For capturing different facets of Hong Kong, Post photographers scoop up three prizes in one of city’s largest photo contests

Three images taken by Post photographers last year have won prizes at one of the city’s most prestigious awards for photojournalists – “Focus on the Frontline”, organised by the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association.

Sam Tsang’s photo of high waves battering seaside homes at Lei Yue Mun, a fishing village in eastern Kowloon, was taken on August 23 as Typhoon Hato wreaked havoc across the city. The photo came in second in the Spot News category, which had 63 submissions.

Tsang also won third prize in the Nature and Environment category, which attracted 137 entries. He trekked from remote Sai Kung to Tai She Wan, or Big Snake Bay, the site of an abandoned resort theme park where the remains of fake plastic animals have been left to languish.

His photo showed a faded plastic giraffe amid lush greenery as a lone cow munched on grass next to it. The fake animals were shipped to the resort from a branch of themed restaurant chain Rainforest Cafe and left there when the resort closed in 2007.

Nora Tam also took third prize but in the Portrait category with her photo of Small Luk, who was born with both male and female genitalia. Now a Chinese medicine practitioner, Luk is the founder of Beyond Boundaries – Knowing and Concerns Intersex, a group to raise awareness and champion the rights of intersex people.

First held in 1993, the photo contest aims to feature photographs that are important to history and are “combined with elements of art and journalism”. This year six industry veterans, including a film director, academics and photographers, were on the judging panel. They received 1,405 photographs from 70 photojournalists and results were announced on Sunday.