Bangladeshi photographer wins $200,000 grand prize at Dubai's Hipa Awards

A Bangladeshi photographer whose image captured a family sleeping amid the ruins of their fire-ravaged home has won the $200,000 (Dh734,500) grand prize at the 15th Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (Hipa) in Dubai.

Pinu Rahman received the top honour at the annual competition, which awarded a total of $1 million in prize money to photographers from around the world.

His winning photograph shows a family sleeping within the concrete walls left standing after a devastating fire swept through Korail, one of Dhaka's largest and most densely populated informal settlements, on November 25, 2025. The blaze, which took firefighters 16 hours to extinguish, destroyed or damaged about 1,500 homes and left thousands of residents without shelter. Many of Korail's residents are low-income families, including people displaced by climate-related disasters.

The image, which portrays the family's resilience in the aftermath of destruction, was recognised in a year when the competition's theme was Family, reflecting the UAE's designation of 2026 as the Year of the Family.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum presented Rahman with the grand prize at the ceremony, which was held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence.

Show caption: Emirati photographer Hamid Obaid Al Ali took first place in …

Photographers from across five continents were recognised in categories covering family, general photography, portfolios, sports and artificial intelligence.

“As we celebrate our fifteenth anniversary, we are proud to announce that Hipa's photo archive now holds more than one million photographs, contributed by an active community of over half a million photographers from 209 countries,” said Ali bin Thalith, Hipa's secretary general.

Among the winners were photographers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Palestine.

Emirati photographer Hamid Obaid Al Ali won first place in the Family category with a striking underwater photograph of a crab nestled inside a purple sea sponge, its large claws wrapped protectively around a cluster of tiny eggs. Saudi photographer Nawaf Alosaimi came second, followed by India's Subhajit Datta in third.

Show caption: Palestinian photographer Yousef Alzanoon secured first place…

Palestinian photographer Yousef Alzanoon secured first place in the Portfolio category, which recognises photographers for their storytelling across a collection of images. American photographer Brent Stirton took second place, while American astronaut and photographer Don Pettit came third.

Kuwaiti photographer Faisal Hamada was also among the regional winners, taking second place in Sports Photography. China's Hongbin Wu won first place, while Russia's Kirill Kudryavtsev came third.

In the General category, Slovakia's Filip Hrebenda won first place for colour photography, followed by Switzerland's Franco Banfi and Italy's Ramiro Torrents.

Australian photographer Jono Allen took the top honour in black-and-white photography, ahead of India's Barun Sarkar and Canada's Thomas Vijayan.

Show caption: Kuwaiti photographer Faisal Hamada was also among the region…

The competition also recognised the growing role of artificial intelligence in image-making through its Dreams Through AI category. New Zealand-based photographer Chi Hui Tang won first place, followed by China's Fan Ho Tsang and Colombia's Bernardo Hernandez.

Special awards recognise photography careers

Three photographers were also honoured for their contributions to photography and visual storytelling.

Japanese photographer Kazuyoshi Nomachi received the Appreciation Award for a career spanning more than five decades. His work has documented communities in remote regions, exploring their relationships with the land, religious traditions and everyday life.

Syrian photographer Ali Mohamad received the Content Creator Award for his work making advanced technology more accessible to photographers and content creators across the Arabic-speaking world.

French photojournalist Veronique de Viguerie was named Hipa Photographer of the Year for her work documenting people affected by war, oppression and conflict.