Two Omani entries honoured at Sony World Photography Awards

Muscat: Judges of the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards honoured two Omani photographers on Tuesday by commending their photographs as part of the top 50 in the world in the Open category.
Produced by the World Photography Organisation, the Sony World Photography Awards is the world’s most diverse photography competition.
The 11th edition saw a record-breaking 320,000 submissions by photographers from more than 200 countries and territories, presenting some of the world’s finest contemporary photography captured in the last year.
Huge diversity
The international range of entries displayed a huge diversity of imagery in terms of genre, style, and subject matter across the awards’ four categories: Professional, Open, Youth, and Student Focus.
In the Open category, which rewards the best single image across 10 categories, two Omani photographers have been commended and their works honoured as the top 50 entries in their categories.
Abdulla Al Mushaifri, an Omani national who now lives in Qatar, had “Landscape and Nature” as his category, while Hamed Al Ghanboosi, who lives in Muscat, focused on “Street Photography”.
Al Mushaifri took his image, titled “Milky Way Flower”, at Oman Wadi Bani Khaled, a natural resort and tourist spot for many foreign travellers. The multiple award-winning photographer is originally from Oman and permanently resides in Qatar.
He currently holds more than 1,300 international awards and 35 best author titles in various international competitions hosted by the FIAP and the Photographic Society of America.
His achievements include first place in the architectural division at the 2014 Masters Photography Awards, Best of the Best at the Olympic Photography Circuit, Greece, and first place and a gold medal at the ISF Biennale World Cup for photography in France.
About being commended, he said: “Being recognised in a contest such as the Sony World Photography Awards is absolutely a big achievement for any photographer who wants to add this success to his winning record.”
In the Street Photography category, Al Ghanboosi stood out with his image titled “Playing time”, a joyful shot of young children playing football at a playground in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan.
The works of the shortlisted and commended photographers will be exhibited at the Sony World Photography Awards 2018 Exhibition in London from April 20 to May 6. The Open category winners will be announced March 20, and the overall and Professional category winners will be revealed on April 19, 2018.