Hamdan bin Rashid Mohammed Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) The New Season of HIPA – ‘Life in Colour’ – is Announced

From the HIPA press conference / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

Everyone is well aware that Dubai is world's business and financial center, however, in recent years Dubai has become known for its very dynamic and interesting art scene with a large number of prestigious galleries and renowned art festivals. One of the biggest art events is Hamdan bin Rashid Mohammed Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA).

A very ambitious project is set to promote Dubai as a city of culture and to promote a global photography. The third Season, titled 'Creating the Future', – also the theme of the photo competition – has fulfilled the most demanding artistic and organizational requirements when it comes to such events. What makes HIPA a very important event are extremely high aesthetic criteria for selecting photographs, provided by the members of the jury consisting of top photo professionals. The excellent event organization, the spectacular gala award ceremony, the exhibition of the best works and a great media attention, all of this contributed to the HIPA – as a young art event – to be positioned very high in the world of photography.

The HIPA team have been active during the whole year not only during the event. In this sense – within its global campaign – HIPA team had many great promotions of winning photographs in India, UK, Brazil, Morocco, France and Malaysia. Following the big success it achieved in the two earlier editions, the third edition of HIPA 'Creating the Future' attracted 26,006 photographers with 38,203 submitted photographs.

At the recently held press conference at the Shangri La Hotel in Dubai, with over 150 guests and media, a new season of HIPA titled 'Life in Colour' was announced.

The attendees were addressed by Ali bin Thalith, the Secretary General of HIPA, "Dear guests, we welcome you to this press conference announcing the categories for the new season of Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA), which in recent years has become a cultural and artistic beacon beaming out of Dubai to the rest of the world. As a result, HIPA has reached photographers from 156 different countries during its 3 years of existence.

The categories for the new season of HIPA are as follows:

• Life in Colour (Main Category/Theme)

• General Category

• Faces (Black & White)

• Night Photography

We hope that these categories will challenge all photographers and encourage them to submit their most creative works for the fourth season of the competition."

From the HIPA press conference / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

At the press conference were also present the board members Matar Mohammed Bin Lahej and Henry Dallal.

When asked why this years selection of top prizes show sad images Henry Dallal answered, "A beautiful photograph has to have feelings, as it happen to be a sad photograph, it was not done on purpose."

On the question of what were the impressions of the jury about Emirati photos (given that in certain categories there were no winners) the answer by a jury was "If it is a great photograph it doesn't matter where it comes from. What everybody was judging was the merit of the photo not the place where the photo came from." Ali bin Thalith, the Secretary General of HIPA added, "We are judging art, not nationalities."

The jury - from the HIPA press conference / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

Steve McCurry (on the right), from the HIPA press conference / Photo © Islamic Arts Magazine

The Prizes for 'Life in Colour' Season

The prize for the 'Life in Colour' Season is $120,000 for the Grand Prize and in total $400,000 for all categories. The submissions started on March 21, 2014 and will close on December 31, 2014. Each photographer is allowed to submit only one photo per category.

To submit, please visit HIPA's Registration page.