Need A Reminder Of How Gorgeous Earth Is? Peep These Photo Award Winners
Want a reminder of how gorgeous our world is — you know, back before all we were thinking about was COVID-19 and lockdowns and vaccine trials?
Take a look at the winning entries of this year's Siena International Photo Awards, an annual contest organized by a group of photographers and enthusiasts from Siena, Italy, that aims to showcase images of beauty, culture and nature across the globe.
Awash in vibrant color, texture and movement, the images feel light and carefree. A child jumps in midair. Two women pose for a selfie. Birds scatter across the sky.
Teresa Scarcella, a spokesperson for SIPA, says it was "strange" to look through the photos for this year's awards in the middle of a pandemic. "It's like when you're watching a movie and people are going around without masks and kissing each other — you think, what are they doing?"
The images make her "nostalgic" for pre-pandemic life, she says.
Next year's contest, open until January 2021, will have a category devoted to life under COVID-19.
Here's a selection of photos from the countries of the global south that we cover in our Goats and Soda blog.
Children play on a street in a village outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Xuebiao Yang hide caption
Children play on a street in a village outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Xuebiao Yang
Women take a selfie on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Thailand's Talo Kapo beach. Paula Bronstein hide caption
Women take a selfie on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Thailand's Talo Kapo beach.
Paula Bronstein
A father and son catch fish inside a cave in Vietnam during the monsoon season. Natnattcha Chaturapitamorn hide caption
A father and son catch fish inside a cave in Vietnam during the monsoon season.
Natnattcha Chaturapitamorn
A boy is immersed in his own thoughts as thousands of seagulls scatter across the Yamuna River in Delhi, India. Navin Kumar hide caption
A boy is immersed in his own thoughts as thousands of seagulls scatter across the Yamuna River in Delhi, India.
Navin Kumar
Two girls play in front of a house in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Suvro Paul hide caption
Two girls play in front of a house in Sylhet, Bangladesh.
Suvro Paul
Flamingos gather across Lake Bogoria in the Kenyan Rift Valley. Jose Fragozo hide caption
Flamingos gather across Lake Bogoria in the Kenyan Rift Valley.
Jose Fragozo
Workers gather incense sticks into bundles at a village near Hanoi, Vietnam. Azim Khan Ronnie hide caption
Workers gather incense sticks into bundles at a village near Hanoi, Vietnam.
Azim Khan Ronnie
An aerial view of As-Salt, a hillside town in Jordan. Ibrahim Salah hide caption
An aerial view of As-Salt, a hillside town in Jordan.
Ibrahim Salah