PHOTOGRAPHY Over 80,000 Photographs take part in HIPA’s 5th Season of Competition ‘Happiness’

His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai / Courtesy of HIPA

The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (@hipaae) has announced the official number of submissions for the fifth season of competition ‘Happiness’. A total of 80,420 photographs were submitted into the competition by 32,712 photographers hailing from 173 different countries around the world. Photographers submitted their works into HIPA’s four categories which were Father and Son, General, Wildlife and Happiness, which also served as the theme of the fifth season. Winners will be announced and presented with their awards at the 5th Annual HIPA Awards Ceremony to be held on Monday the 14th of March 2016 at Burj Park, Downtown Dubai under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council.

The Secretary General of HIPA His Excellency Ali bin Thalith / Courtesy of HIPA

Commenting on the 5th season statistics, the Secretary General of HIPA His Excellency Ali bin Thalith (@ali_bin_thalith) said "It is with great pleasure and pride that we announce our official participation numbers for the fifth season of competition ‘Happiness’. The HIPA team has worked very hard all year round to spread the vision of Dubai and His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Patron of HIPA to the highest possible number of photography lovers and aficionados around the world. This is evident by the fact that 66% of the photographers who took part in HIPA this season, were participating in the competition for the very first time. Likewise, HIPA has also reached photographers from 173 different countries this season, which means that the competition is a true global platform for photographers from all over the world to test their skills with other lovers of photography."

The Assistant Secretary General of HIPA, Sahar Al Zarei / Courtesy of HIPA

The Assistant Secretary General of HIPA, Sahar Al Zarei (@saharalzarei) added “Once again we find ourselves at one of the most exciting times on the international photography calendar, when the world is introduced to the winners of the annual Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA). The Awards ceremony this year will be held in Burj Park, Downtown Dubai right in the heart of the growing international capital of photography, Dubai. With the stunning Burj Khalifa in the backdrop, we will no doubt put on another extravaganza celebrating the artform which speaks to and brings together people from all over the world, photography.”

Commenting on HIPA and its 5th season of competition ‘Happiness’, HIPA judge Maggie Steber (@maggiesteber) said “Because of HIPA, photography is enjoying the most wonderful celebration in Dubai and the region. This competition is world class with entries coming in from all corners of the earth. I have only once or twice in my career met people in an organization that are so personable and so serious and so excited about photography. Steber’s thoughts were echoed by world-renowned photographer and HIPA judge Michael Yamashita (@yamashitaphoto) who said “The experience of judging with HIPA can be summed up in one word; quality. It was truly a ‘best of the best’. Wildlife photography legend and HIPA judge Frans Lanting (@FransLanting) also added “I applaud HIPA for their efforts with this photography contest and I have no doubt that the competition will be recognized increasingly as one of the world’s great photography events.”

HIPA’s ‘Photography Appreciation Award’ and ‘Photographic Research/Report Award’ to be presented to Oscar Mitri and Don McCullin respectively

The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award Board of Trustees have also announced the recipients of HIPA’s special awards for the 5th season of competition ‘Happiness’. The recipients will be presented with their accolades at the 5th annual HIPA awards ceremony on Monday the 14th of March at Burj Park, Downtown Dubai.

Egyptian born Canadian photographer, Oscar Mitri, will be presented with the ‘Photography Appreciation Award’ for his long standing commitment to enhancing the art of photography over his illustrious and memorable career. The ‘Photography Research/Report’ award is set to be presented to veteran British photographer and author, Don McCullin, for his service to photography through the many acclaimed books he has authored in his 50+ year career in photography.

Oscar Mitri

An award winning career photographer for over 40 years, Oscar Mitri got the calling for photography when he was hired by Magazine publishing houses in Egypt and Lebanon. While working in this field, he continued his studies in photography and colour slide techniques at the ‘Institut d’Art Phographique’ in Paris.

His career took off when he eventually established himself as a Documentary Photographer. He was hired in Kuwait in 1960 by an Arabic cultural and geographical monthly magazine (similar to National Geographic). His stay in Washington at the National Geographic Magazine enabled him to gain more experience in photo reporting.

His masterpieces are appreciated by a whole generation in the Middle East. He shared, with much photographic eloquence, the reality of life in the Third World. He entered the intimacy of peoples and tribes (nomadic Tuareg) to reflect their life, customs and traditions.

Don McCullin

Don McCullin / Courtesy of HIPA

Arguably Britain’s greatest living photographer, few have enjoyed a career so long or with such variety and critical acclaim as Don McCullin. For the past 50 years he has proved himself as a photojournalist without equal, whether documenting the poverty of London’s East End, or the horrors of war in Africa, Asia or the Middle East. Simultaneously he has proved an adroit artist capable of beautifully arranged still life, soulful portraits and moving landscapes.

Born in 1935, he grew up, with a brother and sister, in North London, a childhood best characterized by poverty and war.In 1961 he won the British Press Award for his essay on the construction of the Berlin Wall. His first taste of war came in Cyprus, 1964, where he covered the armed eruption of ethnic and nationalistic tension, winning a World Press Photo Award for his efforts. For the next two decades war became a mainstay of Don’s journalism, initially for the Observer and, from 1966, for The Sunday Times.

From the early 1980s, McCullin increasingly focused his foreign adventures on more peaceful matters. He travelled extensively through Indonesia, India and Africa returning with powerful essays on places and people that, in some cases, had few if any previous encounters with the Western world. In 2010 he published Southern Frontiers, a dark and at-times menacing record of the Roman Empire’s legacy in North Africa and the Middle East. In 1993 he was the first photojournalist to ever be awarded a CBE.

His Excellency Abdulrahman Al Owais, UAE minister of Health and Prevention and Chairman of the HIPA Board of Trustees / Courtesy of HIPA

Commenting on the announcement of the recipients of the special award, His Excellency Abdulrahman Al Owais, UAE minister of Health and Prevention and Chairman of the HIPA Board of Trustees, said "We are proud to announce the winners of our special award for our fifth season of competition ‘Happiness’. These two veteran heavyweights of photography are well deserving of their respective accolades and they follow on from our past list of winners in these prestigious special categories. Oscar Mitri is an important photography personality with decades of experience, particularly documenting through photography the UAE and other Gulf states in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, something very few other photographers have ever done. The photography appreciation award is a fitting accolade for such an accomplished veteran."

"Don McCullin is arguably one of the greatest photographers to ever pick up a camera. His career achievements speak for themselves and his photography books have inspired many photographers to master the artform and likewise allowed many people to appreciate the art of photography. He is a very deserving winner of the photography report/research award."

All winners of the 5th season of the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) are set to be announced at the 5th annual awards ceremony under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai on Monday the 14th of March 2016 at Burj Park, Downtown Dubai. With a grand prize of $120,000 and an overall prize pool of $400,000, the categories for the 5th season of HIPA are ‘Happiness’ (which also serves as the main theme), ‘General’, ‘Wildlife’ and ‘Father and Son’.