For the “‘What Lies Beneath’ Exhibition” Quest, we asked the 500px community to submit their most impactful conceptual photography—photos that would spark an imaginative streak in anyone who saw them. As usual, our community came through, with nearly 20,000 submissions from talented photographers out of 44 different countries around the world, such as Tanzania, Georgia, Norway, Mozambique, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Greece, and Cuba.

Inspired by Allison Morris‘ unsettling and provocative imagery, which will be shown at 500px HQ this May as part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, these are the winning images in our ‘What Lies Beneath’ Quest.

Each of the winning photos will be printed and showcased as part of our complementary exhibition to Allison‘s work, in our gallery show titled “What Lies Beneath.” The exhibition of the 500px community photos below will run alongside Allison‘s gallery at our headquarters throughout the month of May, where locals, tourists, and creatives from around the world will discover them as part of CONTACT 2019.

Explore the most captivating and curious photos we’ve seen in a while, below.

First place: $1,000 USD + exhibition

Borders#2” by photoborodina

Borders#2 by photoborodina.com  on 500px.com

Second place: $500 USD + exhibition

Stronger” by milos nejezchleb

Stronger by milos nejezchleb on 500px.com

Third place: $250 USD + exhibition

Going Up” by Aaron Ricketts

Going Up by Aaron Ricketts on 500px.com

Runners-up

Check out a sampling of our runners-up below, whose work will also be exhibited in our CONTACT 2019 gallery show. See the full list of exhibitors in our official 500px Gallery.

Coming through by Svein Skjåk Nordrum on 500px.com

Dancing Soul by Kristina Ponomareva on 500px.com

Reaching Out by Tiina Weckman on 500px.com

SOUL by Inna Mosina on 500px.com

Time and Place  by Andrew Curry on 500px.com

Cigarette by the window by Edgaras Vaicikevicius on 500px.com

Cardboard by Kirill Golovan on 500px.com

the great below by Nicki Panou on 500px.com

Being Little Bono by Pritush Maharjan on 500px.com

Elixir by Ante Badzim on 500px.com

everything that kills by Tyler McAuley on 500px.com

?????????Our portrait of blue? by Jey_X  on 500px.com

Ignacio by Antoine Martin on 500px.com

Ship to wreck by Alexandra Bochkareva on 500px.com

For more on our official exhibitions for CONTACT Photography Festival, check out 500px.com/CONTACT.