The KL PHOTOAWARDS Contemporary Photographic Portrait competition, now in its second year, has just completed its public exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, and will be heading south to Singapore in August 2010. The travelling exhibition will include 50 finalists’ portraits.

This exhibition will provide an opportunity for locals to see the entries, especially the large percentage of entries received from Singapore, including the several Finalists, Winners, and Judges who hail from here.

The inception of the KL PHOTOAWARDS in 2009 was the idea of Steven Lee, its Project Director, who is based in the UK. The objective of the Awards is two-fold. Firstly, it hopes to attract the very best entries in contemporary photographic portraiture globally, and secondly, to provide a platform for aspiring and emerging photographers in the region to compete in an international level.

The 2010 Awards, which closed in April, received close to 1,700 entries from 38 countries and is truly a global event. Seeking the best interpretations of the contemporary photographic portrait in two open categories:

Individual and Story, the Awards attempts to bring together photographic practitioners within studio, photojournalism, documentary and conceptual genres to discover a common theme, that is :"Portraying people with emphasis on their identity as individuals in relation to their surroundings, status and humanity." Accompanying the exhibition will be a 100-page colour catalogue available for purchase. The finalist portraits are also available for sale, in limited editions. This is the first time the award is part of a travelling exhibition since its inaugural launch in 2009. The photographs will be exhibited in London in the third quarter of 2010.


This year's Winners are:

Individual Category
1st : Max Pinckers, Belgium : The Girl with the Golden Curls (from Transitions series)
2nd : Christopher Zedano, USA : Jeff (from IntimateNYC series)
3rd : Andrew Ng, Singapore : Kenny

Series Category
1st : Aglaé Bory, France : Corrélations
2nd : Rachel Lim, Singapore : The Scene
3rd : Diego Ravier, France : Theater of Life

People's Choice Vote winner : Courtney Barton, Malaysia : Technicolor Dreamcoat

For more information, please visit www.klphotoawards.com
To enter the competition in 2011, please contact info@klphotoawards.com to register your interest.