Bangladeshi Photographer wins $200,000 for “Family” in the World’s Richest $1 Million Photo Contest
Recognized as the world’s most lucrative photography competition, the 15th annual HIPA awards celebrated its winners on November 10, 2026, with Family as this year’s theme. The awards were presented at the Museum of the Future, the torus-shaped architectural landmark in Dubai’s financial district in the United Arab Emirates.
This season featured five categories: Family, Portfolio (Story-Telling), Sports Photography, General (B&W and Color), and Dreams Through AI, which was a newly created category in response to public demand. Judge Tara Todras-Whitehill, an award-winning photojournalist from the US, quickly pointed out that it is better to keep AI-generated work in a separate category rather than have participants enter it in regular categories.
The other notable judges were Ivan Pedretti, an Italian professional photographer; Kurt Mutchler, a former Senior Science Photo Editor at National Geographic; Germany’s Laci Perenyi, who has captured 21 Olympic Games; Sami Alramyan, a Kuwaiti documentary and humanitarian photographer for 20 years; American Santiago Lyon, Head of Advocacy and Education for the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative; and Tomasz Tomaszewski, an acclaimed Polish photojournalist, with a Ph.D. from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum presented the $200,000 Grand Prize to photographer Pinu Rahman. His early-morning drone shot captured a family sleeping in their fire-devastated home, showing resilience and the human spirit.
Ali Bin Thalith, HIPA’s Secretary General, acknowledged the pivotal role of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in advancing the organization’s mission, recognizing his enduring commitment to promoting HIPA and fostering the global art of photography.
Here are the winning photos and videos of the 2026 competition, along with titles and descriptions submitted by the participating photographers.
Grand Prize ($200,000): Pinu Rehman of Bangladesh
Banker and amateur photographer Pinu Rehman bagged the Grand Prize for Under the Same Sky submitted to the Family category.
On 25 November 2025, a large fire broke out at around 5:20 p.m. in Korail, one of Dhaka’s most densely populated informal settlements. Spreading rapidly through narrow lanes of tin, bamboo and wooden structures, the blaze destroyed approximately 1,500 homes and left thousands displaced. Photographed the following morning from above, a family of five sleeps side by side within the surviving concrete walls of their burned home. Around them lie twisted corrugated tin, charred debris, and the remains of neighboring shelters. A few salvaged belongings are gathered close. With their home gone, the family rests together in the only space still available to them.
Family 1st Prize ($40,000): Hamid Obaid Al Ali of the United Arab Emirates
The First Prize in Family went to Hamid Obaid Al Ali for The Promise of Tomorrow.
Captured during a macro dive, this rarely witnessed underwater moment shows a tiny female sponge crab sheltering, her claws curled protectively around a dense cluster of developing eggs. The amber mass of eggs, each containing a life not yet emerged, rests against the textured surface of the sponge as the crab holds her position in the surrounding darkness. She will remain with her brood until the young are ready to enter the open ocean, where only a few will survive to adulthood. It is a reminder that parental devotion exists throughout the natural world, in places rarely seen.
Family 2nd Prize ($30,000): Nawaf Alosaimi of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The Second Prize was received by Nawaf Alosaimi for The Line.
A large herd of African elephants moves together across an open, darkened plain beneath a pale, cloud-streaked sky. A great matriarch leads from the front, her long tusks prominent and her wrinkled skin rendered in fine detail by the monochrome light. Younger elephants and calves press close among the adults, their trunks and legs forming a dense, overlapping mass of movement. Low hills and distant mountains sit along the horizon and a solitary elephant trails at the far edge of the frame, suggesting the full scale of the group crossing this vast, sweeping landscape.
Family 3rd Prize ($20,000): Subhajit Datta of India
The Third Prize went to Subhajit Datta for Framed Connection.
A glass window on a cruise vessel in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, becomes both mirror and membrane. A father’s reflection fills the frame, camera raised, while inside a mother and child sit together at a dining table, absorbed in a quiet moment. Beyond the glass, limestone karsts rise from the water and other vessels drift in the distance. Reflection, transparency and light combine interior and exterior into a single seamless image, holding three members of a family together within one composed and layered frame.
Color 1st Prize ($40,000): Filip Hrebenda of Slovakia
The First Prize was bagged by Filip Hrebenda for What the Earth Draws in Secret.
