11 February 2021 Lifestyles News

INTERNATIONAL 'XPOSURE' PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION OPENS IN UAE AS MASS VACCINATION ALLOWS EVENTS TO RESTART

The event features 1588 photographs taken by more than 400 photographers in 54 different exhibits

 

With nearly half of its population vaccinated and strict testing regimes for tourists, the UAE is one of the first to emerge from the Coronavirus crisis. Restaurants, cafes and public spaces are open and now cultural events have restarted with the opening of the 5th edition of the International ‘Xposure’ photography festival.  The event features 1588 photographs taken by more than 400 photographers in 54 different exhibits. 36 different photography workshops are being held to highlight the latest know-how of photography techniques. The event will also feature 21 different interactive panel discussions involving some of the world’s leading photographers.

Despite high vaccination rates many special measures are being taken by the event organizers to ensure the safety of participants and the thousands of expected visitors. PCR test results must be shown, temperature testing is carried out and enhanced ventilation and disinfecting of the air supply.

Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Sharjah Media Council, stressed that the health measures were vital and because of the progress now made ‘’life must go on, we cannot stop forever.  The festival aims to give voice to the photographers who have been on the frontline of the pandemic or those still battling to highlight important global humanitarian, environmental and gender issues despite the restrictions on movement and communication.

UAE based Indian photographer Ashok Verma praised government efforts to provide a safe environment so that the event could go ahead.

Brent Stirton, who has been published by National Geographic Magazine, GEO, Le Figaro, Le Monde, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times Magazine, The UK Sunday Times Magazine and many others, reflected during the opening ceremony, on the 10 months he spent last year, chronicling the illegal meat trade: “Every year an excess of 40 million kilograms of wild meat is brought into Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is where zoonotic diseases come from… This is why we are wearing masks today. We need to create stricter laws against the sale of illegal wild species for human consumption.”

Funding for wildlife and environmental conversation efforts has been badly affected since the outbreak of COVID-19, “These are the side-effects of the pandemic” says Izzy Sasada, representing the work of Aaron Gekoski and Four Corners. The project focuses on human-animal conflict in their exhibit about wildlife tourism and the exotic pet trade. Izzy stressed that travel restrictions have made it very difficult for photojournalist to travel and work and the downside of the slump in tourism has most probably worsened the poor conditions in which many animals were already.

Giles Duley is a documentary photographer and writer who is triple-amputee after he was injured by an IED while working in Afghanistan in 2011. Duley knows well what isolation and overcoming difficulties really means. During this last visit in DRC he saw the effect of the pandemic regarding the lack of international donations. The lack of funding is leading to starvation and in the last orphanage he visited the children were eating only one meal a day. He hopes that the COVID-19 battle will make society more resilient and that 2021 can be a positive turning point of our generation.

Sheikh Sultan, who is ultimately responsible for Xposure reflected that the crisis had prompted us to ‘’focus on the things you have and not on the things you don’t.”

PACKAGE 1 (Long version) 5:00 min of edited footage and interviews.

PACKAGE 2 (Digital Ready) 1:00 min of edited footage including English text and music.

PACKAGE 3 (Digital Ready) 1:00 min of clean edited footage.

 

PACKAGE 1 SHOTLIST:

  1. Aerials shots of the Emirate of Sharjah.
  2. GVs of vaccinations in UAE.
  3. Exteriors of EXPO building in Sharjah.
  4. Xposure exhibition building being sanitized.
  5. Visitors entering at the Exhibition.
  6. Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Sharjah Media Council : As UAE we have always being caring about the population in the UAE, whether is the local population or the people living here. So, the vaccination in the UAE has been available for everyone for free. The main reason was to keep everyone safe, the country safe, so yes there are a lot of things happening around the world even in our country but there are certain measures that you have to take to keep it to a minimum.”
  7. Visitors being sprayed with sanitizer before entering the exposition.
  8. GVs of the exposition.
  9. Close shots of Ashok Verma’s work during the first lockdown in UAE, spring 2019.
  10. Photographer Ashok Verma: “People are aware that they need to take care of themselves and that is how they can take care of society, UAE has really done a remarkable job providing vaccination. That faith was there and as a result of that faith today we are exhibiting pictures here, this huge festival of photography is here, people are coming from different countries to participate in the fair and that really shows that UAE is working on getting everybody better and safe.”
  11. Shots of people in the fair.
  12. Shots of the inauguration of Xposure.
  13. Photographer Brent Stirton: “ I am working on the story of bushmeat, which is meat that source from the wild and how that meat affects zoonotic disease, COVID obviously being one of them, I want to finish that story I think it is very important, obviously working on COVID itself has been very effecting, I worked on the affection of COVID on conservation, just the fact that so much money has been lost from donor efforts, for things like conservation, how this wilds and how those places survive, it has been a quite busy year, despite the restrictions”
  14. Various shots of animals kept in captivity in zoos, elephants, monkey.
    1. NOTE: Credit as Courtesy of Four Corners. These footages can only be used on the context of Xposure International Photography Festival.
  15. GVs of the exposition of Aaron Gekoski.
  16. Izzy Sasada “The COVID pandemic has been a very big issue for us, because in terms of travel the stories happens in places where we don’t live, travel is very important for the work we do as photojournalists, so it has been very difficult and specially because we do know the situation is still there, the conditions in which the animal lives have probably not gone away in fact they have got a lot worse. “
  17. GVs of Giles Duley during the opening, various shots of his exposition.
  18. Photographer Giles Duley: I think this is a turning point in the history of humanity what is happening, it’s the first time in living memory we have been involved in a global crisis like this, a medical crisis an epidemic, what I hope it means that we actually become close together and understand we are all interconnected, we all rely on each other in different ways, this will not end until it ends for all, and we have to work together to achieve that.
  19. GVs of photos expositions.

 

PACKAGE 2 DIGITAL READY:  SHOTLIST (including text and music)

  1. Aerials views of the Emirate of Sharjah.
  2. Photos of Emiratis getting the vaccine for COVID-19.
  3. Exterior of EXPO building where Xposure International Photography Festival is taking place.
  4. Close shots of Ashok Verma’s work during the first lockdown in UAE, spring 2019.
  5. Xposure exhibition building being sanitized.
  6. GVs of the interior of the building
  7. Visitors being sprayed with sanitizer before entering the exposition.
  8. GVs of the exposition.
  9. Shots of the opening ceremony of Xposure.
  10. Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Sharjah Media Council at opening ceremony.

 

PACKAGE 3 DIGITAL READY

(Same as package 2 but clean version)

 

ENDS

B-roll and other materials including images will also be made available on Red Robots MediaGRAB: https://mediagrab.press/presskit/Xposure                                                                                                           

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11 February 2021