Photo by Dat Vu
Thank you to every one of the 1558 talented individuals who applied for our 2010 Travel Photography Scholarship. The caliber of entries this year was exceptional as you continue to raise the bar every year with your beautiful, poignant and eye opening stories from all over the world.
It was an excruciatingly difficult job creating a shortlist from such a deep pool of talent and even more challenging separating one winner.
Congratulations to you all!
Judging Panel - General Feedback
Unfortunately we don't have the resources to comment on each individual entry, but there has been some general feedback from the judges which you might find useful when applying next year.
It is important to demonstrate that you can read and interpret a brief correctly, by making sure you carefully consider the judging criteria before submitting your photos. We added the video blog from Jason Edwards this year to make the criteria as clear as possible. Even so, we still had a number of entries who submitted fantastic photos but did not provide any captions for their photos and/or did not fulfill the brief of a 300 word maximum essay.
The Scholarship is a learning/mentoring opportunity,and we want you to tell us what have you captured, who you are are and why you should be the one person chosen to be mentored by a National Geographic photographer. If you didn't fulfill each and every part of the judging criteria, you would have been penalised accordingly. When a competition is as competitive as this, every point in the judging process is crucial. As a reminder these included; composition, exposure, originality, story, opinion, depth, captioning, reason for why you should win (max 300 word essay), willingness to learn and, contribution to photography.
Overall, the standard of submitted photos was excellent so we cannot fault you there! But some people did let themselves down by not fulfilling all of the brief.
There can only be one winner.....
So, down to business!
We are very pleased to announce Dat Vu Tien from Vietnam as our winner!
Jason's Comments:
Through his poignant and uplifting series of images Dat has shown us a place in the world occupied by a child and her everyday triumphs. His imagery was beautifully composed, tight and unfettered. I appreciated his desire to communicate her story through her disability and environment and I very much felt I was there, sharing the experience. A wonderfully immersive experience!
UPDATE! Read Dat's blog and check out his photos on assignment in Bhutan.
Equal Second Place:
Richard Fairbrother (China)- Twilight of Old Beijing
Jason's Comments:
My hat goes off to Richard and his wonderful story on a vanishing community and way of life. It must be said I LOVED seeing traditional black and white film images. Richard’s treatment of this medium was superb as was his composition and selection of subjects.
and
Inanc Tekguc (Cyprus)- Sharing the Beauty
Jason's comments:
Congratulations to Inanc for his wonderful series set in a Samburu village. Through his images I was there, caught between worlds and colliding cultures. Inanc made wonderful use of shadow and created a fantastic portrait of rural life in modern Africa.
Third Place
Andrew Houston (Japan)- Kamgasaki: Japan's Forgotten Ghetto
Jason's comments:
Raw, powerful and uncompromising! This was great imagery that enveloped both human and political issues in a community where so much hangs in the balance. Wonderful to see iron bars used so prominently and yet illustrating the strength of a peoples’ so marginalized.
Fourth Place
Ionut Tarcea (Romania)- The Story of Nargiles
Jason's Comments:
This was a beautifully lit and composed essay that had me there, in the factory, where the men produce these traditional nargiles. Ionut made excellent use of light and shadow and captured lots of character in the faces of his subjects. All this tied together with images of the nargiles in use. Well done!
The Shortlist (in alphabetical order)
Aiess Alonso
Michael Cook - Homo Sacer, People without Place
Arko Datto (India)
Alexander Evansen(Norway)- Reporting from the Arctic
Fabi Fliervoet(Netherlands)- Island Life
Colter Freeman (USA) - Chernobyl and Pripyat
Eloise Fuss (Australia)- Ghana, West Africa
Don Gurewitz(USA) - Images of our World
Kristina Hoksbergen (Australia) - My Place, My People
Martin Ilcik (Slovakia)- Slovak Paradise
Artesia Irawan (Indonesia)- My Lucky Boots
Jonnek Jonneksson (Greece) - India:Chaos & Religion
Jillian Keenan (USA)
Nick Kuchmak(Canada)- Life and Death in Toraja
Kai Loffelbein (Germany)- Witches in India - Life of Desperation
Tammy Law (Australia)- Mongolian Grasslands
Amelia Merrick (USA)- Skip Town
Greetje Mulder (Netherlands)- Travel Photography
Dragos Rapeanu (Romania)- Life Journal
Eric Reichbaum (Korea) - Korean Elders
Anubhv Tyagi (India)- Experience
Hids Samsudeen(India)- Vanishing Tribes
Tejas Shah (UK)- A Snapshot of Modern Japan
Sabine Shwarz (Australia)- Being Bondi
Voula Tripolitsiotis (USA)
Nic Uthaipanumas (Thailand)- Believe
Fabian Weiss (Austria)- Living on the Edge in Transylvania
Tracy Yuen (Australia)- A Little Bit of the World
What's Next?
Congratulations to Dat Vu, and everyone who was shortlisted or placed. We will keep you posted on Dat's trip to Bhutan with Jason Edwards and the resulting photos.
We look forward to seeing everyone's new work next year, so make sure you sign up the the Scholarship Mailing List to be notified about our next exciting opportunity.
A Final Thought from Jason Edwards
Hi Everybody,
Here we are again at that all-important time, judging the 2010 World Nomads Travel Scholarship. Where did the past twelve months go? For myself it’s been a crazy period of shooting assignments in eight countries and habitats ranging from deserts to rainforests to ice fields. I sincerely hope your photographic pursuits were as rewarding.
As you will all be aware the judging for this year’s event is now over and we have our winner, congratulations Dat! The standard of entries was amazing, literally quite amazing! Thank you for your patience whilst the judging panel struggled to separate our finalists and whilst I was tortured in coming to a final decision, it was very, very difficult.
The competition was incredibly tight so much so we had two people drawn for second place. At these times you cannot afford a weak image or to ignore any part of the judging criteria. I was humbled; so many people had a vision of what they wanted their photography to be. This is a Scholarship so finding the right person was not simply a matter of selecting the best imagery but in finding the individual we felt would benefit the most from time with me and what they hoped to achieve in their careers.
Whilst viewing this year’s place-getters and finalists please review the ten judging criteria again. Just because an entry made it to the final round does not preclude it from these criteria, in fact that is when the entry was critiqued the hardest. Several entries were removed from the finalist list for over treating their files. This year we had many issues with captioning and the 300 word written component. Ignore the judging process criteria at your own peril! I would strongly suggest everyone including the finalists, review their entries with the judging process criteria at hand and try to see where they may have lost a point or two.
In closing congratulations to everyone that took the time to produce a portfolio and enter. This in itself is a great exercise and strengthens your photographic ability in ways you may not realise. Please remember, what is most important about your images is what you capture at the time, not what you do in postproduction. Enjoy your photography as a creative expression of who you are and your place in the world.
I hope to see you all again next year!
Best Wishes
Jason
For all of you aspiring creatives, check out our Scholarships page and sign up to hear about our latest opportunities, tips, advice and interviews with industry professionals in the fields of photography, travel writing and filmmaking.
And if you're lucky enough to be mentored by one of our industry professionals, it could kick start your career!
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