A Distinctive Part of the Xposure Programme
The Legacy Awards serve as a dedicated recognition platform for curated exhibitions, separate from the festival’s wider award programmes. They reflect Xposure’s longstanding commitment to powerful visual storytelling, environmental awareness and creative innovation.
By honouring excellence across documentary truth, natural world conservation and artistic imagination, the Legacy Awards represent the foundation of Xposure’s mission to inspire, inform and connect audiences through photography.
The Noor Ali Rashid Legacy Award for Documentary Vision
Named in honour of Noor Ali Rashid, widely regarded as the father of photojournalism in the United Arab Emirates, this award pays tribute to his lifelong commitment to recording the region’s people, culture and history. His legacy of close, sustained engagement with society underpins the values of accuracy, empathy and responsibility that define this distinction.
The award recognises exhibitions that address conflict, displacement, inequality and lived human experience with clarity, depth and integrity. Eligible projects are drawn from the Documentary, Social Photojournalism and Photojournalism War and Tragedies themes, and highlight photographers who combine strong narrative insight with a disciplined documentary approach.
The Rimal Award for Environmental and Conservation Photography
The Rimal Award takes its name from the Arabic word for sand, a reference to the shifting deserts, coasts and landscapes that symbolise the delicate balance of the natural world. It celebrates exhibitions that deepen understanding of environmental change, conservation challenges and the complex connections that sustain life on Earth.
The award is open to exhibitions within the Nature and Wildlife and Ocean and Water Conservation themes. Shortlisted projects may explore biodiversity, marine habitats, polar regions or the pressures facing natural environments, and they are selected for the strength of their environmental storytelling and their contribution to awareness of ecological responsibility.
The Saleh Al Ustad Award for Creative Photography
Named after one of the earliest fine art photographers in the United Arab Emirates, the Saleh Al Ustad Award reflects his imaginative use of colour, light and cultural reference. It honours exhibitions that embrace experimentation in form, composition and concept, and that use photography as a space for invention and interpretive thinking.
The award includes exhibitions from the Fine Art and Creative Expression, People and Portraiture, Travel and Adventure, Urban and Street Life and Sports and Action themes. These projects are distinguished by a strong personal vision and a considered visual language, showing how photographers shape mood, narrative and atmosphere through creative photographic practice.
Juding guide - jury briefings
Noor Ali Rashid Award
Award Purpose
This award recognises outstanding documentary and photojournalistic exhibitions that reveal real events, lived experience and social or political realities with clarity and responsibility.
What Jurors Should Prioritise
• Accuracy, authenticity and ethical representation
• Narrative strength and coherence across the full exhibition
• Insight into people, communities or situations that are often overlooked
• Sensitivity when portraying hardship, conflict or trauma
• Visual craft that supports the story without overshadowing it
• Depth of access, trust and sustained commitment by the photographer
Evaluation Focus
Jurors should consider how effectively the work communicates truth, provides understanding and elevates the voices of those represented. The strongest exhibitions show evidence of long term engagement, emotional intelligence and an ability to frame difficult subjects with fairness and respect.
Rimal Award
Award Purpose
This award recognises outstanding documentary and photojournalistic exhibitions that reveal real events, lived experience and social or political realities with clarity and responsibility.
What Jurors Should Prioritise
• Accuracy, authenticity and ethical representation
• Narrative strength and coherence across the full exhibition
• Insight into people, communities or situations that are often overlooked
• Sensitivity when portraying hardship, conflict or trauma
• Visual craft that supports the story without overshadowing it
• Depth of access, trust and sustained commitment by the photographer
Evaluation Focus
Jurors should consider how effectively the work communicates truth, provides understanding and elevates the voices of those represented. The strongest exhibitions show evidence of long term engagement, emotional intelligence and an ability to frame difficult subjects with fairness and respect.
Saleh Al Ustad Award
Award Purpose
This award recognises creative excellence across fine art, portraiture, experimental practice, landscape and other interpretive forms of photography.
What Jurors Should Prioritise
• Originality of concept or creative approach
• Visual coherence and intention across the whole exhibition
• Technical quality, craftsmanship and attention to detail
• Emotional or intellectual impact
• Innovative use of colour, texture, composition or process
• Work that expands photographic language or challenges convention
Evaluation Focus
Jurors should consider how effectively the exhibition conveys an artistic vision rather than a factual or documentary purpose. The strongest entries demonstrate intention, imagination and control, offering a distinctive viewpoint or a new way of seeing.