HIPA 2025 – International Photography Award

HIPA 2025 – International Photography Award is now open for entries!

HIPA 2025 – International Photography Award : The Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA) continues its new season opening a new award building on a nine-year tradition of inspiring artistic and intellectual talents to propagate the true spirit of photography and highlight its crucial role in the creation of a culture, as well as giving recognition to innovators worldwide.

➜ Short description

After nine seasons of Hamdan International Photography Award and inspiring artistic and intellectual talents to propagate the true spirit of photography, as well as giving recognition to innovators worldwide, HIPA is ready to open its new call for entries for 2025.

The Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA) is an international photography award, founded in 2011 under the patronage of crown prince of Dubai sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid bin Mohammed al Maktoum. The Award encourages photographers to share their craft and demonstrate excellence in what is now one of the most coveted Awards in the world.

This year, the main theme of the HIPA contest is POWER.

Power can be defined as a complex and multi-faceted force that has been a source of pride and honour throughout history. It is a fundamental human desire, difficult to fully capture due to its broad scope and diverse meanings. Power drives change and transformation - an engine for progress. It can also inspire or instill fear, making it a dynamic and influential force in human life.

Organiser invite photographers from around the world to explore and capture the concept of power through artistic, technical and/or human perspectives. This category welcomes all forms of photography including aerial, photojournalism, and even abstract, to highlight the philosophical and aesthetic dimensions of power.

Other categories are:

➜ Sports Photography
➜ Portfolio (Story-Telling)
➜ General (Colour and Black & White)
➜ Drone (video)

This season, we are also introducing the ‘Drone (Video)’ category, in recognition of these specialised tools that have enhanced the creators’ artistic control and produce exceptional ideas that have shaped the photography industry and influenced various fields.

The ’Sports Photography’ category has now become a permanent category due to popular demand. This dynamic category celebrates sports enthusiasts who skillfully capture the energy, drama and spirit that make sports thrilling to watch - and even more exciting to photograph.

For the ninth consecutive season, the ‘Portfolio’ category continues to thrive in the competition, showcasing great works from photographers that must create a powerful, unified series that engage and connect the hearts and minds of the audience in a way a single photograph cannot. The ‘General’ Category (Colour and Black & White) offers photographers a limitless platform to unleash their creativity and explore new artistic horizons without boundaries or constraints.

HIPA’s appointed judging panel shall assess and determine the winning Photo(s)/Video(s).The results, prizes and the winners will be announced in a public ceremony.

➜ Submission requirements:

➜ Submitted Photo(s) must be in JPEG format, with high quality and resolution, of a minimum 5MB in size, the minimum of the longest edge should be no less than 2000 pixel and the quality no less than 300dpi and to be suitable for publication.

➜ In the Portfolio category, participants must submit 5 to 10 photographs that together tell a unified story.

➜ Who may enter?

The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over.

➜ Prize:

The Grand Prize of USD $200,000 will be awarded to one winner from any category this season, not limited to the main theme. There are THREE Special Awards for this season: The ‘Photography Appreciation Award’, The ‘Photography Content Creator Award‘ and the ‘HIPA Photographer of the Year Award‘.