In the autumn of 2007, Canadian photographer Larry Louie got on the roof of a building facing the Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali. Built with wooden beams and mud bricks, it’s the largest of its kind in the world. “I couldn’t enter the Mosque, because I’m not a Muslim,” he tells BJP. “So I went on the roof of a nearby building. At that time, the sun broke through to light up the building and, out of nowhere, a gentleman walked by. It was one of these moments in time that you couldn’t have arranged yourself.” The resulting image, alongside three others from Mali and two further portfolios from Tibet and Indonesia, has won Louie the Travel Photographer of the Year award.

It’s not the first time Louie has entered the contest – in 2007 he was a runner-up in the One Planet, Many Lives category. “My focus is not only on landscape but on the people, especially from cultures that are endangered,” he tells BJP. “I like to see and meet people, to interact with them.” And he doesn’t do so only through his photography. Louie is also an optometrist who regularly does volunteer work in the countries he photographs.

Louie will receive a £1000 cash bursary, as well as an all-expenses-paid trip to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. He will also collect the latest version of the Adobe CS5 Design Premium software, and a series of Lexar devices, among other prizes.

Visit www.larrylouie.com and www.tpoty.com.

Read our full interview with Louie in the January issue of BJP.