Chef-turned photographer Zhou Wei regrets that he did not spend more time and energy taking better pictures of a dying sishu, or traditional private academy, in a remote mountain village in central China's Hunan Province last summer.

The young photographer, in his late 20s, turned out to be the dark horse in the "Humanity Photo Awards (HPA) 2004."

The international photo contest, held every two years since 1998, revealed its final winners last week in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

Zhou, the winner of the coveted Grand Award, admitted: "It is definitely a delightful surprise for me. But I am by no means overwhelmed by the windfall success. I think the award has come too early for me as a beginner in the art of photography. Anyway, I am not complaining."

Choosing the winners

From May 17 to 19, the competing photo entries went through four rounds of selection and were judged by an international jury made up of nine renowned photographers, anthropologists and scholars with particular knowledge of folk culture, and representing seven different countries.

An international observers group consisting of three to five theorists, critics and journalists took charge of overseeing and commenting on the judging process.

Entries in the contest consist of from six to 12 photographs that tell a story, instead of single photographs.

There are six entry categories, namely "Portrait & Costume," "Architecture," "Daily Life," "Festivities," "Education, Recreation, Sports & Technology," and "Traditional Rites."

The jury basically uses two sets of criteria in judging the entries: historical and documentary factors, and factors related to the visual arts, primarily the aesthetics of photography, according to China Folklore Photographic Association (CFPA) secretary-general Jin Yan.

The degree of difficulty involved in taking the photographs is also taken into consideration, she said.

The Grand Award winner was selected from the First Prize winners in all six categories.

"The entry in each category that best reflects the philosophy of the contest is normally expected to be a winner," she said.

However, choice of the award winners did not come easily.

Because of the jury members' varied origins, life experiences, and widely different cultural backgrounds, it did not come as a surprise that the jury members often had difficulty reaching unanimity and that it took time and energy to reach consensus.

When it came to the selection of the overall Grand Award winner, the jury was widely divided.

Some jury members preferred a set of photos depicting the life of miners; some others, the photo essay on the dying traditional private academy in Pingjiang, in Hunan Province; and still some others favoured the set of photos recording a birth at a seaside resort in Russia.

"Lengthy and heated debates, surprises and defeats, long and exhausting days, and struggling to come to terms with the collective decisions and the views of other jury members while maintaining one's own integrity are all part of what it takes to be a HPA judge," said Wang Rui, a veteran art critic and member of the International Observers Group.

In his opinion, the debates and discussions are a natural part of this contest, which advocates intercultural dialogue, and mutual understanding.

In the end, 37 photographers, including Zhou Wei, won the awards of this year's contest, which was sponsored by CFPA and UNESCO, and organized by the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou Integrated Image Co, and Guangzhou Shengjie Information and Technology Co.

Contest with a unique mission

This year's award-winning photo essays will be displayed as part of the United Nations Pavilion at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan, next May. Shen Che, CFPA president and founder of the photo contest, was recently named by UNESCO as an image person for "Mondialogo," (or world dialogue), a series of worldwide events aimed at promoting intercultural understanding among youths from around the globe, which will take place in 2005.

Shen, 57 and a photographer-explorer, has travelled extensively across the country, documenting the rich and diversified cultures and local customs of China's 56 ethnic groups with a camera over the past 20 years.

He has also photographed folk customs and local cultures in India, Japan, South Korea, Britain, Netherlands and France.

The founder of the CFPA and the HPA, Shen attaches great importance to rescuing, protecting and preserving vanishing indigenous cultures and traditions.

"In the process of modernization and globalization, some of the unique cultural heritages of different peoples around the world are disappearing unbelievably quickly," Shen said.

"The preservation of cultural diversity is in my view equally as important for the well-being of human society as the maintenance of biodiversity for the life of all creatures on this planet."

For example, local operas are disappearing in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region because of a lack of public awareness and concern.

Statistics reveal that Guangxi had 18 local operas about 50 years ago, but only four major ones are still alive today, Shen said.

Many other folk arts, like paper-cutting in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, are dying at the same rate as elderly people. Members of the younger generation are losing interest in the old traditions and prefer to work in cities for more money.

With the mission of "recording, spreading and sharing China's rich diversity of cultures," Shen established the China Folklore Photographic Association in December 1993 and later the Humanity Photo Awards contest in 1998, under the umbrella of UNESCO.

"Giving out awards is not the aim of the contest. The ultimate aim of this photo contest is to encourage the recording of traditional customs and the evolution of various folk cultures through the use of photography, and to stimulate international interest in the study, exploration, rescue, preservation, and indeed, enjoyment of our cultural heritage," Shen said in explaining the philosophy of the contest.

"It is an initiative created out of respect for our common humanity and in a spirit of international good will."

"This year's photo contest, compared with the previous ones, saw great progress, in terms of the number of contestants, the visual quality of the photo entries and the skill of the photographers," commented Vincent Mentzel, a member of the Executive Board of World Press Photo competition and three-time jury member of the Humanity Photo Awards.

The first HPA contest, held in 1998, attracted about 1,200 photographers from 20 countries and regions.

This time, the contest saw the submission of a total of 3,010 photo essays from 1,869 photographers from 71 countries and regions.

However, Shen pointed out there is still a gap between most participating Chinese photographers and their foreign counterparts, in terms of the selection of a focused theme, the command of professional skills, and the depth and breadth in the exploration of subject matter.

In addition to the contest, lectures on photographic art were given by jury members and award-winning photographers on May 22 and 23 at the Guangzhou Museum of Art, which elicited spirited discussions among participants.

Shirley Phillips, a jury member and associate director of San Diego Museum of Man, shared with the participants her experiences and ideas about preserving ethnic cultures and folk customs.

"My heart was broken when I saw so many photos depicting rich and colourful ethnic cultures from all over the world, but which failed to reach the final stages of this contest," she said at the lecture.

But much to her relief, all the photo entries will be included in an "image bank" the Chinese Folklore Photographic Association is now putting together, which will be open to enthusiasts and researchers of ethnic cultures and diversified local customs worldwide.

Many of those who attended the forums were surprised to find that Franco Zecchin, a prize-winning veteran Italian photographer and jury member for HPA 2004, uses an old, manual camera.

But Zecchin replied: "The camera to me is just like a pen to a writer. One never asks a good writer how much his or her pen cost and what brand it is."

It is the artist's vision, painstaking work and a little stroke of luck that helps to produce a masterpiece, he said.

Jodi Bieber, a jury member and world renowned photographer from South Africa, said that only through endless practice can a photographer make his or her skill perfect.

John Demos, a veteran Greek painter, photographer and professor of art history and anthropology, said that in photographing sensitive and tragic scenes such as a burial, one must be part of the scene and have compassion for the bereaved.

"If the photographer only cares about how to take award-winning photos, he or she had best not go there," he said.

(China Daily May 28, 2004)