It appears, Dubai is fast becoming a photography capital of the world.
The fourth season of HIPA Awards and celebration has brought the best photography crowd into the city, and it appears, this is going to continue in the years to come.
When HIPA announced the names of special prizes, I was perhaps more excited than the people at HIPA themselves. The awarded photographers – Scott Kelby and Sebastiao Salgado – were people whom I have followed online for a long time, listened to them talk on videos or have read what they have written about photography in length. While Scott Kelby has helped a great deal in the way I approach processing images and see the end product, Sebastiao Salgado has been an inspiration in thinking beyond the existing boundaries, think really big and work towards making them happen. A possibility of being able to meet them was an excitement sufficient to be in Dubai. Being part of the award ceremony was one step higher than excitement.
I did get a chance to have a brief conversation with Kelby during the award evening on the 16th. Unfortunately, Salgado wasn’t able to make it to the ceremony. But what I missed in meeting Salgado and perhaps hear him say a few things in Duabi was made up by listening to Reza Deghati, veteran photojournalist with National Geographic. Yesterday evening, Reza spoke in length about how photography can change the world and on his own endevour to improve the lives of refugees from around the world, especially middle east, through photography. His works have had remarkable effect in bringing change to suffering people. Reza spoke passionately, as he mentioned how, in one of his project, he helped reunite more than 3,000 children with their parents in Africa through photography. He stressed in working towards helping others, with a touching example of how the extended hand can often come back to you with equal empathy in the hour of need. He spoke at length about his dangerous encounters around the world as he photographed conflict, and spending time with Ahmad Shah Massoud and Yasser Arafat. His speech, as much as his works, is inspirational enough to make everyone pack their cameras and leave home!
The day before Reza’s talk, HIPA awards ceremony was a gala event that unfolded in Dubai International Financial Center on a grand stage with brilliant performances and extraordinary visuals. The grand prize winner of the 4th season was Anurag Kumar from Delhi.
It was a moment that was a mix of both pride and humbling feeling for me to receive the 1st prize in this year’s primary category – ‘Life in Colour’.
And below is the image for which the award was granted.
I would like to thank HIPA for this award, and for bringing so many amazing photographers in one platform.
In this moment, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to my journey in photography, which is a very large set of people of various backgrounds who have touched me and helped me in a many ways, be it encouraging the journey, assisting me in the journey, being part of the journey, being mentors in person or from a distance through online medias or by becoming subjects to my camera.
It is both an honour and a privilege to be part of HIPA 4th season awards.
More information
Here is wishing everyone a very happy 2015. May the new year bring you a lot of happiness, many exciting journeys and experiences that you will remember fondly.
Looking back at the year that went by, it has been for me a year of many journeys and a diverse set of experiences. I started 2014 by travelling high in the Himalayas in bitter cold weather, experiencing temperatures as low as -25C in landscapes that are so beautiful that heart aches to leave them behind. On the contrast, I spent a month in the low-lands of Myanmar and Cambodia exploring some of the wettest regions of South East Asia. SEA charmed me with its vibrant cultural landscape–friendliest of smiles, genial monks, green carpets of rice paddies and a life that is still waking up to the rat-raced modern culture.
When it comes to cherished interactions, I spent time with shepherds of the highlands of Ladakh, lived with monks in high Himalayas of Himachal, gazed on air bubbles and crystalline formations in a frozen lake, interacted with farmers in rural Bhutan, picked sweet-peas in a Himalayas farm, watched the sun come up over a mirror-like calm lake amidst the mountains, sat in a carpet of wildflowers overlooking snow-peaks, watched ebullient young monks play joyfully with little concern for the world, flew on two brand new airlines that were born this year in India, enjoyed some beach-side holidays, sat pillion with great anxiety riding a two-wheeler on a train track, walked on the world’s longest teak-bridge which has an air of romance all over its length, made friends with a talkative monk, attempted to learn the heart of an elephant and felt the emotions of a caring mahout, flew on some tiny aircrafts and walked careless on a tiny airport tarmac, went on day-long boat journeys on rivers, met and chatted with the friendliest folks I have ever seen in the countrysides of South East Asia, witnessed nature’s slow and persistent dominance over man made edifices, lived in the remotest parts of India, got first hand insights into lives of people in the farthest parts of the country, watched an incredible event that is often dubbed as the ‘festival of festivals’, saw and learned how they make salt and spent the last few days of the year basking in some glorious sunrises and sunsets among gentle camel and colourful dancers in the deserts.
I couldn’t have asked more, but more did come my way. In the end of all these journeys, I came back a wee bit wiser, as people whom I encountered all along the way taught me a lesson unknowingly to them – that one doesn’t need all these experiences to be happy and yet, one must search and wander to learn this lesson.
—
Here is a collection of images and experiences I accumulated in the last twelve months.
In January 2014, I was travelling through Changthang Plateau in the highlands of Ladakh. It was a relatively mild winter, and yet, the evening hour temperatures were in the order of ten degrees below zero. Just before sunset, we arrived at a grassland coveted by ChangPa shepherds. It was time for the sheep and goats to return home from the day of grazing. A thousand or more of them kicked up dust from the parched land and until the air gathered the colour of earth. Last rays of the sun bounced off from the thick wooly hide of the sheep even when the setting sun was momentarily subdued by thick dust. The scene of a thousand sheep walking home in the evening light was an extraordinary moment.
There is much happening in the next six months. I will begin my journeys in a few days in the Himalayas, followed by travels in several parts of North India and Asia. Here is the general plan at this time. Would you have any interesting travel tips in any of these places that I should check out?
Spiti Himalayas. I will be in Lahaul & Spiti next week, leading a photography tour for Darter. I will be travelling through magnificent Chandratal Lake, Kaza and several high-altitude villages in Spiti Valley. Besides leading tours for Darter, I am also hoping to do some personal photography projects in the area.
A few short trips. I may be retracing my last year’s visit to the waterfalls of the western ghats after coming back from Spiti. I would also be getting to spend some time in Kochi soon after.
Myanmar and Cambodia. I am excited to be leading this photography tour to Myanmar. My visit to Myanmar last year was an eye-opener about the country. It is well accessible, easy to travel through than what it was a decade ago. And it is welcoming visitors and opening up for more travellers year after year. I am looking forward to going back again, now with a bunch of photography enthusiasts. Travelling Myanmar is a great pleasure.
