HT Cuba Photo Contest Winners
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES, June 6 — In unison, the jury for the Second HT Photo Contest expressed its desire to congratulate the participants for their excellent submissions. The job of selecting was so painstaking that one of the 20 jury members said she’d prefer not to be a judge in the future to avoid the agony.
When the final selections were made one photographer, Angel Yu Mariscano, stood out from the pack, winning two first prizes (Rural Life and Unusual Photos) and three second prizes (one in each category). The other first prize, for the Cuban Daily Life (Urban) category, went to Kate Forrester. James NG obtained a second prize for Cuban Daily Life (Urban) in a tie vote.
Special mentions went to Michael Roy for Cuban Daily Life, (Urban); Marco Petrovic (Unusual Photos); and Anamaria Dinulescu and Yosvanny Deya for Rural Life. Yosvanny was the grand prize winner in our first contest held in 2009.
A total of 33 photographers took part in the contest and 22 had photos that made it to the finals.
The first two rounds of judging eliminated submissions from an average of 80 photos in each category.
For the final round of selection, the HT judges picked a maximum of five photos from an average of 15 per category. The prize winners and special mentions were determined by the number of votes each picture obtained.
In the coming weeks and months many of the photos submitted for the contest, be them prizewinners, finalists or entries, will be published accompanying different HT articles with credit to the photographers.
Havana Times looks forward to holding a third photo contest in 2011.
Statement from Prizewinner Angel Yu Mariscano
I was happy to be able to send photos to the competition. I’m willing to continue participating and collaborating with this publication. Since the beginning of the year I’ve been living in Spain because I finally I decided to begin a new life outside the island. This competition has given me the chance to publish the images that would have been censored inside my country; photos that bring me pleasing memories.
Statement from Prizewinner Kate Forrester
I am a British illustrator with a passion for photography and travel. I visited Cuba last year and felt really inspired by the people and places I discovered – Havana in particular is such a vibrant, musical, beautiful city. I am currently living in Abu Dhabi (in the desert!) where I work freelance from my little studio over looking the sea. In my spare time I like to travel, cook and daydream.
Statement from Prizewinner Jim Ng
I’m from England, and currently reside in Spain where I teach English and also indulge my passion for photography. I have always loved to travel, and visited Cuba a few years ago, where I discovered an amazingly beautiful and photogenic country, full of great, unique images waiting to be captured.
Rural Life
First Prize
Second Prize
Special Mention
Special Mention
Cuban Daily Life (Urban)
First Prize
Second Prize
Second Prize
Special Mention
Unusual Photos
First Prize
Second Prize
Special Mention
HT Photo Contest Finalists
Click on the tumbnails below to view all the photos in this gallery
Rural Life
Cuban Daily Life (Urban)
Unusual Photos
We will announce the contest at the end of this year and it will be open for submissions for several months.
Hola Havana Times,
It is always a pleasure viewing images of Cuba.
How can I enter next years HT Cuba Photo Contest?
Sincerely,
Larry Benvenuti
Wonderful choices. So difficult to select the best…!
The quality, quantity and variety of this year’s fotos were an improvement over last year’s. Like aged rum, the entries keep getting better and better. Collectively, a good representation of Cuban life. It must have been difficult to decide which were the best.
Brilliant! Thanks so much for such emotion!