Professional photographer and tutor, Kevin Casha, recently came back from a highly rewarding experience in China. Casha is not new to Chinese photography, having already been in the country in 2008 as a guest of the Ministry of China in order to take part in a forum on international photography in Shandong Province. He has also staged a one man exhibition of his photography in China at the China Culture Centre in Malta and was also curator and organizer of the China Photographers Association’s (CPA) international touring Exhibition in Malta, at the Valletta Waterfront in 2010.

This time round, Casha was honored by being invited by the CPA to form part of the international jury to judge the prestigious China 14^th International Photographic Art Exhibition, held in Lishiu City, Zhejiang Province.

The CPA is the largest photographic organization in China with an impressive headquarters in central Beijing comprising of both offices as well as a gallery. Its members count over 30,000 and are highly supported by the Chinese government, who is very aware of the popularity and cultural strengths of photography. With over 60 full time employees, the CPA runs and manages the most important and prestigious competitions and exhibitions in China. It also runs its own publishing house for photography books and magazines. It works towards promoting Chinese photography and photographers both to the general public as well as in the international arena, catering fully for the ever increasing popularity of Photography with the Chinese population.

Having been a somewhat late starter in the international sphere, Chinese photography is making up for lost time and improving in leaps and bounds. The quality of the photographers, coupled with the highly varied photographic subjects available in this fascinating country, has started to bear the desired fruits and the artistry of the top Chinese photographers has been able to shine through to stimulate, inspire and intrigue other photographers around the globe.

The 14^th International is actually the second largest competition and exhibition in the world, after the famed Austrian Super Circuit. Casha was part of an eleven member international jury who had the mammoth task of choosing the winners from an entry of over 75,000 printed images!

Kevin Casha together with fellow judge Mr Jaume Bafalluy, from Spain

The judging, hosted in a hotel in Lishiu City, took more than four full days of physically assessing the images and debate in order to select the top photographs as well as the images which would eventually be exhibited in China.

Obviously, there was a strong international participation from outside the country from the top centers of photography, such as America,France,Italy,Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Naturally, the subjects of most of the Chinese photographers featured landscapes and nature, with birds forming a very strong section of the entries. Also impressive where the journalistic, reportage and classical portrait sections of photography, with numerous images entered in monochrome. Chinese photographers seem still a bit averse to experiment with contemporary and modern photography, but the signs of awareness are there and some of them are already venturing into this creative genre.

During his stay in Lishiu, Casha was also a guest of the city’s Council and visited the impressive Lishiu Photography Museum. The Museum, which is the first in China, highlights the history of Chinese photography and also houses a permanent gallery of top Chinese photography. It is admirable and beneficial for the art that photography is being given such importance in China. This particular visit was of great interest to Kevin, as he has been campaigning for the establishment of a photography museum in Malta for a number of years now.

Apart from being a highly awarded professional photographer for over thirty years, Kevin Casha is also technical co-ordinator of the Malta National Picture Archive at the National Archives in Rabat and is course director of the first Higher National Diploma in Photography being run this year on our island at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology.

Casha is also President and one of the founders of the Malta Institute of Professional Photography (MIPP).