Sixteen professional Bangladeshi photographers won the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Photography Award, 2009.

Shabbir Ferdous and Syed Badrul Karim jointly won the first prize while Wahid Adnan and Md Zabir Hasan both received the second prize, a press release said.

Masud Rana, Amio James Ascension and Md Musa Khan secured special prizes. Ten other photographers including Shoeb Faruqee, Shaiful Chowdhury, Andrew Biraj, Kabir Hossain, Jasim Salam, Indrajit Kumar Ghosh, Saud Al Faisal, Masud Rana and Hasanuzzaman received honourable mention award.

More than 160 professional photographers, With 617 entries, took part in the contest on food security, hunger and vulnerability issues.

The winners will be awarded formally in a weeklong photo exhibition titled “Tales of the Vulnerability of the Ultra-Poor" comprising the best 50 photographs to be held in Dhaka at Alliance Fran^aise on Friday, September24.

A panel of judges comprised of Md. Rashid-un-Nabi, Hasan Saifuddin Chandan and GMB Akash, and three subject specialists selected the winners.

The winners will receive cheques of Tk 45,000, Taka 35,000 and Tk 20,000 respectively for the first, second and special positions along with trophies. Photographers, with their entries in the best 50, will be provided with certificates.

The selected photographs will also be featured in a special photo book to raise funds for WFP's school feeding programme.

Holding photography as a major tool of creating awareness, John Aylieff, WFP representative, said, “WFP is proud to celebrate and honour this group of photographers who have mobilised themselves with energy, passion, and compassion to capture the sufferings and aspirations of the most vulnerable people in their communities"

The WFP Photography Award is an annual award of excellence in food security related photography in Bangladesh given by the world's largest humanitarian agency fightinghungerworldwide.