Dazzling smile helps win environment photography competition

An uplifting picture of a poor farmer's wife in India carrying an infant on her back after a hard day's work in the fields has scooped top prize in a photographic competition.

The young woman in west Bengal can't believe that anybody would want to take her picture and laughs in delight.

Photographer Abhijit Nandi said: "My picture reflects the relationships between the environment (Mother Earth) and people; or mother and child. "There is also a strong suggestion of the renewal of life, with the cow being connected deeply to the fertility cult in Indian mythology.



"I shot this photograph in a remote village called Gourdah in West Bengal. The woman in my picture is returning home from the paddy field after a long day at work. As a farmer's housewife, she has to manage her home, child and also help her husband in the field. They are very poor.

"She never thought that a village woman could be the subject of a photograph, so when I told her that I would like to take a picture of her, she just laughed. The mother and child, the green paddy field and the blue sky after rain fill me happiness, hope and joy."

The picture - Happy in her Own World - took first prize in the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) Environmental Photographer of the Year competition.

There's a large gallery of other entrants here.