WORLD’S COOLEST WINTER
With everything it has achieved over the past 50 years, the UAE has become a destination for those who seek exceptional experiences in various fields, and so is its winter, which offers unique and amazing options.
This competition uses the light to reflect the most beautiful natural, cultural and recreational landmarks of the UAE, highlight its diverse tourism activities and encourage the public and photographers to share their experiences in a winter that is full of activities and events, and to take the most wonderful pictures that reflect the uniqueness and beauty of nature, and the UAE’s fertile environmental diversity that enriches experiences. It allows them to enjoy its warm winter, in deserts, plains, valleys and mountains, uniqueness of its sea view, diversity of its wildlife, and celebrate the faces, streets and society of the UAE with the creativity of their lenses.
All participants MUST fill their Instagram account details into their profiles at www.hipa.ae
After uploading the photos and portfolios into HIPA Members system, All participants MUST publish their participated photos on Instagram with the hash tag #WorldsCoolestWinter
Participants should submit their photographs based on the following categories:
You can participate with single photo under each category
The desert of the Emirates is not just sand dunes but a landscape that contains many rich details and interesting variations that delight the eye, please the mind and motivate photographers to write their signatures on the most beautiful photos.
The length of the UAE’s coastline is close to 730km, and its beaches, its terrain, its visual details and its lifestyle all attract the creative lens to capture its full variety.
The mountainous areas of the UAE always feature in the list of the most important tourist attractions in the country, and areas such as Hatta, Jebel Jais, and Khorfakkan are some of the most prominent mountain tourism centres.
They are part of the country's cultural heritage and contain a range of attractions for tourists, whether local or international. The valleys of Al-Hilu, Daba'a, Shis, Ghalila, Al-Wariah all come alive in a UAE winter.
The bird's-eye view offers another perspective on the UAE’s different regions and their distinct landscapes and features. The view from above highlights the subtle contrasts, the unique aesthetic features, and the broad, majestic sweep of the country.
You can participate with seven photos under each portfolio category
Having topped regional and international indices of well-being and quality of life, the UAE is a model as lived by its residents and visitors. They experience the essence of Emirati lifestyle daily, and the lens in the Portfolio category will creatively portray the UAE's values in tolerance, coexistence and unity
The wilderness of the Emirates, whose diverse landscapes and terrains provide a home to a rich array of animal, bird and plant life, seeks an expert eye and a patient lens to convey it to the world. The attentive will be able to capture the finest details of nature’s wonders.
Portrait photographers say they the face tells the full story of every individual, their successes and failures, their struggles and comforts, their hopes and anxieties. We are seeking a mosaic of faces that will represent the people of the UAE in all their emotions.
The fastest way to get to know the identity and culture of a country is to go out to its streets – discover its heritage, experience its present and anticipate its future. Life on the streets is a precise mirror of the world around us, reflecting society and capturing minute details and poignant moments. This category gives the photographer the freedom to express themselves through the world around them. Be inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Franck Robert and Paul Strand, who have realized how they represent street life in diverse and inspiring ways.
By participating, you understand, acknowledge and fully, irrevocably and unconditionally agree to abide and be bound by the following rules:
Single Photo Categories |
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Portfolio |
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John Stanmeyer is an award-winning photographer, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and educator, dedicated to environmental, social, and humanitarian issues that define our times. For more than 15 years, John has worked nearly exclusively with National Geographic magazine, producing over 19 stories, resulting in more than 14 covers. Between 1998 and 2008, John was a contract photographer for Time magazine. His years with Time resulted in 18 covers.
In 2001, John co-founded the prestigious VII Photo agency with six of the world’s leading photojournalists. Today VII represents more than 30 photographers from around the globe.
John is an Emeritus member of VII and is a member of Ripple Effects Images, a collective of artists and storytellers working on women, empowerment and equality. He is the recipient of numerous honours, including the prestigious Robert Capa Award, POYi Magazine Photographer of the Year, and the World Press Photo of the Year in 2014.
John lives with his dogs, Elfriede the Great Dane, and her sister, Eleanor, in the southern Berkshires of western Massachusetts.
Barbara Davidson is a three-time Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award-winning photographer and filmmaker. In 2020, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
A staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times until 2017, Barbara spent much of the past decade photographing women and children trapped in a culture of poverty and guns.
Barbara was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for her 2011 project, ‘Caught in the Crossfire’. She also received the 2011 Emmy Award for the same project – an intimate story on innocent victims trapped in the crossfire of deadly gang violence in Los Angeles. Her coverage of the San Bernardino mass shooting earned her a Staff Pulitzer Prize, in 2016, for Spot News.
While at the Dallas Morning News, her photographs were part of a team that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for breaking-news photography, for their coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She was twice named Newspaper Photographer of the Year by the Pictures of the Year International competition, first in 2006 and later in 2014.
Barbara's photography is a vehicle for relaying intimate stories of human suffering and resilience throughout the United States and internationally. In Iraq, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel, Gaza, Kenya and Somalia her images capture the essence of humanitarian crisis in the wake of war, while her photographs from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Sichuan earthquake in China reveal the horrific aftermath of natural disasters. Beyond war and natural disasters, she has travelled widely for news assignments in Yemen, Nigeria, Rwanda, Nepal and throughout the United States and Canada.
Since leaving the L.A. Times, Barbara has served as lead creative and director of Volvo’s SC60 Moments, an innovative campaign that used the car’s safety camera system to create a photo exhibition. Photographs from the shoot were curated in an exhibition which premiered in London. The accompanying ‘making of’ film has attracted more than 1.5 million views.
She was also the lead photographer and curator for the Global partnership to ‘End Violence Against Children’ where she documented the plight of children across three continents. Currently, Barbara is working on her Guggenheim Fellowship travelling across the country making portraits, using an 8x10 film camera, of gunshot survivors.
In addition to her photographic work, Barbara curated a photography column ‘reFramed’ for the Los Angeles Times. She mentors emerging photographers around the world.
She was born to Irish immigrants in Montreal, Canada, and graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography and film studies. She is a dual citizen of Ireland and Canada.
Started in photography in 1986 with film cameras, and my start with digital cameras was in 2002.
2007 was my leap into the world of professional photography and specifically in night and landscape photography
Profesional landscape and nightscape photographer since 2011
Landscape and nightscape instructor since 2012
Astro photographer since 2014
Nikon school instructor since 2016 NIKON Middle East and NIKON Asia partner since 2016
More than 200 workshops gave in many Arab and European countries
Winner of many international and local awards such as Hipa in drone category Competition, Al Thani Photography Competition 2011, 2012 and 2013, Sharjah Arab Image Competition, Austria International Competition, Norway International Competition and many competitions of the International Federation of Photography and the American Photographic Society
Judging in many Arab and international photography awards
Photography tour guide for landscape and astro photography in many European and Arab countries
Aerial space photographer using drones since 2014 and award winning in this field.
Representative of many international companies like NIKON, Leofoto and Lucroit
Desert |
Sea |
Mountains |
Wadi |
Emirates from above |
UAE in Your Eyes |
UAE Wildlife |
Faces from UAE |
UAE Street Life |