National Geographic Abu Dhabi & Almarai Announce Winner of 2018 ‘Moments’ Competition

National Geographic Abu Dhabi (NGAD) and Almarai in partnership with Abu Dhabi Media, announced today the winner of the 8th edition of ‘Moments’, its annual regional photography competition to nurture aspiring photographers from around the Arab World at an unveiling event that took place at Burj Khalifa in Dubai and was attended by executives from National Geographic Abu Dhabi, Almarai, the photography community, members of the press as well as other distinguished guests.

Selected from among 40,000 entries and 64 short-listed photos, 22-year old Mohammed Al Baraway from Palestine has been named as winner of this year’s competition, in recognition for his talent and creative interpretation of this year’s theme, “Stories From Arabia.”  

This year’s competition witnessed a marked increase in the number of entries from Saudi Arabia, UAE and the rest of the GCC. 

The quality of this year’s entries, which captured the wide breadth and diversity of people’s stories, showing people engaged in their daily lives, at home, at work, at prayer as well as people engaged in more formal occasions, were praised by the judging panel which featured Tasneem Al Sultan, an award-winning Saudi photographer who is a professional National Geographic photographer and Mr. Hussam R. Abdulqader, CMO, Almarai. 

‘Moments’ is held in partnership with Almarai, the largest vertically integrated dairy company in the world and MENA’s largest food production and distribution company. The competition reflects Almarai’s commitment to foster Arab talent and provide them with the exposure and the possibility to be discovered on such a prominent platform.  

Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Hussam R. Abdulqader, CMO, Almarai, said, "We are so proud of this year’s Moments competition, which reflects our commitment to support talent across the region. Year on year, we are seeing photographs with increasingly powerful storytelling. Many of this year’s photographs are living portraits of the stories of the region, historical, cultural and social stories, but above all human stories. I believe many rival internationally renowned photographs.”

Abdulrahman Awadh Al Harthi, Acting Executive Director of Television & Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Radio Network at Abu Dhabi Media, said: “The launch and support of this competition is part of Abu Dhabi Media’s commitment to encouraging creativity and artistic expression within the community, particularly amongst the youth and providing them the platform to showcasing their technical skill and artistic potential.”

“The quality of the participating images from across the Arab World have exceeded all expectations this year, achieving the international standards set by the judging committee. This is a true testament that the competition has succeeded in reaching a wide spectrum of serious and highly committed photographers, ambitious to achieving the highest standards,” Al Harthi concluded. 

Sanjay Raina, General Manager and Senior Vice-President of Fox Networks Groups (FNG), said, "Congratulations to this year’s Moments Competition winner. We would like to also recognize all short-listed entries and every photography enthusiast from across the MENA region who entered in this year’s competition. At National Geographic Abu Dhabi, our mission is not only to share stories of exploration, adventure, travel and life through the lens of our photographers and cinematographers, but we want to encourage everyone to go out and be the explorer, the adventurer and the traveler who uncover their moments and bring their stories to the region and to the world. That’s what ‘Moments’ is all about. We are so proud to offer this platform that enables budding photographers to be discovered, while encouraging many others to pursue their Art, through giving them access to some the best mentors in the field, our National Geographic photographers.”

This year’s Grand Prize winner will have their photograph printed in the National Geographic magazine Arabic edition and is heading to a 10-day photography expedition trip to Italy, where he will be mentored by National Geographic expert photographers, in addition to $10,000 worth of photography equipment.  

In this year’s competition, each story will carry with it an authentic, detailed and complete description of the story behind the image, which aims to add geographic, social and cultural context to the photo. In addition, the integrity and ethics behind the photo will be of utmost value – keeping up with National Geographic’s Global standards of ensuring images accurately represents cultures, ecosystems, and wildlife.