About The Contest



Building upon last year’s success, Microfinance Insights is launching our 2nd annual photo contest. Moving beyond usual textual contents, Microfinance Insights Photo Contest 2009 intends to provide fresh angles on microfinance to readers through the presentation of images that are strong, engaging and inspiring.

Last year, we received hundreds of stunning photos that captured microfinance across the globe. This year, the contest, “Global Shades of Development,” challenges participants to capture and depict the various angles through which to view development. We would like to see how people from different countries with varied cultures use microfinance, what they do for a living, their aspirations and hopes.

Categories
The contest, divided into 5 categories, is designed to spur participants’ creativity and generate innovative ideas. The themes are open to individual interpretation, so let your imagination flow and try to create a unique, unseen perspective.

  • Color/Vibrancy
  • Emerging Markets
  • Overcoming Challenges
  • Social Enterprises
  • Altered Photos

Judges
We are honored to have Mr. S. Paul as the chief judge. We also have Ken Light as a guest judge. The other judge is Arjun Kashyup, senior editor at Microfinance Insights.

The contest will also follow a public viewing system; visitors to Microfinance Insights website will be able to vote and decide their favorite photos. We encourage participants to invite their friends and family to see their photographs on our online gallery and vote for them. Visit the Photo Gallery to vote!

Winner Declaration and Prizes
There will be 1 Best Performance Winner and 1 judge’s winner and 1 viewer’s winner from each category.

The winners’ name and his/her work will be published in the November/December 2009 issue of Microfinance Insights which is delivered to our readership of 10,000 people around the world and the “Best of 2009” issue, a compilation of the most popular articles throughout the year, to be released in early 2010.

The grand winner will receive a Kodak’s exciting new product, Digital Photoframe.

The winners will be granted an opportunity to have a 15 minute mentoring session with Raghu Rai and S.Paul.

Further, the winning photos will be displayed at the launch event in Zenzi Bandra in Mumbai. The event will see participation of 50 people in November, followed by a 3 week long exhibition.

For other prizes, please visit the Judges and Prizes page.

Please read the rules and submission guidelines to learn about and prepare for the contest. Participants are deemed to have read and agreed to the rules and legal conditions outlined by Microfinance Insights upon entering the contest.

Questions and inquires can be sent to Asako Matsukawa at photocontest@mfinsights.com