"Exposure 2026 " It continues its activities

Sharjah, January 31 / WAM / The activities of the tenth edition of the International Photography Festival “Xposure 2026”, organized by the Sharjah Government Media Office in the Aljada area, continue through discussion sessions and artistic workshops, where the veteran Australian photographer Richard Ineson confirmed that travel photography is not based on coincidence or rush, but rather on patience, advance preparation, and a precise and calculated relationship with light, stressing that “the real presence in the place is what gives the image meaning.”

Inson reviewed his career spanning more than four decades, which led him to photograph more than 100 countries around the world.

Inson explained that travel photography at its best goes beyond visual documentation of places to provide a deeper understanding of the world and the people who live in it, and re-presents familiar places with a different vision through moments capable of astonishing and highlighting human details.

While photographer, art director and cultural consultant Maitha Hamdan confirmed that the visual image is no longer just an aesthetic expression, but has become a cultural responsibility that affects the representation of identity and the creation of awareness, stressing that every visual work directed to the public carries within it a message that goes beyond form to meaning.

Maitha Hamdan shed light on the professional structure of visual work, explaining that the director constitutes the cornerstone of any production, and all artistic departments fall under it, most notably artistic direction, which is responsible for colors, decoration, costumes, and building the visual scene in a way that serves the nature of the work and its dramatic or narrative mood.

The session concluded by reviewing a visual experiment that she carried out as part of her participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, where she was asked to embody the idea of ​​the extinction of the pearl trade with the advent of oil. It was expressed with a symbolic shot in which a black liquid was used to submerge the pearls in an intense visual scene that conveyed the idea without the need for a direct speech.

British photojournalist Giles Clarke, one of the most prominent photographers of humanitarian crises at Getty Images, revealed the profound psychological and moral burdens that accompany working in conflict and disaster areas, during an influential dialogue session within the activities of the International Photography Festival “Xposure 2026”.

Clark reviewed a career that spanned more than two decades on the front lines of humanitarian crises, moving between extremely dangerous locations, explaining that his talk was not about the images themselves as much as it was about the fateful decisions that are made in fractions of a second, the personal risks, and the long-term emotional impact resulting from direct witness to human suffering.

In a related context, the veteran Polish photographer Tomasz Tomaszewski, one of the most prominent photographers of the National Geographic magazine, confirmed that photography goes beyond being a documentation tool to become an effective means of creating human awareness and bringing about change when it is founded on honesty, professional ethics, and building trust with people.

Tomaszewski reviewed his professional career spanning more than four decades in areas of conflict and poverty, pointing out that photography often puts the photographer facing real dangers, whether in unsafe environments or even in places that seem stable if the photographer does not read the humanitarian context surrounding him. He explained that his long experience with “National Geographic” revealed to him ready-made templates attached to photographers among those classified as photographing nature, wildlife, or antiquities, but he was often assigned to work in places whose people refuse to stand in front of the camera to be convinced. The magazine’s ability to build trust with conservative or wary communities.

Documentary photographer Anoush Babajanyan shed light on one of the most dangerous environmental crises in Central Asia, stressing that the image has become the truest witness to the profound environmental transformations that the world is witnessing, presenting a visual journey in which she documented the drying up of the Aral Sea, which was the fourth largest lake in the world before it turned into vast expanses of salt and sand known today as the “Aralkum Desert,” and the profound human and environmental impacts that accompanied this transformation.

Babajanian presented a group of photos as part of an independent exhibition titled “Water Suffering” at Exposure 2026, through which she observed striking paradoxes that combine beauty and tragedy, documenting the lives of people near dams and water outfalls despite losing their primary source of livelihood after the disappearance of the lake, especially the fishing profession. Her photos also reflected scenes of washing with sulfuric water in the middle of a dry desert, the thirst of humans and animals despite proximity to water sources, in addition to the harsh effects of drought on trees and ecosystems.

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