World Press Photo Contest exhibition, featuring shots of Hong Kong protests, finally opens doors to the public

The exhibition was initially scheduled to open on March 1, but original host Baptist University pulled the plug after a pro-Beijing news site accused it of inciting violence
A series of photos from the 2019 Hong Kong protests by Nicolas Asfouri of Agence France-Presse took first prize in the ‘General News, Stories’ category

Hong Kong protests

Enid Tsui

Published: 8:38pm, 28 Mar 2021

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An exhibition of the winning entries in the 2020 World Press Photo Contest – including five shots taken during Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-government protests – opened its doors to the public on Sunday, a month after Baptist University abruptly backed out of hosting the prestigious annual show.

The Amsterdam-based World Press Photo Foundation and its local partner, the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association, will be presenting a total of 157 photographs by 44 photojournalists from around the world at theDesk, a co-working space in Admiralty, through April 10.

The Hong Kong photos, by Nicolas Asfouri of Agence France-Presse, took first prize in the “General News, Stories” category. The main image selected for the exhibition shows a group of teenage girls in school uniforms crossing a road while holding hands after participating in a so-called human chain protest against the now-withdrawn extradition bill in September of 2019.

Other images by Asfouri include a shot of a female protester walking down a street holding an umbrella and a sign with the English word “Love” in Causeway Bay on National Day in 2019, and one showing a protester being held down by riot police.

A photo by AFP’s Nicolas Asfouri showing Hong Kong schoolgirls at a protest in 2019 is displayed at the World Press Photo Contest exhibition in Admiralty. Photo: Handout

Asfouri’s are the only Hong Kong photos in the exhibition. The other winning works include spot news photos of major events from across the world, as well as longer-term features about social and environmental issues, some of them from photojournalists who spent years on the projects.

The Photo of the Year award went to Yasuyoshi Chiba, also shooting for Agence France-Presse, for his dramatic image of a young man standing among a crowd during a blackout in Khartoum, Sudan, his face illuminated by mobile phones as he recites protest poetry during a demonstration calling for civilian rule in June 2019.

This is the third time the World Press Photo exhibition, sponsored by the Dutch consulate, has been held in Hong Kong. It was originally scheduled to open on March 1, but just days before, original host Baptist University pulled the plug after a pro-Beijing news site attacked it for featuring Asfouri’s photos, which the outlet maintained incited violence. In October 2020, the same exhibition was shut down a week early when it was held in Macau.

Hong Kong Baptist University calls off exhibition featuring photos of 2019 protests

Speaking at the launch of the exhibition in Hong Kong on Sunday, Dutch Consul General Arjen van den Berg said: “Photojournalists from 125 countries submitted their works for this contest.

“Of course the protests in Hong Kong were one of the stories that received a lot of attention in the global media. It is therefore only natural that some pictures and digital stories of the Hong Kong protests are included. I understand that for some in Hong Kong, these photos may hit a raw nerve as they remind them of a very recent and divisive issue. But I trust that when they come to see the exhibition they will feel differently.”