In my view, outstanding documentary photography has its own social properties, and this is what I most want to emphasize. Whether it is a focus on the outside world or a reference to the self, the works of potentially influential photographers must have depth and warmth; I say this out of personal feeling, not an intention to complain. Obviously, we wanted to emphasize documentary images over documentary photography, because documentary images can encompass all visual presentations. The prize is notable for this expansion of expressive form.
Honestly, I don’t think that the work of the grand prize winner, Yang Wenbin, was the most well-shot of the ten bodies of work we considered, and he is not necessarily the best photographer. There were a few well-known photographers among the finalists, including Chen Jie and Duzi, and their work is very powerful and systematic. In the judging process, we looked at the works that the participants had submitted, but we also considered the feasibility and value of their current and future projects. We awarded the grand prize to Yang Wenbin, because his work opens an intertextual mode that blends documentary photography and other presentation methods and because his work is rooted in a sense of social responsibility that inspires him to look outside his own life. In the end, we decided to give the opportunity to a young person, or that is to say, to have the prize create future possibilities. We expect that Yang Wenbin will continue to refine this series, delving even deeper into the social aspects of universities and university students.
