Corina Andrisan and Zhou Zheng have been crowned the winners of this year’s UK-China International Photography competition with their entries ‘My Art is my Treasure’ and ‘Kitchen Mother’.
Corina, the UK entry, took home the prize for the best UK entry. She is pictured in the middle of her photograph surrounded by bright and vibrant artwork, which is all of her own creation.
Commenting on her submission, she said:
“Life with an autoimmune illness is tough. Understandably, some people lose all hope within seconds from diagnosis. Rediscovering art has kept my spirit alive for the past fifteen years, even though I am stuck in a wheelchair. My paintings are now my family’s treasure, filling the walls in our home.”
Zhou Zheng, the winning entry from China, took home the prize for the best China entry. Zhou Zheng’s high contrast piece places a woman at the centre of the image, surrounded by food – the sunlight acting as a spotlight to the scene. Their piece was accompanied by the caption “Kitchen Mother is our family treasure!”
The competition, which is run by Creative Manchester and the Manchester China Institute at The University of Manchester, is now in its fifth year. It seeks to celebrate the use of amateur photography as a visual way of overcoming linguistic divides and highlighting common humanities between the two nations. It continues to be a vital building block in increasing engagement, friendship, and mutual understanding between the UK and China, and with more than 300 entries, 2023 was a record year for the project.
In addition to the main category winners, Olivia Parsonage, was named runner-up in the UK with her entry ‘Maika’s Ba’s Hat’ and Kaz was named runner-up in China for their entry ‘Hair Shave’.
The winning entries were chosen by an independent panel of judges, which included the University of Manchester’s Professor Michael Wood, Yunnan University’s Dr Zhang Hai and esea contemporary’s director Xiaowen Zhu, as well as Dr Bingchun Meng (LSE), who all praised the winners on how well they were able to capture the theme in their entries, their creativity and the composition of their photos.
Professor Peter Gries, director of the Manchester China Institute, said: “I was thrilled by the quantity and quality of submissions this year. The “family treasures” theme clearly inspired many people. The submissions revealed that we don’t just treasure inanimate objects such as heirlooms, but importantly family members and activities too. This year’s finalists and winners all used image and text to surmount cultural and political divides, celebrating our shared humanity – which is particularly important during a difficult year for UK-China relations.”
Professor Thomas Schmidt, head of the school of arts, languages, and culture at the University of Manchester, added: “I was fascinated by the different interpretations of what a “treasure” can be: from an object or set of objects, a beloved person, an animal, a place, a situation … anything that evokes a sense of belonging, sometimes across a great distance of space or time.”
The exhibition continues to be on display in the foyer of the Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) until Friday June 9th and the public are invited to vote for one People’s Choice winner out of the 30 competition finalists before the 11th June. The entry with the highest vote will be awarded a £500 cash prize and you can cast your vote here.
