Doha, October 19 (QNA) - The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) inaugurated the first edition of the Photography Festival on Thursday and scheduled to run until the Oct. 30.

Katara is committed to making this festival an engaging one with an exciting line up of programs. It commenced with an online competition that started in the beginning of October and has witnessed an overwhelming response. After the competition ends on the 20th October, the winning entries will be displayed in a gallery for visitors to see. It is a great platform for potential photographers to showcase their skills.

The exhibition is a culmination of well-known photographers of different nationalities, including; Qatar, Germany, Lebanon and the Philippines. Visitors will get a chance to see exemplary work by Jordis Schloesser from her trips around the world, Andrea Buenafe's perspective of Doha, Tony Hage's innovative work as well as pieces by the popular Qatari brothers, Nasser and Hassan Al Emadi.

The various pictures displayed the unique style and creativity of each and every artist. "Katara is a valley of cultures and is an authentic platform that displays culture and art under one comprehensive hub. Stressing on the fact that the first edition of the photography festival is one of the prominent events that we eagerly hope that amateur and professional photographers consider it an essential station in building their career path," The General Manager of Katara Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, said, "The artists in our 1st edition will showcase their skills through the images displayed here today. Through the launch of this festival we seek to enhance the joint-cooperation and the knowledge-exchange amongst the distinctive community of photographers. 

"Through the host of the Photography Festival, Katara urged to provide a suitable ambiance for the amateur photographer by organizing informative workshops, which will contribute to the refinement of their skills and showcase their talented abilities. In addition, another matching-ambience is set for the professional photographers to meet up with the audiences with an aim to examine their impressions and opinions closely," he added.

The renowned photographers will also be seen conducting workshops for photography enthusiasts on the weekends throughout the duration of the festival. These workshops will be based on some of the key elements in the field of photography and will address topics such as "An introduction to street photography", "Art of Reportage Photography", "Basics of Digital Photography" and "Basics of Studio Lighting". Jordis, Tony, Andrea and Hassan Al-Emadi will present the topics respectively. Each session is intended to take place twice thereby resulting in a total of 8 workshops, in order to accommodate 160 participants. (QNA)