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“No Place to Place" by Guoyong Wu, has won the 2018 Excellence Award and the ALPA Award.The 2018 Inter Art Center New Documentaries Prize, one of the most important awards in China, has been announced on July 10th. Wu Guoyong, a photographer from Shenzhen, has won the Excellence Award and the ALPA Award with his work “No Place to Place".The New Documentaries Prize was established in September, 2016 by the Inter Art Center / Inter Gallery with the financial support of the “Friends of the Inter Art Center” fund. The prize is designed to discover, encourage and support those Chinese photographers with extraordinary art and creativity that dedicate themselves in documenting the livelihoods of communities, environments and social changes.The ALPA Award consists of a 20.000RMB cash prize and the loan of an ALPA camera system. We are looking forward to see what Guoyomg will use it for.JuryNa Risong (Art Director of Inter Art Center)Yann Layma (Photographer,FR)Erin Barnett (Curator of ICP)Li Xiaobin (Documentary Photographer)Xing Xu (Independent Documentary Filmmaker and Writer)About the artistGuoyong Wu, born in 1963 in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, is a freelancer photographer with a background in hydraulic engineering. In 1992, seeing the opportunities of Chinese economic reform, he settled in Shenzhen. In 2015, with his aerial photography work of the Shenzhen River, he developed a reputation as socially minded photographer. At the beginning of 2018, Wu accidentally saw a report about “Shared Bicycles Stacked Cemeteries”, which aroused his interest. He quickly photographed several shared bicycle “cemeteries” in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. With the support of Luo Dawei and Li Zhengde, he recorded the bicycle “cemetery” phenomenon, shared by more than 15 major cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, in an all-round way by aerial photography, shooting pictures and video locally. The end result is “No Place to Place”, his award-winning series.

©Wu GuoyongAbout his workBicycle sharing, known as one of China's "new four major inventions", originated in private entrepreneurial outlets. Driven by the pursuit of investment capital, it quickly evolved into a share-economy storm that swept through China. In just over two years, the sharing of bicycles has been concentrated in more than 20 million vehicles in major cities in China. In many downtown areas, bicycle sharing has become more important than other forms of transportation. The urban management departments have also changed their attitudes from reluctance to encouragement. Forced management practices, however, has led to an emergence of bicycle “cemeteries” across the country – the mess after the storm. Begun in January, 2018, the project "No Place to Place" covered all major cities hit by bike sharing phenomenon. After gathering information from online/offline sources, Wu recorded all he witnessed comprehensively using aerial photography, video and VR. The final collection contains nearly 30 sharing bike "graveyards" located in 15 major cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen included.

©Wu Guoyong

©Wu Guoyong

©Wu Guoyong

©Wu Guoyong

©Wu Guoyong(These photographes were not made with ALPA equipment.)