'Oscars of photojournalism' returns to Singapore

SINGAPORE - The annual World Press Photo (WPP) exhibition which attracted over 25,000 visitors in Singapore last year will be back in town from Jan 29-Feb 21. This year, the free exhibition will be held for the first time at the National Museum of Singapore.

Billed as the "Oscars of photojournalism", the global travelling exhibition showcases 145 prize-winning photographs that captured the most powerful, expressive, and on occasion provocative press images from around the world.

These photos were shortlisted from 97,912 entries submitted by 5,692 photographers from 131 countries for the annual World Press Photo contest. The 58th exhibition itself has travelled to around 100 cities in some 45 countries in a year-long tour.

In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be photojournalism talks by two award-winning photographers - Pete Muller, an American based in Kenya, Sarker Protick from Bangladesh, and a judge in the World Press Photo competition for 2016, homegrown talent Sim Chi Yin, based in China. The talks are open to the public.

Mr Baey Yam Keng, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, will officially open the the exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore on Jan 28.

This is the fifth year the exhibition is being held in Singapore. Previous ones were in 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2015.

The Straits Times is the presenter of this year's WPP Singapore exhibition for the second year running. Mr Patrick Daniel, Editor-in-Chief of the English, Malay, Tamil Media Group of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH), which publishes The Straits Times, said: "SPH and The Straits Times are pleased to present the latest World Press Photo exhibition which showcases the best work of so many talented photojournalists. I hope the public in Singapore will appreciate the impact these dedicated professionals make to the stories we tell daily in the press."