Chen Chin-pao captured the Overseas Photographer prize at Japan’s prestigious Higashikawa Award May 11, the first Taiwanese photographer to do so.
Chen, 41, won recognition from the jury for his “Circumgyration” and “Heaven on Earth” photo series.
In “Circumgyration,” Chen photographed fifth and sixth grade elementary school students staging the most unforgettable events in their lives over the past year.
“Heaven on Earth,” on the other hand, records the special religious landscape in which gods in temples, people in daily living spaces and spirits in tombs mingle together.
His other well-known works include “A Moment of Beauty: A Collection of Images of Betel Nut Girls” (1996), which documented the unique culture of “betel nut beauties” in Taiwan.
Chen currently works as an elementary school teacher and practices photography in his free time.
Based in “phototown”—Higashikawa, on the island of Hokkaido—the annual Higashikawa Award is held in conjunction with the Higashikawa Photo Fiesta.
The award, now in its 26th year, gives prizes in four categories—overseas photographer, domestic photographer, new photographer and special prize—and is regarded as one of the most important photography awards in Japan, enjoying the same level of reverence as the Kimura Ihei Award.
The other three winners of the award in 2010 are Keizo Kitajima, Domestic Photographer Award; Osamu James Nakagawa, New Photographer Award; and Yoshihiro Hagiwara, Special Photographer Award.
Previous winners of the Overseas Photographer Award include American street photographer Joel Meyerowitz, architecture and landscape photographer Lewis Baltz and the internationally renowned Joel Sternfeld.
The award ceremony will take place July 31. (TYH-THN)