To promote photo tourism and highlight the historic importance of the Walled City, the Walled City Lahore Authority (WCLA) organised its 4th season of Wekh Lahore photo contest and exhibition. This five-day photo exhibition that kicked off at Alhamra Art Gallery, here on Friday, was inaugurated by Commissioner Lahore Abdullah Khan Sumbal.
The contestants submitted their entries in three categories: street Life, monuments and architecture in the Walled City. Out of 1189 entries, 453 were exhibited at the exhibition. The photos (on display) were taken by hobbyists and armature photographers from all over Pakistan. The photos displayed in the contest were rare and had never been printed or exhibited before.
Bazaars, festivals, foods, drinks, shops, games and other cultural activities of the Walled City were among the categories for the photos exhibited. All contestants, in their photos, depicted lives in the routine of the residents of the Walled city. The photos of historical buildings made in the Mughal era, especially those declared as monuments, fascinated the audience.
During the exhibition, winners for the monument and street life categories were announced, whereas, no decision was made by jury for the contestants from the architecture category.
The first three winners in each category were awarded Rs. 100,000, Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50,000 respectively while those who created the overall best shots were awarded gift hampers.
Salman Mehmood stood first in the monument category, while Muhammad Asher and Fawad Malik received second and third prizes, respectively.
For the street life category, Zoya Khan received first prize, Hassan Ahmed received second prize while Sher Zaman was given the third prize.
The youngest participant of Wekh Lahore was Junaid Ahmed who is in class 6. He said that he was very happy for winning a prize in Wekh Lahore. “I was not expecting this and it is a big achievement for me. I owe this all to my family who bought me a camera and encouraged me to learn photography”, he said.
Commissioner Lahore Abdullah Sumbul said that he was fascinated by most of the work and appreciated WCLA for promoting the heritage and culture of the Walled City with modern tools of marketing. He said that such activities were encouraging for the youth and that he hoped that such activities will become more frequent with time. Commissioner assured WCLA organisers of fulfilling their needs in promoting culture and norms of the walled city.
Director General WCLA, Kamran Lashari in his message, appreciated the participants for their enthusiasm.
Member of the jury, photographer Masood Khan, while enlightening the audience with the reason behind contestants being unable to qualify for the prize in architecture category, said that photographers ignored the basic concepts. He said that photographers must stick to the subject and angle while taking a picture. Another jury member Arshad Ghauri said that it was a pleasant experience being the judge of this contest. He said that he was glad to see that people were improving their skills in photography.
According to organisers, the purpose of Wekh Lahore is to promote photo tourism and to give a platform to the budding photographers to share their shots with the world. This is one tool that can help in digitising and promoting the heritage.
Deputy Director Media and Marketing WCLA Tania Qureshi said that Wekh Lahore Photo Contest and Exhibition was the primarily arranged for the young photographers of Lahore. She said that WCLA called for submissions by announcing the event on the social media. “Interested photographers sent their pictures via email. We have defined the size and concept of the image in our advertisement. After the selection we informed the participants about the pictures selected”, she said adding that the judges then made the final decision for the winners by selecting photographs on set criteria of light, frame, story, sharpness, treatment etc.
