cizucu Presents “Saved & Lost” | Challenge #410

“Saved & Lost” is a global online photography contest presented by cizucu and open to all creators registered on the platform. By curating outstanding works from the submissions, the contest seeks to discover emerging talent and support it through the cizucu community.

This edition’s theme is “Glad I saved it; wish I had saved it.”

Looking back through your camera roll, you may find that an unassuming photograph has, with the passage of time, become a treasured record. At other times, you may remember a photograph or moment no longer in your possession and think, “I wish I had photographed that,” or “I wish I hadn’t deleted it.”

For this contest, we invite photographs and words that explore both what you preserved and what you could not. Beyond photographic technique and finish, we value the intimate story surrounding each work. Your text does not need to be long. In your own words, tell us why you have kept the photograph—or why you wish you had.
Is there a photograph that has taken on new meaning only now? Or one that recalls something absent from the frame?

The photograph you wish you had saved does not need to remain in your possession. You may also submit a work depicting a present-day landscape or object that evokes the photograph or moment now lost.

fujikko
For those who live here, it was an ordinary morning; for me, it was something extraordinary.

cizucu Editorial Team
The daily rituals repeated in someone’s home may feel entirely unremarkable to those who live there. Yet to a visitor from elsewhere, they can become an unfamiliar experience at its freshest and most memorable.

Coly Yu
To Heal and To Hold
This is the journey of accompanying my mother through her fight against cancer, and a path that led to the healing of our entire family.

cizucu Editorial Team
Time spent alongside a loved one in pain leaves a profound imprint on the hearts of those who remain close. This photograph conveys not only the strength required to confront illness, but also the warmth of a family learning to hold one another anew. It reminds us that making a record can protect memories we cannot bear to lose, while becoming a gradual act of healing in itself.

Chan Jian Liang
Since today is Mother’s Day, I want to dedicate this photograph/poster to my mum.
I went to her workplace to surprise her. I wanted to photograph her in her natural work environment because she has worked for many years as a salesperson for a Chinese herbal tea brand.
My mum is the nicest, kindest, most pure-hearted and selfless soul. She always puts others before herself, and sometimes I think she is too nice. In any case, I love my mum very much, and she has done so much for me. I love you, Mum.

cizucu Editorial Team
The sight of his mother at work, witnessed day after day, must be an irreplaceable part of the family’s everyday life. Precisely because he chose to preserve an unguarded moment, the work communicates both her distinctive kindness and the years she has devoted to her work. His sincere love for her radiates through both the photograph and the accompanying words.

陳冠翔 Charles
Four years ago, Nana’s mother promised that she would attend her graduation ceremony. No one imagined that, two years later, she would pass away from terminal cancer. Nana never properly said goodbye during their final conversation, and from that moment on, she remained trapped in that day two years before. When graduation season arrived, she told the rain everything she had wanted to say. Would the rain descending from the sky carry her longing back to heaven?

She took a graduation portrait together with a photograph of her mother. Her mother had fulfilled the promise she once made to Nana. When the photograph was taken, the rain stopped and the sun emerged.

cizucu Editorial Team
Unfulfilled promises and unspoken words remain in the heart, however much time passes. Yet by making a photograph with her mother’s portrait, Nana may have been able to stand once more in the same moment as the mother from whom she had been separated. This work shows us that even the feeling of “I wish I had saved it” can be reconfigured into a new photograph by tracing the impressions and presence that remain.

Jia Qi
15 February 2026. My dad’s annual tradition of braising ducks for family and friends. Even as he grows older, he is still going strong and doing his best so that everyone can enjoy his food.

He asked me why I wanted to take photographs this year, and I simply answered, “For the memories.” I have always thought these moments were precious, and there is never really a perfect time to decide that now is the right moment to photograph them.

“Some days are the ‘good old days’ while you are living them.”

P.S. He does not say it, but whenever people tell him his food is delicious—which it undoubtedly is—he is very happy.

cizucu Editorial Team
Even a family scene repeated year after year cannot be expected to continue forever in precisely the same form. That is why the simple decision to press the shutter “for the memories” resonates so deeply. When this photograph is revisited one day, the aroma of the food and her father’s delighted expression will surely return with vivid clarity.

【Submission Period】
Saturday, September 12–Sunday, October 11, 2026

【Selected Artists Announced】
Around Wednesday, October 21, 2026

【Prize】
Complimentary admission to the “photo poster project” presented by cizucu (two recipients)

【How to Submit】
・Select the “Saved & Lost” contest
・Tap “Agree to the Submission Guidelines and Post”
・Choose the content of your post and submit your work

【Jury Criteria】
(1) Engagement with the theme: Does the work respond to the stated mission?
(2) Clarity of subject: Does it communicate why the photograph was preserved, or why the photographer wishes it had been?
(3) Expressive quality: Do the photograph and words resonate with one another and expand the viewer’s imagination?
(4) Decisive moment: Does the work successfully capture the photographic subject at the right moment?
(5) Originality: Does the work express a perspective or experience distinctive to the photographer?