Winners for HIPA’s ‘Flowers’ and ‘Celebrate Photography’ Instagram Photo Contests Announced

Dubai UAE

Sallam Sallam

The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) has concluded the February and March edition of the Instagram Photo Contest, which were titled ‘Flowers’ and ‘Celebrate Photography’ respectively. A total of eight winners were announced for both contests with submissions being received under the hashtag #HIPAContest_Flowers for the February edition and #HIPAContest_CelebratePhotography for March. The contests’ winners hailed from: United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, USA and Spain respectively

The March competition was unique as a final edition of the Award ceremony leading up to the finale of the ’Hope‘ season. The competition’s subject was ’Celebrate Photography‘. The Prize for the winners included: two nights’ accommodation in Dubai, return flight, VIP ticket to the Award Ceremony and a Nikon D7200 SLR digital camera presented by Nikon Middle East & Africa. A total of three winners were announced

His Excellency Ali bin Thalith, the Secretary General of HIPA said, “We have enjoyed the quality of the images submitted under the ’Flowers‘ theme, which reflected the photographers’ creative and unique perspective on beauty. Everyone is delighted by the sight of flowers, but the photographers’ lenses from around the world translated this beauty in ways that no one else could imagine. This brought out the diversity of a flower’s aesthetic.”

Bin Thalith continued, The ‘Celebrate Photography‘ theme has achieved its objectives. We have seen amazing visual masterpieces of exquisite variety that took us to the four corners of the globe. The winners were delighted to visit Dubai and attend the Award ceremony of the eighth edition of ’Hope‘ as VIPs. A wonderful image may take you to new places in your artistic journey and may create a fundamental turning point in the course of your life for the better. I congratulate the winners and invite them to continue to innovate and master their craft.

Indonesian photographer and winner in the month of February, Agus Supriyanto said, “I took the picture in the morning in my garden after it rained the night before. I saw the spider web covered with drops of water so much so that I could see the reflection of the flower behind it. The picture came out beautifully. I have won several competitions before but winning one of the competitions of HIPA is a source of great pride for me. This win means a lot to me and gave my photo a great opportunity to reach a wide international audience. I think one of the most important aspects of photography is that it shows the beauty of the world we live in.”

Fatimah Mohammad Al Sabeeha, from Saudi Arabia, who picked up a prize in the March edition of the Instagram Photo Contest, commented on her win, “This picture of Mrs. Tina was taken in a mountain village in Nepal in 2016, as part of a photography trip with a group of photographers from the GCC. This lovely woman attracted my attention, so I started to talk to her. She told me that she is raising her little girl whilst also taking care of an Indian child whose parents work in the GCC. She invited me to her modest home to take some pictures of her and the children. She spoke English, which made it easy to communicate with her

I won several contests but this is my first win on a platform such as  Instagram. I was very happy to win one of the HIPA Awards; especially as it meant that I got to attend the eighth season Award ceremony at Dubai Opera. Being in the presence of many esteemed guests is a great honour for any photographer. I work with my lens to draw attention to the importance of communication between different cultures and religions, as well as to deepen human communication with people all over the world”

List of winners February 2019 (#HIPAContest_Flowers) 

List of winners March 2019 (#HIPAContest_CelebratePhotography):