The 2020 competition featured 24 categories that showcase the many ways that food impacts our lives. With descriptive titles like “Bring Home the Harvest” and “Politics of Food,” they represent a wide array of images that, together, challenge what you might imagine food photography to be.
Not all of food photography is styled shots of fruits and veggies (although that certainly is part of it); many of the winning images highlight the social aspects of food and meals. This is seen in the overall winner of the competition. Bangladeshi photographer KM Asad won the grand prize and the title of Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2020 for his powerful image titled After Exodus. The picture was shot in the expansive Rohingya refugee camp as the children there are waiting in line for their meal.
The poignancy of After Exodus won the admiration of the judges. “This moving image really speaks to our times,” says Caroline Kenyon, Founder/Director of the Awards. “The world is in the grip of COVID-19 and normal life, whatever that may be, has stopped for all of us. These Rohingya refugee children remind us of the fragility of life, that our need for food for survival connects us all around the world. We are all the same.”