Entries to our 2015 photo contest came from around the world, from many branches of the Rotary family tree. The winning images, shown with the judge’s commentary, are vivid glimpses into the Rotary experience.
Kathy Ryan is an expert at narrowing down hundreds of photos to just a few of the best – that’s what she does every week as photography director for the New York Times Magazine. We asked her to turn her critical eye to the entries we received in this year’s photo contest, and you’ll find her choices below. You can see more shots from the photo contest in our magazine throughout the year.
Want to see your photo in The Rotarian? Our 2016 contest will open in December. We put together 10 tips for visual storytelling to help you out.
FIRST PLACE
Photographer: Tom Thomson, Rotary Club of Franklin, Tenn.
Location: near Copán Ruinas, Honduras
Ryan: The soft light coming through the ecclesiastical windows gives this picture a timeless, spiritual feeling. There is just enough light to let us see the roughhewn quality of the wooden loom and the outline of the weaver’s face. By standing behind his subject to make the picture, Thomson allows us to be part of the scene, as if we were in the room. The illumination of the tension in the weaver’s shoulders and the blur of the spinning loom allow us to viscerally feel the physical action of her work.
SECOND PLACE
Photographer: Christopher Carruth, Rotary Club of Boulder, Colo.
Location: Coya, Peru
Ryan: These hands are covered in a mixture of mud and yucca sap known as “barro,” which is used as a fixative in the construction of cookstoves. Carruth, recognizing the beauty of these muddy hands, turns them into an elegant framing device for his portrait of Elva Luz Ore Estrada.
THIRD PLACE
Photographer: Elissa Ebersold, New Generations Service Exchange participant through the Rotary Club of Delmar, N.Y.
Location: Vejle, Denmark
Ryan: This picture is all about quiet and stillness. By composing the image with the red boat just below the horizon line, Ebersold reinforces the way the silvery lake and sky blend into each other, creating a harmonious and meditative image.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Photographer: Gerald Montgomery, Rotary Club of Park Cities (Dallas), Texas
Location: Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
Ryan: By capturing the moment when these four women are about to pass the tree, Montgomery emphasizes the way in which the birds sitting in rows on the branches visually mimic the spacing of the women walking in single file. It lends a poetic elegance to this documentary scene.
Photographer: Klaus Kocher, Rotary Club of Roaring Fork (Glenwood Springs), Colo.
Location: San Jose, Costa Rica
Ryan: The puzzled expression of the girl at the front of the line makes this photograph. There is a little bit of childlike wonder in her face, and a little bit of worry. The plate in her hand anchors the composition, and calls our attention to the fact that these children are waiting for food. They are about to receive their only meal of the day in the slums of San Jose.
Photographer: Chuck Conner, Rotary Club of Ripley, W.Va.
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Ryan: This photograph seems to be about the intersection of fantasy and reality. The romance of the lush, colorful landscape pictures stands in stark contrast to the shop’s grittiness. We suspect, looking at this image, that the magnificent mountains shown in the paintings are visible right outside the shop. This is a clever photograph because of the juxtaposition of colorful illusion with drab reality.
Photographer: Lola Reid Allin, Rotary Club of Belleville, Ont.
Location: Hoi An, Vietnam
Ryan: This black-and-white image is an appreciation of the sculptural forms of the traditional fishing pens and boats used in the village of Hoi An. By eliminating color, the photographer focuses our attention on the graphic beauty of the delicate, spindly sticks jutting from the water.
Photographer: Helena Dahlin, Rotary E-Club of One World D5240, Calif.
Location: Pinnawala, Sri Lanka
Ryan: This exuberant picture succeeds because Dahlin has captured exactly the right moment of the water hitting the rider.
