2nd Prize in the Epson/Steve McCurry Photo Competition

Last Friday, I had the honor of being awarded the 2nd prize in the Open Category of the 2009 Month of Photography Singapore, Epson/Steve McCurry – “The Unguarded Moment” Photo Competition. In the Open and Student Categories combined, there was around 900 entries submitted.

Mr. Eiji Ide, Chairman of Epson South and Southeast Asia (Left) and Steve McCurry (Right)

The competition was judged by Steve McCurry (http://www.stevemccurry.com/). Best known for his powerful images and human portraiture of South and Southeast Asia, Steve McCurry is a leading documentary photographer who has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including 30 years of conflict in Afghanistan. He focuses on the human consequences of war, not only showing what war impresses on the landscape, but rather what it shows on the human face. His most well known photo is of the “Afghan Girl” which appeared on one of the covers of National Geographic magazine in 1985. This photo has become the one of the most recognised photographs in the world. It’s really nice to have an image of mine picked out of so many entries by a great photographer like Steve McCurry.

Me in the centre. Won an Epson TX700W All-In-One Printer as well as a Framed Print of my winning entry. Photo courtesy of Andrew Chan, Epson Singapore

My winning entry “Apple of my Eye” was taken in Lijiang, China. I was staying with an elderly couple in their homestay in a small village and during the weekend, the daughter and granddaughter (BeiBei) of the elderly couple came to visit. It was obvious from the way the grandfather and granddaughter interacted that there was an abundance of love and affection between them. I tried to capture this with my camera and one of the photos that resulted from my time with them was “Apple of my Eye”. It is still one of my favorite images and has produced many smiles on the faces of family and friends that I’ve shown the photo to.

Apple of My Eye. Shot on Kodak TriX 400 B&W Film, Leica M6 TTL, 35 Summilux ASPH Lens.

Steve McCurry’s “The Unguarded Moment” Exhibition will be on at the Asian Civilization Museum, 2nd floor, till 19 July 2009. Entries for the photo competition, including the winning entries are also on display in the lobby on the ground floor. Both are free admission. Do make time to go have a look. In an upcoming post, I’ll share more about my experiences photographing BeiBei.