Bangladeshi photographer Pinu Rahman has claimed the prestigious $200,000 grand prize at the 15th season of the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA), the world’s richest photography competition. Captured using a DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone, Rahman’s winning image, titled "Under the Same Sky," portrays a family of five sleeping side by side within the remaining concrete skeleton of their home following a catastrophic fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The announcement was made during a high-profile annual awards ceremony hosted at Dubai’s iconic Museum of the Future. The event brought together leading figures in the international visual arts community to celebrate works centered around the 2026 theme of "Family," designated in alignment with UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s declaration of 2026 as the "Year of the Family."
Anatomy of a Tragedy: The Korail Settlement Fire
The harrowing background of Rahman’s winning photograph traces back to late November 2025. On November 25, at approximately 5:20 p.m., a massive fire erupted in Korail, one of Dhaka’s most densely populated informal settlements. Driven by dense living conditions and tightly packed structures constructed primarily from tin, bamboo, and wood, the blaze tore through the neighborhood with terrifying speed.
Within hours, approximately 1,500 dwellings were completely reduced to ash and rubble, displacing thousands of vulnerable residents who lost their livelihoods, meager belongings, and shelter in a single evening. Fire services battled intense heat and narrow access lanes to bring the inferno under control, but the physical destruction was absolute.
Early the following morning, Pinu Rahman piloted his drone above the smoldering ruins. Through the lens of his camera, amidst a landscape of twisted corrugated iron and charred debris, he captured a striking composition: a family of five resting together on the bare floor of their gutted concrete home, sharing the sole remaining habitable footprint available to them under the open sky.
HIPA 2026: A Global Celebration of Visual Storytelling
With an overall prize pool reaching an astonishing $1 million, HIPA continues to command a premier position in the global photography circuit. While other major competitions may register higher overall volumes of entries—surpassing over one million submissions across its fifteen-year history—HIPA’s financial backing and high-value category payouts remain unmatched.
Ali Bin Thalith, Secretary General of HIPA, emphasized the thematic focus of the milestone 15th edition during the Dubai ceremony. "[HIPA’s] fifteenth edition was themed ‘Family’, in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, to designate 2026 as the ‘Year of the Family’," Bin Thalith stated. "This initiative aims to strengthen family bonds, support social stability, and instill authentic Emirati values in future generations."
The grand prize could theoretically be awarded to any exceptional frame from across the submissions, but Rahman’s image stood out to an esteemed international jury panel. The judges included award-winning visual editor Kurt Mutchler, landscape photographer Ivan Pedretti, acclaimed photojournalist Tara Todras-Whitehill, and Kuwaiti documentary and humanitarian photography consultant Sami Alramyan. The jury lauded the photograph for encapsulating the core brief of endurance, emotional depth, and the universal instinct for familial protection amid adversity.
Special Honors and Category Winners
Alongside Rahman’s grand prize victory, the ceremony recognized several other luminaries across various specialized categories and career achievement awards:
- Photography Appreciation Award: Japanese photography legend Kazuyoshi Nomachi was honored with a $100,000 prize for a lifelong catalog that HIPA described as a "macro-study of the global human family, capturing the resilient bonds between peoples and their lands."
- HIPA Photographer of the Year: French photojournalist Véronique De Viguerie received an $80,000 prize. Known for her two decades of documentation in conflict zones, HIPA noted that "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."
- Photography Content Creator Award: Dr. Ali Mohamad of the Syrian Arab Republic was recognized by the jury for his contributions as a photographer, documentary filmmaker, educator, and entrepreneur, taking home a $50,000 prize.
Category winners, each receiving $40,000, demonstrated extraordinary technical skill and thematic adherence across diverse disciplines:
- Family: Hamid Obaid Al Ali (United Arab Emirates), for his rare macro underwater photograph titled "The Promise of Tomorrow," depicting a female sponge crab protecting her cluster of developing eggs.
- General, Colour: Filip Hrebenda (Slovakia), for "What the Earth Draws in Secret," an aerial view of glacial channels threading across dark sediment.
- General, Black and White: Jono Allen (Australia), for "Mahina and Mother," showcasing an exceptionally rare albino humpback whale calf swimming alongside its mother.
- Sports Photography: Hongbin Wu (China), for "Winter Game," capturing young monks playing basketball on a snow-cleared court in the remote Guoluo region of Qinghai.
- Dreams Through AI: Chi Hui Tang (New Zealand), for "Between Heaven and Earth," marking the competition’s inaugural category specifically dedicated to evaluating artificial intelligence-generated creations.
- Portfolio (Story-Telling): Yousef Alzanoon (Palestinian Territory), who was awarded $50,000 for a multi-image series titled "Between Hunger and Fire," documenting the stark realities of civilian suffering, destruction, and survival amid conflict in Gaza.
Implications and the Evolution of Modern Photography Competitions
The inclusion of the "Dreams Through AI" category in the 15th season underscores a pivotal operational shift within major international photography competitions. While HIPA maintained strict regulations across all traditional categories—requiring formal written declarations guaranteeing that no artificial intelligence software or generative tools were utilized in image creation—the opening of an explicit AI category highlights the industry’s grappling with synthetic media.
Furthermore, triumphs like Pinu Rahman’s "Under the Same Sky" and Yousef Alzanoon’s portfolio reinforce the enduring vital role of photojournalism and documentary photography in global human rights advocacy. By bringing localized humanitarian crises—such as the aftermath of the Korail slum fire and the ongoing devastation in Gaza—to the global stage in Dubai, these winning images transcend artistic appreciation. They serve as historical records, amplifying systemic vulnerabilities and inspiring international discourse on urban poverty, climate displacement, and conflict survival.
The evening concluded with the traditional gathering of category victors and special award recipients alongside the HIPA Board of Trustees on the stage of the Museum of the Future, sealing another historic chapter for the world’s most lucrative photography awards.
