Drone photo of family sheltering in the remains of their burnt-out home wins world's richest photo competition

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Bangladeshi photographer bags US$200,000 after winning the grand prize at HIPA in Dubai, UAE

On 25 November 2025, a large fire broke out at around 5:20 p.m. in Korail, one of Dhaka's most densely populated informal settlements.
Photo titled Under the Same Sky. A family shelters in the remaining concrete walls of their home in Korail, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Winner of the Grand Prize in the HIPA Family photo competition, 2026. (Image credit: © Pinu Rahman / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)
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Bangladeshi photographer Pinu Rahman has won the grand prize in the world's richest photography competition – the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA).

Titled 'Under the Same Sky', the photo shows a family of five sleeping side by side within the surviving concrete walls of their home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, after a fire in November 2025 destroyed some 1,500 dwellings.

"[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', said Ali Bin Thalith, Secretary General of HIPA.

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"This initiative aims to strengthen family bonds, support social stability and instil authentic Emirati values in future generations."

With its depiction of family, resilience and the human capacity to endure, Rahman's image resonated strongly with the HIPA jury.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (center), presents the $200,000 Grand Prize to Bangladeshi photographer Pinu Rahman. Ali Bin Thalith, Secretary General of HIPA, stands on the right. (Image credit: © Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

The prize pot of this prestigious international competition is an incredible US$1 million and Rahman will be leaving the UAE with US$200,000 [£148,700 / AU$289,000] for his Grand Prize-winning picture, which was captured on a DJI Mavic 3 Pro camera drone.

The judges, who included award-winning visual editor Kurt Mutchler, landscape photographer Ivan Pedretti, award-winning photojournalist Tara Todras-Whitehill and Sami Alramyan, the Kuwaiti photographer, documentary and humanitarian photography consultant, decided Rahman's photo best met the brief of 2026's edition of HIPA, themed 'Family'.

This season, the Grand Prize could have been chosen from any category; the winner of the 'Family' category, by UAE photographer Hamid Obaid Al Ali, was recognized for capturing a tender moment of parental devotion.

• Read our guide to the best DJI drones in 2026

HIPA held the annual awards ceremony for its fifteenth competition season at Dubai's Museum of the Future, one of the city's many iconic landmarks, and Digital Camera World was there.

Attended by leading figures in the international photography community, the event also bestowed the Photography Appreciation Award on Japanese photographer Kazuyoshi Nomachi, accompanied by a cash prize of US$100,000 [£74,410/A$144,500].

Announcing his award, HIPA said Nomachi's "lifelong catalogue acts as a macro-study of the global human family, capturing the resilient bonds between peoples and their lands."

French photojournalist Véronique De Viguerie received the HIPA Photographer of the Year award. While she has worked in conflict zones for more than 20 years, "… war itself is not her subject," says HIPA.

"What interests her is what survives within it: desire, humour, beauty, absurdity, tenderness, resistance and the rhythms of ordinary life."

De Viguerie won a cash prize of US$80,000 [£59,500/A$115,600].

And the Photography Content Creator Award, conferred by the Jury after a submission and nomination process, went to Dr Ali Mohamad of the Syrian Arab Republic.

"A photographer, documentary filmmaker, educator and entrepreneur whose work is driven by a passion for visual storytelling and the creative industries," Dr Mohamad collected a cash prize of US$50,000 [£37,200/A$72,300].

Véronique De Viguerie receives her award for HIPA Photographer of the Year 2026 from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (center). (Image credit: © Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

The 'Family' winners get to share a cut of the competition's staggering US$1,000,000 prize fund – £749,300 / AU$1,456,000.

While other international photo awards might be bigger in terms of the volume of images submitted – more than 1 million photographs have been submitted over 15 seasons – HIPA's prize pot tops them all.

The winners of the Family, Sports Photography, General (Colour), General (Black and White) and Dreams Through AI categories each receive US$40,000 [£29,700/A$58,000].

Reflecting the need to submit 5-10 photographs that tell one story, the Portfolio (Story-Telling) category winner receives US$50,000 [£37,200/A$72,300].

The winners of 'Family' were:

General, Color: Filip Hrebenda (Slovakia)

General, Black and White: Jono Allen (Australia)

Portfolio (Story-telling): Yousef Alzanoon (Palestinian Territory)

Sports Photography: Hongbin Wu (China)

Dreams Through AI: Chi Hui Tang (New Zealand)

Family: Hamid Obaid Al Ali (United Arab Emirates)

Grand prize: Pinu Rahman (Bangladesh)

The winning images of 'Family', the 15th season of HIPA

'The Promise of Tomorrow', by Hamid Obaid Al Ali (UAE), winner of the Family category. Image description: Captured during a macro dive, this rarely witnessed underwater moment shows a tiny female sponge crab sheltering, her claws curled protectively around a dense cluster of developing eggs. The amber mass of eggs, each containing a life not yet emerged, rests against the textured surface of the sponge as the crab holds her position in the surrounding darkness. She will remain with her brood until the young are ready to enter the open ocean, where only a few will survive to adulthood. It is a reminder that parental devotion exists throughout the natural world, in places rarely seen. (Image credit: © Hamid Obaid Al Ali / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

'What the Earth Draws in Secret', by Filip Hrebenda (Slovakia), winner of the General (color) category. Image description: Seen from altitude, the landscape abandons all pretence of the familiar. Glacial channels thread across dark sediment in luminous arcs, their turquoise indifferent to the gravity that shaped them. Along a ridge between shadow and a burning yellow ground, bare trees stand in silhouette – neither quite rooted nor quite free, caught at the threshold between dormancy and something that resembles beginning. The photograph does not celebrate renewal so much as observe it in its raw, unfinished state: a world mid-sentence, still composing itself, legible only to those willing to look from far enough away. (Image credit: © Filip Hrebenda / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

