Winner

Adrees Latif / Reuters
“Central American Migrants”

Finalist

Alexey Yurenev / Freelance
“Silka”

Finalist

Hossein Fatemi / Panos Pictures
“The Legacy of Empire”

Finalist

Jeffrey McWhorter / Freelance
“The Time We Have Here”

Finalist

Alexey Vasilyev / Freelance
“My Dear Yakutia”

Finalist

“Silka”

“Silka,” which means exile in Russian, is a photographic exploration of Brighton Beach, NY; the most densely populated Russian-speaking community in the Western Hemisphere.

Though the collapse of the USSR in 1991 changed Russia significantly and stimulated a series of rapid modernization, Brighton Beach savors the past and is living museum of Soviet nostalgia. A life ensconced in traditions, values and the iconology of the old world beliefs, this close-knit insular world of Soviet émigrés lives a cloistered existence in the shadow of New York City.