A breathtaking photo project, titled The Sound of Silence, has just won the prestigious Urban Press Award 2025 – and the key images were taken on an entry-level full-frame mirrorless camera with a superzoom lens.
The 12-photograph panel was captured across India by Italian photographer Andrea Bettancini – who was previously a finalist in both the Urban Photo Awards and the Sony World Photography Awards in 2022.
Bettancini shot the project's most striking images using a Sony A7 III with the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III RXD. A seven-year-old, entry-level full-frame body with a third-party superzoom may not be considered "pro" equipment by some, but this project again proves that the idea always trumps the gear.
Some of the other images were taken with the more advanced Sony A7 IV and Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM, but the panel's hero shots prove that having the latest kit is immaterial – even when it comes to international photographic competition.
A reportage, street and narrative photographer who cut his teeth in Milan, Bettancini's description of The Sound of Silence is as poetic as his images.
"Listening to the silence within the clamor, a side of India, almost whispered, where the background noise – that invisible, everyday, intimate hum – takes shape through faces, gestures, voids, and waiting.
"A flow of images that succeed one another like fragments of a visual thought, poised between harmony and dissonance, between distance and proximity, isolated encounters: suspended moments that detach from the flow of the masses and become singular presences.
"A silent India in a context often perceived only through its clamor. It is a journey into the echo of things, where the gaze rests not on what is displayed, but on what remains."
The Urban Press Award is one of the categories of the wider Urban Photo Awards. While the overall competition is judged by a panel of over 40 international judges, the Urban Press Award is decided by a panel comprised of 8 members of the worldwide photographic press. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of the press panel.)
The Urban Photo Awards finalists have been revealed, and the Photographer of the Year along with all the category winners will be announced and honored at an awards ceremony on October 25 at Trieste Photo Days – the three-day photography festival held in Italy.
For more information and to view the image galleries, visit the Urban Photo Awards website. You can see more of Andrea Bettancini's work on Instagram.
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