Ten winners of an Instagram photography contest held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, have been announced.
Among them is Egyptian photographer Summer Farag, who was on a trip with her friends to the city of Tanta when she met a woman selling tangerines on the corner of the road.
Farag photographed her, submitting the image for the Instagram Photo Contest held by The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award, more commonly known as Hipa.
She revealed how the elderly trader was sitting with several baskets of fruit laid out in front of her. Against the subdued colour palette of the surrounding scene, the orange of the tangerines was striking. The woman, too, had an expression that evoked calm perseverance, she said.
After submitting works to Hipa for years without success, she was named one of the winners of the February Instagram contest, which was held under the theme of At Work.
“My happiness was indescribable,” she said. “This win has made me visible in photography communities and has given me tremendous energy to continue. I am always working on developing myself, and I aspire to study photography from specialised agencies.”
Hipa revealed 10 winners for the February and March iterations of the competition, the latter was held under the theme of Silence.
One of the winning photographs was taken by Egyptian photographer Ahmed Ragab. It features the silhouette of a long-necked bird with a tapering beak caught behind a smoothly rolling waterfall. The perspective makes it seem as if the bird is impossibly perched on the pristine curve of the flow. Palm trees and forestry shadow the horizon.
Like Farag, Ragab also came across the scene while on a trip with friends. He was in Qanater Al-Khairiya, a city famous for its wooden boats and waterfalls that buffet the flow of the Nile River.
“During sunrise, the mist covered the waterfall, while the egret was standing alone at the top of the waterfall,” Ragab said. “It was a scene that called for silence and appreciating the beauty, so I captured the moment in a photograph. This is my first win in Hipa’s competitions, and it has given me great enthusiasm, and a greater ability to communicate my work with people.”
The February and March winners hail from Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, India, Vietnam, the Philippines and Bangladesh. Ali bin Thalith, secretary general of the award, said there was an increase in the number of submissions in the monthly #HIPAContest.
“We are eager to see more amateur photographers gaining and developing confidence and experience though this contest,” he said. He added that the experience would help motivate them to compete for larger and more complex competitions, such as the annual Hipa photography contest, with the theme of Diversity.
"The exponential growth in our photography community’s participation in our monthly Instagram contest is an accurate indication that we are on the right track," he said.
“Persistence in self-education and acquisition of knowledge from various and varied sources raises the readiness of photographers to interact with the various life topics presented in competitions, so we always recommend paying attention to this aspect.”
