Chinese photographer Li Xiaoling wins the Food for the Family category at this year's World Food Photography Awards with the image The Elderly Having Delicious Food.[Li Xiaoling/ World Food Photography Awards]
The winner of the top prize at this year's World Food Photography Awards sponsored by Bimi says the enduring vibrancy of China's culinary heritage is the key to her success and that of the other Chinese photographers who won awards this year and in previous competitions.
Li Xiaoling won the Food for the Family category with the image The Elderly Having Delicious Food, which was also announced as the competition's overall top prize-winning image at Tuesday night's awards ceremony at The Mall Galleries in London.
Several other Chinese entrants picked up category wins or commendations, maintaining a record of Chinese success in the competition going back several years.
Chinese photographer Chang Jiangbin wins the Bring Home the Harvest category with Net Fish in Water Fields, an action shot of children leaping to catch fish in post-harvest paddy fields. [Chang Jiangbin/World Food Photography Awards]
This year's competition was divided into 25 categories and drew nearly 10,000 entries from 70 countries, with several other Chinese entrants enjoying success in addition to the overall winning image.
Li's picture of a group of elderly women eating and laughing together in Shuangliu Ancient Town, Sichuan Province, was described by awards founder Caroline Kenyon as "a perfect winning image for our times… color, composition, the variety of expressions while one determinedly ploughs on with their food - I defy anyone not to be uplifted by this photograph.
"The joy they have in each other's company is palpable, a powerful rebuke to those who would divide us."
Chinese photographer Yu Chunshui is highly commended in the Food for the Family category, for The Taste of Home, depicting an elderly couple cooking on an antique stove in an age-old hidden mountain village in Wuyuan. [Yu Chunshui/World Food Photography Awards]
Heather Daenitz from the United States wins the Wine Photography class at this year's World Food Photography Awards with Pinot Noir at Midnight, showing grapes being harvested. [Heather Daenitz/World Food Photography Awards]
Briton Susan Lang wins the Food in the Field class at this year's World Food Photography Awards with image Hogging the Limelight, showing a close-up of a group of piglets. [Susan Lang/World Food Photography Awards]
Among the other winners were Heather Daenitz from the United States, who won the Wine Photography class with Pinot Noir at Midnight, showing grapes being harvested, and Briton Susan Lang, whose Hogging the Limelight, showing a close-up of a group of piglets, won the Food in the Field class.
Jo Kearney's Afghan Refugee Women Wait for Free Bread wins the Politics of Food category at this year's World Food Photography Awards. [Jo Kearney/World Food Photography Awards]
Ireland's Indigo Larmour wins the Youth 13-17 class at this year's World Food Photography Awards with the image Early Morning Puris. [Indigo Larmour/World Food Photography Awards]
Jo Kearney's Afghan Refugee Women Wait for Free Bread won the Politics of Food category, and the Youth 13-17 class was won by Ireland's Indigo Larmour, for the image Early Morning Puris, Delhi, India.
Chinese photographer Xiaojian Zeng is highly commended for Aroma of Pressed Duck, depicting ducks being air-dried. [Xiaojian Zeng/World Food Photography Awards]
Li said she had specifically practiced food photography before entering the competition, and had taken numerous shots to capture exactly the right moment, but the finished product was one of her personal favorite images.
She explained that the picture showed how "food makes people happy – they enjoy a beautiful and joyful life," and also contained a cultural reference which may elude non-Chinese audiences, the so-called Dragon's Gate formation of how the women are seated.
Chinese photographer Shaolong Su has three images in the finals, taking third place in Food for the Family category with Village Big Pot of Meat, taken in the Yi ethnic area of Daliangshan, Sichuan province. [Shaolong Su/World Food Photography Awards]
The stories behind traditional recipes and dishes and the cultural code they contain, Li added, are "more than just legends—they reflect an understanding and appreciation of life", and something she said would continue to act as an artistic inspiration for years to come.
All 185 finalist images will be on display at The Mall Galleries in London until May 25. After that, a selection of images will be exhibited at Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly from June 2, and also at the Museum of the Home in Hoxton in London, from June 3–Sept 7.
