AQI

• Prize
• Photographer
  Montague Fendt, China

As you would check the weather, in Beijing we check the air quality on our phones. On polluted days we close all windows, get the masks out and turn our air filters to the maximum setting. No sports allowed, keep indoors, the radio announces. The AQI is a scale from 0-500 measuring the pollution particles in the air. An average day in Switzerland reaches around AQI 10, a polluted day in Los Angeles as high as 120. The yearly average in Beijing is 179 with some record values of 879, cracking the scale. As a result, a whole array of colors fill the sky, acidic orange, eerie green, faint yellow. However, there is a strange beauty within the smog. A soft light that covers everything like a magical winter storm.

• Awards
  Filmmaker and commercial director, kindly see www.montagu.ch for details.