/ 2025 / Portraiture / Culture

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

One change I've seen in the twenty years since I first lived in China is that domestic tourists now flock to have their portraits taken in traditional clothing, like this woman outside the Forbidden City in Beijing who persisted despite the frigid winter winds.

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.