From our photo library: An 'Easter egg' from Uganda

Photo: Kaarli Sundsmo for Mercy Corps

Staff members send me photos they've come across pretty regularly. The special ones I call "Easter eggs" because they're such a pleasant discovery.

This image from Uganda taken at a Mercy Corps Cash-for-Work site is a perfect example. Staffer Nate Oetting emailed it to me a few months ago and said it was taken by Kaarli Sundsmo, an employee of project funder USAID. I like the dreamy, painterly quality of the image. The composition is unorthodox and even a bit cluttered, but it's held together by the fact that everything is out of focus except the two workers in the foreground. Another component of the photograph's visual interest is the way the curves of the digging tools are sympathetic with the curves of the horizon line.