Photo Contest Winners

World in Focus

 

From the nearly 1

5,000 entries in our annual “World in Focus” photo contest, we chose winners whose images capture people and places with a vision as individual as the photographers.

By Ingrid Ahlgren*

First Prize: 10-day trip for two to Tahiti, Moorea and Bora-Bora

JAY DUNN: TAIYUAN, SHANXI, CHINA

Jay Dunn, an educational consultant, lives in China with his wife, Zhao Ting Ting. The couple recently traveled to India for their honeymoon.

Dunn took this photograph of a pilgrim’s hands in the city of Nashik, in Maharashtra. “On a cool December morning, I was drawn to this old man sitting quietly by the water,” says Dunn. “His hands were so expressive in the soft morning light.”

Every year, thousands of pilgrims travel to Nashik, on the banks of the Godavari River, to perform a ritual cleansing.

“In my photography, I look for the dignity of people no matter what their circumstances,” says Dunn. “I’ve spent almost six years in Asia, searching for moments like these, visions, as it were, that not only speak for themselves, but also to something greater, to our common humanity, and to the dreams everyone has of something better.”

Specs: Nikon D70s digital camera, 28-300mm zoom lens.

Second Prize: 5-day trip for two to Vietnam

KYLE GEORGE: FLAGSTAFF, ARIZ.

Kyle George, a Grand Canyon river guide and photography enthusiast, has been shooting pictures for about four years. He was working as a river guide on a trip that National Geographic staff photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols took to the Grand Canyon.

“Nick was doing a lot of night photography, and that inspired me to give it a go,” he says about this photograph of Anasazi ruins.

To illuminate the scene, George positioned a remote flash with orange and yellow gels in a window (going inside the ruin is prohibited). He says this shot was possible because it was a relatively long exposure.

“This same scene has been photographed a million different times, but never at night as far as I know,” says the photographer. “It’s about a mile walk from the ruins to where we had camped, and I ended up being stalked by two mountain lions on the way back.”

Specs: Nikon F4, 18mm lens, Fuji Velvia 100F film.

Third Prize: 6-day cruise for two on a Maine Windjammer schooner.

ANNE RHEE: AIRMONT, N.Y.

A few months after Anna Rhee’s husband had emergency heart surgery in May 2005, the couple took a second honeymoon to the island of Santorini in Greece.

“The morning I took this picture we were on the caldera harbor on our way to visit the volcano,” recalls Rhee. She was wandering around when she saw a group of workers taking a break. “I was immediately captivated by the scene, which to me reflected a fascinating side of Greek identity, bringing together sun, wind, sea and a sense of hardship. Their faces expressed it all.”

Rhee lives in Rockland County, N.Y., with her husband and three children, ages 6, 11 and 13. She works as a health care professional in New York City.

Specs: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T3 digital camera, 3.0X zoom lens.