Partners
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Pictures of the Year Asia is very pleased to welcome Singapore potter and ceramic artist Kim Whye Kee as a partner.
A former gang leader and drug addict, Whye Kee spent a decade in prison.
When he was given special permission to attend his father’s funeral while serving time, he was determined to turn his life around.
This was around the same time that he rekindled his interest in art, specifically pottery.
His talent was spotted by a few good souls who sponsored his tertiary education. He repaid their generosity and faith by graduating with honours from a fine arts programme.
These days, he is only addicted to two things — creating beautiful pottery and enjoying his tea.
He also wants to give back. When we approached him to create a ‘trophy’ for POY Asia, he agreed without hesitation.
Being a full-time artist is very tough and he appreciates the challenges faced by photojournalists and documentary photographers.
He has first hand experience of the struggles faced by artists in trying to create art and putting rice on the table.
“Rice bowl,” Whye Kee said, “I will create a unique rice bowl for POY Asia every year.”
We could not ask for a more potent symbol of what it means to be a working artist in Asia.
So thanks to Whye Kee, we are happy to share that starting from POY Asia 2024, the winner of the Photographer of the Year, Asia category will receive a beautiful rice bowl, edition 1/1, sealed and dated.
A very active member of the photography community in Southeast Asia, Parallax Photo Journal’s community event with Zontiga in 2023 featured Ian Teh, Annice Lyn, Zarif Ismail, Hafiz Hamzah, Tom White and OBSCURA Festival of Photography‘s Vignes Balasingam. Picture by Tang Chun Cheuh
Pictures of the Year Asia and Parallax Photo Journal are pleased to announce our first collaboration to be held later half of 2024.
Founded by Tom White, Charlene Winfred and Matthew Aslett, Parallax Photo Journal is a platform for socially-engaged documentary photography from Southeast Asia and surrounds. Parallax aims to present a diversity of points of view on the Southeast Asian region, while grounding these in our shared reality.
Pictures of the Year Asia and Parallax are coming together to curate a series of presentations on documentary photography and photojournalism with topics ranging from in-depth long-term projects to good professional practices.
This joint effort represents our collective mission to elevate the standard of our profession through free-flow conversations and sharing. This is also a wonderful opportunity for visual storytellers in the region to explore possibilities to collaborate.
While drawing on our networks, contributors and POY Asia’s long list of awardees, we also hope to work with talents from all over Asia. If you have a topic of concern, or a project to present, then please do get in touch. We would especially welcome presentations on the processes of working in the industry. Do take a look at POY Asia Presents as a guide.
The tentative dates for our inaugural event are 25, 26, 27 July 2024.
To suggest a speaker or topic, please feel free to contact one of us.
Kay-Chin Tay
kaychin@poy.asia
Co-Director & Founding Advisor
POY Asia
Charlene Winfred
charlene.winfred@gmail.com
Founder & Digital Editor
Parallax Photo Journal
