HÀ NỘI The biennial national festival for young photographers, the third of its kind, launched yesterday, aiming to encourage young photographers to promote images of Việt Nam to domestic and international audiences.

The festival, hosted by the culture ministry’s Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition Department, gathers entries by Vietnamese citizens living both in and outside the country aged between 18 and 35.

Entries can be sent according to two categories: realistic photos and experimental photos. The first category does not permit editing while entries in the latter can be altered and enhanced, according to Vi Kiến Thành, director of the department.

The entries should have been taken in 2018 or 2019, and can be single or group photos (of no more than five photos).

Each photographer can send up to ten single photos for both categories or three groups of photos for both categories.

“We highly appreciate photographic works with fresh angles in both aesthetic expression and meaning,” Thành said.

The entries should be sent to the organisers in JPG format, with size of between 5Mb and 12Mb, resolution of 300dpi, to website festivalnhiepanhtre2019.com till July 15. They should not have been displayed or won any national or international contest hosted by the ministry.

The organisers will give two sets of prizes to two categories. Each set will contain a gold prize of VNĐ20 million (US$870); 2 silver awards; 3 bronze and five consolation prizes.  

The organisers will select 200 best entries to display in Hà Nội after July.

Thành said he hoped the contest will encourage more young photographers to join in as today it’s difficult to take really good photos that impress viewers.

“Everyone takes photos with their phones,” he said. “Việt Nam’s photography is like Vietnamese poetry today – facing lots of difficulties as there are too many people taking photos and composing poems. To reach a professional level in a quite different way is too challenging, I know."

Thành said the department will from 2021 host a project titled Vietnamese Photography Cities every three years to invite international and domestic photographers to visit cities and promote tourism. — VNS