Letter of Apology from HPA2013

Published date: 2013-11-28    Clicks: 2660
Dear friend,

I regret to inform you that the HPA2013 Award Ceremony and exhibition is put off to the first half of 2014 due to the changes of leaders in the original host city. The Mayor is currently under investigation.

This sudden incident totally caught us off guards. We have been in intense negotiations with other candidate cities ever since. Please accept our apology for all the efforts you have put into this contest and for the trust and support you bestowed on us. Hopefully we are still enjoying your blessings, which is very important to us at this critical moment. We will inform you as soon as we reach agreement.

HPA has been running in its original model (government as its sponsor) for about 15 years. Maybe it is time to make a change. The crisis sounds an alarm for us. We are thinking of building our own base, World Folklore Photographic Datacenter, to take HPA fully into our own hands. After all, HPA belongs to photographers all over the world. However, your help is indispensable to its fulfillment. The HPA Council is under construction and welcomes all who care for HPA and folklore photography to join and share your ideas and suggestions. I deeply believe HPA will have a bright future with all your helping and loving hands.

Your support and contribution has brought out its glorious past in the last 15 years, such as the HPA prize-winning photo exhibition at the Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, the exhibition at the UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris in August 2005 as part of the celebration for UNESCO’s 60th anniversary. These exhibitions provide the chance for ordinary people to share the diverse culture of human race. On the other hand, HPA has established itself in the world as an important photo contest. Photographers from 133 countries joined in the 8th HPA, while the number in 1998 was 46. The extensive coverage from costumes, architecture, festivals to rituals makes its photo collections as the valuable first-hand research resources for anthropologists, sociologists and folklore researchers. As of today, we have accumulated about 500,000 images covering cultural phenomena of 168 countries. This is indeed a treasure presented by HPA to the world and human civilization. However, it is only a beginning and we have a long way to go.

With the integration of global economy and rapid development of urbanization, traditional cultures of the world countries and nations are facing great challenge, especially those of developing countries. Ours is not an era where photography is a luxurious personal pleasure, but an era where cultural diversity thrives with photographic art and exhibitions. Therefore, as the initiator of folklore photography and Humanity Photo Awards, I’d like to make cordial request for your contribution in calling and inspiring more professional and amateur photographers to join the great undertaking of recording, promoting and sharing the human culture, implement the activity of Urgent Recording of Cultural Heritage and establish Folklore Photographers Alliance across the world. 

Filled with feelings and emotions of all participants, each session of HPA turns out to be a miracle and makes the whole world moved.

Therefore, all of our photographic works should be collected and well preserved so that we can leave the world a wonderful treasure, and the later generations could know what our life look like today and appreciate our efforts.

Shen Che

 

November 7, 2013


Online service