Kuala Lampur International Photo Award 2019

The KUALA LUMPUR INTERNATIONAL PHOTOAWARDS (KLPA) announces the launch of its 2019 annual competition  to photographers - professional and amateurs - from all countries. This year, KLPA2019’s THEME category is specially dedicated to stand alone portraits made by photojournalists and documentary photographers who are reporting on factual news or pursuing in-depth photo stories on the human condition. The type of portraits that KLPA seeks to present to the judges are those which are inadvertently or purposefully made to emphasize or illustrate a certain narrative or unfolding event accompanied by a title and in-depth backstory caption.

Competition Categories

• Theme category.
• Open single-image category.

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Award

Each category winners will receive a cash prize as follow:

1. 1st Prize $3000.
2. 2nd Prize $1000.
3. 3rd Prize $500.
4. The two First Prize winners in the THEME and OPEN categories will also receive a specially commissioned trophy from UK based artist YUKAKO SHIBATA to cherish.
5. All 50 finalists will have their images exposed and promoted at international festivals in conjunction with collaborative partners throughout 2019 and 2020:  Photolux (Italy), Mt.Rokko International Photo Festival (Japan), Auckland Festival of Photography (New Zealand), Yakushima Photo Festival (Japan); as well as being exhibited at ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Note: Trophies cannot be exchanged for monetary prizes.

Benefits

• Prize Winners from both categories will be invited to attend the Awards event in Malaysia in September 2019. 
• Invited overseas winners will be provided accommodation for 3 nights during their stay in Kuala Lumpur to receive their awards and participate in an informal gallery public ‘walk & talk’ event.

Eligibility 

• Photographers must be 16 years of age or over.
• Participants may submit up to 10 images in the THEME Category and/or OPEN Category.
• Must open a PICTER.COM account and follow the STEP-BY-STEP submission instructions.
• Photographers can enter more than one category. Each entry category must be made separately. up to three times per Category.
• Photographers must pay entry fees:
  • 1 to 5 images, $15 per image.
  • 6 to 10 images, flat rate $90.
• All photographs must have been taken in 2018 and 2019 or part of a recent on-going project, started after 2015. Proof may be required at a later stage.
• Photographers should, wherever possible, seek and obtain consent from the child and their legal guardian when taking their photographs; KLPA treat the exploitation of vulnerable children in photographic submissions seriously and will reject any images submitted where the subject of children within the portrait image is deemed by our panel of judges to be have been physically or mentally abused, exploited, coerced to pose.

Submission of photographs

• All photographs must be the photographer's own works. 'Portrait' may be interpreted in its widest sense, in relation to 'photography concerned with portraying people with the emphasis on their identity as individuals in relation to their surroundings, status, and humanity'.
• Commercial and advertising images, heavy digitally manipulated or post-processed, HDR (High Dynamic Range) or digitally montaged images are not permissible. For example: heavy vignetting, extreme darkening of skies, toning, filter effects. In-camera multiple exposures are allowed.
• In all categories, minimal digital enhancement is advised, subject to basic darkroom techniques such as levels, curves, dodging, burning, minimal sharpening, color correction. Photographs can be Black and White or Color, in any format. Photographs must not have any borders, key-line or film edges, name, personal logos or watermarks. Scanned film images must be free of dust marks and borders. Alternative or vintage processes are allowed  and must be appropriately stated, along with the technique and process.
• Images deemed by the organizers to be exploitative, obscene or pornographic will be disqualified. Nudity is permissible but subject to local sensitivities and venue discretion for public display.
• All photographs must follow this format of naming, in lowercase: surname.initials.number.jpg
• Finalists may be required to submit their original RAW or JPEG files for verification.
• Photographs must include a meaningful title and a caption are to accompany the portrait image, detailing the photographer's standpoint and the back-story behind the photograph.

Judging Process

Judging will take place in May 2019. Photographers whose entries are shortlisted by the judges will be notified by email or by post within 14 days. Only shortlisted finalists and winners will be contacted by email.

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About organization

KLPA is an annual portrait photography competition initiated in 2009 to award the best portrait photographers from around the world with the main objective in raising the standards and appreciation of contemporary portraiture from a South East Asian context. Open to all levels of photographers from around the globe, entries are invited to a themed and open categories, and judged by a select panel of industry professionals and practitioners from South East Asia and beyond.