Raw and intimate pictures of new motherhood has placed a local photographer among the top winners of the worldwide Shoot & Share contest.
Squamish photographer Katia Grondin’s photos were placed in the top 10 % of the contest. Both the photos that Grondin entered were in the Birth and Newborn category.
Grondin also had one photo in the top 20 % and four photos in the top 30 % of the categories they were entered in.
The contest bills itself as the world’s only free and fair photo contest. Anyone can enter up to 50 photos in 25 categories. As many as 330, 116 photos were entered in the contest from 159 countries this year.
“We allow photographers from all over the world to share their work, and inspire others. By sharing our best shots, we can congratulate those who are doing an amazing job and encourage others to continue,” the organisers say.
This was the first time Grondin was participating in the contest. What made her entries unique was the fact that the contest didn’t include birth photos last year. This was a brand new territory for her, and it has made the winning that much exciting.
“It’s so inspiring to see the work from photographers around the world. I spent way too much time voting, I laughed, cried, and ooh and ahh-d more times that you could count. Some imagery out there is so deeply moving – and the world needs to see it! I’m glad the contest brought these images into the public eye – the shared experience of emotion, beauty, sadness, joy – it’s a feeling that simply cannot be matched,” she said.
Grondin said she became a photographer – and specifically, a portrait photographer, because of a passion to share and preserve life’s quick, glancing moments.
“A new father touching his baby’s feet for the first time, secret giggle between bride & groom, baby’s first smile as daddy’s beard tickles her, a big brother seeing his sibling for the first time – I get to capture these moments and preserve them forever. This is the work that pulls at my heartstrings and makes me whole,” she said.
