Outdoor Photographer of the Year 2010 – Nature on the Brink. Photo: Quintin Lake

I’m delighted to announce that I have won the Nature on the Brink Category the Outdoor Photographer of the Year 2010 run by Outdoor Photography Magazine. This great news comes a few days after my win in the Travel Photographer of the Year awards so it will be hard to keep this pace up in 2011.

The image depicts a game of football game at Jardim São Marcos favela adjacent to the Fosfertil fertiliser factory, Cubatão, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Cubatao, used to be one of the most polluted places on earth dubbed “The Valley of Death”. Many residents live in shanty towns sandwiched between the factories and the jungle. I spent a few weeks with a non-commercial film crew documenting those lives of those who live there. My account of the experience can be read in  Cubatao: Life in the Valley of Death

This image has also been used for the cover of the Music CD Brazil Geopolitics

VIEW MORE IMAGES of Cubatao, Brazil here

Outdoor Photographer of the Year 2010 Supplement with Issue #135 January 2011 of Outdoor Photography Magazine

Photography © Quintin Lake