Behind the lens
Tran Vinh Nghia
Amateur Category - Winner Goal 1, Overall First Prize
Tran Vinh Nghia grew up in the coastal city of Phan Thiet in the southern province of Binh Thuan in Viet Nam. He says photography is his passion, and he has studied it both formally in Ho Chi Minh City and also by studying books and newspapers. While he earns his living as a wedding videographer, he often takes along his camera to catch a few shots.
He often directs his lens to life in coastal areas, especially of fishing communities who have been pursuing their livelihood for many generations. Today, he says, these people face the effects of climate change, including rising water levels that directly threaten their lives and the crops they grow as well.
See winning picture for Millennium Development Goal 1: Daily work
Rudolf Kozsak
Amateur Category - Winner Goal 7, Overall Second Prize
Rudolf Árpád Kozsák is from Budapest, Hungary. He started taking photos as a child but first began to study photography seriously in 2004 and it soon became his favourite hobby and passion.
“I am mostly fascinated by urban themes and moments in everyday life,” says Rudolf, who launched a blog exhibiting his photography in 2008. Some of his photos have made it into a number of exhibitions in Hungary.
See winning picture for Millennium Development Goal 7: We Choose Bicycles
Maria Cierna
Amateur Category - Winner Goal 5, Overall Third Prize
Maria Cierna is an amateur photographer from the Slovak Republic. She was working as a coordinator for a medical project in Burundi when she met the young woman depicted in her winning photo.
Improving maternal and child health is one of the main goals of the organization Maria was working with. The project was established by the University of Health and Social Sciences of St. Elisabeth in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, in cooperation with the Burundi Ministry of Health; it provides mainly financial and personnel support to Rutovu Hospital.
See winning picture for Millennium Development Goal 5: Feeling Better
Prakash Hatvalne
Professional Category - Winner Goal 2, Overall First Prize
Prakash Hatvalne has worked as a professional photojournalist for the past two decades. His photographs have been published by media outlets including the Los Angeles Times, The Independent, The Guardian, Time Magazine, BBC Online and The Times of India. Currently he works freelance for the Associated Press and lives in Bhopal, India.
Prakash has won a number of international and national awards for his photography, including a first prize in the 2009 Friends of the Earth International Photo Contest in The Netherlands. He had his first solo exhibition in 1993, sponsored by Alliance Francaise; in 2003 his images of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy were shown at the 16th annual Visa pour L’Image in France.
See winning picture for Millennium Development Goal 2: A Step Ahead
Marielle van Uitert
Professional Category - Winner Goal 7, Overall Second Prize
Marielle van Uitert is a Dutch photographer who specializes in social issues in vulnerable countries. She often focuses on war photography, and has travelled across Afghanistan, Iraq and countries in Africa. Marielle graduated from the School for Photography in The Netherlands.
“When I was in Cambodia and Vietnam in 2004 I was inspired by the shocking image of Kim Phuc, who was attacked by napalm bombs,” Marielle says. “I started reading about this picture and especially the impact it had on the whole world. I decided right away to give up my job as a diving instructor and become a professional photographer.”
See winning picture for Millennium Development Goal 7: Liquid Gold
Larry Louie
Professional Category - Winner Goal 2, Overall Third Prize
Dr. Larry Louie is an optometrist and documentary photographer based in Edmonton, Canada. When he was a teenager, he dreamed of being a National Geographic photographer, travelling the world and photographing different places and cultures. Today, his photography is a serious hobby that, five years ago, took on a new dimension when he became a volunteer optometrist with Seva Canada, which is working with other organizations to eliminate preventable blindness across the world by 2020. Larry has used his photography as a way to highlight Seva’s work in addition to other social issues and challenges that people are encountering in a world facing rapid urbanization and globalization. All proceeds from his photographic projects are donated to Seva’s eye care work in developing countries.
See picture for Millennium Development Goal 2: My Braille Typewriters
Agha Rizwan Ali
People’s Choice Winner
Agha Rizwan Ali teaches photojournalism at the Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore and he is a volunteer media advisor for the Marshall Direct Fund USA, which works to alleviate poverty and combat extremism. Agha began experimenting with different photographic techniques in his own small home lab at the age of 14 and has worked hard to excel in what he calls “this fascinating work of developing an eye to capture nature, monuments, people, faces, gestures and moments.”
Agha has won a number of national photographic contests and was selected to photograph his alma mater, Government College University, Lahore, for a commemorative stamp celebrating its 125th anniversary. Agha offers services in photography, journalism, printing and publishing to a number of other institutions, corporations and media outlets in Pakistan.
