2022 Judges
Sanjoy Bhattacharya
Sanjoy Bhattacharya was born and brought up in the ‘City of Joy’, Kolkata from the State of West Bengal, India. After completing his post-graduation in Zoology from Presidency College, Kolkata in the year 1996 he has started his photographic journey getting inspiration from his maternal-uncle who was a press photographer by his profession. Simultaneously he has started studying Art-Photography from various personalities in this field. He worked as wedding photographer, model photographer, advertisement photographer and product photographer individually from 2001 to 2004. He has started teaching photography at various organizations from 2004 to 2010. He has conducted various seminar and workshop on photography with various organizations like Nikon India, Sony India etc. from 2006 to 2012.
Mr. Bhattacharya has won more than 250 awards in photography competitions Nationally and Internationally from 2005 to date. His photographic works have been exhibited throughout India and more than 60 countries all over the world.
Sanjoy is the fourth Indian whose work has been exhibited in the “Information & Cultural Department”, Govt. of Republic of China in 2010. He has achieved 2nd position in a very prestigious photography competition in support of “Peace” that was organized by Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Govt. of Greece in 2012. A Photo-Series titled “Life-A Journey” created by Mr. Bhattacharya has been selected and displayed as archival value under “Modern Art” category in the most prestigious Art-Museum of the nation “Indian Numismatic historical and cultural research foundation” Mumbai for study and research purpose to scholars in this field. He has received prestigious distinction of AFIP (Associate of Federation of Indian Photography) and FFIP (Fellow of Federation of Indian Photography) in 2011 and 2014 respectively from Federation of Indian Photography. He is the most prestigious Honour holder as AFIAP (Artist of Federation of International Art Photography) and EFIAP (Excellence of Federation of International Art Photography ) from FIAP, Rome (Italy) in the category of Art-Photography. In 2020, he has achieved the most coveted Honour LRPS from Royal Photographic Society, Bristol. He is the only 6th Indian who has this Honour. Global Photographic Union, Greece has given him GPU Crown Honour for his outstanding work and contribution in the field of Art-Photography in 2016. He is also the National Representative of GPU in India. Presently Mr. Bhattacharya is running his own institute named BENGAL PHOTOGRAPHY INSTITUTE in Kolkata from 2011 and teaches various specialities and aspects of photography.
Presently the Institute has more than 500 students in various standards from almost every corner of the society. Among them, almost 40 students are working professionally in the field of photography in various fields. Many students are actively involved in various photographic activities under him and also participating many Salons and contests. Mr. Bhattacharya is conducting many workshops, seminars and other educational activities to promote photography among general mass throughout the year.
He is celebrating World Photography Day on 19th August every year since 2010 by promoting photography through exhibition and seminar. He is arranging photography exhibition of works of his students under the name “LENSVISION” every year in January on foundation day of his Institute since 2012. Mr. Bhattacharya is a very prominent name in the field of photography judging also since 2015. He has completed his 50th Judging very recently. He has judged almost 30 National Salons and 20 International salons till date. He is also Teacher-in-Charge of the Department of Photography, Future Foundation School, Kolkata. He teaches photography there from Grade 2 (7 years) to Grade 10 (15 years). It is a very challenging job for him to teach such young buds in photography. The students of this school has won many awards in photography under his guidance. He is working as advisor of Photography as co-curricular activities in different schools and colleges in Kolkata.
Agatha Bunanta
Agatha is a keen photographer who always admire the beauty of life. She lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. Agatha is the PSA (Photographic Society of America) International Relationships Vice President and the Member of PSA Board of Directors. She is also the PSA Region Director and Liaison Officer for Indonesia. Agatha is the Chairperson of Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Indonesia Chapter . Agatha is the Founder and Director of Art Photography of Indonesia, a non profit organization that connect, encourage, expand cooperation, collaboration and networking with photography organization and individuals both national and international to the development of photography in Indonesia.
