Chinese photographer Liping Cao has won the grand prize in the world's richest photography competition – the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA).
For 2024, the prize pot of this prestigious international competition has been super-sized to US$1 million as it enters "a new phase"… and Liping Cao has bagged $200,000 [£156,000/AU$306,000] for his photo titled 'Quiet Power'.
His picture certainly meets the brief of this year's edition of HIPA, themed 'Sustainability'.
This $200,000 winning photo was taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR, with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L lens (exposure: 1/200 sec at f/11, ISO 100).
And in a one-two for China, Liping Cao's compatriot Ruijuan Huang won the Sustainability category.
Her winning image is titled ‘Harnessing the Sun’ and depicts an expanse of solar panels "strategically placed across the lush hills of Guandong Province."
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HIPA held the annual awards ceremony for its thirteenth competition season at Dubai’s Museum of the Future, one of the city's many iconic landmarks, and Digital Camera World was there.
Attended by leading figures in the international photography community, the event also bestowed the Photography Appreciation Award on photographer Jimmy Nelson, accompanied by a cash prize of $100,000 [£78,000/A$153,000].
This award recognises individuals who have done much to advance photography, “inspiring future generations of creatives to continue pushing the boundaries of the art form”, says HIPA.
The Sustainability winners get to share a cut of the competition's staggering $1,000,000 prize fund – £780,000/A$1,529,000. While other international photo awards might be bigger in terms of the number of images submitted, the prize pot of HIPA dwarfs them all.
Scroll down to see the other winners of Sustainability, as revealed at the Museum of the Future on 12 November 2024…
HIPA offers a wide range of categories for photographers to enter, and submitting images to the competition is free.
Categories include color and black and white (both have a sub-category within the popular ‘general’ category), portfolio and sports, while a new category to celebrate excellence in short-form videos was introduced for this 13th season of the awards.
Here's a full list of the winners:
General, colour: Rahul Vishwanath Sadhdev (India)
General, black and white: Renee Capozzola (US)
Portfolio: (story-telling): Fatma Alzahra Shbair (Palestinian Territory)
Sports: Tobias Friedrich (Germany)
Short videos (for social media): Aleksandr Tsuprun (Russian Federation)
Sustainability: Ruijuan Huang (China)
Grand prize: Liping Cao (China)
Other award winners announced at the ceremony in Dubai included:
Photography Appreciation Award: Jimmy Nelson
Photography Content Creator Award: Salma Ali Humaid Alsuwaidi (UAE)
HIPA Photographer of the Year: Samy Al Olabi (Syrian Arab Republic)
See the previous HIPA winners
Fantastic jellyfish photo wins $120,000 grand prize in HIPA 2023
Malaysian photographer grabs 2019 $120,000 HIPA grand prize
$120,000 photo: bird shot wins big bucks in HIPA 2022
$120,000 grand prize winner announced for HIPA 2018
