Winners from the 2009 CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest

April 27, 2010    

The winner of the 2009 Microfinance Photography Contest is “Magic of Microfinance” by Sudipto Das, a photojournalist working with the Times of India.

Das’s entry won out over nearly 1000 entries from professional and nonprofessional photographers around the world in the 2009 CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest.

The children in the photo are from Gandhali, a remote village in West Bengal where fishing families now benefit from access to microfinance through the self-help group movement. Das sees the picture as an image of hope. “The children,” he says, “started dreaming of a future that their ancestors could never even think of.” Das uses a Nikon D2Hs camera, with a Nikon 17-35mm, 2.8 ED lens.

The judges also selected 26 other photos from around the world as winners. The winning photos can be viewed in a slideshow here.

Second Place winner “Iron Man” by Gautam Daw was chosen by the judges because of its “perfect composition.” “This photo is a study in golden means,” said judge James Schaefer, associate dean of Georgetown University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, referring to the idea commonly explored in the arts that certain mathematical proportions are aesthetically pleasing. “And yet it’s not at all flat as an image: the depth is remarkable….” 

Daw, an amateur photographer who works in his family’s automobile business, took this photograph in Old Delhi. He uses a Canon eos 450D and Canon eos 7D camera with a 18-55mm Canon lens, and this is the first time he’s entered the contest.

Judge Suzanne Lemakis, curator of Citi’s fine arts collection, nicknamed Third Place winner “The Transporter” by Mohammad Rakibul Hasan “the Irving Penn,” alluding to American glamour photographer Penn who was known for posing his subjects against simple white backgrounds. In fact, transport seems to be an important theme for Hasan, whose photo of transporting stones was commended by the judges in 2008 for its fluidity.

Hasan, a professional photographer, was a finalist in both the 2007 and 2008 contests. He set up his photography studio in Dhaka, Bangladesh, nearly 4 years ago, and since then he’s been travelling around the country capturing images of development and human rights, though he sees this photo as more “fine arts photography” than gritty photojournalism. Hasan says he’s received several commissions from international organizations as a result of the exposure his work has received from the CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest.

While South Asia dominated the top 3 winning photos, photos from Latin American countries as well as photos from the Philippines were also prominent among the judges’ final selection. Judge Jez Coulson, a photojournalist, particularly liked the way that Arnold Jumpay’s photo “Break Time” from the Philippines evokes the reality of people’s lives—“It’s not engineered in the studio, but captures a real moment—living on a low, and unpredictable income isn’t glamorous, and there’s no pretense in this shot…,” he said.

A photo by Ben Depp from Haiti, who’s photographed the work of Fonkoze in that country extensively, captures the spirit of post-disaster microfinance. It was taken in January 2009, and it features Fonkoze clients from Seguin, Haiti, in silhouette as they return home after collecting food aid and interest-free loans—a somewhat controversial topic among microfinance specialists—following the 2009 hurricane in Haiti. 

 “Today that all seems a long way away as the latest natural disaster of the January 2010 earthquake has completely overtaken the magnitude of those hurricanes that were so devastating for the people of Haiti,” said Coulson. “But the picture evokes the spirit of the Haitian people in the face of natural disasters, and that was one of the qualities we were looking for this year: composition is of course important in a photography contest, but so is the narrative for this prize, and we’re interested to see what these photographs tell us about microfinance and how it impacts people’s lives….”

Similarly it was the narrative strength of Sourav Karmakar’s “Busy at Work,” photographed in Kolkata, India, that spoke to judge Lemakis: “The sewing machine is such a totemic image for microfinance,” she said, “But there’s a kick in the tail on this one: he’s doing the ironing, while she’s giving orders—it captures the way that microfinance turns traditional gender roles upside down.” 

The rickshaw driver was the finance piece of microfinance in Kallol Sen’s shot of the driver taking the kids to school as far as Coulson was concerned. But “the microfinance part of it is really the kids,” said Coulson. “That’s where you see the impact: he’s got his business to run. But they’re going to school…and just look at those faces. If I could bring as much joy to people in the job I do every day I’d definitely see that as job satisfaction!”

From the ingenuity of the phone guy on the beaches of Orissa, to the penetrating gaze of the girl in Bangladesh weaving gold (echoing, as the judges noted, the tale of Rumpelstiltskin), to the woman painting globes by hand as her child looks on—these are timeless images of aspiration that capture what microfinance means to people hoping to improve the lives of their families. 

Our thanks to all the professional and nonprofessional photographers around the world who entered this year’s Contest. The 2010 CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest will open for entries May 15, 2010.

Click to see a slideshow of the 2009 winning photographs and for details of the winners.
Email Jeanette Thomas for further inquiries on the CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest.