National Geographic Abu Dhabi& Almarai Launch 2018 ‘Moments’ Competition Celebrating the ‘Stories of People of the Middle East’

National Geographic Abu Dhabi (NGAD)and Almarai announced today the kickoffof the 8th editionof ‘Moments’,its annual regional photography competitionto nurture the talent of aspiring photographers from around the Arab World.

Held under the theme ‘People’s Stories from the Arab World’, the 2018 ‘Moments’ competition enables photographers from the region to present a wide spectrum of images capturing the true essence and beauty of the Arab World through its people.

The competition is held in partnership with Almarai, who has been a strategic supporter of this platform for the last 5 yearsas part of their CSR program and shared vision of nurturing talent from the Arab World.

‘Moments’is one of the largest photography competitions in the region, which has attracted over 180,000 entries from across the Arab World. The Grand Prize winner will have theirphotograph printed in the National Geographic magazine Arabic edition and earn a trip of a lifetime:a10-day photography expedition trip to Italy, worth $10,000, where they will be mentored by National Geographic expert photographers, in addition to $10,000 worth of photography equipment courtesy of Nikon.

The judging panel will feature Tasneem Sultan, an award-winning Saudi photographer who is a professional National Geographic photographer and Mr. Hussam R. Abdulqader, CMO, Almarai.

Almarai, the largest vertically integrated dairy company in the world and MENA’s largest food production and distribution company, has been a strategic partner of National Geographic Abu Dhabi & its Moments Competition since 2014 and for the fifth year in a row, with a shared vision and commitment to support Arab budding photographers, through offering them exposure and the possibility to be discovered on such aprominent platform.

Abdulrahman Awadh Al Harthi, Acting Executive Director of Television & Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Radio Network at Abu Dhabi Media, said, “The Moments Photography competition is part of our continued commitment towards nurturing talents across all segments of society and encouraging the community especially youth to express their creativity and reach their highest potential.

“The great success of the seventh edition in 2017 gives us a new challenge in 2018 to ensure we reach the largest number of applicants from diverse backgrounds and give them the platform to express their creativity and stories to be shared across the region.

Commenting on this year’s competition, Hussam R. Abdulqader, CMO, Almarai, said, “We highly value our partnership with National Geographic Abu Dhabi which is enabling us to discover photography talent from across the region and providing them with a unique opportunity to develop their careers at the hands of the best photographers in the world. “Our theme, this year, ‘People’sStories from the Arab World’, celebrates the richness and diversity of this vast region. We look forward to yet another season of remarkable talent emerging from across the Arab World.”

Sanjay Raina, General Manager and Senior Vice-President of Fox Networks Groups (FNG), said, “. For 130 years, National Geographic has ignited the explorer in all people through photography and storytelling. For the Moments Photography competition, we encourage photographers from across the Arab World to show us their world and share with us their untold stories through the lens of their camera. Through making the competition accessible to all, we hope not only to nurture the next generation of photographers in the region, and we want to share these stories from the Arab Worldwith the rest of the world as well.”

In this year’s competition, each story will carry with it an authentic, detailed and complete description of the story behind the image, which aims to add geographic, social and cultural context to the photo. In addition, the integrity and ethics behind the photo will be of utmost value – keeping up with National Geographic’s Global standards of ensuring images accurately represents cultures, ecosystems, and wildlife.

For more on the competition and previous year’s winner, please visit www.natgeo-moments.com.