The photo essay Diện Mạo Thành Phố Trẻ (Dynamic City) by Giang Sơn Đông has won first prize at the 11th HCM City Photo Festival themed “Thành Phố Tôi Yêu” (The City I Love). Photos courtesy of the organiser

HCM CITY -  The HCM City Photography Association is calling on photographers from all over the world, professionals and amateurs, to compete in its first HCM City International Photo Contest (HOPA).

The contest is sponsored by the Việt Nam Association of Photographic Artists (VAPA), the International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP), the Photographic Society of America (PSA) and Image Sans Frontière (ISF).

It has four categories, including freestyle photo in colour, freestyle photo in monochrome, travel photos in colour and monochrome, and daily life photos in colour and monochrome.

According to the organisers, freestyle photos feature content, genres and forms following the contestant’s choices.

Travel photos show nature and cultural elements of various regions all over the world, while daily life photos describe people’s everyday activities.

Each contestant can submit up to four entries per category, with one entry for only one category, at website www.hopaphotocontest.com by October 15.

Entries must be sent in digital file in JPG format, 1920 pixels minimum in length, with a maximum file size of 3 Megabytes and a resolution of 300dpi.

Photos with captions and signatures on them will be disqualified.

Contestants will be judged by international photographers like Andres Tores of France and Yousuf Tusha of Bangladesh, along with Vietnamese photographers Trần Phong and Lê Nguyễn. They are all winners of FIAP’s contests.

The organisers will present a total of 60 top prizes in four categories and more than 60 consolation prizes.

The winners will be announced on November 5 .

The winning works will be introduced in an exhibition in HCM City later this year. All of the works will be published in a photo book in PDF format for downloading.

The participation fee for Vietnamese is VNĐ150,000-300,000, and foreigners US$20-25. Payment can be made via the organisers’ Paypal account: hopacontest21@gmail.com.

On July 31, the HCM City Photography Association announced 11 winners of the 11th HCM City Photo Festival themed “Thành Phố Tôi Yêu” (The City I Love).

The contest organised in April saw 998 entries from 172 professional and amateur photographers in the city.

The organiser gave first prize to the photo essay Diện Mạo Thành Phố Trẻ (Dynamic City) by Giang Sơn Đông, and two second prizes for Sài Gòn Thành Phố Tuy Lạ Mà Quen (Sài Gòn -- Beloved City) by Nguyễn Sinh Thành, and Bức Phá (Breakthrough) by Nguyễn Minh Trí.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the awards ceremony and exhibition of the contest have been postponed.   VNS