From 16 September to 11 December 2022, everyone’s invited to visit Vantage Point Sharjah (VPS), the annual exhibition which runs at Al Hamriyah Studios. First set up in 2013, it supports photographers from around the globe. VPS is a platform where different approaches to photography are embraced — from photojournalism to photographic experiments.
The open call for VPS 10 invited artworks that reflect photography’s ability to perceive social realities through different perspectives and forms of visual storytelling. Picked from more than 450 applications, works by 66 artists are on display, which portray the diversity of contemporary lives. This year’s jury, consisting of Solmaz Daryani, Lamya Gargash and Sohrab Hura, selected five photographers who were given the Vantage Point Photography Award. They will also get a cash prize.
About the jury:
Solmaz Daryani focuses on documentary photography. She creates works that address social, political and ecological issues in the Middle East. Her personal project, The Eyes of Earth (2014–ongoing), is about the environmental disaster at Lake Urmia in Iran. Daryani’s work has been shown in many international exhibitions (f.e., the Biennale of Female Photography, Mantova, Italy (2022)). She has also received a number of awards including the FotoEvidence W Book Award (2021); Royal Photographic Society Science Photographer of the Year (2021), and others.
In her art Lamya Gargash, photographer and filmmaker, examines inhabited and abandoned spaces in the UAE, thus, explores modernity, mortality and identity. Her works have been presented in solo shows Sahwa (2020), Traces (2014) and Through the Looking Glass (2012), all at The Third Line, Dubai; and Presence, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy (2012).
Sohrab Hura, multidisciplinary artist, examines his relationship with the constantly shifting and disorienting world in which he exists, and focuses on social issues, family dynamics and identity. The mediums he uses in his art are film, photography, drawing, sound and text. Recent exhibitions of his work include Sohrab Hura: Half-Moving at International Oberhausen Short Film Festival; Spill, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, and many others. His film “Bittersweet” (2019) was awarded the Principal Prize of the International Jury, 66th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany (2020). “The Lost Head & The Bird” (2017) won the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Award, 64th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2018).
Vantage Point Sharjah is free, but advance registration is required. Please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
You may also be interested in visiting the photo exhibition I SHALL NEVER TIRE OF FINDING AN ESCAPE at XVA Gallery.
