Yishey D. becomes first to bag ‘Special Talent Award’ in photography, and does it for two consecutive years!

Yishey with the award and the award winning photograph [top left corner]

Journalist-writer Yishey D. has bagged the ‘Special Talent Award for the Best Tribal Photographer’ in both the fifth and sixth National Level Photographic Competition organised jointly by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Photo Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.
Each award, comprising a cash prize of Rs. 20,000, a trophy, and a certificate was handed over by Dr. Hrusikesh Panda, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, at the closing ceremony of the first National Tribal Festival at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi on February 18, 2015.
In the fifth National Level Photo Competition 2011-12, Yishey’s picture titled ‘Sculpts away to Glory’ depicting an artist who engraves Buddhist mantras on stone plates and stupas around Tashiding monastery won her the ‘Special Talent Award’.  For this, as per an official communiqué, a total of 936 prints depicting ‘artists at work’ were received from 167 entrants from across the country.
The jury comprising of photographer and former secretary of Ministry of Tribal Affairs GB Mukherjee, photo expert Michael Shylla and Photo Division director Debatosh Sengupta had gone through the entries and selected the prize winning entries including the special talent award.
Yishey’s second photo, ‘The magnificence of Sikkim’s Singhi Chaam’ helped her retain the ‘Special Talent Award’ in the sixth national photo contest 2012-13, making it her second consecutive win.
As per the jury, Yishey is the first person in the country to bag the ‘Special Talent Award’ constituted by the Ministry as part of the national photo contest.
The award winning and other selected photographs were also exhibited during the festival period – February 13 to 18, 2015 – spread in three places - IGNCA, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Central Park, Cannaught Place, New Delhi.
The first National Tribal Festival ‘Vanaj’ had participation of around 900 folk and tribal artists from States like Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.