PHOTOGRAPHY HIPA Concludes Judging for its Seventh Season of Competition

The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) has concluded judging for its seventh season of competition, ‘The Moment’. The eight judges presided over submissions in the competition’s four main categories; ‘The Moment’, ‘General’, ‘Portfolio’ and ‘Time-lapse: Video’. Submissions for HIPA’s seventh season of competition had closed on Midnight of the 31st of October 2017 (UAE Standard).

The Secretary General of HIPA, His Excellency Ali bin Thalith said, “Members of HIPA’s judging panel for the seventh season of competition were selected after careful consideration from the HIPA Board of Trustees. Factors considered included; the judges’ credentials as international photographers and judges, their standing in the industry and their familiarity with the categories of the seventh season. As a result, HIPA dedicated two specialist judges for the ‘Time-lapse’ category; Gunther Wegner and Peter Bill, who are veterans of this unique artform and no doubt have an eye for the best submissions. I wish to thank all our judges for the hard work they put into judging the submissions for our seventh season of competition, and we look forward to presenting all the winners at our annual awards ceremony next year.”

HIPA also hosted two photography workshops by members of the seventh season judging panel at its headquarters in Downtown Dubai. Palestinian photographer and HIPA judge Khalil Hamra presented a lecture titled ‘War Photography’, while American wildlife photographer and HIPA judge Ami Vitale gave a lecture titled, ‘Search for Truth’. These workshops were preceded by two workshops on ‘Intellectual Property in the UAE’ and ‘Photography and Humanitarian Work’ presented by Dr. Abdulrahman Al Muaini and Kuwaiti photographer Majed Sultan Al Zaabi respectively.

HIPA Seventh Season Judges

Ami Vitale (United States)

Ami Vitale (United States) / Courtesy of HIPA

Ami Vitale's journey as a photographer, writer and filmmaker has taken her to over 90 countries where she has witnessed civil unrest and violence, but also surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit. She has lived in mud huts and war zones, contracted malaria, and donned a panda suit—all in keeping with her philosophy of “living the story.”

She is an Ambassador for Nikon and a contract photographer with National Geographic magazine and has garnered prestigious awards including multiple prizes from World Press Photos, the International Photographer of the Year prize, and the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting and named Magazine Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographer's Association, among others. Vitale is currently focused on making films and shooting stories about the planet’s most pressing issues, including wildlife on the edge of extinction, climate change-precipitated migration, and the struggles and triumphs of the human spirit. She lectures and teaches workshops throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and her work is exhibited in museums, galleries, and private collections worldwide.

She is a founding member of Ripple Effect Images, a collective of scientists, writers, photographers and filmmakers with a mission of creating powerful stories illustrating the very specific issues women in developing countries face.

David Alan Harvey (United States)

David Alan Harvey (United States)/ Courtesy of HIPA

Born in San Francisco, David Alan Harvey was raised in Virginia. He discovered photography at the age of 11. Harvey purchased a used Leica with savings from his newspaper route and began photographing his family and neighbourhood in 1956. When he was 20 he lived with and documented the lives of a black family living in Norfolk, Virginia, and the resulting book, ‘Tell It Like It Is’, was published in 1966. He was named Magazine Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association in 1978. Harvey went on to shoot over forty essays for National Geographic magazine. He has covered stories around the world, including projects on French teenagers, the Berlin Wall, Maya culture, Vietnam, Native Americans, Mexico and Naples, and a recent feature on Nairobi.

He has published two major books, Cuba and Divided Soul, based on his extensive work on the Spanish cultural migration into the Americas, and his book Living Proof (2007) deals with hip-hop culture. His work has been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Nikon Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Workshops and seminars are an important part of his life.

Harvey is founder and editor of the award-winning Burn magazine, featuring iconic and emerging photographers in print and online. He joined Magnum as a nominee in 1993 and became a full member in 1997.

Ed Kashi (United States)

Ed Kashi (United States) / Courtesy of HIPA

Ed Kashi is a photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker, and educator dedicated to documenting the social and political issues that define our times. He has covered topics as diverse as the impact of the oil industry in Nigeria, the protestant community in Northern Ireland, the lives of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the impact of early onset Alzheimer’s, climate change, the plight of Syrian refugees, and the relationship between sugar cane and Chronic Kidney Disease in Nicaragua. A member of VII Photo Agency since 2010, Kashi has been recognized for his complex imagery and its compelling rendering of the human condition.

His early adoption of hybrid visual storytelling has produced a number of influential short films and most recently earned recognition by the POYi Awards as 2015’s Multimedia Photographer of the Year. From implementing a unique approach to photography and filmmaking in his 2006 Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook, to real-time Instagram coverage of Hurricane Sandy for TIME Magazine in 2012, Kashi continues to create compelling imagery and engage with the world in new ways.

