Crossover:The 2012 Three Shadows Photography Award Exhibition

Word from the Three Shadows Founders

RongRong&inri

 

Following the invention of photography, pioneers in the field used the latest technology and, through tireless experimentation and research, developed the gelatin silver process. At the same time, the foundation for conceptual expression in photography was established and persists even now. In recent years, the explosion of digital technology has fundamentally altered the visual language of photographers and viewers, as well as the perception of a photographer's relationship with his or her subject.

This year 354 photographers from around the country and abroad submitted their works to the Three Shadows Photography Award, 23 of whom were selected as finalists to participate in the Three Shadows Photography Award Exhibition. Among the finalists there are a number of artists who submitted works in previous years, but hadn't been chosen to be a finalist until this year. We hope everyone will always continue to believe in their own work and the importance of sharing it with the world. Do not become discouraged if your work isn't selected, but continue to determinedly strive to create art with substance.Additionally, we hope that through perseverance and hard work, you will continue to advocate your work to us. We look forward to even more outstanding works in the Three Shadows Photography Award exhibitions to come.

A survey of this year's photographs reveals a trend in using series as the form and intent of the creative process. We can see works that pursue a sense of existence within the passage of time, and works in which the photographer uses the form of photography to present his or her own reflections on the medium. These works possess a style and atmosphere informed by the artist's conception of time. Many of this year's images, following the widespread use of digital technology and the strong styles it has inspired, have returned to meditate on time's passage, and photography's origin- -the act of observing.This frank means of expression allows the artists' ideas to travel directly to the viewer's core.

In recent years, we have been pleasantly surprised by how finalists for the Three Shadows award and the winners of the various prizes go on to become active in the domestic and international art worlds.Whenever we see these kinds of reports in the media, we are wholeheartedly convinced that we must keep the award going.

Through the organization of the Caochangdi PhotoSpring festival and various other international exchange events, Three Shadows will gradually expand the scope of these activities. As such, we aim to become an art center which sits at the intersection of art photography, contemporary art and the exploration of photography's constant innovations, following the development and charting the course of photography's future.

April 2l, 2012 marks the opening of Caochangdi PhotoSpring - Arles in Beijing, and the time when we reveal the winners of the Three Shadows Photography Award, the Shiseido Outstanding Female Photographer Award, and the Tierney Foundation Fellowship. We wish to thank all the participants of the Three Shadows Photography Award, and especially the panel of international judges, which this year includes the famous German photographer Hilla Becher, Taiwanese photographer Juan I-Jong,Japanese head curator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography Michiko Kasahara, director of the French Les Recontres d"Arles Photography Festival Francois Hebel, and American curator from the International Center of Photography Christopher Phillips.

Once again, our deepest gratitude to everyone; your support makes the Three Shadows Photography Award possible.