Eva Ting, director of TwoCities Gallery, wanted to undertake a similar project in Shanghai where little is known about migrant workers and their families. The group is receiving more attention nationwide as many complained of job discrimination and other problems.

"(The film) struck me as a powerful way to bridge the distance between peoples who perhaps don't fully understand each other," says Ting. The 29-year-old Chinese American hopes to hold a summer art camp for the migrant workers' children.

Ting is among an increasing number of artists in Shanghai stepping out of their studios to help migrant students. "My Shanghai" aims to empower the children and give them confidence to express themselves creatively through photography and art. It also aims to increase awareness of the situation and problems of migrant workers and their families.

"Having a foreigner and a Chinese working together and teaching migrant children about photography is really important in showing them they are important individuals," says Grayson Stallings, 23, one of the American teachers. "We want to let them know that we find real importance in what the children see and we can't see what they do except through them."

The photographs have a raw and authentic quality: free from formal aesthetic considerations, they give an insight into the little-seen world of migrant families.

The top prize went to a simple picture of a birdcage against a blank white wall. The message of the cage, of course, is that migrant children are restricted and confined; the blank wall suggests a lack of opportunities. It was taken from a position below the cage and distant, suggesting the young photographer was looking on.