TAMPA, Fla. — Angelika Kollin is standing barefoot in front of a residential building, adjusting the angle of Elliot Kingsley’s head as she stands in the bright sunshine in a wedding dress.

Kingsley was a person Kollin met while they were at work as a Riverview barista. Kollin takes pictures of the people she meets at work.

The Estonian native and Riverview resident won the 12th International Photography Competition at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa.

Kollin took the award-winning picture in Cape Town, South Africa, of an immigrant day laborer named Lucy, with the look of a halo behind her and a broom in her hands. It’s part of a series where she adds a painted, gold, halo-like circle behind domestic workers.

She says their demeanor changes as they recognized the worth in themselves. They stand up taller.

She’s photographed people on three continents.

“We are all participants in every story. We can all find some points in it that either resonate or bring something up in us,” she said.

All this is thanks to the collapse of communism. Her family emigrated to Germany from Estonia in 1991. She was 15 when she got her first camera, and she tried to keep her gear simple.

“In my opinion, it’s really, truly not about the camera,” said Kollin.

It’s about the bond between the photographer and her subject. A bond has a bride-to-be happily posing in 90-degree weather on the side of a townhome. That’s what produces the art.