Over the weekend of 17th November, the winning photographs from the 2017 Young Photographers’ Competition were exhibited at China Exchange in Chinatown, London. Many of the winning students came with their friends and families to see their work on display. The exhibition was perfectly suited to the Chinese-inspired Chung Yen Sing Hall and after seeing their photos, the students could go upstairs to see the free Ming-Ai exhibition; another event at China Exchange about Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage.

Our Young Photographers’ Competition has now been running for four years,
increasing in size every year. This year we had entries from all over the UK, as well as from schools in China. The competitions allows us to see China through the eyes of young people, which is always incredibly interesting, and gives many surprising perspectives. The IOE CI is continually impressed by the high quality of the photographs submitted and the ways in which students interpret the competition categories; picking the winners is always very tough. Every year, a UK-based category is included in the competition which pushes students to consider their relationship with China and Chinese culture here in Britain. The entries to this category included shots of Chinatowns around the country, Chinese friends of British students and pictures of progress made in Chinese class, portraying many of the different ways China can be found in the UK.

In the past four years, the photography competition has been exhibited at China Exchange (2017), the Southbank Centre (2016) and the Institute of Education (2014/15), with another exhibition of the 2017 winners taking place at UCL cloisters next year. Being able to exhibit the winners in such central locations is very important to the growth of the competition and the IOE CI always receives great feedback from the general public who have seen the exhibitions.

Thank-you to all the young photographers who entered this year’s competition, and to China Exchange for hosting the exhibition. Congratulations to all the winners; we look forward to next year!