‘Sony FotoArabia Picathon' Winners Make Their Nations Proud

Hundreds of submissions across MENA, with compelling visual stories capturing the essence of each country

Unique initiative to encourage talent and develop photography as an art form in the region

Dubai, UAE, April 16, 2016:  Sony has always been a leader in digital imaging, particularly professional videography, broadcasting and film making.  More recently Sony has invested heavily to push the envelope when it comes to professional photography and has been successful in step changing professional photography as we know it. Sony and FotoArabia, an online stock photography website specializing in Middle Eastern images, announced the winners of the highly successful ‘Sony FotoArabia Picathon’ yesterday at the grand finale in Doha. 

The Sony FotoArabia Picathon was launched in November 2015, inviting photographers to create short stories through their lens to capture the national pride of their country. Running from 1 November 2015 until 31 January 2016, the competition was open to residents in the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. 

“The Middle East is filled with rich, visual stories, only waiting to be told. We collaborated with Sony in a unique initiative to encourage Middle Eastern photographers. Our aim is to enable them to express what they see and help develop photography as an art form in the region,” said Mr Charbel Najem, Head of Content Acquisition at FotoArabia.

Mr Yuji Toyozumi, Head of Digital Imaging, Sony Middle East and Africa, commented: “The contest captured the imagination of photography enthusiasts across eight countries. We have selected the winners after reviewing over 750 submissions, and are honoured to have been able to showcase the beauty, creativity and immense talent in this region. We hope this encourages photography enthusiasts to engage with Sony cameras loaded with cutting edge technology to capture imagery with the level of detail and resolution that they never could have imagined.

Photographers could submit “stories” of up to 10 images that gave a compelling glimpse into their country and its lifestyle. These were assessed on aesthetic and technical merits. 

First prize winners are :

• Shuaib Husham Khattab from UAE
• Mohamed Nasr from Qatar
• Deepak Sudhakaran from Bahrain
• Salim Sulaiman Salim Al Adi from Oman
• Dimitri Alfredo N. M. Zarzar from Jordan

Second prize winners are :

• Beringuel Creer from UAE
• Kris Anthony Romblon from Qatar
• Mustafa Abdulhadi A Nabi Kadhem Abbas Ali from Bahrain

The prizes are:

• First prize – Sony α7R II, the world’s first back-illuminated 35mm full-frame CMOS image sensor with 42.4 megapixels takes image resolution, sensitivity (up to ISO 1024003) and speedy response to new heights
• Second prize –  Sony α6000, that has a quicker AutoFocus than a DSLR (0.06 seconds) and superb 24.3 MP picture quality.