Intl photography festival to open in Xiamen

The 2021 Jimei Arles International Photo Festival will open in the coastal city of Xiamen, Fujian province on Nov 26 and will run until January 3, 2022.

The festival will feature several exhibitions showcasing nearly 2,000 works by more than 110 artists from both the Chinese mainland and foreign countries including France, Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia, as well as the Czech Republic.

Committed to cultivating excellent young Chinese photographic art curators and researchers, this year's festival will team with Chanel to launch the "Image Curator Award" to inspire creativity, as well as to encourage the youth to tell Chinese stories with their own works.

The 2021 event marks the sixth time that the Les Rencontres d'Arles in France, which has been described as equivalent to the Cannes International Film Festival in the photography world, has teamed with Jimei district in Xiamen, with the goal of offering a chance for photography buffs in China to enjoy works from across the globe.

Over the past six years, the festival has attracted over 350,000 visitors, with 838 artists from dozens of countries including the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Lithuania, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, India, and Iran attending the festival.

A total of 11,942 works have been exhibited and 237 supporting activities, such as forums, academic lectures, expert meetings, photography fairs, as well as art performances, were held.

The organizing committee said that the photography festival, with its distinctive characteristics incorporating both an international vision and local elements, is a significant vehicle for Sino-France cultural exchanges, as well as an important brand of Chinese photography culture. It was praised by French President Emmanuel Macron as "a model of cultural cooperation projects between China and France".