For her series Protectors of Sight, Contender Sophie Gerrard traveled to the Indian state of Bihar, which is home to half a million people suffering from cataract blindness. To help combat this, the Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital (AJEH) performs over 100 free cataract operations per day. Over the course of two years, Gerrard traveled to the rural state to visit and photograph at the AJEH and surrounding areas. You can learn more about her project and statistics on global cataract blindness, as well as the charitable organization that helps subsidize these operations, in this video.

Gupta has helped over 1000 blind people to AJEH hospital, Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

In her artist statement, Gerrard explains:

Completed over two years and several visits to the remote and rural Indian state of Bihar, Protectors of Sight presents a social document and objective narrative of the story of cataract blindness in this part of India. The series also explores an extremely personal, metaphorical and reflective response to the lives of those living with this condition in Bihar. The photographs started to become a diary as I worked and traveled in Bihar. I would respond to photographing those in the dark without sight by making images of wide open spaces and long empty views. I found myself drawn to changes in light and atmosphere, photographing dark spaces leading to light. Protectors of Sight documents individuals and their stories, their homes and surroundings. It also captures quieter moments and metaphors of barriers, shadows and isolation.

Eye chart, GEMS, Dehri-On-Sone, Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

The journey home, Siran District, Rural Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

Sophie Gerrard is an award winning documentary photographer from Scotland specializing in contemporary social documentary stories, with a particular emphasis on humanitarian and environmental issues. Sophie was recently invited to exhibit her series Protectors of Sight at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, and the exhibition ran throughout October and November 2011. During that time, the project received some interesting reviews and nominations.

Sophie's work is included in the Firecracker 2012 diary, published by Blurb. In 2007, Sophie's series E-wasteland won a Jerwood Photography Award and was selected as a U.K. winner by the Magenta Foundation for emerging photographers. Sophie's work has been exhibited widely, including at Flowers East and with The Photographers' Gallery in London and at Paris Photo. She has been nominated for the Prix Pictet four years in a row and was also nominated for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. Sophie's work has been exhibited internationally and is held in a number of national and private collections. Sophie spent a period of time living and working in India in 2009 and 2010, working for NGOs and on personal photographic projects. Currently based in the U.K., her social and environmental photographic features have been published by The Telegraph Saturday Magazine, Guardian Weekend Magazine, Foto8, Portfolio Magazine and Greenpeace International. Sophie is represented by The Photographers' Gallery in London.

Sona Devi, AJEH hospital, Mastichak, Bihar, India, by Sophie Gerrard

"While observing the audience during the performances," she says, "I become more and more convinced of the hidden mystery in this process, in art's ability to overwhelm and evoke compassion. The more emotional the performance, the stiller a spectator sits while watching it."

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray 02, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

In her artist statement, Iveta writes:

Opera was once seen as the exclusive reserve of aristocracy, a polite social occasion or an event to attend to affirm your cultural capital as a member of a social elite. [My] images tell a different story of intense participation by a more heterogeneous audience in a drama unfolding out of the frame. [I watch] the watchers, much as painters like Edgar Degas or Walter Sickert did at the music hall a hundred years ago. The long exposures render the subject in a high-contrast, impressionistic way, like Édouard Manet, but instead of Baudelaire's Flaneurs, [I see] a more stratified contemporary audience.

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Iveta Vaivode (b.1979) grew up in Riga, Latvia. Having started her photographic career as a fashion photographer, Iveta has recently turned her sights toward her personal projects. In 2008, she received a BA in photography from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth (England). Her photographs have been exhibited in Latvia, Lithuania, U.K., France, China and Belgium. Iveta is the recipient of the following awards: AOP Student Photographer of the Year (2007); Latvia Photography Award of the Year (2007) in the nomination of Design Photography of the Year; and Nikon Discovery Awards (2008).

Swan Lake, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Swan Lake 02, 2011 by Iveta Vaivode

Contender Amy Lyne takes on Coney Island in her submission, capturing the motley crowds that flock to this NYC institution during the blazing summer heat.

