Beijing.– Up to December 31, 2007—the last submission day for the Annual Epoch Times International Grand Photography Competition, the contest organizer received over 10,000 photos from all over the world, including the Dominican Republic.

The Epoch News Group announced the competition on September 13, 2007, which has three categories—Society and Traditions; Natural Environment and the third category includes Advertisements, portraits, fashion, still objects, and architecture. Each category has one first prize with a US$2,500 award, and the competition also has one overall winner with an award of US$5,000.

The competition committee spokesperson Tina Qu said, "We received over 1,000 submissions on December 31 alone, and according to incomplete data, the committee received over 10,000 submissions in total." "The contest attracted participants from all over the world, including some South American countries."

According to Tina, the information about the contest was spread through the Epoch Times news network which includes 17 languages on the web, and 13 languages in print in over 30 countries and regions. "Surprisingly, some participants even came from countries outside our distribution area." said Tina.

Scores of Countries Represented According to the contest organizing committee, the participants come from many countries and areas including mainland China, the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, Romania, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Bengal, Spain, Australia, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Belgium, Russia, Moldova, Argentina, Malaysia, India, Panama, Thailand, Mexico, France, Sweden, Ukraine, Japan, Bulgaria, Suriname, Italy, Slovakia, Belarus, Denmark, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Chile, Uruguay, Honduras, Hungary, Guatemala, Cuba, Algeria and others. Tina said, the competition theme is to "accurately depict people, objects, social moments, and/or nature scenes and express a spirit of justice, kindness and/or beauty."

The evaluation will be "based on traditional aesthetics and the effective use of techniques of light and shadow." The evaluation will start soon, and the competition committee plans to hold the winners photo exhibition of the selected works in February 2008 in New York City. Winners will receive their award at the opening ceremony.

The website address for the competition is http://photocompetition.epochtimes.com/ale.html

Source: epochtimes.com