WPGA 2009 Annual Contest

The World Photography Gala Awards have announced the winners of their first annual competition. The Jurors' chose Dilip Bhatia as the winner of the WPGA Photographer of the Year 2009 and there were many other winners in the various categories.

Press Release:

The WPGA have the pleasure to announce the final jurors' selection of works presented to its 2009 Annual Contest. In this first edition of our Annual competition we have received 3,180 images from 47 countries. The jurors' team was composed by Susan Zadeh, publisher of Eyemazing Magazine; Chris Steele-Perkins, Magnum; Tim Anderson, editor of the Red Dog Journal; and Brooks Jensen, publisher of Lenswork. 
 
187 images from 23 countries were nominated as finalists. Given the quality of the works received it wasn't an easy task for the jurors to determine the prizes and the honorable mentions in each category.
 
WPGA 2009 Annual Winners

WPGA Photographer of the Year 2009

• First Prize: Dilip Bhatia
• Second Prize: Tom Atwood
• Third Prize: John Delaney
• Merit of Honor: Antonio Bolfo

Documentary Humanitarian Grant

• Larry Louie

Category Abstract

• First Prize: Navid Baraty

Category Digital Enhanced

• First Prize: Tom Chambers

Category Documentary

• First Prize: Dilip Bhatia

Category Fine Art

• First Prize: Lorne Resnick

Category Landscapes and Citiscapes

• First Prize: David Zimmerman

Category Portrait - People and Figure

• First Prize: Tom Atwood

About the winners
Dilip Bhatia, an alumni of the Brooks Institute of Photography, class of 1992, is a Mumbai-based photographer with over 15 years of experience. He was recently announced as a finalist in the editorial category for the Hasselblad 'Masters of Photography' Awards, 2009. He was also declared the winner in the institutional photography section at Communication Arts Annual, 2009.
 
Tom Atwood's recent work has focused on portraits of creative personalities mostly at home.He won first place in Portraiture in the Prix de la Photographie Paris competition and has been recognized on Photo Life Magazine's list of Top 50 Emerging Photographers. His work has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in NY, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the Griffin Museum of Photography, and the International Museum of Photography and Film.
 
John Delaney is an alumni of the Rochester Institute of Technology, class of 1988. He has awarded first prize, Photojournalism in Px3 2009, and was Discovery of the Year 2008 of the Lucie Awards. John was studio assistant of Richard Avedon between 1989 and 1992, and his Master Printer between 1990 and 2004.
 
Larry Louie, a Canadian optometrist and awarded photographer, was Discovery of the Year 2007 of the Lucie Awards, and won the first place of the People's Choice Award of Px3 2008 and first place in Photojournalism and Nature in Px3 2007.

For more information please visit The Gala Awards website.