World Press Photo returns to Macau next month

The annual World Press Photo (WPP) is returning to Macau once again this year. It will be held at Casa Garden between September 28 and October 21.

The exhibition, which displays the winning pieces from various photography and multimedia categories, selected de Casa de Portugal (CPM) as its Macau-based partner back in 2008.

As with last year, this year’s exhibition will not be held in Hong Kong. This means Hong Kong residents interested in seeing the exhibition will be more likely to come to Macau.

Organizer Diana Soeiro from CPM, estimates that around one-quarter of the 4,000 or so visitors expected for this year will come from Hong Kong.

Casa Garden has a partnership with the WPP to continue brining the annual exhibition to Macau until 2020.

Organizers from the local association told the Times that the exhibit normally costs around MOP150,000 to host each year and is partly sponsored by the Macao Foundation. This year, Soeiro disclosed that the costs have risen to almost MOP200,000.

Lars Boering, managing director of the World Press Photo Foundation, said that “the best visual journalism is not of something; it is about something. It should matter to the people to whom it speaks.”

“Today the World Press Photo Foundation continues to play the role it began in 1955 because the juries in our contests nominate the best photographers and producers. The great work in this 2018 edition of our contests helps us fulfill our purpose: connecting the world to the stories that matter.”

The World Press Photo Foundation was founded in 1955 when a group of Dutch photographers organized a contest to expose their work to an international audience. Since then the contest has grown into one of the world’s most prestigious photography competition. But the emphasis is still on bringing international works to all people.

“It’s important to have this exhibition [in the MSAR] because we want to show [photographs] from all nationalities to the different nationalities living in Macau,” Soeiro told the Times.