Attracting over a
million entries from 81 countries and regions, OPPO imagine IF Photography
Awards celebrates the powerful potential of mobile photography to capture
life’s most compelling moments. Honoring 56 exceptional works showcased at the
Paris Photo 2024, this year’s competition reveals how mobile imaging goes
beyond technology—it captures and shares stories of humanity, creativity, and
cultural diversity.
Each winning work
offers a glimpse into universal experiences, capturing moments that resonate
across cultures and bridging human connections. These
stories reveal the unique power of mobile photography to connect us, and how
advanced imaging technology empowers everyone to share their world, frame by
frame.
Beyond Capturing Moments: A Snapshot of
Pure Joy
By the banks of the
Hutuo River in Hebei, China, a child plays in a swirl of bubbles on a bright
summer day, his laughter filling the air. In “Summer by Hutuo River,” amateur
photographer Liang Xibing captures this simple joy with a vividness that conveys
the magic of childhood. This heartfelt image, taken with an OPPO smartphone,
won the prestigious Master Award at the 2024 OPPO imagine IF Photography
Awards.
As a dedicated father,
Liang values mobile photography for its
accessibility and ability to capture memories as they happen. “With the OPPO
Find X7 Ultra, I don’t have to worry about missing a good scene, and I can share
it with my friends or on social media directly after shooting,” he shares.
Liang's approach goes beyond just documenting a moment; it brings to life the
warmth and innocence of youth, all framed by OPPO's advanced imaging technology
that allows for an intuitive, precise capture of fleeting expressions. “A good
photo isn’t just a visual snapshot. It resonates emotionally and connects with
the viewer on a deeper level,” Liang adds， embodying OPPO’s vision
of enabling everyone to preserve life’s fleeting emotions with a single click.
Threads
of Memory and Unspoken Bond:
Connecting Generations
From a Chinese city to
the Japanese countryside, “Thread” by Kazuyuki Kawahara—a Bronze Award
winner—takes us into the intimate world of family bonds. With
OPPO’s Find X7 Ultra, Kawahara captured a poignant scene featuring his
daughters and their grandmother, who is living with Alzheimer’s disease. The
three generations share a day in their ancestral home, where they spent
abundant time revisiting the grandmother’s fading memories.
In this series of
photos, they played games with strings, picked vegetables in the fields, put on
lipstick at the vanity, cut their bangs, and played with handmade dolls. In the
slow passage of time, happiness was all around. Photography allows everyone to
hold on to memories that words can’t express, recorded by the OPPO smartphone,
these treasured family bonds are forever etched into memory.
In the language of
photography, love isn’t spoken but vividly captured. Similarly, in “Unspoken
Bond” by Hana Galal Gad from Egypt, a poignant connection between man and horse
is captured in a simple yet profound portrait. This piece, recognized in the Portrait
category, echoes Gad’s own memories of horseback riding in her youth- a student
evading her father and school to ride horses, now reflected in her role as a
parent facing her child who escapes to the open fields much like she once did,
where joy on horseback is found. For Gad, OPPO’s imaging technology brings out
the story within each image, combining precise details and natural light to
create an emotional impact that feels authentic.
Photography captures
moments that transcends language. From “Thread” in Japan to “Unspoken Bond” in
Egypt, we can feel photography’s unique ability to weave a compelling tapestry
of unwavering love that transcends the boundaries of time and space.
The Beauty of Everyday Life: Bringing
Cultural Narratives into Focus
In the remote
countryside of Myanmar, a cowboy leads his cattle to greener pastures, with his
loyal dog trailing closely by his side. This simple yet powerful image,
“Ordinary Life,” by Kyaw Kyaw Winn, celebrates the beauty of daily life and
cultural heritage. Recognized in the Travel category, Winn’s photo captures the
harmony of Myanmar's rural lifestyle - a perspective on life rarely seen but
universally relatable.
As the judges noted,
with so many images flooding our consciousness, something special to stand out.
Photography draws our attention to moments that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Winn embraces the ordinary and transforms it into the extraordinary, using photography
as a potent tool of fostering human connections. “A photo can tell a story
without using words and helps us understand the lives of others. It brings
people closer by showing common experiences and emotions, no matter where they
are from,” he says.
Through this
extraordinary work, Winn also expressed his amazement at the OPPO smartphone’s
jam-packed features and methods to optimize snaps anytime, anywhere, such as
its great clarity, autofocus, and wide-angle feature. “With OPPO’s technology,
I could capture the scene exactly how I imagined,” he underscores.
Each of these stories
reflects OPPO's humanistic vision in mobile imaging, where every image is an
invitation to experience the beauty and depth of life through diverse
perspectives. From fleeting childhood laughter to intergenerational bonds and
daily life in rural Myanmar, OPPO’s imaging technology helps photographers
immortalize these moments, adding layers of emotion and meaning to each shot.
With its innovative
approach to mobile photography, OPPO invites everyone to capture, celebrate,
and share the stories that matter, underscoring the belief that a single image
can indeed tell a thousand words.