Agatha is an Award winning photographer, received more hundreds of medals and honorable mentions from international and national photo competitions.
Her name also listed in PSA Who’s Who in 2006 until 2011 in various division.
Judge in many photo competition both locally or internationally : Austria, Australia, India, Qatar, Vietnam, USA, Oman, France, Germany, Greek, Turkey, Cyprus, Ireland, Brazil, China, Romania, Iran, Italy and many more. Her works has been exhibited in many join photo exhibitions such as in USA, Oman, Thailand, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Vietnam, Morocco, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and many more.
Agatha is considered to be the pioneer in international salon in Indonesia since 2006. She actively introducing, teaching, helping and encouraging many Indonesian photographers to get more exposure in international photography and to get photography distinctions.
Heather Templeton Dill
Heather Templeton Dill, granddaughter of the legendary investor Sir John Templeton, is the president of the John Templeton Foundation, a $3.8 billion philanthropic organization that supports efforts to advance human well-being through rigorous basic scientific research and scholarship. In her tenure as president, Dill and the Foundation have awarded 1,150 grants totaling more than $743 million. The John Templeton Foundation funds basic research and discovery across the sciences, philosophy, and theology from gratitude and hope to the psychology of purpose and positive neuroscience.
Dill served as a Foundation trustee from 1997-2003 and 2009-2015 and has been a member of its executive, finance, and strategic planning committees. She succeeded her father, Dr. Jack Templeton, as president of the Foundation upon his passing in 2015.
Dill is on the board of First Trust Bank and previously served on the Templeton Religion Trust steering committee and the Templeton World Charity Foundation board.
Dr. James R. Doty
James R. Doty, M.D. is an adjunct professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and the founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University of which His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the founding benefactor. He works with a variety of scientists from a number of disciplines examining the neural bases for compassion and altruism. Through CCARE, Dr. Doty has overseen the development of a variety of techniques, apps, and programs to address issues of mental health, stress, anxiety and burnout. He is also the founder and CEO of Happi (happi.ai), a healthcare company focused on creating a digital platform that uses artificial intelligence combined with a human avatar to treat mental health issues. He is also the Senior Editor of the “Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science”.
Dr. Doty is an inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, having given support to charitable organizations supporting peace initiatives, funded health clinics throughout the world, created programs for the disabled and supported programs for adolescents with affected by AIDS/HIV. He has supported research, provided scholarships, and endowed chairs at multiple universities. He is presently focusing on developing educational programs for children in through K-12th grade focused on compassion, empathy, and social emotional learning.
His book, “Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart”, a NY Times bestseller which has now been translated into 40 languages and editions. It also served as the basis for the third album, Love Yourself: Tear by the famous K-pop group, BTS. He is presently completing his next book, Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything which will be published in the fall of 2022.
Dr. Doty is on the board of a number of non-profits and is the former chairman of the Dalai Lama Foundation and the former vice-chair of the Charter for Compassion. He is also an advisor to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation. Dr. Doty’s work has been cited in numerous media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, ABC and many others. He speaks around the world on the neuroscience and health benefits of compassion.
Dr. Piero Ferrucci
Piero Ferrucci is a philosopher and psychotherapist. He practices psychosynthesis and lives in Florence, Italy. He has written a number of books, including The Power of Kindness, Beauty and the Soul, and Your Inner Will (Tarcher Penguin).
Leyla Emektar
Leyla Emektar graduated from Çukurova University, Art Department of Faculty of Fine Arts, she started her career as Visual Arts Teacher. Her works have been exhibited in many national and international festivals and exhibitions. Al Thani was invited to Qatar after winning the photo contest. (2012) The Digital Arts Museum in California, her artworks were given Stellar Art Awards. One of her works is exhibited in Ovar Museum, İn Portugal. (2013) She was accepted and invited to the documentary portfolio organization organized in cooperation with HPA and UNESCO in China. (2015)
Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum international photography award (HIPA) received award in the category of digital manipulation (2016). The first prize in the International Photography Festival that is held in Siena, winner in The Alfred Fried Photography Award, Austria, (2016)
Received awards from Xposure Sharjah İnternational phtography award in the category of photojournalism, and digital manipulation (2017 & 2018).