A leading voice in the photojournalism world, Kashi frequently lectures on a wide range of topics for arts institutions, universities, schools and professional organizations. His work has been published and exhibited worldwide, receiving numerous awards and honours. Through his editorial assignments and personal projects Kashi has published eight books, including Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, THREE, and Photojournalisms.

Gunther Wegner (Germany)

Gunther Wegner (Germany) / Courtesy of HIPA

Gunther Wegner is a German time-lapse, nature, landscape and wildlife photographer. He is the founder and developer of the market-leading solution for time lapse photography, LR Timelapse. He is also considered a pioneer in the research of day-to-night and night-to-day shooting – the so called “Holy Grail” of time lapse photography.

Gunther was born in Brazil in 1974 but has lived the majority of his life since in Germany. In 2012, he decided to leave his regular job in IT project management and fully dedicate himself to his talents in the fields of time-lapse, photography, film making and blogging. He has also worked for multiple German broadcasters including NDR Naturfilm as well as Japan’s national broadcasting organization, NHK. In addition, he offers workshops, coaching and guided photo trips all over the world for professional film makers as well as amateur devotees. He’s a regular traveller and spends a good amount of his time in South and Central-America as well as Africa.

His portfolio of works, which includes; African Skies, Altiplano Skies, African Skies 2 4K and most recently Northern Skies 4K, not only demonstrates his high level of technical skill but also raises awareness of diverse environmental topics. He has donated some of the revenues generated through his projects to various animal welfare charities.

Jean-François Leroy (France)

Jean-François Leroy (France) / Courtesy of HIPA

Jean-François Leroy is a photo-journalist whose career has included stints at Photo-Reporter, Le Photographe, Photo-Revue, Photo Magazine and the Sipa-press agency. In 1989, he completed a project in collaboration with famous French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand titled ‘3 Days in France’, which looked at France’s history in the 150 years since the advent of photography.

He is the current CEO and owner of ‘Images Evidence’ and ‘New Evidence’ and has been running the world renowned Visa pour l’image photojournalism festival since 1989.

Khalil Hamra (Palestine)

Khalil Hamra (Palestine) / Courtesy of HIPA

Khalil Hamra is an award winning Palestinian photojournalist who has been working for the Associated Press News agency since 2002. He has received over 20 international photography awards and accolades throughout his career, mostly for his work inside conflict zones and revolutions. In 2009, Hamra was recognized by the Overseas Press Club of America with its Robert Capa Gold Medal for his series covering the war in Gaza that same year. He also received several awards for his coverage of the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath, from January 2011 till May 2014.

In 2013, Khalil won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news, for his work in covering the Syrian civil war in 2012.

Peter Bill (United States)

Peter Bill (United States) / Courtesy of HIPA

Peter Bill began to experiment with time-lapse photography through his passion for painting. His desire to capture the movement of sunlight across landscapes helped him realise that he could only do so through time-lapse photography. This began a long journey in the artform for Bill, firstly using Super-8 film and the earliest digital SLR cameras to eventually founding the first time-lapse film festival in North America, and his many works today.

Peter Bill's award winning paint and video landscapes have been shown in various locations around the world including; The Kitchen (New York), the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), FILE Festival (São Paulo, Brazil), and other international venues. Overall, he has curated and directed shows on three continents throughout his long and illustrious career. To this day, he continues to mix his passion for oil painting and video work and often weaves both artforms to create a unique mixture of pixels and paint.

Randy Olson (United States)

Randy Olson (United States) / Courtesy of HIPA

Randy Olson is a documentary photographer who has had feature articles published in LIFE, GEO, Smithsonian and other magazines, but has primarily worked on projects for the National Geographic Society. Randy’s numerous National Geographic projects have taken him to almost every continent. National Geographic Society published a book of his work in 2011 in their Masters of Photography series. Olson was the Magazine Photographer of the Year in the Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition, and was also awarded POYi’s Newspaper Photographer of the Year—one of only two photographers to win in both media in the largest photojournalism contest operating continuously since World War II.

While working as a newspaper photographer at The Pittsburgh Press, Olson received an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship to support a seven-year project documenting a family with AIDS, and a first place Robert F. Kennedy Award for his story on problems with Section 8 housing. He was also awarded the Nikon Sabbatical grant and a grant from the National Archives to save the Pictures of the Year collection.

In 2011, Randy founded The Photo Society that is open to any photographer who has produced a full-length story for National Geographic magazine. The purpose of the organization is to find economic opportunities and provide exposure to members as the economics of print dwindles.