WINNERS FOR HIPA’S ‘Abstract – Light & Dark’ INSTAGRAM PHOTO CONTEST ANNOUNCED

Dubai UAE

Sallam Sallam

The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) has concluded the January 2021 edition of the Instagram Photo Contest themed ‘Abstract – Light & Dark’. Five winners were announced for the competition, which received submissions under the hashtag #HIPAContest_AbstractLD. The contest winners hailed from; India, Kuwait, Indonesia and Turkey.

HIPA Secretary General, Ali bin Thalith said, “We are pleased with the results of this month’s Instagram competition, in particular the submissions from the Middle East, which reflects a state of cultural development for photographers in the region. There is great skill required in the art of abstraction, especially when creating the contrast through light; one which is truly harnessed by masters of this craft. We congratulate not only the winners of this theme but all the participants who clearly have spent hours learning and perfecting light and the lens. As always we invite all our participants to continue persevering and participating in upcoming editions to achieve their own personal win.”

Our winner from Kuwait Mohammad Murad @moe_murad said, “I took the photo in Tanzania in 2018 of a Thomson’s gazelle horn. In abstract photography, the viewer’s usual frames are absent, so that he cannot immediately recognise the nature of the image! This lack of context is one of the main reasons why abstract photography is both interesting and challenging.

This is my third win in this competition which is great.  I feel winning competitions will push me to work more on my photography career as well as strengthen and support it. Winning helps put any photographer in the spotlight so the audience knows them better. Thank you very much, HIPA, for this great opportunity.”

Tittu Shaji Thomas @tittu.photo, our winner from India said, “I took the photo in the Dubai Mall where the light patterns on the wall looked impressive, but the photo composition needed an added layer of content to create the necessary drama to create a vibrant scene. I was fortunate enough to see someone crossing in the vicinity and was able to capture them in my lens, creating the ideal scene.

I have won several awards before and some of my work has been published in National Geographic, but winning HIPA is different. It is one of the most famous photography competitions in the world, so it has boosted my self-confidence to achieve my dreams.”