/ 2025 / Portraiture / Personality

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Joseph Voigts, United States
• Date of Photograph
  December 7, 2024
• Website
  https://www.joevoigts.com/photographer
• Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/joe.voigts/

Just after assenting to a portrait through hand gestures—I thought—Jiali bashfully tried to hide behind her marigolds as soon as I lifted the camera, only later understanding and posing again on the street in Guilin, China.

Photographing the 80 countries I have visited has helped me instill empathy as a university English teacher in places like Bangladesh, South Korea, Israel, the U.S., Spain, and Morocco. Currently, I teach at a university in China, where I share the portraits and stories of the incredible people and places I have encountered around the world who have changed my life.