HKFP Lens: Hong Kong press group announces winners of news photo contest

The Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (HKPPA) announced the winners of its annual news photo contest “Focus at the Frontline” on Sunday.

Ming Pao Weekly’s Tan Chi-wing won Photo of the Year award with a picture of the International Commerce Centre in West Kowloon, with what appeared to be stars projected on the building exterior, next to a large red screen. The same photo also came in first the Feature category.

Photo of the Year

HKPPA Photo contest — Photo of the Year and winner of the Feature category. Photo: Tan Chi-wing/Ming Pao Weekly.

The yearly photo contest began in 1993, with the objective of “showcas[ing] images with news and artistic values,” according to the HKPPA. The 2020 Focus at the Frontline competition received a total of 1,094 pictures and 48 photo series from 79 contestants to compete in eight categories.

Spot News

Contestants in the Spot News category submitted photos taken during “unpredictable events.” Edmond So of the SCMP came first with a photo of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai being arrested by police on April 18 last year for an unauthorised assembly case linked to the 2019 unrest.

HKPPA Photo contest 2020 — First place in the Spot News category. Photo: Edmond So/SCMP.

General News

Lo Kwan-ho of HK01 took first place in the General News category with a photo of pro-democracy lawmakers, who quit the legislature en masse last November in protest at the disqualification of four of their colleagues.

Portraits

The HKPPA named Initium Media’s Lam Chun-tung and Nasha Chan Kit-shan of Stand News as “double champions” in the Portraits category. Lam’s photo featured former law professor Benny Tai, who also helped lead the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Tai is now in custody pending trial over allegations of “subversion” under the national security law, alongside 46 pro-democracy figures in connection with an unofficial legislative primary election last July.

Chan, on the other hand, photographed activist Agnes Chow from the now-dissolved political group Demosisto. She is currently serving a ten-month jail term for knowingly taking part in an unauthorised assembly outside police headquarters in June 2019.

Feature

The panel of judges for this year’s photo contest included well-known Hong Kong photographer Joseph Fung, Chinese University journalism lecturer Jessica Fan, senior photojournalists.

Sports

Raby Chan of Initium Media claimed first place in the Sports category with an overhead shot of a closed outdoor sportsground during the coronavirus pandemic.