EISA Photography Maestro 2022-2023

EISA has announced the annual Photo Maestro contest results.

The awards recognise photography talents from across the globe. This year’s theme was ‘Joy’. Jean-Baptiste Pellerin from France won the first prize of € 1500 while Caroline Allington from UK won the second prize of € 1000. As the representatives of EISA in India, Smart Photography is immensely proud that Happy Mukherjee from India has been adjudged the third-place winner, and takes home € 750. Congratulations to the three winners.

1st Prize - €1500

Jean-baptiste Pellerin

I am a freelance professional people and documentary photographer. I have worked on illustrating various magazines. Since I started photography at the end of the 1980s, I have found my inspiration essentially in the street. Firstly, in black and white, like my influences at the time, Robert Doisneau and Robert Frank. But then I quickly adopted colour, and have never left it.

How it was made

For more than twenty years, I have practiced what is called “stolen photography”, both in Paris and during my travels. After a break from photography and making two documentary films, I took my camera and went to meet the refugees who were camped a few steps from my home, under the La Chapelle metro station. In the camp, there was no question of photographing people without their knowledge. So I had to learn to deal with posed photographs, and I learned to love this exercise. When I photograph people, I don’t give them any instructions on how to pose. They give me what they want to give me. We really make the picture together.