Samy Al Olabi (@samyolabi) was crowned HIPA Photographer of the Year for his astrophotography portfolio, which, excuse the cliché, is truly out of this world. The Egyptian Syrian multi-award-winning photographer has lived in Dubai for over two decades and enters the prestigious Hamdan International Photography Award (@hipaae) almost every year. But 2024 marked some successful astrophotography projects for Samy, garnering global attention. You could say his HIPA win was written in the stars.
His highly technical and mesmerizing body of work comprises a stunning array of celestial imagery, including parts of his magnum opus, 'Heavens & Earth | A Journey Through Space & Time'. Part of this ongoing project involves a jaw-dropping deep-sky panorama that was photographed in Arabia over 70 nights, during a four-year period, and comprises an incomprehensible 12,220 photographs.
