From left: Hasan Jameel, Abdulaziz Al-Harbi, Abdul Rahman Aldkheini, Mayor of Jeddah Dr. Hani Abu Ras, Yusuf Al-Jabri, Mohammed Bahrawi, co-founder and director of Arabian Wings, and Najlaa Felemban, founder of Arabian wings, at the inaugration of the art exhibition of Bab Rizq Jameel Photography Award 2012 at “The Gallery” in Jeddah Saturday. — SG photo Syeda Amtul Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Dr. Hani Abu Ras, Mayor of Jeddah, inaugurated an art exhibition of Bab Rizq Jameel Photography Award 2012, which was organized in cooperation with the Arabian Wings for Fine Arts at “The Gallery” Saturday. At the 21-day exhibition, which kicked off Sunday, visitors will get to admire the works of the top 20 photographers including the three winners of the Bab Rizq Jameel Photography Award 2012. Yusuf Al-Jabri walked away with the first prize of SR30,000 followed by Abdul Rahman Aldkheini and Abdulaziz Al-Harbi, who won SR15,000 and SR10,000 respectively. Congratulating the winners and Bab Rizq Jameel, Abu Ras said: “If we organize such contests or exhibitions in the Kingdom, it will encourage and motivate our young people to participate on an international level.” The objective of the contest, which was organized for the third year in a row, was to enhance the talent of Saudi photographers and introduce them to conceptual photography, a technique adopted by international photographers at large for many years. Around 225 photographers had sent their applications with their works, out of which only 81 were selected by a panel of five professional judges: professional photographers Abdulrahman Alhasani, Khalid Bin Afif and Dr. Hamdy Mehelba, Kholoud Attar, CEO of Design magazine and Dalya Islam, owner of Maddei Red, an Art Consultancy. The judges further scrutinized the works of the participants and selected 20 exceptionally creative photographs for display at the exhibition, belonging to Al-Jabri, Aldkheini, Ashwaq Darraj, Mohammed Al-Badrani, Majid Engawi, Samah Al-Amuodi, Wael Al-Sulimani, Ayat Mohammed, Eshraq Al-Juhani, Raed Al-Lehiyana,Tariq Khoja, Reem Al-Mazroua, Tasneem Samarkandi, Ali Al-Khermi, Razaz Khurshid, Ziad Khader, Awad Al-Fahhad, Hatem Al-Matrafi, Barghash Al-Barghash. Admiring the works of all the participants, the judges said it was extremely difficult for them to narrow their search down to just a few because the works of all the photographers were phenomenal. The art supervision committee included artist Mohammed Bahrawi; the co-founder and director of Arabian Wings, Najlaa Felemban; the founder of Arabian Wings, Sultan Mandily, Saud Mahjoob and Kamal Banjar. Fady Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, president of ALJ Community Initiatives (ALJCI) International said: “We are all very proud that we have this phenomenal event in Saudi Arabia and it will be the corner stone for the new art movement in Saudi photography scene.” The jury stated that the works of Saudi artists will improve with time as they need to learn techniques and explore the subjects. However, taking into account that this was the first experience for the talented photographers, the jury members considered the outcome as excellent. AbduRahman Al Fihaid, the executive director of Bab Rizq Jameel, said: “The main idea behind organizing this contest was to create job opportunities in the field of art and to prepare the Saudi artists to compete on an international level, taking into consideration that the idea of conceptual photography is new not only in Saudi Arabia, but in all Arab countries. “The prizes will be employment contracts for the first three winners to take photographs of various Bab Rizq Jameel programs.” Mohammed Bahrawi, the co-founder and director of Arabian Wings, said: “This was the first time in which Saudi photographers took part in a conceptual photography event, it is truly new for Arab photographers, and many of the Saudi photographers are not familiar with conceptual photography.” The exhibition is sponsored by the Mayor of Jeddah.
