PHOTOGRAPHY as visual art, which has lived in the shadow of the booming commercial industry in Hongkong, is about to make an impact.
Photo company Agfa-Gevaert, the Hongkong Institute of Professional Photographers and the Asian Arts Council are working together to encourage artistic, non-client sponsored photography.
This year they set up the Agfa Fellowship, offering an amateur or professional photographer between 18 and 35 an all-expenses paid three-month trip to the United States where he/she can either enrol in a course or simply shoot pictures.
''Hongkong photographers do mostly commercial work,'' said Ms Elaine Ho, senior marketing manager at Agfa-Gevaert. ''We wanted to create an opportunity where we can open their eyes to different ideas and thereby raise the standards of photography in general.'' Applicants must submit a portfolio to a panel made up of Mr Oscar Ho, the Arts Centre's exhibition director, Ms Michelle Vosper, of the Asian Cultur al Council, and two professional photographers from HKIPP.
To help raise money for the fellowship, an auction of works donated by professional photographers was held at The Time Is Always Now in Lan Kwai Fong.
While it is unlikely one photographer on a three-month course can kick-start an artistic movement, the fellowship is part of a series of programming encouraging photography as a visual art.