A Peruvian and a Chinese photographer were announced as winners of a world photography contest, launched by the United Nations to highlight the potato’s key role in agriculture, the economy and world food security.
Part of the International Year of the Potato celebrations in 2008, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) awarded first prizes in the contest – called “Focus on a global food” – to professional photographer Eitan Abramovich, and amateur photographer Xi Huang.
Photographer Marlene Singh from the Philippines won 3rd prize in the Amatuer category with her winning photo entitled “Bamboo Boat“.
Bamboo Boat - 3rd Prize: Amateur Category IYP 2008 - Winning Photo by Marlene Singh
The 1000 contest entries from over 90 countries were reviewed and evaluated by a selection committee of eight panellists including five of the world’s leading professionals, who granted second and third prizes in both the professional and amateur categories to photographers from Spain, Belarus, the Netherlands and the Philippines.
The Winners are:
Professional category
- 1st prize: Eitan Abramovich, Peru — “Harvest of native potatoes”
- 2nd prize: Pablo Balbontin, Spain — “The custodians of biodiversity”
- 3rd prize: Viktor Drachev, Belarus — “Belarus soldiers eat potatoes”
Amateur category
- 1st prize: Xi Huang, China — Untitled
- 2nd prize: Dick Gerstmeijer, Netherlands — “Digging up potatoes”
- 3rd prize: Marlene Singh, Philippines — “Bamboo boat”
In support of the spirit of the International Year, photographers were invited to submit images that illustrated potato cultivation, processing, trade, marketing, consumption and utilization.
Sponsored by Nikon Europe and Irge Colore Srl, the event gave photographers an opportunity to showcase previous work or to capture new images depicting the vital crop, single digital images and “photo stories” of four to eight related images in either black or colour.
Coinciding with World Food Day – observed annually on 16 October to mark the founding of FAO – the “focus on global food” contest works to support the day’s ethos to highlight the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to halve hunger and poverty by the year 2015.
Check out the winning photos at IYP World Photography Contest – International Year of the Potato 2008.