Safety First, July 2011 by Amy Lyne

Butts, Butts and More Butts, July 2011 by Amy Lyne

In her artist statement, she writes:

Coney Island has become like a Heritage site: a gathering place of people from all around New York and the world. It's the last un-gentrified place in New York City, offering its visitors a playground where they can share a temporary sense of interconnectedness through collective amusement, cultivating an atmosphere of abandon and extravagance.

Everyone is Here..., July 2011 by Amy Lyne

Amy Lyne is a freelance documentary photographer, whose work focuses on social issues that tend to be overshadowed by the headline news. After attending La Sorbonne in Paris and Bogazici's University in Istanbul, Lyne received her BFA in photography from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, as well as her BA in art history and French literature. Lyne has exhibited in galleries and festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, Les Rencontres d'Arles in France and the Sounding Jerusalem Festival, where her work was projected against the Old City's walls.

Lyne has worked on various humanitarian projects, including a collaboration with Michel Comte from 1999-2002, People and Places with No Name, benefiting the International Committee of the Red Cross' activities in Angola, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. Lyne was involved in We are the Future, a joint effort between Quincy Jones' Listen Up Foundation and The Glocal Forum, a coalition committed to giving a voice to children living in the world's most war-ravaged regions. Lyne has also collaborated with Nicolas Hulot, one of Europe's most respected environmentalists, on Ushuaia Nature, a television series about indigenous cultures around the world. Lyne has produced many multi-media pieces, including If I Could Wake Up Tomorrow..., which was commissioned by the Emotion Pictures Festival, and addressed the issue of ability with the participation of Eva Mendes, Danny Boyle and Richard Gere, to name a few.

Daniel Castillo, 2011 from the series Homies by Adam Amengual

Amengual says of the organization, "It is a place that takes people in and sees the potential in them when others do not." Of the series, he explains:

In shooting this project I hope that people can see the subjects for what they are, humans trying to better themselves. The style in which these people have been photographed begs the comparison to a mug shot. Almost all of these people have been arrested and have had a mug shot taken of them. I feel like I have... made a more beautiful version of an ugly picture from their past—just like what the subjects themselves are doing with their own lives.

Cindy Hernandez, 2011 from the series Homies by Adam Amengual

Carlos Nieto, 2011 from the series Homies by Adam Amengual

Adam Amengual was born in Queens, New York, and was raised on the North Shore of Massachusetts. After studying the basics of photography in high school, he continued his photographic education at both Massachusetts College of Art and Parsons School of Design, in New York. After art school, Adam moved to Brooklyn, NY, and began assisting photographers in advertising, fashion, celebrity and music. Over the past six years he has assisted many well-established photographers. He has worked with Ruven Afanador, Don Flood, Danielle Levitt, Norman Jean Roy, Art Streiber and Ben Watts, to name just a few. Adam is currently located in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife, Kate, and dog, Shug. His recently completed project, entitled Homies, has been featured on several blogs, including TIME LightBox, Prison Photography, this is the what, Conscientious and We Can Shoot Too, and it is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Contender Evan Lane is a working photographer and director based out of LA. Already having directed music videos for bands like M83 and Filter, Lane's cinematic eye is evident in this submission, which is evocative of a summer road trip. Of the series, Lane alludes to an effortless approach by writing only, "Keep it simple, silly." You can view more works from the series here. Be sure to check out his blog for more, or follow his tweets.

Untitled, by Evan Lane

After graduating Santa Monica High School in 2003, Evan Lane made the move from Los Angeles to Boston. He studied film-making and photography at Emerson College. After graduating in 2007 with a degree in film and photography, Evan lived in India for three months. When Evan got back to the States, he started working as a creative assistant to various photographers and directors in order to kick start his career. Photography has been Evan's driving force in life and he loves nothing more than being on set, traveling and consistently pushing himself creatively.

Wild Cotton, 2011 by Evan Lane