Seen from altitude, the landscape abandons all pretense of the familiar. Glacial channels thread across dark sediment in luminous arcs, their turquoise indifferent to the gravity that shaped them. Along a ridge between shadow and a burning yellow ground, bare trees stand in silhouette — neither quite rooted nor quite free, caught at the threshold between dormancy and something that resembles beginning. The photograph does not celebrate renewal so much as observe it in its raw, unfinished state: a world mid-sentence, still composing itself, legible only to those willing to look from far enough away.
Color 2nd Prize ($30,000): Franco Banfi of Switzerland
Franco Banfi claimed the Second Prize for Give Me a Ride.
A split-level view reveals an Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) resting at the surface of the open ocean while a Brown booby (Sula leucogaster) stands perched upon its olive-green shell. This well-documented yet unlikely relationship sees seabirds using surfacing turtles as floating platforms to roost and to feed on fish that gather beneath them. The turtle, protected as a vulnerable species, is the most abundant sea turtle in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. The arrangement offers a degree of mutual benefit: the booby gains a resting spot, while its presence may alert the turtle to approaching hazards.
Color 3rd Prize ($20,000): Ramiro Torrents of Italy
Ramiro Torrents won Third Prize for Between Ice and Galaxies.
At Laguna Torre, near El Chaltén in Patagonia, a rare convergence of conditions produced this panoramic night scene. The sky cleared completely, placing the arc of the Milky Way directly above the mountains, while soft moonlight shaped the landscape below. In a region notorious for violent weather, the wind dropped entirely, leaving the icebergs motionless on a still surface. The composition preserves the true scale and immense depth of the wilderness, holding a fleeting moment of absolute stillness in a landscape defined by change.
Black & White 1st Prize ($40,000): Jono Allen of Australia
Taking home the First Prize honor was Jono Allen for Mahina and Mother.
Mahina, meaning “moon” in Tongan, is an albino humpback whale calf, a rarity estimated at one in 40,000. Her luminous white body rests close against her mother’s dark, barnacle-marked skin, the contrast between them striking and immediate. The two are at the start of a 4,000-mile migration to Antarctic waters, accompanied by a chosen male guardian. Active shipping lanes, ghost nets, killer whales, and great white sharks mark the route ahead. Mahina’s white coloring, visible from great distances, heightens the dangers. Her mother and guardian remain close, their protective instincts attuned to her exceptional vulnerability.
Black & White 2nd Prize ($30,000): Barun Sarkar of India
The Second-Place award went to Barun Sarkar for Beyond the Threads.
Three children peer through a curtain of tangled threads, their faces only partially visible behind the dense weave. Each face is held at a different depth—two side by side and one smaller figure below—their eyes directed outward with quiet intensity. The threads, loose and cascading, partially obscure yet cannot fully conceal the children’s gazes. The strands represent more than fabric: they stand for poverty, limited opportunity, and the barriers inherited across generations. Yet each pair of eyes remains fixed on what lies beyond, carrying hopes that the threads cannot contain.
Black & White 3rd Prize ($20,000): Thomas Vijayan of Canada
The Third Prize was awarded to Thomas Vijayan for Black is Powerful.
Out of the quiet depth of night, a melanistic leopard moves forward along a lit track, wild grass bordering the path beside it. The animal emerges from near-total darkness, its pale eyes fixed and unwavering. Reflected light traces the outline of its form, revealing powerful musculature and the faint marks of old scars. The monochrome atmosphere deepens the contrast between the illuminated ground and the surrounding blackness, giving the scene a stillness that speaks to the leopard’s natural authority as one of nature’s most elusive predators.
Dreams Through AI 1st Prize ($40,000): Chi Hui Tang of New Zealand
The winner of the First Prize was Chi Hui Tang for Between Heaven and Earth.
A snow-covered mountain stands beneath a sweeping lenticular cloud formation, its grand form perfectly mirrored in a glass-still surface where mountain, cloud and sky dissolve into one another. A lone black horse gallops across the vast expanse; its small, dark form the only movement within an otherwise tranquil scene. The landscape exists as a dreamlike vision of absolute stillness, freedom and the enduring, elemental forces of nature.
Dreams Through AI 2nd Prize ($30,000): Fan Ho Tsang of China
The Second Prize category winner was Fan Ho Tsang for Dreams We Inherit.
A high-speed train cuts through a tunnel of light, its sleek white form held sharp against streaks of blue and silver that radiate outward in every direction. The composition exaggerates the qualities of motion, light and perspective to carry the feeling of collective purpose—of generations moving forward together, each one building on the hopes and sacrifices of the last. The train becomes more than transport; it stands as a shared journey through time, carrying the weight of family and the inherited dreams they pass on.
Dreams Through AI 3rd Prize ($20,000): Bernardo Hernandez of Colombia
The Third Prize was claimed by Bernardo Hernandez for Surfing the Sunset.
Along the beaches of Coveñas, Sucre, Colombia, a female surfer balances naturally atop a small breaking wave at sunset, warm light reflecting off the sea’s surface. The composition places the human figure in harmonious dialogue with the motion of the ocean, where the liquid textures of the water and the precision of the ride meet seamlessly within the warm, fading glow of the South American shoreline.
Portfolio (Story-Telling) 1st Prize ($50,000): Yousef Alzanoon of Palestinian Territory
Yousef Alzanoon clinched the First Prize for Between Hunger and Fire.
“The weight of war in Gaza unfolds in its most unsparing dimensions. Flares illuminate the city skyline at night, while buildings collapse in clouds of smoke and people move through rubble-strewn streets. Thousands gather around aid trucks, carrying sacks of flour across a landscape marked by destruction. Women press forward with empty cooking pots. Aid packages descend by parachute over coastal tent settlements, while families flee on horse-drawn carts carrying their remaining possessions. Mothers hold severely malnourished infants, and children bear the visible effects of acute starvation. The unfolding crisis bears witness to the profound scale of civilian suffering endured throughout the conflict.
Portfolio (Story-Telling) 2nd Prize ($40,000): Brent Stirton of the USA
The Second Prize was won by Brent Stirton for Rewilding Rhinos.
“African Parks Network has assumed operational control of the world’s largest captive rhino breeding project, formerly owned by breeder John Hume, which houses over 2,000 southern white rhinos and more than 200 black rhinos. Following the operation’s bankruptcy, ownership was transferred to African Parks as a matter of urgency. The organization now faces the enormous challenge of translocating these animals to secure sites across Africa to bolster threatened populations, all while combating a relentless poaching epidemic. The narrative documents the scale and complexity of what may be the largest rewilding of an endangered species in history.
Portfolio (Story-Telling) 3rd Prize ($30,000): Don Pettit of the USA
Don Pettit claimed the Third Prize for Milky Way from Orbit.
“These star-field time exposures were captured from the International Space Station using a customized, homemade sidereal star tracker. Rotating once every 90 minutes, the device counteracts the orbital motion of the ISS, allowing distant stars to be recorded as sharp, fixed points, something previously impossible in orbital photography. Across the expanse, Earth’s thin atmosphere glows with auroras in violet, crimson and gold, while city lights streak across the darkened surface below. The dense core of the Milky Way rises beyond the curve of the planet, with the structure of the ISS appearing in silhouette, a reminder of the human presence from which these views were made possible.
Sports Photography 1st Place ($40,000): Hongbin Wu of China
The First Place was won by Hongbin Wu for Winter Game.
“After heavy snowfall covered the mountainous Guoluo region of Qinghai, China, a group of young lamas cleared the basketball court at their temple and began an impromptu game. The concrete court forms a small island amid the surrounding snow, its dark surface contrasting with the vast white landscape. Dressed in scarlet robes, the young monks gather across the court, some playing while others watch from the edges. Their long shadows stretch across the ground beneath the winter sun. The quiet surroundings and lively game create a striking glimpse of youthful energy within the remote setting of monastic life.
Sports Photography 2nd Place ($30,000): Faisal Hamada of Kuwait
The Second Place went to Faisal Hamada for Blazing Lap.
“A McLaren Formula One car speeds across the circuit beneath a blazing sunset, its trajectory stretching the surrounding light into horizontal bands of amber, gold and deep black. The car appears small and sharply defined against the environment, while its papaya livery blends with the warm tones of the sky. Motion blur transforms the circuit and surrounding atmosphere into sweeping lines of color, emphasizing the speed of the passing car. Against the intensity of the sunset, the highly engineered machine becomes a fleeting silhouette, capturing a dramatic moment where precision, movement and light converge.
