If you are passionate about photography and have been keeping away your pictures in a hard drive, waiting for the right contest to recognise your talent, the time is now. Here are some photo contests that might interest you. And for those who are not into clicking pictures, but don’t mind admiring the works of others, GN Focus brings you some interesting exhibitions that will please your eyes.
Fabled marble
The Italian town of Carrara, home to some of the world’s best marble, is the subject of Bertram Kober’s new series, Crossroads #12, currently on show at the Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi’s Light Box Gallery. The German artist, a 2011 Venice Biennial winner, photographs objects and things that people created and used and left behind as traces, as the residue of lives lived.
The show offers the chance to immerse into the unique site of the Carrara marble quarries with all its beauty and drama, where since antiquity, this special and luxurious material for artwork and construction has been excavated. Carrara, he says, is a symbol for clean, innocent work, describing the marble as the most complete, positive and spotless natural material. For the project, he says, he wanted to explore the price nature has to pay for this fabulous material.
The exhibition runs until September 7.
A passion for travel
Rolling greens and wide landscapes jostle for space with intimate portraits of people at work in a new show in Abu Dhabi. Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara is currently showcasing some of the finest travel photographs, courtesy of Lonely Planet, publishers of the famous guidebooks. The show, A Taste of Travel, is part of the Anantara Art Series and displays a collection of images sent in for the organisation’s recent photography competition.
Works featured include photographs by Pete Seaward, Matt Munro, Mark Read and Philip Lee Harvey.
The show runs until July 6.
Tales of the UAE
Popular eatery More Café has launched a summer photography competition with the theme, Your UAE Story in Four Images, Gulf Photo Plus announced on its website. The event is open to all UAE residents aged 13+ in two age categories. The teen winner (13–17) will receive a Leica V-Lux40 camera and the adult (18+) category winner will receive a Nikon D7000 Kit with 18-105mm lens. Photos more than 2MB must be uploaded at gulfphotoplus.com/more before September 13 with a 150-word story about the images. The best entries will be exhibited in October for public judging, after which winners will be named.
The deadline is September 13
Eye on the emirate
Sharjah Art Foundation has called for photographs of the emirate, including its central and eastern regions for a photographic exhibition titled Vantage Point Sharjah, set to take place from September 7 to December 7. The deadline for application is July 6, and the exhibited photographs will be selected from applications to the open call. Individuals of all nationalities residing in the UAE are welcome to participate. Each candidate can submit up to six photographs and should include a short story or description as captions or each photograph.
Application forms are available at www.sharjahart.org
— GN Focus Report
