To explore the possibilities of next-generation smartphone photography and videography and to improve their brand image as a top second largest smartphone manufacturer, Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) launched its Next-Image Awards program in partnership with New York’s International Center of Photography (ICP). Along with the launch of annual competition, Huawei and ICP signed an MOU for longterm collaboration.
Any Huawei user from around the world can participate by uploading their photos to the official website. Entries are open until the November, and the awards will be announced on December 19th. The grand champion will be awarded to $20,000 and their works will be exhibited at ICP.
“These days, people are using their smartphone to take photos. I support more ideas to come out using this future medium,” Mark Lubell, Executive Director of the ICP told TechNode. He explained that one of the courses in ICP accepts students only carrying their mobile phones.
“We are focusing much more on telling the story through images and we are working on future ways to present your work and to tell the story in an effective way. Through participating in this competition, we encourage people to challenge themselves to document their lives,” he added.
The awards will give more credit to Huawei’s Leica dual camera as participants should only use Huawei phone to submit their photography. Changzhu Li, Vice President of Huawei told TechNode.
“To get an exact photo is not enough. Consumers want really good quality photos. To bring up the image quality, we put in all the technology to control the light and the speed. We have an inner team working on AI and Neural Network Processing Unit (NPU). We can put stronger sensors and the algorithms to improve the current camera technology,” he pointed out.