Samy Al Olabi, Egyptian Syrian multi-award-winning photographer who is currently based in Dubai UAE. Inspired by his love for nature and night skies, he reaches for the stars from the dark corners of Arabia.
"When you go out and shoot the night skies from a dark remote location , the serenity of the place, and the peace you feel within yourself liberates you from the constraints of modern life, and you feel like you are finally back to real humanity, blending with nature and its beauty"
Astronomy, Arts and Adventure were his greatest passion since he was a child, When he grew up and took Construction Management as a source of living, his devotion and commitment to his passion eventually led him to where he is right now. His body of work in astrophotography is regarded as one of the best in the region and a true category benchmark.
Samy is a true believer that breaking the trends and thinking outside the box is what every photographer should do to stand out with his work, Every now and then he starts a conceptual photography project, he sometimes mixes abstract and miniatures with astrophotography using technically complex and lengthy process of focus stacking, exposure stacking in addition to star stacking, resulting in some amazing photographs. One of his recent projects “Nowhere Land” was globally acclaimed amongst international entities, it went viral and got published worldwide.
In addition to his conceptual photographs, Al Olabi produced some beautiful panoramas of the night skies and deep sky objects with the diversity of compositions, some of which became backgrounds for Microsoft and Apple operating systems.
His work & photography articles are regularly featured in various international magazines & newspapers, with most notable contributions in Practical photography Magazine, Petapixel, CNN, BCC sky at night , DIY photography, NPhoto. This is in addition to some top national magazines & newspapers.
Al Olabi won multiple local & international awards, the most notable ones were the 1st Place Winner in UAE Environmental Photography contest 2014, 2nd Place Winner in Fujairah International Photography Awards 2016 & the 4th Place Winner in UAE Heritage Photography contest 2015.
He was honored by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah during the Islamic Art Festival of Sharjah in 2015 Exhibition “Light & Shades”.
Samy also showed up as a guest on multiple national & local TV channels & His work was also exhibited in multiple exhibitions across the United Arab Emirates
Throughout the past 4 years, Al Olabi has been spreading his passion in Astronomy & Astrophotography, he conducted more than 30 lectures & workshops with notable collaborations with Nikon School, HIPA Union of Arab Photographers, Emirates Photography Society, Xposure, MAS, KHDA & others.
His partnership with Apple in their Moon Photography campaign which was published worldwide in multiple international & local magazines & printed on Billboards in Sheikh Zayed Road & in Dubai International Airport.
He also led number of important Astronomical event coverage such as The partial Lunar eclipse of January 2018, the longest total lunar eclipse in the century of July 2018 & the annular Solar Eclipse of 26 Dec 2019 and 21 June 2020, the events were covered by media & newspapers.
More than just knowledge, he inspired audience & participants by stories behind breathtaking photographs.
Al Olabi is currently working on a project branded as “Heavens and Earth”, the project is a conceptual journey through space & time reimagined through different forms of visual arts.