Announcing: Winners of the Inaugural Radii Photo Contest

Congratulations to Justin Scholar, the Grand Prize recipient of the Radii Photo Contest! The above winning picture was taken at Hangzhou’s West Lake. Scholar, who is a filmmaker who traveled to China to try his hand at a traditional art form, studied ink painting and calligraphy for half a year — and it shows. “I wanted to convey the nuance and serenity of ink painting in my native art of digital imaging,” he says.

Learn more about the photo, plus see two more

Here’s how one of our three judges appraised Scholar’s submission:

It’s a timeless photo that could have been taken this morning or 500 years ago. The photographer conveys the West Lake’s tranquility and mystique in such a powerful way that you feel as if you’re standing there on the shore observing the shimmering of the water as the gondolas glide by… all done with a subtle nod to China’s ancient art of landscape painting. An extraordinary image.

The First Prize winner is iLkka Jarvilaturi (伊卡), who took the photo below on an undeveloped beach west of Sanya in Hainan province. (Learn more about it here.)

There were five Honorable Mentions:

• Delia Mensitieri
• Kadallah Burrowes
• Yang Nan
• Angela Kong
• Xu Juntao

We’ll be posting their work throughout the week, so come back every day to see a new picture.

Thank you to everyone who submitted — the works really were amazing, from a clown in Sanlitun to a lighthouse on the coast, from steam coming off morning baozi to close-ups of bricks… we really wish we could have used everything.

Congratulations again to the winners. We’ll post more details about Jarvilaturi’s photo tomorrow, and show you more work from Scholar on Sunday.