HÀ NỘI Vietnamese people over 18 years old living in and outside the country are eligible to enter the biennial national art photography contest launched yesterday.

Both amateur and professional photographers are encouraged to send entries to compete in two categories: reality photography and idea (graphic) photography.

A photo in the photo group titled Lễ Hội Cầu Nước (Mud Ball Catching Festival) by photographer Trần Nhân Quyền from Hà Nội won the gold prize at the Việt Nam Art Photo Contest 2018.

The first is made by traditional methods, which are not permitted to be photoshopped except combining panoramic photos. Photographers can take photos of a wide range of topics, namely Việt Nam – Tradition – Modernity – Development.

The second category of idea (graphic) photography can accept photoshopped photos of any topic.

All entries should be taken between 2019 and 2020.

Entries can be a single photo or a group of photos including five to eight single photos with informative captions.

Each photographer can send up to ten single photos and five groups of photos of two categories in JPEG file of 5Mb to 12Mb, 300dpi in resolution by June 30 to website anhnghethuatvietnam2020.com.

The jury will select the 300 best entries for an exhibition planned to be held at the end of the year in Hà Nội before being moved to other big cities throughout the country.

There will be a total 33 prizes for both categories.

A photo of Hạ Long city in a group of photos of Hạ Long from above by Huỳnh Văn Truyền (from Đà Nẵng), which won the gold prize in the contest in 2018 for the category Hạ Long- Quảng Ninh.

Mã Thế Anh, deputy director of the culture ministry’s Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition Department, said the gold prize winners in this contest will be eligible for applying for the Hồ Chí Minh Prize in Literature and Arts (the highest award of its kind) while the rest are eligible for applying to the State Prize in Literature and Arts.

Anh also said at the launch ceremony held yesterday that the ministry has not decided the sum of cash for each prize and the department will announce it soon.

According to Vũ Quốc Khánh, chairman of Việt Nam Photographic Artists Association, there have been 31 photographers to receive the Hồ Chí Minh and State Prize in Literature and Arts, most of whom are war-time photographers.

“I think a group of idea photos (graphic photos) is not easy to make at all,” he said. “For example photographer Dương Quốc Định had a series of photos of nude women with the message of protecting the environment.”

He said the jury for graphic photo category should gather at least a painter as painters can read graphic ideology. VNS