Instagram celebs to lead tours for aspiring artists

Catering to the rising popularity of food art, the Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) is organising free photo tours and food styling sessions for the first time.The festival, organised by the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) and Katara Hospitality, invites aspiring artists to feast their eyes and camera lenses on the colourful and varied food displays found throughout the 11-day festival.Festival-goers interested in honing their food styling and photography skills can join Mohamed al-Ansari, a Qatari food stylist with close to 50,000 followers, who will lead a second tour around the QIFF grounds tomorrow between 4pm and 6pm.In his session, he will focus on teaching local food and beverage business owners the best food photography techniques.The tour will be featured on his personal Instagram account, @mohadalansari and can be followed on the hashtags #QIFFPIC.“QIFF is an annual event that celebrates Qatar’s vibrant food and culture scene. We are always looking for new ways to create engaging experiences for festival-goers,” QTA festivals and tourism events director Mashal Shahbik said. “The growing popularity of photo sharing applications renders QIFF a fertile ground for cultivating local creative talents by working with the growing community of smartphone photographers,” he added.Al-Ansari’s first tour at QIFF took place last Thursday.The celebrity said: “Photography for me is about telling a story in an image. I first started photography as a hobby and learned many tricks with hours of experimenting and persistence.”“Through these sessions at QIFF, I would like to encourage aspiring photographers to come out and express themselves artistically while sharing tips that can enhance their skills and give them more confidence in their craft,” he pointed out.He added that followers can use the hashtags to enter a QIFF food photography competition for a chance to win an inclusive overnight stay for two, courtesy of the Ritz Carlton.On the concluding day of QIFF, Qatar Phone Art (@phoneartqatar) will also lead a photo walk around the festival grounds between 2pm and 6pm.The recently formed group of local artists and photographers will capture QIFF’s final day and post photo stories on their individual Instagram account.The festival’s signature Cooking Theatre previously featured a special session with Doha-based Instagram celebrity Majdouline al-Deweik, who prides herself in taking collective food experiences seriously and has garnered more than 20,000 followers on her Instagram account @thesquaretable.