MENA Newswire: Canon Middle East and Turkey, the official printing and imaging provider of Expo 2020 Dubai, declared the winners of its much-talked about sustainability themed competition Moments that Matter, in an announcement. Held in collaboration with the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA), the competition was launched with an intent to drive meaningful change and sustainable action through the power of visual storytelling at Expo 2020 Dubai last year.
In alignment with the Expo 2020 theme, Canon invited photography enthusiasts to participate in ‘Moments that Matter’ competition by capturing moments that define humanity’s relationship with the planet and highlight sustainable development issues. Participants in the EMEA region were encouraged to submit five images across any of four categories critical to global sustainability issues: Economic, Human, Environmental and Social. The entry categories were sub-divided into ‘Moments that make us’ (Environment), Moments that heal us (Human), Moments that save us (Social) and Moments that develop us (Economic).
The overall competition entries have been judged by an esteemed international panel of experts, including Fiona Shields, head of photography at Guardian News and Media Group; Kathy Moran, the deputy director of photography for National Geographic magazine; Aida Muluneh, Canon ambassador and founder and director of Addis Foto Fest; Brent Stirton, Canon ambassador and senior photographer at Getty Images, and Muhammed Muheisen, Canon ambassador, National Geographic photographer, Pulitzer prize winner and founder of Everyday Refugees.
Canon is pleased to declare Abbas Alkhamis from Saudi Arabia as the grand winner chosen from across all four categories for its sustainability focused competition, aimed at raising awareness about the planet and its people. He will receive the grand prize of USD $8000 award and a prestigious opportunity to be part of the award ceremony held at Expo 2020 Dubai for using the medium of visual storytelling to engage and influence people about sustainable development.
The grand winner along with winners from each category were selected unanimously by the esteemed panel of judges, however the People’s Choice Winner was open for public to cast their votes in order to determine the best participating photographer. As per popular opinion of the public, the People’s Choice Winner award goes to Mohamed Nageeb Nasr, who is originally from Egypt but now resides in Qatar. The other winners selected specifically for each category are as follows: Gabriel Jimoh from Nigeria is the official winner for the economic category Moments that develop us; Saif Khlaifat from Jordan is the official winner for the humanitarian category Moments that heal us; Anne-Marie Vermaat from Netherlands is the official winner for social category Moments that save us; Olga Timokhina from Spain as the official winner for the environmental category Moments that make us; The People’s Choice Award winner will take home Canon’s remarkable R5 camera along with the lens whereas winners from each category will be awarded a gold coin.
Commenting on the matter, Venkatasubramanian Hariharan, Managing Director, Canon Middle East and Turkey said, “It is an absolute delight to announce the winners of Moments that Matter competition – an inspiring initiative from Canon and Expo 2020 to encourage sustainable development through the medium of photography. We want to thank all the participants for investing their time and energy towards this brilliant cause-led initiative. We are also very grateful to all our distinguished panel of judges who came together to shed light on such an essential subject – sustainability in the context of different topics and shared their immense wealth of knowledge. Our endeavor through this competition was to highlight the significance of sustainability in all walks of life and the impact we can generate today by our thoughtful actions to create a better world for tomorrow.