The winners with HE Dr al-Kuwari and other dignitaries at the award ceremony. PICTURE: Thajuddin
The Al-Thani Award for Photography, the results of the 2013 edition of which were announced on Wednesday evening, is on its way to become the world’s largest annual salon of international photographic art. The theme was “Discover the World”.
A deep love of photographic art and the wish to communicate with people around the globe beyond racial and cultural borders through the universally appreciated photographic language encouraged Sheikh Saoud bin Mohamed bin Ali al-Thani to expand the contest from a small regional event founded in 2000 to a worldwide activity in 2013.
The contest has as its partners The International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP), Photographic Society of America and Qatar Photographic Society.
To encourage photographers from around the globe to enter their best and most innovative images, the Grand Prix currently is endowed with $30,000, plus a special edition Leica M6 camera, which were won by Robert Fulton from Scotland for his ethereal landscape frame, “Winter trees”.
l In the international awards category, the first awards went to the following entries: Digital files – FIAP gold medal and $4,000 - Yuri Pustovoy (Russia) for “The way to home” and DDiArte (Ze Diogo and Diamantino Jesus) from Portugal for “Apollo”; Colour prints – FIAP silver medal and $3,000 - Saelan Wangsa (Indonesia) for “The adventure” and Yoga Pratama (Indonesia) for “Stranger from paradise”; and Monochrome prints – FIAP bronze medal and $2,000 - Achmad Munasit (Indonesia) for “Relax” and Lai kam Moon Ken (Hong Kong) for “Photo to Jack”.
l Qatar awards, first: Digital files - FIAP gold medal and $3,500 – Mahmoud El Achi for “Crossing the Universe” and Mohamed al-Thani for “DSC 9725”; Colour prints – FIAP silver medal and $2,500 - Uus Gumilar for “Bedoin” and Shadi Nassri for “Desert night”; and Monochrome prints – FIAP bronze medal and $1,500 – Hussein Alshafai for ‘Sport’ and Aref Hussain for “Good bye”.
l Middle East awards, first: Digital files – FIAP gold medal and $2,500 – Abdulla al-Kandari (Kuwait) for “Like a boss” and Abdullah Hamoud al-Nassar (Saudi Arabia) for “No title”; Colour prints – FIAP gold medal and $1,500 – Yousef al-Masoud (Saudi Arabia) for “Prophet Ibrahim” and Abdulaziz al-Asousi (Kuwait) for “The king”; and Monochrome prints – FIAP gold medal and $1,000 – Ali al-Zaidi (Kuwait) for “My future” and Maria Cardenas (the UAE) for “Exquisite”.
The six Al-Thani gold medals for Qatar entries went to Anmar Faris for “Marina boat” (second), Mohamed Abdelwahid for “Indonesian man” (third), Emmad Elhag for “The gate” (fourth), Eissa Abdullah Kandrani for “Dark sea” (fifth), Torsten Spiller for “Ground fog in West Bay” (sixth) and Abdulkhalek Bakir for “The two friends” (seventh).
There are other seven categories of the award as well. The Grand Prix winner and the international awards winners were invited to Doha for the award function, which had HE the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Dr Hamad bin Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari as the chief guest.
