Congratulations on the Grand Prize. How do you feel about winning?
Helen Marshall (HM): Dazzled, fantastic, great...it will open up some fresh opportunities. I'll be looking forward to working with a really decent professional digital camera as a result of the prize.
Did you expect this photo to win?
HM: Because there were tens of thousands of entries I didn't expect anything. However, I imagined I was submitting a highly appropriate image in terms of the NPCI philosophy,
and I knew that the image was powerful.
The Judges have said that "Alice In The Gambia" initially seems like an ordinary snapshot, but then they noticed a rare sense of harmony between Alice, the other children and you, the photographer. Did you feel that way when you took it?
HM: I have a relationship with the village where the photo was taken; I have visited a few times and have some Gambian friends there. Alice is my daughter. She has grown up in a visual arts world and is a natural with the camera.
When I started taking pictures that day, I showed all the children the preview in the LCD and they went wild and formed a group that chanted "photo! photo!".
