Travel Photography Scholarship 2017
Meet the winner.
Travel photographers, once again we asked you to take us on a photographic journey into a place that you’d traveled to, and once again you did not disappoint.
In fact, the quality of photo essays just keeps getting better!
Thanks to all of you who took the time to share with us a unique insight into the world we live in through your photography.
It’s always a tough job to pick the winner, which is why this year we asked pro travel photographers Mark Edward Harris and Annapurna Mellor to assist in the process, with the final decision coming down to our mentor, Richard I’Anson.
As with all of our travel scholarships, this is not a photography competition in which we choose the best photos, but a scholarship opportunity. We reviewed thousands of applications in search of an aspiring photographer with not only expressed desire to follow the path of travel photography, but who we also thought would most benefit and grow from the mentorship experience.
Congratulations to our 2017 winner and shortlisted applicants.
In partnership with
The winner
Congratulations to Kelly Beckta (Canada).
Congratulations to our winner, Kelly Beckta. Her series on Qatar’s Maritime Heritage is well thought out and well executed. There is nice variety in the subject matter and Kelly’s willingness to get in close to the action and vary her point of view has produced images with a clear point of interest and minimal distractions that successfully build on each other to progress the story line, and enhance our understanding of the subject. The uncluttered compositions are enhanced and further connected visually by the soft light and continuity of the colour palette across the series.
Mentor
The shortlist
Congratulations to the following shortlisted applicants.
- Amit Vakil
World's largest camel fair: Pushkar (India) - Amy Novotny
The Pride of the Golden Eagle Festival (Mongolia) - Angela Echanove
Horsemen: nomadic life in Mongolian steppes (Mongolia) - Barbara Martini
JINETEADAS of Villa Cerro Castillo - Magallanes and Antartic Region - Last Hope Province - Patagonia (Chile) - Billy Joe Palatino
Panata (Filipino Word for Religious Devotion) (Philippines) - Clara Davies
Mewar Festival: Celebrating the beauty and strength of women (India) - Claudia Cuomo
Battle of Algiers (France) - Gustavo Herrera
Cempazuchitl Flowers (Mexico) - Jessica King
Education Matters (Malawi) - Lucas Pereira
Man and clay - where we came from, and where we go (Brazil) - Kate Gent
Life in a leprosy colony. (India)
- Marco Marucci
The women of the argan (Morocco) - Matt Shiffler
Letting Tradition Live (China) - Matthew Robinson
Chasing the Wind (Denmark) - Michele Martinelli
Living in the steppe (Mongolia) - Mike Chen
Last of the Hunters (Mongolia) - Mofeyiseke Oluwatosin Bolaji
Kofa Wambai; The last hide(skin) bender (Nigeria) - Nataliia Maiboroda
The carpet village (Turkey) - Olivier Sabatier
Maha Kumbh Mela : The bigest pilgrimnage on earth (India) - Shuvajit Payne
Transformation Within (India) - Sophie Spencer
Lukomir: The last traditional mountain top village in Bosnia (Bosnia & Herzegovina) - Wongwiss Chaiyarux
Life behind the scenes. (Thailand)
Richard's feedback
The World Nomad’s Travel Photography Scholarship has again proven to be incredibly popular with aspiring photographers from all over the world. Congratulations to all of you that took the time and made the effort to submit your work. Selecting just one submission above all others is without doubt a seriously daunting task. I can assure you it’s a task that I, my fellow judges, and the team at World Nomads agonise over long and hard. Thanks to Annapurna Mellor (UK) and Mark Edward Harris (USA) who came on board for the first time this year to assist with the judging. It certainly helps to have the thoughts and opinions of others with a trained eye when considering such a large number of submissions covering the remarkable diversity of subjects that this scholarship opportunity attracts.
As we expect now, there were so many great entries to consider, and the standard overall was excellent. The entries that made the judge’s shortlists featured interesting subjects, photographed in a considered way, with a clear connection between the images in the series so that they worked well together to tell a compelling story.
I’m looking forward to working with Kelly and providing two weeks of intensive photographic mentoring to help her take the next step in her own photography journey and to give her a real sense of what it’s like to shoot and deliver to a travel photography brief. We will again be aiming to cover as many places and subjects as possible with the clear goal of producing photographs that do justice to the amazing opportunity offered by the Word Nomad’s Travel Photography Scholarship.
Travel Photography Scholarship Mentor
Due to the sheer amount of applications we receive for our scholarships, we do not provide individual feedback. If you would like to improve your photography in time for your next trip, please make sure to sign up for Richard I’Anson’s travel photography tips.