Grand Prize Winner
Diep Ngo
“Fixing Nets” by Diep Van
In Phan Rang, Vietnam, women wearing traditional bamboo hats use old-fashioned sewing machines to repair fishing nets.
Style & Design
Zay Yar
“Colors of Inle Lotus Fabric” by Zay Yar
Inle Lake is one of the only places in Myanmar to watch weavers make cloth from cotton fibers. Natural dyes color the handcrafted fabrics, which then dry on the lake in the sun.
The style & design category is presented by illy.
Food
Shell Royster
“Irish Mussels” by Shell Royster
Photographer Shell Royster participated in a mussel expedition at family-run Killary Fjord Shellfish in County Galway, while on a trip through western Ireland. The dish showcases the harvest.
Outdoors
Christian Vizl
“Diver and Jacks at Cabo Pulmo” by Christian Vizl
A diver provides scale as he swims below a school of jack fish in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez.
People
Ella Mack
“Aibubu” by Ella Mack
Aibubu, a Kyrgyz girl, sits for a portrait at the 2018 World Nomad Games; there, participants compete in such traditional Central Asian sports as horseback, archery, and falcon-hunting. Photographer Ella Mack met Aibubu in the Kyrchyn Valley, where cultural festivities take place during the Games.
Cities
Katherine Ozanich
“Brihadisvara Temple at Sunrise” by Katherine Ozanich
Early morning worshipers visit the Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India, in February 2019. The temple, one of three Chola dynasty temples designated World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, was built in the 11th century and is dedicated to the Lord Shiva.
Jurors’ Picks
“Rise of the Mongolians” by Catherine Hyland
“Rise of the Mongolians” by Catherine Hyland
For young boys in Mongolia, sumo wrestling can be a path to fame and wealth. Here, trainees from the Kyokushu Beya sports center practice in Gorkhi-Terilj National Park.
Mun Khean Wong
“Good Day!” by Mun Khean Wong
Day breaks after a night of snow in the Norwegian fishing village of Hamnøy.
Eugene Reshetov
“Thirst” by Eugene Reshetov
While on a trek of the Annapurna circuit, the photographer spotted a schoolgirl in the Nepalese village of Tukuche closing her eyes with relief after quenching her thirst in the village square.
Alain Schroeder
“Grandma Divers 3” by Alain Schroeder
Soon-ja Hong, 69, holds an octopus she caught. Hong is one of the remaining Haenyeo, a traditional group of female free divers in the South Korean province of Jeju.
Javier Arcenillas
“Ama” by Javier Arcenillas
Man meets butterfly at the butterfly garden in the Padre Cocha village on the Nanay River, a tributary of the Peruvian Amazon.
Honorable mentions
We received some 3,000 travel photos in the 2019 AFAR Photo Awards contest and were blown away by the quality of the images. Winners were chosen in five categories, along with a grand prize winner, and there were five jury selections. But many other submissions were just as riveting and transcendent. Here’s a selection.
“Sakura Season at Hirosaki Castle,” by Suwandi Chandra
Springtime in Japan brings the annual burst of color from the country’s famous cherry blossoms—it also brings out crowds of people. Chandra decided to get away from the bustling cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka to witness the magic in the castle city of Hirosaki, on the northern end of Honshu Island.
“Potash,” by Brendan Tremblay
The electric blue of this potash evaporation pond, outside Moab, Utah, provides a jarring contrast to the red desert around it. The brightly colored water comes from a dye, added to help absorb sunlight and speed evaporation of the potassium chloride.
“Inbound,” by Mat Rik
Looking down on the buildings of New York is about as inspiring as it gets. A window seat is usually key to having a great view, but sometimes—even from the aisle—it’s impossible to miss the staccato beats of Gotham’s iconic skyline.
“Hiking in Arches National Park,” by Ben Horton
Utah’s park offers mile upon mile of gorgeous red sandstone, which becomes especially ethereal with the glinting light at daybreak and sunset. Here, Kelly Potts, a professional surfer and philanthropist from Maui, climbs up into one of the storied arches.
“Working Hard,” by Juan Contreras
A view of the cockpit as pilots go through their extensive pre-flight checks isn’t something most travelers are lucky enough to witness. But sometimes the stars align, as they did for Contreras at San Francisco International Airport.
“Finding Your Space,” by Kamella Boullé
Reaching many of the cays in the Exuma archipelago of the Bahamas requires taking a boat or seaplane. After having explored by water, Boullé took to an amphibious plane to capture this spectacle near Pipe Cay.
Interviews from a few of the winners
When documentary photographer Stephanie Gengotti decides upon a story she wants to capture through her lens, she sets about immersing herself completely into her subjects’ world. Often this process involves spending weeks getting to know the most intimate details of their lives.
“I have to live with the people to understand them and discover what others usually can’t see. I need to become part of their reality,” Gengotti says.
One of Gengotti’s images from her series “Circus Love,” for which she received first prize in AFAR’s Travel Photography Awards competition, sponsored by United Airlines.
Her recent series, “Circus Love,” documents a small, nontraditional circus troupe as they perform throughout Italy. The images recently won first prize for the “series” category of the first-ever AFAR Travel Photography Awards, sponsored by United Airlines.
Paul Ratje, whose image won the “single shot” category, also takes a culturally immersive approach to his craft. A photojournalist by trade, he focuses primarily on street scenery, exploring themes of intimacy and community in a unique light. Ratje has traveled around the world in search of compelling stories; he lived in Taiwan for six years and has spent time exploring China, the Philippines, and other corners of Southeast Asia. Since moving back home to New Mexico several years ago, he has produced visual stories featuring both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.
Ratje’s image, shot in Las Cruces, New Mexico, won first prize for the “single shot” category of AFAR’s Travel Photography Awards. The competition was sponsored by United Airlines, who awarded the winners a pair of United Polaris business class tickets.
“I’m really into candid street photography,” he says. “[With this photograph], I saw something in the image that really inspired me … The photo shows an important side of Mexico to me, and that’s the food, the street food.”
Next, Ratje has plans to fly to China and revisit the Tibetan Plateau, where he has been working on a challenging series since 2015. The project documents Tibetans whose lives are changing as they modernize and adopt elements of Chinese culture.
“Being selected for the winning image means a lot to me as a photographer and for continuing my personal work,” Ratje says.
