The Pingyao International Photography Festival 2017 is held within the Pingyao Ancient City, Pingyao County, Shanxi Province, China.

PIPF 2017 Gate outside the ancient city adjacent to park.

It is the largest photography exhibition in China and 2017 marked its’ 17th anniversary. What I thought was really unique about the PIPF is its’ location, it’s set in the county of Pingyao, in the section of the city that’s kept it’s “ancient” Han Dynasty architecture for the most part. Hence the name for it, “Pingyao Ancient City” there is much historical significance to this city, so much so that it has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. A truly awesome venue for a photography festival.

If you’re a participant attending the opening ceremony, you will need your participant’s badge to get into the central seating area. You may want ot be prepared with an umbrella or hat as the area is not sheltered and the ceremony maybe be delayed. Have a bottle of water because it gets hot sitting out there.

Parade to kick off the opening ceremony at the PIPF 2017

The amount of security inside the VIP / Participants area was significant.

The theme for 2017 was “With Original Inspiration, For Brighter Future.” The exhibits cannot be finished in a day if you attend the opening ceremony and have an open floor session for your works. Even without attending the opening ceremony and without an open floor session I doubt you can see all the works in a day. The exhibits are not all in one place/building, they are spread out all over and not just inside buildings but the outside too. I found works on the ancient city walls, on fences between buildings etc. There is so much to see and do! In fact, no one in our delegation had the time to visit places outside the city walls (I left the earliest).  But I think I saw the most of the city as I took a full day to do the touristy thing with my daughter. I figured I can see the works in the PIPF catalogue, I was wrong. The catalogue doesn’t include all the works (and it’s roughly 450 pages thick). Our contingent (the Photographic Society of Singapore) had 6 members participating, of which each had 6 images of 1m on the longest edge. There were many larger prints as well as smaller ones (Polaroid size). I hope that gives you an idea of the number of participating images which may give you an idea of the size the collective venue must be. The highlighted areas on the photo of the map below are the major exhibition areas.

Map of the major exhibition areas at the 2017 PIPF

Within the ancient wall, there is another barrier preventing gas powered vehicles from entering, however, battery powered scooters, golf carts and bikes can still enter and operate. So those golf carts are the “taxi’s” within the inner city and cost 10 Yuan (there abouts) per ride. There were a lot of people but not so much that it was uncomfortable. In regards to photography related merchandise, I only saw one tent selling photo gear (vests, filters, tripods) I’m guessing the photo vests were really cheap as many many people were looking, buying and wearing. As for the other stuff, I didn’t really look since I wasn’t looking for any gear to buy. Didn’t really notice any “branded” gear either.

Battery powered taxis within the inner city.

Battery powered taxis within the inner city.

Now for my fellow photographers, if you’re into ancient architecture and details, there are tons of things to shoot. Landscape photographers will probably have to go outside the walls.or you can hope for a spectacular sunset which you can compose well while on the wall. However, a guy with a bike will come riding around the wall around 18:00 to get you off the wall. Seriously, I had just setup my tripod and about to slot in some filters when the guy came up and started blah blah blah’ing…couldn’t understand anything except “closing” in a not too pleasant tone, he stuck around to make sure I started packing up, maybe because I fired off a few shots. Anyways, we were really close to the main gate (exit off the wall) so I tried to snap and walk without inviting another visit from the guy on the bike.  At the main gate there were many photographers still snapping and other people shooing people off the wall so don’t pack up all your stuff just yet, you still can get a shot or two off.

Sunset on Pingyao’s ancient city wall.

Needless to say, there were some truly remarkable works on display! I saw some really awesome stuff that made me wish I had shot it or wish I can go there.  Being a history buff I loved the atmosphere, architecture and historic tourists spots. I would very much like to visit again for more than 3 days and perhaps make it out of the city to see landscape.If you ever get a chance to get to the Pingyao International Photography Festival, it’s worth it!

A big thanks to the the Photographic Society of Singapore and our curator Mr. Vincent Liew for this opportunity and the PSS contingent for the photos below…

You can find more photos taken in and around Pingyao and the PIPF2017 in my Pingyao, China Flickr Album