Fatima Alzahra Shbair won the first prize in the category of “portfolio story telling” for chronicling the Gaza Strip under Israeli attack during the first 190 days of the conflict. Photo: hipa.ae

Sending a message to the conflict-hit West Asian region, the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday (November 12, 2024) gave its top photography award to Fatima Alzahra Shbair, a Palestinian photographer from the Gaza Strip.

With more than $200,000 prize money, the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) is the richest photography competition in the world that has recognised top talents from the field of photography for nearly one and half decades.

Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Shbair said she was born and grew up in Gaza’s Jabaliya city and started photography after being inspired by her grandmother who used to have cameras of her own.

“I don’t have the time to feel sad for any of the things that I have lost — like my home, relatives, memories, friends; and in fact my father passed away during this time as well. He was ailing for 15 years but over the last year we could not get the medicines that were necessary for him and he died in the same hospital while I was taking photographs of the people who were injured,” Ms. Shbair said after receiving the award for photos that depicted the bombed out remains of the Gaza Strip.

The 27-year old won the first prize in the category of “portfolio story telling” for chronicling the Gaza Strip under Israeli attack during the first 190 days of the conflict.

“For 190 days, they fought against illness, fear, and deprivation. Yet through telling the stories of others, the story teller realized they were also sharing their own – an intertwined account of survival and collective suffering,” the HIPA declared in recognition of Ms. Shbair’s work, who worked in the Gaza Strip as a photographer for the news agency Associated Press.

Ms. Shbair, who was evacuated to Cairo last summer, said, “Most of my family, brothers and others are in Gaza and it’s a daily battle to be in contact with them.”

Some of the gut-wrenching images by Ms. Shbair depicted bombings by Israeli aircraft, mass casualty incidents, and conditions of food scarcity caused by the conflict.  

Abdulrahman Zaqout, a Palestinian photographer from the Gaza Strip, won a merit medal for his work to record the famine in Gaza.

Sami Al Olaibi, a Syria-born civil engineer-turned-photographer, received the ‘HIPA Photographer of The Year” award for his images that highlight the potential of astrophotography in West Asia and especially the Gulf region.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Al Olaibi said the images of natural beauty of the region provide an alternative way to view the region.

This year, the HIPA gave its Grand Prize to China’s Liping Cao for his photograph of windmills towering over a dry riverbed, reminding the world about the urgent requirement for sustainable development.

Rahul Vishwanath Sachdev from Pune received the first prize in the general colour category and Ateeb Hussain from Kolkata received the third prize in the general black and white category.

Sri Lanka’s Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod received the general award in the same category.

(The correspondent is a guest at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award)