Winner: Smithsonian 6th Annual Photo Contest
From the Smithsonian description:
In the early morning, fishermen clean their nets by Erhai Lake. By Johan Ensing (Driehuis, Netherlands). Photographed October 2008, Yunnan, China.
Ensing and the Chinese fishermen he shot that day did not share a common tongue, but that didn’t matter. The language of photography proved universal. “I asked the fishermen if it was OK to take some shots. (In other words, I held up my camera and showed them my most friendly grin.) For more than a half-hour, I made my pictures.”
View more of the winning images here. The deadline for submissions to the 7th annual contest is Dec. 1, 2009. Read the rules here.