The Kingdom Photography Award is proud to announce the Kingdom Photography Professional Grant winners for its inaugural edition. Aimed at established photographers across the globe, the grants are designed to enable the creation of the first-ever professional photographic archive of the region, and are awarded to specialized photography experts in three categories — Underwater, Nature Along The Coast and Urban Environment. Grant winners from each of the Award categories include, Alex Dawson for Underwater Photography, Nyree Cox for Urban Environment photography and Andrea Alkalay for Coastal photography. The Grant winners have been selected from a wide range of applicants from around the globe, and commissioned to create a professional photographic archive of the AlWajh area along the Red Sea coast — the region of focus for the first edition, in the northwest of Saudi Arabia. They will additionally go on to join a distinguished roster of judges who will evaluate the final submissions for The Kingdom Photography Discovery Competition — open to early and mid-career photographers from the Kingdom who will also photograph the region as part of a prize-winning competition. The Kingdom Photography Award has been launched by the Visual Arts Commission to inspire creative exploration and cross-cultural exchange, through the medium of photography, within the Kingdom and beyond. Both local and international photographers will participate to capture the varied and inspiring landscapes of the Kingdom. The chosen region for the inaugural edition, the coastal area around AlWajh, is renowned for its unique and stunning beaches, and informed the three award categories: 'Underwater photography', 'Nature along the coast photography', and photography of the surrounding 'Urban environment'. Running in parallel to the Kingdom Photography Grant is The Kingdom Photography Discovery Competition. Geared towards local early and mid-career photographers, the competition is an opportunity for individuals based in Saudi Arabia, to develop their photographic skills by engaging with the Professional Grant winners through a series of collaborative workshops and masterclasses in the three aforementioned categories. The Kingdom Photography Discovery Competition will provide the nominees with a chance to hone their craft, before participating in an inspirational 3-day photo-shoot of the city. All photographic submissions are to be evaluated by this year's judging panel, comprising photography luminaries from Saudi Arabia and across the globe. This includes award winning Environmental photographer, Daniel Beltra, based in the US, and fellow of the prestigious International League of Conservation Photographers with a specialism in aerial landscape photography and prominent photographic consultant, Zein Khalifa, founder of Tintera photography gallery in Cairo. It also includes dynamic Saudi photographer Moath Alofi, one of the most exciting artists in the region and Abdullah Al-Turki, founding member of the Saudi Art Council, member of Tate's Middle East and North Africa Acquisition Committee and the Serpentine's Future Contemporaries, member of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's Middle Eastern Circle, and collector of contemporary photography. The panel has shortlisted 21 photographers for the first edition of Saudi Arabia's first ever landscape photography award. They will have the opportunity to develop their photographic skills by engaging with the Professional Grant winners through a series of collaborative workshops and masterclasses in the three award categories — Underwater; Nature Along The Coast and Urban environment. Kingdom Photography Award Judge Beltra commented: "The Kingdom Photography Award is an incredible opportunity for Saudi photographers to hone their art, as well as interact and share knowledge with the global photography community. "I have been impressed by the large number of submissions to the Award's inaugural edition. The richness and diversity of the Red Sea's environment is awe-inspiring and I look forward to seeing the exhibition of works later in the year." Winners of The Kingdom Photography Professional Grant and The Kingdom Photography Discovery Competition will receive a combined total of SR400,000 ($106,403.16) in cash prizes, alongside further physical prizes worth a combined total of SR200,000 ($53,201.58). The resulting images will be exhibited at Art Jameel's new cultural center Hayy Jameel, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in an exhibition organized by the Visual Arts Commission. It will include both the Kingdom Photography Grant winners' images, as well as photography produced by the Kingdom Photography Award Competition's winners and runners up, in a curated exhibition. The exhibition is due to take place in December of this year. "We are delighted to have such a prestigious group of local and international photography stars joining the panel of judges of the inaugural edition of the Kingdom Photography Award and are grateful for their role in helping to select this year's nominees," said Dina Amin, CEO of the Visual Arts Commission. — SPA
