Participants of a recent food photography and styling sessions held for the first time at the eighth Qatar International Food Festival at Hotel Park.
For the first time ever, Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) is organising free photo tours and food styling sessions to cater to the rising popularity of food art.
The festival invites aspiring artists to feast their eyes and camera lenses on the colourful and varied food displays found throughout the 11-day Festival.
Festival-goers interested in honing their food styling and photography skills can join Mohamad Al Ansari, a Qatari food stylist who has close to 50,000 followers. He is scheduled to lead a second tour around the festival grounds tomorrow between 4pm and 6pm. He will focus on teaching local food and beverage business owners the best food photography techniques. The tour will be featured on his personal Instagram account, @mohadalansari and can be followed on the hashtag #QIFFPIC.
Mashal Shahbik, Director of Festivals and Tourism Events at Qatar Tourism Authority said, “QIFF is an annual event that celebrates Qatar’s vibrant food and culture scene and we are always looking for new ways to create engaging experiences for festival-goers. The growing popularity of photo sharing applications renders QIFF a fertile ground for cultivating local creative talents by working with growing community of smartphone photographers.”
Al Ansari, whose first tour at QIFF took place last Thursday, commented, “Photography for me is about telling a story in an image. I first started photography as a hobby and learned many tricks with hours of experimenting and persistence. Through these sessions at QIFF, I would like to encourage aspiring photographers to come out and express themselves artistically while sharing tips that can enhance their skills and give them more confidence in their craft.”
He added that followers can use hashtags to enter a QIFF food photography competition for a chance to win an inclusive overnight stay for two guests courtesy of the Ritz Carlton.
On the closing day of the festival on Saturday, Qatar Phone Art (@phoneartqatar) will lead a photo walk around the festival grounds between 2pm and 6pm. The recently formed group of local artists and photographers will capture QIFF’s final day and post photo stories on their individual Instagram account.
The festival’s signature Cooking Theatre previously featured a special session with Doha-based Instagram celebrity Majdouline Al Deweik, who prides herself in taking collective food experiences seriously and has garnered over 20,000 followers on her Instagram account @thesquaretable.
