An Indian has emerged as the South Asia regional winner of the Commonwealth Photographic Awards 2004 and pictures of three others have been chosen in the category of 'highly recommended'.

Ashima Narain of Mumbai was chosen for his photograph of young wrestlers at the national Akhara Kushti (Indian style wrestling) tournament held in Mumbai in 2003. It represents the resilience of youth and its ability to confront the world on its own terms.

Announcing the awards on Thursday night, Lindsay Ross, executive director of the Commonwealth Press Union said Abigail Hadeed, a Trinidadian, bagged the first prize and £2,000 in cash.

Entries of Bijoy Choudhury, Santosh Kumar Jana and Joydip Mitra have been chosen in the category (for South Asia) of 'highly recommended' while Subir Halder, Swapan Mahapatra, Srikanth K Sridhar, all from India, were chosen as runners-up in the same category. The regional winners will get £250 and the runners-up £100 each.

Gudiya Pathan (13) of India was selected for Young Snappers Prize for her picture featuring her little cousin 'learning to balance herself on the kitchen platform'.

The theme of the 2004 Awards is 'Youth' and the photographs were judged on both interpretation of the theme and technical quality.

The winning photographs were short-listed from over 1,000 entries and judged in London by well-known sports photographer and picture editor of The Guardian newspaper Eamonn McCabe, veteran photographer Jonathan Eastland and Chris Ison, who is a photographer with the Press Association, London.

The Commonwealth Photographic Awards are an open competition for all Commonwealth residents. It includes both colour and black and white photographs from professionals and amateurs alike. They are organised by the Commonwealth Press Union in collaboration with the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.

An exhibition of all the winners' photographs is currently on at The Commonwealth Club and it will be open till September 23.

External Link: Commonwealth Photographic Awards 2004 website