08 Aug Fourth Global SinoPhoto Awards now open for 2024 submissions ‘telling the Chinese story with photography’
The annual international photography contest, the Global SinoPhoto Awards 2024, (GSPA) is now open to invite all photographers, emerging or established, of any age, nationality, or location, that have a Chinese story to tell across the diaspora, mainland China and globally. For the first time this year, a student prize has been created to offer up and coming photographers the opportunity to enter the awards free of charge.
The Global SinoPhoto Awards’ overall objective is to communicate Chinese culture and values through remarkable imagery and to promote photographers internationally. It encourages submissions from talented visual artists working in any genre of photography*, documentary, fiction, fine art, mixed media, conceptual, portraiture and constructed.
Last year’s overall Betser Prize winner Fergus Coyle said, “Receiving The Betser Prize in front of an audience at the British Library was an unforgettable experience. The Global SinoPhoto Awards have helped share my work from pre-pandemic Wuhan to a wider audience, from exhibiting at the FUJIFILM House of Photography to being featured in a number of publications. I am very grateful for everything that has unfolded from this opportunity and am looking forward to following the awards into the future.”
Caption: last year’s overall Betser Prize winning image by Fergus Coyle
*AI is not permitted
While there is not an overarching theme required for submission, a Chinese element must be included in a single image, or within a set of images in a series (5-10 images) that works together as a coherent group either thematically, conceptually or aesthetically, while offering photographers the creative freedom to tell their stories on all topics. The work must show originality, imagination and technical skill.
Submissions are requested by 15 October 2023 for student photographers and by 30 October 2023 for general. The winners will be announced at The GSPA Awards Ceremony at the British Library, London in February 2024 during Chinese New Year, and will be part of the Awards Exhibition at the auction house Christie’s London galleries. The overall winner will receive The Betser Prize of £1,500. Observational and Constructed Photography prize category winners for single and series will each receive £500, and The Best Student Photographer will receive £300 worth of Thames & Hudson books, plus books for all winners.
Yintong Betser, co-founder of the Global SinoPhoto Awards, explains, “Last year, the Awards attracted considerable attention from photography communities and societies, and we are aiming to grow them even further internationally by communicating how this contest is available to all photographers, with or without Chinese heritage. We are especially promoting the contest to students this year, whom we are encouraging by offering free entry. It is open to the entrant’s own interpretation of Chinese culture, and we are looking forward to another year of remarkable entries.”
A prestigious judging panel has been compiled to select the winning images including:
Andrew Sanigar: Commissioning Editor for Photography and Design, Thames & Hudson
Kim Hoang: Senior picture editor for the British Red Cross, former senior picture editor of the Guardian and Magnum Photos.
Yao Lu: International award-winning artist, and professor in photography at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.
Michael Freeman: Photographer and prolific author with 157 books published internationally in 28 languages.
Betty Yao: Curator and author of “Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868 – 72” exhibition and book.
The Global SinoPhoto Awards 2024 are also supported by Blick Rothenberg, British Library, Christie’s, Digitalab, and Thames and Hudson. The Global SinoPhoto Awards 2024 support the charity Mothers’ Bridge of Love.
To find out more about the Awards and how to enter, visit https://www.sinophoto-awards.com
