Tomato farmer Huang Ming-yi wins runner-up in National Geographic photo contest, his feet in the soil most moving

At six in the morning, photographer Huang Ming-yi drove along the small farm roads of Baihe in Tainan, searching for lotus fields. It was lotus seed season, and he wanted to use the light after sunrise to photograph farmers harvesting the lotus seed pods. The whole way, his eyes were fixed on the vehicles parked at the edges of the fields. Eventually he got out of the car beside a lotus field where a scooter was parked, and beneath the swaying lotus leaves, taller than a person, he found the farmer. He went up and explained why he was there, hoping the farmer would let him take a few photos of him at work.

"This is pretty much my routine," Huang Ming-yi explained. Before taking any photo, he always introduces himself to his subject and only picks up the camera after getting their consent. He put on rain boots and stepped into the lotus field alongside Brother Huang, who was harvesting seed pods, the muddy water reaching up to his calves. For him, true rural documentary photography requires not only natural scenery and rural atmosphere, but also the visible presence of farmers doing real labor, the image of them standing firmly in the soil.

Walking into the lotus field, Huang Ming-yi did not rush to pick up his camera. He first asked Brother Huang about the harvesting process, the varieties, and so on, chatting about his farming experience while scouting for a good spot to shoot. He said he always spends about twenty minutes observing and photographing, "even if the photos don't turn out well, I still get to learn about this industry." In the end, he found a backlit position and captured the image of Brother Huang with the lotus seed pods.