The Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award, HIPA, has concluded the October edition of the Instagram Photo Contest themed ‘Doors’. Five winners were announced for the competition which received submissions under the hashtag #HIPAContest_Doors. The contest winners hailed from; Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey and India.

HIPA Secretary-General Ali bin Thalith said, "The doors have a symbolic influence in different civilisations throughout history. They are much more than wood or metal. They are symbols of safety, ambiguity and transition. Doors hold great symbolism for us especially at a time of departure or as a welcome home. Doors provide an insight into our lives, personalities, even values. We opened the door of creativity for our photographers and we have seen some amazing work. We congratulate our winners and as always encourage everyone to continue participating."

October’s winner of the ‘People’s Choice Award’ was Bekir Tuğcu @tugcubekir from Turkey and he said, "I took the picture in Chefchaouen in Morocco in 2018. This city is known as the blue jewel, where it is blue in most of its areas. Since 2014, I have not taken part in any photography competition so it was surprising and wonderful for me to win.

I am a neurosurgeon, and photography is my second career. Photography trips always give me the ability to breathe and feel the beauty."

The Saudi winner, Suhail Kalkatawi @shaggy23 said, "I took the picture in front of the Holy Kaaba before dawn prayer. I noticed the hands facing the Kaaba door so I felt my hand picking up the camera spontaneously to quickly photograph the scene in order to avoid congestion. My win in this important competition gave me a great feeling especially that I participated a lot and I had a great hope to win, and this has now been achieved. I aspire to build photographic stories of artistic dimensions that reflect what I see in this world."

Other winners include Abdullah Alsheikh from Saudi Arabia; Mohammed Hamdan Alhajri from Oman and Siddharth P Rathod from India.