In China, she was invited to an event organized as the world’s ten best photographers and her documentary portfolio was displayed.
An event held in Japan where the best landscape photographs were invited; she was invited with for receiving the grand prize and his work was exhibited in Tokyo.
Her works were exhibited at the DongGang International Photo Festival held in Seoul.
Linda Epstein
Linda started her journalism career as a photographer for several newspapers in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio. A graduate of Syracuse University, Linda is a member of the White House News Photographers Association and National Press Photographers Association. She served on NPPA’s Board of Directors as a Regional Director or Associate Director for over 10 years.
Aundre Larrow
Aundre Larrow is a Jamaican-born photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. From his work as an Adobe Creative Resident exploring stories across the country to working on the set of W. Kamau Bell’s United Shades, Aundre seeks to see the fundamental truth in each human being, regardless of background, culture, or upbringing. For him, portraiture is the archeologist’s chisel, the biologist’s microscope, the physicist’s Large Hadron Collider.
Mara Leite
Mara Leite is an award-winning photographer and the current U.K. Landscape Photography of the Year. She is based in London and originally from Seattle, WA. Mara’s work has gained international recognition in prestigious photography contests such as the Astronomy Photographer of the Year, the International Garden of the Year, and the EPSON International Pano Awards. Her photos have also been published in National Geographic and other outlets. Additionally, Mara is also an astrobiology doctoral researcher. She is passionate about astrophotography and the benefits of dark skies.
Chelsea Matiash
Chelsea Matiash is the national deputy for strategy and operations at The New York Times. She is also on the board of the Newswomen’s Club of New York and is a lecturer in journalism. Previously, she was the senior photo editor at The Intercept, deputy editor for multimedia at TIME Magazine and a photo editor at The Wall Street Journal and at The Associated Press. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Miami and holds certifications in editing, product management and video production.
Kristen McNicholas
Kristen McNicholas is a Photo Editor on the Photo Services team with Discovery Communications. She formerly worked at National Geographic, United Press International, and interned with the Obama White House Photo Office and Education Week. She also offers private editing services to photographers and in her spare time can be found baking, reading, or snuggling with her two dogs and cat. She proudly hails from the Finger Lakes region in New York.
You can follow her on Instagram at @kemcnicholas.
Pavithra Mehta
Pavithra Mehta is a writer, and the lead author of Infinite Vision: How Aravind Became the World’s Greatest Business Case for Compassion. She is a board member of the Aravind Eye Foundation and a volunteer with ServiceSpace, a non-profit that designs and runs an array of projects designed to ignite compassionate action in the world. She is co-editor of its transformative news service DailyGood.
Stephen Oke
He is a Nigerian born Legal Practitioner, Called to the Nigerian Bar in 2003, An alumni of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State (1999). OKE Stephen Iruobe, is an Attorney-at-Law and the Principal Partner of Divine Favour Chambers, he is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, Full Gospel Business men Fellowship, he is also an Arbitrator, and He is a member of the Board of Trustees of World Kindness Initiative, Nigeria and the Secretary General of The World Kindness Movement.
His hobbies include: networking, reading, football and friendship. He is married to Veronica Funmilayo Oke.
Dulce Pinzón
Dulce Pinzón was born in Mexico City in 1974. She studied Mass Media Communications at the Universidad de Las Americas in Puebla Mexico and Photography at Indiana University in Pennsylvania. In 1995 she moved to New York where she studied at The International Center of Photography, Film at NYU and Labor Law at Dowling College, Long Island. Her work has been published and collected internationally.
