Announcing the Winners of Our 9th Annual Photo Contest
Our editors pored over more than 67,000 photographs, each one a postcard from a unique time and place
- By Jesse Rhodes
- Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2012,
(Jia Han Dong)
Jia Han Dong, Age 52
Parsippany, New Jersey • Photographed March 2009
Xiapu, China “is famous for photo ops because it has lots of small hills along the coasts,” says Dong. “I zoomed in with my Nikon so that the reflection filled the whole frame. I waited till those fishermen walked into the right position and took the shot.”
Jia Han Dong, a shipping company manager from New Jersey, was vacationing in a small fishing community in southern China when he climbed a hill, intending to photograph the setting sun above the East China Sea. He walked around for hours trying to find the best spot to set up his equipment, but the conditions weren’t ideal. “It was kind of cloudy,” recalls Dong. Then the sun appeared and lent the shoreline a golden cast. “I saw those fishermen going out for low tide clamming with their tools on their shoulders. I loved the color, the pattern of the posts in the foreground, the texture of the water.”
Our judges loved them, too: Dong won the Grand Prize in our 9th annual Photo Contest, netting himself a $2,700 cash award.
More than 14,000 people from all over the world participated in the contest, collectively sending in 67,059 photographs. Our editors picked the winners in five categories: Americana, the Natural World, People, Travel and Altered Images. Website readers cast some 26,000 votes for their favorites, with the Readers’ Choice winning by 1,000.
Congratulations to this year’s winners, whose photographs appear on the following pages, and thank you to all the entrants. With our 10th contest underway, we can’t wait to see your unique views of the world.
Comments (3)
Nice photo but out of 67,000 this is the best you could come up with??? Isn't this a Rock Scallop?
Posted by RavenWing on July 2,2012 | 10:17 AM
This is a worthy photograph!
Posted by RavenWing on July 2,2012 | 10:13 AM
Thanks . Very interested publicities.Idea of article is quite best and impresive to think about this art and future. Kind regards from Ireland. I am just commenting to let you know what a awesome experience my cousin’s child encountered browsing your webblog.
Posted by quad on July 2,2012 | 09:06 AM