POY 2011: Nominees
With nearly 70,000 entries, India’s biggest photography awards, the Better Photography Photographer of the Year, just got bigger.
The Better Photography office last month was home to 66,782 entries, both print and online. This array of images was initially shortlisted by the BP team, and then, 16 renowned photographers found themselves facing quite a task. After an entire day of deliberation, they finally reached the top six images in each theme—a total of 48 nominations!
Eight Unique Themes
For the Canon-Better Photography Photographer of the Year 2011 Awards, the themes were chosen the to find the best talent in different genres of photography. Each of the eight themes were open to interpretation.
The Winning Entries
Choosing the best entries was not easy. Each image was a potential winner. Yet, the ones that finally made it to this list had one thing in common—they were photographs that managed to amaze the judges. The theme winners will be flown to an undisclosed location for the Final Face-off, the winner of which will be declared the Canon-Better Photography Photographer of the Year 2011.
Presenting the Theme Winners and Nominees
Theme: The Joy of Colour
Winner: S L Shanthkumar

Photograph/S L Shanthkumar
A Few Honourable Mentions:
Theme: Still Life: Obvious Things
Winner: Nilesh Bhange

Photograph/Nilesh Bhange
A Few Honourable Mentions:
- Photograph/Jaydeep Patil
- Photograph/Sandip Debnath
- Photograph/Aurobindo Saha
- Photograph/Navneeta Sengupta
- Photograph/Riddhi Parekh
Theme: Portraiture: I, Me, Myself
Winner: Nirvair Singh

Photograph/Nirvair Singh
A Few Honourable Mentions:
Theme: Reflections
Winner: Gokul Mudambile

Photograph/Gokul Mudambile
A Few Honourable Mentions:
Theme: Landscapes: Play of Light
Winner: Neelima Vallangi

Photograph/Neelima Vallangi
A Few Honourable Mentions:
Theme: Wildlife: Animal Behaviour
Winner: Baiju Patil

Photograph/Baiju Patil
A Few Honourable Mentions:
Theme: Life on the Streets
Winner: Sudipto Das

Photograph/Sudipto Das
A Few Honourable Mentions:
- Photograph/Plabon Das
- Photograph/Utpal Das
- Photograph/Pravinsinh Chauhan
- Photograph/Joydeep Mukherjee
- Photograph/Tejas Kudtarkar
Theme: Photo Essay: Song of the Road
Winner: Vinit Gupta

Photograph/Vinit Gupta
Here are the images from Vinit’s series:
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
- Photograph/Vinit Gupta
A Few Honourable Mentions: