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Image Credit- Instagram/Tittu Shaji Thomas, The New Indian Express
Kerala Man Becomes Award-Winning Photographer In UAE After Transitioning His Career From Sports
Writer: Shiva Chaudhary
A post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication with relevant skills, specialising in content editing & writing. I believe in the precise dissemination of information based on facts to the public.
Kerala, 20 March 2022 9:38 AM GMT
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Creatives : Shiva Chaudhary
A post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication with relevant skills, specialising in content editing & writing. I believe in the precise dissemination of information based on facts to the public.
Photographer Tittu Shaji Thomas has been awarded the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award, which carries prize money of 50,000 dirhams (approximately Rs 10 lakh).
Tittu Shaji Thomas belonging to Mannar town in Alappuzha District of Kerala is an award-winning photographer currently based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The photographer has been following his passion for 13 years and has been recently awarded another prestigious award instituted by the UAE government.
The 34-year-old photographer has been awarded the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award, which carries prize money of 50,000 dirhams (approximately Rs 10 lakh). After being selected from among 89 countries with 2,176 contestants, he achieved the feat.
Transition From Sports To Photography
But the journey to an acclaimed photographer was not easy. Shaji is a former Kerala University kabaddi player and was seriously injured during one of his games in Dubai, where he had gone to work in 2009. The injury hindered him from playing ever again, and this was when he decided to quit sports and pursue his passion for photography.
Shaji says that initially, during his college days, he wasn't serious about photography and was more fascinated with Kabaddi and painting. After completing his graduation from Milad-E-Sherief Memorial (MS) College, Kayamkulam, Shaji moved to UAE and continued to be involved with sports.
He recalls, "I continued to be involved with sports. But a knee injury led to ligament damage. I was bedridden for several days, and doctors advised me to stop playing Kabaddi. That was a turning point in my life," quoted The New Indian Express.
Currently, Shaji has been working as a marketing executive for a steel corporation and is living with his family of wife Rakhi Elizabeth and daughter Aami. He says that his photography is focused on the lives of ordinary people in the UAE. He says, "On holidays, I travel to villages to capture the life among sand dunes and farmhouses situated far away from the city centre".
Won Several Accolades
The award-winner is a self-taught photographer and has received several accolades for his photography work which portrays the life of people of the Middle East over the past few years. His work has been featured in the National Geographic Magazine as well. Two years back in 2019, he was presented with the 5th international photography award titled '35 Awards' in Russia and, in the following year, won the Canon Middle East Photography Competition in 2020-2021. He is also the Karl Taylor international photography competition 'Patterns 2021' winner.
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