The Board of Trustees of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Prize for Photography held its first meeting with its new composition at the award’s main headquarters in Downtown Dubai. The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Health and Community Protection and the Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs, Abdul Rahman Al Owais, in the presence of Secretary-General Ali Khalifa bin Thali, and members: Majid Al Bastaki and Matar Bin Lahej. Council members expressed their welcome to the new Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Hala Badri, who is the Director General of the Culture and Arts Authority in Dubai «Dubai Culture», praising her effort and great activity on the artistic and cultural scene, which will positively reflect on the Council and the course of the award in general.
The Council discussed a number of performance reports, items of completed and future projects, and plans to develop a general strategy that enhances work according to the vision of His Highness the sponsor of the award, which aims to spread the arts of photography locally and internationally in order to improve public culture and refine national talent and gift knowledge and skill opportunities for all, in a commitment to support and encourage high-end technical practices for their Extensive impact on the dignity of peoples, building bridges of communication between civilizations, and deepening the concept of tolerance between them. The Council reviewed the existing preparations for organizing the closing ceremony of the ninth session of the award, which will be held on the tenth of next March in Dubai Opera.
During its meeting, the Council reviewed summaries of the comprehensive achievements of previous sessions, appreciating the exceptional performance of the executive management that succeeded in reserving a luminous space for the award among the major international names in the photographic industry, and establishing a solid base as a knowledge and skill destination incubating talents and visual creativity, as it received the award since its foundation in 2011, Over 427,000 artworks, with more than 243,000 participants from 201 countries.
International reputation
Abdul Rahman Al Owais praised the pioneering local and international reputation that the award achieved and maintained its quality during previous sessions, noting the sustainability standard as it represents a major challenge in front of international artistic institutions, as it has no choice but to adopt the principle of intellectual consistency to achieve balance in dealing with all technical schools, intellectual curricula and developments. The world of photo industry. Al Owais stressed the need for sustainable and balanced work between the foundational constants and the methodology of modernization to keep up with the great acceleration in the world of photography. He added: The award has supported the talented community of photographers by offering more than 13 million dirhams in cash prizes to winners, including the largest grand prize in the world, 120 thousand dollars for one winner, and has become a factory for winners and a destination for all photographers from all over the world.
Impressive platform
Hala Badri expressed her happiness by joining the council, considering that the award has become one of the most prominent cultural platforms affecting photographic societies in the Middle East, and she added in her statement: The award succeeded in paving artistic paths among the talented segments of the Emirati society and bringing them to the stage of establishing a correct relationship with the camera, which in turn Dozens of bright Emirati stars yielded mellow in the sky of photography locally and internationally. She also stressed the importance of constructive communication with the communities of photographers to achieve their aspirations, discuss their issues and meet their future aspirations.
Great jumps
"The award team has succeeded during the last period in achieving most of the local goals, and has made great strides at the regional and international levels," Ali Khalifa Bin Thali said, adding: We have supported the transformation of the image from the selective entertainment style, to the simple, circulating, easy, collective pattern, reaching the state of the daily process. For the image and its overlap with the vocabulary of daily life and its various effects, we have seen our success through the interactions of the photographers' societies with us in enhancing the quality of dealing with the image industry for various purposes, so that photographers were able to draw a line of personal development, produce competitive pictures, participate in all competitions and test Experience winning, these steps represent the perfect integrated floor for every photographer who wants to go far in photographic excellence.
On the cognitive and training level, we have provided over 90 training programs during the past years that benefited more than 4000 amateur and professional photographers, besides 20 courses for Dubai government employees, 683 government employees benefited from them, and 20 courses for people of determination benefited from 171 owners of determination .
On the operational level, we have organized more than 50 exhibitions and artistic events around the world from Brazil in the east to China in the east, including setting up and organizing the Dubai Photo Exhibition "Dubai Photo", the first of its kind in the Middle East, where it attracted works of famous artists in the twentieth century and some artists of the ninth century Ten through the display of 700 elite photographic works bearing the signature of 129 of the most famous photographers from 23 countries around the world, selected by 19 world artistic evaluators, among them the first photograph in history. The exhibition was a temporary museum for contemporary painting that will be held on the land of the Emirates for the first time in the history of this field of art. Besides setting up and organizing the Dubai Image Forum for two sessions, which is an arena for intellectual dialogue on the visual industry, in which dozens of elite personalities speak Arab and globally.
On the human level, we organized and participated in 5 local and international humanitarian programs in Jordan, Yemen, Pakistan, Greece, Malaysia, and Indonesia, at the top of which is the "Lakm" humanitarian project that benefited more than 12 thousand people.
Technical fingerprints
Majid Al-Bastaki stressed the depth and vitality of the artistic fingerprints that the award placed on the creative and interested communities of visual arts, in terms of the quality of knowledge and the skill of presentation and presentation and establishing sufficient confidence to start the launch in the experimental stage in which the interested person experiences his feeling towards the art of photography and its relationship to the camera. Al Bastaki concluded his statement by saying: We are working hard to activate the synchronization between technical updates for photography and gifts of knowledge and skill award to its fans.
Distinguished output
The artist and sculptor Matar Bin Lahej expressed his complete satisfaction with the award’s outputs during the past sessions in terms of quantity and quality, and added: The award succeeded in transferring photography from the prevailing elite classification to the stage of experimentation and practice for individuals, who were able to achieve remarkable developments in photographic results on the ground. Hundreds of amateurs invest the various competitive opportunities offered by the award in assessing their creative skills and levels and ensuring their seriousness and merit to grant attention and care. This elementary stage is very important in the life of the artist and has a major impact on his artistic future.
Educational articles
The award has published more than 370 educational articles on the arts of photography, its schools, and all the swimming skills in its orbit, through the weekly "photography" corner on the website and pages of the official newspaper "Al Bayan", in addition to more than 120 attractive visual episodes from the "Zoom on the World" weekly corner on the site And the pages of "Emirates Today" newspaper. These angles have been very popular among the communities of photographers locally and Arab who praised their great impact, which succeeds in attracting those interested in the photography department, educating and educating amateur and professional photographers, motivating them, expanding their awareness and honing their skills, as they overlook them on all the vocabulary of the fun spectrum, from photographing insects and insects to photos of architecture and cities Passing through the pictures coming from the unknown worlds in Fayyafi and the seas.
• Since its establishment in 2011, the award has received more than 427,000 artworks.
• The Council discussed preparations for the closing ceremony of the ninth session on the tenth of March.
700 photography works signed by 129 of the most famous photographers.
5 humanitarian programs benefiting more than 12 thousand people.
90 training programs benefited more than 4000 photographers.