Kenyan photographer Stephen Simiyu has won the grand prize of US$2000, with his winning photo of a fisherman using a laptop while on Lake Victoria in Uganda.
Simiyu is one of the three photographers announced today by Agility, a leading global logistics provider, as winners of its Africa 2016 Photo Competition, a series of photographs that show how quickly Africa is modernizing, growing and even leading the way in new technology.
The annual contest, now in its second year, is a pan-Africa photography competition focusing on Africa’s rapid modernization. This year’s competition drew more than 2,500 photographs from professional and amateur photographers in 30 countries.
Other winning images that also attracted a prize of US$2,000 for each category depicted a solar farm in Rwanda powering 15,000 homes and the skyline of Harare, Zimbabwe, by Esdore Hakizimana, a machine operator from Kigali, Rwanda (Industry) and Henry Oliver Hakulandaba, an environmental consultant and photographer from Harare (Cities), respectively.
The winning photographs and the runners-ups were featured at a session at the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this month and will be shown at the Thomson Reuters Africa Summit 2016 in Cape Town in October. They will also be showcased in Forbes Africa, on CNBC Africa, and in Agility’s corporate magazine, Tradelanes.
“I know Africa is developing, and to show this, I needed an image that could tell that story in one picture. The competition really made me think about Africa – there’s nowhere like it,” Simiyu, the Grand Prize winner, said.
Hakulandaba, winner in the Cities category, said non-Africans are continually surprised by the pace of change in Africa.
“Whenever I exhibit images of Harare or any other African city, there is always someone who says they never thought Africa has such development,” Hakulandaba said adding: “This competition is a platform to reach a wider audience about African development. It will help change perspectives of the continent’s potential.”
Geoffrey White, CEO of Agility Africa said the winning images speak eloquently about the historic change underway in Africa and the opportunities for Africans, African businesses and the world.
“As a company investing in the logistics infrastructure of the continent, we are proud to show the world powerful images that capture a more positive view of Africa and demonstrate the progress that has already been made, hopefully changing the perceptions of Africa in 2016,” he added.
The competition was judged by an independent panel that consisted of Sneha Shah, Managing Director, Thomson Reuters Africa; Bronwyn Nielsen, Editor-in-Chief, CNBC Africa; and Salim Amin, Chairman of CameraPix and co-founder of Africa24 Media.
