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THE MAIDEN EDITION OF MINNA PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST, 1ST-2ND MAY, 2024 AT THE HILL-TOP CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS, MINNA, NIGERIA

The Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation (HCAF) has concluded the maiden edition of the Minna Photography Contest in memory of late Ambassador James T. Kolo. The contest is an endorsement of TIMEOUT4AFRICA driven by Mr. Jonathan Kolo, a Nigerlite resident in Washington DC. The photography contest which is in furtherance of one of the fundamental teenage engagements of TIMEOUT4AFRICA with youths in Nigeria in Basketball and Educational activities will now be held three times in a year. The Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation is the administrator of the contest.

The scope of the event calls for schools to enter in a number of students at the cost of N500 each along with their cameras during the contest. At the finals, the teenage photographers are taken to locations to take their shots by our Contest-Guides who monitor the procession only without intervention. The teachers-in-charge of the school contestants are left behind at the headquarters of the Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation.

The contest is an on-the-spot business where the teenage participant is left to take full initiatives of his own. Also, the outing with the organisers of the contest is restricted to a time of not more than 2hrs. The event is themeless. This is to enable the teenage-photographers to explore any theme of their choice and exhibit their sense of creativity in full by their choice of contemporary issues to capture. This is largely the philosophy of HCAF’s contests, which enable us to retain the originality and innocence of the teenage-artists.

Upon return to the competition ground, the competitors go to the HCAF Mini ICT room to select two shots as entries for the contest. Again, the choice of their entries is exclusively their tasks without intervention from the teachers who brought them. Once a contestant has done that, the organizers register the entry against the school on a separate sheet.

Thereafter, the schools pay for the printing of the entries. One of the coordinators of the contest will go to the town to print the shots selected and return with them to give them numbers without the consent of the judges and the competitors or other officials. The number marked on each two entries is written on a new register bearing the name of the participant and his school on a separate sheet of paper. On the second day of the contest, the Judges turn up in the morning to mark the entries. Remember, the entries have no names on them, just the new numbers given to them by an official of the organizers. After scoring, the judges come up with the winning numbers and give to the organisers who sorts out the names to discover the names of the winning entries. Thereafter, the winners are announced at the closing ceremony to collect their prizes.

This year’s Chief Judge was Saddiq, one of the leading young photographers in Nigeria, and supported by Michael Emerald, a pioneer resident at the Muktar Aliyu Arts Residency, currently on-going at HCAF headquarters, Minna. Saddiq is also volunteering to have a monthly contact with the competitors for continuous mentoring. A total of eight schools participated with about fifteen contestants.

Bellow is the list of winners for the Maiden Edition (May, 2024):

1st Position - Jordan 
Federal Government College, Minna
70,000

2nd Position - Abdulrahman 
Garima Standard Academy, Minna
50,000

3rd Position - Bayo 
Federal Government College, Minna
30,000

4th Position - Zainab 
Himma International College, Minna
10,000

5th Position - Aliyu
Diamond Global Academy, Minna
10,000

6th Position - Ochoche 
Bosso Secondary School, Minna
10,000

7th Position - Abubakar 
Garima Standard Academy, Minna
10,000

8th Position - Ibrahim 
Baiwa International School, Minna
10,000

The Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation is grateful to Mr. Jonathan Kolo and his Timeout4Africa Foundation for helping to redeem the art of photography in Minna, the city of literature, especially in the most important age group of the society. We share with him, our solidarity and goodwill, as partners in the same philosophical trajectory of appropriating the child toward good and functionality using sport, art and education.

The next Minna Photography Contest (MPC) comes up in September 2024. It is to be followed by another in February 2025. 

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