The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) has concluded the November and December 2017 editions of the Instagram Photo Contest which were respectively titled ‘Expressions’ and ‘Siblings’. Five winners were announced for each of the November and December editions which received submissions under the hashtag #HIPAContest_Expressions and #HIPAContest_Siblings. The winners hailed from; Algeria, Bahrain, Indonesia, Oman and the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates respectively.

HIPA Secretary General, His Excellency Ali bin Thalith said, “Photography has the unique ability to capture raw human emotions like no other. We wanted to showcase the power of photography in that regard with the theme of the Instagram Photo Contest for the month of November, and we are delighted with the results. For the December edition, we requested that photographers try and capture the special relationships siblings have through the lenses of their cameras. These special relationships are often very difficult to describe through words, but photography is sometimes a better story-teller. This was made clear with the beautiful images we received. We congratulate all the winners and look forward to more great submissions in the coming months. ”

November winner, Ziyad Mohammed Al Dughaishi @black_code77 from Oman said, “A few days before an earthquake hit Nepal in May 2015, I saw a very old woman in one of the temples in the capital, Kathmandu. My guess was that the lady was near to 100 years old and the expressions on her wrinkly face spoke of a person who had lived a long and most probably quite interesting life. Despite the fact she could barely open her eyes, I felt so much emotion beaming out of her wrinkly face and felt it was imperative to capture it with my camera. This is my first time ever winning in any form of photography competition and I am appreciative to have won in such a prestigious well known international competition that is followed by thousands of other photographers from around the world. I am very passionate about photography and I often like to see the world through the lens of my camera, since it often looks much better through it. Winning in HIPA’s Instagram Photo Contest will add great value to my photographic journey and I thank HIPA for the unique opportunity presented to myself and other photographers. ”

December winner and Saudi photographer Mohammed Albadrani @mohd176 said, “My winning photograph was taken in Ladakh, India about a year ago. During the evening, children go out of their homes to play together and that is when I spotted a girl carrying her toddler brother on her back. I feel that as a photographer, it is my duty to share unique cultures and places that I visit and capture, with the rest of the world. It makes me very happy to know that my photographs can play a role in educating people and bringing them closer to foreign cultures. Even though winning with HIPA wasn’t my first ever win in a photographic competition, it is definitely the most special. The sheer amount of people that take part in the competition makes me feel very proud to have won, and I am glad that my photograph stood out amongst the many other great submissions.”

Full list of winners (November):

Full list of winners (December):