/ 2025 / Portraiture / Personality

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Joseph Voigts, United States
• Website
  https://joevoigts.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/theobservereffectpodcast/

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.

I have taken photos in 74 countries, traveling as a professor of English, most recently teaching at Asian University for Women in Bangladesh, where I met a young aspiring photographer from Afghanistan named Samira Habibi. We entered the State of the World Competition together to win her exposure.