Shanghai Corporate Pavilion today announced the September winners of The People’s Archive photo submission campaign. Subjects for photos submitted in September included Shanghai’s landmark sights and scenes and portraits of local lives.

Shanghai native Xi Wenlei, or XiZi as he is called on the Net, won the competition for the second month running this September. His winning work, with a composition that suggests a painting, shows a cat sitting next to an open window of an old Shikumen House, which is to be dismantled to make way for the Expo. Not just any window, the one in his photograph is made of multicoloured glass panes, a relic from a soon to be bygone era. XiZi has made nostalgic imagery expression of Shanghai’s old days juxtaposed with the present his signature style.

Jury member Chang He has this comment to XiZi’s work: "The warm-tone and old-fashioned window well matches the cat’s composure and through the light oozing through the open window, we shift our attention to the cat, proportionally visible on the whole photo frame per a golden ratio perspective, and as if the cat is telling a real-life story that happened there. Really good work."

XiZi was followed this month by another August winner, Li Weimin (dououye), who won Jury’s heart again, this time with a vivid portrait of an elderly Shanghai citizen sitting in a park, reading a newspaper, but with his head buried in it.

These winning photos, together with other select photos contributed by the public, will be featured on LED screens and billboards at various high-traffic department stores, supermarkets, and commercial streets in Shanghai, including People’s Square, Xintiandi and Zhongshan Park, as well as on touch-screen posters in residential areas and taxis.

Mary Gu, President of Shanghai Corporate Pavilion, or Dream Cube, said she is also impressed by the passion and devotion by the participants: "Shanghai Sky is a topic that we featured this month and we are glad to see many outstanding photos in this category. We hope to call on all people’s attention on this subject and collectively contribute to a bluer and more beautiful Shanghai skyline during next year’s World Expo." 

The People’s Archive photo submission campaign will run until April 2010, giving everyone a chance to contribute photographs to the Shanghai Pavilion at the World Expo, which officially begins in May 2010, and to contribute to Expo’s goal of creating a "Better City Better Life".