Ali Bin Thalith is a professional documentary film photographer hailing from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He is also the current Secretary General of the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA).
He holds diplomas in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (London Academy); French language and literature (University of Montpellier, France).
As an underwater photographer, he has participated in many underwater expeditions throughout Asia notably in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat Islands and Sipadan in Malaysia. In Sipadan, he also helped establish an educational program for children of the remote oceanic island.
As Secretary General of HIPA, Bin Thalith oversaw the fledgling competition in reaching photographers from 154 countries within its 4 years of existence. In November of 2013, he led a HIPA delegation to provide photography training and workshops to Syrian children at the Emirates-Jordan refugee camp in Northern Jordan. A series of photographs from the trip would later be exhibited and published as a book titled “Faces”.
One of his most notable works is the short documentary film titled “Gaza Diver”, which narrates the journey and hopes of a young amputee who travels to Dubai for medical treatment – thanks to a noble gesture by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai.
In 2014, Bin Thalith was awarded with the International Photographic Council’s (IPC) Professional Photographer Leadership Award for his career work in the field of photography. As a result, Bin Thalith became the first Emirati and Arab recipient of the prestigious accolade at the IPC Pro Luncheon at the United Nations in New York City.