The EISA Maestro 2022 photo contest was on the theme of Joy. AP is proud to showcase the EISA Maestro 2022 third placed portfolio and the Public’s Choice award winners.

Last week we shared the portfolio of overall EISA Maestro 2022 international winner, Jean-baptiste Pellerin. Plus our UK national winner Caroline Allington, who also placed second internationally.

EISA Maestro 2022: Third Place

Happy Mukherjee, India

Happy Mukherjee portrait eisa maestro 2022 third plac ewinners

Happy is a professional freelance travel, people and documentary photographer and photography mentor. She has worked as an economics teacher for over ten years, which she left to pursue photography full time.

Happy Mukherjee portrait of happy children eisa maestro 2022 third place winners

Image: Happy Mukherjee

Happy Mukherjee portrait of happy children eisa maestro 2022 third place winners

Image: Happy Mukherjee

She says, ‘I have been honoured with AFIP and AFIAP distinctions. My work has been published widely, has been awarded and exhibited in more than 60 countries and I have been judged best photographer in 16 national and international photo competitions. I have won a Lalitkala National Academy award along with many competitions like the prestigious World Photographer Club contest. My image was selected as a finalist in the Siena Awards Contest and I have also received the prestigious FIAP Blue Pin from Georgia.

Happy Mukherjee portrait happy man in pink turban eisa maestro 2022 third place winners

Image: Happy Mukherjee

Happy Mukherjee portrait of happy children eisa maestro 2022 third place winners

Image: Happy Mukherjee

‘I love to interact with people and capture their different moods. To me, joyfulness is one of the greatest expressions of love and it connects people irrespective of age, caste, race, even with animals. It spreads love, bonding and eradicates sorrow, agony, revengefulness and enmity. It brings unity in diversity too. I love to capture mainly joyful moods as it spreads love and smiles to viewers. Viewers connect their good moments of life even in their problems with the happiness of photographs.

Happy Mukherjee portrait of happy children

Image: Happy Mukherjee

They extract joyfulness from photos and spread positivity everywhere in their life. My photographs show jovial relationships between generations, friends, mother and daughter as well as with pets. These photos were captured in different provinces of India. As we know, joy is increased by spreading with others. I want to spread joy and love to all people around the world through my work – that is the important reason behind my series of Joy.’

Happy Mukherjee portrait of happy grandmother and woman

Image: Happy Mukherjee

Happy Mukherjee portrait of happy children with grandfather

Image: Happy Mukherjee


EISA Maestro 2022: Public’s Choice

Conny Müller: Joy After Tough Times, Germany

EISA Maestro 2022: Public's Choice Conny Müller portrait with wolf

For many years, Conny Müller has had a close connection to the German travelling circus Probst. In her daytime job as a marketing manager, she has cooperated with this circus on several occasions in the past. This is how this 67-year-old amateur photographer from Essen has witnessed this family-run business closing its doors for one-and-a-half years, during the German Covid-19 lockdown.

EISA Maestro 2022: Public's Choice Conny Müller acrobatic performance

Image: Conny Müller

Conny Müller circus performance woman in large butterfly costume eisa maestro 2022 public choice winner

Image: Conny Müller

Conny Müller magician in show

Image: Conny Müller

This year, she learned, the circus has taken up 15 artists from the Ukraine, who fled their country at the start of the war. Now the refugees are part of their team, working and travelling together and performing in front of Conny Müller’s camera. After all, that smile you’ll see on their faces, is not just for the visitors of the show. It’s most of all an expression of joy, due to the fact that these artists are finally able to perform again.

acrobatic display performance in circus eisa maestro 2022 public choice winner

Image: Conny Müller

acrobat display in circus performance Image: Conny Müller eisa maestro 2022

Image: Conny Müller

somersaults acrobat performance

Image: Conny Müller


Featured image: Happy Mukherjee, EISA Maestro 2022 third place winner


See the EISA Maestro 2022 UK Winner here.

See the 2021 EISA UK winnerInternational winners and People’s choices.

Best photography competitions to enter in 2022


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