The DJ Memorial Photography Contest, organised annually by Lakshmi Machine Works Limited (LMW) in memory of its past Chairman and Managing Director Dr. D Jayavarthanavelu (DJ) who was a passionate photographer, is in its eighth edition. The DJMPC 2019 is a free-to-participate contest and carries a prize money of ₹ 10 lakhs.
According to K. Maruthachalam, an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society and administrator of the contest: “We have received phenomenal participation from 40 countries with 6500 entries in two categories — wildlife and landscape.” He added, “The photographs are judged as per international standards and under the guidelines of The Photographic Society of America and the Federation of Indian Photographers.”
What the winners say
Dr.Thomas Rajan
Physician in the US
Winning entry: Under-water photograph of a Fishing Gannet (Wildlife Category)
I captured this on the shores of Scotland. I spent three days in a boat and used my under-water camera. It’s a lot of hard work but worth it. The DJMPC contest is one of the best international photography competitions from India and I am happy to have been a part of it.Nature is healing. I hang my photographs of Nature and Wildlife at my Critical Care Unit. It is heartening to see the joy on the faces of my patients. I love nature and travelling.
Nayan Vishwanath Khanolkar at DJ Memorial Photography Contest exhibition at Kasthuri Sreenivasan Art Gallery
Nayan V. Khanolkar
Wildlife Researcher
Runner up: A tigress and her four cubs (Wildlife Category)
I waited for four years to get this picture. I clicked the wild cats outside the protected areas. It was at a human dominated area with over 600 villages where the tigress raised her four cubs. She is passing on the knowledge on how to co-exist with humans. They are fast adapting. Wildlife is not centered in only sanctuaries and national parks. There is a viable corridor that connects these parks where the animals move around and co-exist with humans. It is these corridors that we destroy by constructing roads and dams. This leads to genetic isolation of wild species. For example, tigers of Rajasthan are isolated from the rest of India. We have 3000 tigers in India, we have to protect them and hand over the baton of conservation to the next generation. When you show the photos on a public domain, there is an emotional connect that urges you to protect it. I grew up reading Jim Corbett stories. The conservationist was worried when we had 40,000 tigers. What would he say now!
Valtteri Mulkahainen
High School Sports and Gym Teacher from Finland
Winning Entry: Gates of Winter (Landscape Category)
There are usually no sunsets on the horizon. But I clicked this image in Sukamo’s forest in winter over an unexpected and stunning sunset.
Amit Rane
Photographer from Mumbai
Runner up: Enlightened (Landscape Category)
I shot this photograph of the Stockkness mountain in Iceland (Where bits of The Lord of the Rings was shot) early in the morning. I spent over four hours from 5 am capturing cloud movements. It was an overcast sky as it had rained the previous day. But, all of a sudden, for a few seconds only, there were rays of the sun visible. I was lucky to capture the foreground with the herbaceous green bush sprouting out of the black volcanic black soil.
- You can view the award-winning photographs and some of the other spectacular entries that made it to the finals at Kasthuri Sreenivasan Cultural Centre, Avinashi Road (near Aravind Eye Hospital) till August 4, from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm.
What the jury says
Wildlife and Nature photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee from West Bengal, who has won several international awards including The Carl Zeiss Conservation Award. He is also the winner of the first edition of DJMPC. “The DJMPC award and the prize money helped me start my underwater photography. We follow a systematic approach. The contest aims to inspire people to love Nature and Wildlife.”
Photographer Anup Sah who recently won the Padma Shri for capturing Himalayan life is based at Nainital, Uttarakhand. He is an accomplished mountaineer, a naturalist, beekeeper, mushroom expert and heads the Nainital Mountaineering Club. “I hope to see more categories in the contest.”
Stevan Yee, Singapore A cultural and travel photographer, lecturer, and a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. “We ran through a lot of splendid images. People are well-travelled and the equipment is getting better. So, it was challenging to judge. We look for a balance of conservation, aesthetics and technology. In landscape photos, we look for minimal man-made structures.”
