The Demotix Blog

The results of the Viewfinder competition for Environment are in - and we have winners from Malaysia, Indonesia and Mongolia.

Your entries were judged by Melanie Grant who is picture editor for Intelligent Life, the Economist's quarterly magazine. Mel is an experienced and respected picture editor with experience of working on major daily and international publications.

December's outright winner was Heaven for Scavengers by Wahyu Kurniawan.

Melanie said, "This beautifully shot black and white feature on rubbish scavengers in Indonesia was a pleasure to find. I would be happy to feature a photo essay of this quality in Intelligent Life Magazine as the tone and texture of the images brings to life the heat and stench of the dump in an almost poetic way."

This story was Wahyu Kurniawan's first upload to Demotix, and wins him a beautiful coffee-table book of his work, thanks to Blurb, custom book publishers for the masses.

Second place went to Charcoal Factory In Malaysia by Mohd Rasfan Bin Mohd Nor.

This image stood out for Melanie because of its its movement and variety. "There are some nice compositions and colours, especially in the darker shots. I could see this running as a spread in a broadsheet newspaper or as a reportage feature."

Third place this month when to the study of Ulaanbaaatr air pollution. Congratulations to Andrew Cullen who takes away cards from Moo.

Melanie: "The Atmosphere caught my attention here. There are some lovely silhouettes and aerial shots of the sprawling Ger city. A nice selection of images, any of which could be used as a large opening spread."

Well done to the winners, and everyone who entered. You can browse through more stories on the Environment page.

In January 2009, Demotix as we know it today was launched. Since then, we've had over 125,000 images from over 100 countries and made sales to most of the world's biggest TV channels, newspapers, magazines and websites. Demotix has led the news agenda with stories from London, Boston and Tehran. All of this - every last bit - is thanks to you, our 11,000 contributors. In one year, you've made Demotix a vibrant community and, we think, the home of some of the best photojournalism anywhere. We are excited to see what you will make in 2010.

We've put together a summary of the best stories from 2009. Join us in looking back to A Year of Demotix.

It’s been the usual rollercoaster ride for the Sales team at Demotix with so many fantastic stories coming we’ve had to keep on our toes to ensure we get as much content out as possible to media buying professionals around the World.

This week alone has seen imagery from Demotix contributors featured in publications in countries such as UK, US, Greece, Canada, Belgium and Lebanon to name but a few. An important placement for us this week was the use of a superb image from Copenhagen by the Metro newspaper here in the UK, which helped to bring Demotix to the attention of commuters up and down the country.

Demotix coverage of the continuing protests in Greece...

Congratulations to everyone who entered the November Viewfinder competition on Features. We had over 400 entries, and the standard was incredibly high. We're busy compiling a shortlist for our industry judge Phil Coombes of the BBC, and will announce the results later this week.

December's competition, on the subject of the Environment, is now open. More details on the blog later, but if you can't wait head to this page.