Photography festival puts Jimei district in global focus

Nearly 2,000 works of 55 photographers from all over the world are being shown at a photographic festival in Jimei district of Xiamen, East China's Fujian province.

Bringing opportunities for participants to have more exchanges in the photographic field, the Jimei and Arles International Photo Festival opened last week and will run until Jan 5, 2020.

The international event will hold 30 exhibitions showcasing works from countries and regions including France, Greece, Italy and India.

Among them, eight exhibitions will show works from French photo festival Rencontres d'Arles, organizers said.

One of the exhibitions casts an eye on local Chinese lifestyles, with French photographer Guy le Querrec displaying his photos of life in Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, Jiangsu province back in the 1980s. The exhibition is curated by Shang Lu.

Le Querrec said in his eyes, residents always look like dancers in his photos.

He also visited Hui'an county in Quanzhou city, Fujian province, where he took photos of the locals in the 1980s.

The photos are not just a great memory, but also provide a great contrast to modern China.

He Dongning, head of Jimei district, said the district is ramping up efforts to promote its highquality development and is striving to build itself into the most beautiful district in the island city of Xiamen.

"The cultural creativity and tourism industry is one of the six major industrial clusters that we have focused on," He said.

"Constantly holding such high-level cultural activities is of great significance in promoting Jimei's cultural development, energizing the city's creativity and better satisfying people's spiritual life," the official said.

During the event, organizers have held competitions and handed out prizes for talented photographers and photographic visionaries, aiming to encourage more creativity in the photographic field.

Among them an artistic body of work called Chi Ren Shuo Meng, or Pie in the Sky, won a prize for its photographic vision.

The work was created by Chinese photographer Yi Lian and it was inspired by dreams. Since 2010, Yi said he has recorded his thoughts and dreams on video, and the images have close connections between himself and his hometown.

To participate in the competition, Yi said he had spent more than half a year arranging the images he took.

Film director Gu Changwei, a judge of the competition, thought highly of Yi's work. It is a work that obviously has taken a long time to accomplish, Gu said.

Luo Yang, won the female photographer prize for her work Youth.

Luo said she had studied female growth with her camera for the past 10 years. Her previous works followed the changes in society and generations of young people, according to Luo.

Mei Ting, a Chinese actress, attended the award ceremony, and said works of female photographers feature gentle and touch, yet which is "very powerful".

Young photographers should keep their passion for their career and maintain an original and creative mindset during creation, Mei said.

Rencontres d'Arles is an annual French photography festival founded in 1970, which has a global reputation as a springboard for photographic and contemporary creative talents.

Since 2015, Jimei district photography festival has been held in conjunction with the Renctres d'Arles festival in France, which has attracted more than 230,000 people to attend.

Rong Rong, co-promoter of the festival, said photography has flourished in Jimei district.

"This event stimulates the cultural ecosystem of Jimei, and helps us to connect the world with open eyes," Rong said.

Photography can connect cultures around the world and help to build an active dialogue with neighbors such as Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, he said.

"We hope this event will continue to take root here to bring surprises for everyone and to inject more cultural elements into the marvelous city," he said.