Dubai: Who says staying home won’t help unleash your creativity?
Now you can zoom in on the details of your home life and showcase your brilliance in taking photos by joining Xposure International Photography Festival #HomeCaptured contest.
The competition runs during the entire period people are asked to stay home to curb COVID-19 and it offers US$ 1,750 (Dh6,388) in prizes every week.
“It is open to anybody and everybody across the world and we invite shutterbugs to use their artistic skills to capture the beauty and uniqueness of everyday moments at home,” said Tariq Saeed Allay, director of Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB).
“While a forced downtime is being experienced by a majority of the world’s population worldwide as we try our best to keep ourselves and our families safe in the wake of a global pandemic, we can embrace this quiet period by paying attention to the little details our otherwise busy lives wouldn’t allow us to relish.
“With the #HomeCaptured global online contest, Xposure is presenting both hobbyists and professionals an opportunity to pursue their passion for photography, even from home,” Ally further explained.
He underlined: “Sharjah’s continuous endeavour has been to nurture talent and encourage creativity across artistic genres. We hope the competition is taken up as an active creative pursuit by many as we open our eyes to new, unique and interesting stories from people’s homes around the world.”
“This can be a decorative item you may not have noticed before; an adorable peculiarity of your pet; the way your child moves around at home; how the eyes of a loved one crinkles as they laugh; or the sudden silence or infrequent movement on the empty streets outside, which bustled with activity not so long ago. In this competition, your subject is only limited by your imagination,” Allay added.
Contest mechanics and prizes
Photographs can be taken using any camera people have at their disposal. All entries must abide by a few simple rules. They need to be uploaded at https://stayhome.xposure.ae/ in JPG format, and must be use the hashtag #HomeCaptured
Photos must be taken within the confines of your home or looking out from a window. Contestants can submit one image in each 24-hour period over the duration of the contest.
Photos taken from April 1, 2020 onwards are eligible to enter the contest.
An independent jury will evaluate entries on a weekly basis, based on a five-score system. Images will be judged based on composition, technical quality and lighting. Winners will be notified by email and their images will be published on Xposure’s StayHome website as well as on all Xposure socials.
Top two entries will be announced every week and win cash prizes of US$ 1,000 (Dh3,650) and $750 (Dh2,738) for first and second places respectively.
According to the organisers, the competition does not fall under the Xposure International Photography Awards, and requires a separate registration and login procedure to be completed by all entrants.
The Xposure International Festival of Photography is an initiative organised to celebrate and enrich the field of photojournalism in the UAE and the region.
#Home Challenge
Sharjah Police and the Child Safety Department (CSD), an affiliate of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA), launched the #HomeChallenge competition to encourage children and youth to take on any challenge of their liking, so they can have fun, continue learning and gaining new skills while they are restricted to their homes due to the coronavirus crisis.
Children have been invited to challenge themselves in the arts, science, sports, indoor games and entertainment, religion, amongst many other abilities. They need to record a video of themselves taking the challenge and post it on their socials, mentioning @childsafetyuae and @shjpolice and using the hashtag #HomeChallenge.
They can also invite their friends and relatives to join the challenge, to spread enthusiasm and positivity in their peers and community members.
The competition was launched through a video posted by Sharjah Police and CSD which was widely shared on social media platforms. The video showed a group of children, each completing a challenge they set for themselves, from planting flowers and taking care of them, playing sports, building a massive Lego structure, to learning new recipes and languages.
Hanadi Saleh Al Yafei, Director of CSD, said: “The competition was launched to encourage children to build their creative capacities and life skills which requires them to think outside the box. The #HomeChallenge brings an opportunity to do just that. The challenge will assist parents too to find new entertaining activities for their children at home and help strengthen familial bonds.”
Al Yafei added that the challenges must be carried out in a safe environment with parental supervision.
