Humanity Photo Awards

The sixth edition just ended with the awarding of 166 prizes to folklore photographers, next appointment is on 2011. Our invitation to Italian photographers.

The Humanity Photo Awards are organized by the China Folklore Photographic Association and Unesco, with the purpose to collect images suitable to testify the cultural heritage at risk of extinction all over the world. There are different categories to enter the contest: Portrait and Costume, Architecture, Living and Production Customs, Festivities, Education (Recreation, Sports and Technology) and Traditional Rites. Images of folklore, in a word, meant in its nobler meaning, all that can be considered typical of a place, but destined to transform itself or to disappear for the risks that the progress brings with himself, for the adaptation to new customs, for changes in the environment, for new knowledge that sweep away old ways of production (in agriculture and fishing and connected workings, for example), for the evolution or contamination of ethnic groups or simply because it is normal that all must change, sooner or later. This explains the unavoidable involvement of the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), that does not only worry itself to identify and protect the sites considered as a World Heritage, but also to protect the intangible culture, that of acquaintances, traditions, diversity and uniqueness.  

The soul of the organizing committee has a name: Mr. Shen Che. Born in Shanghai in 1947 he was a brilliant manager of his city till 1980, when the virus of photography exploded in an unstoppable way: he abandoned its comfortable office for a travel by bicycle through the boundless China, with the only company of its photo-camera. He went for nearly two years to the discovery of the China unknown to the same Chinese, in the far dispersed villages, to the search of the forgotten minorities, of customs and traditions of hidden territories. When returned to Shanghai with his archives of inestimabile value he began to have exhibitions and  books that opened him the road of fame. From 1983 onwards he continued to travel, now with acknowledgment and support of the government, arriving to document beyond fifty various nationalities. He became director of the China Nationality Exhibition Office and began to be more and more asked for conferences in the university. In 1989 the China Foreign Language Publishing House published his work in four foreign editions and also his articles became frequent on newspapers. It was in that period of encounters and fervent cultural exchanges that came out the idea to create an association that put together photographers with his same interests and passion: the China Folklore Photographic Association (CFPA) was born officially in 1993 and today it counts the beautiful number of 40.000 Chinese photographers associated.
The meetings, the conferences, the sharing of experiences, the plans began. Between these, the project to start an international prize for the folklore photography that, of course, was carried out. The first edition of the Humanity Photo Awards was organized in 1998 with the aim to alert the folklore photographers all over the world, and since the year 2000 arrived also the support of the Unesco. The prize is biennial, considering the great size of job that involves, and the participation has always been very high: 1411 photographers enrolled at the debut, then continuously growing, at first in great part from China, but the percentages of the foreigners gradually have grown arriving in 2009 to 55% of the total. The last edition has been one of the richest, with 1642 participants coming from 78 countries, for a total of 30.620 photographs. The parterre of the awards has been notable, with 166 assigned prizes, 100 Nomination awards and 66 Documentary awards, and these last ones have competed for the six final Grand Awards (two thousand dollars each), that had be communicated only at the last moment, like happen with the cinematographic Oscar, in order to maintain the suspense until the last minute.

The conclusive stage of the HPA 2009 has been carried out in Guangzhou last September with the participation of nearly all the prizewinner photographers and with a program very full of appointments. Sponsor and co-organizer of this edition was the Organizing Committee of Asian Games that will take place in Guangzhou in December 2010 and, since the General Secretary of the Committee, Mr. Xu Ruisheng, is also Deputy Mayor of the City, things has been planned in a big way. The presence of many photographers from the entire world has been a great opportunity to spread anywhere this moment of great transformations that Guangzhou is crossing, offering to the lens a wide variety of situations, from the historic locations till the yards of the establishments for the sport events of next year.  What will remain really engraved in the mind of participants, together with the thoughtful attentions of the organizers, is the warm relationship created between all photographers, a deep sharing that has been transformed in long-lasting friendship.

During the week has been carried out the foundation conference of the WFPA, the World Folklore Photographers Association, a world-wide professional association of the folklore photographers,  receiving also amateurs of good level. The legal registration was signed in Toronto on August 11, 2009 and now can begin to operate to planetary level. The old dream of Shen Che, already realized, continues to grow. The aim of the association is to collect and to exploit, through the photography, the witness of the cultural heritage, in order to protect and conserve it, fostering a greater communication and understanding between the human beings. Every photographer thus becomes “ambassador” of the stories about which he tells. The next stage will be the creation of a Museum where to gather not only images but also films and typical objects. Mr. Shen Che has become in the meantime Ambassador of Mondiàlogo, the program of Unesco for the students of every origin in order to establish a mutual collaboration for studies and researches aimed at fostering the tolerance of the diversities and the respect for mankind, without distinctions of race, nationality, language or religion. Every small situation, also the most unknown, can be an important contribution to the wealth of the common cultural legacy.

Three photographic exhibitions were prepared in different districts of Guangzhou and the opening ceremonies followed one another with an exciting rhythm, surrounded with traditional and artistic activities like dances, music and handicraft. The exhibitions could be seen in the future around the world, like happened for the past editions, when they have been exposed also at the headquarters of the Unesco in Paris and at the World Expo of Aichi (Japan) in the pavilion of the United Nations. Only three Italian photographers got through the selections and arrived to the final stage: Massimo Mastrorillo, Cesidio Silla and the undersigned, that was the only one physically present in Guangzhou. Not much, if we consider how many photographers of our country works with competence and ability around the topics already mentioned and I hope that this article can push them to prepare good portfolios for the next edition of the Prize. Your pictures can show Italian subjects or from any country, but organization and jury will be most impressed by unknown arguments, not yet entered in the past. The entry period will begin in autumn 2010 and close in spring 2011, you can enter reportages from six to twelve photographs in each one of the six categories. Some changes on the old rules are possible and maybe it will enable to enter also single images, but wait for the new call for entries. Make good and inspired works and try to hold high the reputation of the Italian photography.

Claudio Marcozzi

This article is translated from Italian by Claodio Marcozzi, and it was issued in Fotografia REFLEX (Italy) in Janurary.