Jaw-dropping ‘Rooftop Dreams’ image wins International Photographer of the Year

The revealing shot was captured by Australian photographer Yasmin Mund, shortly after she had stepped off a sleeper train in Varanasi, India, at 5.30am one morning last year.

Entitled ‘Rooftop Dreams’, the photo eclipsed more than 3,000 entries to take the 2015 title – along with a $2,500 cash prize.

‘This is one of the most magical things I have seen,’ said Yasmin, who is based in Sydney.

‘I got to my guesthouse and instinctively climbed the seven flights of stairs to see the sunrise over the famous River Ganges,’ she explained.

‘As I looked over the side of the rooftop terrace my jaw dropped in disbelief.

‘Below were mothers, fathers, children, cats, dogs, monkeys – all sleeping on their roofs.’

Yasmin conceded that sleeping without air conditioning was ‘pretty difficult’ at the time.

The same image was chosen as National Geographic’s Photo of the Day on 26 October 2015, when it was captioned ‘Come Up for Air’.

Meanwhile, Shahria Sharmin from Bangladesh triumphed in the amateur category, landing a $1,500 prize.

Moyna’s (54) Guru passed on leaving her the plainness of a widow along with responsibilities and restrictions of the real world. It’s been forty years since Moyna went home, but between the puffs of her smoking pipe she dreams for a death in motherland -Bangladesh. Kolkata, 2014. [© Shahria Sharmin]