2019 IDPA Review

In 2019, Imageless received 77 dummy books from 68 creators. Each submission was included in our month-long Imageless Dummy Photo-zine Award (IDPA) exhibition held at the Modern Art Academy in Shanghai.

IDPA Imageless Dummy Photobook Award is a book award that aims to celebrate the self-created work of non-published photographers. We hope that this award will help dedicated photographers gain more exposure while also encouraging more creators to produce DIY zines and explore the possibilities of print media.

This year we were lucky to have four judges from various artistic backgrounds to help pick this year's winner. The judges were Birdhead (Ji Weiyu & Song Tao), Chen Rui, and Guo Xiao.

2019 Shortlist

Dai Yu带鱼 —— 《On the Road》

Ye Huanhuan叶欢欢 —— 《无题》/ Nameless

Wang Xueya汪雪涯 —— 《ShaoShao》

Wu Zhiyao吴志尧 —— 《28 FEBRUARI 1986》

Li Jie李杰 —— 《暮色如你》/ The Evening As You

Xiao Ye小叶 —— 《莉莉》/ Lili

Zhang Yaqiong张雅琼 —— 《夏日终曲》/ Summer’s Finale

张树楠 Zhang Shunan —— 《It's OK》

Mingjing Wang —— 《Galaxy》

方穆轩  Fang Muxuan—— 《BAIKAL》

Judges:

Birdhead (Ji Weiyu and Song Tao)

Chen Rui

Guo Xiao

Winner of the 2019 IDPA Best Book Award:

《ShaoShao》by Wang Xueya (汪雪涯)

This book is a personal narrative recording the life of an international student. Photographer Wang Xueya delicately and calmly records her daughter, , ShaoShao’s, daily life. In this everyday context, the photographs reflect a generation growing up amongst a pluralistic sea of information forcing the audience to ponder. It was this contemporary commentary on time, communication, and control that the four judges unanimously decided made Xueya's body of work stand out from the rest.