Item photographer Reba M. Saldanha has captured national honors in the annual Reader’s Picture Contest sponsored by Popular Photography & Imaging Magazine.

Saldanha, 28, of Boston, traveled to Haiti last summer while on sabbatical from the Daily Item where she photographed health problems and scenes from everyday life in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

In Ms. Saldanha’s prize-winning photo on the right, Steven and Chaneya Pavulus are shown at home in the Blanchard province in the capital of Port-Au-Prince depicts squalid conditions inside the family’s cinderblock home. This family of nine shares a three-room house and many of the kids sleep and eat on the dirt floor. As a result, the family suffers from respiratory illnesses and parasites.

This image caught the judges’ attention and gave Saldanha a runner-up slot in the Photojournalism category. The contest has been running for 13 years and annually attracts thousands of submissions.

Saldanha was introduced to photography while in high school. She later majored in journalism at Boston University.

“It kind of runs in the family,” said Saldanha. “My father gave me my first camera — his old Nikkormat. The light meter didn’t work and the hotshoe was broken, but it was enough to get me started.”

Reba is the daughter of Drs. Victor and Janine Saldanha of Lynnfield, MA.
Dr. Victor Saldanha was also a photographer and has won photo contests.

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