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Xposure photo festival in Sharjah to captivate with stories

Sharjah - The four-day festival will feature 23 exhibitors, 35 workshops and 25 seminars

His Higness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, on Wednesday inaugurated the Xposure 2017 International Photography Festival, which will be on till November-25 at Expo Centre Sharjah.
The event displays the photography of locally and internationally-renowned photographers, who will also share their expertise to help the region's enthusiastic shutterbugs take more engaging images.
The four-day Xposure 2017, held under the theme 'Captivating Stories,' features 23 exhibitors, 35 workshops and 25 seminars covering ecological topics, humanitarian subjects and social issues, with the sessions revealing the incredible power and influence of pictures in transcending linguistic and geographical boundaries.
The Festival is organised by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, the media and Communication arm of the Sharjah Government.
During the launch, Dr Sheikh Sultan attended Canadian photographer Paul Nickel's 'Polar Obsession' keynote session.
This year's edition of Xposure features an exhibition by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian photojournalist Muhammed Muheisen, whose selection of 12 photos titled 'Faces of Sharjah' is exclusively displayed at the festival.
An exhibition featuring the work of the 17 winners of the festival's photography competition, which saw entries from 10,000 photographers from 98 countries around the world, is also being held.
The Sharjah ruler viewed the 50 display panels and images by new talents. The initiative is aimed at motivating talented photographers by giving them a valuable opportunity to promote their work at the festival. He also viewed the work of the Timothy Allen Photography Scholarship Award winner, which was launched during the first edition.
Workshops to be held at Xposre 2017 will cover an array of photography types like location, street, aerial drone, product, underwater, photo archiving, camera focus techniques, besides studio lighting essentials, long exposure and post-processing.
Dr Sheikh Sultan also highlighted the efforts of Muslim scientist Al Hassan Ibn Al Haitham and his scientific contributions that led to the first camera's invention, through the discovery of the dark room with a circular opening that he called "the cabin," up to 1826 when the first known photograph was taken by French scientist Joseph Niépce.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Sharjah Ruler said: "At the second edition of Xposure, we capitalise on photography to share all the world's secrets and figure out what is hidden behind the picture. It might be an image taken spontaneously, or its photographers might have spent considerable time and made immense efforts to stir our feelings towards a certain issue, just asthe talented writer does using his pen."
afkarali@khaleetimes.com