World Press Photo 2013 Exhibition

Dubbed the Oscars of photojournalism, the winners of the 56th World Press Photo Contest were announced on 15 February 2013. Out of 103.481 submitted pictures taken by 5,666 photographers from 124 nationalities 154 winning photos were selected taken by 54 photographers representing 33 nationalities.

The exhibition has visited nearly a hundred cities in forty-five countries and Singapore is very fortunate to be the last stop to play host to them.
Thanks to several sponsors and partners, the show is brought to Singapore for the third time; the last time was 2006!

I was very fortunate to be invited to the media conference as well along with a panel of speakers: Daniel Berehulak, Chris McGrath, Stefen Chow and Erik de Kruijf.

Amongst the discussion we had, it came to my attention that all the photographers are actually very excited about social media and the access that digital photography created.
Daniel Berehulak brought up a very interesting point that ‘there are always financial difficulties in the industry but what differentiates us is that we bring the ethics of working as a journalist to the table and should take advantage of different formats such as Instagram as there are more opportunities with the abundance of technology.’

Of all articles I read that photojournalism is dead, the panel of speakers actually gave me a little bit of hope that I could perhaps, one day make it in the industry.
Sure the industry is tougher than ever and sometimes you ave absolutely no clue as to where it is headed when giants like Getty Images makes 35 million images free to use.
Of course I would wonder more than ever if I can ever have a place in this ever-changing industry.

It is comforting to know that there are more opportunities than ever now that our audience is more visually driven but I can’t help but find myself having to master new skills like video and multi-media production along with writing just to stay relevant.
That we are no longer focused on the art of seeing in photography alone but have to bring it to all these different mediums as well.

So yes, there are opportunities; after I just about master all the different kinds of technology and mediums there are…

Daniel giving a talk on his work in Japan

Stefen explaining how he got his picture

Chris on the new technology he used to capture these images.
The images are all remotely taken with the camera controlled by a joy-stick!

The exhibition is at the Raffles Hotel and runs till the end of March so hurry down and check them out and be inspired; motivated to create better works.
More information about the exhibition and contest here: http://www.worldpressphoto.asia/

The winning photo of 2013 on the right by Paul Hansen