Winning photos from the 2020 student photo contest
This year, more than 140 photos were entered into the Stanford Global Studies annual student photo contest. We are excited to announce the winners of the 2020 contest below.
Winners were selected in five categories, including the natural world, people, travel, photojournalism, and animals. Photos were captured by students from across Stanford Global Studies’ 14 centers and programs, who traveled around the world to conduct research, pursue language study, and complete internships.
Grand Prize
Winner
“Life, Rooted” by Serena Zhang, Program in International Relations and Global Studies Internship Program
“This little shrub in the Dunhuang desert of China’s Gansu Province caught my eye growing in the remains of a dried hollow trunk, wearing its sun-bleached home like an armor. It shows that, above all odds, life can and will prevail.”
Animals
Winner
“Woolly Friends” by Serena Zhang, Program in International Relations and Global Studies Internship Program
“Taken at Crescent Lake outside the city of Dunhuang in China’s Gansu Province, where I traveled for a side trip while interning in Shanghai. In Chinese, camels are referred to as the ‘boats of the desert.’ My favorite part about this photo is the second lady from the right taking a selfie on her camel.”
Natural World
Winner
“Fire Mountain” by Serena Zhang, Program in International Relations and Global Studies Internship Program
“A shot of the vivid and brilliant “fire mountains” of Zhangye National Geopark in China’s Gansu Province. The entire park covers a total of 322 square kilometers and is considered one of the most beautiful landforms in China.”
People
Winner
“The Thinkers” by Marianna Fenzi, France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
“This picture was taken during my fieldwork in Mexico, when I was studying farmers’ management of traditional varieties of maize. Thanks to the kind collaboration of the farmers, I was able to follow the entire cycle of maize growth, from the sowing in June to the harvest in October. Taken during that time, this image is part of a series that aims to depict the entanglements between the cycle of nature, local history, and the daily lives of farmers.
Two women sat during a meeting about a community project for the conservation of native maize and its uses in handicrafts. Ixtenco is one of the many regions of Mexico where farmers still grow native maize.”
Photojournalism
Winner
“Sinjar After the Islamic State” by Melisande Genat, Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.
“This picture was taken in the Sinjar region (Iraq) in 2019, after the defeat of the Islamic State. The two women belong to the Yazidi community, one of Iraq’s many ethno-religious minorities which became the target of a wholesale genocide in 2014. About half of the population has now returned to Sinjar, but many still live in makeshift camps. In addition to archival work, I have been photographing the people I interview during fieldwork. I am currently in the process of finishing the research for my Ph.D dissertation, the title of which is Tribes, Ethno-religious Identities and Politics in the Sinjar Region (1920–2020).’’
Travel
Winner
“Climbing in Tonsai” by Anna Greene, Stanford Global Studies
“I worked for a nonprofit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia the summer after my freshman year thanks to a fellowship from the Haas Center. After my summer of working I went to Tonsai, a town in neighboring Thailand, to climb for several weeks. This is a photo of my friend Ben attempting to climb ‘Burnt Offerings’ with a view of Tonsai Bay in the background.”
Popular Vote
Winner
“Black Woman in Style” by Arafat Mohammed, Center for African Studies
“The person in the photo is my friend, Maria Nyana’aar. I took this picture for a project I was working on in the fall of this year. It was a project to highlight the beauty and style of black women in a society that often overlooks it.”
Honorable Mentions
“Fisherman” by Byron Gray, Center for South Asia
“A cattle egret in breeding plumage looks out over boats at anchor in the fishing village of Gorai, outside of Mumbai, India. The village where this shot was taken is one of the last remaining Catholic villages on Mumbai’s periphery, which I visited during my doctoral dissertation fieldwork on the city’s Catholic community. The area is sustained by a combination of fishing, small-scale agriculture, and weekend tourism from Mumbai, which has made the area a prime target for government officials and real estate developers looking to capitalize on the value of the land and suture it into the rest of the city. I thought this photo did a nice job of capturing how the ecology of the area and its man-made industries remain — for the moment — intertwined.”
“Flares Light Up the Night in Beirut” by Gabby Conforti, Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies
“I took a leave of absence this past fall (2019) to enroll in the American University of Beirut for a semester to work on my Arabic and learn about regional politics. Anti-government protests erupted on October 17 in Beirut, and then spread throughout the country and to the Lebanese diaspora communities. I captured this image at night on October 25 in Riad al-Solh Square, after Amal and Hezbollah supporters had violently attacked peaceful protesters in Beirut. The protestors regrouped at night and their flares lit up the night sky.”
“Rosetta Morning” by Jasmine Reid, Center for African Studies
“I took this photograph while visiting an old host family, who had recently moved out of Johannesburg to the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa and bought a farm in the agricultural community of Rosetta. The valley in which they live is known for massive fog events, especially in the mornings. I snapped this shot one morning as the fog was just beginning to lift from a row of trees on the other side of the farm. At the time, I was struggling with the direction of my anthropology dissertation research, but after the respite of their farm, I came back to Johannesburg and redesigned my project for the better.”
“Bo-Kapp Satellites” by Jasmine Reid, Center for African Studies
“I snapped this photograph while conducting anthropology dissertation research on the political impact of heritage sites in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. These four homes are part of a rainbow of streets known as the Bo-Kaap neighborhood, a predominantly Malay settlement within downtown Cape Town. While almost every part of Bo-Kaap is photogenic and consequently draws millions of visitors every year, I was particularly moved by this row of houses and their domesticity, as marked by the prominent satellite dishes on their façades. As a lover of South African television myself, I was pleased to see that a famous heritage landscape like Bo-Kaap can still provide the space for Malay families to make and sustain homes.”
“Highway to Heaven” by Serena Zhang, Program in International Relations and Global Studies Internship Program
“Heaven’s Gate Mountain in Tianmen Mountain National Park in China’s Hunan Province. I came here on a brief side trip while in China, but felt as if I had entered a whole other world. The lingering fog and moistness of the air make one feel perpetually enveloped in some sort of mystic embrace. The sprawling staircase in the picture consists of 999 steps to the top of the mountain, where one may step through the stone and enter Heaven.”
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