IPF Portrait Competition Winners: Saurabh Narang from Delhi bags first prize and walks away with Rs.50,000 cash prize

Hyderabad, September 7, 2018: The 33day long, South Asia’s largest Photography Festival—“Indian Photography Festival 2018(IPF)” which kicked off yesterday in the city announced winners of the national level Portrait Competition. Saurabh Narang from Delhi for his image “A man who feeds the migratory birds’ adjudged the winner. He bagged the first prize and was awarded a cash prize of Rs 50,000/- plus Besides cash prize he was given away Manfrotto Accessories worth INR 30,000 and Blackforest/RIMO I, Camera messenger bag worth INR 12,9990; Pixpa One year website -Pro plan worth INR 10,000/- and Kiki handmade camera strap worth INR 2500 and 1 year subcription of Better Photography magazine. Saurabh Narang could not reach to the city to collect physically. Prize was presented to Saurab’s friend on his behalf of Nick Ut, the most celebrated War Photo Journalist from Vitetnam. Aman Sharma from Hyderabad for his image “Relationship” walked away with second prize, and was presented INR 25,000/- cash prize. He was given away photogoods Blakforest/Vinson, Camer Messenger bag worth INR 11,650/; Pixpa one year website -Pro Plan worth INR 10,000/-Profoto accessories worh INR 10,000/-, Manfrotte Accessories, Kiki handmade camera strap and Better Photography Magazine subcription etc. Ankita Dhake from Mumbai bagged third prize for her image “Unique” and was presented Rs 10,000/- cash prize and other photo goods Sarathi Thamodaran received special appreciation for the image “Portrait of a traditional “Kaniyan Koothu”(drama) Artist with his mask. Total 625 entries were received from 63 countries for both Print and Digital Exhibitions through the Open Call 2018. Mags King, Reza Deghati ,Alison Zavos, Q. Sakamaki, Sudharak Olwe , Gurinder Osan, Deepak John Mathew, Yuezhuo Su & Luca Venturi were the selction panel. Melissa Golden,Editorial Portrait and Documentary Photographer was the judge. It is a matter of great pride for Aman Sharma, a Hyderabadi photographer to get second prize in such a competition. The competition was open to the photographers from the Indian subcontinent. Photographers have been making portraits for centuries and what's so interesting about portraiture is its ability to capture the essence of a person, a time-period, or a culture. This award aimed at discovering the compelling portraits and extra-ordinary talents informed Aquin Mathews, the Festival Director of IPF-2018. 20 finalists among the hundreds of entries received are exhibited at the IPF. They will be available for people to visit and see till October 7th. These works may also be exhibited at festivals to be held overseas. The 2017 finalists works were exhibited at Georgia and Australia. The portraits selected for Print Exhibitions were Sina Niemeyer / Germany.; Sharbendu De / India; Gilles Nicolet / Tanzania; Anup Shah / India; Gao Peng / China; Sara Bennet / USA; Alain Schroeder / Belgium ; Antonio Aragón Renuncio / Spain; Benedicte Desrus / Mexico and Qiumin Tang / China. For Digital Exhibitions:- Amy Friend / Canada; Kathy Shorr / USA.; Indrajit Khambe / India; John Feely / Australia; Abhinav Kakkar / India; Karolina Jonderko / Poland; Pavel Romaniko / USA; Jennifer Ray / USA ; Ashfika Rahman / Bangladesh ; Ezio Ratti /Italy; Dmitry Khovanskiy / Russia; Kai Loeffelbein / Germany ; Margarita Makarova /Russia; Frederic Aranda / Switzerland and Mirko Lamonaca /Italy. For Photobook: Udit Kulshrestha / India; Tria Giovan / USA; Harun Tole / Turkey ; Gary Ngy / Hong Kong; Jayanta saha / India ; Miyuki Okuyama / Japan ; Thomas Pickarski / USA; Abhishek Kumar / India; Vishwanath Math / India .