Abu Dhabi, August 27, 2019:   National Geographic Abu Dhabi (NGAD) and Almarai announced today the Grand Prize for the adult and kids categories of the 9th edition of ‘Moments’, its annual regional photography competition to nurture the talent of aspiring regional photographers.

The Grand Prize winner will have his/her photograph printed in the National Geographic magazine Arabic edition and will earn a trip of a lifetime with a 10-day expedition trip along the Danube river, worth $10,000, where they will be mentored by National Geographic expert photographers, in addition to receiving $5,000 photography equipment. 
The Grand Prize for the kids category, which includes children aged 13-17, will be a $5,000 professional photographic toolkit, providing youth with a head start to develop their portfolio in preparation for a career in photography.

Speaking about his ‘Moments’ experience and National Geographic exploration trip, previous ‘Moments’ winner Mohammad Mahdy said: “The ‘Moments’ competition was a great experience for me at so many levels. The exploration trip to Cuba was one of the best learning journeys and one that I will never forget. Being able to closely watch and learn from some of the greatest Nat Geo photographers is a dream for someone like me who is just starting out in their career.  I wish the best of luck to this year’s participants and look forward to hearing about this year’s winner’s Danube exploration trip”.

‘Moments’ 2019 winners will be announced later this year, following a short-listing process by this year’s judging team, featuring Hussam R Abdulqader, CMO of Almarai and Mohammad Muheisen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and National Geographic photographer. 

‘Moments’ is one of the largest photography competitions in the region, which attracted over 200,000 entries overall since its launch. Held under the theme of ‘Souqs of the Middle East’, the 2019 ‘Moments’ edition captured the diversity and stories of markets from around the Arab world, which have been at the heart of the region’s culture and history.

Each photograph carries with it an authentic, detailed and complete description of the story behind the image, which aims to add geographic, social and cultural context to the photo.