Sports Photography 3rd Place ($20,000): Kirill Kudryavtsev of the Russian Federation
Third Place went to Kirill Kudryavtsev for Celestial Flare.
“During the men’s snowboard slopestyle qualification at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Livigno, Valtellina (Italy), Germany’s Noah Vicktor launches into the alpine air above Livigno Snow Park. A luminous circular glow surrounds his airborne figure against a deep cobalt sky. The groomed slope cuts a sharp diagonal across the mountainscape, while Vicktor appears suspended at the center of the natural sun flare. The flare creates a striking contrast between the precision of the competition and the expansive mountain landscape, transforming a fleeting sporting moment into an almost celestial scene.
HIPA Photographer of the Year Award ($80,000): Véronique de Viguerie – France
Photojournalist
Véronique de Viguerie is a French photojournalist whose work explores the grey zones of a world too often portrayed in black and white. For more than twenty years, she has worked in conflict zones and societies marked by war, repression and political upheaval, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Syria and Mali. Yet war itself is not her subject. What interests her is what survives within it: desire, humor, beauty, absurdity, tenderness, resistance and the rhythms of ordinary life.
She does not photograph beauty in spite of war. She photographs beauty, desire, humor and color because they, too, are part of war. To exclude them would be to create another kind of distortion.
This conviction has shaped her longstanding relationship with Afghanistan, which she first visited in 2003 and later lived in for four years. She has returned repeatedly to document Taliban fighters, civilians, women, families, and the profound transformation of Afghan society.
Her work on women has become increasingly central to this vision. De Viguerie is particularly interested in women living within restrictive or violent systems who are too often represented solely through what is done to them. Her photographs instead explore what they do: how they negotiate, resist, love, organize, protect and reinvent themselves, sometimes claiming power in spaces from which they have long been excluded.
Photography Content Creator Award ($50,000): Dr. Ali Mohamad – Syrian Arab Republic
Photographer & Founder of TechMission & HOC
Dr. Ali Mohamad is a photographer, documentary filmmaker, educator, and entrepreneur whose work is driven by a passion for visual storytelling and the creative industries. He founded TechMission, a digital media and production platform based in Dubai and serving the GC, alongside an education platform dedicated to empowering aspiring and professional photographers and videographers. Drawing on his industry experience, he shares practical knowledge that bridges technical expertise with creative vision, helping photographers and filmmakers refine their skills, develop their visual language, and approach their craft with greater confidence and purpose.
Photography Appreciation Award ($100,000): Kazuyoshi Nomachi – Japan
Photojournalist & Documentary Photographer
Kazuyoshi Nomachi (b. 1946) is an internationally acclaimed documentary photographer whose work explores the relationship between humanity, nature, and spirituality. Since his first journey to the Sahara in 1972, at age 25, he has devoted his career to documenting the lives, beliefs, and traditions of people inhabiting some of the world’s most challenging environments.
His journey to the Sahara profoundly changed his direction. Moved by the strength of people living in its harsh environment, he turned to photojournalism and began a lifelong exploration of humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Inspired by the contrast between the Sahara’s aridity and the life-giving power of water, Nomachi began documenting the Nile in 1980. He traced the White Nile and followed the Blue Nile, capturing the extraordinary landscapes and communities shaped by these great rivers.
From 1988, Nomachi turned his attention to Asia. His work in western China introduced him to Tibet’s high-altitude communities and the spiritual traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Between 2004 and 2008, he explored the sacred origins of the Ganges, documenting the landscapes and traditions central to Hinduism.
From 1995 to 2000, Nomachi photographed the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, documenting the Hajj pilgrimage and the profound devotion of Muslims gathering in Mecca. Beginning in 2002, he explored the Andean highlands of Peru and Bolivia, examining the blending of Catholicism and Inca cultural traditions, a project he has continued to pursue.
Among his many honors are the Photographic Society of Japan’s Annual Award, received in 1990 and 1997, and Japan’s Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, awarded in 2009.
Full disclosurePetaPixel was invited as a special media guest to attend the HIPA award ceremony in Dubai. HIPA paid airfare, room, and board.
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