ‘Shooting Star’ by Arthur Ray N. Lumayag: “I am on watch during that time when it happens. It was during the Israel-Iran conflict, and we were on the Persian Gulf during that time opposite to Iran in the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) Waters when the series of missiles were fired” A stark reminder that seafarers can find themselves perilously close to war zones in the course of their daily work.
This year’s judging panel was Natasha Brown, Head of IMO Outreach and Communications, Jericho Mifania, seafarer and winner of last year’s competition, professional photographer, Christian Cravo and the Editor-in-Chief of Lloyd’s List, Richard Meade.
From the ITF Worldwide Inspector’s Seminar in Cyprus, where the competition winners were unveiled, Head of the ITF Seafarers’ Trust Katie Higginbottom said: “It’s been another fantastic year for this competition with thousands of entries from seafarers. Getting to see the world through their eyes is such a privilege. Seafarers are the invisible life force of global trade, yet stories of their daily life often go untold. LIFE AT SEA is dedicated to giving them voice, using photography to raise awareness of their working conditions, experiences, and the human stories behind the shipments, ports, and ships that connect the world.”
Shooting Star – Highly commended
Arthur Ray N. Lumayag
The ITF Seafarers’ Trust photography project, which began in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, now boasts a collection of some 11,000 digital images and captions. We are enormously grateful to all the seafarers who have embraced the opportunity to share their experiences with us and help raise the profile of the men and women powering the global movement of goods and people by sea.
Life at Sea 2025 is the sixth seafarers’ photography competition organised by the ITF Seafarers' Trust. The winning photographs, along with previous years’ winners can be found here:
https://www.seafarerstrust.org/life-sea
To see the full archive of seafarers’ photography see: https://lifeatsea.co.uk
If you are interested in cooperating with us to exhibit images from Life at Sea, get in touch.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Rumana Akther
Trust Administrator
Follow us on Facebook @ITFTrust ITF Seafarers’ Trust on Facebook and Instagram @SeafarersTrust https://www.instagram.com/seafarerstrust/ to see more of the images and stories that seafarers shared with the Life at Sea 2025 competition.
Note to editors
The ITF Seafarers Trust is a UK charity established in 1981, which funds programmes that advance the wellbeing of maritime workers, seafarers and their families. We are funded by the Trust’s own capital funds, and by the investment income of the Welfare Fund at the International Transport Workers Federation, a global federation of transport workers’ unions representing approximately 16.5 million members.
About the judges:
Jericho Mifania is a seafarer, currently employed at OSM Thome as OIC NW officer from the Philippines. A keen photographer, he was the winner of the Trust photo competition in 2024. He is also a journalist, cartoonist and painter.
Richard Meade is Editor-in-Chief of Lloyd’s List. He is an award-winning journalist and has been writing and talking about all aspects of the maritime industry and global trade for the past twenty years. He is the host of the popular Lloyd’s List Shipping Podcast.
Natasha Brown is Head of the IMO Outreach and Communications office. Previously, Natasha was a journalist for five years with Reuters news agency, covering news and feature stories in London, Lisbon and Moscow.
Christian Cravo is an internationally renowned photographer. His photographs have been exhibited in solo shows at prominent venues such as Throckmorton Fine Art in New York, Billedhusets Galeri in Copenhagen and the Ministry of Culture in Brasília. Cravo was a 2001 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.