SENSE
OF SELF
-
THEMED & OPEN SINGLE IMAGE CATEGORIES
-
ENTER 1 IMAGE FOR FREE
-
EXCLUSIVE CANON MALAYSIA AWARD
-
PROJECT GRANT AWARDS
-
INTERNATIONAL SCREENINGS
© TOBY BINDER Germany from 'Wee Muckers - Youth of Belfast”
PORTRAITS OF THE 'SELF'

©CHLOE ALEXANDRA DAVIES UK KLPA2020
Cup of tea, love?
Many of us have been self-isolating at home over the last 12 months. How have these externally imposed restrictions affected our sense of self?
As humans, we are in constant need to interact, relate and communicate with others and these actions define our individual identity and sense of self; through the choices we make and the actions we take. In the Single Image Theme Category, KLPA is seeking stand-alone artistic and creative interpretations of this theme, through self-portraits or portraits of other people.
CATEGORIES
SINGLE IMAGE THEME CATEGORY
THEME : SENSE OF SELF
-
1st PRIZE USD$2,000
-
2nd PRIZE USD$1,000
-
3rd PRIZE USD$500
How do you define yourself or someone else? What are the traits and characteristics that make a person who they are? How can you photograph these 'selfs' and make them stand out as an individual in a creative and meaningful way? Portraits can delve deep into a person's psyche and reveal what is superficially masked on the surface. [Can be self-portraits or portraits of other someone else]

©GIACOMO d'ORLANDO Italy, KLPA2020
Self Portrait, stuck in Kathmandu during COVID outbreak
SINGLE IMAGE OPEN CATEGORY
1 FREE ENTRY SUBMIT HERE
-
1st PRIZE USD$2,000
-
2nd PRIZE USD$1,000
-
3rd PRIZE USD$500
In this OPEN Category, photographers may submit portraits that do not have to adhere to the theme but represent a personal vision and creativity, no matter which genre they are captured in.
To encourage wider global audience participation, all photographers are able to submit one free entry in this Single Image Open category. We hope to see more entries from South America, the African continent as well as the Middle East and Asia countries in particular.
VISIBILITY
As in previous years, KLPA will continue to collaborate with international photography festivals through digital screenings in 2021. Greater regional audiences will get to see all our winners and finalists works through these partnerships and collaborations.
-
San José Foto, Uruguay
-
Auckland Festival of Photography, New Zealand
-
Exposure+ Photo, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-
Photolux Festival, Lucca, Italy
-
Uganda Press Photo Award, Uganda
-
Suwon Photo Festival, South Korea
KLPA CANON MALAYSIA AWARD
In addition, all Malaysia-based participants who submit to any of the SINGLE IMAGE CATEGORIES will have their entries automatically entered into the CANON MALAYSIA AWARD. This special award is sponsored by Canon Malaysia to encourage greater Malaysian participation in conjunction with the EXPOSURE+ PHOTO event that will take place in Kuala Lumpur in September 2021.
These entries will be separately judged and the winning photographers will be awarded :
1st Prize Canon EOS M50 with lens
2nd Prize Canon EOS M200 with lens
3rd Prize Canon G7 X Mark II
_RGB_small.png)
Sponsored by

©WAWI NAVARROZA Philippines 2016 / Silverlens Galleries
I Want To Live A Thousand More Years (Self-Portrait After Dengue, with tropical plants and fake flowers
PROJECT GRANTS
3 X USD$1,000, 10 Finalists
Following a great success last year, the 2021 jury will again be selecting the ten best proposals and award USD$1,000 each to the three photographers with the most deserving projects.
This year priority is given to young and unrepresented photographers who may require extra funding to fulfil their projects or cover living expenses due to the pandemic restrictions. There will be no theme; however, we just want to see visually strong human interest stories which are portraiture-based.

©BARBARA ZANON Italy, KLPA2020 Grant Finalist
Daily life of a family with three children with autism
"KLPA2020 has been a very engaging experience: the competitive standards were high with incredible photographers from all over the world, and the team and the judges were exceptional. The opportunity to reach international visibility thanks to its multi-located exhibitions made the participation extremely rewarding."
ALESSIO MAXIMILIAN SCHRODER
Project Grant Winner KLPA2020

"Being awarded the 2nd prize in the KLPA singles image category has meant a lot to me; both regarding the international exposure I have received afterwards, but most importantly by bringing focus to my project and the neglected tropical disease onchocerciasis."
MARCUS TRAPPAUD BJØRN
Single Image 2nd Prize Winner 2020
JUDGES

WAWI NAVARROZA
Wawi Navarroza is a Filipino contemporary artist known for her works in photography, actively exhibiting in galleries and museums both in the Philippines and internationally. Her approach to photography is malleable, with a focus on exploring Self and Surrounding as seen in her works in self-portraits, constructed tableaus, and contemporary landscape.

DIANA LUI
Diana Lui is an artist, photographer and filmmaker of Chinese and Punjabi origins from Malaysia. She was sent in the 1980's at age 14 to further her studies in Los Angeles, California. After 12 years in the United States, Lui moved to Europe, first to Belgium and finally to France in 1998. Based both in Kuala Lumpur and Paris, she has been working between Asia and Europe for the last 30 years. Her transient life between three different continents has developed in her a heightened sense of “rootlessness”. This "loss of self” became later the center from which her art took shape. Consequently, her work for the last 3 decades questions the changing definition of cross-cultural identities, past, present, future identities, hybrid identities as well as non-identities. (Pic © Vignes Balasingam)

RUBIN KHOO
Rubin Khoo previously held the post of Editor-in-Chief of August Man Malaysia and Prestige Malaysia, overseeing all editorial aspects of both magazines. He brings with him more than 20 years of journalistic experience, having covered many aspects of news, business and features. He previously held positions as feature writer at The Star and a newsreader and broadcast journalist at TV3. He now holds the title of Associate Publisher at Burda Luxury KL.

TERESA ENG
Teresa Eng is a Chinese-Canadian artist whose work merges personal histories and the sense of place into a form of visual poetry. She completed her MA in Photography at the London College of Communications and lives and works in London, UK. She is interested in the materiality of analogue photographic processes and the photobook medium for her long term projects.
@teresaeng

JEFFREY LIM
Jeffrey Lim’s artistic expression stems from his cultural work in social art projects using mapping, installation and photography. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he has also been active in social activism & advocacy. As an artist, Jeff considers himself more as a cultural narrator, utilising forms of conceptual representation with imagery, found-object, and space. His recent work with Kanta Portraits has seen him travel between Malaysia and Taiwan in social exchange with indigenous communities on their narrative & the nationalistic-construct, presenting portrait prints in return using his self-made box camera.

“Thank you KLPA2020 for having such a great competition and an extremely professional team following up and updating finalists and winners on all fronts – it makes working with you an absolute pleasure. In addition, to hold a live exhibition for all the winners at the beautiful ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, during the pandemic is truly remarkable. I would like to thank all of the KLPA team for your hard work and commitment to all the photographers involved. Thank you.”
TARIQ ZAIDI
Project Grant Winner KLPA2020