Local works of Lishui from the First International Natural Environment Photography Exhibition. CHINA DAILY

Digitalization has created a "never-ending photography festival" as all exhibitions in the 2021 Lishui Photography Festival have been displayed on the Lishui Digital Image Center platform website with the establishment of the 2021 Lishui Photography Festival "Cloud Exhibition Hall", which was officially launched at 7 pm on Nov 5.

The audience can get an immersive experience through 360-degree VR technology and interact online with the participating artists of four major academic exhibitions, with nearly 17,000 exhibited works in the web version of the online exhibition hall.

The festival made full use of the interactive technology of the internet in the digital age, with three international conferences, the Work Meeting of World Photographers Conference, International Handmade Print Symposium, and the International Symposium on Photography Education, held online on Zoom.

The events such as "Street Snap China in Lishui" selection and "Seven Alleys" Art Museum guide were broadcast live through Tik Tok, Tou Tiao and Bilibili.

"The biggest highlight of this year's photography festival is the digital display. The online cloud exhibition hall has more than 17,000 works online at the same time, which enable people to interact with photographers who cannot come from abroad and photographers currently in Lishui through the internet," said Fu Weixin, Director of Lishui Photography Museum.

"Currently, the biggest online photography pieces have more than 200,000 hits. This allows photography enthusiasts from all over the world to participate in the activities of the Lishui Photography Festival," Fu added.

"I still can't believe that this all is happening right now a few thousand kilometers away. It's so amazing and I am really happy to see images and videos dropping in from the exhibition," said photographer Marcel Rickli from Switzerland.

Marcel Rickli studied photography design in the College of Design and his works have been exhibited at Athens Photo Festival, Minsk Photography Month, Lodz Photography Festival and FORMAT International Photography Festival.

At the FORMAT International Photography Festival, his work won the British FORMAT Photography Festival/Lishui Photography Award, and he also got the opportunity to exhibit his work at the Lishui Photography Festival in China.

Although he can't make it to Lishui in person, he said he was thrilled to see his exhibition Aeon-An Era Beyond Control being exhibited there.

The online exhibition adapted mobile game modes and 3D modeling methods to develop an online virtual exhibition hall, providing a panoramic and immersive visiting experience for global online audiences, and real-time interaction.

The 3D version of Cloud Exhibition Hall displayed the FORMAT Photography Festival exhibition, the Portland Photography Festival exhibition, Yale University Photography Department exhibition and the Desire. Dream Documentary Photography Works of the Xie Hailong Hope Project, which were exhibited in the Lishui Art Museum and Lishui Photography Museum.

To support the works in the festival, 45 awards falling under eight categories including recommended curator by experts, excellent exhibition, recommended new potential talent by experts, recommended book by experts and academy new image were given to motivate photographers from all over the world to keep seeking and exploring new art during the festival.

Themed "green development to create a better life", the fourth International Photography Symposium combined the new technology and new changes to image development in the digital age, showcasing the characteristics and diversity of the world's cultures.

Guests from China, the United States, Canada, Colombia, Iran, South Africa, the UK, Australia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, South Korea, Pakistan, Singapore and other countries were invited to participate in the conference.

"This exhibition at the Lishui Photography Festival also uses the world's first thermal imaging method to comprehensively and systematically concern carbon emissions.

"I made this work in the hope that more people could understand carbon emissions. We should pay more attention to this issue, starting from the little things around us like saving food and energy," said photographer Jin Hai'an.

Besides this, on Oct 29, Let the World See Lishui-2021 Lishui Photography Festival Overseas Exhibition was exhibited in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which was also the prelude of the 2021 Lishui Photography Festival Overseas Exhibition.

"It is the duty of overseas Chinese to tell the Chinese story, convey the voice of China, promote the culture and landscape of our hometown and show the real and comprehensive China to the world through photography," said Zheng Xiamao, president of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in Brazil. According to Zheng, many Brazilians are full of admiration for the green waters and mountains of Lishui, and have a yearning to visit Lishui after seeing these works.