Winners – Lens Culture International Exposure Awards

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October 15, 2009

We're very excited to announce the winners of the first annual Lens Culture International Exposure Awards.

The Portfolio Award goes to Italian photographer Marco Vernaschi, for his powerful project on the consequences of drug trafficking in the small West African country of Guinea-Bissau. His series presents a disturbing, visceral look at a country and people torn apart by the international drug trade, "where our fears meet the truth".

The team of soldiers who executed the President, photographed 7 hours after they accomplished their task, in the Military Headquarters in Bissau. The President was shot to death and slaughtered with a machete in his kitchen. Vieira, who ruled this small African nation for nearly a quarter century, was killed upon order of a few generals who are trying to make new alliances with drug cartels in order to transform the country into a military controlled point of shipment, where no force would be allowed to interfere. © Marco Vernaschi, 2009

1st prize in the Single Image category went to American photographer Brad Moore for his quirky architectural image of a Korean Methodist church in Fullerton, California. Stella Johnson won 2nd prize for her photograph of several generations of women in the town of Mytilene, Greece. British photographer Laura Pannack took 3rd prize for her compassionate portrait of a teenage male suffering from anorexia.

Korean Methodist, Fullerton, California © Brad Moore

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Mytilene, Greece © Stella Johnson

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Graham, teenage anorexic © Laura Pannack

The international panel of judges also awarded 25 Honorable Mentions, to the following photographers:

Edmund Clark, (Great Britain)
Sylvain Deleu, (Great Britain)
Julie Denesha (US)
Peter DiCampo (US)
Johan Ensing (Netherlands)
Kate Geraghty (Australia)
Leah Giesler (US)
Jan Grarup (Denmark)
Colin Gray (Great Britain)
Jessica Hines (US)
Elin Hoyland (Norway)
Priya Kambli (US)
Mischa Keijser (Netherlands)
Rania Matar (US)
Adam Panczuk (Poland)
Zubin Pastakia (India)
Paolo Patrizi (Japan)
Alexis Pike (US)
Michelle Sank (Great Britain)
Olivier Sarbil (Thailand)
Mahesh Shantaram (India)
Yisook Sohn (Korea)
Daniel Traub (US)
Raina Vlaskovska (Bulgaria)
Danielle Voirin (France)

All of the judges commented on the remarkably high caliber of the photographs entered, and on how difficult it was to pick the winners, especially given the volume of the response — more than 6,000 images from 48 countries.

The four big winners will receive cash prizes from Lens Culture, plus $1,000 toward custom-designed websites from LiveBooks.com, and personal photo books printed by Blurb.com. All winners, including each of the honorable mention winners, will have their work featured in Lens Culture.

Thank you to all who participated, and congratulations to the winners! Now that the judging is completed, we will be preparing the presentations of all the winning photographs here in Lens Culture. Check back soon!