Travel Photographer of the Year
BANGLADESHI PHOTOGRAPHER WINS TPOTY 2009
Stunning images take the title in most international entry to date
The 2009 international Travel Photographer of the Year awards have, for the first time, been won by a Bangladeshi photographer. G.M.B. Akash’s vibrant yet poignant images of rail travel in his home country and his portfolio depicting the ship-breaking industry in Pakistan all showed how imagery can tell a story, and won unanimous praise from the judges.
As well as being awarded the title of Travel Photographer of the Year 2009, Akash wins Adobe CS4 Web Premium software, an Apple MacBook Pro 13″ with Aperture 2 software, a Mountain Paradise trip to Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains, an ILFORD Lightjet 40″ x 30″ silver gelatin print of one of his images, a 16GB Lexar CompactFlash & card reader, a Plastic Sandwich leather portfolio book and a Wacom Intuos4 S pen tablet.
Many thousands of images were received from photographers in almost 70 countries this year, the greatest spread of international entries in the awards’ history. The Young Travel Photographer of the Year award was won by 15 year-old Courtney Krawec from Australia, and the New Talent award by Taylor Weidman (USA) and individual category prizes have been won by photographers from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK and USA.
The entries were judged by a panel of experts that included the photographic director of Conde Nast Traveller, renowned photographers Steve Bloom, Jeremy Hoare, Nick Meers, and Chris Weston, and the editors of British Journal of Photography, Practical Photography and Germany’s Fotomagazin.
As always, TPOTY offered a great selection of prizes, from sponsors Adobe, HARMAN/ILFORD, Jacobs Digital Photo & Video, Intrepid Travel, LEE Filters, Lexar, Linhof Studio, Mountain Paradise, Photo Iconic, Plastic Sandwich, Rough Guides and Wacom.
TPOTY founder and judge, Chris Coe, said, “We have been delighted by the high standard of entries this year. When we launched TPOTY 2009, given the economic climate, we could not judge how well supported the awards would be. However across the board, from the fantastic support from our sponsors, to the incredible response from our entrants, it’s been absolutely superb and the winning images are outstanding. Each year the awards throw up a diverse range of travel-related imagery, encompassing every genre of style, from landscape, wildlife and portraiture through to reportage. Yet again we have a different style of winner, and it is heartening to see so many portfolios tell a story through imagery.”
Travel Photographer of the Year – TPOTY 2009
The winning images from TPOTY 2009 can be viewed online in the Winners’ Gallery at www.tpoty.com and will be published in the new Travel Photographer of the Year book Journey Three, which will be available in February 2010. Containing the winning and other highly-placed images from the past three years of the TPOTY awards, Journey Three is priced at £25.00. And the winning images will be given their first public display at Adventure Travel Live the Royal Horticultural Halls, London on January 29th to 31st, 2010. Visitors to www.tpoty.com can save over 50% on tickets to Adventure Travel Live.
