(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) With a smartphone, anyone can become a photographer these days. But what about knowing photography as an art? Dubai is offering a chance for the public to know how to capture moments in frames like an artist.
Visit the Dubai Photo Exhibition, which features 868 museum-quality pictures taken by 129 photographers from 23 countries, including the UAE. The exhibition, held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and launched by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA), will run until Saturday at the Dubai Design District (d3).
What and when
> What: Dubai Photo Exhibition > Where: Dubai Design District (d3)> Timings: Thursday: 10am-10pm (2pm-5pm is ladies only), Friday : 10am-10pm, Saturday: 10am-8pm
> Participants: UAE, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA
The organisers of the event - which was opened for the public on Wednesday - said that they wanted Dubai to become the global hub of photography.
"(Our) ambition has always been to share the best of international photography with the UAE's community - it is an exceptional art form," said HIPA secretary general Ali bin Thalith.
"We want photography to have a home here (in Dubai).
According to Scott Gray, founder and managing director of World Photography Organisation, the aim of the exhibition "is to elevate the appreciation of photography as a collectible art."
"It is important for the medium (photography) to have a non-commercial environment to position it on a global scale," added Gray.
One of the featured photogra-phers at the exhbit is Egypt-born Canadian photographer Oscar Mitri who chronicled many of the UAE's historical junctures and landmarks - from the formation of the nation to the initial site of the Al Maqta Bridge in Abu Dhabi, to a group of men chatting and drinking in one of the first coffee shops in Dubai, to the old fortress in Fujairah.
The octogenarian lensman told Khaleej Times he took the vintage photos using his reliable Swedish Hasselblad camera but he also adapted to the change of times and he now click photos with his digital camera.
At the home front is Emirati photographer Moza Al Falasi who loves taking photos of horses. She said she started taking pictures as a reference for her paintings but she eventually fell in love with the camera.
Al Falasi added: "Everyone can now become a photographer because of smartphones. But the attention to details, the eyes, knowledge and passion for the craft are the qualities that will make one an artist-photographer."
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