LONDON.- Auction house Christie’s London has opened a public exhibition of the Global SinoPhoto Awards finalists' images starting today through to 14 February 2024 at its gallery at 8 King Street, St James’s to coincide with the announcement of the Global SinoPhoto Awards (GSPA) 2024 winners on 5 February at the British Library in London ahead of the Chinese New Year (10 February), the Year of the Dragon. ​

At the same time, a panel discussion on global perspectives on Chinese culture, as seen through photography, will be chaired by Theresa Booth, Founding Director/Trustee, Engage with China Ltd, and will include Malini Roy, Head of Visual Arts at the British Library, who cares for Library’s international photographic collections including the historic photographs of Dunhuang in western China; Yü-Ge Wang, Auctioneer at Christie’s, who was born in Beijing, China, grew up in Germany and is passionate about how photography can bridge cultures and encourage cultural discourse; Andrew Sanigar, Commissioning Editor for Photography and Design by Thames & Hudson, which has publishing activities in China and Asia, and Yintong Betser, Co-founder of the Global SinoPhoto Awards. ​

Now in its fourth year, with a new student photography prize being launched, the Global SinoPhoto Awards invited all photographers, emerging or established, of any age, nationality, or location, to tell a Chinese story across the diaspora, Mainland China or globally. ​

The overall objective was to communicate Chinese culture and values through remarkable imagery to promote photographers internationally. It encouraged submissions from talented visual artists working in any genre of photography (AI is not permitted), documentary, fiction, fine art, mixed media, conceptual, portraiture, and constructed.​

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.​

A special award called The Betser Prize of £1,500 will be awarded to a winning image that highlights the core values of cross-culture or humanity. 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.​

Andrew Sanigar, Commissioning Editor for Photography and Design by Thames & Hudson, one of the GSPA judges, says of the Awards, “The entries this year were as diverse and compelling as I hoped for.The best series presented fresh perspectives, be they of ones of daily life or engaging in cultural and historical concepts that connect our modern view of China with the past, an engaged with a range of processes and techniques in the creation with the work. The best single images all asked questions of the viewer or presented a memorable motif that did not rely on the usual visual language of ‘an image of China’.”

The Global SinoPhoto Awards 2024 are also supported by Blick Rothenberg, British Library, Christie’s, Digitalab, Hainan Airlines, Omni, and Thames and Hudson. The Global SinoPhoto Awards 2024 support the charities Mothers’ Bridge of Love and Engage with China.

Global SinoPhoto Awards

The Global SinoPhoto Awards (GSPA) were created in 2020 by Yintong Betser, the managing director of ACTIVE Angle Chinese Communications, and Lynne Bryant, the former chair of the British Association of Picture Libraries (BAPLA). GSPA’s vision is to communicate Chinese culture and values through remarkable imagery and to promote photographers internationally.