MIES - From January until April, basketball lovers from around the world were invited to send in their photos that best illustrate the themes  'Basketball is Everywhere' and 'Basketball, a Universal Language' as part of the second annual FIBA Photo Contest .

FIBA's Foundation, the International Basketball Foundation (IBF) which organized the contest received over 1200 photos from 70 different countries.

The 3 winning photos illustrate this worldwide interest in basketball as their photographers come from 3 very different countries.

The grand winner Mario Bejagan Cardenas is from the Philippines. He won with his photo 'My home, my playground' which he took as part of a documentary series in a cemetery in the Philippines. He explained the context of the photo "Hundreds of families have made this city graveyard their home as authorities grapple with rising population and housing shortage".

Second place was awarded to the young Russian photographer Stepan Chubaev with his photo 'Basketball and Fashion'.

The Spaniard JM Lopez won the third place with his photo taken in Port au Prince called 'Haiti before Earthquake'.

The 40 best photos are currently exposed at the House of Basketball, FIBA's global headquarters until October.

You can see them in the following online gallery.