Some of the biggest names in the world of photography will descend on to to Sharjah on September 19 for the four-day ‘Xposure International Photography Exhibition’ at the Expo Centre.
Noted names in the business, including Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Essdras M Suarez and portrait connoisseur Joe McNally, will be hosting paid workshops at Xposure, along with free seminars.
The four-day event will feature 1,100 indoor exhibits through 48 photography exhibitions, from world acclaimed professionals to regional talents and emerging artists. Aside from photography workshops, there will also be live demonstrations, panel discussions and more.
Gulf News tabloid! picks its favourite exhibits to see at the event, along with the must-attend free seminars that will be hosted.
Since opening his studio in New York City in 1983, photographer Stephen Wilkes has built an unprecedented body of work and a reputation as one of America’s most iconic photographers.
‘Day to Night’, Wilkes’ most defining project, began in 2009. These epic cityscapes and landscapes, portrayed from a fixed camera angle for up to 30 hours capture fleeting moments of humanity as light passes in front of his lens over the course of full day. Blending these images into a single photograph takes months to complete.
Wilkes will speak about his work at a free seminar on September 22 at 6pm.
Retrospectively, Sankha Kar was destined to venture into the world of art. But unlike his father, who used a paintbrush to capture an image on canvas, he uses a camera. After working with three regional language newspapers and Reuters in India, he moved to Dubai and now works as the Deputy Photo Editor at Gulf News.
As a photojournalist, Kar has covered major disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, cyclones and has also been in the thick of the action during the civil war in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
One of these projects is ‘Fluid Moment’, which Kar describes as “capturing a moment”. He told Gulf News tabloid! the project took him four years to complete, which will be represented at Xposure through 15 images.
“Most of us rush through life hardly noticing the inner beauty of a particular object we come across or a moment that slips by. At first glance, and even on a second look, the objects you see might appear as random swathes of colours or forms, but if you look closely, you would realise that there’s more to them than meets the eye," says Kar.
"Every moment it is rushing to break free. Some moments it is a thing of beauty, but the very next moment it can be a beast. Just take a slice from that moment and you will realise that it is all about a second of observation, an up-close encounter with a common everyday object, which can change your perspective about it.”
His long-term project is documenting the ever-changing skyline of Dubai, which he has witnessed over the last two decades.
Three hours outside Kyiv and just a few minutes from the border with Belarus sits the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. People believe this place to be entirely abandoned, but many still work there, even today.
Recently, Jeffrey Garriock and Ron B Wilson spent nearly three weeks documenting contemporary life in Chernobyl. The duo will be at Xposure on September 19 speaking about their exhibition at 3.40pm.