Ieva Gaile didn’t expect to take a photo on her trip to the supermarket. The lawyer, who lives in Vilnius, Lithuania, was working from home on the day and had popped next door for some lunch. When she spotted the errant cabbage placed atop a towering stack of water-bottle pallets, her reaction was instant.
“Since I began photography I’ve developed a habit of always observing my environment for interesting shots, andI thought it was beautiful visually,” Gaile says of this image, shortlisted in the Object category at the Sony World Photography awards 2025. “I liked the play of colours and repetition of green, and the contrast of textures: the wrinkled and imperfect surface of the cabbage against the synthetic shine of the plastic bottles.”
She characterises the cabbage as “lonely”, in contrast to the uniformity of the bottles. “It seemed isolated and alien, but at the same time individual, unlike the army of identical bottles,” Gaile says.
As she reflected on the image later, other layers of meaning began opening up to her. “Some may interpret social and ecological problems; how it highlights people’s irresponsible behaviour and careless approach to food,” she says. “Environmentally conscious viewers might see the clash between nature and plastic. Others may look at it with humour: an absurd yet familiar moment in our rushed, everyday lives.”
• The Sony World Photography awards exhibition is at Somerset House, London, 17 April to 5 May
