Success of Xposure Scholarship Programme Adds Heft to Photography Festival’s Global Appeal

The Sharjah International Photography Festival, Xposure 2017, being organised by Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB) from November 22-25 at Expo Centre Sharjah, has revealed that this year’s highly sought-after ‘Timothy Allen Photography Scholarship’ attracted more than 1,000 entries from 56 countries.

The enormous response adds even more weight and expectations to Xposure as one of photography’s most influential events, garnering global interest from the medium’s leading experts. Out of the 1,076 nominations, only the best five have been chosen to take part in an exclusive 10-day residency programme, including an intensive location workshop with multi-award winning travel photographer Timothy Allen. The winning images would be prominently exhibited in a dedicated space during the 4-day festival.

The scholarship is an Xposure initiative launched during the first edition of the festival last year to promote the importance of professional training in photography and to develop the winners’ technical and artistic skills. As an increasingly significant industry event, Xposure provides the winners with an opportunity to create their own path to international recognition.

Timothy Allen started his career in photography after years of studying zoology, conducting ecological research in the field and visiting hundreds of cities and islands around the world. He has received many of the world’s most prestigious photography awards including Travel Photographer of the Year – seven times winner; Picture Editors' Award – six times winner; Press Photographer of the Year Award; and Arts Photographer of the Year.

The talented photographers who will be taking part in the scholarship programme include Thomas Cytrynowicz from Schiltigheim, France for ‘A Dance of Life and Death’; Christopher Roche from London, United Kingdom, ‘Descent of the Ukukus’; Magdalena Konik from Nysa, Poland, ‘Above Home’; Ana Caroline de Lima from Santo André, Brazil ,‘Peruvian Highlands’; and Priska Seisenbacher from Vienna, Austria, ‘Cultural Beauty and Compulsion’

Xposure 2017 includes a selection of 35 training workshops by award-winning international photographers, including location photography, street photography, aerial photography, product photography, underwater photography and photo archiving, among other genres.

The four-day event will also include 27 photo fairs held across different venues in Sharjah and Dubai by 32 of the world’s most celebrated photographers. The festival will also host 25 seminars, lectures and live stage events revealing the incredible power and influence of photographs in transcending linguistic barriers and geographical boundaries.