In 2001 her photos were used for the cover of a publication of Howard Zinn’s book “A People’s History of the United States”. In 2002 Dulce won the prestigious Jovenes Creadores/FONCA grant in Mexico for her work. In 2006 she won an Honorific Mention in the Santa Fe project competition and she won the 12th edition of the Mexican Biennial of El Centro de La Imagen. Dulce was a 2006 fellow in Photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a 2007 for the Bronx Museum program Artist in the Market Place and a Ford Foundation grantee in 2008.
Dulce won The Gaea Foundation/Sea Change Residencies Award in 2010 and in 2011 the PERRIER acquisition price in Zona Maco Mexico. In 2012 she was invited to take part at the renowned photography festival ‘Les Rencontres D’Arles Photographie’ in France, this participation gave her a nomination for the prestigious Prix Pictet; the same year she got a honorific mention at the 10th edition of the FEMSA biennial.
Her book “The real story of The Superheroes ” was published in 2012 in 3 languages: English, Spanish and French by Editorial RM with the support of the Cultural Co-inversion program of FONCA. Dulce was a recipient of Mexico’s prestigious Endowment of the Arts SNCA/FONCA fellowship (2014-2017)
Dulce has been Director of Plataforma ArtBase is an arts production and management agency with exhibition space located in Cholula, Mexico. We guide artists to achieve their professional goals of proliferation and longevity in their careers. The Plataforma´s mission is to help emerging artists broaden their visibility through exposure to diverse audiences such as curators, collectors, and art institutions. We help artists to develop promotion strategies, that will achieve sales and legitimization for their projects nationally and internationally.
According to FORBES magazine December 2015 issue, Dulce is on the list of the most creative Mexicans in the world.
Dulce works as a curator for the 13th Edition of Art Souterrain in Montreal and lives with her two children between Mexico and New York.
Dr. Dan Siegel
Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.
For more information about his educational programs and resources, please visit: www.DrDanSiegel.com and www.mindsightinstitute.com
Dr. Siegel has published extensively for both the professional and lay audiences. His five New York Times bestsellers are: Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D: The Whole-Brain Child, and No-Drama Discipline. His other books include: IntraConnected (coming October 2022), The Developing Mind, The Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology, Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist, and Becoming Aware. He has also written The Yes Brain and The Power of Showing Up with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D. Dr. Siegel also serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which currently contains over seventy textbooks.
Marilyn Turkovich
Marilyn Turkovich started with the Charter for Compassion in 2013 as the education director and since that time has moved into a number of different roles with CFC. Marilyn‘s background has been primarily in higher education and most specifically in directing teacher training programs for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and chairing Columbia College-Chicago’s master’s program in multicultural and global education. She has done a considerable amount of curriculum writing through the years, much of it related to international and cultural topics.
She worked with Independent Broadcasting Associates on a series for airing on National Public Radio, BBC and the Australian Broadcasting organizations. There was a period of time in the 1990s when she worked in organizational development and specialized in instructional design work, strategic planning and leadership development. She also wrote and developed training on race and social justice initiatives.
Sergey Volkov
Volkov Serhii was born and raised in Genichesk (Kherson region). In 2005 he entered the Dniprovskiy National University of Railway Transport named after Academician V. Lazaryan. In 2010 he graduated from the Faculty of “Organization of Railway Construction” and received a degree in “Civil Engineer”. He worked as an engineer for 4 years.
The photographer’s path began in 2012. After moving to Rivne in 2014, Serhii completely dedicates himself to photography and turns his hobby into a favorite job. The main activities are classic portrait and wedding photography.
Member of following organizations: National Society of Photo Artists of Ukraine (NSPAU), Ukrainian Association Of Professional Photographers (UAPP), The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP). He has earned the prestigious distinction AFIAP (Federation Internationale de l’Art Photographique, France). Winner and prize-winner of national and international photo exhibitions and competitions. TOP-1 photographer of Ukraine according to PROWEDAward in 2021.