New international photography gallery opens in Sharjah's Al Majaz Amphitheatre

Gallery X houses a collection of works by world-renowned photographers

Gallery X houses a collection of works by world-renowned photographers who have participated in the Xposure International Photography Awards. Courtesy Gallery X

A new permanent international photography gallery has opened in Sharjah, launching on the last day of the 2021 Xposure International Photography Festival.

Called Gallery X, the new venue is located at the Al Majaz Amphitheatre and houses a collection of works by world-renowned photographers who have participated in the Xposure International Photography Awards.

The gallery was officially inaugurated on Saturday the concluding day of the festival's fifth iteration.

The works in the gallery feature a broad range of styles and subjects, from portraits and still life to architectural and editorial photography. Some bring us closer to wildlife and highlight environmental concerns, while others tackle social and political issues.

A new exhibition will take place every month. All images on display will have been taken by photographers who have received prizes or been nominated in past iterations of the Xposure awards.

Gallery X will also hold long-term exhibitions, academic programmes and workshops aimed to attract international creatives, emerging talents, residents and local youth. The gallery is meant to be a place where all those who are interested in photography can come together, learn and share their insights on the art form.

The Xposure 2021 International Photography Festival, held at the Expo Centre Sharjah, began on Wednesday and exhibited 1,558 photographs from around the world by more than 400 acclaimed photographers.

Among this year's participants was Tariq Keblaoui, whose images were instrumental in showing the world what was happening in Beirut during the 2019 October revolution.

See more from this year's festival in the photo gallery below:

Also exhibited were works by Seagram Pearce, whose series The Tobacconist features portraits of a shopkeeper in Cape Town, South Africa.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Jordanian photographer Muhammed Muheisen also presented portraits of Zahra Mahmoud, a young Syrian refugee he met in Jordan in 2015.

Travel photographer Brian Hodges presented a snapshot of a school in Gulu, Uganda, a work which forms part Hodges’ efforts to raise awareness of the African Women Rising organisation, which provides education and micro-funding to girls and women in Uganda.

Participating photographers living in the UAE included Abdulla Albuqaish, who focuses on cityscapes; advertising and fashion photographer Ashok Verma; and landscape photographer Mohammad Kamal.