International photography festival to kick off in Sharjah – in pictures

The four-day event hosts workshops, panel discussions and exhibitions that bring the works of international photographers to the UAE

In 'Fupi and Lekupania', an orphaned baby reticulated giraffe embraces wildlife keeper Lekupania in northern Kenya. This giraffe will be rehabilitated and return to the wild, as a number of others have done before him. Right now, giraffe are undergoing what has been referred to as a silent extinction. Photographer: Ami Vitale

Ami Vitale's 'Rewilding' captures a moment at the Wolong’s Hetaoping center in Sichuan Province, where captive-bred bears training for life in the wild are kept relatively sheltered from human contact, even during a rare hands-on checkup. Photographer: Ami Vitale

In 'Kamara and Kilifi', Kamara is nuzzled by black rhino Kilifi who he hand-raised along with two other baby rhinos at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Photographer: Ami Vitale

Titled 'Above the Polar Bear', a polar bear leaps on two pieces of ice during summer in search of food. Arctic, Canada. Photographer: Florian Ledoux

'Matriarch' from a series that documents the elephants of the Tsavo Conservation Area in Kenya in 2017. Photographer: Will Burrard-Lucas

In 'Urban Artery', tramway, bus, cars and people are going through Causeway Bay like ghosts. Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Photographer: Xavier Portela

If you're an amateur or a professional photographer, then this is one festival you don't want to miss.

Running in its fourth year, Xposure International Photography Festival will kick off in Sharjah on Thursday, September 19, bringing some of the most beautiful and moving modern photography across a number of indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces, in addition to a strong programme of workshops, panel discussions and many others.

The event brings the works of award-winning photographers to Sharjah and Dubai, including Pulitzer Prize winner Essdras Suarez, Florian Ledoux, and Ami Vitale just to name a few. Locally and regionally, three photographers are taking part: Emirati photographers Amer Alali and Rashed Almazrouei and Saudi Arabian photographer Ziyad Alarfaj.

'Northwest Passages' by Jessica Dimmock on display in Sharjah at one of Xposure's outdoor exhibition spaces. Courtesy of Xposure and the artist

Hundreds of images will be on display at 46 indoor exhibitions, as well as five outdoor ones. There will also be three Xposure Contest/Award exhibitions showing 69 images and seven short films chosen from 67 entrants, presenting a unique opportunity for enthusiasts of the medium to see works by both well-established and emerging photographers from across the world.

Festival's main themes

Organized by Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB), the selection of photos has been divided into four main themes - Xpose Art, Xpose Emotion, Xpose Adventure and Xpose Life. From climate change to fashion, politics to nature and wildlife and human disasters as well as natural calamities, the exhibitions will cover the gamut of life on this planet through pictures that will provoke and give the visitor a fresh perspective on life and the workings of the human mind.

In the lead up to the event, an online and print campaign ran imagining a life without images. The event is on until Sunday, September 22.

To learn more about the full programme, visit xposure.ae.

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