Inner Mongolia photographer wins intl award

Xing Zongren, a photographer from Tongliao, Inner Mongolia autonomous region heard the news that he had won the Alfred Fried Photography Award 2017, on Nov 16.

Jointly founded by the Photographische Gesellschaft, the second-oldest photographic society in the world, and Edition Lammerhuber, an Austrian publisher, the Alfred Fried Photography Award is named after Alfred Hermann Fried, who was an Austrian Jewish pacifist, publicist, and journalist, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911.

The award aims to present human efforts to live together in peace and the quest for beauty and goodness in our lives. The award goes to those photographs that best express the idea that our future lies in peaceful coexistence.

This year’s award received 4,476 submissions with a total of 17,147 images from 122 countries, including India, Germany, Russia and China.

The award-winning works of Xing are pictures named Alive happily, alive strongly, which tell the story of a family in Kouhezi village, Huree Banner in Tongliao.

The mother and father in this family are both disabled, as the wife, Li Meiwen, has no legs, and the husband, Liu Hai, has no arms. However, they are optimistic and enjoy a good life with their daughter.

Xing recorded the family’s happiness with his camera. He claims that the pictures represent the family’s positive attitude toward life.  

Having been committed to photography for over 50 years, Xing has taken more than 100,000 photographs, thousands of which have appeared in national and provincial newspapers.

“Most of my photographs tell stories of ordinary people’s lives,” said 75-year-old Xing.

Photographers should record history, and try to seek out the positive aspects of life, he added. 

Liu Hai works on a farm with his family. [Photo/northnews.cn]

Liu Hai carries his wife. [Photo/northnews.cn]

The family members are photographed with Xing Zongren (back, left). [Photo/northnews.cn]