The Humanity Photo Awards 2009, 16th Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee,co-organized by the CFPA and the UNESCO, is to be launched on Sep 16th, 2008. The Humanity Photo Awards contest perfectly combined photography with folklore, anthropology and sociology. It not only takes the advantage of the documentary traits of photography, but it also expands the culture span of photography by preserving authentic evidence for culture heritage and providing systematic samples for the research of human culture heritage. Exceeding the artistic values, the HPA contest has gained humanity significance. Over the past ten years, the previous five HPA have collected over 100,000 folklore photographs of 118 countries, which were taken by more than 8,000 photographers from 94 countries around the world. The HPA 2009, inheriting the glorious achievements of the past five contests, will innovatively bring you a grand Olympic-style gathering and the Oscar-style suspense.

6 Grand Awards & Judges’ Special Awards
Many photographer friends familiar with HPA know that there was only one Top Award regarded as a core, which is so called “All the stars twinkle around the moon” in a Chinese idiom. The initiative aim of the Top Award was to promote the concept of folklore photography around the world. From the contest 2009 on, rather than select a hero for the contest, HPA will emphasize to call upon more photographers to participate in this photo-festival. The number of Grand Awards increases from one to six—one for each category. In addition, all the candidates for the Grand Awards have the opportunity to be selected for the mysterious Judges’ Special Awards, which represents the distinct cultural pursuit of folklore photography. After ten years’ exercise of HPA, this will be the first time Special Awards initiated in this contest.

66 Round-trip Air Tickets & 166 VIP Seats
The pleasure of photographing is what is commonly shared by folklore photographers with different cultural backgrounds around the world. The process of selection is a time when photographs revealing diverse cultures are presented at the same time. The award ceremony is the best opportunity when photographers further interpret cultures of different ethnic groups.

We cordially invite photographers to attend the award ceremony. We will prepare 66 round-trip air tickets for the 66 candidates nominated for the Grand Awards and 166 VIP seats for all the prized winners. HPA focuses on the distinct value of documenting folk cultures, and tries to rid the sheer competitiveness of the contest, which is evident in another change of the HPA 2009: around 10 photographers will be awarded the Documentary Award for each category. All of them will get a free round-trip air ticket for the award ceremony. As a result, the Award Ceremony will witness a grand gathering with more participation and active dialogues among diverse cultures developed by photographers from different parts of the world. We believe the Ceremony will be enjoyed by all the participants—passionate in recording multi-cultures, who will show their interest in the diversified ways of cultural presentation.

Electronic Document to Be Accepted Too
In HPA 2006, CFPA took a first step in terms of accepting CD disc of entries while print photographs are a majority. In this new contest, participants are welcomed to submit their entries in the form of CDs. We feel grateful for the digital technology which brings convenience in the record and share of cultures. We look forward to further development—all the submission of entries for future HPA contests will take the advantage of the internet.

Please read carefully the Articles of the HPA 2009 for more details about what is mentioned above.
Tel: 010-62252175
Email: hpa2009@china-fpa.org
Web: www.china-fpa.org (download Articles & Entry Forms of the HPA 2009)
Please keep an eye on our website. During the entry period CFPA will release more complementary information about the contest and be willing to explain for you all.