Capture Corruption: 18-30 age group winners
Back to Capture Corruption photo competition home · 31+ age group winners
We teamed up with the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the International Anti-Corruption Conference to launch “Capture Corruption”, a global photo competition looking for the most powerful images of corruption and its devastating impact on lives around the world.
We received more than 1,500 entries from around the world – images exposing injustice, exploitation and the activists who are fighting back.


A.M. Ahad

A young girl works at a plastic recycling factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2006, the government passed a law setting the minimum legal age for employment as 14, but the problem remains widespread - 93 per cent of child labourers are employed in the informal sector, such as small factories and workshops, on the street, in home-based businesses and domestic employment. (2014)
“Being a photojournalist, I have had to see and document uncountable instances of corruption. Witnessing them nearly every work day, it is perhaps normal to get used to the occurrences. To me, the main motivation to photograph the effects of corruption is because countless number of children are being affected by it. And that is something I can never accept or get used to.”


Bernardo Salce

One of the thousands forcedly evicted from the Boeung Kak Lake, Cambodia. Mouen fell out of a palm tree while collecting leaves to rebuild the shack where he was living, at a dump site outside Phnom Penh. The fall nearly killed him and he was left unattended at a public hospital for almost a week: he didn’t have money to pay the unofficial fees required by the doctors. Helped by a local NGO, Mouen had surgery at another hospital. Corruption in health, at both governmental and local levels, is a barrier to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, weakening already fragile health systems and reinforcing social and economical inequality. (2015)
“It was a great responsibility to try and give a face to the negative impacts of corruption on the healthcare system. My motivation was to offer Mouen an opportunity to share his story and, hopefully, raise awareness about the many challenges most Cambodians currently face.”


Alice Smeets

Raxaul, India. Employees of PRAYAS, an NGO fighting against child trafficking, question a boy in the train and discover that he is being trafficked. Every Saturday at 5pm a train leaves the bordertown to reach Mumbai. Every week, the team of PRAYAS searches the entire train to rescue trafficked children. Corruption is increasingly cited as a key cause and traffickers rarely face justice. Corruption both facilitates trafficking and feeds the flow of people by destabilising democracies, weakening a country’s rule of law and stalling development. (2013)
“Photographing the effects of corruption is part of my life’s mission to spread the truth about what’s really happening in our world. I use my photos to share my observations, and I believe in the possibility of change through education.”

Dipayan Bhar

In India, a young girl waters the last remaining plant in a field destroyed by drought. Despite promising water for farming, local leaders have reportedly diverted it to supply factories instead. Every year, several farmers commit suicide. (2015)
“My aspiration is to be a photojournalist and this is why the subject matter of environmentalism and corruption attracts me. I took this photo to show the world what happens to society when there is a shortage of water.”

Anup Ghimire

Not every child gets to go to school, despite the constitution mandating access to education. Across rural and urban areas, there are many well funded NGOs in the education sector. But with so many children out of school, where does their money go? (2013)
“Capturing realities and emotions and disclosing them to society has always been something that motivated me to take the media as a filed of work and study. I see media as a mirror of the society depicting the realities. I think the power to bring and initiate change is a factor that motivates me to capture the effect of corruption. ”

Tony Maake

In South Africa, water remains a luxury - 21 years after the transition to democracy, many still wait for taps and effective sewage systems to be built. The only operational taps in this neighbourhood are a considerable distance away, making the collection of water a daunting task for the aging and exposing children to illness and safety hazards. There should be enough capital and resources to assist the poor, but funds reportedly end up in the pockets of politicians. (2015)
“I am one of those courageous resilient photographers who are never afraid to tell the untold, uncomfortable hidden stories that are caused by corruption – in order to build hope, fix bleeding souls and, most importantly, educate those who are uneducated through building bridges and breaking barriers. I am fearless to teach the world with a camera in my hand.”

Mauro Pimentel

Protesters attempt to break into and set fire to the Legislative Assembly of the state of Rio de Janeiro during the first night of protests which mobilised Brazil against corruption in the country. Police remained trapped inside the building. More than a million people took to the streets in the city, in what became known as the "June Days". (2013)
“Brazil is a country where corruption is a way of life for many people. To investigate and photograph the consequences of these acts is a continuous effort to improve our society by exposing our flaws.”

Sony Ramany

In Bangladesh, students attend classes without shelter after a politician illegally occupies school land and evicts the students from the school building. (2014)
“In Bangladesh, corruption persists everywhere. Corruption has spread like cancer here, where a person can hardly get jobs done without bribery, especially in the government sector. I feel the country needs a collective effort to get rid of corruption, and I would like to do my part of the job as a journalist.”

Sujan Sarkar

Sand mining brings in tremendous profits, and the potential to make big money has resulted in corruption and the violation of established regulations. With disregard for environmental regulations, the sand mining sector destroys shorelines, increases the risk of floods, and disturbs the marine ecosystem. Mining along river beds increases their depth, disrupting agricultural canal systems and damaging farmland. Reports indicate that workers involved in sand mining face significant occupational hazards and health effects such as silicosis and cancer. (2015)
“I am compelled to photograph the effects of corruption due to recent environmental changes stemming population growth, deforestation, soil erosion, etc – and the human tendency to negatively affect the environment for personal gain. These changes remain a question mark for the upcoming generation.”

Om Velasco

In the Philippines, a pregnant woman leaves a long line of people waiting for aid. Two weeks after Typhoon Sendong, her community is still devastated. There’s little food and water, livelihoods are gone, and families live in tents with little protection from sun and rain. Surrounding them are traces of the typhoon’s fury – wreckage litters the ground and bodies lie unclaimed on the streets. Approximately 1,200 people died and the damage is pegged at P2 billion (US$43 million). The Philippine government was criticised for failing to manage relief efforts properly and ensure life-saving aid reached victims. (2011)
“In societies where corruption is systemic and perpetuated by the political structure, photography can be a way of saying ‘Yes, we know what you are doing,’ and ‘No, we are not okay with it.”

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