'Mahina and Mother', by Jono Allen (Australia), winner of the General (Black and White) category. Image description: Mahina, meaning "moon" in Tongan, is an albino humpback whale calf, a rarity estimated at one in 40,000. Her luminous white body rests close against her mother's dark, barnacle-marked skin, the contrast between them striking and immediate. The two are at the start of a 4,000-mile migration to Antarctic waters, accompanied by a chosen male guardian. Active shipping lanes, ghost nets, killer whales and great white sharks mark the route ahead. Mahina's white colouring, visible from great distances, heightens the dangers. Her mother and guardian remain close, their protective instincts attuned to her exceptional vulnerability. (Image credit: © Jono Allen / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

'Between Hunger and Fire', by Yousef Alzanoon (Palestinian Territory), winner of the Portfolio category. Series description: The weight of war in Gaza unfolds in its most unsparing dimensions. Flares illuminate the city skyline at night, while buildings collapse in clouds of smoke and people move through rubble-strewn streets. Thousands gather around aid trucks, carrying sacks of flour across a landscape marked by destruction. Women press forward with empty cooking pots. Aid packages descend by parachute over coastal tent settlements, while families flee on horse-drawn carts carrying their remaining possessions. Mothers hold severely malnourished infants and children bear the visible effects of acute starvation. The unfolding crisis bears witness to the profound scale of civilian suffering endured throughout the conflict. (Image credit: © Yousef Alzanoon / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

'Winter Game', by Hongbin Wu (China), winner of the Sports Photography category. Image description: After heavy snowfall covered the mountainous Guoluo region of Qinghai, China, a group of young lamas cleared the basketball court at their temple and began an impromptu game. The concrete court forms a small island amid the surrounding snow, its dark surface contrasting with the vast white landscape. Dressed in scarlet robes, the young monks gather across the court, some playing while others watch from the edges. Their long shadows stretch across the ground beneath the winter sun. The quiet surroundings and lively game create a striking glimpse of youthful energy within the remote setting of monastic life. (Image credit: © Hongbin Wu / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

'Between Heaven and Earth', by Chi Hui Tang (New Zealand), winner of the Dreams Through AI category. Description: A snow-covered mountain stands beneath a sweeping lenticular cloud formation, its grand form perfectly mirrored in a glass-still surface where mountain, cloud and sky dissolve into one another. A lone black horse gallops across the vast expanse; its small, dark form the only movement within an otherwise tranquil scene. The landscape exists as a dreamlike vision of absolute stillness, freedom and the enduring, elemental forces of nature. (Image credit: © Chi Hui Tang / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

Photo titled Under the Same Sky. A family shelters in the remaining concrete walls of their home in Korail, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Winner of the Grand Prize in the HIPA Family photo competition, 2026.

Under the Same Sky, by Pinu Rahman (Bangladesh), Grand Prize winner. Image description: On 25 November 2025, a large fire broke out at around 5:20pm in Korail, one of Dhaka's most densely populated informal settlements. Spreading rapidly through narrow lanes of tin, bamboo and wooden structures, the blaze destroyed approximately 1,500 homes and left thousands displaced. Photographed the following morning from above, a family of five sleeps side by side within the surviving concrete walls of their burned home. Around them lie twisted corrugated tin, charred debris and the remains of neighbouring shelters. A few salvaged belongings are gathered close. With their home gone, the family rests together in the only space still available to them. (Image credit: © Pinu Rahman / Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

About HIPA

HIPA offers a wide range of categories for photographers to enter, and submitting images to the competition is free.

Categories include color and black and white (sub-categories of the popular ‘General’ category), Portfolio (story-telling) and Sports.

New for the fifteenth season was Dreams Through Al – the only category where Al-generated images were accepted.

For all other categories, participants were required to submit a written declaration confirming that no artificial intelligence tools or software were used in the creation of the images.

Other award winners announced at the ceremony in Dubai included:

Photography Appreciation Award: Kazuyoshi Nomachi (Japan)

HIPA Photographer of the Year: Véronique De Viguerie (France)

Photography Content Creator Award: Dr Ali Mohamad (Syrian Arab Republic)

The category winners and special awards winners take to the stage at the conclusion of the ceremony, in the company of the HIPA Board of Trustees (Image credit: © Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award 2026)

See the previous HIPA winners

Erupting volcano photo wins $200,000 grand prize in HIPA 2025

Photo of a wind farm wins $200,000 grand prize in HIPA 2024

Fantastic jellyfish photo wins $120,000 grand prize in HIPA 2023

Malaysian photographer grabs 2019 $120,000 HIPA grand prize

$120,000 photo: bird shot wins big bucks in HIPA 2022

$120,000 grand prize winner announced for HIPA 2018

Winners of world's richest photographic awards 2021

Amazing image of whales $120,000 HIPA 2020 prize

Niall Hampton
Niall Hampton
Editor

Niall is the editor of Digital Camera Magazine, and has been shooting on interchangeable lens cameras for over 20 years, and on various point-and-shoot models for years before that. 


Working alongside professional photographers for many years as a jobbing journalist gave Niall the curiosity to also start working on the other side of the lens. These days his favored shooting subjects include wildlife, travel and street photography, and he also enjoys dabbling with studio still life. 


On the site you will see him writing photographer profiles, asking questions for Q&As and interviews, reporting on the latest and most noteworthy photography competitions, and sharing his knowledge on website building. 

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