Penang photographers spent 18 October shooting to a brief nobody had seen until that morning. The Penang Heritage Photography Fiesta 5.0 kept its two themes under wraps and named them, “Faces of Penang” and “Colours of Penang”, only when participants checked in, according to TRP.
The fifth edition of the fiesta was staged by PPB Properties, the property arm of PPB Group Berhad, and Sony Malaysia. It ran as a one-day Photo Hunt from New World Park in George Town, with entrants working a single day from briefing to submission.
Once the themes were read out, participants went out into the streets with a short window to shoot, edit and hand in their frames. The format pushed them past the usual postcard spots and asked them to show Penang the way they see it, rather than the way visitors photograph it.
Entries were judged in two categories, Open and Youth, and each category carried prizes for both themes. Chow Wei Khong took the Open Grand Prize. He works as a nature and stock photographer and was a featured exhibitor in WWF-Malaysia’s “Eyes on the Wild” photography competition. Cheah Zen Han won the Youth Grand Prize. He was lead photographer for the school magazine at SMK (L) Methodist, also known as Methodist Boys’ School Penang, and has returned to the school as a trainer running basic photography workshops.
Both grand prize winners received a Sony a7C II camera kit and a PGYTech OneGo Lite backpack, a light pack built for carrying camera gear. Other prizes across the categories included a Sony ZV-E10K vlog camera, a pair of WH-1000XM6 noise-cancelling headphones, a PGYTech camera shoulder strap and a camera dry box. The prize line-up had been announced before the event, with the grand prize listed as a Sony Alpha 7C II camera kit, Pocket News reported.
Four working photographers also shared their experience with the field. Vincent Thian, a photo editor at The Associated Press, spoke alongside Yap Li Lung, a TVET photography trainer and Sony Alpha Guru, Rafidah Abd Rahman, a street photographer who administers Foto Jalanan Malaysia, and William Ooi, a wedding and lifestyle photographer and a fellow Sony Alpha Guru. Pocket News had flagged Thian and Ooi as the speakers when the fiesta was announced in early October.
Sony brought loan units to the venue so entrants could try bodies and lenses before spending on their own kit. The winning frames will appear on PPB Properties’ social media pages, giving the public a look at what the two themes drew out of the field. PPB Properties also manages New World Park, the venue that hosted the briefing, the submissions desk and the prize presentation.
The fiesta has run since 2022 and has grown into one of the state’s larger photography gatherings. Its fifth outing put the emphasis on a single day of shooting, with the themes held back until the morning of the competition so that every entrant started even.
