Starkville resident Candy Feng’s striking image of her son dwarfed by the looming majesty of a glacier in Iceland is the Readers’ Choice winner in Smithsonian magazine’s 11th annual photo contest, it was announced Thursday. Earlier this year, Feng’s photo was selected as one of 10 finalists in the contest’s People category, out of more than 50,000 images submitted by photographers in 132 countries.
“It’s very exciting, and very humbling, too, because there are so many wonderful photographers,” said Feng of the Readers’ Choice honor. “I guess I feel lucky — and grateful for people I know and people I don’t know.”
The Readers’ Choice award was determined by votes cast online at smithsonian.com.
In all, Smithsonian photo editors selected 60 finalist photographs — 10 each in six categories — for this year’s contest. Category winners and finalists may be viewed at smithsonianmag.com.
The Icelandic glacier in Feng’s photo was very close to the road her family was traveling in June 2013. After taking numerous photos of the awe-inspiring sight, she walked back to her car.
“When I turned my head looking for my son, I saw him standing in the distance, facing the imposing glacier,” she said. “I snapped the image with him being part of the landscape … I wanted to remember that moment forever.”
She is grateful for the support her photo received in the contest. “It is such a great feeling that people appreciate your photograph,” she said.
Feng, a native of Taipai, Taiwan, and her husband, Eric, graduated from Mississippi State University and are now owners of businesses in the Golden Triangle. Their grown children, Jonathan and Catherine, share their love of nature and travel.
Editor’s note: Read more about Feng at cdispatch.com, in an archived story that ran in The Dispatch May 4.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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