Pinu Rahman Wins Top Prize at HIPA 2026
Bangladeshi photographer's drone image of a family sleeping in fire-damaged walls in Dhaka takes the grand prize at the Dubai award ceremony.
Updated on Nov. 10, 2026 in Photography
Bangladeshi photographer Pinu Rahman won the grand prize at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) in Dubai, worth US$200,000. His winning photo, 'Under the Same Sky', shows a family of five sleeping side by side within the surviving concrete walls of their home in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Why it matters
The image documents the aftermath of a November 2025 fire that destroyed some 1,500 dwellings in Dhaka, bringing attention to the people who lost their homes. The award places the photograph before an international audience through one of the region's largest photography prizes.
The HIPA grand prize is valued at US$200,000 within a total prize fund of US$1,000,000, and the competition has drawn more than 1 million photographs over 15 seasons. The extraction does not specify the status of recovery for the roughly 1,500 homes destroyed in the November 2025 Dhaka fire.
The players
Pinu Rahman
Bangladeshi photographer who won the HIPA grand prize for his drone image of a family in Dhaka.
Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA)
A Dubai-based international photography competition that offers US$1,000,000 in total prizes and has run 15 seasons.
Kazuyoshi Nomachi
Japanese photojournalist who received HIPA's Photography Appreciation Award with a US$100,000 cash prize.
The details
The winning photograph was captured on a DJI Mavic 3 Pro camera drone and shows a family of five sleeping in the remaining walls of their home. The fifteenth HIPA edition was themed 'Family', in line with UAE directives designating 2026 the 'Year of the Family', and the awards were presented at Dubai's Museum of the Future.
Timeline
November 2025: A fire destroyed some 1,500 dwellings in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
2026: The UAE designated 2026 as the Year of the Family.
November 10, 2026: The HIPA awards ceremony was held in Dubai.
Season Trajectory
This win extends HIPA's fifteen-season record of surfacing documentary work from across the globe. The fifteenth edition's 'Family' theme aligns the prize with the UAE's 2026 Year of the Family designation.
Photographers worldwide can enter the HIPA competition free of charge, though non-AI categories require a written declaration that no artificial intelligence tools were used. The competition's open entry model means aspiring documentary photographers can participate in future seasons.
The takeaway
Documentary photographs can carry urgent human stories long after a disaster leaves the headlines, and prizes like HIPA help keep those stories in view. Aspiring photographers can study award-winning work to understand how composition and perspective convey context.
Further reading
For more on the craft behind award-winning images, explore our Photography coverage.
