Desré Pickers is People's Choice Winner

Written on Tuesday 22.09.2009 09:52 AM By: Red Bull Illume

After tallying thousands of online votes, SMS messages and emails, the People's Choice award for the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2007 has been awarded to Desré Pickers.

The South African photographer was also the recipient of the Athletes' Choice prize and Lifestyle category with her shot of three kayakers peering over the top of the Victoria Falls in Zambia.

"To me the two greatest honors are the Athletes’ Choice and the People's Choice, after all that’s essentially who you are taking the photos for," says Pickers. "It isn’t always easy to capture the essence of what athletes experience in a still photo but when you do and you get to share those moments with the public, it makes all the grueling work of getting it so worth while."

Grant Scott, editor of UK magazine Professional Photographer says the image has "a sense of the extreme and of danger without being obvious."

"It is in some ways a quiet picture but one that makes you keep looking at it with a sense of disbelief and intrigue."

Pickers wins a year's supply of memory cards from SanDisk and a Lowepro photographer's bag.