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WMA – Call For Submissions

17-6-2013

The WYNG Masters Award and the WMA Open Photo Contest (formerly Photo Contest HK) are back with a new logo, website and concept! Both contests have been brought together under one conceptual framework - WMA. WMA’s new logo signifies its functioning as a single unit - a strong structure with flexible joints, the lines representing the limitless strands of possibilities of photographic and visual expression.

The WYNG Masters Award—Hong Kong's pioneering annual prize in photography—is pleased to issue an international open call for submissions. WYNG Masters Award's mission is to nurture the growth of photography as an art form in Hong Kong, as well as to stimulate dialogue and foster community awareness on socially-relevant issues of critical importance to Hong Kong and its residents. Each year, a focused theme is chosen for the award. In 2012, the WYNG Masters Award launched with the theme(Hong Kong has one of the world's largest wealth gaps, with close to 20% of its population living in poverty). The 2013 theme is air—as Hong Kong wrestles with the health, economic, and social effects of its deteriorating air quality.

From 17 June to 17 September 2013, the WYNG Masters Award invites both international and Hong Kong artists and photographers to submit photographic-based work. Two award grants will be issued—the eponymous WYNG Masters Award and the WYNG Project (a commission to develop a photographic project highlighting the 2013 theme AIR). The recipient of the WYNG Masters Award will receive a cash prize of 250,000 HKD and is selected by the judging panel. The WYNG Project recipient, chosen by the WYNG Foundation trustees, will receive 250,000 HKD to execute a project. An advisory board of industry experts will review the WYNG Masters Award finalists and their project proposals and make a recommendation to the foundation trustees.  The winners of both prizes will be announced at the exhibition.

The WYNG Masters Award international panel of judges is comprised of industry leaders in photography, art, publishing, and non-profit. They include Zoher Abdoolcarim,  Abby Chen, Jehan Chu, Louise Clements, Frank Kalero, Joanne Ooi, and Christopher Phillips.

Meanwhile, the WMA Open Photo Contest (which serves as the first program of the WYNG Media Initiative) will engage the public at large on issues connected to the topic of AIR by inviting them to submit photographs and to discuss the subject in real time. To extend this dialogue, the WMA Open Photo Contest will maintain a photo library of images governed by Creative Commons licenses for educational uses eg. lectures and non-commercial projects, with appropriate attribution, as well as serving as a photographic history of contemporary Hong Kong. The winner of the Open Contest will receive $20,000 as a prize.

For more information please visit: http://www.wma.hk

About the theme: Air Air pollution is one of the top public health risks in Hong Kong. Levels of pollutants often exceed the limits set by the World Health Organization; Hong Kong lags well behind other urban centres, like New York, London, and Tokyo, that have cleaned up their air.

According to a University of Hong Kong study, air pollution has led to well over 3,000 premature deaths, more than 20,000 daily doctors' visits and a monetary loss of 39 billion HKD a year.

As Asia's leading financial centre, Hong Kong's position is under threat as businesses relocate to alternative countries—citing mounting health concerns as a primary reason. Hong Kong's government recently announced initiatives to tackle the problem of its polluted air, with the Environmental Protection Department slated to spend 627 million HKD on managing air quality in the current financial year. The impact of these approaches will be closely watched in Hong Kong.