The First China International Photography Festival will be held in April in Guilin, a tourism city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said sources with the China Photography Association (CPA) Friday.

"The festival will be a good platform for photographers and shutterbugs both from China and overseas to communicate and to learn from each other," said Wang Zhengsheng, deputy secretary-general of the CPA.

Lasting from April 19 to 25, the international photography festival is sponsored by the CPA, the World Tourism Organization, the Hong Kong international academy of photographic art and the Guilin Municipal Government.

According to Wang, there will be a variety of competitions during the seven-day festival including photographing Guilin, digital photo processing and digital video shooting. There will also be hundreds of photo exhibitions, lectures given by world famous photographers and auctions of photographs.

According to the CPA, more than 100 million Chinese families own cameras. As the largest national photographic organization in China, the CPA and all its branches around the country have millions of members.

"What China's photographic circle lacks is opportunities to be introduced to the world. As a result, many excellent photographs created by Chinese artists are unknown to the world," said Wang.

"As China is drawing more attention from the world, photos, which transcend language barriers have become a good bridge for the world to know China," said Wang.

In recent years, a series of photography competitions have beenheld in China. One of the most famous is the Pingyao International Photography Festival. Held in Pingyao in North China's Shanxi Province, the annual exhibition has become a hotspot for photographers.

According to Wang, the CPA has contacted many famous overseas photography organizations, such as the International Federation ofPhotographic Art (FIAP) and the Royal Photographic Society, looking for photographs and photographers to attend the festival.

"People can get their own comprehension of the world through the eyes of photographers," said Wang.
 
Editor: Catherine