Well everyone, it’s finally time to reveal our 2011 Pikto Top Pick Winner! We received over 250 fantastic submissions, but the expert panel of judges had to choose only one. After much deliberation we are pleased to announce that Anastasia Taylor-Lind with her body of work "The National Womb: Baby Boom in Nagorno Karabakh" is taking top prize! She will be receiving $5,000 towards the production of her gallery show held here in the Pikto Gallery.

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is an English/Swedish documentary photographer based out of London, United Kingdom and is represented by the VII Photo Agency. This will be Anastasia's first solo exhibition.

While researching news stories back in 2008, Anastasia came to hear of Nagorno Karabakh's mass wedding for 674 couples; the wedding provided couples with payments of €1,400 for marriage and additional payments upwards of €1,400 for every child they bore, increasing with every child born (up to €70,000 for the seventh). The wedding was funded by wealthy Armenian businessmen in an effort to repopulate the region; Nagorno Karabakh's population had been deeply affected after the devastating war between the region's ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijan. This huge wedding spawned a "birth encouragement program" sponsored by the government. All couples married after 2008 are eligible for the program.

Anastasia's interest in stories of women doing "exceptional or interesting" things was sparked by the region's efforts to increase population growth at a time when most areas are dramatically trying to cut theirs down. She headed to the region and approached the government for all of the information she could on the program. What she found was a society with deeply entrenched gender roles; men played little to no role in the private sphere, being expected to provide for their families. Women, as in many traditional societies, were encouraged and expected, to raise their families staying at home to raise children and care for their mother and father-in-law.

In search of subjects, Anastasia soon found herself in the hospital approaching pregnant women, some even in labor ready to give birth. As evidenced by her photographs, she didn't find it difficult gaining access to her subject; a lot of people from the area were comfortable with photographers because they were exposed to photojournalists during the war. She quickly found herself in their homes, being filled with both coffee and tea, fruits, chocolates and cakes.

Anastasia notes that she never would have thought of doing a story like this in her twenties, a subject with its primary focus marriage and children. Now that she's in her thirties, with a lot of those around her having children, her photography is starting to shift what's happening in her life. She believes that photography is a good way to examine what's going on in our own lives.

The judges overall thought that her body of work was the strongest, her "clean and crisp" style revealing an original story. She manages to combine "her beautiful portrait work with reportage images" bringing together a strong story.

Congratulations once again Anastasia!

"The National Womb: Baby Boom in Nagorno Karabakh" will be on display at the Pikto Gallery from January 6, 2012 - February 29, 2012. The reception will take place on January 21, 2012 from 6pm-10pm with the artist and other influential members of the photographic community in attendance. Anastasia Taylor-Lind will also be giving a special talk at Pikto that weekend, more details to be announced closer to the date.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted their work, always great to put your work out there. Some of the other photographers who were shortlisted are as follows:

- Matt Eich
- Ivor Prickett's
- Akihiro Furuta
- Terence Byrnes
- Kevin German
- Tobi Asmoucha
- Maxim Dondyuk
- Tina Remiz
- Aaron Cobb
- Mateusz Sarello

Pikto would also like to congratulate Grayson Lee for winning the Most Popular vote based on online ratings! Grayson will receive a $1,000 credit at Pikto. Congratulations!
Great work everyone! Stay tuned for more details about Anastasia's exhibit!