Photography competition winners celebrate Saudi landscapes and stories
'Hayy Aynak — In a New Light' and 'When the Fog Whispers' were opened by the Visual Arts Commission at Hayy Jameel on Wednesday.
The exhibitions will run until May 25 in conjunction with the third Kingdom Photography Award, which began earlier this year.
The award has become a prominent platform for capturing the spirit of Saudi Arabia through the lens of its creative talents.
This exhibition celebrates the Kingdom's natural beauty, cultural richness and artistic innovation through photography.
The competition invites artists to explore a specific region of the Kingdom through their work.
Dina Amin, CEO of the Visual Arts Commission, told Arab News: 'The idea is to start to create through the lens of different photographers and their creative process, a body of work that captures the richness of the landscapes of Saudi Arabia through different languages of expression, different creative processes, different types of photography and storytelling to really create a visual odyssey almost through the landscape, the people and the environment of Saudi Arabia today.'
She added: 'If you look in today's exhibition, you'll see some of the photographers have chosen to look at natural environment, landscape. Others have chosen to look at population and populated environments, so to speak, whereas others are really looking at tradition and history. So, with each engagement, we start to have this beautiful journey.'
The 'Hayy Aynak' exhibition presents the winning works from the third running of the award, which received more than 1,300 submissions and awarded a total of SR400,000 in prizes.
The exhibition celebrates the aesthetics and diverse landscapes of the Kingdom — from the buzz of urban life to the stillness of the desert.
An international jury evaluated the submissions and selected the most compelling and meaningful stories based on creativity, technical proficiency and the narrative power of visual storytelling.
The second exhibition, 'When the Fog Whispers,' takes visitors on a personal and emotional journey to the Asir region, long a source of artistic inspiration thanks to its mist-covered mountains and deep-rooted cultural heritage.
Five artists were selected to create special photography projects that reflected their relationships with the Asir landscape. The resulting works are visually captivating and rich in reflection, documentation and human connection.
Mohammed Sumji, the curator of the third outing of the award, told Arab News about the experience of bringing photographers together to explore the distinctive landscape of Asir.
'We selected the region of Asir, and the five photographers that we selected were known to me, and I basically selected them based on their potential to make works especially around Asir because they practice dealing with either stories of people's lived experiences or landscapes. I'm very happy with how it's come out.'
Saudi photographer, Abdulmajeed Al-Ruwaidan, chose the theme 'Roadside Stations' for his submission, documenting the architecture of old Saudi gas stations before they disappeared under modern development.
Elham Al-Dossary, also from Saudi Arabia, chose the theme 'Crossing Asir,' blending her late father's archive as a photographer with contemporary images to create a visual narrative that meditates on memory and transformation.
For the past two years, Ilham has been helping her father archive his work, and a small part of that archive is dedicated to his time in Asir.
'He has an archive at home that dates back to the 1960s and '70s,' she told Arab News.
She continued: 'The archive became a way to view Asir through a personal and familial lens.
'There's a connection between me and my father — through the land, through the people — and I also wanted to explore more stories, not just about him, but about life there and the areas we photographed, like Al-Habla and others.'
Mohamed Mahdy, from Egypt, titled his collection 'When the Land Loves You.' It is a poignant portrayal of the emotional connection between the people of Asir and their land, captured through nostalgic and heartfelt imagery.
Lina Geoushy, also from Egypt, called her collection 'Daughters of Al-Qatt.' Hers is a colorful celebration of the women who sustain the traditional Al-Qatt Al-Asiri artform, recognized by UNESCO. Her photographs honor this living tradition.
She told Arab News: 'This photo is especially important to me because it's in this very rich village, Rijal Almaa … it plays on the idea of the inside and the outside, the internal spaces or imaginaries and the landscape; the lady in the photo is Sharifa Mahdy, who's been practicing this art for 25 years, and she learnt it from the famous Fatima Abou Gahas.
'Apart from it being a life tradition, Qatt art has healing powers … it gives them confidence and positivity and it's sort of like a refuge for them.'
Hicham Gardaf, from Morocco, created a collection titled 'The Road to the Juniper.' It is a meticulously crafted visual journey through juniper forests, where nature becomes a silent cultural archive filled with untold stories.
He told Arab News: 'I imagined this massive juniper tree with roots spreading across Asir — like routes we travel, all leading back to this one tree that connects the land, the people and their stories.'
Throughout the exhibition period, the Visual Arts Commission will also host a series of interactive workshops and panel discussions featuring local and international experts.
These sessions aim to create space for dialogue, skill development and knowledge exchange, enriching visitors' experience and fostering artistic and professional growth across various fields of the visual arts.
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