Winners of the Huawei and Dazed Reveal the Real You community-led photography competition have been announced and to celebrate, PhotoBite headed to Birmingham to meet with performance artist and photographer Anthony Shintai Amao; one of the three lucky winners of the inaugural event 

The ‘Reveal The Real You’ initiative, as instigated between Huawei and Dazed, forms part of Huawei’s ‘Project Possible‘ campaign and was established to shine a light on some of the inspirational stories of people who had been challenged to confront and change perceptions through their image making. Following the announcement of his win, Anthony’s winning photography, all shot using the Huawei P10, which houses a stunning dual Leica camera, was displayed in a ‘Living Gallery’ in the Rotunda Square at Birmingham’s Bullring Shopping Centre.

Beating thousands of photographers to win the competition, Anthony’s photography highlighted Birmingham’s underground breakdancing scene and, specifically, the work of Break Mission, a collective which organises local street dancing events to raise awareness of homelessness. Each event is free to attend so long as guests bring food or clothes which are then donated to homeless shelters and charities in the region. Anthony’s winning series of monochrome portraits featuring dancers from Break Mission show breakdancing as a powerful form of self-expression and art, earning Break Mission a £10,000 bursary in the process!

As a dedicated break-dancer himself, Anthony found himself in the company of twenty other photographers from around the UK, making up the shortlist for the competition; each of whom had been selected to celebrate and document various communities, projects and causes that they feel passionate about through a series of ten images, [all shot with the Huawei P10 smartphone].

>During the ‘Living Gallery’ event in Birmingham, Anthony spoke with PhotoBite Editor, Simon Skinner about the competition:

Anthony Shintai Amao: I tend to scroll through and read articles on Dazed’s website once every week or so, and it happened that I came across the competition that they were organising with Huawei, which had a real focus on community.

Simon Skinner: And saw the opportunity to highlight the community activities of Break Mission?

ASA: Yeah, absolutely. These guys are like my second family; I’ve grown up with them. They taught me how to dance and there just such a huge amount of respect, so I really wanted to showcase them on both the Huawei and Dazed platforms because I know how big the reach could be from gaining exposure for the community.

SS: You’re a photographer as well as a breakdancer; what had you been used to using to shoot with ahead of being set the challenge by Huawei to shoot with the P10?

ASA: My first camera was a Canon 600D, but then I later upgraded to the 70D. I’ve been using the 70D for some time now. When I go to events or if I’m walking around the city, I’ll have that DSLR with me to shoot some frames that catch my attention.

When I picked up the P10, I saw that it had the same settings that I was already used to with my DSLR. I could adjust the shutter speed, the ISO, white balance, manual focus point etc. Literally, everything I had learned with my ‘regular’ camera, I could implement in my photography with the P10.

SS: How did you find shooting with the P10?

ASA: When I picked up the P10, I saw that it had the same settings that I was already used to with my DSLR. I could adjust the shutter speed, the ISO, white balance, manual focus point etc. Literally, everything I had learned with my ‘regular’ camera, I could implement in my photography with the P10. It was a simple transition for me because, except for the point of composition, with the P10 lending itself to portrait format, it just felt natural to shoot with the controls available with the device.

SS: have you continued to use the P10 as a part of your photographic kit?

ASA: I have a club event coming up where I’m planning to trial the P10 exclusively. I’m going to leave the DSLR at home and only take the P10 with me. It will be a real challenge for the P10, because at an event you have crowds to contend with…

SS: Lighting can be a challenge in clubs, too…

ASA: Exactly; but I am confident that it will produce the results I’m after because it has all of the settings that I need as a photographer.

SS: Having won the competition, can you tell us a little about what your plans are for the prize money?

ASA: All of the money will be used by Break mission to expand their activity into new areas. There are already plans to take their charitable work to other parts of the UK and they have already been to places as far-flung as Vietnam and the Philippines with the message of helping the community and highlighting the issues of those less fortunate.

Simon also spoke with Justin Costello, Sales & Marketing Manager at Huawei Technologies about the Reveal the Real You photography competition. 

Simon Skinner: Can you please tell us a little about Huawei’s objective with this project, Justin?

Justin Costello: We’ve worked with Dazed on this cultural partnership, Reveal the Real You, and the idea is to use the power of smartphone photography as the ultimate form of self-expression and for the individuals to be able to tell the stories they find within their communities.

SS: And please explain a little more about the procedure of Reveal the Real You. How has it played out?

JC: We had an initial round of entries after announcing the programme where we asked photographers to submit three or four pictures. From that, we drew a shortlist and handed the individuals a Huawei P10 each to shoot a further ten images that could tell their story and shine a light on their cause. From there, and after much deliberation, we selected our final winners.

SS: Beyond the association with your imaging partner Leica, what level of importance does Huawei place on the photographic capability that their device offers and how does this competition reflect that?

JC: Photography, and particularly the medium of smartphone photography along with the technological developments that we have seen coming through from our partnership with Leica, are extremely important factors for Huawei devices. We see that photography, in general, has an extremely wide reach, so the fact that, even if a single image, shot by a smartphone or using a traditional camera, can stop someone in the street, can give someone a moment of thought and can have a social impact in the way that Anthony’s are with this Living Gallery, then that’s photography and that’s art. That’s what this competition is all about.

The winning images were selected by a panel of expert independent judges, with emerging photographers Kat Collins and Sahvannah Amaka also being selected as finalists and awarded £10,000 each to donate to a community cause or initiative of their choice; Shoreditch Youth Dance and The Camberwell After School Project [respectively]. All three winners’ images will also be on display at an exhibition in London in February.

For more information on the Reveal the Real You initiative, visit the dedicated website HERE

Watch the short film edit, showcasing some of the dancers from Break Mission during the Living Gallery, below: