Alexia Foundation begins international seminar series in China
The First Alexia Foundation International Seminar was held April 4-5 on the campus of Renmin University in Beijing, China.
The first day of the seminar was attended by more than 160 students, faculty members and working professional photojournalists and photo editors. Dr. Peter Tsairis welcomed the audience, introduced the foundation, and explained how and why it was founded. He stressed the importance of cultural understanding to help make the world a safer and better place and that one important way to strengthen cultural understanding is through photography.
Other speakers included Ami Vitale, an award winning photojournalist and a recipient of an Alexia professional grant in 2000; Huang Wen, senior editor at Xinhua News Agency spoke about the state of Chinese photojournalism and opportunities for photojournalists to market their work; Vincent Alabiso, photo consultant and president of the Alexia board of directors, spoke about new agencies and new electronic means for photographers worldwide to display and sell their images; Beijing based photojournalist Zhang Tao spoke about his work.
He has won many awards including a World Press award and has only been working as a photojournalist for two years; and James Dooley, former director of photography at Newsday and a member of the Alexia executive committee spoke on the power and responsibility of photojournalism.
The second day of the seminar was devoted to an informal discussion with Renmin students about various aspects of photojournalism and a review of student work.
book now available
for purchase
The Alexia Foundation's "Eyes on the World" book displays the work of 18 past Alexia grant winners and presents work that has been exhibited at the United Nations building in New York, at the Pingyao, China, International Photography Festival, and at the UN Information Centre in Tokyo.
The $40 book is available with credit card at PayPal, or by email request to info@alexiafoundation.org or at the Syracuse University Bookstore. You can preview a segment of the book here.
Dury's Photo proudly supports the Alexia Foundation in its goal to help photographers produce stories that promote wolrd peace and cultural understanding. To help students produce outstanding picture stories, Dury's will award each student winner with a Dury's Photo gift card for these amounts:
| First Place | $300 |
| Second Place | $250 |
| 3 Awards of Excellence | $150 each |
Dury's has provided professional equipment and services for photographers for over 125 years. Dury's is in Nashville, Tenn., but its services are available to everyone at www.durys.com. 800-824-2379.