August competition focuses on photographs involving water and sees winners from Indonesia and Egypt
The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) has announced a total of five winners for the August edition of the monthly Instagram Photo Contest. ‘Water’ took center stage for the July competition under the hashtag #HIPAContest_Water, which saw submissions entered by a large number of Instagram photographers. Winning photographs have been posted on the official HIPA Instagram account @HIPAae with the winners receiving their respective ‘HIPA Recognition Awards’ in the coming days.
The Secretary General of HIPA, His Excellency Ali bin Thalith said, “The world we live in is 71% water, therefore the relationship humans and other creatures on earth have with water is quite interesting and well worth documenting. This is where creative photography comes in and we set out the challenge for our Instagram community to capture the best photographs involving and to submit them into our August Instagram contest. The result was an amazing set of photographs which in turn meant five fantastic winning photographs showcasing the visual beauty of water in very different forms. We congratulate our winners and wish them the very best for the future.”
Instagram photo contest winner Sofyane Efendi @SofyanePhoto whose stunning photo captures a moment of joy in the water between children of the Bajo fishermen tribe in Indonesia said, “This is my first time winning in HIPA’s Instagram Photo Contest and I am very honoured for the appreciation my photograph received in the judging process.” He continued by expressing that, “Winning a photography contest is a nice feeling, being able to find out the value of my photograph in the eyes of other photographers and people in general.” Efendi, who is a photographer by hobby, described photography as “unique” since it allows him to be able to “capture special moments and subjects that appear in front of me”. He concluded by saying that, “For me, personally, as long as I can still see the world with my own eyes, I will never stop taking photographs.”
Egyptian winner Hussein Al Shafai @hussein_alshafai whose photograph showed an elephant’s trunk transporting water up to the animal’s mouth said, “I captured this photograph whilst on safari in the Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania this past March.” Al Shafai, who is an award winning photographer revealed, “I have won many photography competitions in the past most notably with National Geographic Abu Dhabi in 2015 as well as contests in Qatar, Kuwait and Sharjah, but this competition felt very special as it was on Instagram and because of the large number of submissions taking part.” He finally thanked HIPA for “affording this opportunity to all photographers to be recognised.”
The theme for the September edition of the Instagram Photo Contest will be announced in the coming days on HIPA’s social media platforms.
Full list of Winners:
Agung Wibisono (@agung_wibi) of Indonesia

Sofyan Efendi (@sofyanephoto) of Indonesia

Hussein Al Shafai (@hussein_alshafai) of Egypt

Muhammad Iqbal (@ibal.photography) of Indonesia

Hendra Permana (@hapelinium) of Indonesia