Celebrating Egypt's Beauty in Pictures With The ‘Huawei Captures Egypt’ Competition

With the noise of everyday troubles and affairs deafening us, it sometimes becomes hard to just ‘stop and smell the roses’, or more like ‘just stop and take a picture of the roses’. You either don’t have your camera on you; maybe you have it on you but it’s not charged; maybe you don’t have time to stop and adjust the settings; or maybe you don’t even know how to use one. 

But, for some, such things are only minor technicalities. Those are the ones who, even when rushing for an important meeting, or running late for an appointment, would stop, grab their phones, and take a picture of the dew drop stuck on a leaf, the stunning orange-reddish sunset, or a man riding a scooter in one of Cairo’s busy streets. Sometimes they'll get just an 'ok' picture, but other times they're able to produce stunning works of art that capture the beauty of the motherland, and could even go so far as to win them a photography competition. Ahmad Hosny is one of those people who can grab his phone and capture the country's beauty, and it won him first place last night at Huawei’s ‘Huawei Captures Egypt’ competition held at The Shelter art gallery in Zamalek.

This exclusive photography competition, whose platforms were Facebook and Instagram, allowed contestants to post their best photographs of touristic and historical scenes of Egypt with the designated hashtags. Thirty of the best photographs were displayed at The Shelter last night, and three contestants landed the third, second, and first places. 

The walls of The Shelter were enamoured with framed photographs depicting intimate shots of the country – brick gates in Alexandria, Sinai’s mesmerising desert, and a handful of tulips set at a table with light bathing the interior are only some of the stunning shots. From those photographs emerged the image of Egypt untainted by a dark and false stereotypical perception that has taken over the international scene.

With the contestants chatting among each with their friends and family, we got the chance to browse the gorgeous artwork and even talk a little with some of the contestants before the judges announced the winners.

Ahmad Mousa, 20, tells us that his favourite genre of photography is landscape as “many photographers here love to focus on taking landscape pictures as Egypt contains a myriad of scenes that ought to be photographed.” Mousa’s favourite spots to shoot include Sinai, Dahab, and St. Catherine.

Gasser Mohammad Mahmoud, a little older than Mousa but sharing his same passion, tells us that, for him, photography is a hobby he has been passionately pursuing for seven years now. He points to his hung photograph showing a gate from which sunlight was emerging and says, “I love photographing open spaces, especially in Alexandria, Fayoum, Ras Sudr, and Sokhna. I love taking photographs of any scene by the sea; the beach always looks wonderful.”

After debating amongst each other and making some pretty tough decisions, the judges were finally ready to announce the names of the three winners. The judges, themselves renowned photographers, included Mohamed Ismail, Eihab Adly,, and Youssef Al Alfy, first gave us some tips on how to best capture a photograph, such as always bearing in mind the effect the photograph has on the viewer, the message it tries to get across, as well as the element composition in each one. Islam Bakry was then announced to have claimed third place, Gasser Mohammed second, and Ahmad Hosny winning the first prize.

First place photographer Hosny had interestingly taken the winning photograph showing a man photographed from the back, standing in awe in the centre of a stunning mosque interior. “Street photography is my favourite genre of photography and I have been shooting for four years now,” Hosny tells us. When asked about some tips for this trending genre of photography, he tells us to “focus on the scenes and the people. The best moment can be captured differently of the same object or aspect by different photographers and, for your best shot, you need to always wait and be patient for that perfect moment.”

We’re sure that Hosny will be taking even more beautiful pictures with his prize: a brand new Huawei P9. As Huawei continues to add more photography-friendly technologies to the market, we should have in mind that stopping and taking pictures of the roses is always in our hands – literally.

For more about Huawei, you can visit their Facebook page or Instagram account. 

Photo shoot by @MO4Network's #MO4Productions.
Photography by Ahmed Najeeb.